Chapter 338: A million miles underground

He continued to descend into the earth.

At a depth of eighty thousand li, although Li Qi felt nothing, the surrounding gravity had already crushed many Divine Metals. It seemed that only Materials above the fifth rank could survive here.

Therefore, treasures were everywhere.

This place was inherently the birthplace of treasures, and only treasures could survive here.

Countless naturally formed Innate Spiritual Artifacts swam like fish in the high-energy plasma.

Most of these Spiritual Artifacts were not yet solidified; they were still serpentine energy bodies, possessing only attributes but no fixed shape, traversing this sea of energy freely and contentedly.

Their traces were boundless, their spirits overflowing with joy.

The vast dewdrops were faint, and the deep waves shimmered with light.

However, the calm was only temporary. Li Qi soon witnessed the mutual predation, devouring, and evolution among these wild Spiritual Artifacts.

It seemed that even eighty thousand li beneath the surface, primitive competition still existed.

Besides this primitive competition, it was not entirely peaceful here. In such a high-pressure, high-energy environment, the turbulence was also extremely violent. From time to time, one could see fierce eruptions caused by energy flow imbalances.

Countless energies converged and erupted from a focal point, like a flying spring scattering into the sea. In an instant, mighty waves surged, and billows crashed down like clouds.

Of course, there were no clouds here, so there would naturally be no cloud collapse, but many of the filamentous substances here looked very much like red and yellow clouds, even though they were actually extremely destructive energy flows.

If Li Qi had come here alone, he would probably have died instantly, even if he was a Seventh Rank.

He couldn't even pass through the pressure at thirty thousand li. Just trying to dig this far into the ground was something he couldn't do at his current stage, no matter what.

The earth of the world was not those soft mud balls and dirt clods.

To dig through the earth here, one needed to break through layers of resistance from the Earth Qi. It was fine at first, but below ten li, every step forward was difficult.

Continuing downwards, they soon reached the one hundred thousand li mark.

At this point, even the Innate Spiritual Artifacts had disappeared. No life in the usual sense could be born here.

Here, there was only Chaos.

High temperature and high pressure had destroyed the existence of all matter. Under normal circumstances, there would be nothing here but Chaos.

However, Li Qi still saw tangible matter at this depth.

Was it... a pillar? Or a continental shelf?

Li Qi couldn't be sure, but this thing definitely extended downwards from above, just like the root of a tooth, hidden in an unseen place, only visible when one reached below.

But it seemed that this very pillar supported everything above it?

So Li Qi guessed it was a continental shelf?

Was it this continental shelf that supported the continent of the world?

However, this was just Li Qi's own conjecture, without any evidence. It was entirely possible that this was just a substance he didn't understand, simply located deep within the earth of the world.

Then, it was an extremely monotonous journey.

The slow descent that followed lasted for three days.

The deeper they went, the slower the speed. Even the Spiritual Artifacts in the hands of the Wu Yu seemed to be struggling, with a trace of energy leaking out from time to time.

The Wu Yu themselves weren't afraid, but Li Qi was terrified.

Fortunately, the armor on Li Qi was exceptionally sturdy, easily blocking these threats.

Thanks to this armor, Li Qi would have died eight hundred times over.

They descended a full three hundred thousand li!

During this time, it was incredibly boring. There was nothing, not even the light generated by the high heat. All light was completely extinguished by the high pressure.

They could only perceive that they were still descending through some vibrating sound waves, occasional bumps, and the leakage from the Spiritual Artifacts.

At the same time, from the perspective of True Knowledge Dao Resonance, Li Qi could 'see' countless root systems... should they be called root systems? Li Qi wasn't sure either.

To be honest, these things, tens of thousands of li long and easily thousands of li thick, were a stretch to call root systems, but Li Qi truly felt they were like tooth roots, or plant roots.

At first, he only saw one, but as they descended, these root systems became thinner and thinner, now only dozens of li thick. Compared to the beginning, it was like the thickness of hair compared to an arm, so more and more roots became visible.

On the fifth day, they reached a depth of five hundred thousand li.

At this point, Li Qi began to question life.

But he said nothing, just quietly continued to descend.

Soon, they reached eight hundred thousand li deep.

Now, Li Qi was even terrified, not because he feared danger, but because his suspicions seemed to have materialized.

