Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Meng Chao and the exploration team set up a circle of firing points near the transmigration portal, forming a small jungle fortress.
They also planted a large number of mines outside the fortress.
Last time, one of Lu Siya’s small teams had also mysteriously disappeared behind the minefield.
This time, in addition to the mines, they also installed a large number of time-delayed crystal bombs.
Such bombs required the humans to send a safety signal every once in a while in order to delay the detonation time.
In the event that something bad happened to them, the bombs would automatically detonate. They would then released smoke produced by the friction of the crystal powder, which would provide the most eye-catching fire guidance for the railway guns that were dozens of kilometers away.
After everything was done, Long Feijun and Meng Chao deployed a batch of the most elite exploration team members and set off with nearly a hundred Bread Crabs and Peregrine Falcons.
It was because the man-eating pomfret team and Lu Siya’s team had already mapped most of the terrain in the Hidden Mist Domain and left a lot of signposts that contained special radioactivity.
The third wave of the exploration team advanced very smoothly. They did not get lost in the spatial gaps or encounter ferocious monsters.
The Green Tides on both sides of the mountain path seemed to be in deep sleep and did not move at all. They turned a blind eye to the intruders.
However, the dead silence was scraping everyone’s cerebral cortex like a cold scalpel, especially when the ten exploration teams were approaching the sinkhole from different directions.
The uneasiness in Meng Chao’s and Long Feijun’s hearts was even more intense.
“Senior Brother Long, do you feel that our operation has gone too smoothly?”
Meng Chao could no longer hold it in and spoke in a low voice. “If this is really a ‘natural laboratory’ of the monster civilization’s mastermind, they should have at least arrange some spies and guards here to create some trouble for us, right?
“A hundred-legged insect will never be vanquished. Although the monsters have been defeated by us on all fronts in the past half-year, the remaining ones are still a force that cannot be underestimated. If we really rely on the barren mountains and rivers, the Green Tides, and the Blood Flowers in the Hidden Mist Domain to stubbornly resist, things will become really difficult.
“Why? According to the map, we are almost at the heart of the monster civilization—the mysterious sinkhole. Yet, there is still no movement around us
“It has indeed been a little too smooth. When we fight, we are most afraid of the unknown monsters that we have never seen before, not the ferocious ones. The unknown is the most troublesome part.”
Long Feijun frowned. “However, we can’t turn around and run away just because our operation’s been too smooth, can we?”
Of course, it was impossible.
Besides, the ten exploration teams had marched straight in and mapped a lot of the terrain. They had discovered the direction, reserves, and composition of many crystal veins, as well as many dense trees and Green Tides. They were all targets of strategic value. Their trip had not been in vain.
No matter how many plots the monster civilization was hiding, they would be annihilated under the humans’ bombardment. The Earthlings were just that simple and brutal.
While the two of them were mumbling, the Bread Crab that was leading the way suddenly flashed with green light.
It was a signal that they were arriving at their destination.
They passed through a few trees that were growing at an angle, their branches intertwined together like an arch and their vines hanging down like a curtain. Following that, the front suddenly opened up, and the mysterious crater rushed into their field of vision without any warning.
Gasp…
Like all the other members of the exploration team, Meng Chao could not help but take a deep breath.
After trekking in the dark, damp, and cramped forest for too long, the human mind would gradually become plagued by claustrophobia.
When one suddenly saw the sinkhole that was surrounded by clouds and mist, it was like a vast blue lake with boundless mist and water. The visual impact was indeed refreshing.
However, the lake surrounded by mountains was often more terrifying than the deep sea.
Not to mention, it was not even a lake.
It was a sinkhole that contained the monster civilization’s ultimate secret.
Among the surrounding mountains, there was a strong wind that was akin to a wild beast all year round.
When the strong wind blew away the clouds and mist, one could vaguely see the swaying “jungle in the sky” hanging at the center of the sinkhole.
In addition to the lush green moss, lichen, and fungus blankets, there were also a lot of colorful flowers and fruits growing in the jungle.
However, all the plants were particularly bright in color, so bright that it was as though they would rot if they were injected with inferior pigments.
If one did not know about the Green Tide’s background, the scene might have given one a feeling of vitality.
However, when they thought of the deep jungle, where the bones of hundreds of millions of monsters were likely piled up, the explorers could not help but feel thirsty and shudder.
It was because clouds and mist kept pouring out of Mist Mountain behind the sinkhole, blocking their vision and disrupting their surveying instruments.
They could not see the situation on the other side of the sinkhole or measure the circumference, diameter, and depth of the sinkhole.
Nevertheless, the wind would occasionally blow away the clouds and mist, and the arc of the crater could be seen.
The crater was not straight up and down, rather, it looked like a semicircle.
That was consistent with the characteristics of a meteorite impact.
Meanwhile, the exploration team found some crystal-clear, glazed rocks at the edge of the crater. They were probably the product of melting different crystals and metal veins under extremely high temperatures and pressure.
