Chapter 1011: Chapter 1011: The Last Clan
Stay in this strange projection village?
I never thought about it. Originally, we came down just to gather some information. Of course, at first, I thought it would be overly simple, maybe getting the task done with a USB drive in five minutes was indeed a bit wild, but no matter how things developed, I never considered sleeping a few nights in the Earth’s core. However, this mysterious Great Clan Leader has extended an invitation, and it seems, without resorting to violence, it’s not going to be easy to find out the truth in a short time.
“We won’t stay too long, but thank you for your hospitality all the same.”
While I was pondering how to decline and go see other places in Oasis, Big Sister suddenly spoke up, and from her tone, it seemed she was genuinely planning to stay for a few days.
Facing my puzzled look, Big Sister just blinked, indicating she had another idea.
“Are you planning to go back up to Fiery Sky?” The Great Clan Leader glanced at Big Sister and asked calmly.
“That’s where we came from.” Big Sister’s answer was quite ambiguous.
“I understand. People from Oasis wouldn’t go to Fiery Sky, but it’s your home after all. How do you plan to go back? I didn’t see your big ship. It’s said that people from Fiery Sky need a big ship to come to Oasis, or they’ll be stuck on the ground.”
Before the Great Clan Leader finished speaking, Lilina’s voice came through the spiritual connection: “She’s lying! Her pace is off!”
I didn’t see any sign of lying from the other side. The gentle elf elder spoke calmly with a serene expression, but Lilina insisted that she wasn’t telling the truth, so I had no choice but to believe her: At least this black loli is much more reliable than outsiders.
Lilina paused for a few seconds before explaining: “She lied when she said people from Fiery Sky would be stuck on Oasis without a big ship. One reason for that judgment is her wrong pace, and another is my talent as the Pope: Even if it’s a quality projection, she’s thinking, and anything that’s thinking can be classified as a spirit, all of which are under my jurisdiction.”
So, this Great Clan Leader actually knew we wouldn’t be stranded on Oasis Star without transportation. What was the meaning behind her statement then? Just as this question popped into my head, Big Sister sent over a line: “She might be speculating about our identity and has a vague answer, and our manner of arriving at and leaving Oasis might be related to this identity. She wants to know how on Earth we got down from the mantle.”
Can I tell this elder lady that we actually have a seventh-hand BYD with dozens of exhaust pipes that can space jump and cruise at superluminal speed?
The inhabitants of Oasis Star are very cautious, sometimes seeming a bit neurotic, but sometimes they appear overly naive and easily deceived. That night, we were all invited to stay in the village, and there was even a separate mushroom tree house for accommodation. It’s said it’s specifically for entertaining guests. On Oasis Star, every tree elf settlement has dedicated guest lodging. This is because tree elves like to wander in the forests, and all tree elves grow from ancestral vines. This makes them intimate with each other, and they are also happy to host guests, gradually forming a custom that in any location, there should be enough space reserved for guests.
Soon, night fell. It seemed the glowing clouds in the upper atmosphere ended their chemical reactions under some system’s adjustment, and the entire Oasis Star went through the same night. This small world in Earth’s core lacks the concept of night and day or hemispheres. We gathered in the mushroom tree house that the hospitable tree elves prepared for guests, still discussing these strange projection societies and their secrets. Earlier, Big Sister had refused the fruit platter and other sweet-smelling dinners they prepared (unfortunately, all were fruits), using the excuse that people from Fiery Sky aren’t used to the food from Oasis Star. We had brought our food, and now the fruit bowls were still on the table, with Qianqian studying them—along with Dingdang.
The Little Goddess seems quite interested in these inedible things. The realistic texture and aroma have completely captured the attention of the little one with persistent intellectual shortcomings. Dingdang hopped around the oddly-shaped fruits like a tiny beast ready to pounce, occasionally letting out a shrill sound before diving onto them—only for the quality projection to collapse under such paradoxical strain, dissolving into points of light in midair, baffling Dingdang.
The little one muttered to herself, like a frustrated kitten whose prey had flown away. After several attempts, she finally laid motionless on my shoulder, playing dead.
Taville and her research team were still at the gravitational balance point. They had already completed a comprehensive inspection of the inner mantle, finding some very interesting things: remnants of some ancient equipment.
Those massive compound material frames were embedded deeply into the semi-molten mantle. The complex grooves indicated they were once used to mount some enormous machinery. These frames might have been used by the residents of Green Star during their terraforming of Earth’s core.
If these devices weren’t important, then something else was even more exciting: reconnaissance probes discovered numerous dark pyramid structures in the shallow mantle. These structures are the quality projection generators we had been searching for.
If we ultimately cannot find answers from these “natives” of Oasis, then our only clue is to dismantle these quality projection generators. Although forcibly cracking these projection devices might cause some harm to the organisms behind them, it’s nevertheless a potential path.
