Ghost Wall and the Snake People's Palace

And so, Sky City flew along very steadily.

In this vast grassland, the next generation of children received a completely new mode of education.

It seemed the effect was not bad.

When people teach people, how can they not learn? When things teach people, they learn in one go.

Time passed by another 19 months.

The richness of this grassland was far inferior to the underground fissures. Fortunately, it had not been searched by other civilizations, so it was not considered barren.

With the efforts of the Treasure Hunting Team, the Idealistic minerals of Human Civilization barely managed to break even. However, significantly enriching the National Treasury was extremely difficult.

Moreover, perhaps due to luck, the wealth unearthed in the past six months had been slowly decreasing.

"I really want to find a big mine! These past few months have been so boring."

Lieutenant Colonel Lu Ying flipped off the "Flying Dragon" and yawned boredly.

He took out a camera and uploaded the captured map to the computer.

By piecing these maps together, a small part of the true topography of the Pangu Continent could be restored. This work had actually been going on for a long time, from Lu Yuan's manual drawing over a hundred years ago to the current computer drawing. Technology was advancing, but the work was the same.

"19 months, advanced 68,000 kilometers... This grassland is too big, isn't it? It's many times larger than the Earth's equatorial radius?"

Lu Ying muttered to himself, fiddling with the computer for a long time, but found that some content could never be pieced together. He didn't know where he had gone wrong.

He made a call: "Brother Yun, there's a big problem, help me deal with it."

"I'm very busy too, Uncle Ying, can you stop looking for me all the time?"

Hai Zhiyun was very helpless. Since his ability as a human-shaped computer was exposed, people had been asking him for help every few days. It was truly a case of people fearing fame and pigs fearing getting fat.

"Brother Yun, I'll definitely take you on the next treasure hunting mission. I'll pick up some trash ores and give them to you."

Brother Yun had a hobby of collecting trash, and he immediately beamed: "Easy, easy! Send me the file. It shouldn't be military confidential, right?"

"No, no, it's just an ordinary map."

But this time, the processing time exceeded expectations. In the past, a task that could be completed in one minute took more than ten minutes.

Hai Zhiyun called back: "Uncle Ying, is this map of yours from today?"

His tone was a little serious.

"Yes, what's wrong?"

"We might have returned to the place from half a year ago... I found that the similarity of the map is over 95% compared to half a year ago."

"Especially the geographical locations of several large lakes, they are exactly the same." Hai Zhiyun highlighted several similar lakes with red boxes and sent the photos over.

Everything in the world was changing, and lakes and grasslands were no exception.

Although the lake water was shallower than half a year ago, the people in the reconnaissance room immediately realized that it was indeed the same one.

At this moment, everyone was stunned and gasped. It turned out that after such a long time, they had just gone in a big circle!

"What's going on?"

Lu Ying didn't dare to delay and immediately reported it upwards.

This matter quickly drew the attention of the Upper Council.

"We can now confirm that we've encountered a Ghost Wall Incident."

"It's serious, yes, all the compasses are malfunctioning, even the sun's rising in the east and setting in the west is malfunctioning... We've wasted half a year, just going in a circle."

"If we can't find the reason, we might be trapped here for a long time."

Lu Yuan sat in the center of the meeting room, looking at the maps, his heart filled with both surprise and doubt.

Besides the compasses and the sun, the Opium Tree could connect with the Chinese Parasol Tree in Yunhai City through its Dream Ability, so it could also tell the approximate direction.

But even this guidance had failed!

Green Field City had spent half a year, circling a large loop of 21,000 kilometers.

This situation was truly strange.

"But it's not a life-or-death crisis. We have plenty of supplies, and the area is lush with water and grass, and there are many wild animals, which means... we should have enough time to solve this problem."

"If we can get out of this strange place within a limited time, there's no rush to inform the public."

"Let's try moving in different directions."

So, under Lu Yuan's leadership, many soldiers increased their reconnaissance efforts, riding Flying Dragons, and spent two months surveying an area of several thousand kilometers.

But things were just that strange; besides the vast grassland, there was almost nothing here... Various wild animals inhabited the area, surviving and reproducing, looking quite vibrant and seemingly harmonious.

The three King Insects even flew at Sonic Speed, trying in all directions, but no matter which direction they flew, they could only circle a large loop of over 20,000 kilometers, eventually returning to the starting point.

Although Lu Yuan had the ability of Space Blink, he didn't know where to blink to.

The entire world was a vast, boundless grassland, but it seemed to be enveloped by an invisible boundary. More importantly, he had no idea where this boundary was.

