Cave Refuge

Exactly because of this, compared to the Rabbit's Home, which stabilized early on during the catastrophe and has maintained order until now, the situation in the White Elephant Zoo was chaotic from beginning to end.

The reason the animals in the White Elephant Zoo haven't died out yet is only that there are many of them, and they have managed to survive through all sorts of abnormal weather, which is quite an accomplishment in and of itself.

As for the Bobby Lamb and the situation to the east of Rabbit's Home, because they were obedient before the catastrophe, like the Northern Stick area, the Rabbit re-established contact with them and provided them with some useful information, allowing them to live relatively securely during the catastrophe.

The situation in several other zoos around Rabbit's Home was roughly the same.

When Dong Tianyu stepped out of the Cave, he took out his tablet and saw that he had received many messages from people asking if he had encountered any danger. Upon opening them, most were inquiring about his safety.

Father Dong and Mother Dong told Dong Tianyu to be very careful outside, and informed him that although the catastrophe seemed dangerous, the Dragon Siphon had not come close to their base and was directly annihilated by the base's artillery, so Dong Tianyu need not worry about their safety.

Dong Tianyu first reassured his parents, then briefly recounted his recent experiences so they wouldn't worry and roughly told them his expected return date, asking them not to fret over him.

Although the satellites launched by the Rabbit could provide communication services for everyone on Blue Star, in reality, unless one was within the territory of Rabbit's Home, phone communications were possible but the signal was very unstable outdoors, so most people chose to exchange messages to stay in contact.

Apart from his parents, Ye Liuyun also sent Dong Tianyu many messages. Ye Liuyun actually had more of a business mind than many, and after receiving Dong Tianyu's reminder and initial investment, successfully established herself in the base.

Looking through the messages sent by Ye Liuyun, apart from the meaningless greetings, she also mentioned several matters, the first of which was the violent fluctuation in the price of the Dark Green Trick Nucleus.

From the exorbitant prices at the beginning when no one knew how to obtain it, to the plummeting prices after everyone learned how to acquire it, to redefining it after experiencing the catastrophe.

Throughout these drastic changes in price, Ye Liuyun had made a tidy profit buying low and selling high.

In addition to saying hello, she also inquired when Dong Tianyu would return because she had prepared a generous gift for him, her angel investor.

After reading Ye Liuyun's messages, Dong Tianyu didn't reply immediately. Instead, he checked other messages he had received and saw that most were just routine greetings after the end of the catastrophe.

Therefore, Dong Tianyu gave a polite, standardized reply to the others, and after telling Ye Liuyun a rough estimate of when he would return and joking with her a bit, he sent his responses.

Since the sudden catastrophe had ended, Dong Tianyu continued on his journey to search dangerous places.

The next target, so to speak, was Basin Chicken's pre-catastrophe promotional landmark: Poor Pawn Mountain.

It was rumored that residing within this volcano was a legendary animal famous in their zoo: Yamata no Orochi.

To be honest, this thing was quite strange, and it's possibly due to cultural continuity, even those high-level monsters from their own legends, whether in the mythological animal introductions of their zoo or in the Rabbit's Home's Compendium of Ghosts and Gods, could be found intricately connected.

Especially their zoo's Yamata no Orochi and Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox, after combining the two families' legends, made the stories read seamlessly without any flaws.

This time, Dong Tianyu's destination, Poor Pawn Mountain, was actually in search of Yamata no Orochi, which, according to the legends from Rabbit's Home, was known in this region as Willow Minister.

According to the legend, it was during Great Yule's efforts to control the waters that it was slain by the Ape Sword, which Yule had borrowed from the Yellow Emperor.

But as everyone knows, Willow Minister had nine heads, and just like the mythical cat monster with nine lives, it actually had nine lives, so although it appeared to have been killed by Great Yule, in actuality, it only lost one head.

However, because the influence of humanity was flourishing in the Central Plain, it did not dare show itself after being killed, so it had to feign death and escape to the seas far away from the Central Plain, and eventually, it settled incognito as the Basin Chicken of Rabbit's Home.

The Nine-Tailed Fox had a very similar experience to Yamata no Orochi. If one combines myth and history, unlike Willow Minister who was also an outsider, it can be ascertained that the initial appearance of the Nine-Tailed Fox is strikingly similar to the time shortly after the end of the Investiture of the Gods.

And just like Dahlia from the Investiture of the Gods battle, this Nine-Tailed Fox was also very adept at the Art of Enchantment and was keen on enchanting Da Huang from the Basin Chicken household.

It seemed that Dahlia had died with Jones Samuel in the Investiture of the Gods, but logically speaking, whether it was the immortals blocking the calamity or the generals in the empires, nearly every character with a name and a presence during the Investiture was listed on the divine roster.

Even Jones Samuel himself had been listed as an immortal, but Dahlia seemed to have disappeared from everyone's sight, as if her soul had not been scattered to oblivion.

Whether she drank poison with Jones Samuel or entered the Star Picking Tower with him to self-immolate, it's important to know that she was not subjected to any restraints at the time of her death; she chose to end her life alongside Jones Samuel voluntarily.

Considering the mortal world's poison and the Mortal Fire that ignited the Star Picking Tower, not to mention killing a monster of profound cultivation hiding in the grave of Ape, even a transformable Little Demon would not likely die from such means if it took a bit of caution.

Yet Dahlia died in such an apparently spectacular but ludicrous manner, and everyone seemed uninterested in where her soul ended up, as if this monster never existed from the beginning.

It's well known that Dahlia had caused chaos in the court for many years, and she had no shortage of adversaries. Yet even those who detested her to the core seemed to act as if she was a stranger upon her death, quickly forgetting about her—surely this signaled that something unspeakable was at play.

Furthermore, Nvwa, being a saint, had made her own promise before issuing her command, so after a bit of thought, one could naturally conclude that Dahlia's supposed suicide following Jones Samuel was actually a ruse to escape death.

After all, had she indeed died like Jones Samuel, her soul would not have disappeared; she would have been listed as well, together on the roster.

There's another theory that the Nine-Tailed Fox was slain by Jake Jagger with the Immortal Slaying Flying Knife, but the outcome was the same after death—the soul of the Nine-Tailed Fox mysteriously vanished.

Some might say that the soul of the Nine-Tailed Fox was directly obliterated by the Immortal Slaying Flying Knife, yet she was not the only monster to die by that blade; whether it was Evan York or Henry Warren, didn't they all eventually get listed on the Investiture of the Gods and become immortals in the end?

Therefore, at the end of the Investiture, Nvwa had likely fulfilled her promise, but instead of keeping the Nine-Tailed Fox in Middle Earth, she sent it overseas.

But Dong Tianyu did not believe that the creature now in Poor Pawn Mountain was Willow Minister; after all, putting other things aside, one only had to consider the concentration of Spirit Energy in the air at the moment—though it might be many times higher than during the early days of the cataclysm, it was still likely much less compared to the period of the Investiture when the three purities could still appear in their true forms in the mortal world.

Besides, if the creature in Poor Pawn Mountain was indeed Willow Minister, then that could only mean a return of the gods; but if the gods returned, then no disaster could remain a disaster anymore.

It was precisely for this reason that Dong Tianyu continued his exploration without any fear.