This is a king with the demeanor of a wise man, with a pair of deep blue eyes, but his beard is somewhat unkempt, making him appear a bit wild.
His face bore the marks of time, which gave him a more dignified appearance.
"Hello, my name is Bai Luan, and I am a traveler from the stars."
Bai Luan extended her hand to the middle-aged man in front of her.
The middle-aged man reached out and grasped Bai Luan's hand.
"Hello... Interstellar Traveler, my name is Sethlen, and I am the seventeenth leader of this planet."
"What about the previous sixteen generations?"
"..."
Sethlen was clearly taken aback by Bai Luan's words.
Then Bai Luan said with a smile:
"I was just joking."
"If you are truly interested in our civilization, I can arrange for you to visit our history museum..."
"Sure, I'd love to."
Bai Luan glanced at the surrounding crowd again and said:
"However, I don't like being watched by so many people."
Sethlen was silent for a moment, then nodded in agreement and turned to the group of people surrounding him, saying:
"You may all step back."
"But... Sethlen... how can we be sure if he's friendly?"
"Proof of friendliness is that we are still alive."
Sethlen's voice was steady yet weary, carrying an undeniable resolve.
"The power contained in that mech is far beyond our imagination. If he had any ill intentions, we would have been reduced to ashes long ago."
The person trying to dissuade them opened his mouth, but all his words ultimately turned into a powerless sigh. He lowered his head and led the crowd away slowly.
After doing all this, Sethlen turned to Bai Luan and said:
"Let's go, I'll show you our history."
Sethlen walked ahead, leading Bai Luan into the temple. After passing through many corridors, Sethlen led Bai Luan to a place filled with murals.
There are a total of eight murals in this huge room.
The eight enormous murals, like eight heavy pages of history, record the entirety of this civilization's struggle for survival.
"As you have probably noticed, our planet is extremely arid."
Sethlen turned his gaze to the first mural, which depicted a vast desert dotted with blue dots.
"Most of this planet is desert, but in some places, springs emerge and water flows out. Our civilization was born from these springs."
He then walked to the second mural:
"Initially, we formed various tribes based on the springs, and there were constant conflicts between the tribes over the springs."
Bai Luan raised his head and looked at the second mural. The second mural depicted a chaotic battle, with weapons piercing people and blood flowing into the spring, staining the water of life red.
"Until 541 years ago, the first spring dried up."
Sethlen strolled toward the third mural, where the blue dots symbolizing springs began to disappear, turning into a black dot symbolizing emptiness.
"After that, every year, one or two springs disappeared at a rate of one to two, until finally…"
Sethlen stopped at the fourth mural, which had previously been covered in blue dots, but now only one blue dot remained.
"Only one spring remains."
Sethlen stopped beneath the enormous mural, its blackness almost completely filling the canvas, like an inscription on a tombstone.
Only one blue dot remains on this tombstone.
Sethlen did not continue explaining the remaining murals; he simply stood quietly beneath the enormous mural, a symbol of the end, feeling as insignificant as a grain of sand.
Then, he slowly turned around, his deep, weathered blue eyes fixed on Bai Luan, within which surged the last spark of hope, almost extinguished.
His voice was dry and hoarse, carrying the trembling weight of a civilization's last moments:
"And this last spring... according to our most precise calculations... will also completely dry up in a year..."
O interstellar traveler from who knows where... since you were able to descend from that vast sea of stars that we can never reach no matter how hard we try...
Please... tell me...
"Do you have a way... to save us?"
P.S.: Which college student's schedule is basically full of classes like a high school student's...? (Desperate wailing)
Chapter 87 Everything will be alright.
To be honest, Bai Luan felt sorry for Sethlen in front of him and immediately understood why the residents outside all had such miserable expressions.
Living in such an environment, who could possibly laugh? But how can we help them this time?
The current predicament facing this planet is a genuine resource crisis.
Although it may seem unrealistic, what if this planet simply has no resources?
Judging from the pipe structure obtained from Bai Luan's recent scan of the Water God Temple, this planet's technology has achieved a certain level of sophistication.
After all, building a mature pipeline system with strict hierarchical and efficient water resource utilization is quite troublesome.
Especially in this kind of environment.
It's such a pity that a civilization with such vitality would die on this desolate planet.
This planet gave you life, but it doesn't have enough milk to nourish you. How tragic!
Compared to the human civilization on Beta Planet, which ruined its own planet and destroyed its ecosystem, the civilization on this planet is clearly more worthy of being preserved.
