"What's that look in your eyes?"
Li Yao was rather confused by Li Jialing's look. "Why do I sense intense 'concern' in your eyes? What's going on?"
"Nothing."
Li Jialing closed his eyes and said solemnly, "I just want Brother Yao to know that no matter what path I choose in the end, and no matter what kind of person I become, I will never forget that you are my … family. In my heart, you are even more important than the queen. I sincerely regard you as a big brother, and I hope that you will always be safe and, well, healthy."
"Is that so?"
Sensing Li Jialing's sincerity, Li Yao grinned and said, "I truly consider you a younger brother, too. All in all, younger brother, don't be bewildered by the demoness Long Yangjun, and don't be blinded by the insignificant darkness and difficulties. All in all, let's take one step at a time. Saving the world can wait for a moment, and you can learn how to help others when you see injustice. All in all, Brother Yao has faith in you. I believe that you will perceive the essence of the Cultivators one day and become a Cultivator even more awesome than Brother Yao!"
"Maybe."
Li Jialing said, "I need to walk, see, and think more before I decide on my final path. Only in such a way can I run on my own path without looking back!"
While talking, the two of them reached the deepest part of the town without them knowing it.
It was a cliff hundreds of meters high, but it was riddled with caves that looked like beehives. Every cave was around five meters in diameter, with fences made of vines on the outside. Moans and groans were echoing from inside.
Countless underground locals carried tremendous moss, vines, fungi, and even buckets of broken minerals into the caves. It was obvious that the weight on them was so heavy that their bones were protruding, and their veins were protruding. Their faces were both hideous and painful.
Not long after, the people in the depths of the cave emptied the moss and vines, and carried buckets of stinking feces out. The burden was finally reduced a little, and their originally ferocious faces showed numbness that they were used to.
Li Yao and Li Jialing were both honorable guests here. The locals did not stop them from entering the cave. They did not even dare to make eye contact with them. They simply lowered their heads and walked past them in a hurry.
The two of them entered a random cave and saw dozens of reared rock worms.
As expected, the rock worm did not look like a worm. It looked more like a white, fat pig. It was slightly slender, with a length of three to four meters and a diameter of about two meters. It looked like an oval meatball.
Instead of calling them 'rock worms', it would be more appropriate to call them 'rock boars'.
Li Yao did not know if the rock worm originally had legs or claws. At the very least, he could not see any organs for movement. Perhaps they were all covered by layers of fat.
They were animals that moved extremely slowly, like sloths. They crouched deep inside the cave and did not move at all like statues. Li Yao suspected that they did not even have the ability to hunt for food on their own.
As it turned out, the 'humming' sounds were not their cries, but the sound of breathing coming from the vent above their heads. These stupid and lazy spirit beasts were too lazy to even make half a sound.
The locals minced the moss, vines, and fungi and mixed them with the minerals that had been ground into powder before they tossed them into the feed tanks. A few rock worms then gathered around unhurriedly. A cross slit appeared on their round, eyeless "heads", from which thousands of white threads spurted out, wrapping the food into white balls and drawing them into the cross slit. It was basically a feeding action.
While the rock worms were feeding, the locals bypassed them and collected their dark green feces deep inside the cave. They scraped every corner carefully without leaving anything behind.
Some of the locals were brushing the rock worms hard with long brushes. Li Yao thought that they were going to slaughter the rock worms for food after they were brushed clean. But after he observed carefully, he realized that it was not right. As it turned out, the locals were massaging the rock worms to relax!
It was obvious that the rock worms were almost the only means of production for all the residents of the 10084 district. They must have devoted a lot of effort to the raising and care of the rock worms.
Li Jialing told Li Yao that the rock worm was an excellent edible animal that had undergone tremendous genetic modifications in the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago. The earliest studies had even been carried out in the Demon Beast Empire, which was adept at biochemical technology.
The rock worms could swallow tens of thousands of the crudest ingredients, including the minerals that contained abundant trace elements, and transform them into abundant fat and protein, which could provide the necessary energy for the survival of human beings in the harshest environment.
The rock worms were full of treasures. They had melted with the genes of certain special spiders and silkworms. The threads that they used to wrap food were also the best textile materials. Also, they would shed their skin every year, and the skin that they shed could also be made into light and warm clothes.
Also, the feces of the rock worms barely needed to be refined. They were natural fertilizers that were suitable for the nourishment of most plants and even the mushrooms and mosses. Even the wild plants could be domesticated into crops with a high yield.
