The tree was hundreds of meters tall and situated in the middle of dozens of stalagmites and stalactites of different heights. Its branches were extended to all directions, and its root that protruded like a ridge also radiated all the way to the bottom of the soil.

Li Yao broke a few vines softly and wiped away a cluster of mosses. Then, he vaguely recognized a row of interfaces of crystal cards.

The object that appeared to be a giant tree was actually an accurate and huge central control system. He had only seen similar systems on the bridges of certain super enormous starships.

But right now, all the crystal processors and computational chips embedded in the central control system were rusted and covered in mosses, vines, and worms that were similar to ants. There were even spores that resembled lumps in the middle of the vines and mosses spurting out hazy mist nonstop.

The spores that seemed to be breathing made it look like a monster that was a combination of a living creature and a high-precision machine.

It was the greatest “playground” of the town. Many naughty kids had crawled to the branches of the tree, which were in fact the tubes of crystal wires. They were picking the bugs that had grown out of the crystal processor and putting them on the heads and backs of their companions. Teasing each other, they all laughed merrily.

Li Yao noticed that the children whose skin was translucent and whose eyes were slightly red were the few people in the entire town who could laugh.

Looking at the children, Li Yao was deep in thought. “The underground towns numbered above 10,000 are beyond the limits of the Imperium’s statistics. So, the residents here are the most ancient refugees?”

“Not exactly.”

Li Jialing shook his head and said, “The refugees who came in the age of ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago or during the rise and decline of demons were too far away from today after all. Most of them have decayed in the underground darkness in the passage of time, or ‘assimilated’ with the people who came later.

“Even if some of them are still alive, they have long forgotten who they are, the significance of civilization, and even the most fundamental intelligence. They have become barbarians who feast on raw meat and blood, if not ignorant, human-shaped beasts who know nothing but their instincts.

“Those barbarians and human-shaped beasts have all been exiled to areas of darkness and death that are deeper than the five-digit towns. Not just names, they do not even have numbers. Sister Long has gone to such tribes of those wild creatures to mediate in their conflicts.”

Slightly frowning, Li Yao asked, “Then, when did the people here escape to the underground world?”

“Probably ten thousand years ago when the Star Ocean Imperium collapsed.”

Li Jialing replied, “Originally, this place was an underground shelter in the age of the Star Ocean Imperium. The ancestors of most residents must’ve escaped here at that time to hide temporarily, but their hiding turns out to be much longer than they expected. They’ve been struggling to live in this place and never returned to the world with sunlight again.”

Li Yao sighed but was still more or less confused. “Since it is an underground shelter constructed by the Star Ocean Imperium, there should’ve been all kinds of facilities and educational systems, right? Even though the first refugees here were all civilians, they certainly had the knowledge of basic living skills. But why am I under the impression that everybody here is sluggish and just catching their last breath?”

Li Jialing thought for a moment, as if he were recalling what Long Yangjun said. In the end, he said, “Sister Long said that the continuity and development of a civilization is just like training, you make progress or you fall behind. Only by running and evolving at a higher and higher speed, surpassing one peak after another, can a civilization be maintained.

“If they decide to stop and take a rest, it is very possible that they will be collapsed by their own weight, and they will inevitably decline and die.

“However, the more advanced a civilization is, the more complicated the social structure will be. As the requirements to sustain the social form grow more and more, the civilization’s ability to resist the pressure of the environment will be weaker and weaker. Sister Long said that as a refiner, you must understand the logic that the fewer components, the lower the fault rate. As the components that make up a piece of magical equipment grow more and more, however carefully it is produced and used, some faults are bound to occur as time goes by.”

Li Yao nodded his head. In the circle of magical equipment production, there was a saying that “every additional component means a double faulty rate”. Although it might be an exaggeration, the idea certainly made sense.

As the number of components increased, the difficulty in producing, assembling, and maintaining would soar exponentially. A piece of large magical equipment made of millions of components was essentially a chaotic system that was utterly unpredictable. Nobody could ensure that it would not have any bizarre problem during usage. Even Li Yao could not make such a promise.

Perhaps, as the components and the rune arrays surpassed the limits, the magical equipment was also given life to some extent, and lives were the most uncontrollable and unpredictable things in the universe.

“Sister Long said that civilization is exactly like magical equipment. Just like a piece of super huge magical equipment made of trillions of components, no matter how it is maintained, it is destined to collapse someday, and a highly developed civilization is also most vulnerable, and may be completely destroyed by the slightest issue.”

Li Yao sniffed. “How are magical equipment and civilization the same?”