“Hmm? What’s going on outside?”
Qianqian, uninterested in our serious discussion, had been lying by the window watching the night scenery outside. She suddenly shouted at this point.
The night in this projection world isn’t purely dark. Although the tree elves don’t seem to have advanced electric lighting or other artificial illumination technology, and there’s not much light in the small village, the large mushroom stalks can emit a faint white light at night, similar to street lamps. In this dim light, I saw many tree elves gathering in the central clearing of the village—a considerable number, likely half the population of this small village of only a dozen or so households.
All those elves were neatly dressed, as if preparing for a journey, standing silently in the clearing. The scene was quiet and eerie, with everyone motionless. After observing for a while, I noticed one more thing: All expressions on the tree elves’ faces were wooden.
No leader in sight, not even a hint of expression on any elf’s face. Under our confused gaze, they suddenly disappeared into the air one by one! Within ten seconds, the square was empty, and half of the village’s residents had disappeared into thin air like that.
And before we could step out to check the situation, another baffling scene unfolded. At the spot where those villagers had vanished, numerous stray light spots suddenly appeared on the clearing. These light points swirled and combined, forming into humanoid shapes moments later, transforming into another group of unfamiliar tree elves, wearing the apparel of those villagers who had just disappeared. I secretly counted and found that their numbers even matched those who had disappeared. The newly appeared villagers first glanced around in bewilderment, then their expressions gradually became vivid, followed by smiles: a fleeting smile, after which they reverted to their emotionless faces and then proceeded skillfully towards the nearby tree houses as if they were their homes—but they were definitely not their homes! They were the homes of those villagers who had just disappeared!
The anomaly only lasted a few minutes in total, and half of the tree elves in the village vanished as if into thin air, replaced by another group of strangers. After the outside returned to silence and emptiness, Qianqian nudged my arm: “Ah Jun, it feels like a horror movie.”
“The original people have been replaced,” Sandora said as she returned to the table, “It seems this projection world has ways of operating that we don’t yet understand. Let’s rest for now and see what the situation is tomorrow.”
We slept quite soundly that night; although the circumstances were a bit bizarre, and we were deep in the Earth’s core, the carefree nature of the First Family is effective no matter the situation. When I awoke from the soft hammock woven from plant fibers, the sky outside was already bright (a day on the Oasis is apparently about an hour shorter than on Earth, as I discovered by checking my watch), Dingdang, who had crawled over at some unknown time, was sprawled across my face in a deep sleep, fortunately, I didn’t cough during the night…
The village was already bustling with activity, the tree elves preparing for the day. Men and women, armed with tools for harvesting wild fruits, planned to collect the village’s food from the top of a newly ripened shrub over the next few days. This was gleaned from their conversations, everything was as usual, each elf had a look of contented certainty on their face, without the slightest hint that anything in their life was amiss.
But standing before them, there were clearly strangers: the tree elves who had been swapped in hadn’t even disguised their appearances!
We seemed to be walking through a bizarre illusion—well, it was indeed an illusion, but I never imagined it would be this fantastical. After wandering the village for a while, I finally found someone I recognized, a tree elf girl I had a deep impression of before, Lu E, who was helping her village chief father sort through some dried grass leaves, as the fibers left behind after these leaves were fully dried were the most commonly used building materials for the tree elves. Upon seeing her guests, Lu E immediately stood up and greeted us joyfully.
“Hello there, did you sleep well last night? The Oasis must be much colder than the Fiery Sky,” the tree elf girl said cheerfully, wiping sweat with the back of her hand, “Today is a busy day, gathering food and preparing the grass ropes needed for next year.”
“Oh,” I glanced around, “It seems a lot of unfamiliar faces have appeared.”
Lu E was oblivious to my not-so-obvious hint, she merely glanced at the women and children busy in the clearing, then smiled and said, “No, maybe it’s just that many people didn’t come out yesterday. Once you get to know everyone, it won’t feel unfamiliar anymore. The village isn’t large, and everyone is quite friendly.”
She was completely unaware that half of the people around her had already been replaced!
“Let’s go find the Great Clan Leader,” Lin Xue suddenly whispered, pulling my arm as she headed out of the village, and everyone, unsure of what had happened, hurriedly followed.
The small wooden house of the Great Clan Leader still stood quietly outside the village walls. Earlier, I had been a bit worried this small house would also disappear like those villagers or be replaced with something else. Luckily, everything here was as usual, including the kindly old tree elf lady inside, who welcomed us into the house with a happy expression: “Travelers from afar, I hope you rested well last night?”
Lin Xue stared intently into her eyes as if searching for some secret. The old lady showed a puzzled expression: “What’s wrong? Is there something you’re dissatisfied with?”
