Volcano

A line of gourds, moving by jet propulsion, slowly approached Huo Gu from afar.

In truth, Huo Gu had not abandoned the gourd design just because it had a new design. After constructing the rough prototype of the entire rhizome system, it allocated a portion of organic matter to manufacture a new group of gourds.

Of course, to avoid another situation like having their surface skin sliced open by rocks, it used the accumulated layering of dead wall cells on the outside of the wall cells to create a single, thin cuticle with a certain degree of toughness.

If they were merely washed ashore to that extent, rocks could no longer slice open the gourds' surface skin, unless they encountered a disaster like that ferocious wave again.

The price of increased defense was decreased speed, but that was not a problem. The gourds' role had already changed from "escapees" to "Collectors," existing as mobile collection platforms in the ocean.

The rhizome system covering the seafloor had a limit, which was that it could only collect organic materials close to the seabed. The sea was different from land; it was a three-dimensional activity space. If it collected only the organic materials on a two-dimensional plane, that would undoubtedly be a waste.

The gourd group drew close to the vicinity of the tumorous mass. On a certain part of the tumorous mass were dozens of depressions. The heads of the individual gourds docked with the openings, completing the entire process of transferring organic materials.

Back when it constructed the rhizome system, considering the problem of transportation, Huo Gu simply placed the "warehouses" for storing materials inside the compartment cavities it had designed for sensory cells.

Among the transferred materials, amino acids would undergo dehydration condensation to form proteins, then be separated from the aqueous solution and stored in a specialized cavity. The same went for the various other elements gathered; after being made into simple substances, they were stored in specialized cavities for future use.

Everything proceeded smoothly according to its expectations. Rather, the design of the rhizome system had been completed far earlier than the collection of organic materials.

The current situation was that organic materials were tight.

Therefore, regarding the matter of designing a cellular cluster more efficient, faster, and more enduring than the gourds in moving through water, Huo Gu decided to set it aside for now and consider it again after some time.

There was also something Huo Gu needed to do, which was to figure out the specific situation of this volcanic island. With such a dangerous neighbor by its side, it had to personally confirm the truth of some information.

After all, this concerned its own life and death. It did not want to be suddenly surprised by this neighbor. Many things in this world might happen suddenly without warning, just like its original "transmigration."

It split off a portion of its attention and focused it on the main root that was climbing the columnar-jointed stone wall. An eye grew on this main root, allowing Huo Gu to observe the outside environment.

Through the image formed by the electrical signals transmitted back from the eye, Huo Gu finally saw up close what the inland area of the volcanic island away from the coast specifically looked like.

Barren, extremely barren. After climbing over the stone wall, the entire plane above was one huge slab of rock. The rock was covered with cracks shaped like the patterns on a turtle shell, but these cracks only existed on the huge rock; the small stones did not have them instead.

Huo Gu guessed this was the result of rapid cooling. Even boiling water, when faced with lava flows at temperatures of at least seven hundred degrees Celsius, was practically no different from cold water and could produce the same "cooling" effect as cold water.

The main root bent from the edge of the stone wall, flattened itself against the stone surface, and grew sideways.

At the same time, the rootlets on the main root were not idle either. They penetrated the surrounding stone surface, both providing anchorage for the main root and allowing Huo Gu to understand the surrounding elemental structure.

The eye on the main root gazed at the highest peak in the center of the island, that active volcano still spewing vast amounts of smoke and dust, like a giant factory smokestack.

Before long, the main root arrived at the foot of the mountain, where there were large amounts of small gravel and volcanic glass.

These small pieces of gravel had originally been stones on the edge of the crater. Enduring the volcano's scorching heat, along with the endless heavy rain of the Hadean Eon, they quickly became unable to withstand the alternation between cold and heat, shattering into small stones and glass crystals like these, then rolling down to the foot of the mountain. Thus, the current terrain had been created.

If it had been before, it might have been rather troublesome, because it would have needed to consider the sharp edges and corners of the gravel and glass.

But now, this kind of terrain was no longer a problem for Huo Gu.

The main root's movement did not rely on limbs to drive it, but on "growth." It was similar to a plant, relying on cell division to achieve displacement.

It was a little slow, but this slowness was relative to animals. Compared with plants, it was godlike speed, because there was a superconsciousness like Huo Gu conducting macroscopic regulation.

The main root lay on it without the slightest fear, pushing straight toward the mountaintop.

Considering that this steep slope was made of small gravel and glass fragments and that there was a possibility of landslides, especially in an environment constantly scoured by rainwater, Huo Gu dispatched another main root, advancing toward the mountaintop by circling the volcano like a mountain road. This way, even if the original main root encountered a landslide and fell off, the circling main root could replace the first one, though it would take more time.

Fortunately, Huo Gu did not need to use the second main root. The first main root arrived at the crater at the mountaintop.

Thick smoke billowed, and the air was scorching hot. Because it was an alkaline volcano, the concentration of metal ions in the air was extremely high. Immersed in this environment, all the iron sand on the ground had turned into magnets.

The main root could not advance another inch. If it advanced any farther, the temperature would reach the ignition point and cause spontaneous combustion.

At such a close distance, because it was not on the seabed and there was no water to cool it immediately, it could very easily see the crimson, glowing lava inside the volcano, still bubbling from time to time.

"All right, this is an active volcano, not a dormant volcano. I shouldn't have held any wishful thinking." Huo Gu resigned itself to it and mocked itself.

Ever since transmigrating into this form, Huo Gu had been hiding here and there, moving with extreme caution. Now that it had finally managed to temporarily possess a secure place to occupy, it had unconsciously developed a lucky thought like, "Maybe I'm fortunate, and this volcano is already dormant; the smoke rising from the crater is a smoke column formed by evaporating water vapor."

Now, this delusion had shattered. At the same time, Huo Gu breathed a sigh of relief. It deeply understood that the shattering of this delusion would not help its current situation in any way. On the contrary, it might have placed it in danger.

In a world full of crises, no lucky flukes should exist. With this lesson learned and taken as a warning, it would not make this kind of mistake so easily in the future.

Of course, Huo Gu had come so close to the crater not only to correct its own mindset, but more importantly because there was one more thing it needed to confirm.

The main root wrapped a small piece of volcanic rock debris very close to the crater into its body.