Old Soil and the Many Worlds

Lin Xuan was all too familiar with what an ordinary retired veteran was like.

There was one at home, and he saw him practically every day. It was impossible not to be familiar with one.

But compared to Director Huang from earlier, Lin Hai, also a retired veteran, was practically as harmless as a little lamb.

More than a year ago, when Lin Xuan first saw his eldest sister Lin Rou pin their father Lin Hai down so completely that he could not move, he had been shocked.

But after he himself had grinded both martial arts techniques to Lv.2 and raised the Martial Artist profession to Lv.2 as well, he no longer found it strange that Lin Rou could suppress Lin Hai.

Even now, while he still lacked the strength to suppress Lin Hai as effortlessly as Lin Rou could, Lin Hai might not necessarily be able to beat him in an unarmed fight.

Yet even now, when facing his eldest sister Lin Rou, he still felt that she was far beyond his reach.

Simply put, he could not even determine just how strong Lin Rou really was, because the gap between them was not small in the slightest.

When facing Director Huang earlier, he had felt as though he were facing Lin Rou directly.

Of course, it had only been similar.

Still, no matter what, it was enough to prove that Director Huang was no ordinary retired veteran.

"However, his bearing doesn't really resemble that of a Martial Artist." Lin Xuan secretly guessed. "A Mutant... or a Mech-Energy User?"

Lin Xuan recalled their earlier encounter, but could not come up with any clues.

By now, he had long since resolved many of the doubts he once had.

The tablet his family used to let him watch cartoons could access the internet, and much information could be found online in the first place.

Otherwise, the local news station would not openly mention terms such as Old Soil and Mutants.

Not long after his First Birthday Banquet, Lin Hai and his wife had allowed him to use the tablet for two hours a day. The tablet had been a first birthday gift from his grandparents.

Not long after getting the tablet, Lin Xuan searched online for every subject he was curious about, gaining quite a lot in the process.

What intrigued him most was naturally Old Soil, and there was still quite a bit of information about it available online.

Lin Xuan selected several sources that seemed fairly reliable. After compiling them, he summarized several key points.

So-called Old Soil was actually more like a second world or an inner world, which had formed a connection with Earth Origin Star for unknown reasons.

It had appeared more than seventy years ago. At the time, the governments of countries across the world seemed to have agreed beforehand, all announcing information regarding Old Soil one after another.

Even the name Old Soil had already been decided upon when it was first announced, though it naturally differed somewhat between languages.

When Lin Xuan saw this, he realized that the governments of various nations likely possessed intelligence unknown to the public. Otherwise, there was no way to explain why they had announced the existence of Old Soil together, even using the same name for it.

However, such hidden details certainly could not be found online.

Furthermore, the connection points between Earth Origin Star and Old Soil were also called "Bridges," and both sides of these "Bridges" had originally been sparsely populated regions in their respective worlds.

The exact reason was unknown.

The only certainty was that these "Bridges" had never appeared in bustling urban areas.

At Lin Xuan's First Birthday Banquet, his eldest sister Lin Rou's teacher had mentioned that he and Lin Rou had taken a shortcut to return through Divine Peak Bridge.

At the time, Lin Xuan had not known what Divine Peak Bridge was. Only later did he learn that it was the closest connection point to Dragon River City.

It was named Divine Peak Bridge because the connection point on Earth Origin Star's side was located within the Divine Peak Forest Area beside Dragon River City.

As a famous tourist attraction in Great Xia, some areas of the Divine Peak Forest Area were fairly populated, but most of it could indeed be considered sparsely inhabited.

It was not strange for a connection point to appear there.

While learning about Old Soil, Lin Xuan also keenly noticed that the number of "Bridges" on Earth Origin Star had been steadily increasing.

Several new "Bridges" were discovered almost every year. Divine Peak Bridge itself had only been discovered three years ago, which was why Great Xia's authorities had not yet had time to establish a complete settlement on the other side.

That was also why Lin Rou and her teacher had looked so disheveled that time. In their rush to save time, the two had clearly encountered some trouble.

After all, the situation in Old Soil was extremely complicated. Based on the information available online, Old Soil seemed to be connected to many different worlds.

Earth Origin Star was merely one of them.

As a result, Old Soil contained countless different civilizations, and Earth Origin Star's civilization did not even qualify as a supporting player there. It was simply one of the many ordinary civilizations connected to Old Soil.

Whether in technological level or other forms of power, it was nothing outstanding.

If the worlds other than Old Soil had not all been extremely hostile toward outsiders, Earth Origin Star would likely have been invaded by other civilizations long ago.

The governments of Earth Origin Star's nations had likely announced the existence of Old Soil because they realized they would be unable to hide it forever. Moreover, in the face of Old Soil's many civilizations, internal strife on Earth Origin Star was truly meaningless.

Rather than scheming against one another internally, it was better to find ways to obtain more resources from outside, while also redirecting internal conflicts.

Thus, after the existence of Old Soil was announced, Earth Origin Star indeed underwent a massive reshuffling.

From governments to ordinary citizens, everyone swiftly began devoting their efforts to Old Soil in different ways, and it soon benefited all of Earth Origin Star in return.

Of the things on Earth Origin Star that now seemed "highly unscientific," if not one hundred percent, then at least more than ninety percent were related to Old Soil.

The Mutants and Mech-Energy Users Lin Xuan had first heard about were both derived from Old Soil's technologies and methods.

Mutants included branches such as Beastmorphs and Gene Warriors, while Mech-Energy Users mainly included special groups more closely associated with technology, such as Mecha Pilots and Mechanical Modifiers.

In addition, special groups such as Martial Artists, psychics, and Mystic Scholars all had connections to Old Soil on various levels.

Although Earth Origin Star had suffered enormous casualties during its exploration of Old Soil, they were truly negligible compared to the gains.

After all, several major wars within Earth Origin Star had caused far more casualties than that, and there had not been any winners.

Even the victorious nations had only won pyrrhic victories.

Therefore, with the emergence of Old Soil, Earth Origin Star no longer had any cause for large-scale internal conflicts.

Even when disputes arose, they were mostly small-scale conflicts, and primarily individual clashes.

It was worth mentioning that while searching for information about Old Soil, Lin Xuan had repeatedly come across one particular claim.

There was a group of people who had always believed that the "Bridges" were not as unbreakable as they seemed.

They believed that as more and more connection points formed between the various worlds and Old Soil, the world's rejection would one day gradually weaken.

When that time came, what awaited Earth Origin Star would be a civilization-shattering catastrophe, a crisis bordering on the apocalypse.