As the rumbling and shaking gradually subsided, Lothar removed the shield he had cast and stepped out of the rubble. He watched Anub'arak shake off the debris and dust from himself. "Is it open?"
"It's thicker than I thought, but it should have opened a path," Anub'arak rumbled, using his scythe-like claws to push aside the obstructing rocks and splintered wood. "However, the situation inside doesn't look optimistic."
Hearing this, Lothar looked into the passage and found that the plants inside the cave also seemed to be in a completely petrified state, which made him feel somewhat disappointed.
According to the information obtained from the Botanis' souls, although they had indeed used hardened stone wood to block the path, the cave where the Primal Thornbeast seeds were hidden should still have a normal vegetation system. Otherwise, even the Primal Thornbeast would find it difficult to survive in a cave full of inorganic matter.
Even Lothar knew that for plants to survive, there must be at least a water source. But now, the cave was completely dry, and the ponds, which were clearly left by the Botanis to be used as reservoirs, had turned into dry land. Forget water, Lothar felt he could kick up a cloud of dust just by walking on it.
The world-changing environmental shifts in Draenor seemed to have exceeded the Botanis' imagination. The hidden facilities they left behind failed to provide the intended preservation in the face of the world's collapse. Lothar also saw the Botanis and other plant life that remained in the cave, originally meant to be Guardians.
The Botanis sat by the edge of what was once a water source, seemingly trying to extract the last nutrients from the pond. But unfortunately, the lost water was no longer enough for them to share, and these plant lives ultimately perished within the cave.
They were already dry and brittle; even a casual touch would cause them to crack into fragments and dust, scattering across the ground. The struggle of these plants with other lives on Draenor for sovereignty over this land had lasted for an unknown number of years, yet in the end, they turned into sculptures and died of thirst in such a confined space.
Kel'Thuzad had even envisioned that if the Botanis' protective measures were in place, Lothar and Anub'arak might even encounter living Botanis and other plant life. To avoid any unexpected situations, Lothar had specifically brought a certain number of troops to deal with emergencies.
However, it now seemed they wouldn't be needed.
"I don't sense any signs of life," Anub'arak, as an undead, was very sensitive to the aura of the living, but now he couldn't sense any trace of life within this cave. "Perhaps we arrived too late."
Lothar looked up at a pit at the lowest point of the cave, where there should have been abundant vegetation and flower clusters. But now, only a scene of decay and dryness remained, and beneath the almost petrified vegetation, there seemed to be a huge egg-shaped object.
He climbed down from the rocks and walked to the front of this ruined scene, using his hand to dig away the branches and debris covering the object beneath.
An egg-shaped "boulder" at least two or three meters high was revealed. Lothar frowned, "This should be a low-lying area where water flows, and the Primal Thornbeast's seed should be enshrined here. Why does it look like a stone?"
He stretched out his hand and placed it on this massive rock, suspected to be the Primal Thornbeast's seed, trying to probe the situation inside, but he received no useful feedback.
"It looks like a stone... and it actually seems to be a stone," Lothar murmured to himself. There was no life reaction inside this stone; it seemed they were destined for a wasted trip.
"Any discoveries, Highlord?" Anub'arak's massive body was not suitable for entering this low-lying area. He stood on the rock wall and asked Lothar.
"None. Besides this stone-like thing, there are no useful discoveries. According to the information, this thing is very likely the Primal Thornbeast's seed."
Anub'arak also turned his gaze to the stone. "I'll send the Nerubians to get it up first. We'll discuss it when we return to the camp."
"Alright."
The Nerubians received the command and quickly swarmed over, wrapping the stone with tough webs and securing it firmly, then attempting to pull it to the cave entrance.
But very quickly, the Nerubians encountered trouble—a squad of Nerubians capable of dragging a dragon's skeleton found themselves unable to move this stone.
"What's going on?" Anub'arak watched his subordinates circling the "boulder" but not moving it for a long time.
The Nerubians quickly relayed whispers, "This stone is a bit strange; it seems to be nailed to the ground."
"Nailed to the ground?"
Lothar was stunned for a moment. He first thought it might be some special magic or measure left by the Botanis, but then he reconsidered. Their entire set ecological environment had already collapsed, so any natural magic that needed to be maintained surely couldn't remain.
However, this seed was nothing short of a sacred relic to the Botanis. Such an object would be carefully enshrined and guarded by them, making it even less likely that they would truly nail it to the ground using some method.
During the attempts here, Anub'arak even personally tried to pull up the boulder, but after snapping yet another bundle of spider silk and cracking a section of the ground, he gave up on the idea—this stone truly was as if nailed to the ground; no matter how much force was applied, it wouldn't budge.
But very quickly, the Scourge came up with a solution—if they couldn't take the item, then they would take the place where the item was located.
Of course, they weren't going to move the entire cave, but moving just the boulder and the platform beneath it was completely feasible.
With a new course of action, the Nerubians quickly began working again, but this time, their work stopped just as quickly.
"What now?"
"Master... Master, this stone, it has rooted."
Rooted?
Anub'arak and Lothar were both stunned for a moment, but quickly, they both realized: rooted, which meant that this seed was not only not dead, but had actually sprouted?
The Nerubians quickly followed the roots growing from the seed, digging downward and outward. This time, they were astonished to find that the roots of this Primal Thornbeast seed had almost enveloped the entire lower part of the cave. These roots, like octopus tentacles, were firmly sucking into the deeper parts of the mountain and underground.
No wonder Anub'arak couldn't pull it; he was like a person standing on an elevator, trying to lift himself by pulling on the elevator floor.
Upon learning this, Lothar suddenly seemed to have an epiphany, as if he had discovered some astonishing secret. He ran to a withered Botani and observed some clues from this Botani, which was sitting by the pond with its feet immersed in the water.
"I'm afraid the Botanis' preservation measures haven't failed," Lothar's voice was half excited, half astonished. "The world-changing events of Draenor certainly exceeded the Botanis' imagination, but these Botanis' final means were themselves."
Anub'arak was also very interested. "How so?"
"Look, these Botanis almost all sat by the pond before they died. I'm afraid they weren't trying to replenish themselves from the pond's water, but rather preparing to turn themselves into nutrients, all to be gathered to the Primal Thornbeast through the pond water—they didn't care about their own lives or deaths. Their only goal was to maintain the Primal Thornbeast's vitality."