Cave Refuge

Because the boat under them was a Companion Spiritual Treasure, controlling it was not like that of ordinary vessels which, aside from the captain, required several specialized personnel to assist.

Therefore, what was referred to here as the cockpit was actually just Ye Liuyun's exclusive resting room. Inside, instead of a collection of complicated instruments, it more closely resembled a very minimalist lounge.

"Zachary, when do you think the floods submerging the land will recede?"

Hearing Ye Liuyun suddenly bring up this matter, Dong Tianyu paused, asking subconsciously, "What happened, why do you ask that?"

"Actually, I'm not very clear myself, but I always feel that the recent situation isn't quite right. Usually after a natural disaster strikes, there's an interim period before a new one arrives, but this time they're happening in rapid succession, and I can't shake the feeling that something's not quite right."

After listening to Ye Liuyun's words, Dong Tianyu also fell into deep thought. He hadn't considered the situation so deeply before because, with the existence of the Cave, no matter what kind of natural disasters befell the outside world, it didn't significantly impact him.

The reason Dong Tianyu now frequently left the Cave to wander the outside world was not only to elevate his mental state but also to avoid becoming detached from society, especially now that the occurrence of natural disasters was becoming increasingly chaotic.

Therefore, Dong Tianyu did not want to emerge from closed-door cultivation in the Cave as an immortal, only to discover that there were no traces left of human existence on Blue Star.

This was not a joke but a real occurrence. As natural disasters continued to surface, not all nations' Imperial Courts were like Rabbit's Home; many either became a shame cover for the Financial Conglomerates or, along with their nations, faded progressively into extinction.

These were all announcements publicly shared by the Imperial Court on tablets. Although the Imperial Court also concealed some of the latest information they obtained, they would still release certain delayed messages that had minimal impact on the public every so often.

The few satellites once launched into the sky weren't all just for communication; surely some had other important purposes, among which global monitoring—ahem, global positioning—was the most important.

But looking at Ye Liuyun's expression of deep concern, Dong Tianyu felt somewhat speechless. After all, the announcements mainly detailed the tragedies abroad, which simply did not stir a bit of empathy in Dong Tianyu.

After all, Dong Tianyu had always believed in the saying, "Those who are not of our kin, their hearts must be different." Hence, regarding the situations facing the survivors abroad, as long as there were no entanglements of interest with Dong Tianyu, no matter the state of others, he would not be overly concerned.

It was for this very reason that Dong Tianyu found Ye Liuyun's current conflicted expression particularly baffling: "What are you trying to say?"

He had thought Ye Liuyun was going to comment on the situation abroad, but to Dong Tianyu's surprise, perhaps he was mistaken. When Ye Liuyun spoke up, she didn't mention anything related to foreign affairs.

"Do you remember how the floodwaters rose when the deluge came?"

"If I remember correctly, it had been a prolonged period of torrential rain, and the water level rose continually during that storm, eventually submerging the entire land."

"You are right, but have you ever considered where all that water that submerged the land on Blue Star came from? Blue Star's water is finite."

Upon hearing this, Dong Tianyu couldn't help feeling speechless. What 'Blue Star's water is finite'? He had never considered that the land on Blue Star is also finite, and yet it still kept expanding, eventually growing to its current size.

Since companion spiritual treasures that could bind to one's soul and be directly stored in the Sea of Consciousness when not in use had appeared, the scientific law of conservation of energy temporarily lost its mandatory adherence.

Seeing Dong Tianyu's unyielding demeanor, Ye Liuyun knew he had to produce something substantial; otherwise, his words were nothing more than a joke in Dong Tianyu's eyes.

Then, Ye Liuyun took out his tablet, opened a video, and then passed the tablet to Dong Tianyu for him to watch the content on his own.

Although unsure of what Ye Liuyun intended to do, Dong Tianyu still casually took the tablet from his hand and shifted his gaze to the video on the screen.

After watching for a while, Dong Tianyu grew impatient and began to drag the video's progress bar with his hand, speeding through the footage, but the content didn't show much change.

The entire video could be classed as a documentary, focusing solely on one subject throughout—an enormous pit.

This pit was unlike the sea vortex Dong Tianyu had encountered. Normally, vortexes that appear on the sea surface are simply a special phenomenon accidentally created by the crossing of two water currents. Even if the middle of the vortex is hollow, this only means that it has pushed away all the ordinary water elements around it.

However, the pit in the video was different; it seemed like an abyss that never ended. Even though surrounding seawater continuously poured into the pit, there were still no signs of it being filled.

But ever since the natural disaster struck, numerous bizarre incidents have emerged one after another. As for this pit that merely takes in water without swallowing people, it hasn't garnered much attention.

Yet that unnoticed pit had given Ye Liuyun a clue; the edge of the pit was always about half a meter lower than the waterline.

Because the edge of the pit was lower than the water level, without the need for any magic, water from the surrounding area would naturally flow into the pit—to put it in old terms, "Humanity aspires to climb heights, while water seeks low places."

But from the moment he discovered the pit until now, the height at the edge of the pit had consistently been maintained at about half a meter to one meter lower than the waterline, allowing the surrounding water to naturally flow into it without any assistive force.

Putting aside whether the pit was bottomless, if it really were a bottomless pit, it could potentially absorb all the floodwaters that had submerged the land.

There were many ways to test whether the absorption of water by the pit could effectively lower the waterline. Various instruments produced before the natural disaster, as well as the skilled hands among the survivors, were not lacking.

What Dong Tianyu could think of, Ye Liuyun could naturally also consider. Therefore, long ago when he became aware of this, Ye Liuyun had already arranged for measurements and records to be taken, and he even attempted to use some detection methods in the air to try to glimpse the actual situation inside the pit.

Yet, to Ye Liuyun's complete surprise, any object that entered the pit, just like the open-lid coffins in the Coffin Sea, would lose all contact with the outside world once it reached a certain depth.

Whether using various experimental animals, photographic equipment, or even just a stone tied to a rope in the end, the result was the same—all became a one-way journey.

Although no progress was made in exploring the inside of the pit, the group that measured the water level daily at the edge of the pit brought different news to Ye Liuyun after several days of testing and observation.

After repeated confirmations that the water level around the pit was indeed dropping, although the waterline had lowered by less than half a meter after several days, this was a tangible reduction. Given enough time, the flood drowning Blue Star would inevitably be ended by the pit.