Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 1288 - 661: The Dark World

”More than a thousand kilometers, in two hours?”

Xu Xin repeated it.

Xu Ying also looked at the man. ”Five hundred kilometers per hour—down in the underground world, that’s not slow at all. You’re... already prepared the vehicle we’re supposed to take, haven’t you?”

”Of course.”

The man nodded.

”Since I’m responsible for providing you with the location, naturally I have to see it through to the end. Directly beneath this World Tree, in the underground world, we’ve placed a flight shuttle. You can take this shuttle to move through the underground world.”

Flight shuttle...

Xu Xin thought of when he left the World Tree, that vast swarm of aircraft fifty or sixty kilometers away, like a cloud of flying insects.

Could it be those kinds of aircraft?

”What you’re providing is the invaders’ aircraft, right?” Shi Wanyun asked. ”Using that kind of aircraft, are you sure they really won’t notice?”

Is it really fine to just casually use the alien invaders’ military equipment?

”You can rest easy on that point. This craft is one our organization uses,” the man explained.

”This aircraft was actually one that malfunctioned and was supposed to be scrapped a hundred years ago. We didn’t scrap it. We retrieved it and refitted it. The positioning system was removed long ago, and we installed many anti-tracking devices on it. Above ground it might not completely escape the invaders’ tracking, but in the underground world it’s no problem at all, as long as you don’t get too close to their bases.

Our members have been using this method to shuttle through the underground world and maintain contact for hundreds of years, and we’ve never once been discovered by the ’Order Enforcers’ or the alien invaders, so you really don’t need to worry.”

So that’s how it was.

Xu Xin nodded.

The ”organization” the man spoke of was the ”resistance” of this timeline. Because their power was too weak, they could only communicate covertly underground for a thousand years.

They didn’t even dare use communications, because all long‑distance communication had to rely on the alien invaders’ satellites and could very likely be intercepted and monitored by the ”Order Enforcers”. So over these thousand years, they had honed the ability to come and go without a trace in the underground world.

”You people are impressive...” Xu Ying was amazed by the methods of the resistance in this world, then asked, ”When we talked last time, why didn’t you mention any of this?”

”When I talked to you last time, I didn’t fully trust you,” the man said. ”Didn’t you also not fully trust me?”

That was true.

The conversation between the two sides back then hadn’t exactly been pleasant; at first they basically didn’t reach any consensus.

Fortunately, later Xu Xin and the others brought the monster over and had it act as a go‑between for both sides.

When the man saw that the monster could speak human language and communicate steadily, he could hardly believe what he was seeing.

After that, the two sides exchanged some information and finally reached an agreement.

”Even though I still can’t believe you’ll succeed, the alien invaders have indeed mobilized their forces, and everything is unfolding exactly as you said,” the man said. ”That’s why we’ve decided to help you with everything we’ve got. Of course, you also have to do as you said before and not expose us. We also have to leave ourselves an escape route.”

As long as they weren’t exposed, even if Xu Xin and the others failed, they could still go on living.

”Don’t worry, exposing you wouldn’t bring us any benefit at all,” Xu Xin waved his hand. ”In that case, let’s not waste any more time. We’ll set off now. Shi Wanyun, you...”

Shi Wanyun said softly, ”I’ll do what I’m supposed to do. You all be careful.”

Shi Wanyun’s ability had nothing to do with combat, so naturally she wouldn’t be going with Xu Xin and the others.

But Shi Wanyun was the holder of this World Tree.

And here, they were surrounded by the vast ocean. For the alien invaders, this was absolutely a place they had no desire to come to at all.

So this place was also their fallback.

If Xu Xin and the others failed, then there would be no point for Ji Chaoyang and his group to keep holding out.

They could then directly transfer from inside the World Tree to this World Tree.

They weren’t going into this with no way back; in everything they did, they made sure to leave themselves a retreat.

Last time Xu Xin came here, he had already set up a coordinate here and linked it with the interior of the World Tree.

Although because of the difference in time flow inside and outside the World Tree, their compatibility was very poor, making communication and transmission impossible, as long as they adjusted the time flow rates inside and outside to be the same, transmission and communication would become possible.

In other words, once Xu Xin and the others failed, or Ji Chaoyang and his group couldn’t hold on anymore, they would directly adjust the time flow difference and transfer everyone inside the World Tree to this island.

At that point, they would need Shi Wanyun, the master of this World Tree, to receive the incoming people.

Of course, even if that really happened, it wouldn’t mean Xu Xin and the others were abandoning the other World Tree with the powerful time differential.

Even if they couldn’t hold that World Tree, the alien invaders would at most inject it with toxins and cause it to completely wither.

But the withering period was limited. It wouldn’t be long before the World Tree grew back again thanks to its powerful root system.

And since the alien invaders had no access permissions for the World Tree, they wouldn’t be able to make use of that World Tree.