Li Jialing opened his hands and said, “Sister Long said that a village in the world of ancient Cultivators, whose buildings are made of the simplest wood and rocks and whose people make their living by hunting and farming every day, is in fact very easy to resist the corrosion of time and the change of environment although it seems rather underdeveloped. Even if all the villagers migrate from the surface of the planet to below the ground, they can still keep their previous social form and live for a long time.

“But what if it is a modern town?

“Think about it. What does it require to sustain a modern town? Even from the most superficial point of view, there are interconnected vacuum tube systems and high-speed crystal rails above their heads, the convenient tunnels and lifts below the feet, and the dense sewers, ventilation tubes, and information transmission tubes that join each other. Also, enough space is needed to accommodate vehicles such as shuttles. All these need the incessant supply of energy.

“Assuming that the population is the same, the energy consumption in a modern town is hundreds of times higher than a medieval town. How can a modern town not collapse in the barren underground world where there is barely any source of energy except for geotherm?

“There are also human factors. Sister Long said that although the civilians in the ancient times seemed as weak as ants, ants actually boasted high survival abilities. The ancient people are sturdy and diligent. They can keep on farming and hunting even if they are having the worst food every day. Also, it is their habit to have as many children as possible. Even though most of their offspring pass away, there will still be a few descendants to pass their bloodlines.

“In comparison, although a strong group known as Cultivators have appeared in the modern society, and the myriad of magical equipment makes life easier than ever, they have all weakened the survival abilities of human beings on their own. The stomachs of most people are only used to the most delicate cuisines. They need air conditioning rune arrays to create a cool and comfortable environment. Not just the shortage of sewers and toilets, they will feel dead even if they are only lacking the Spiritual Nexus.

“The modern people have long forgotten the skills to farm and hunt with the crudest tools, or even barehanded, in harsh environments. They are crystal processor engineers, crystal train drivers, architects of skyscrapers, and great storytellers. All their living skills must be supported by a platform that is accurate, complicated, and therefore tends to err. When the platform is gone, 99% of the modern people will be as good as dead.

“Furthermore, the more advanced a civilization is, the more discouraged the people will be to have children. They have no ability to resist risks at all.

“That was exactly the case for the remnants of the Star Ocean Republic who immigrated to the underground world. Perhaps the facilities in the shelter were indeed advanced and the supplies were abundant when they just escaped. They also had modern talents such as doctors, scholars, teachers, and engineers, who could continue their tiny civilization.

“But it is just an illusion. Faced with the pressure of tectonic movements, the seemingly indestructible wall of the shelter was as fragile as a soap bubble. One ‘tiny’ earthquake was enough to destroy their entire modern civilization. Should the engineers in certain critical posts perish, unfortunately, it would be barely possible for them to raise a qualified successor in a few years.

“It was perfectly normal that dozens of earthquakes and volcano eruptions took place in the past thousand years. The remnants of the Star Ocean Republic have struggled to survive to this day in such a harsh environment without losing all their humanity, and they still boast the abilities of language, thinking, and basic social organization. It is already very impressive!

“Right, Sister Long also said that it was perhaps how the Pangu and Nuwa civilizations were destroyed. The more advanced a civilization is, the more fragile the internal structure will be. Therefore, when the Pangu and Nuwa civilizations were most developed, they must’ve been a hundred times more susceptible than the civilization of mankind today.”

Li Yao scorned at the theory. He could totally come up with a hundred counterexamples. Was Heaven’s Origin Sector’s ability to resist disasters lower than the Ancient Sages Sector’s? Of course not!

However, he did not intend to be pedantic. Looking at the hazy darkness above him, he asked, “Do the authorities of the Imperium know the situation here? Why didn’t they do anything?”

“Of course they know. Why else would the place have been numbered ‘10,084’?”

Li Jialing said, “However, why would they do anything, who would do it, and what could they gain by doing it? The Immortal Cultivators are all the most selfish creatures. They… We certainly wouldn’t do things that have no rewards!

“If certain rare mines or precious civilization relics are discovered below the ground, the Immortal Cultivators will certainly crowd over and fight hard, not hesitating to wipe out the entire underground town.

“But a barren village that lives on rock worms like the 10,084th district has nothing to be exploited at all. Earning one penny in this place comes with a cost of a hundred dollars. It is not a fair deal at all. Why would the Immortal Cultivators waste their precious time training on those insignificant ants and ‘garbage’?

“Besides, the Empyreal Terminus Sector is also theoretically a ‘vacuum of power’ for the four Kurfürst families. This is the capital that directly belongs to His Majesty. Which Kurfürst will be a fool and help the emperor take care of the untouchable and the wild creatures below the ground?

“Therefore, except for the census two hundred years ago to number the areas below the ground, unless rare mines and ancient relics are found somewhere, few Immortal Cultivators will come this deep. This is an ignored, forgotten world that has been completely abandoned by the rulers on the surface of the planet.”