Fine... At worst, I'll just buy a planet, take all these people there, and make them work for me for generations to pay off my debts.
Maybe we can pull out a planet that obeys our commands; it won't cost much anyway.
Could it be more expensive than a simulated universe project?
Thinking this, Bai Luan raised her head and looked at Sethlen, and said:
Tell me about your problem, and I will try my best to help you solve it.
Is there really a way to solve this?
"If I can't solve the problems on your planet, then there are very few people in the entire universe who can."
Upon hearing this, Sethlen was momentarily speechless, unsure whether to believe the person in front of him.
Oh well... there's no hope anyway!
Whether what he said was true or not, all I could do was grasp at this unexpected hope.
While Sethlen hesitated, Bai Luan's gaze fell on the remaining four murals.
Clearly, the eight murals are divided into two parts. The first half explains the background, the past, and the predicament, while the second half should describe the civilization's attempt to save itself.
Sethlen noticed Bai Luan's gaze. Since he had already decided to give it a shot and trust Bai Luan, there was no rush.
"The four murals behind it depict Unity, the Mad King, Rebellion, and Choice."
"It sounds... like four events?"
"Yes, unity means that we have completely abandoned the tribal divisions of the past and become one in order to save ourselves."
Sethlen looked at the fifth mural, which depicted a towering silhouette of a man against a backdrop of a vast, converging crowd.
"The first leader, Bernard, accomplished the feat of unification, and together with the nine leaders after him, during the period before the spring dried up to only one, we rapidly developed technology, seizing that brief time before the resources were exhausted to raise our technological level to what it is today."
Then, Bai Luan turned his gaze to the sixth mural. The painting's tone suddenly turned dark and oppressive, filled with an ominous blood red, with a twisted and frenzied silhouette of a king in the center.
"The man in the painting is named Emerson, our eleventh leader."
Starting with the seventh leader, our technology encountered a barrier that we were unable to overcome for a long time.
Springs are dwindling, time is passing, technology is stagnating, and the burden of civilization rests on the shoulders of every leader.
By Emerson's generation, the brutal pressure had spawned a madman.
"What did he do that earned him the title of 'Mad King'?"
"When he was in power, he demanded that we hand over the remains of the deceased under the pretext of controlling resources, and this was maintained for a long time."
Until we discovered… he had actually been using the bodies of our deceased loved ones for blasphemous research, attempting to find a path to immortality… one that completely mechanizes organic life, in order to combat resource depletion."
Sethlen looked at the seventh mural, in which a valiant female leader drew her sword and pointed it at the mad king on the throne, with a surging crowd behind her.
Meanwhile, the Mad King, who was in opposition to her, sat on his throne, beneath which stood a terrifying legion of "living corpses"—their bodies wrapped in filthy bandages, with cold metal structures peeking out from the gaps.
"People could not accept that their dead loved ones had been so desecrated, and they took up arms to resist the tyranny of the Mad King. The twelfth leader, Celia, united these people to face the Mad King..."
The paranoid mad king had no intention of giving up, or rather, he had reached a point where there was no turning back. He and his confidants released the results of their years of secret experiments—an army of the undead—to wage war against the resistance.
At this point, Sethlen let out a long sigh.
"Hundreds of years after the unification by Bernal, this planet was once again stained red with the blood of its own people... Three outstanding leaders died on the battlefield one after another."
Ultimately, the fifteenth leader, who was also my father, defeated the Mad King…
Sethlen looked at Bai Luan, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
"Do you know what kind of twisted body my father saw when he finally stood before Emerson?"
His voice was choked with a sorrowful sob.
"That was no longer a human form... Machines and flesh were forcibly spliced together in a mad way, Emerson... his first experimental subject... was himself."
My father told me that before he severed that madman's head, Emerson's eyes held no fear or resentment, only an empty stare as he used his last strength to ask him…
Sethlen paused, as if he had personally experienced the despair of that moment:
"'Is there any other way? Do you know? Tell me... please?'"
Sethlen recalled the expression on his father's face as he recounted Emerson's last words, a look of sympathy and pity for a companion driven mad.
He looked up at the last mural.
"The final decision was made after the civil war, which made our already limited time and resources even worse."
We can no longer try multiple approaches as we have in the past; we must concentrate our remaining strength, choose one path, and go all the way.
Either give it your all and try to fly into the stars to escape this desolate graveyard, or descend deeper into the earth to search for the possible underground water...
We must race against time and pray that technological breakthroughs will outpace the rate at which the spring dries up completely.
