Staying in this quirky projection village?

I didn't think about it at all, originally we just came down to collect some information, of course, I thought it was too simplistic at first, maybe it was a bit whimsical to take a USB drive and go down to get the task in five minutes, but no matter how the situation develops, I haven't moved the mind of sleeping in the center of the earth for a few nights, but this mysterious patriarch has already made an invitation, and for us, it is really not a matter of time and a half to find out the truth without using violent means.

"We won't stay long, but we'll still thank you for your hospitality first."

Just as I was thinking about how to shirk and go to other parts of the oasis to see the situation, my sister suddenly spoke, listening to this tone, as if she was really planning to stay for a few days.

In the face of my puzzled eyes, my sister just blinked, signaling that she had something else in mind.

"Are you going back to the Flame Heavens?" The Great Patriarch glanced at his sister and asked calmly.

"Where we came from." My sister replied very ambiguously.

"I see, the people of the Oasis don't go to Blazing Heaven, but it's your home after all. How are you going to get back? I don't see your big ship, it is said that the people of Blazing Heaven need to use a big ship to get to the oasis, otherwise they will be stranded on the ground. ”

Before the Great Patriarch's words fell, Lilina's voice had already come from the spiritual connection: "She's lying! She didn't speak at the right pace! ”

I didn't see the other party's meaning of lying at all, and the amiable elf old lady's tone was calm and her face was as usual. But Lilina insisted that the other party was not telling the truth. I can only believe: at least this black loli is much more reliable than outsiders.

Lilina paused for a few seconds before explaining: "She said that the people of the Flame Heaven would be stranded in the oasis without a big ship, and there were traces of lying when she said this, on the one hand, it was judged that the reason was that she was not speaking at the right speed, and on the other hand, it was the gift of this Pope: even if it was a quality projection, she was also thinking, as long as she was thinking, it could be classified as a pan-soul, and it was all under the control of this Pope." ”

In other words, in fact, this great patriarch knows that we will not be stranded in the Oasis Star because we have no transportation. So what is the point of her saying this? As soon as I had this question, my sister came up with a message: "She may be guessing who we are, and she has a vague answer, and the way we came to and left the oasis may have something to do with that identity." She wondered what we had come down from the mantle. ”

Can I tell this old lady that we actually have a seven-handed BYD with dozens of exhaust pipes and the ability to jump in space and cruise faster than the speed of light?

The people on Oasis are very cautious, sometimes a little neurotic, but sometimes a little too naïve and deceitful, and that night a group of us were entertained into the village, and there is a separate mushroom tree house to live in, which is said to be dedicated to entertaining guests, in Oasis, every Dryad settlement will have a special house for entertaining guests, this is because Dryads like to wander in the forest, and all Dryads grow from ancestral vines. This led to their intimate and welcoming guests, and gradually developed the custom of leaving enough hospitality anywhere.

Soon, night fell, and it seemed that those glowing clouds in the upper atmosphere had ended their chemical reaction under the conditioning of some system, and the entire Oasis Star experienced the same night, and this little inner world had no concept of day and night dividing line and the eastern and western hemispheres, and we gathered in the mushroom tree house where these hospitable tree elves were ready to come out to entertain them, still discussing the society of these strange projections and their secrets. Earlier, my sister pushed down the fruit platter and other sweet-smelling dinners (unfortunately, it was all fruit) on the grounds that the people from Blazing Sky were not used to the food of the Oasis Star, so we had brought our own food, and the fruit bowls were still on the table. Shallow is working on them – and jingle bells.

Her Majesty seems to be quite interested in these things that cannot be eaten, and the realistic texture and aroma of the latter have completely captured the little things that are always the intellect. Clankle jumped around a pile of strangely shaped fruits, like a small beast waiting for an opportunity to attack, occasionally screaming in a high-pitched voice and then pounced on it - there was only one result, the mass projection could not withstand this contradiction for an instant, and turned into a point of light in mid-air, which Dingbell was puzzled by.

The little one's mouth was babbling, like a frustrated kitten after the prey had flown away, and after a few attempts finally lay on my shoulder and did not move, she was playing dead.

Still at the point of gravitational equilibrium, Tavel and her research team have done a thorough examination of the inner layers of the Earth's mantle and found something very interesting: the remains of some kind of ancient equipment.

The massive skeletons of composite material were embedded deep in the semi-molten mantle, and the intricate grooves suggest that they were once used to install some kind of massive machinery, which may have been used by the inhabitants of Green Star to transform the center of the earth.

If these devices weren't important, there was something else that was even more exciting: the reconnaissance probe had found a number of black pyramidal structures in the shallow mantle, which were the mass projection generators we had been looking for for a long time.

If we can't find the answer from the oasis natives, then our only clue is to dismantle these mass projection generators, and while forcibly cracking the projection devices may cause some damage to the organisms behind them, it is a way to go.

