Chapter 260: Exploring the Sea of Stone
Li Ye slowly nodded and carefully stored away the Recall Device.
Before departure, he deliberately t with the Lord of the Titan Throne Mobile City.
It was a middle-aged man with Eastern features nad Fang Ying.
Fang Ying wore glasses, his beard was shaved clean, and he carried an elegant scholarly air.
After shaking hands and exchanging greetings with Li Ye, Fang Ying briefly introduced himself.
The Mobile City he commanded was called Nature H6. This journey into the Abyss of Bedrock was for the purpose of studying the ecology of the Elental Plane.
As the City Lord, he was a T5-level mber of the Titan Throne, holding the position of Doctor.
Just as Li Ye had expected, Nature H6 also possessed countless monster employees—clearly one of the Titan Throne’s signature traits.
Noticing Li Ye’s gaze, Fang Ying shrugged.
“These monster employees are only Level 1 or 2. If we’re entering the Abyss of Bedrock, we’ll have to properly protect them.”
“From the sound of it, does the Titan Throne also possess high-level monster employees?” Li Ye asked.
Fang Ying smiled slightly without offering any further explanation.
As the teleportation device activated, the crystal arrays embedded within the obsidian gate fra erupted with blinding amber light. Thousands of lightning-like energy patterns frantically raced across the stone surface.
Under everyone’s watchful gaze, an absolutely black singularity suddenly collapsed into existence before the device. Imdiately afterward, the singularity rapidly expanded into an oval-shaped portal over ten kiloters wide and tall.
Such a magnificent spectacle left the mbers of the Tomorrow Alliance clicking their tongues in amazent.
“I hope this ti we’re teleported sowhere good,” Li Ye silently thought.
Then he abruptly waved his hand and gave the order to depart.
The six Mobile Cities of the Tomorrow Alliance majestically drove into the portal one after another, while Nature H6 followed closely behind.
After passing through the portal, Li Ye arrived in the Abyss of Bedrock.
The mont he clearly saw the scene before him, he froze.
At this mont, he stood inside a supermassive cavern.
And within the cavern was—
An ocean ford entirely from endless stone.
So rocks stood upright like blades, forming endless waves of stone.
Others curled into spiral vortices.
Even more were compressed and folded atop one another.
Most astonishing of all—
The entire Stone Sea maintained perfect wave-like rhythms.
Countless islands of varying sizes floated throughout the Stone Sea, every single one petrified in form.
Li Ye raised his binoculars and carefully observed one of the islands.
The island was covered in countless stone trees. Their canopies had transford into exquisite mineral crystals.
So possessed agate-like leaves faintly shimring with iridescent colors.
Others had crowns ford from clusters of crystal, constantly shifting colors beneath changing light.
The branches of the stone trees even retained the flowing curves of being bent by the wind.
Most shocking of all, when Li Ye shifted his gaze back toward the Stone Sea, he discovered the sea itself was slowly surging and undulating, complete with crashing waves.
anwhile, the Tomorrow Alliance and Nature H6 currently stood upon the shoreline.
Li Ye imdiately rode the elevator platform down to ground level, rushed toward the shore, and reached out to touch the Stone Sea.
What he touched was not hardened rock, but an extrely dense form of viscous sli.
Within Li Ye’s hand, the sli gradually transford into stone.
After conducting several tests, he discovered the resulting stone was incomparably hard.
“…This is far too incredible,” he muttered softly.
“Looks like we got lucky.”
A voice sounded from behind him.
Li Ye turned his head and discovered it was Fang Ying.
The Titan Throne Doctor slowly approached his side, bent down to scoop up a handful of sli, and quietly watched it solidify into stone.
“Just this Stone Sea alone will probably keep us researching for quite so ti.”
Li Ye lightly shook his head.
He had not co here for research.
He had co to mine ore veins and obtain monster drop resources.
Still, this Stone Sea truly was astonishing.
Perhaps this was rely the tip of the iceberg within the Abyss of Bedrock.
“Can you determine where exactly we are within the Abyss of Bedrock, Doctor Fang Ying?” Li Ye asked.
Fang Ying gently shook his head.
“Hard to say. You know perfectly well just how enormous the Abyss of Bedrock truly is,” he calmly replied. “This is practically a small world. Though I suspect there should be signs of life within the Stone Sea.”
Signs of life?
Li Ye instinctively turned to look at the Stone Sea before him.
Could life truly survive within an ocean ford from rock?
Half an hour later, his understanding of the world was overturned.
The Stone Sea truly contained all sorts of Level 4 mutated creatures.
Rockshell Giant Turtles over ten ters long, whose shells had completely mineralized into layered plates while their limbs evolved into paddle-like stone fins.