Ultimately… by a narrow margin of three votes, we chose to advance underground.
Sethlen's father dedicated his life to this cause, but to no avail.
"Mr. Bai Luan, do you know what 'underground exploration vehicle driver' means here?"
Sethlen's voice became hollow and numb.
"That was… a deadly profession with a mortality rate as high as 80% or 90%. Out of ten people who went down, only one or two would come back by chance… but in my father's time, the number of people applying to become drivers… was so long."
Those tragic scenes seemed to appear before his eyes:
"Some of them were trapped forever in the cold, dark depths of the earth's crust because their drill bits broke, and they slowly suffocated."
Some, upon learning that their remaining fuel was insufficient to support their return journey... resolutely shut down all non-essential systems, using their last energy for propulsion, and plunged into a deeper, more unknown abyss, marking deadly paths for those who followed with their lives...
But we paid such a terrible and enormous price... and all we got in return were more cold rock samples and an ever-growing list of martyrs..."
His voice broke.
"...No...not even a drop of water was obtained..."
Emerson's dying words had become a source of heartache for his father, who eventually died in despair, passing the position to Sethlen.
"Bernard's expectations, Emerson's madness, Celia's sacrifice, my father's regrets—in the end, all of these weighed on my shoulders."
Sethlen looked at Bai Luan, trying to force a smile that showed strength, but it ultimately turned into a bitter smile that was uglier than crying.Two weeks ago... my only son, our best driver... was driving the most advanced drilling machine, breaking all previous exploration depth records... and then, he went missing."
Ten days ago, the team of scholars I trusted most gave me the final, definitive report... The spring can only last for another year at most.
All I know... are devastating, heartbreaking news that could crush anyone.
But... my identity doesn't allow me to show the slightest sign of giving up... I must hold on, I must... if even I give up..."
His voice grew softer and softer until it was almost inaudible.
As a leader, he had long been deprived of the right to give up; he had to lead the people to find a way to survive.
But... is there really a way out?
Faced with this desperate situation, Sethlen had no choice but to block information.
Sethlen looked at Bai Luan.
Those blue eyes that once tried to maintain the dignity of a leader were now empty and numb, crushed by immense pain and pressure. They stared straight at Bai Luan, brimming with tears that they were trying hard to hold back, swirling fragilely in their eyes.
"All of this... is so painful... so incredibly painful..."
He needs rest.
"Let's put these aside for now and take a rest."
Bai Luan reached out and gently placed his hand on the shoulder of Sethlen, who had carried a civilization.
Everything will be alright.
Sethlen's eyes welled up, and tears finally spilled over.
"We...we really...just...want to survive..."
Chapter 88 Life Sprouts Here
It took Sethlen a long time to calm himself down.
Although it was somewhat embarrassing, he had to admit that he felt much better now.
Although the hope brought by Bai Luan was so ethereal and carried a strong sense of unreality, it was still better than having no hope at all.
"So, what do you plan to do?"
Bai Luan raised his arm, revealing the previously invisible mecha on it. Then, the nano-mecha surged, and force field drills appeared on the mecha, starting to spin rapidly.
"My drill bit can pierce the sky!"
That mech is far more technologically advanced than theirs; if it were him, he might actually be able to…
Thinking of this, Sethlen shook his head with a wry smile.
Do you have a choice?
Besides believing, I had no other choice.
They made so many sacrifices, tried their best, but couldn't see a glimmer of hope...
Now, we can only place our hopes on a miracle.
"Savior, if you wish to explore the underground, we might be able to offer you some assistance, at least…"
Sethlen looked at Bai Luan, a self-deprecating smile on his face:
"We know countless dead ends."
"I see."
Bai Luan nodded upon hearing this and said:
"I will remember those sacrifices and remember that I found my way to survival by stepping on the sacrifices of these people."
Bai Luan's answer surprised Sethlen, then a touch of emotion welled up in his eyes, and he said sincerely:
"Thank you..."
Bai Luan didn't say much, just smiled.
Sethlen led Bai Luan away from the mural room, preparing to take her to a research lab specializing in geological strata.
"After the unification, the various tribes reached a consensus, which confirmed to us that this planet is entirely desert, with no other water sources except for springs."
Bai Luan remained silent for a moment after hearing this, then asked:
Do you know what the 'sea' is?
Upon hearing this, Sethlen stopped and turned to look at Bai Luan, asking with a hint of curiosity:
What is that?
"nothing."
Bai Luan looked at Sethlen's reaction, a knowing glint in his eyes.