"Huh? What's going on out there? ”

Shallow was not interested in our serious discussions, and she had been lying in front of the window looking at the night scene outside, when she suddenly screamed.

The night of this projection world is not pure darkness, although the dryads do not seem to have such advanced electric lighting or other artificial lighting techniques, and there are not many lights in the small village, but the handles of those huge mushroom umbrellas can emit a faint white light in the night, the effect is the same as that of the street lamps, in such a not very bright light. I saw many tree spirits congregating in the clearing in the middle of the village—quite numerous. It should already account for half of the population of this small village with only a dozen families.

The elves were all dressed as if they were about to go on a long journey, and they stood silently in the clearing, the scene was silent and eerie, and all of them did not move, and after observing one thing, I noticed one thing: the expressions on the faces of all the dryads were blank.

I couldn't see the leader, not even a single elf with an expression on their faces, and they suddenly disappeared into thin air one by one under our puzzled gaze! After just ten seconds, the square was empty. Half of the villagers just disappeared into thin air.

And before we could go out to see the situation, another puzzling scene happened, where the villagers disappeared just now, and suddenly many free points of light appeared in the clearing. These points of light flew and combined, and after a while, they all coalesced into human form, and turned into another group of strange tree elves, wearing the same costumes as those villagers when they disappeared just now, and I secretly counted them, and found that they even numbered the same as the ones who disappeared just now. The new villagers looked around blankly for a moment, and then their faces became vivid, and then they all smiled: the smile disappeared in a flash, and then they returned to their expressions, and then drove to the nearby treehouses. It's as if it were their own house – but it's not their house by all! That's the villagers who just disappeared!

The vision only lasted for a few minutes, and half of the tree spirits in the village evaporated from the world, replaced by another group of strangers, and when there was silence outside again, he touched my arm: "Ah Jun, it's like a horror movie." ”

"The original person has been replaced," Sandora returned to the table, "It seems that this projection world still has a way of operation that we don't know how the Dao works. Let's rest first, and we'll see how it goes tomorrow. ”

We slept really soundly this night, although the situation was a little weird. And we were still deep in the heart of the earth, but the heartlessness of the first family was effective in any case, and by the time I woke up in the soft hammock made of plant fibers, it was already dark outside (the day on the oasis seemed to be about an hour shorter than on Earth, which I found when I looked at my watch), and Dingdong crawled over at some point. He was lying on his stomach on his face, sleeping in the dark. Luckily I didn't cough at night......

The village was already bustling with activity, the tree elves were preparing for the day, the men and women were carrying the tools used to harvest wild fruits, and they were going to the top of a nearby bush that had just matured to collect food for the next few days, this was the information they had heard from their conversation, everything was as usual, and every elf had a natural smile on their faces, and they did not feel that there was anything wrong with their lives.

But the one standing in front of them was already a stranger: the replaced Dryad didn't even have a disguised appearance!

We seemed to be walking in a strange fantasy - well, this is indeed an illusion, but I had never expected this to be like this, and after walking around the village for a long time, I finally found someone I knew, it was a tree elf girl who had a deep impression before, Green Calyx, who was helping her village elder father clean up some dried blades of grass, and the fibers left behind after these blades of grass were completely dried were the most common building materials for the tree elves. Seeing the arrival of the guest, the green calyx immediately straightened up and happily greeted this side.

"Hello, you were used to sleeping last night, right? It's definitely a lot colder on the oasis than it is on the Blazing Flames," the Dryad said cheerfully, wiping the sweat from the back of her hand, "It's been a busy day to start today, gathering food and preparing the straw rope for next year. ”

"Oh," I said, looking around, "there seemed to be a lot of unfamiliar faces." ”

In the face of my intentional or unintentional prompts, Green Calyx was completely unaware, she just glanced at the women and children who were busy in the clearing, and said with a smile: "No, probably a lot of people didn't come out yesterday, you haven't seen it, and soon they are all familiar with it, and there are not many people in the village, everyone is quite kind." ”

She had no idea that half of the people around her had been replaced!

"Go find the Great Patriarch." Lin Xue suddenly whispered, took my arm and walked outside the village, and everyone didn't know what happened to Lu Dao, so they had to follow in a hurry.

