Exploration

The rhizome system spread into the caves they had discovered. Huo Gu thought that since he was going to explore the caves, he might as well explore the other ones too.

These caves were deep, winding, and full of mystery. On the cave walls, one could see colorful glowing crystals that looked extremely enigmatic.

Of course, that was only how it seemed to humans who were still limited to the naked eye and mortal flesh.

Huo Gu was no longer human now.

"Oh, so that's how it is. This place should have been a channel where lava once flowed. The high temperature refined out the silicon, which then mixed with trace radioactive elements in the strata."

"The strongest evidence is that the rock walls are made of pyroxene rich in metallic elements..."

Having analyzed up to this point, Huo Gu suddenly froze for a long while. Only after some time did he react, staring at the crystals on the cave wall in sheer horror, as though he were looking at a swarm of evil ghosts crawling up from hell.

"Fuck! This place has nuclear radiation?!"

"Rhizome system, thicken the rhizome epidermis inside the cave."

Huo Gu issued the order, while also searching the region covered by the rhizome system for elements like lead, elements that could absorb radiation, and adding them into the epidermis of the rhizomes inside the cave.

After a flurry of panic, the exploration continued. The cluster of rhizomes gradually pushed deeper into the cave.

"Huh? The passage is getting wider?"

"Forget that for now. Keep going deeper."

The rhizomes continued to advance, the situation now the complete opposite of when they had first entered. Back then, the passage had grown narrower and narrower. Now, it was becoming wider and wider.

It seemed they had reached the end of the passage. Through the rhizomes, Huo Gu could clearly feel airflow brushing over their epidermis. That meant this place was either connected to the outside world, or its internal space was vast enough to generate airflow.

Right now, Huo Gu was exploring downward, so it was obviously the latter.

"No way... Could there really be an underground world?!"

The rhizomes spread out of the passage, and Huo Gu's field of vision left the passage with them, taking in the scenery at the end.

Huge. Huge beyond description. Ahead, no end could be seen. To the left, no end could be seen. To the right, no end could be seen. Above, no ceiling could be seen. It was like arriving in some netherworld alien realm. Compared with this, the underground cavity Huo Gu had fallen into from the sea before could at most be considered a small room.

"H-how on earth did this form?"

Huo Gu somewhat suspected that he was hallucinating. The scene before him had once again exceeded the scope of his knowledge. Theoretically speaking, such an environment should have been extremely difficult to form, and even if the conditions existed, after some time it should have collapsed under the excessive mass above it.

But this was very obviously not a newly formed underground cavity!

At this time, the other caves had also been explored to their ends. There were underground cavities there too, but compared with this one, it was like comparing the size of an elephant and an ant.

Now there were two choices before Huo Gu: continue deeper, or stop here.

"Mm... There's no water in these underground cavities. In that case, if the distance keeps extending, the difficulty of transport will also increase."

Unlike the rubber pipes of humans, every part of Huo Gu's biological pipelines, built from cells, required water for "maintenance." In other words, as the transport distance grew, the water that could be delivered would decrease.

"The other underground cavities still haven't been explored. Why don't I pause the exploration of this ultra-massive underground space for now, first set up a non-biological pipeline to transport water, and I can also see what's inside the other cavities."

"Mm, let's do that."

Having made up his mind, Huo Gu shifted his perspective and switched to the other underground cavities.

After being shocked by that previous ultra-giant cavity, these cavities, which were two to three times larger than the underground cavity he had first fallen into, could no longer stir much in Huo Gu's heart.

Compared with the outside, the interiors of the cavities were extremely "barren." Because there was no liquid water and no lava to provide matter, the amount of bacteria that could breed was pitifully small, while the cost of the rhizome system's exploration was so enormous.

Huo Gu soon discovered an awkward fact: he had run out of organic materials.

The underground cavities were too large, and there were too few materials that could be collected. In truth, the organic materials should have been exhausted long ago. The reason they had lasted until now was because rhizome remains would occasionally fall from above, or Calabashes and Titanium Snails swept into the whirlpool, and Huo Gu had recycled those organic materials to hold out until now.

"What do I do? At this rate, even if the rhizome system grows fast enough, the pace of exploration will be dragged down."

Huo Gu cast his gaze toward the cave mouth that was continuously spewing seawater. It connected to the ocean above, the only passage he currently knew of.

"Go out?"

"No, no, no. Absolutely not!"

The thought had only just risen before it was denied in utter terror. The psychological shadow that indescribable existence outside had cast over Huo Gu, if calculated by area, could probably cover the entire surface of the planet.

Before mastering enough power to contend with it, Huo Gu would not consider appearing within that thing's field of vision.

"If... it were other creatures, would that thing attack them too?"

Such a thought emerged in Huo Gu's mind. The reason he thought of this was precisely because he was currently inspired by the organic raw materials he lacked: "microorganisms."

From the very beginning, that unknown thing seemed to have been staring fixedly at Huo Gu, while turning a blind eye to the microorganisms in the ocean.

This meant that it could distinguish the difference between Huo Gu and other life. Precisely because it could tell this difference, it targeted Huo Gu so specifically while ignoring other creatures.

Thinking about it in reverse, it was actually quite simple. Huo Gu could make use of this point and create some creatures with autonomous ability, have them collect organic materials in the ocean, then deliver them into the whirlpool.

Thinking of this, Huo Gu hesitated, for this meant creating true life, not biological tools like the Gourd or the Titanium Snail; these would possess the concept of "self."

This involved many of Huo Gu's concerns, and it was also why Huo Gu would rather tolerate command delays than design true macroscopic organisms with autonomous intelligence.

"After such creatures are designed, can I still control their cells the way I do now?"

"Will they still obey my orders? Could they turn around and attack me?"

"Restrictions are impossible. Life will always find a way. If one day this kind of creature gives birth to intelligence, and learns of my existence, how will it look at me?"

"...Judging by human temperament, they'd probably chop God to death in the street."

It sounded like something very distant, but Huo Gu was already immortal. To him, several hundred million years would pass in the blink of an eye. A distant problem was, in essence, right before his eyes.

If that was hard to understand, it could be understood another way. Summer vacation sounded very long, a full two months, but after playing around for a while, one would realize it was already the last day of the holiday, and the homework had not been touched at all.