"After everything is over, I'll take you to see the sea."
"Then I'll... look forward to it."
Sethlen continued walking forward, leading Bai Luan through the corridor, and continued:
"As you know about our history, in the beginning our technology flourished, and we also yearned for the stars and launched satellites into the sky..."
Unfortunately, when that satellite, symbolizing hope and yearning for the stars, reached the end of its service life and disintegrated in space, falling back to Earth, we were already embroiled in a war with the Mad King…
Bai Luan sighed:
"What a pity..."
As they spoke, Bai Luan and Sethlen entered the research lab, where they saw research blueprints for the drilling machine, a geological stratification diagram of the entire planet, and a large number of rock samples.
"We tried many methods of drilling and sounding waves, but in the end, we could only choose the drilling rig."
Among the rock samples, one piece quickly caught Bai Luan's attention.
One reason is that the rock sample was very large, and the other reason is that the rock sample did not look like a rock.
It's more like a part of an insect nest that has been buried underground for many years and turned into a fossil...
This is clearly a fossil formed from something, and when talking about insects, one cannot ignore the global locust plague.
Could this place have been the site of a global locust plague?
This could explain why the planet's surface is lacking in resources and is mostly desert.
But if it were a global locust plague, this planet should have been devoured even more thoroughly...
Why is this planet stuck in this rut, neither rising nor falling?
Bai Luan stared at the fossilized insect nest, lost in thought...
Sethlen noticed Bai Luan's gaze and began to explain:
"These are relics of an ancient civilization discovered in the strata when we first started excavating the surface..."
Isn't that amazing? That a civilization could exist on this planet, and aside from a bunch of fossils, we haven't found anything else related to an ancient civilization yet.
Sethlen looked at the insect nest fossil:
"This gave us a lot of encouragement at the time. Perhaps this ancient civilization faced the same predicament as us, and found a way out, leaving this planet?"
Bai Luan listened from the side with mixed feelings, unsure of what expression to make.
The traces left by the global locust plague that has caused the current suffering of civilization have actually inspired the survival of civilization... I really don't know what to say for a moment.
Bai Luan couldn't figure out the mysteries surrounding this planet on her own.
It's a pity there's no cell phone signal, otherwise I could connect to the StarNet to check information about the global locust plague...
By the way, Daheita had previously upgraded her phone, so it seems she can contact her no matter where she is.
The Great Black Pagoda should be with Nguyen Mai now; Nguyen Mai is considered an expert in this field.
Let's ask the great Lady Black Tower for help!
Bai Luan: Ms. Heita, I need your help.
The Great Black Tower: It's rare that you would take the initiative to come to me.
Big Black Tower: Tell me about it.
Bai Luan:
Bai Luan: Is this left over from the global locust plague?
Big Black Tower: You're not here to ask me anything, you're here for Nguyen Mai, aren't you?
The Great Black Tower: You've got some nerve? You dare to treat this genius like a messenger?
Bai Luan: Please.
The large black tower next to Nguyen Mai chuckled softly at his phone, then handed it to her, saying:
"My assistant needs your help. Take a look at this."
"He actually managed to persuade you?"
"Of course it's not free. As for the payment, this genius will get it from him when he gets back."
Ruan Mei glanced at the big black tower, who was already pondering how to get payment from Bai Luan, and ultimately chose not to comment.
She glanced at her phone and was immediately drawn to the content on it.
Big Black Tower: This is a fossilized nest left by a hibernating insect. Where did you find it?
Bai Luan: On a distant planet, if Miss Ruan Mei is interested, I can bring you some.
Did you immediately notice the change in personnel?
The Great Black Tower: What kind of compensation do you need?
Bai Luan: I have some questions that I need you to answer.
The Great Black Tower: What questions do you have?
Bai Luan: As you can see, there are traces of the activity of true hibernating insects on this planet, and the main landform on the planet's surface is desert, with very few other resources.
Bai Luan: But there are still springs on the planet that supply groundwater to the planet's surface, and no fossils of daphnia have been found.
Bai Luan: I think the locust plague won't easily spare any planet. Why hasn't this planet been completely devoured?
Bai Luan: I don't understand.
The Great Black Tower: I understand.
The Great Black Tower: Some civilizations on certain planets, when fighting locust plagues, choose to move all their resources underground, using the planet's crust as a protective shield and the surface as a battlefield.
The Great Black Tower: The planet you're talking about might be like that.
The Great Black Tower: As for why the global locust plague spared this planet...
