Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 1374 - 690: Atop the Giant Crimson Crystal

Dense gun barrels were aimed right at their current position within the scarlet glow, reflecting a dark red metallic sheen.

The muzzles were like one pitch-black cave after another, spread across every side of this scarlet crystal.

Looking at the dense gun barrels below, Xu Xin felt cold sweat streaming down his back.

What he feared most was that at this moment those gun barrels would suddenly fire off a round at them.

Behind him, Wang Lei and the others slid over as well.

But with Xu Xin and Xu Ying blocking the front, they couldn’t move forward at all, and since they were farther back, they couldn’t see what was below. They could only feel the red light that had become blindingly bright.

"Brother Xin, what’s going on?" Wang Lei whispered from behind Xu Xin.

His foot was already pressed against Xu Xin’s back.

Then someone behind suddenly pushed hard, and Xu Xin and Xu Ying almost got shoved straight down.

"Damn, watch it!" Wang Lei said in a low voice to Zhao Xiaochuan, who had just bumped into him from behind. "You almost knocked us off!"

"It’s too slippery, I couldn’t brake!" Zhao Xiaochuan also whispered.

"What’s it like down there?" Wen Guixin lowered her voice as well and whispered, "Why aren’t we going down?"

"Down there..." Xu Xin narrowed his eyes. "Yingying, let’s go down. It’s too dangerous here."

Their earlier guess was that the light from the World Tree’s core was what caused them to be discovered by the alien invaders, even with the cloaks of the Hidden Ones on.

As for why they hadn’t suspected the scarlet crystal, it was because Xu Xin and the others had previously come into very close contact with a small piece of scarlet crystal.

Although it had only been a small piece, they had been very close to it, and the light they endured from that small scarlet crystal was far stronger than the light from this large scarlet crystal passing through the World Tree’s core and then shining onto Xu Ying and the others earlier.

But Xu Xin and his group had made it all the way without any trouble, while Xu Ying’s side had been discovered.

So the scarlet light shouldn’t have that kind of effect.

And right now, they were inside the World Tree’s core itself, their entire bodies bathed and wrapped in its light.

If the cloaks of the Hidden Ones failed because of this and the many guns below detected them...

Xu Ying had clearly thought of this as well. She nodded slightly, then took a pair of sunglasses out of her backpack and put them on.

They were different from the alien invaders. The aliens’ bodies were covered in eyes, while they only had two. One pair of sunglasses was enough to cover them.

Of course, the scarlet light had very strong penetration, so the effect of the sunglasses was actually quite limited, but it was still better than not wearing any.

"I’m going down."

With that, she slid out through the hole.

She then dropped from above and landed on the ground very lightly.

Right under the opening was the enormous scarlet crystal, only about ten meters away from the exit in the milky-white crystal above.

Ten meters in height, for this group of explorers, was nothing. Even those like Li Wenxi, who didn’t have combat abilities, could easily jump down.

Xu Ying looked around.

The surrounding turrets were installed on the ground around the scarlet crystal.

Because this was the World Tree’s underground space, the ground was made up of the tree’s thick roots. On each thick root, there was an entire row of turrets.

The scarlet crystal, meanwhile, was as tall as the World Tree itself.

She slowly crouched down, then happily discovered that as long as they lay flat on this scarlet crystal, the turrets below wouldn’t be able to hit them.

"Thud." At that moment, Xu Xin also landed beside her.

He was wearing a pair of sunglasses as well.

"Don’t stand up, big bro," Xu Ying whispered.

Xu Xin had landed in a squatting position to begin with. Hearing Xu Ying, he nodded lightly.

The two of them first gestured up at the others to wait a moment, then looked around in all directions.

The underground space of this World Tree wasn’t big, only about the size of a soccer field.

If they lay flat on the scarlet crystal, they couldn’t see the surrounding turrets, and in theory the turrets shouldn’t be able to reach them either, but those turrets were not the only danger.

"Those mechanical little jellyfish again..." Xu Xin muttered under his breath.

"These little drones drifting around in the air are the mechanical jellyfish you mentioned before..." Xu Ying looked at the little jellyfish flying through the air around them.

Because of the intense glow from the scarlet crystal, a hazy red light shrouded the bodies of these mechanical jellyfish.

They were said to be in the air, but since Xu Xin and Xu Ying were on top of the scarlet crystal, more than ten meters above the ground, the altitude at which these little jellyfish flew was actually about the same as theirs.

Fortunately, these little jellyfish did not approach the scarlet crystal. Instead, they circled around it at a constant speed, so for the moment they wouldn’t bump into Xu Xin and the others.

Xu Xin and Xu Ying exchanged a look and nodded, then Xu Xin gestured upward, indicating that the others could come down.

"Thud."

"Thud."

The people above jumped down one by one, landing on top of the scarlet crystal. Everyone had put on sunglasses and was draped in a layer of transparent film.

They all landed easily, without any staggering or slipping.

This was because the shape of the scarlet crystal was different from that of the World Tree’s core above. The World Tree’s core was a perfect sphere, whereas the scarlet crystal was not; it was more of a flattened sphere, like a lump of dough that had been squashed but not yet rolled out.

So a large part of the scarlet crystal’s top surface was flat,