Chapter 802 - 676: Tunnel

"Is there no such thing on the map?"

Several people looked at each other, Don Juan stepped forward, leaned his mouth near the space rift, and whispered, "Ah——"

The sound wave resonated through the rift, forming a resonance with the wooden wall. Don Juan listened to the feedback sound wave and shook his head after a moment, "The hardness of the wooden wall is extraordinary, and it is made of multiple composite materials, the thickness is unknown.

Fortunately, the ground below is mud, I suggest directly digging into the ground to create a tunnel."

"Let me do it."

Maxwell retracted the drone, took out more than twenty bionic mechanical beasts shaped like moles with a reverse hand, and sent them into the space rift.

Under remote control, the moles climbed down along the wooden wall, and once they touched the ground, they immediately wielded titanium alloy steel claws, digging a large hole,

then activated the magnets on their backs, attaching their backs together like a shield machine, quickly excavating a passage.

Child-sized Maxwell was the first to enter the space rift head down, carefully moving along the wooden wall, climbing into the passage.

Mei Wenyi and Divine Era Rain Prayer, with relatively smaller skeletons, followed closely behind, Gray Rain also liquefied his form and followed.

To avoid the exceptionally sturdy tree roots, the tunnel is not a straight line, but winding and twisting. Combined with the moisture, the temperature is sweltering, giving quite a sense of oppression.

"That’s a tunnel! Tick-tock the tunnel, tunnel-tunnel~"

A screeching song started playing, and Maxwell, at the front, paused when he heard the sound, couldn’t help but turning his head, "Who’s playing music, please turn it off, thank you."

"I just thought someone might have claustrophobia, wanted to lighten the mood a bit." Gray Rain muttered as he put away his phone.

"At least play something more easygoing and entertaining."

Li Cheng shook his head behind them, took out his phone, and pressed play.

"Several people are exploring an underground cave, ended up taking a wrong turn, the leader stuck in a crack head-down and couldn’t move. This desperate scene happens in Nutty Oil Gray Cave, Utah County, Utah, United States..."

Isn’t that Secret Garden?!

Better keep playing the tunnel-tunnel, then.

Maxwell’s eye twitched, silently speeding up his crawl.

Soon, everyone crawled out of the passage, dusting off the dirt.

The terrain here is open, with a dome made of an entire crystal rock layer, its interlayer flowing with hot magma, providing a continuous source of light and heat below.

And behind the hole they just crawled out from, stands a towering tree about thirty meters in diameter, over a hundred fifty meters in height,

even taller than the Earth’s largest millennium-aged American Redwood.

Its bark is rough, the leaves fan-shaped and green, the trunk is mainly split into two branches, with three roots, the top of the trunk presents the outline of an elderly face with a beard hanging down.

"Oh my, Zhou Shuren!" Gray Rain exclaimed.

"This is Hephaestus Tree-man."

Dylan explained, "They came to the Broken Land long before humans, were considered allies of humanity previously—we helped them spread seeds to spaces with light and heat conditions, they told us about the history of the Broken Land."

This Hephaestus is not referring to the superhero Hephaestus from Marvel Comics, but one of the Twelve Titans from Greek Mythology.

The largest Redwood on Earth, the Hephaestus God, also bears this name.

Divine Era Rain Prayer wasn’t really listening to what Dylan was saying, instead, stared into the distance, carefully examined the map photocopy, repeatedly comparing, and said solemnly, "The next rift is blocked."

The two rifts on the map aren’t far apart, right under the right foot of the Tree-man, completely covered by chaotic growing vine papers. Even digging through won’t suffice.

"Other expedition teams passed by here a few months ago, it was normal, suggesting this Tree-man came here from another place recently."

Dylan’s microphone voice sounded a bit hesitant, said, "Tree-men’s sleep lasts several days to weeks, if it doesn’t work, I suggest returning the way we came,

following another path to the station."

"That’s too much of a waste of time."

Maxwell decisively shook his head, the other path has places like the duct, the infinity pool, neither vehicles nor flying tools can cross them.

As for this Tree-man...

Maxwell hesitated a bit, such a massive weight without collapsing under its own pressure, able to stroll, has at least Level 30 strength.

"Should we take action?"

Gouchen flicked the sword blade lightly with a fingernail, the blade vibrated with a hum.

"No, try to communicate first."

Maxwell turned to look at Mei Wenyi, the latter understood, found the Floating Technique Scroll from the backpack, tore it open, and floated in mid-air sitting on clouds.

"Honorable Hephaestus Tree-man Sir,"

Mei Wenyi said aloud, "Please wake up!"

"..."

The Tree-man’s face, made of tree bark and vine, slowly opened its eyes, Mei Wenyi seized the opportunity, "We are an expedition team from the Execution Committee, possessing important information regarding recent earthquake reasons in the Broken Land,

needs to return to the base immediately.

Could you please move slightly to allow us through the rift?"

The voice was crisp and pleasant, imbued with magic power.

Long before, Mei Wenyi had mastered a passive skill called [Unparalleled Charm], naturally adding 40 affinity points.