Three-dimensional beings could never touch the boundary of four-dimensional space, just as two-dimensional beings would never know the concept of "height."

"Things seem to be getting a bit out of hand..."

On this day, after a fruitless search, Lu Yuan's heart pounded as he thought of a very mysterious Calamity – the Aberrant Phenomenon [Guai]!

If they had accidentally entered the territory of a [Guai], wouldn't it turn out like this?

Of course, the [Guai]'s combat power wasn't high; they were good at mental attacks and raising subordinates.

From this perspective, it didn't seem quite right. Humans had been here for over half a year, and there hadn't been a single missing person, which didn't align with the [Guai]'s behavioral tendencies.

"Don't let your guard down. [Guai] are different from other Calamities. They are as timid as mice and won't act rashly if they find the enemy too strong." Lu Yuan instructed the soldiers, "You continue to scout the surroundings and explore for more clues."

"I will guard this place."

He didn't dare to leave the city rashly now. He controlled the "Greedy Demon God" at all times, positioned at the highest point of the Opium Tree, watching over the entire city.

Once the [Guai] used its spatial ability to kidnap the people, he would immediately activate Space Blink and follow them in.

As long as the Greedy Demon God broke into the [Guai]'s Different Dimension, defeating that Calamity shouldn't be a big problem...

And so, after four long months of waiting, a turning point finally arrived!

After a "Flying Snake" that had been out on reconnaissance returned to the city, the soldiers quickly removed the camera from its head, processed the data with a computer, and then fed it exquisite food.

There was no other way. With the current reconnaissance yielding nothing, humanity had to expand the search area from a radius of several thousand kilometers to tens of thousands of kilometers. With insufficient manpower, using Flying Snakes for reconnaissance became the preferred method.

A single mission by a Flying Snake, lasting 12 consecutive days, could directly explore a distance of 20,000 kilometers, which was quite cost-effective.

Current AI technology was also gradually catching up to the level of the former Earth. Any abnormal situations in the video could be detected by the AI in less than a few minutes.

Due to the long lack of information, the morale of the Reconnaissance Team was not very high; everyone was just going through the motions.

"Beep!" Suddenly, a large screen sounded an alarm, and the rapidly playing footage stopped.

"This is..." A staff member from the identification team suddenly rubbed their eyes, staring at the large screen in disbelief.

A... city!

A desolate city floating in the sky?!

This city wasn't particularly large, measuring about 8 kilometers in length and 7.2 kilometers in width. Its overall shape resembled a magnificent, large palace!

Its main structure was octagonal, with a hemispherical dome in the center and sixteen smaller domes around it. The domes were generally inscribed with blurry patterns resembling sun gods.

A vibrant blood-red flower filled every corner of the palace, making it look like a city filled with flowers.

Ancient halls, decaying pillars and beams.

Vanished light, covered in darkness.

Grayish-white colors, cold brightness.

Vibrant red flowers, speaking of horror.

Everything in sight was absurd.

The staff member stared at it for a few seconds, then jumped up from their seat in fright. Even though the information didn't seem particularly special, at most just a particularly luxurious palace and exceptionally red flowers, they inexplicably felt extreme fear, as if facing a true natural predator.

After the "Flying Snake" detected this palace, it made a wide turn and fled back, so the footage it captured was very limited.

Therefore, the investigators could only analyze the video over and over again, trying to find more clues.

"Look here!"

A sharp-eyed worker pointed at a frame.

On one of the platforms, suspicious life forms were standing.

They were slender, with hands and feet, and their pink tongues were forked. Their cold eyes seemed unfocused, staring into the distance.

These creatures, similar to Snake People, held rusty weapons in their hands and wore tattered armor. People couldn't even tell if they were mummies or actual living beings.

"Are these statues?"

"No, absolutely not."

"Why aren't they moving... In several minutes of footage, they haven't even blinked."

The leading reconnaissance officer shivered and reported to the Upper Council: "Report! We have discovered a small floating city 8838.76 kilometers to the northeast. It might be left behind by a prehistoric civilization. The specific technological level is unknown."

"The images captured by the Flying Snakes are causing intense unease."

Upon receiving this notification, Lu Yuan did not dare to delay.

He first glanced at the photos. The mysterious palace, adorned with a large number of fresh flowers, looked as if it had syphilis, indeed giving off a very unsettling and bizarre feeling.

As for those strange Snake People... he couldn't tell if they were dead or alive.

"Dispatch some drones... No, wait, don't alert them yet!"