Volume 3: Deep Blue Sea
Watching the three-leaved grass meticulously sketching each stroke in front of the corpse, everyone remained silent, pretending not to notice the leaf discreetly fixing the crooked strokes after finishing. After completing the writing, the three-leaved grass shook its leaves and then poked the youth behind it. After the poke, it raised its leaves, seemingly waiting for praise. However, after waiting for a while, it didn’t receive the warm touch it was anticipating.
Looking at the scene before them, everyone finally understood where the pride and warmth in the eyes of the youth, who had been dead for a long time, came from. At the moment when you exerted all your efforts to protect the Xuanqiu city and the wooden spirits within the city, at the moment when your life was about to end and fall into endless darkness, the little grass you protected persistently came to you. It used its tender leaves to write down a protective vow, a promise to await your return. How could you not be proud? How could you not feel warmth? Because of this promise, because of this warmth, facing death also carried a warmth, dispersing the chilling emptiness.
The leaves of the three-leaved grass slowly drooped down and then stood still in front of the youth’s corpse. The three-leaved grass had no tears, but at this moment, a substantial sadness slowly wafted through. Just as the leaves of the three-leaved grass were about to touch the ground, a slender hand, as delicate as jade, gently brushed over the grass. The grass was slightly pressed down, maintaining this posture for a few seconds, and then it touched the place where it was brushed with its leaves.
The grass stood still for a few more seconds. Afterward, from the top of the leaves, a drop of sparkling emerald green dew slowly slid down along the leaf veins. That was the grass’s tear, falling heavily onto the soil, landing on the crooked and twisted writing, creating a small moist trace, drop by drop.
After a moment, the three-leaved grass finally stopped shedding tears, floated up into the air, and flew to Shu Xun’s side. It vigorously rubbed its leaves against Shu Xun’s cheek, not satisfied after rubbing several times. In the end, it used two leaves to embrace Shu Xun’s face, seemingly with a tendency to hang on there. However, eventually, Ye Qian expressionlessly pulled the grass down.
The pulled-down three-leaved grass didn’t mind. It joyfully circled around the youth’s corpse, flying back and forth. The sorrow of the three-leaved grass came fast and left fast. In the long time of Xuanqiu’s destruction, they still treated it gently. They diligently cleaned the vast Xuanqiu city, maintaining the state of all the doors and windows in the city always free from dust. They could be satisfied like a child with a little comfort or admonished like an elder to a disobedient child. They buried all the sorrow in their hearts, bathed in the sunlight every day, and strived to grow up.
Outside the city, in the boundless wilderness, countless green grass fluttered gently. The petite three-leaved grass before their eyes was just one of many. It was both special and ordinary, unique due to its rare persistence and belief, yet ordinary because of the millions of others guarding without leaving.
Ling Yang obviously couldn’t be as optimistic as the three-leaved grass. Witnessing the extinction of a powerful race undoubtedly added another layer of weight to the planet’s demise. Similarly, it also added weight to the possibility of the extinction of the Spirit Tides tribe. “Xuanqiu has been destroyed, then what about the Earth and Spirit Tides tribes? Is that why I can’t find my people?”
Feeling a gentle weight on his shoulder, Meng Muyu raised his hand to comfort and patted Ling Yang’s small head. “Worrying leads to confusion. The Xuanqiu clan should still exist, just in a different form.” Ling Yang lifted his small head, looked at Meng Muyu, and then decisively shifted his gaze to Shu Xun, evidently placing more trust in Shu Xun.
Meng Muyu smiled helplessly and also looked at Shu Xun.
Shu Xun nodded slightly, pointing to the light cluster on the heart of the three-leaved grass. “Protecting within the heart of the grass is not just talk. If the spiritual power of the Xuanqiu clan has evolved to the extent that it can detach from the physical body, leaving a trace of spiritual power to form a grass heart is understandable. Moreover, there’s the protection of the three-leaved grass and even the assistance of the Earth tribe.”
“Earth?” Ling Yang’s eyes lit up.
“The sanctuary we initially entered, which is the resting place of the Xuanqiu clan, those miniature glass coffins are enveloped in white light, floating in mid-air. The corpses there are evidently from the Xuanqiu clan who died naturally. In other words, unless something unexpected happens, the spiritual bodies of the Xuanqiu clan form pure white light clusters. However, the light cluster on the heart of the three-leaved grass, besides the emerald green, also has a dark golden halo. In the battle outside Xuanqiu City, the Xuanqiu clan had the power to fight, and there is even a high possibility that all the clan members joined the battle. Faced with an overwhelmingly powerful enemy, the Xuanqiu clan must have given their all and wouldn’t have left any room for themselves to create some vitality. So, in the end, what saved the Xuanqiu clan was the three-leaved grass. As written, though the grass is small, it can control the wood spirit. What is the wood spirit? When the three-leaved grass wrote, the surrounding grass spontaneously bent, revealing the ground. Therefore, the wood spirit likely refers to plants. The five elements—wood, fire, earth, metal, and water—correspond to the five colors: green, red, yellow, white, and black. Wood corresponds to the color green. The spiritual bodies of plants are mostly green. Therefore, the three-leaved grass wrapped and fused the last trace of the Xuanqiu clan’s spiritual power in the grass heart.”