Big Black Tower: I think it's probably because something was chasing the locust plague, forcing them to move away.
Could this planet be one that the Procreation Star God passed by when he fled during the siege of the Procreation Star God by the Star Gods?
In that case... what bad luck.
Bai Luan: Thank you, Miss Ruan Mei.
Bai Luan: I'll let you know if there are any new discoveries here.
Bai Luan: Please convey my gratitude to Ms. Heita.
Bai Luan put down his phone. Based on Ruan Mei's speculation, Bai Luan roughly understood the situation of this planet.
A planet attempting to combat a locust plague; an ancient civilization did exist there, and its technology was highly advanced. In the process of fighting the locust plague, they transferred all their resources underground.
It is estimated that the ancient civilization ultimately failed and died silently underground.
Forced by an unknown threat, the global locust plague abandoned the planet, clearing away everything on the surface before leaving, leaving only bare rock layers.
And so, this planet became a dead star, its rock layers eroded over time, forming the current landscape dominated by deserts.
The rock strata are constantly being eroded...
Until, the resources stored underground were exposed, including water, and with just this one resource...
Bai Luan looked at Sethlen.Life begins here.
Chapter 89 Sethlen, come see the sea.
Having sorted out the situation on Planet Sethron, Bai Luan put away her phone.
"I understand the situation."
Bai Luan turned to look at Sethlen and said:
"I can go underground to explore anytime."
"Understood."
Sethlen rummaged through the research room, found a large pile of files, and placed them in front of Bai Luan.
"This is all the intelligence we've collected over the years, from top to bottom, from morning to night."
Bai Luan wanted to refuse.
But then he remembered what Sethlen had said earlier.
"At least... we know countless dead ends."
This pile of files in front of me may be more than just a record...
Bai Luan picked up one of the books.
This was left by a pilot named Alex, who was the first pilot.
It would probably take a lot of time to read it all.
Fine, let's go to the dark room.
Bai Luan turned the pages one by one, quietly reading through his story.
Watching him, he piloted the first-generation machine into the underground.
Bai Luan slowly closed Alex's file, his movements as gentle as if he were closing the eyelids of a deceased person, before picking up the second one.
Matteo.
Leopold.
Archive after archive, case after case of sacrifice, only a few can return safely.
Most files end with a cold "confirmed dead" or "signal permanently cut off".
After an unknown amount of time, Bai Luan picked up the last book.
Milton, son of Sethlen.
...
...
...
Bai Luan put down Milton's file.
His gaze swept over the mountain of archives that was piled up so high it almost blocked his view; each one looked like a heavy tombstone.
Daheita walked up to Bai Luan.
As soon as Bai Luan entered the small dark room, she realized that Bai Luan had returned.
But seeing Bai Luan's expression as she flipped through the files, she chose to wait until everything was over before speaking.
"So, after knowing all of this..."
She spoke, her voice exceptionally clear in the quiet, dark room.
What are you planning to do?
"I once saw no hope either."
Bai Luan turned her head to look at the big black tower.
"But now..."
His voice gradually grew stronger, each word like a heavy hammer striking the anvil of fate.
"I can be their hope."
The Great Black Tower revealed a slight smile.
"Heh... I knew you'd say that."
She nodded slightly.
"Go ahead, a genius can do whatever he wants."
The next second, Bai Luan disappeared into the dark room.
In reality, Bai Luan put down Alex's file and then pretended to scan all the files with his mecha.
"I'll read the content on the way. Let's go."
Sethlen looked at Bai Luan and noticed that there seemed to be something more in his eyes than before.
His eyes seemed to say, "I have to save you."
Faced with that look, Sethlen didn't say much, but simply nodded heavily.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Bai Luan stood in front of that deep pit. Over the years, countless drivers had driven drilling rigs into this place and never returned.
Bai Luan has already connected to their communication channel and can conduct underground exploration at any time.
He took a deep breath and then activated the full armor mode of his mech.
Nanobots surged forth like a tidal wave, instantly covering the entire body and forming a streamlined yet powerful silver-white armor.
The thrusters on his back spewed out a ghostly blue plasma flame, propelling him slowly into the air, where he hovered directly above the wellhead.
The powerful detection waves had already spread out, and dozens of faint signal points representing the remains of their predecessors were coldly marked on the mech's built-in display screen.
Bai Luan looked at Sethlen, who was looking at him from the control room. Sethlen's eyes were filled with a mix of emotions: trepidation, unease, expectation, and pleading...
Faced with such gazes, Bai Luan chuckled softly, his voice ringing out over the communication channel:
"don't worry..."