“You should be able to guess where we come from,” Lin Xue suddenly said, “I just remembered something. In your legends, it was the ancestors who created this Oasis Planet and placed it here, then they merged themselves with the Oasis. Each Great Clan Leader is an ancestor who awakens periodically, meaning you’re the only so-called ‘ancestor’ currently conscious in this world. You’ve experienced the creation of the Oasis Planet—you should know what the so-called Fiery Sky means.”
The old lady’s expression remained unchanged, she only paused for a few seconds before responding: “And so what?”
“So, you know the Fiery Sky is actually the not yet fully cooled mantle, with no life surviving on it. Behind it is a dark layer of rock, thousands of kilometers thick, with only massive energy furnaces and control systems buried within, of course, alongside projection devices,” Lin Xue leaned back in her chair, speaking in a calm manner, “Yesterday, we noticed something quite concerning: half of the village’s residents were replaced. You understand what I mean. Can you explain what is happening here? Where have those villagers gone? Or more straightforwardly, what’s going on with all the people of this world, why… have they been brainwashed?!”
The Great Clan Leader’s expression hadn’t changed once from the beginning, now she just let out a sigh: “In fact, I just needed some time to confirm your identities because we bear the most important mission. The Oasis has already experienced several alarms, and all the navigators are quite nervous… We, are not really sure what to do when this responsibility falls upon us, we’ve just learned to operate these systems…”
Lin Xue showed a triumphant smile, giving me a wink: “I thought she knew quite a few secrets.”
“We come from beyond the surface,” I felt there was nothing more to hide. After a day and night, the Great Clan Leader has likely confirmed our identities or at least confirmed we have no hostile intentions, “This planet is a product of the Old Empire Era; it possesses ghost energy devices and bears signs of Empire modifications. Additionally, we’ve discovered billions of hibernation chambers in the mantle. If you have experienced the era of Earth’s core modification, you should understand what I’m saying.”
The Great Clan Leader took a deep breath: “Indeed, I know it all, but what does the Old Empire mean?”
“The Xyrin Empire, the former one,” Qianqian replied impulsively, “Now it is the New Empire Calendar, year four. The Old Empire has already disbanded.”
The Great Clan Leader appeared as though struck by an iron hammer, stunned in place, finally exclaiming after a long pause, “Dis…disbanded? The Empire? How can that be! Then who do we pass on the heritage to?”
“Pass it to us,” Sandora said authoritatively, “This planet hides the secrets of the Old Empire before its disbandment, and I am the only known surviving Emperor after the Old Empire’s fall, my partner is the ruler of the New Empire, I think that’s sufficient. Oh, you seem very confused, don’t worry, we have time to help you sort everything out, it’s quite a long story…”
The catastrophe at the end of the Old Empire, the period of sleep, the eons of time, the establishment of the New Empire, and part of the current state of the Empire, when all added together, indeed make for a massive story—with Dingdang present, it’s at least four million words in length. Sandora and Big Sister took over an hour to explain these things, they spoke slowly and only addressed the more straightforward parts because we discovered something: Despite the Great Clan Leader being familiar with the Old Empire Era and quite aware of the Xyrin Empire, she had a significant difference from a normal Imperial Family member. She seemed a bit confused, like a… novice, that’s the only way to put it, she knew of the Xyrin Empire but was clueless about its details. When Sandora mentioned past Sky Zones and Emperors, she interrupted several times to inquire about details, which genuinely baffled us. Could it be that at the end of the Old Empire, the strict generals became lax with the clan member’s assessments? At the very least, they should have maintained their educational outreach efforts.
“This is truly an unimaginable catastrophe, completely unimaginable,” the Great Clan Leader sighed after not speaking for over a minute following the long story, Lin Xue and Lilina both fixated on her eyes, evidently still worried she’d lie, “When we received the mission, the Empire was so powerful. Though we only saw a small part, it seemed unbelievably powerful, yet such a mighty Empire disappeared. The Abyss… We also faced the Abyss, it was the Empire that helped us create this fortress and taught our Navigators how to operate the system before they hurriedly left. We were told this mission would be exceptionally long, perhaps without end, but the first task they entrusted us with was to preserve some things.”
Sandora suddenly showed an understanding look: “So, you actually didn’t have an extensive interaction with the Empire?”
“From your perspective, I’d say it was relatively short,” the Great Clan Leader furrowed her brow, “We had just escaped the Abyss catastrophe, and this planet was rebuilt during the Abyss War. Our technology wasn’t advanced enough on its own; it was the Imperial Army that helped us create this fortress and taught the Navigators how to operate the system, then they left in a hurry. We were told it was a rather lengthy mission, one that might never end, but looking back now, this mission seems to have been too long.” (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to come to Qidian () and vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)