“The writing mentions that it cannot accompany you to fight, indicating that the power of the three-leaved grass is limited, perhaps unable to single-handedly protect the entire spiritual body of Xuanqiu. So, outside the green light cluster, there is a layer of dark golden light. If there are only four intelligent life forms in this world—Spirit Tides, Earth, Xuanqiu, and the three-leaved grass—then the golden light probably comes from the Earth tribe. Maybe after the Xuanqiu clan’s demise, the Earth and Spirit Tides tribes came here. Even the circular barrier above our heads might be the work of the Earth tribe. The metallic-looking sphere should come from the Earth tribe as well. Afterward, some other events occurred, leading to the disappearance of the Spirit Tides and Earth tribes.” Shu Xun systematically explained his speculation in a way that everyone could understand.
Ling Yang’s eyes brightened more as Shu Xun explained. “I completely didn’t connect the previous resting place with all this. Besides this, did you discover any other clues? I have a strong intuition that as long as you’re here, we can definitely find the complete truth and locate my people!”
Shu Xun flashed a rare and confident smile, his eyes carrying a seldom-seen self-assured sharpness. “Of course.” He raised his hand and pointed to his eyes. “There are no secrets in my eyes!”
In the face of Shu Xun’s rarely revealed confidence, everyone felt a brightening in their surroundings. Since their first meeting, Shu Xun, in his humanoid form, always gave off a gentle and soothing vibe, making interactions exceptionally comfortable. However, this also came with a subtle sense of distance, as if one couldn’t grasp it no matter how much they tried. Now, the suddenly sharp look from the gentle youth made people realize that twenty years of time could smooth a person’s edges, but it could also allow a gentleman to hide his sharpness, keeping it restrained.
Shu Xun’s voice continued, that gentle yet confident tone involuntarily stirring everyone’s spirits. “The survival of the three-leaved grass and the Xuanqiu clan transformed into the grass heart indirectly implies a point. The invaders faced obstruction or interference, giving Spirit Tides and Earth the time to investigate everything. This interference point is likely the cause of the world’s end—the change in atmospheric oxygen concentration. The variation in oxygen concentration, affecting the evolution of planetary life forms, likely also had an impact on the invaders. Hence, the invaders’ progress was delayed, leading to an alternative approach—submerging the continents in the ocean. However, the continents still exist, indicating that their plan was not an outright success and also suffered interference.”
“The invaders faced continuous interference, and now, the planet and the invaders may have reached a critical point. It remains to be seen who will fall first. Our arrival on this planet is quite coincidental and fortunate because currently, both the planet and the invaders are preoccupied, making this period the safest for us. It must be said that the decision to start the public beta of ‘Deep Blue Sea’ one month early was very correct. Of course, time is running out now, as the last piece of land is about to be submerged.”
In the live stream room, the extreme brain-burning mode had been activated. Keeping up with Shu Xun’s thoughts was not difficult, but the challenge lay in reasoning before Shu Xun revealed the answers.
“Shu Xun has said so much, but it seems of little use. There are still no clues about the invaders!”
“At least, we now know the order of the world’s destruction and that the invaders have been restrained.”
“But we still haven’t deduced where the Spirit Tides tribe and the Earth tribe are currently, let alone any trace of the invaders.”
“The person above is ready to be proven wrong. Don’t ask me how I know.”
Meanwhile, Shu Xun continued. “Why would a change in oxygen concentration affect the invaders? The explosion of life implies biological evolution, involving not only the gigantic size but also the evolution of spiritual power. Submerging the land in the ocean leads to massive loss of life, and thought is also a form of spiritual power, albeit at a lower level. Once a creature dies, its thoughts vanish, and its spiritual power weakens. So, the impact on the invaders is essentially on their spiritual power. Both the Blue Butterfly and the Xuanqiu tribe are races during high spiritual power evolution. Similarly, their bodies remain intact, but their spiritual power is severely damaged or even vanished. This indicates that the invaders’ target is also spiritual power.”
“Are the invaders still on the planet? If they are, where could they be hiding?” Ling Yang pondered for a brief moment, then suddenly thought of the deep abyss in the ocean that he couldn’t venture into. The roaming giant sea serpents there were too fierce, and he had never successfully approached. “Are they in the depths of the sea?”
“Yes, actually, it’s quite easy to guess the invaders’ location, but extremely difficult to access. Remember those disappeared spacecraft? If even superluminal warships can’t escape the powerful gravity of this planet, then the invaders within the planet might have been instantly drawn into the depths of the sea and thus restricted. Consider this: during the night, the sea appears azure and underwater fish go into a frenzy of predation, forming a cascade of events. So, the bottom layer, which is the most ferocious underwater biosphere, can be understood as the most robust underwater cage, a prison built with countless lives! ”
