Just as all sorts of thoughts sprang up in the netizens' minds, a new development appeared.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
The sacred mountain on the far side of the moon rumbled as it sank under an immense force. Before long, it was no longer towering, becoming level with the ground.
Suddenly, another burst of rumbling sounded. A layer of rock and soil covered the Tree of Life's stump, concealing it in an instant.
Only the towering Wisdom Tree remained, along with a protruding rocky mound not far from it.
Once everything calmed down, the moon returned to tranquility, as though nothing had happened.
"Only the Wisdom Tree is left?"
Looking at the Wisdom Tree, stripped bare by the Great Flood and seemingly on the brink of death, the netizens began discussing it.
"The moon is so barren. Can it even survive?"
After Su Qi's series of actions, the moon was utterly bare, as desolate as could be.
After that netizen said so, many people began to worry.
"It probably can't survive, right?"
"Who knows? It's a divine tree, after all..."
Just as the netizens were each lamenting the divine tree, one netizen's comment suddenly caught many people's attention.
"There's only this one tree on the whole moon. It looks so lonely—kind of pitiful."
It had seemed like nothing much, but to some people with wild imaginations and rich powers of association, it was a fleeting spark of inspiration.
A string of astonishing thoughts surfaced in their minds.
"Holy crap! A tree on the moon? Now that you mention it, I suddenly thought of something!"
"Shocking, +10086. I thought of it too."
"A tree on the moon—the one that is also called a divine tree... the Moon Laurel?!"
"Holy crap!"
"Holy crap!"
"Damn!"
"666, my mind is blown!"
As they spoke, countless people were stunned.
Moon Laurel?
The divine tree said to grow on the moon?
"The Wisdom Tree is a Moon Laurel tree? Unbelievable!"
At first, they were completely baffled, but after giving it another thought, their faces filled with realization.
So the divine tree on the moon had been the Wisdom Tree?
Amid their shock, Brave Niu Niu commented, "Now that you mention Moon Laurel, I suddenly thought of Wu Gang, the tree-cutter."
Someone did not understand. "What's with Wu Gang?"
"Cutting down a tree, cutting down a tree—wasn't there a tree on the moon that got cut down? The Tree of Life!"
"Hiss..."
The sound of people drawing sharp breaths rang out across the world once again.
They were astonished by Brave Niu Niu's association.
Thinking about it that way, it really was terrifying once you thought it through!
Su Qi, staring at his phone screen back home, was once again stunned by the associations they had made.
"The Wisdom Tree is the Moon Laurel? The chopped-down Tree of Life is Wu Gang?"
He was dumbfounded. His mind had completely short-circuited.
What kind of ridiculous leap of imagination was this? Wasn't it way too outrageous?
Su Qi's mouth twitched.
Especially when he saw the rows of foolish netizens shouting "666," "Amazing, boss," and "So that's how it is," practically accepting the idea, all he wanted to say was, "Wake up. You're seriously overthinking this!"
In the end, Su Qi's mouth twitched. "You know too much. Now that you know all the secrets, what am I supposed to do? Kill you to keep you quiet?"
After the lunar scene played for a while, the image shifted.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
Floodwaters surged...
Strong winds howled, and heavy rain poured...
The flood ravaged the earth!
The netizens watched silently.
On the peaks of one mountain after another, the surviving people were filled with terror as they trembled before the natural disaster.
A notification sounded.
Time rapidly passed...
The floodwaters gradually receded.
A dazzling rainbow, dreamlike and fantastical, appeared on the horizon.
Smiles appeared on the surviving humans' faces.
After the floodwaters completely receded, people came down from the mountains and other places, spreading out and multiplying in every direction.
During this process, as communication between them was cut off, they gradually developed their own languages.
Then the netizens saw prehistoric humans, whose civilizations had regressed because of the Great Flood, passing down this world-destroying disaster through word of mouth and other means.
"God thought humans were too noisy, and sent down..."
"God saw that humanity's wickedness on earth was great..."
"The heavenly god was enraged. A monstrous flood destroyed humanity..."
The netizens were stunned as all kinds of familiar and unfamiliar Great Flood stories appeared before their eyes.
After watching for dozens of minutes, the familiar notification suddenly rang out.
Time flew by, and more than nine thousand years soon passed...
Seas turned to mulberry fields in the blink of an eye!
Under the dumbstruck gazes of countless viewers, mountain peaks became plains, forests became deserts, and more than nine thousand years passed in an instant!
As time passed, it arrived at 405 BC!
With the appearance of this notification, some people's eyes lit up.
"This year..." Professor Chen murmured. "The Warring States period?"
The netizens were astonished, feeling that the span of time was incredibly exaggerated.
At this moment, the scene shifted, and a large residence appeared before them.
A gray-haired old man was carving something at a table. Turtle shells, animal bones, and oracle bone inscriptions laid out on the table clearly entered everyone's view.
As the old man copied the text, a notification sounded, reading out what he was currently writing.
Huan, a strange beast: On Wingwatch Mountain, there is a beast. Its form resembles a wildcat, with one eye and three tails. It is called Huan. Its cry sounds like a hundred voices being seized at once. It can ward off misfortune, and consuming it cures jaundice.
"I can't understand it."
"Is this the Classic of Mountains and Seas?"
They quickly reacted.
Once they understood what the old man was writing, and connected it to the strange prehistoric monsters, realization dawned on them.
So it really was them!
Then notification after notification appeared.
The complex and obscure classical text instantly troubled most netizens. Apart from a small number of people, everyone else understood only fragments of it, until...
...Below lies Tang Valley. Above Tang Valley stands Fusang, where the ten suns bathe. It lies north of Blacktooth, in the water. There is a great tree: nine suns dwell on its lower branches, and one sun dwells on its upper branch.
This description instantly woke the netizens up.
"Fusang? The Sun God's divine tree?"
Then, considering the description, they realized—wasn't this the Tree of Life?
The notification continued.
Four hundred li to the southwest lies Kunlun Hill. It is truly the Emperor's lower capital. The god Lu Wu governs it.
His divine form has a tiger's body and nine tails, a human face and tiger claws. This god governs the nine regions of Heaven and the Emperor's garden seasons...
"Kunlun Mountain? The Heavenly Emperor? A garden?"
A place called Kunlun Mountain was the Heavenly Emperor's residence in the mortal world. There was even a garden there, and a heavenly god named Lu Wu guarded the place.
Some netizens who understood its meaning instantly thought of something.
"Sacred mountain? Gods?"
"Holy crap" erupted one after another.
Before they could remain shocked for long, the notification continued.
Time continued to pass, arriving at 219 BC.
Before you continue