He raised his left arm high, and the nanobots around him, as if summoned, frantically converged, combined, and transformed towards his left arm—
"I told you so..."
Those sacrifices...
Those expectations...
Those unwavering beliefs...
Finally, on his left arm, a gigantic, structurally complex object, beyond the imagination of the locals, was coalescing into a wildly accelerating spinning form—
A colossal force field drill!
"My drill bit!!!"
The roar of the drill instantly drowned out everything, and the violent energy fluctuations even caused the pointers on the instruments in the distance to swing wildly!
"But it can break through the sky!!!"
The giant drill bit began to spin rapidly, and then Bai Luan's figure plunged straight into the ground.
Then...
It broke through the rock without lifting a finger!
"So fast! It's too fast!!" The monitor exclaimed in shock as he watched the light spot on the screen rushing downwards almost instantaneously, completely unable to comprehend such terrifying penetration efficiency.
Sethlen gripped the edge of the control panel tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force, his eyes fixed on the red dot representing Bai Luan.
Watching it relentlessly and frantically approach the ultimate depth that his son Milton had paid with his life for, a depth once considered an abyss of despair.
"Charge!"
His chapped lips trembled, and murky tears had already uncontrollably streamed down his cheeks.
"Charge!!!"
The next moment, the screen showed that Bai Luan's signal suddenly made contact with that exceptionally strong metal barrier that had caused countless drill bits to fail and Milton to lose his life!
Everyone's heart was in their throat.
However, the signal that symbolized absolute obstruction only lasted for two or three seconds before suddenly disappearing!
We've made a breakthrough!
Bai Luan entered through the gap, but the gap behind him was immediately blocked by rubble.
Although it was pitch black underground, Bai Luan's mecha's night vision system allowed him to see everything clearly.
Nguyen Mai's guess was correct; this was clearly an underground storage room for the creations of a civilized civilization.
Bai Luan scanned the entire storage room, revealing its structure inside the mecha...
It's a storage room used to store liquid resources, but it seems to have been used up.
Suddenly, the scanner discovered a drilling vehicle and... a corpse.
Milton...
Bai Luan landed slowly and silently walked towards Milton's body...
Bai Luan soon saw Milton.
His body remained kneeling on the spot, blood seeping from the torn parts of his protective suit, flowing down the ground beneath him. In his hand, he still tightly gripped an iron pickaxe.
In front of the corpse was a small pit that had once been filled with blood, but was now dried up.
Clearly, Milton did not give up digging down until the very last moment.
According to the results of Bai Luan's scan, there is a pipe connecting here to the bottom.
In other words, if they went any further down, they would be able to see the ancient underground cities of civilizations that had moved underground to combat the global locust plague.
Bai Luan squatted down and looked at Milton. On Milton's face, which bore a resemblance to Sethlen, were frozen extreme resentment, endless regret, and immense pain at failing to complete his mission.
"Well done, Milton. Leave the rest to me."
Bai Luan patted his shoulder, then put his body back into the drilling vehicle.
A drill reappeared on the mech's arm, aimed at the small hole Milton had dug in his last moments.
"I've come...to bring them hope back for you!"
The drill bit spun at the sound, made contact with the metal floor, and produced countless sparks!
A spark illuminated the dark underground space, lighting up Milton's face in the pitch-black storage room.
The structure below crumbled layer by layer. Finally, as the last partition shattered, Bai Luan felt his feet sink into the ground, and he plummeted into an even wider, unimaginable space!
He immediately steadied himself and hovered in mid-air.
The darkness disappeared.
Instead, a soft and constant natural light, provided by countless giant luminescent algae or crystals, softly enveloped this underground world.
Directly below him was a boundless, shimmering body of water...
The clear water rippled in the dim light, exuding the breath of life.
Further away, an unimaginably vast and exquisitely structured colossal city ruin stands silently amidst the surrounding water, like a slumbering ancient behemoth, telling the story of the glory and tragedy of a lost civilization.
Bai Luan took a deep breath, connected to the communication channel with the ground command center, and simultaneously transmitted back the images captured by his helmet camera.
At the ground command center, Sethlen and everyone else stared blankly at the unimaginable scene on the main screen—endless, clear water, appearing like a miracle deep underground.
In the deathly silence, Bai Luan's voice came through the communication channel.
Calm, yet possessing a power that penetrates the soul, it resonated clearly in Sethlen's ears:
"Cyslen, come see the sea."
Chapter 90 The Last Survivor