The maximum affinity is 100 points, and combined with trinkets, active skills, titles, traits, and more, it’s a breeze to stack it up to 90 points.

How exaggerated is it? Even if Mei Wenyi were to shoot and kill an innocent eighty-year-old grandmother walking her dog, with undeniable evidence,

the jury would first suspect whether the grandmother was using the dog for drug trafficking.

Seeing the Shuren still silent, Mei Wenyi said loudly, "The information we have is really important; it concerns the destruction of the entire Broken Land..."

"Destruction, is it important?"

Suddenly, the Shuren spoke, his voice deep and wrathful under the Doppler effect, the sound waves almost blowing Mei Wenyi away, "My race is destined for extinction, with no offspring, no future. What difference does it make if we die early or late?!"

The Shuren’s three large legs were shaking and trembling, causing the earth to rise and fall, the abundant branches quivering and shedding countless leaves and pollen.

Don Juan steadied himself and thought with amazement, ’Whose house’s Hashirama Senju is this.’

Li Cheng caught onto the phrase "no offspring" in the Shuren’s words, and while using the floating engine to lift a large chunk of soil to avoid the earthquake,

he opened Zhu Youdong’s notes to find relevant content.

Sure enough, the Hephaestus Tree-men reproduce heterosexually, and twenty years ago, the last female Hephaestus Tree-men died of old age. All of the life born before then were male tree-men,

leading to a race in irreversible extinction, and since then they have not wished to communicate with the outside world.

Divine Era Rain Prayer glimpsed at the note’s content and instinctively said, "’Treebeard’ from The Lord of the Rings?"

"The situation is similar but not the same."

Li Cheng shook his head and said, "The male tree-men in The Lord of the Rings are called Ents, standing at most five meters tall. Female tree-men are called tree wives. Ents love forests, tree wives love flowers and plants.

After their homeland farm was destroyed by Soron, the tree wives lost heart and traveled far away, leaving no traces. This caused Ent tree-men to face extinction.

But here, the situation with the Hephaestus Tree-men is more like ESD."

Divine Era Rain Prayer paused, "ESD?"

"Environmental Sex Determination,"

Li Cheng said: "It refers to the early development of embryos being influenced by factors such as temperature, lighting, and nutritional status, leading to changes in sex."

"There is such a pattern."

Maxwell’s eyes flickered as he found relevant documents in Prometheus’s database, "For example, red-eared turtle embryos will be male at an ambient temperature of 26°C and female at 31°C;

Brine shrimp embryos will be male with short-term lighting and female with long-term lighting."

"Exactly,"

Li Cheng nodded and said: "The notes say that since the tree-men came to the Broken Land until the last female tree-men died of old age, all the newborn tree-men during that period were male,

leading to an inability to reproduce and a functional extinction of the species,

It is likely due to the Broken Land lacking certain environmental factors present in the Shuren tribe’s homeland,

such as specific wavelengths of light, specific insect-mediated pollination, or even rare elements in particular soil."

"So what now? He has no desires or demands; how do we persuade him to relocate?"

Don Juan scratched his head. He wasn’t afraid of fighting; a few Level 30s, plus Pifu, this exceptional being, could still take down a Level 33-equivalent Hephaestus Tree-man,

only it would waste a lot of Spiritual Power Value and skill CD.

"Let’s try negotiating first."

Li Cheng held the floating engine and flew to a high place, pulled out a loudspeaker, and shouted: "hello, Mr. Tree?

Please calm down, I am a doctor, here to help you."

In front of the towering tree 150 meters high, the human form was barely larger than a cockroach, so Li Cheng specially changed into a white coat and applied reflective strips on his body.

Hephaestus Tree-man paused, squinted, and asked in a low voice, "Who are you?"

This is bad.

The surface’s Gouchen felt a sinking feeling, knowing from his understanding of Pifu (his brother Zhongtian Beiji forced him to watch every episode of Pifu’s strategies repeatedly); there is bound to be some trickery here.

Sure enough, Li Cheng laughed loudly three times and said openly: "Who am I?

Slum District Seven’s affordable and honest Store of the Year for two consecutive years, the Star-casting Anvil President, and Chief Physician,

for publishing three heavyweight medical papers in S.H.I.T titled "Research on the Targeted Killing Effects of 155mm Shell Loaded with Trinitrotoluene on Cancer Cells",

"Lofty Hemorrhoids - Application of Compression Drawing Technique Based on Hemorrhoidal Venous Plexus Contour Analysis in Cake Decoration",

"Can You Outrun Me, Do You Believe It - Hemodynamic Modeling of Marathon Runner Myocardial Infarction",

awarded the highest honor in Slum Medical Health System - the Cao Cao Award.

The more people a doctor dies, the more skilled they become, known as the god-killer who brings the dead to life and snatches souls from the Netherworld Chasing Soul in the underworld."

Spitting out this long spiel in fifteen seconds, the Hephaestus Tree-man didn’t understand a bit, staring blankly, "What?"

"In short, I’m here to help you."

Li Cheng rubbed his palms together, smiling: "Your race’s problem now is that you can’t have children, right?"