The enemy had to be hiding somewhere nearby. They had also taken more than a dozen senior researchers from the two bases. A group that large could not possibly leave no trace behind.
Xiao Qing, old ghost, and I waited anxiously in an office at the base.
He Rong had gone with them as well. He was more familiar with the terrain here, and he had gone with Goudan'er.
"I only learned today what Earth Veins really were. I had heard before that wherever a Dragon Vein appeared, the people there would gain corresponding good fortune. It seemed that was indeed true. Did that have anything to do with you?"
Xiao Qing smiled when she heard my question. "It does. As I said earlier, those so-called Dragon Vein sites are basically where some of our Hollow Earth people's advanced cities are located. Likewise, those places are Spatial Nodes connecting our world to yours. Occasionally, our people come up and offer you some help. Of course, all of this is done in secret. No one knows about it except us. This was also one of the terms of our previous agreement, a form of compensation for you keeping the secret of the Earth Veins."
I nodded slightly. That made sense.
Old ghost sighed. "A lot of the time, I start wondering whether the knowledge we learned in the past was science or pseudoscience. Seriously, the deeper you dig, the more you start questioning your whole life."
Xiao Qing laughed. "Don't you have an old saying? The end of science is mysticism. But it isn't really like that. The things you consider unscientific are still scientific. Your science simply isn't advanced enough to explain them. To put it bluntly, your science is too primitive. Of course, it takes time to develop."
I