With an indescribably complicated expression on his face, Li Jialing mumbled, "It does make sense, but … why is it that every time I hear Brother Yao's words make sense, Sister Long's words make sense too? Even when I think about Blackstar the Great's approach, I feel that it makes sense too? You're both right. I … I'm completely confused! "
"That's why I said that you are still too young and need more experience!"
Li Yao said, "Besides, in many cases, it is just empty talk. All kinds of bizarre theories can be packaged to be flawless, but what matters most is how they are implemented and how they are put into practice.
"I admit that the situation at the center of the cosmos is a mess right now, and the path of the Cultivators seems to be declining, but it is exactly because of the chaos that Blackstar the Great, the four Kurfürsten, and the people of the Holy League keep each other in check. That's why it is convenient for us to take advantage of the chaos and rise!
"If we were to go back five hundred years to the age when the Imperium of True Human Beings was relatively stable and united, there would be no hope at all!
"So, have some faith in Brother Yao and the path of the Cultivators. Trust me. I'm always good at taking advantage of the chaos!"
After a long hesitation, Li Jialing nodded his head slightly and said, "I'll keep Brother Yao's words in mind. In any case, I'm not a coward, and I will never be a coward!"
Right then, the two of them suddenly heard intermittent but rhythmic notes from the depths of the town, as if somebody was singing a weird song.
Slightly dazed, the two of them looked at each other in bewilderment and listened carefully, only to discover that the childish and lively voices belonged to the children who had crawled onto the mainframe crystal processors to play.
The children had never breathed such fresh air before. Their 'oxygen intoxication' was even more intense than that of the adults. While giggling, they clapped their hands and sang the ancient nursery rhyme. Perhaps the children born in the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago, and the ancestors of everybody today, sang the exact same nursery rhyme when they were having a moment of fun.
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and listened for a while. Then, he said, "It's really nice, isn't it?"
"Yes."
Somewhat in a trance, Li Jialing said softly, "When I was little, I spent every second in training and fighting. I never sang any nursery rhymes."
Li Yao said, "There will be a day when you will also have descendants, chubby and cute little fellows. Do you want them to live in a world without light or nursery rhymes?"
After a long silence, Li Jialing gradually clenched his fists and said, "Brother Yao, let's go. Let's go deeper below the ground and see what the wildlings living in the 'dark and dead zone' look like."
After inspecting the assets that were brought to the underground world and confirming the complicated map of the gap for the last time, Li Yao and Li Jialing passed a long pathway and opened the gate of the shelter under the gazes of a few fully-armed underground locals, reaching the wilderness.
The moment they left the ancient shelter, the temperature outside was suddenly raised by dozens of degrees, and the air was even more sultry and stagnant, making them feel that they were in invisible magma that could be melted and solidified into part of the colorful rocks at any moment.
There were countless tunnels leading to the top, bottom, left, right, west, north, and south outside of the shelter. Li Yao touched the walls of the tunnels with his hands and discovered that they were smooth to the touch. There were traces of artificial polishing and did not seem to be natural. There were also helical patterns on the walls. Therefore, he knew that all the tunnels had been dug out with large excavators and tunneling machines a long, long time ago, perhaps ten thousand years ago.
Li Jialing told Li Yao that when the Demon Beast Empire and the Star Ocean Imperium collapsed, countless demons and Cultivators fled to the underground world. At first, they naturally carried a lot of large-scale magical equipment that was specially designed for the underground world. Excavators and tunneling machines were of the utmost importance.
At that time, no one wanted to be trapped alone in a shelter. The refugees all had ambitious plans. They wanted to use drilling vehicles and tunneling machines to open up countless tunnels that extended in all directions and connect all the shelters together. They even wanted to rebuild a massive "underground empire".
Perhaps they did partially succeed in the beginning. The hundreds of shelters that constituted an enormous force could exchange assets and information to the maximum extent so that the civilization on the ground could continue.
But the good times did not last long. Very soon, the "underground empire" established by the demons and the "underground empire" established by the Cultivators discovered each other and immediately waged a bloody, incessant underground war. At that time, the Cultivators had just broken free from the "thirty thousand years of the Great Dark Age" and still hated the demons deeply. The demons, on the other hand, were dwelling in the agony of the destruction of their country and species. There was absolutely no possibility of compromise or reconciliation at all.
