What was in the depths of the World Scar? This was something that everyone in L 'Haronne was curious about, but no one dared to explore.
Or rather, those who dared to explore the truth had been buried forever in the burning abyss that was emitting a faint red light, and among those who survived, there were no more reckless men who did not cherish their lives.
Looking down from the terrible crack of the World Scar, all one could see was a deep, dark valley that seemed to devour even light. The people of L 'Haronne had realized a long time ago that the planet they lived on was actually spherical, and the World Scar had divided the planet into two halves. But with their current observation technology, it was still not enough to directly observe the scene from one end of the scar to the other. They could not even reach half the distance.
Their eyes would be blocked by the never-dissipating gas cloud deep in the mantle, so they could only see a faint red light surging in the depths of the endless darkness. The red light had been given various definitions by scholars: the heart of the world, the tomb of the fallen gods, the place where the consciousness of the planet slept, or the place where the souls of the world reincarnated. Some even thought that the red light was the eye of a giant serpent, and that the giant serpent would one day crawl out of the abyss and swallow the entire world.
As the red light grew weaker and weaker over time, scholars who were obsessed with all kinds of hypotheses came up with all kinds of supporting doomsday or disaster theories, such as the fading of the heart of the world.
But all of these theories were absurd. The red light did not have any mysterious veil, it was just the core that was gradually cooling.
In a place where the people of L 'Haronne could not see, all kinds of construction machinery were busy day and night. A construction base floating above the core had been built, and a large number of autonomous robots and engineering drones were flying around the scorching (but cold to the core) metal sphere, nailing more probe posts and transmission channels to the semi-solidified shell of the latter.
The Petrachelys floated on the surface of the sphere, only a few meters above the outer shell. The residual heat of the planet's core was roasting the spacecraft, but to Nolan, this heat was not even as hot as the coolant when she was racing.
Her image was standing on the bridge, looking at the images sent back by the various detectors. At the center of the holographic projection was a scan of the planet's core.
Some blurry images could be seen under the not very thick shell, which was the rough outline drawn by the detection equipment after trying to eliminate the interference. It looked like an irregular mass, and there were vaguely something like pipes or pillars extending out, connecting to the outer shell of the core.
It was impossible to analyze what it was from such a blurry image, and without being able to safely crack the "protective barrier" that enveloped the core, Nolan really didn't dare to blow it up with a single blast.
"… I feel like after spending so much time with Boss, even my thoughts are being led astray by him …" The ship girl rubbed her forehead and sighed helplessly. "His mind is only filled with revenge. This is not the calm and rational Gray Fox from back then."
She then clicked a few times on the holographic projection and turned on the audio monitoring mode. A dull and powerful voice sounded on the bridge.
Thump thump thump thump thump thump …
It was like a heartbeat, but much slower than a human's heartbeat.
"Those L 'Haronne scholars who guessed that it was the planet's heart had a point. This thing really does sound like a heartbeat," Nolan said to herself as she opened the map of the entire planet.
In the holographic projection, the entire planet of L 'Haronne was a translucent grayish-white, while the core of the planet was marked in a striking red. But the core of the planet did not float independently inside the planet: there was a faint red line extending from the core to a certain coordinate on the surface of the planet.
"The third set of detectors has confirmed that there is indeed a connection … but how did such a strange information mapping relationship form? And it feels like something is missing … "Nolan frowned as she muttered to herself." Forget it, let's report to Boss and let him worry about it. "
The Petrachelys floated up slightly and disconnected the beam connection to several detection nodes on the surface of the core, and a new report was uploaded to Hao Ren's data link.
"A new information fluctuation has been detected in the core, and it is confirmed that there is an unknown information flow from the core to the surface. The connection point is located in the Dragon Empire."
…
Hao Ren paused for a moment, and his momentary daze was noticed by the sharp Vivian, who looked at him with concern. "What's wrong?"
"Nolan sent a message." Hao Ren tilted his head slightly and whispered, "Isn't there a structure wrapped in a mysterious barrier in the core? Nolan found that there is an information exchange between that thing and the surface, and the exchange point is located in the capital of the Empire. "
"… That thing buried in the core, no matter how you look at it, is a product of a super civilization, would it be related to the relatively backward civilization on the surface?"
"There is definitely a connection, this is not unexpected." Hao Ren nodded gently. "Now the key is, we have one more reason to go to the capital."