“So, this is a meteorite crater?” Meng Chao asked the geological expert in the exploration team.
“It’s very strange. This crater fits all the features of a meteorite crater, but…”
The geological expert typed rapidly on the military computer, assembling and calculating a large number of parameters. The data and curves on the screen were getting richer and richer, while his frown was getting deeper and deeper.
“There are two things that are very strange. First, the meteorite is too big,” the geologist said as he shook his head and analyzed.
Meng Chao and Long Feijun looked at each other and continued to ask, “What’s the problem with the meteorite being too big?”
“There’s a problem.”
The geologist pushed the computer screen to the two of them, “Although we can’t precisely measure the diameter and depth of the crater, we can estimate the approximate size and mass of the meteorite that caused the crater. We can do this based on the relative distance between us and the other nine exploration teams as well as the arc of the crater.
“The problem is, the meteorite passed through the sea of stars, was captured by the planet’s gravity, passed through the atmosphere, and finally hit the surface of the planet. Its speed must have been extremely fast.
“When I input our estimations of the meteorite’s minimum mass and minimum speed into the computer, the resulting impact power shows that it is ten times greater than the impact of the meteorite that destroyed the dinosaurs on Earth.
“Please note that the size of the Other World and Earth is the same, and the composition of the atmosphere, the thickness of the crust, and the laws of plate movement are not too different. A meteorite impact that is ten times more powerful than the impact of the dinosaurs can be described as a ‘world-ending crisis.’ It would certainly bring profound changes to the terrain thousands of kilometers away, or even tens of thousands of kilometers away.
“Although the terrain from the Hidden Mist Domain to Monster Mountain Range is broken and uneven, compared with the mass and speed of the meteorite, the impact is still too small. Too small.”
Meng Chao and Long Feijun were confused. “So, why was the impact of the meteorite reduced?”
“The impact of a meteorite on a planet is determined by its speed and mass.”
The geologist said, “If the mass of a meteorite is about the same as what we’ve estimated, its speed should be far from what we’ve imagined. It didn’t fall from outer space but from a very close place.”
“Well, I only studied martial arts in university. Can you explain it more plainly?” Meng Chao asked humbly.
“For instance, it fell from a near-earth orbit.”
The geologist said, “In that case, it’s understandable that the impact force would be reduced.”
“Near-earth orbit…”
Meng Chao and Long Feijun looked up at the sky together.
The sky was firmly covered by the gray mist.
It was like an invisible iron wall that separated the planet and space in the atmosphere.
Dragon City had traveled for more than half a century.
However, they could not launch manned spaceships and deep space exploration satellites and launch some weather balloons that were higher than the atmosphere. Even so, with Earth’s space exploration ability and the Dragon City civilization’s well-equipped military facilities, which they had before they traveled, it was still possible for them to have technical reserves.
Unfortunately, all the weather balloons, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, and small disposable rockets launched by Dragon City had been blocked, killed, and destroyed by some mysterious force before they could break out of the atmosphere.
Battle God Lei Zongchao had told Meng Chao that he once tried to use magnetic levitation power to float all the way up. It was an attempt to use his Deity Realm powers to break out of this planet called the Other World and see its full appearance from outer space.
With Lei Zongchao’s cultivation, the low temperature, lack of oxygen, and radiation above the atmosphere did not pose a fatal obstacle.
Despite that, when he reached the edge of the atmosphere, he was blocked by a mysterious force.
That force was more terrifying than any Apocalyptic Beast he had ever encountered.
Lei Zongchao’s exact words were, “It swatted me down like I was a fly.”
Until now, the outer layer of the Other World’s atmosphere was still a restricted area for Earthlings.
Launching satellites into geosynchronous orbit and setting up man-made facilities was even more whimsical.
In Meng Chao’s memory fragments of his previous life, there were only a few powerful lifeforms known as “gods and demons of the Other World.” They could freely shuttle between the inner and outer layers of the atmosphere.
However, according to the geologist, a long time ago, some kind of power had thrown a huge meteorite down from the synchronous orbit outside the Other World’s atmosphere, creating this sinkhole?
Such a scene was too vast. Just thinking about it made one’s mind waver.
Meng Chao took a deep breath, calmed down, and asked, “What else? You said there were two strange things. What’s the second one?”
“Second, we found a large number of geological features at the edge of the crater,” the geologist said.
Meng Chao was confused. “Wait, is this a meteorite crater or a volcanic one?”
“I don’t know.”
The geologist slowly shook his head. “Energy that falls from the sky and the energy that gushes out from the ground bring about completely different changes to the surrounding environment. But, after preliminary analysis, the samples we collected from the edge of the crater show that there had been two types of changes at the same time. It was as if…
“It was as if a huge meteorite had blasted down from a low-earth orbit and accurately hit a volcano that was pumping out a crazy amount of energy.”