The patriarch's hut was still standing quietly outside the village walls, and I was a little worried that the little house would disappear like the villagers, or be replaced with something else, but fortunately, everything was as usual here. Including the kind old lady of the tree elves inside. The other party let us into the house, with a happy look on his face: "Guests from afar, how were you resting yesterday?" ”

Lin Xue stared at the other party's eyes tightly, as if she was going to dig out some secret from it, and a surprised look appeared on the old lady's face: "What's wrong?" What's not to like? ”

"You should be able to guess where we came from," Lin Xue said suddenly, "I just remembered one thing, in your legend, it was the ancestors who created this oasis planet and put it in this place. Then the ancestors integrated themselves into the oasis, and each great patriarch is the ancestor who periodically awakens, that is to say, you are the only so-called 'ancestor' who is currently awake in this world. You've lived through the establishment of the Oasis Star - you should know what the so-called Flame Day means. ”

The old lady's expression did not change, but she waited a few seconds before replying, "So what? ”

"So you know that the Flame Sky is actually a mantle that has not completely cooled, there is no living life in the Flame Sky at all, behind it is a dark rock layer thousands of kilometers thick, and there is only a huge energy furnace and control system in the rock layer, and of course, there is also projection equipment," Lin Xue leaned back in her chair, her tone was not impatient, "Yesterday we saw something very concerning: half of the inhabitants of the village have been replaced. Do you know what I mean, can you explain what this is? Where have all the villagers gone? Or to put it more simply, what is going on with all the people in this world, and what are they for...... Will they be brainwashed?! ”

The Great Patriarch's expression did not change from beginning to end, and he only sighed at this time: "Actually, I just need a moment to confirm your identity, because we carry the most important mission, and the oasis has already experienced several alarms before, and all the navigators are very nervous...... We don't know what to do when this responsibility is put on our heads. We're just learning to operate these systems......"

Lin Xue smiled triumphantly and squeezed her eyes at me: "I have long felt that she knows a lot of secrets." ”

"We're from beyond the surface," I don't think there's anything to hide, and after a day and a night, the Great Patriarch must have been able to confirm our identities. Or at least to confirm that we are not hostile, "This planet is a product of the old imperial era." It has spectrous devices, signs of imperial transformation, and hundreds of millions of dormant pods in the mantle, so if you've lived through the era of geocentric transformation, you'll understand what I'm talking about. ”

The Great Patriarch took a deep breath: "It's true, I know everything, but what does the old empire mean?" ”

"The Xiling Empire, the previous one," shallow and straightforward, "is now the new imperial calendar, four years. The old empire has collapsed. ”

The great patriarch seemed to have been hit by an iron hammer, and he was there for a long time, and only after a long time did he exclaim: "Solution...... Disintegrate? Imperial? How can it be! Then to whom will we pass the inheritance! ”

"Leave it to us," said Sandora without question, "this planet hides the secrets of the old empire before it collapsed, and I am the only emperor known to have survived after the collapse of the old empire, and my partner is the ruler of the new empire, and I think that's enough." Oh, it looks like you're in a mess, don't worry, we've got time for you to get everything straight, it's quite a long story......"

The catastrophe at the end of the old empire, the sleeping period, the passage of tens of thousands of years, the establishment of the new empire, and the current state of affairs of a small part of the empire, these things add up to a very large story - jingle on it, at least more than four million words have been written, and it took Sandora and her sister more than an hour to explain these things in general, and they spoke very slowly, and only picked up the straightforward parts, because we found one thing: although the great patriarch in front of us had experienced the era of the old empire, and he was also very clear about the Xiling Empire, But she is very different from the normal imperial family, and she seems to be confused, like a ...... Novice, I can only say that, I know the Xiling Empire, but I don't know anything about the details of the empire, when Sandora mentioned the former Heavenly Region and the emperors, the other party interrupted a few times, so as to ask for details, this is really a puzzling phenomenon, is it possible that at the end of the old empire, those strict generals were even so-so in the review of their dependents? At least they should do a good job of popularizing science.

"This is really an unimaginable disaster, completely unimaginable," the great patriarch didn't speak for more than a minute after listening to this long story, and sighed for a long time, Lin Xue and Lilina both stared at each other's eyes, they were still worried that the other party was lying, "When we took over the mission, the empire was so powerful, although we only saw a little thing, and I thought it was incredibly powerful, but such a powerful empire disappeared, and the abyss ...... We also encountered the abyss, it was the empire that rescued the tree elves, and then a general ordered our whole clan to assist the emperor in the battle, and the tree elves reciprocated, and we took over the mission, but the first task they gave us was to save something. ”

Sandora suddenly showed a look of surprise: "In other words, in fact, you haven't been in contact with the empire for a long time?" ”

"By your standards, it should be quite short-lived," the Grand Patriarch frowned, "We have just escaped the Abyssal Disaster, and we have not yet completed the reconstruction of our society, and we have received orders. At that time, everything was very chaotic, the universe was a mess, the general told us that the end of the world was coming, so the tree elves left their own world world, this planet was rebuilt during the Abyss War, and the technology we mastered was not advanced enough, it was the emperor ** who helped us build this fortress, and then taught the navigator how to operate the system, and then they left in a hurry. We were told that it was a rather long mission, and that there might not even be an end to the day, but the dryads didn't care much about that, we were used to traveling and being alone, but now it seems...... The journey was a bit too long. ”