He had seen the distant appearance of the world more than once.

Whether he was riding a roc or in a carriage, he had looked out from beyond the realm and seen what this world, with its round sky and square earth, looked like.

Essentially, it was just a flat, circular continent.

Then, a conical 'Vigorous Wind' layer covered the continent. The Vigorous Wind was not high, only a few thousand li, so the world was not hemispherical, but a very, very flat continent, with a layer of Vigorous Wind like a soap bubble brushed over it.

In the eastern part of the world, water constantly fell from the boundary between the sea and the Void Realm, forming a spectacular, massive waterfall spanning millions of li. However, after this water fell beyond the realm, it would be caught by the Vigorous Wind layer at the edge, then blown up to the Nine Heavens, turning into water vapor, spreading throughout the world, and becoming things like rain and snow.

The eastern part of the world was slightly lower, so this rainwater would fall to the ground, join rivers and the like, and then flow into the East Sea, known as 'All Rivers Return to the Sea'.

Finally, this water would fall from the edge of the world's continent, joining the waterfall, completing another water cycle.

Because of this, the extreme west of the world, where Buddhism was located, was a desert, because the overall situation of the world was lower in the east and higher in the west, and water could not be retained in the Western Regions; it would flow away very quickly.

However, in Li Qi's estimation, the world was very 'flat'.

Could such a flat continent be eight hundred thousand li deep?

Three hundred thousand li, to be honest, Li Qi could understand, after all, he hadn't calculated it carefully.

But if it was eight hundred thousand li deep, then the world shouldn't be flat, but a cylindrical shape with a clearly discernible thickness, right?

And... looking at this journey, it probably wasn't over yet.

In other words, the world would be even deeper.

Where did such a great depth come from?

According to the visually estimated thickness of the world's continent, they should have already dug through the world by now, directly digging from below to beyond the realm.

But now it seemed that the depths of the world were not as they appeared.

This reminded Li Qi of that taboo.

'In the world, it is forbidden to descend more than thirty thousand li underground.'

Previously, Li Qi had thought that this taboo might be to prevent everyone from digging through the world and making it full of pits.

But now it seemed... it was as if something was being hidden.

Was he about to be privy to another secret?

Also, why would the Shaman reside so deep underground?

Li Qi felt both fearful and curious.

Another period of time passed.

Counting from when they started, seven days had already passed.

They had been descending for seven full days.

The last stretch of the journey was exceptionally long. Not only did their speed slow to an extreme, but the external pressure also reached an indescribable level.

From time to time, the rumbling sound of mountains collapsing echoed in their ears. It wasn't an actual collapse, but a slight tremor occasionally emanating from this place, which resembled the earth's core, as if it intended to shake the continent.

Li Qi felt that the Spiritual Artifact carrying the three of them was starting to give out. The runes protecting them and the connecting points were constantly trembling, as if they could explode at any moment.

However, the two Wu Yu seemed not to be very nervous, clearly indicating that this was not their first time here.

Because of their composure, Li Qi no longer felt afraid and instead used his memory to record everything around him.

Those incomparably clear silhouettes.

Countless blurry outlines twisted into black lines around them, like something drawn by a paintbrush. Rippling, beautiful curves wound around this place.

Li Qi found it hard to describe.

Everything here had never been exposed to light from above.

This was the primitive foundation, the 'basis' of the world.

It was these things, transcending material forms, that constituted the strong foundation of the world, supporting countless lives above and fostering a magnificent civilization.

Li Qi quietly admired all of this.

At the very end of this day, just as the eighth day was about to begin, the two Wu Yu finally spoke.

They said in unison, “We’ve arrived.”

Li Qi immediately perked up.

He had been counting all along.

One million two hundred thousand li!

At this moment, he was deep within the earth of the world, a full one million two hundred thousand li down.

The pressure and density here were astonishing. Based on his shallow knowledge of physics, Li Qi guessed that the dark, black things outside must be neutron-degenerate matter?

Of course, that's assuming the physics Li Qi learned was applicable here.

After all, this was the Shaman's dwelling place. The Laws of physics here should be determined by the Shaman.

The two Wu Yu each cast another spell.

Then, suddenly, with a 'ding-dong' sound, the immense oppressive force around them vanished abruptly.

One of the Wu Yu said to Li Qi, “This is the place. This is the ‘Mountain Root’ of Shaman God Mountain.”

