Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 1386 - 694: Boring a Hole in the Giant Crimson Crystal (Part 2)

If this were the previous kind of Red Mist, at this density, when Xu Xin and the others smelled it, it should have been unbearably foul and suffocating!

He first encountered the Red Mist in that iron room underground.

Back then, to escape the Red Mist, he’d climbed the ladder toward the surface like his life depended on it, exhausting himself.

That smell, like spoiled canned herring, really left him with a lifelong trauma.

But for people like Lou Fei’Er and Zeng Tao, who had undergone blood-mark mutations, this kind of Red Mist was incredibly sweet and fragrant.

Yet the Red Mist here didn’t have any smell at all.

Kind of weird.

"Maybe this Red Mist has been purified and optimized?" Qin Fu walked out from the depths of the dense Red Mist, speculating as he spoke. "This is the Red Mist that’s supposed to flood the Crimson Crystals and make them release energy."

Red Mist that can make Crimson Crystals shine...

Feels like it can be put to use.

"What a pity we don’t have any device to collect gas." Xu Xin sighed.

With their current level of technology, making a gas-collection device would be very simple.

But who would have thought to make one in advance.

"Collect gas? You want to collect this Red Mist?" Wen Guixin also walked out of the dense Red Mist and asked.

"Yeah. I feel like if this gas works together with the large chunks of cut Crimson Crystal, it can make the crystals release an even stronger glow and be a big help."

He glanced at the alien invader beside him that was now completely under Wen Guixin’s control. "With this combo, we won’t be afraid even if a lot of alien invaders show up."

"Actually, I feel like just the large, concentrated Crimson Crystals alone are enough." At this moment, Xu Ying suddenly teleported to their side and said, "The glow from this concentrated crystal alone is enough to make normal alien invaders suffer badly. And didn’t you say that even the light from small Crimson Crystals can drive alien invaders insane?"

That wasn’t wrong either.

But Crimson Crystals in the Red Mist could still drive alien invaders who had protective membranes insane.

Forget it, given the current situation, there probably weren’t many alien invaders with protective membranes anyway.

"Let’s rest a bit. When Zhao Xiaochuan gets tired, we’ll go take over for him."

Xu Xin and the others stayed on high alert, sitting in the Red Mist, waiting for the cutting to progress.

Time ticked by, and the Red Mist showed no sign of dissipating.

Likewise, in this underground space, no alien invaders—or even machines—came in.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly and quietly.

During this time, Xu Ying used her teleportation ability to go out and take a look, and came back in just three minutes.

She told everyone that outside the World Tree it was still very calm, not much different from when they’d first arrived.

But up top, in the trunk central control zone where the World Tree’s core was, things were on absolute high alert now. A huge amount of weaponry had gathered there, and she’d been scared half to death the moment she went up.

As for the Crimson Crystal, Zhao Xiaochuan was still cutting away at it with great enthusiasm; he’d basically gotten addicted to it.

Xu Xin and the others had even wanted to switch someone in to let him rest, but he rejected it outright.

"I’ve got this, just watch me!" His voice came from inside the Crimson Crystal.

The Red Mist had also followed along the passage he’d cut, seeping into the interior of the Crimson Crystal and causing its insides to release an extremely intense glow.

This made Xu Xin and the others a bit worried about Zhao Xiaochuan, who was wrapped inside the Crimson Crystal.

However, every time they asked, his voice was still full of energy.

Looked like the four layers of protective membranes were doing their job.

Xu Xin could only remind him that if he felt any discomfort, he needed to get out immediately, since the protective membranes were single-use and might lose effectiveness.

"Relax, Brother Xin, I cherish my life!" Zhao Xiaochuan replied.

The three alien invaders controlled by Wen Guixin were also doing their jobs diligently.

The three of them were positioned in an equilateral triangle, digging in toward the interior from three directions outside the Crimson Crystal.

Also, probably because this was exactly what they were built to do, their excavation speed was even faster than Zhao Xiaochuan’s. But they had no concept of hiding the entrances to their tunnels—each opening just went straight inward.

Fortunately, Wen Guixin had given good orders, making them first dig a smaller entrance outside to crawl into and then expand the digging from inside, so the three openings weren’t too obvious.

Xu Xin and the others kept their nerves taut, staying wary of danger possibly showing up at any time.

Roughly two or three hours later—

"Come up and take a look, Zhao Xiaochuan’s side is pretty much done."

Jin Yue’s voice came from atop the Crimson Crystal.

"I’ll go check." Xu Ying stood up.

"Take me with you." Xu Xin said.

The two of them teleported directly onto the Crimson Crystal, to the edge of the pit Zhao Xiaochuan had dug.

In order to make this pit less conspicuous, Zhao Xiaochuan had dug straight down half a meter, then dug one or two meters sideways before continuing to dig diagonally downward.

So just looking from above, you couldn’t tell how deep the pit actually went.

But in reality, the pit was already very deep.

The Crimson Crystal was twenty meters tall in total, and Zhao Xiaochuan had dug inward at at least a forty-five-degree angle for nearly ten meters, almost reaching the deepest part of the crystal.

"Well? How’s my masterpiece?" Zhao Xiaochuan’s forehead was beaded with sweat, his clothes were soaked through, and there was some fatigue between his brows, but even more excitement.