Capítulo 1194: Chapter 98: Hidden in Darkness, Bright as Mithril (Part 4)
The little worm erged from the ground as if it had no physical entity, crawling slowly on the asphalt road. Its movents were unhurried, not only burning away small items like shredded paper and cigarette butts on the road but also quietly scorching the road itself, leaving a charred crawling trace beneath it.
Within the blink of an eye, more than a dozen of such worms appeared, occupying most of the road in front of the Spencer couple’s house. Looking around, the entire street was filled with writhing red; Gongsun Ce guessed that a similar scene might exist in front of every household at this mont.
Just ten seconds after the worms appeared, a rapid bell rang out on the street, followed by a broadcast that sounded exactly like a community committee aunt: “It’s Molten Rock Worm ti now, please cooperate with pest control, be careful not to get burned.”
Mr. Reya and Mrs. Alpholda of the Spencer couple walked to their front yard; Mr. Reya brought a black stone fra that looked like a fruit basket, while Mrs. Alpholda wielded a strange weapon similar to tongs. She swiftly pinched up a worm and knocked it forcefully against the stone fra. With a dull thud, the Molten Rock Worm’s eyes closed, and it stopped moving. She casually tossed the worm into the stone fra and began handling the next one.
“These are Molten Rock Worms,” Mr. Reya explained to the curious Gongsun Ce standing beside him. “On certain days, during the transition from day to night, they would drill out from underground and crawl sluggishly on the ground. They’ll burn up anything combustible on the road, and could even trigger a Fire Wind, so we must routinely handle them— it doesn’t take long, usually no more than ten minutes.”
The stone fra was already more than half filled, and Gongsun Ce’s expression was stiff: “Is the disposal thod to treat them as reserve food…?”
“So environntalists will release them back into the Fuel Pit, but we prefer to make jerky or roast them to eat. Crack open the shell, sprinkle so salt and pepper, and they taste quite good.”
In the subsequent conversation, Gongsun Ce learned that these worms are completely harmless when underground, and do not even damage underground pipelines as they rise to the surface; it’s only on the surface that they beco these foolish burners. As he looked at the slow-moving worms, he couldn’t shake the feeling of being unsettled, though he couldn’t pinpoint why.
“Doesn’t it resemble the Fuel Pit?” Yan Qi snickered. Without waiting for Gongsun Ce to respond, he turned and called out, “Co on out, fire-spitting girl!”
“Huh? You guys working on a special project has nothing to do with , right?”
Kardesia looked bewildered, but Yan Qi had already walked off on his own. She quickly told her parents she was going for a post-dinner walk and tugged Shiyu Lianyi, who was washing dishes, to follow her closely.
The four of them left the small building and after taking a few steps, Yan Qi wordlessly made a Seal. The next mont, a hot current roared, and the uncomfortable dryness made them unconsciously purse their lips; beneath their feet, the bright red flas surged like a sea of blood from hell. Without warning, they appeared in the center of lt Valley City, standing above that crack splitting the earth open.
Yan Qi suddenly asked, “The Fuel Pit lies safely underground; it ignites upon eting the wind and explodes when reaching the surface. Why then does lt Valley City, built upon this fire, remain safe?”
Kardesia replied without thinking: “The state governnt invested in constructing a high-precision air filtration and circulation system that can accurately filter the floating wind…”
“Nonsense!” Yan Qi sneered, “lt Valley City has a history of nearly six hundred years, and there have been inhabitants around the rift for thousands more. Where was any advanced technology at that ti?”
“Uh…”
Kardesia turned and hid behind her boyfriend, giving him an encouraging look. Shiyu Lianyi bowed his head and stared into the bottomless rift, lost in thought.
“Is it an expansion of the definition? The Fuel Pit is safe while underground, the underground being ‘below the surface’. If you forcefully excavate an extrely deep rift with the Fuel Pit, then this nearby area can be considered ‘below the ground surface’… Combined with the city’s architectural planning, it creates an expanded Array, thus ensuring the safety of lt Valley City.”
“Your brain hasn’t gone to waste,” Yan Qi nodded approvingly, and then asked, “The Fire Wind State is vast, its land size is equivalent to that of two regular states, why not build a Floating City in the stable sky and instead take great pains to settle on the ground?”
“To utilize the Fuel Pit…”
Gongsun Ce barely finished saying it before feeling sothing was wrong. If it were rely to utilize natural resources, they could’ve easily developed excavation areas around the rift while building the city itself in a much safer location. A place like Cold Steel State, with its fierce populace, managed to create Burning Steel City, but there’s no reason for a cultural and political center like the Fire Wind State to do the sa. If there’s another purpose to building a city in a dangerous area…
He flew upwards, high enough to see the entirety of the city from above. This ti, Gongsun Ce saw a fiery “network”, originating from the city center’s great rift and extending out in five directions, with countless nerve-like thin branches growing from each main road, covering the entire lt Valley City. This network was alive; its fiery red color composed of the Molten Rock Worms erging from below the ground, and yet it was dim because the worms were being rapidly exterminated by the city. Residents cleaned up the worms at their doorsteps with weapons, while a drone squad efficiently eliminated them in the city center.
Within a few minutes, the Molten Rock Worm network nearly disappeared entirely. As Kardesia looked at her familiar hotown, an unexpected chill ran through her.
She murmured to herself, “Why does that network remind of the Skill Mr. Will once used?”
The three of them suddenly recalled the ti when Weiyuan City floated into the sky, and Agent Will used a grand Skill to anchor the entire city; the silver chains were eerily similar to the current scene in lt Valley City. Yan Qi raised his chin and smirked, “Where do you think that Skill is hidden?”
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