It was safe to say that when human beings colonized the unknown areas, as long as they brought the rock worms, the two critical problems of "clothing" and "food" would be resolved, and a solid foundation would be laid for the development of agriculture.
However, because too many genetic modifications had been carried out in terms of "omnivory" and "usability", the rock worms had been growing fat and protein hard, which meant that their mobility and hunting abilities had been greatly reduced to almost zero.
They were a life that was born in a laboratory. It was very difficult for them to adapt to the harsh life in the wild while their current characteristics were maintained. They could only stay in the feeding room dutifully and be fed by human beings.
When the Star Ocean Imperium designed the underground shelters ten thousand years ago, they naturally had a full set of advanced and precise automatic feeding facilities to ensure that the "meat factory" could output products incessantly. From the mating of the rock worms at the beginning to the ready-to-eat meat that was sealed in cans in the end, the whole process did not require too many workers and breeders at all.
However, as time passed, the automatic feeding facilities in the past had run out of energy and fallen apart. The knowledge of the rock worms at the beginning had long been lost, too. The locals today could only feed them in the most primitive ways.
Since the rock worms could grow so much meat, they naturally had a huge appetite. Since they could not go out to look for food on their own, they had to count on the locals to collect the moss, cut the vines, cut the mushrooms, excavate the minerals, mince them, and toss them into the feed tanks. It was a very arduous labor. A couple of muscular men could barely satisfy the appetite of one rock worm if they worked all day long.
In order to ensure that so much moss, vines, and mushrooms could grow in the underground worlds, the excrement of the rock worms had to be tossed into the cracks of the rocks nonstop while the crops were served carefully. The underground worlds were not suitable for the growth of crops in the first place. Even the tiniest cluster of moss had been watered by the locals with their blood and sweat.
Because the real fully-automatic feeding tanks had been destroyed a long time ago, the rock worms were not used to the environment deep inside the caves. Therefore, somebody had to massage their bodies day and night and force them to exercise. Otherwise, black spots would soon grow on the rock worms' bodies, which meant that the flesh inside had all been necrotized and could not be eaten anymore.
The work took up 99% of the locals' time. It was safe to say that the entire district of 10084 was centered around the "rock worms".
Based on the number of stalagmites, stalactites, and caves on the wall that he saw just now, Li Yao quickly calculated the ratio of the rock worms to the locals. He discovered that the rock worms seemed to be too many for the population of the district of 10084. Even if they were all slaughtered for meat, they would not be able to eat up so many of them. Wouldn't it be much easier for the locals if they could raise fewer of them?
Li Jialing shook his head and said that he did not know the whole story. Like he said just now, although the locals had raised so many rock worms through hard work, they were reluctant to eat meat in large pieces. It would be good enough if they could mince a small piece of meat and mix it into the meat porridge every few days.
Most of the rock worms, after they molted three times and became completely mature, had to be carried to the towns above, namely the "four-digit areas" numbered from 1000 to 9999, in exchange for precious energy, civil magical equipment, and weapons.
The locals of the district of 10084 were not completely ignorant barbarians after all. They still kept their basic language and culture. Some of the magical equipment and arrays were still functioning. They were also eager to know what the world above was like. Tremendous assets and fuel had to be exchanged with the rock worms. As it happened, synthetic food was popular in the world above, and the rock worms could not be sold at a high price. Even a couple of rock worms might not be enough for a standard crystal cartridge.
Even if they gritted their teeth and did not want any magical equipment or energy, there was at least one indispensable asset that they had to buy from the towns above, which was fresh compressed air and the components to maintain the air circulation and filtration system.
In the towns tens of thousands of meters below the ground, even with the largest and most efficient ventilation system that led in the fresh air from the ground incessantly, it was still a depressing and suffocating world full of fatal venomous gases.
Also, when the exhaust gas exhaled by human beings accumulated too much, everybody would be suffocated to death.
Therefore, the locals could abandon all the magical equipment and even the illumination rune arrays above their heads, but they could not abandon the air circulation and filtration system.
Once the air circulation and filtration system broke down, they would have to release the super-compressed fresh air in time to buy the precious maintenance time.
Not having air was even more dreadful than not having sunlight. It was a real catastrophe.
The residents of the four-digit towns were certain to take advantage of the locals of the five-digit towns. They demanded an exorbitant price for the components and the compressed air. Dozens of rock worms could only be exchanged for a tiny can of compressed air.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