The gory war must've been a hundred times crueler than the battle of "Starlight" below the Land of Sins in the Martial Meritocrats Sector. Deep below the ground where sunlight, drinking water, and other resources were scarce, the war was destined to be a winner.
The tunnels of the demons and the tunnels of human beings entangled with each other and collapsed together. The excavators of the two parties drilled through the enemy's skull, and the tracks crushed the enemy's bones. The super-large tunneling system with almost a hundred discs could've created a bright future, but it shattered the enemy and their own civilization as a result.
Today, after ten thousand years, the civilization in the past had almost been obliterated. The only things left were the twisted tunnels and the forsaken shelters, as well as the corpses at the ends of the tunnels and the corners of the shelters that had decayed into ashes, telling the brutality of the war and the cruelty of hatred in silence.
Li Jialing told Li Yao that, after the earthquakes and magma outbursts in the past ten thousand years, most of the tunnels had been broken and deformed, turning into dead ends.
At the end of a lot of tunnels were forsaken shelters, where there was absolutely nothing except the corpses and ashes. Everything that was slightly valuable had been picked up a long time ago.
Only a few of the tunnels led to the caves deep below the ground that were barely suitable for the survival of creatures. Those caves were mostly artificial, super-large bases that were supposed to accommodate the super towns of the civilizations in exile, but they had now become the habitats of the wildlings and the demon beasts.
Long Yangjun had once stayed here for a long time and explored the tunnels and natural cracks around the 10084 district clearly. She had also carefully drafted a 3D map that was imported into Li Jialing's portable crystal processor. Together with the localization chip that could lock onto her coordinates in real time, there was no need for her to be lost.
Those tunnels were the "underground highways" that connected the various shelters in the beginning. Naturally, they were not too small. They were at least five meters in diameter, enough for a fully-armed warrior in a Crystal Suit to pass through, and they would not feel suffocated at all.
Li Yao and Li Jialing were both equipped with techniques. Although there was not the slightest light and the air was suffocating, they were still able to move as fast as they could.
Even though the tunnels had been torn apart by the earthquake, leaving only zigzagging, narrow gaps, they could still manage to change the structure of their bones and muscles and squeeze through by brute force. Since the wildlings could pass through the gaps, it was impossible for the tunnels to be too narrow and twisted.
After walking for a while, the lights in the 10084 district had long disappeared in the darkness. They seemed to have entered an abyss that nobody had ever set foot in since the primeval era. There was absolutely no sound around. It was absolute silence. On the other hand, the wriggling of the human organs and the rushing of blood were particularly clear. Their every breath was deafening.
This was the dark and deadly area where the wildlings were often active.
The two of them released their spiritual energy and sensed carefully in every gap of the rocks. They discovered a lot of creatures that could only be found tens of thousands of meters below the ground.
There was a kind of creature that looked like a fungus blanket, but also like moss. It even grew small fungus umbrellas that grew in the hottest places in the crevices of the rocks. What was strange was that when they grew their fungus umbrellas and slowly opened, the fungus umbrellas would emit an orange light, like small lanterns.
Li Yao told Li Jialing that the creatures that looked like a carpet and a moss were known as "Fire Flowers" by the underground locals. They could be traced back to the primeval era hundreds of thousands of years ago. It was very likely that they were experimental lives produced by the Pangu or the Nuwa civilization because few naturally-formed lives had such weird characteristics.
The "Fire Flowers" fed on the heat below the ground. They would even condense into a carpet that could wriggle forward and follow the footsteps of the magma as if they were herding cattle.
Naturally, their body structure was not strong enough to be unscathed in the magma, but as long as the magma was slightly cooled and solidified, it would become the most fertile "meadow" for them. The large clusters of "Fire Flowers" would enshroud the slightly cooled magma and absorb the heat from it without leaving a drop behind.
The "Fire Flowers" were at the bottom level of the underground ecosystem. They were the food of countless insects and reptiles and thus supported the whole complicated food chain. Also, they could absorb a lot of heat, which significantly lowered the temperature below the ground, making it possible for the wildlings to survive. More importantly, after absorbing enough heat, the "Fire Flowers" could also release tremendous visible light, which was an indispensable condition for the amazing reactions that were similar to photosynthesis. Only the amazing reactions that were similar to photosynthesis could swallow carbon dioxide and transform it into the indispensable oxygen.
However the wildlings evolved, it was impossible for them to evolve into anaerobic lives that did not require oxygen at all. In other words, without the "Fire Flowers", the entire underground ecosystem would collapse abruptly.
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