Upon hearing this, Li Qi immediately looked up, engaging all his senses, wanting to remember every detail here!

The Mountain Root of Shaman God Mountain!

As is well known, a mountain is a mountain because it has a Mountain Root.

If a Great Power were to dig up hundreds of millions of tons of soil and rocks and pile them together, would that be called a mountain?

No, that wouldn't be a mountain; it would just be a pile of garbage. It wouldn't have mountain Qi, nor the proper status of a mountain, much less produce Mountain Gods and Spiritual Qi.

The Mountain Root is an important way to connect a mountain range to the earth. A mountain rooted in the earth through its Mountain Root can integrate with the Earth Qi, possess the status of a mountain, and produce various Divine phenomena. This is the fundamental difference from a small mound of dirt.

'Moving Mountains' could become a Great Divine Ability precisely for this reason. Moving Mountains is not simply severing a mountain and then placing that pile of dirt somewhere else; rather, it involves meticulously, like with a surgical knife, disassembling the Mountain Root from the Earth Qi, and then reattaching it to another place, without harming the mountain itself in the process. This demonstrates the importance of the Mountain Root.

And now, the place he was in was the Mountain Root of Shaman God Mountain!

This could probably be called the foremost mountain in all the Heavens, couldn't it?

Oh, not necessarily.

Li Qi had heard in books that in the extreme west of the world, there was a Mount Sumeru. On Mount Sumeru, there were Thirty-Three Heavens, standing in water, with a total height of eighty thousand Yojanas.

One Yojana was twenty-five li. Calculating the length, eighty thousand Yojanas, seemed to be two million li?

Wait.

Was that number a bit of a coincidence?

How deep had he gone into the earth?

One million li...

Damn it.

In other words, if the Shaman God Mountain's records weren't fabricated, Mount Sumeru and Shaman God Mountain were roughly the same height?

Coincidence?

Or did they both 'support the Heaven and Earth'?

Supporting the Heaven and Earth of the world.

Pondering these thoughts, Li Qi followed the two Wu Yu, advancing in this darkness.

At the Mountain Root of Shaman God Mountain, there was no pressure, but still no light.

But none of the three needed eyes to find their way, so there was no worry about falling.

Soon, a tiny glimmer of light appeared in the darkness.

So everyone began to speed up.

After walking for a few minutes, the light grew larger and larger, and Li Qi was finally able to clearly see what was emitting the light.

It turned out that in this darkness, there was a giant.

The giant sat cross-legged in a void of darkness, and the Mountain Root of Shaman God Mountain was resting on his shoulder.

That point of light was where the Mountain Root of Shaman God Mountain met his shoulder.

The Mountain Root of Shaman God Mountain was already very thin here, but it was still more than ten li thick, which also reflected the enormous size of the giant.

He was thousands of li tall, and even sitting cross-legged, he was like a mountain.

Fortunately, the surroundings were all dark Void Realm, so it made him seem not very large.

But the closer Li Qi got, the more he could feel the oppressive presence brought by the other party's immense size.

That wasn't pressure from cultivation; it was simply because his physical size was too vast.

The giant wore no clothes, only a beast hide, of unknown origin, wrapped around his waist.

Beside the giant, countless strange entities existed.

Crowds of ghosts and demons leaped and danced before him, while fierce beasts and venomous snakes crouched behind him.

Their eyes were like basins, mouths like pots, with green faces and tusks. They held halberds in their hands, rode paper horses beneath their crotches, howling incessantly and shouting incomprehensible yet mesmerizing sounds.

These ghost crowds and fierce beasts were like toys in front of the giant, but in reality, each was over a thousand meters tall, and each made Li Qi tremble with fear.

Each of these things could easily obliterate Li Qi's Spirit Soul with just a glance.

Li Qi couldn't even discern their true nature.

However, upon closer inspection, he realized that these ghost crowds and fierce beasts all wore masks.

Some, wearing different masks, held hemp whips several li long, constantly lashing them through the air with extremely sharp cracking sounds.

Those rumbling thunderous sounds just now were produced by them cracking their hemp whips!

This bizarre scene was located at the bottom of Shaman God Mountain!

As a Shaman, Li Qi immediately recognized what these masked ghosts and monsters were doing.

This was—

A Nuo ritual?