Crystal Jellyfish whose umbrellas were ford entirely from transparent quartz.
Obsidian Octopuses whose eight arms were covered in petrified suction cups, capable of spraying high-temperature corrosive ink while liquefying their bodies to pass through cracks within the Stone Sea.
Coralstone Serpents over a hundred ters long, composed of countless microscopic stone corals.
Stone Seahorses covered entirely in prism-like crystals.
And Basalt Sea Dragons several hundred ters long, whose spinal bones had mutated into jagged rocky ridges.
All of this was discovered through Nature H6’s detection equipnt.
Inside Nature H6’s laboratory, Li Ye stood before the display screen and could not help taking a deep breath.
The ecosystem of this Stone Sea—or rather, the Abyss of Bedrock itself—was simply too wondrous!
But soon he noticed a crucial issue.
The “water” of the Stone Sea was composed of special sli. Although the sli flowed like liquid, it quickly petrified into stone.
So how exactly were these Level 4 mutated creatures freely swimming within this ocean of rock?
Fang Ying answered his question.
He showed Li Ye a Stone Seahorse that Nature H6 had just captured.
Although the na sounded harmless, the Stone Seahorse itself was exceptionally ferocious. This Level 4 mutated creature possessed astonishing jumping power, enough to punch straight through stone walls.
Nature H6 had required a special Level 4 device to fully restrain it.
“Look carefully at the surface of its body,” Fang Ying said.
Li Ye carefully observed it and discovered that the Stone Seahorse’s body secreted a thin layer of pale sli.
He imdiately understood Fang Ying’s aning.
“You an… these mutated creatures rely on the sli secreted from their bodies in order to move freely within the Stone Sea?”
Fang Ying nodded.
To verify his theory, he used an instrunt to extract so sli from the Stone Seahorse before saring it across a rock.
Sure enough, the instant the rock touched the sli, it imdiately lted into sticky liquid.
However, the effect only lasted for roughly one minute.
After one minute passed, the rock hardened once more.
Li Ye froze montarily.
“If my guess is correct, not only the Stone Sea, but the entire ecological environnt of the Abyss of Bedrock likely functions like this,” Fang Ying said.
Then he proposed a bold idea.
As long as soone coated their entire body with this biological sli, they could freely swim through the rock walls of the Abyss of Bedrock.
Li Ye lightly nodded.
The idea was indeed feasible.
However, who knew how many Level 4 mutated creatures would need to be hunted before enough sli could be extracted to fully coat a human body?
But Fang Ying’s next statent was even more shocking.
“This biological sli is simply too practical. It possesses enormous scientific and practical value,” he declared. “Therefore, I plan to collect ten tons of biological sli here.”
After finishing their discussion, Li Ye returned to the Tomorrow.
Now he needed to begin arranging external combat deploynts.
After all, this was an unfamiliar environnt. Enemies could appear at any mont.
With a single order from Li Ye, the Starlight, Iron Whale, and Pacifier imdiately moved into position.
The Tomorrow’s land combat forces and Special Forces likewise rapidly completed deploynt.
As for why Li Ye did not deploy air combat forces or naval forces—
Above this supermassive cavern hung countless stalactites ranging from several ters to dozens of ters in size.
This was an extrely hostile flight environnt. One careless mistake from a fighter jet would result in a crash.
As for naval forces, they were even less viable. Although the Stone Sea flowed like liquid, it quickly hardened into rock. Ships simply could not sail across it.
Naturally, the force Li Ye relied upon to hunt Level 4 mutated creatures was his Special Forces.
After being equipped with Smart Fire Control Cores and suppressors, the Silent Reaper sniper rifles had transford into silent long-range reapers capable of killing enemies one by one without them ever noticing.
Thus, the Special Forces mbers began systematically sniping the mutated creatures within the Stone Sea.
As they pulled the trigger, one Level 4 mutated creature after another was silently killed, their corpses floating atop the Stone Sea.
During this period, Li Ye carefully observed everything through binoculars.
Every type of Level 4 mutated creature within the Stone Sea was extraordinarily ferocious.
He personally witnessed schools of petrified fish completely devour an entire island.
He also witnessed groups of stone shrimp fighting so violently they shattered entire sections of the surrounding Stone Sea.
At this mont, Fang Ying suddenly walked over.
He inford Li Ye of his suspicion—
This Stone Sea was enormous. There was likely a Level 4 Wilderness Boss sowhere within it.
“A Level 4 Wilderness Boss?”
Li Ye froze montarily before a trace of burning excitent appeared in his eyes.
That represented enormous amounts of Level 4 resources, several Level 4 items, and one guaranteed Level 5 drop!
