Chapter 730 - Sinkhole
Chapter 730: Sinkhole
The question was indeed filled with an extremely ominous aura.
After pondering for a moment, everyone present felt their hair stand on end.
“Our Abnormal Beast Research Department has a conjecture. In fact, it was proposed by Meng Chao.”
Ye Xiaoxing continued, “They have evolved from ‘monsters’ to a ‘monster civilization’, and they know Dragon City’s social structure as well as the civilization’s weaknesses like the back of their hands, even infiltrating the depths of the Lair to incite many humans. The monster civilization has very likely captured many humans alive, read their memories and thoughts, and used the fire of human civilization to light up the monster civilization’s path of evolution.
“However, the few humans living in the wilderness would not be able to replicate the Earth era’s vast social system and technological level. They would definitely degenerate into barbarians who eat raw meat and drink blood. It would not be of much help to the monster civilization.
“A satellite town that is self-sufficient and operates according to the laws of Earth is what the mastermind behind the monster civilization needs the most.
“As long as the mastermind is smart enough, it might not drive the monster horde to destroy an Earthling satellite town once it finds one.
“Perhaps, thinking of a way to ‘raise’ this town, as well as observe and study the Earthling society, will be more conducive to the monsters’ evolution. They can then develop a strategy that is highly targeted to destroy the entire human civilization in one fell swoop.”
The young officers were silent for a moment before they revealed expressions of sudden realization.
Their gazes were all directed at Meng Chao.
Meng Chao coughed dryly and said, “I got inspiration from Agricultural University’s practices.
“Many of Agricultural University’s departments don’t simply kill the monsters when they encounter them. Instead, they think of ways to raise and refine the monsters so that I can use their powers.
“If we encounter a large-scale monster lair in the wilderness, if the situation is not particularly critical and causing too big an obstacle to the colonization of Dragon City’s people, we won’t destroy it immediately. Instead, we quietly observe and study the monster population system. We also put in various interfering factors, observe the reaction of the monsters, and develop new tactics that are more focused.
“I think that since the human civilization treats the monsters like that, the monster civilization will very likely treat the humans in the same way.
“If there weren’t a complete human town for the monster civilization to study, they would never be so familiar with the human language, mentality, customs, and even conflicts of interests. They would never have been able to accurately attack Dragon City’s weakest link.
“Therefore, it is not surprising that a Dragon City satellite town has been here for more than half a century, appearing near the monster civilization.”
“That’s right.”
Long Feijun nodded approvingly and said, “After comprehensive analysis by the Red Dragon Army and the Abnormal Beast Research Department, they both support this conclusion.
“The monster civilization captured and raised an entire human town before it evolved from ‘an ignorant animal into a civilization’ that could compete with us. It also knew the situation of the people on Earth inside and out.
“On the other hand, if there really is an intact human town in such an unpredictable place, it proves that it must be the monster civilization’s ultimate lair.
“Because, without the protection of the monster civilization, it is impossible for a human town to survive in the Hidden Mist Domain for even a day.”
Everyone thought quickly and immediately understood and agreed with Long Feijun’s train of thought.
The Hidden Mist Domain was not an ordinary wilderness or jungle.
It was the most terrifying place in the entire Monster Mountain Range.
It was ten times scarier than Shattered Starlake, Graveyard Forest, and Raging Waves Mountain Range, where Meng Chao had fought fiercely before.
After all, the size of a satellite city was too small.
Even if it was the largest satellite city outside the main city of Dragon City, before transmigrating, it only had a few hundred thousand permanent residents.
Hundreds of thousands of people, after the chaos and disasters in the early stage of transmigrating, in addition to the lack of resources and the invasion of viruses, would be lucky if only 30,000 to 50,000 people could survive.
Thirty thousand to fifty thousand people, relying on their own strength, could survive for more than half a century in a place like the Hidden Mist Domain that could wipe out the entire army of the man-eating pomfret team and not be affected by the strange environment at all?
How was that possible?!!
“Since we have confirmed that the Hidden Mist Domain is the ultimate nest of the monster civilization, and a human town has been sealed here, even if we lose two recon squads consecutively, we will have to invest new recon forces.”
Long Feijun said, “We can not allow the mastermind of the monster civilization to hide in the depths of the fog behind Dragon City, nor can we watch as our compatriots in a town are controlled and ravaged by the monster without doing anything.
“Therefore, the Red Dragon Army shared intelligence with the Abnormal Beast Research Department and the Supernatural Tower. They sent out three more elite reconnaissance squads.”
Meng Chao nodded.
Be it Team Nine led by Lu Siya or the senior hunters of the Hunter Association, they were all powerful existences whose combat experience was not inferior to the man-eating pomfret team’s.
