Unearthed Object

As the Collectors on the seafloor gradually adapted to the undersea environment, the speed at which the rhizomes spread through the underground cavity also returned to its former efficiency.

Through the rhizome system, Huo Gu continued observing the Collectors' gathering work. Only after confirming that, by and large, the Collectors would no longer run into any problems did he finally set his mind at ease and turn his attention to exploring the underground cavities.

The cluster of rhizomes inside the cavity soon covered half of an underground cavity they had discovered earlier.

That cavity brought Huo Gu no small surprise. Inside it, Huo Gu discovered a crack through which seawater kept pouring in, as well as Gourd and Titanium Snail scattered all over the ground. Clearly, this fissure was also a passage leading up to the seafloor above.

With this, the channels through which Huo Gu obtained water were doubled, and there was no need to widen the original passage.

Of course, if it had only been something like this, it would not have been enough to make Huo Gu, who had been through so much, feel "shocked." At most, it would have been an unexpected delight. What truly astonished him was something he discovered inside the cavity.

It was a regular triangular pyramid, not large in size, only about a few centimeters across. The cone extended down into the rock layer, making it easy to associate it with the sharp top of some object buried in the strata.

The reason this thing could be discovered at all was because of the rootlets of the rhizome system. The rhizomes needed rootlets to fix their positions. When the rootlets pierced into the rock layer, because the triangular pyramid was far harder than the surrounding rock, the rootlets formed a "V" shape in the strata, successfully drawing Huo Gu's attention.

Although there was no shortage of ores harder than the rock layer within the strata, such a regular shape really was extremely rare.

Without thinking too much, Huo Gu began excavating that area out of pure curiosity. He had not expected to actually unearth something that shocked him like this.

Studying the regular triangular pyramid exposed from the rock layer, Huo Gu suppressed the excitement in his heart and voiced his thought in disbelief.

"An artificial product?"

There was no other reason. This shape was too regular. It did not look like a natural product at all.

Huo Gu used a rootlet to scrape some molecules from the triangular pyramid and analyzed its composition.

"Iron?"

"No, there's carbon inside too. Steel?"

"That's not right either. There's potassium, titanium, silver, lead..."

More than twenty elements were discovered in succession. However, Huo Gu still could not immediately draw a conclusion. The cavity had once been a gathering place for mafic lava, so the presence of large amounts of various metallic elements was very normal.

To further verify his idea, Huo Gu directed the rhizomes and took up his old trade—archaeological excavation.

Having the rhizomes' rootlets carry out the excavation was far more efficient than humans excavating with small brushes. And since they could be precise down to the molecular scale, the damage they caused to the excavated object was far smaller than that caused by small brushes.

What disappointed Huo Gu somewhat was that the portion continuing downward from the regular triangular pyramid became no longer so regular, though it still had edges and corners.

This meant the possibility that the excavated object was a natural product had increased.

Although his enthusiasm had taken a severe blow, Huo Gu still decided to dig out the excavated object in its entirety. Perhaps it was due to obsessive-compulsive tendencies, or perhaps it had something to do with an occupational habit.

The rootlets were extremely powerful, and with Huo Gu, a seasoned hand at archaeology, operating them, the excavation proceeded very smoothly. All kinds of possible excavation accidents were avoided by Huo Gu in advance, and the excavation work rapidly neared its end, revealing itself before Huo Gu.

It was a metal plate, thirty meters long and eighty-two meters wide, with a certain curvature to it. The shape of its edges was irregular, like scraps of paper casually torn out by a brat.

The thickness of each part of the metal plate was also uneven. The earlier measurement had been six meters, but the results measured at other edge areas were eight meters, seven meters, and five meters. In short, its thickness fell within the range of eight to five meters.

At first glance, it seemed to be nothing more than a naturally formed object, but Huo Gu keenly noticed a rather attention-grabbing feature on the excavated object.

One side of the metal plate, though not straight and flat, was generally like plains and hillsides, with very slight undulations. The other side, however, was covered in pits and hollows, craters of various sizes, just like the surface of the moon. Some of the holes even connected to the reverse side, looking as though something had pierced through it.

"Could it be..."

Huo Gu seemed to have understood something. Shock mixed with disbelief, and he could not help murmuring to himself.

"No! It's still too early to draw a conclusion. First, determine how long this metal plate has existed."

The rootlets of the rhizome system pierced through the metal plate. This was very easy for them. Although the metal plate was harder than rock, it was also made of molecules. As long as they could feel out the gaps between molecules, the rootlets could pierce through it with ease.

A sample of the excavated object was taken off by the rootlets, then rolled into the interior of the rhizome system. Huo Gu wanted to analyze the proportion of half-life atoms in the metal plate and calculate exactly how much time the metal plate had gone through.

Very soon, the result came out.

"Eight hundred million years..."

It was a number that left Huo Gu clicking his tongue. Dinosaur fossils were only a little over two hundred million years old. He now roughly understood why the various parts of the metal plate had inconsistent thickness. Over such a long span of time, chemical reactions in the strata would still corrode the metal plate, making its thickness uneven.

However, none of this could explain the phenomenon of one side of the metal plate being riddled with pits while the other side was not.

Huo Gu once again thought of "man-made object," but without decisive evidence, he did not dare be so arbitrary. It was not as if nature completely lacked the conditions to form this kind of metal plate.

The matter inside this cavity temporarily came to an end. Huo Gu continued exploring the other cavities. During this period, he did not discover anything with a structure similar to that metal plate.

An emotion that was hard to describe or explain, whether disappointment or something else, now occupied Huo Gu's heart. Perhaps his subconscious had been hoping that it was an artificial object.

"Next is the exploration of the large cavity."

"I hope I can find something."

The rhizomes that had been halted at the entrance of the large cavity finally stirred again. The problem of water transportation had also long since been resolved. Under Huo Gu's command, the rhizomes spread with overwhelming momentum.

Entering through the rhizomes' field of vision, Huo Gu once again witnessed the vast space of that cavity. If not for the wall behind him, Huo Gu would even have thought he had returned to the surface once more, to a surface where one could not see one's hand in front of one's face.

"My heavens, how exactly did this cavity form?"

Huo Gu's curiosity about the formation of this cavity rose once again.