However, the heat in his heart quickly cooled.
The combat power of Wilderness Bosses increased dramatically with level. The newly advanced Tomorrow Alliance was still underdeveloped and clearly incapable of hunting one.
Most importantly, the environnt of the Stone Sea was simply too unique. The Tomorrow Alliance’s naval and air combat forces could not properly deploy at all, aning their combat capabilities were severely crippled.
If that Level 4 Wilderness Boss truly hid deep within the Stone Sea, the current Tomorrow Alliance would have absolutely no way of dealing with it.
“Sigh… better to honestly keep sniping mutated creatures for drops,” he silently thought.
One hour later, the first sniping operation temporarily concluded.
The operation had not been as easy as imagined because most Level 4 mutated creatures lurked beneath the Stone Sea, only occasionally surfacing to breathe.
They were also extrely vigilant and cautious. Once they noticed nearby companions being killed, they would imdiately dive back into the Stone Sea, only cautiously resurfacing over ten minutes later.
Li Ye once again found himself troubled.
They had sniped over two hundred mutated creatures this ti—
But how were they supposed to retrieve them?
Ships simply could not move across the Stone Sea.
Deploying Special Forces equipped with jetpacks?
That idea was sowhat feasible since so sections of the Stone Sea had hardened solidly, allowing the soldiers to use them as footholds.
However, the problem was that there were simply too many Level 4 mutated creatures within the Stone Sea.
By secreting their special sli, they could move freely through the Stone Sea.
If Special Forces personnel entered the Stone Sea, they would imdiately co under attack.
Fortunately, Fang Ying helped Li Ye solve this problem.
He mobilized a batch of drones from Nature H6.
These drones were equipped with Level 4 absorption modules capable of easily attaching to and lifting objects.
Using this drone fleet, Fang Ying gradually transported the sniped Level 4 mutated creatures back to the shoreline one by one.
Naturally, he was not helping for free.
He imdiately proposed his condition.
The mutated creatures’ drops would belong to Li Ye—
But the corpses themselves would belong to Nature H6 for large-scale extraction of their biological sli.
Li Ye naturally agreed without hesitation. To him, it was rely a trivial favor.
Soon enough, iron ore, nitrate, coal, cloth, Crystal Coins, completed items Level 4 and below—
Spoils piled into mountains before Li Ye.
Among them were also four blueprints.
One naval vehicle advancent blueprint and three design blueprints.
The naval advancent blueprint would be used to upgrade the cruiser. Although the cruiser itself had not yet been constructed, as long as the production workshop possessed the project, it could still be upgraded.
As usual, Li Ye began appraising the design blueprints.
The very first blueprint delighted him imnsely.
【Item Na: Electromagnetic Pulse Grenade】
【Level: 4】
【Additional Effects: Electromagnetic pulse range 50%】
【Crafting Requirents: 10 units Iron Ore (Level 4), 5 units Thunder Ore (Level 4)】
“I never expected there to be grenades of this type too?”
Electromagnetic pulses were undoubtedly devastating anti-vehicle weapons.
This greatly increased the Special Forces’ anti-vehicle combat capability.
However, the manufacturing cost of these Level 4 grenades was equally expensive.
Each one required 10 units of Level 4 Iron Ore and 5 units of Level 4 Thunder Ore.
After a single battle, Level 4 Iron Ore and Thunder Ore would be consud like flowing water.
“Speaking of which, the jetpacks also need to be upgraded to Level 4,” Li Ye thought. “And the grappling anchors are still only Level 1. Those need upgrading as quickly as possible too.”
The second design blueprint belonged to the city building category.
【Item Na: City Data Center Base Station】
【Level: 4】
【Additional Effects: Provides network connectivity】
【Crafting Requirents: 300 units Iron Ore (Level 4)】
【Note: By consuming 100 units of Level 4 Iron Ore, you may create sub-stations that allow connected targets to access the base station network.】
Realizing his Mobile Cities would soon possess internet access, Li Ye instantly beca sowhat excited.
But after thinking about it more carefully, he realized there was actually nothing particularly exciting about it.
A network was rely the carrier.
The important thing was the content and the creators of that content.
What the Tomorrow possessed was rely an empty network at best useful for uploading and storing data, allowing All-in-One Card Devices to share information in real ti.
Still, having one was better than not having one.
Li Ye decided that after leaving the Abyss of Bedrock, he would purchase design blueprints for laptops, desktop computers, and mobile phones.
At the sa ti, a question suddenly appeared in his mind.
Did high-level computers eventually evolve into portable handheld computers—
Or perhaps directly implanted network-connected chips within the human body?
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