“Although the ‘man-eating pomfret’ team was most likely wiped out, they fulfilled their duty perfectly. They explored the terrain of the Hidden Mist Domain and analyzed the samples of the underground veins, leaving a lot of radioactive markers and transmitting critical data to the outside world.”
Long Feijun continued, “Based on the data that the ‘man-eating pomfret’ team sent back, we drew a map of some of the areas in the Hidden Mist Domain. We loaded the ‘weather interference bombs’ with the railway guns and bombarded the mountains above the crystal veins, causing a chain reaction of the magnetic field. The local microclimate was temporarily changed, and the Thunderbolts, torrential rain, floods, and debris flows were calmed down. We managed to gain a short window of time.
“The three new reconnaissance teams set off immediately. Following the footsteps of the man-eating pomfret team, they arrived at the depths of the Hidden Mist Domain successfully. They took clearer pictures and mapped more detailed data. The data will provide great support for our next strategy.”
Long Feijun pointed at the three-dimensional sand table.
The lights and shadows changed, and new pictures and videos appeared.
It was clearly visible that all the members of the Abnormal Beast Research Department’s Team Nine, including Lu Siya, were standing in front of a cluster of purple shrubs that were growing crazily and curling into a spiral.
They had brought with them automatic war machines that were ten times more powerful than the man-eating pomfret team, driven by crystals and controlled by runes.
The spiritual flames around them were even more intense than that of the man-eating pomfret team.
Many of the investigators who were exploring in the front had their feet three feet above the ground to prevent themselves from being bitten by snakes, insects, rats, and ants that were lurking in the grass. They were floating in the air, demonstrating the strength of breaking through to the Heaven Realm.
With the signpost that the man-eating pomfret team had condensed with their lives, they passed through the space wrinkling area without any danger.
They also avoided the vines that were winding around the transmission tower and turned into green giants, which were the most dangerous existences in the Hidden Mist Domain.
They only took some photos from afar.
They also found the scene where the commander of the man-eating pomfret team self-detonated.
There was no trace of human activity there anymore.
There were colorful vines, branches, shrubs, and moss everywhere as if it was a bright garden that didn’t seem real.
But Lu Siya and the other investigators had collected something incredible there.
They were cells extracted from the mucus scraped from the vines.
Under the crystal microscope that Lu Siya carried with her, it was clear that these cells had huge vacuoles and a large number of chloroplasts.
These were typical characteristics of plant cells.
But it did not have the cell walls that plant cells should have.
Instead, it was covered with a layer of flexible, translucent cell membrane made of phospholipids.
There was also a rather active centrosome.
Although it was possible that there was a centrosome in low-level plants.
However, this part swam slowly like a python. When it met a human, it would automatically erect a large number of thorns and shriek. No matter how one looked at it, it did not belong to the category of “low-level” plants.
Its cells had the characteristics of both animal and plant cells.
Such weird creatures were everywhere in the Hidden Mist Domain.
Perhaps, such cells could explain why the moss, branches, and vines that looked like plants were crazier than monsters.
However, these cells were not the focus of Lu Siya’s team’s research for the time being.
After a period of trekking, the nine teams arrived at the last coordinates of the man-eating pomfret team before they lost contact.
It was in front of the crater that seemed to have been hit by a meteorite.
In the conversation in the communication channel, the nine teams of investigators called the crater, the sinkhole.
Under the cross-shot of the holographic camera, the sinkhole was indeed as large as a sinkhole. It was deep, magnificent, and mysterious.
It was located at the foot of Mist Mountain, which was shrouded in thick mist. It was covered by a swirling sea of clouds, so when the investigators of Team Nine came to the front of the sinkhole, they thought that they had come to the shore of a white ocean.
However, the absolutely precise curved shore of the ‘white ocean’ and the signpost left by the man-eating pomfret team had aroused Lu Siya’s vigilance, and she did not step into it easily.
The sea of clouds covering the sinkhole was like the breath of an enormous primitive beast. It expanded and contracted in a very regular way, becoming thicker and thinner over and over again.
When it expanded and thinned to the limit, one could vaguely see a drop of hundreds of meters.
The sunken walls around the sinkhole were also in an absolutely precise and smooth arc.
Some of the walls were covered in a silvery-white metallic luster or a colorful glazed texture.
It was as if the rocks and crystals had all melted and solidified after being burned by extreme heat.
More of the rock walls were covered by moss, vines, and branches.
The “plants” there were growing more luxuriously and crazily than outside of the sinkhole.
The two vines hundreds of meters away might have crossed the sky and entangled with each other as if they were building intersecting bridges in the sinkhole.
The ‘intersecting bridges’ constituted the skeleton. A lot of moss, branches, and even smaller vines were climbing up and filling the skeleton into a ‘forest in the sky’ that was growing crazily in all directions in the shape of a ball.
It was also like demons extending their tentacles that were covered with ghost claws from the depths of the rock wall, holding the heads of the snakes that were dancing crazily.