Hao Ren and Vivian whispered to each other while Graeme, Charlemagne, and the rest were still in deep shock.
"What the hell is going on …" Graeme looked back at the Black Pine Forest that stood proudly in the snow, and felt that his brain was lacking, "The Black Pine Forest is connected to the North … and it's across two-thirds of the Empire's territory?!"
In the distant sky, the red dimensional passage was like a scar after the sky was torn apart. Ominous red light and thunder surged in the crack, and below the crack was a hazy silver-white glow, which was a mirage caused by the energy flow near the World Scar. The two wonders overlapped each other, bringing about a wonder that was rarely seen in the ordinary world, but this wonder had never been a beautiful sight in the eyes of the L 'Haronne people.
The warriors stationed in the northern frontier were no stranger to such a sight. It was the crack of Gorgon's Abyss, and near the crack, the Gorgonian Demons would appear out of thin air from time to time, which had always been the heaviest burden on the shoulders of every fortress here.
Rheia looked around and climbed onto a nearby boulder. She looked in the direction of the Black Pine Forest, and then looked at Gorgon's Abyss from another angle.
There was a hint of surprise on her face, and then it turned into thought, and finally it dawned on her.
"I see," the little goddess jumped down from the boulder and looked at everyone seriously. "Graeme is right. The Black Pine Forest is indeed connected to this place, but not to the north, but to the spatial fault around Gorgon's Abyss."
Hao Ren had just finished his conversation with Vivian. He was also curious about the snowy plains in the north after leaving the Black Pine Forest. "You mean, the Black Pine Forest is connecting to Gorgon's Abyss?" he asked when he heard what Rheia said.
Awenna exclaimed, "How could this happen?!"
"Because the Black Pine Forest and Gorgon's Abyss are essentially the same thing, and I'm afraid they were originally connected," Rheia explained. "Although you think they are two secret realms that are far apart and have very different natures, in my eyes, they are both 'afterimages' after the collapse and solidification of the world line. On the surface world, they may not be connected, but in those collapsed world lines, everything is connected and mixed together …"
As she spoke, there was a thoughtful look on her face, and her hand seemed to be waving in the air unconsciously. Charlemagne and the others thought that this was the "magical little girl's" subconscious movement when she was thinking and organizing her words, but Hao Ren could see that she was flipping through a book …
"Ah, I got it." After a moment, Rheia stopped. "If the world is seen as a multi-layered structure, then the stable reality is its outermost layer, and the world lines that have failed to become reality are buried in the deeper layers with all kinds of redundant information. Those fragmented histories appear to be intertwined in the deeper layers, and that is because in the 'deeper layers', the concepts of time and space have become extremely blurred. Usually, only a little of those fragmented things will emerge, like icebergs slightly rising to the surface of the water, exposing a few distant peaks, but if the barriers of the layers of the world become weak, they will continue to rise … "
"The nature of the interconnection of the broken world lines will be revealed," Hao Ren continued. "So, the Black Pine Forest and Gorgon's Abyss are connected."
Rheia nodded. "And if I'm not wrong … there is probably more than one such 'virtual reality' in this world. It's just that some people know about it, and some don't. But now, regardless of whether people know about it or not, they …"
She paused deliberately to emphasize her next few words. "I'm afraid they are starting to rise."
By the time Rheia finished talking about this almost subversive theory, everyone, including Graeme, fell into a temporary state of sluggishness.
In terms of the worldview they were familiar with, this theory was too advanced and unimaginable.
"This is unheard of …" Awenna was the first to mutter to break the silence. As the best spellcaster of the Izzo Royal Family for centuries, she had studied under several extremely knowledgeable masters, and her understanding of all kinds of obscure theories was far beyond that of the average person. But she still found it difficult to keep up with Rheia's train of thought. "Although it seems to explain the situation in front of us, such a mysterious thing …"
Rheia put her hands on her hips and tried to straighten her back. "That's what the book says!"
Hao Ren slapped his forehead and tried to salvage the situation before the atmosphere changed in a strange direction. "… It's what the secret books of the Basilica of the World Tree say. Whether you believe it or not, we have a lot of research on the origin of this world. "
"It's the scholars' job to study and verify these theories," Graeme said solemnly. "We just need to make sure that the Black Pine Forest is indeed connected to Gorgon's Abyss, and we must let the princess know about this as soon as possible."
Hao Ren smiled. "The best news now is that we have crossed the hinterland of the Empire, and we are not far from the princess."
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.
