Chapter 488

Chapter 488: The Tree of Life

A giant scythe taller than a person swung in the hands of the young lady, as if scooping out small pieces of pudding with a spoon, easily scraping away layers of rock and soil, opening up a brand new passage that led straight underground.

After descending nearly a kilometer, an open space appeared before the two of them. They then jumped out, landing in this dark space.

Several glowing orbs floated up from the ground, illuminating the high ceiling. Giant stalactites hung down from the sky, making this a natural cavern.

The two continued forward, and another deep red worm appeared in their field of vision, which Lolan Hill easily dealt with.

This demonic beast wasn’t particularly powerful; it was just that the environment they were in and their own abilities made it difficult for ordinary people to handle.

Thus, using the cavern as a shortcut, Lolan Hill sensed the approximate positions of these worms, quickly dealing with them. Eventually, the underground world fell silent under her perception.

“Is there anything else, Sage?” Mira extended her hands, a ball of white fire forming in her palms, which she then used to incinerate the worm in front of her into ashes.

“For now, no,” Lolan Hill shook her head. But at this moment, she discovered something new: a long, narrow passage leading deeper underground. It seemed to be the place where the worms had emerged.

Should they go and take a look? She didn’t really want to see something too bizarre, so she hesitated momentarily. After all, in her past life, she never watched horror movies or disgusting films, and she had a natural aversion to anything alien.

In the end, she decided to go and take a look. Otherwise, if a mine disaster were to occur, it would be bad. If necessary, she could simply burn everything to the ground.

She enveloped herself and Mira in a crystal-like dome, and the two of them leaped into the passage, sliding down like on a slide, their speed increasing rapidly.

After turning through countless twists and turns and clearing several blocked areas, the crystal dome finally stopped at a pitch-black spot.

Mira stood up, baring her teeth. She had suffered quite a bit of jostling along the way and couldn’t adjust as flexibly as Lolan Hill, making her feel very uncomfortable.

“Where are we?”

She leaned against the wall beside her, and with a rustle, some sand and debris fell off, startling her and causing her to jump up. With one hand open, a burning white flame appeared in her palm.

A corner of a ruined structure came into view, and the walls seemed to be made of metal, though they had corroded and rusted over a long period of time, becoming fragile and loose.

Even in such a decaying setting, Lolan Hill was still astounded.

The massive wall above the doorway, even though the paint had peeled off and was in tatters, still revealed a grand figure.

It was a huge outline of an oak tree, with many fruit patterns within it. The trunk and fruits faintly showed neat digits and letters. At the bottom was a familiar line of English letters. The entire figure was encircled by intricate concentric circles, blending grandeur and simplicity in a harmonious way.

[Tree of Life · Third Reserve Area]

She barely recognized the meaning of the letters at the bottom. Without a doubt, this was a relic from the previous generation of humans, and it was more likely a remnant from the Twilight Era.

The main entrance of the relic was sealed, but there was a small hole in the adjacent wall, through which the worms seemed to have escaped.

Gently touching the rusted door, Lolan Hill’s eyes flickered with lines of text. Her system began a comprehensive scan and analysis of the relic.

Scanning… 2%… 6%… 13%

This place seemed to contain many things, and the system’s scanning progress was unusually slow.

After a long while, the progress bar in Lolan Hill’s eyes finally reached 100%, and the results slowly appeared.

Analyzing…

Analysis complete. Results as follows:

[Produced approximately 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, roughly during the middle period of the Twilight Era.]

[The relic contains three templates for cultivating extraordinary sequences, but they are very primitive.]

[The system lacks information about this era, requiring the host to analyze it themselves.]

[The structure has severe corrosion and oxidation. Extreme caution is needed when exploring, and nothing should be touched.]

Having confirmed there was no danger, Lolan Hill said to Mira, “Wait here for me. I’ll go in and take a look.”

“Alright, Sage.” Although being alone was a bit scary, Mira nodded solemnly, not wanting to drag anyone down due to her own whims.

A light blue wind ball gently enveloped Lolan Hill, lifting her up slowly, then flying through the small hole into the vast relic.

Wires, pipes, glass panels, dim screens—everything was in ruins. Tiny blue fluorescent orbs floated around Lolan Hill, observing this highly technological ruin, as if walking on Earth in the past.

The familiar indicator letters, warning signs, and arranged keyboard screens were both strange and familiar. They had changed somewhat from what the young lady remembered, but traces of the past could still be found.

Indeed, it was hard to forget, she thought to herself, her body like a blue fish slowly advancing in the dark ruins.

Lolan Hill’s system database contained records from the early Twilight Era, but the history from the middle and later periods seemed to be missing entirely. Only scattered other data remained, and those records indicated a much later time. By then, humans had already reached their end under the influence of the Echka Path.

Floating through a long corridor, she carefully opened a tight door, trying not to disturb the surrounding structures. Then, the fluorescent orbs floated in, like fireflies, illuminating rows of tall cultivation tanks, most of which were damaged, though a few were still intact, but completely dark inside.

Lolan Hill cautiously sensed the area, but found no signs of life. Disappointed, she swam past, and apart from collapsed instruments and metal structures, there were no bones visible on the ground.

If this place was built during the twilight period, where did the people inside go? She wondered, which was also a mystery that many Ivar scholars couldn’t understand.

Compared to her memory of the sci-fi style, the architectural style here was much softer, as if blending technology and nature. Curves were often used instead of sharp corners.

As she drifted slowly through the ruins, she flipped through rooms, seeing the living environment of people from that era, including dormitories, dining halls, meeting rooms, laboratories, and experimental halls. Finally, she arrived at the center of the ruins, the deepest part, where there was a towering pillar.

The central pillar resembled a huge tree trunk, and according to the system’s data, it should be an ancient nuclear fusion device providing energy.

Even after tens of thousands of years, the inscriptions carved on the trunk remained clear, resembling both wood and metal.

On the high ceiling, golden droplet-shaped spheres hung down from the air, some still hanging, others having fallen to the ground, revealing fossilized skeletons inside.

Some seemed to be wild beasts, others birds, and some were almost humanoid.

Only here did Lolan Hill finally see remnants of bones.

Unfortunately, these couldn’t be touched; any slight touch or airflow might cause them to vanish.

After scanning, the only light point displayed in the system appeared in Lolan Hill’s vision, right in the central pillar.

She approached cautiously, her fingernails faintly glowing blue. As a faint trace of light swept across the surface of the pillar, a square piece was peeled off, exposing something at the heart of the tree.

It seemed to be some kind of storage device, tightly wrapped in wood, as if it had become part of the tree itself.

She extracted the tiny disk from the heart of the tree, on which were etched microscopic characters that hadn’t decayed even after tens of thousands of years.

[Created by the Alapha Mechanical Parliament on October 11, 3782 AD, presented to the friendly Tree of Life Sect, celebrating the second renaissance of humanity.]

Can the information be read? Lolan Hill asked the system, though this system, though not very intelligent, had basic functionalities.

[Parsing, requires input of power to activate.]

Activate? Lolan Hill’s fingers spread a faint trace of natural sequence magic, then vanished.

Was it insufficient? Carefully continuing to channel magic, a light green pattern appeared on the disk, then slightly trembled, floating slowly in the air. A special rhythmic vibration emanated from the disk, as if calling out something.

Sadly, in the washing of time, all calls were in vain. Finally, it seemed to exhaust itself, falling back into Lolan Hill’s hand, at which point it resumed emitting light.

Memories from a distant time surged into the young lady’s mind.

(End of Chapter)