Looking down from the sky, one could see drilling machines rising from the twelve holes on the ground. Alloy containers were placed neatly on the surface of the fan. They were probably the superconducting ores that had been excavated and transported up. Then, the engineering vehicles would take them away and drive them to the transport ships outside the city.
Ding Meng secretly used his telekinesis vision. The situation underground really surprised him. The mining area of the Black Gold Base was already big enough, but the scale of the mining area in front of him was so huge that it made him speechless. The roots of the Sacred Tree were too huge.
Normally, the scale of the roots was two to three times larger than the tree on the ground. The height of the Sacred Tree was more than three thousand meters. It was not hard to imagine how spectacular the intertwined roots were underground. It was not inferior to a large starship.
The excavation plan of the War of Gods Alliance was obviously carefully designed. The intelligent robots first dug about 100 meters down vertically, then spread out horizontally for 500 meters. Then, they slowly spread out diagonally, forming a sphere to encircle the roots. Finally, they dug towards the core of the Sacred Tree. The purpose of digging like this was to prevent the Sacred Tree from collapsing.
If the Sacred Tree collapsed, not only would the city of Murteja be smashed into ashes, but more than half of the forest would also collapse. No one on the ground would be spared.
Ding Meng was not in a hurry to go down. After scanning the structure of the underground mining area, he began to observe the surroundings.
"I suggest we start from the ground first."
Xiao Ai suddenly said, "The person who can design this excavation plan is definitely an expert in this field. How could ordinary soldiers think of this?"
Ding Meng said, "Find this expert first?"
Xiao Ai said, "Not really. Finding this expert will be like finding a needle in a haystack. But for such a huge project, there must be a special command center and real-time control station. These facilities can't be underground. They must be on the ground, and they must be nearby. I just scanned the area, and there are no large starships nearby. There are only a few transport ships outside the capital. You should search the ground first and see if you can find any clues."
Ding Meng's telekinetic vision spread out again. His gaze landed on the palace below. "There's no need to search. There's definitely something going on there."
The square of the palace had been blown to smithereens by Ding Meng, but the palace itself was still intact. Now, a group of fully-armed soldiers had been stationed there. With his telekinetic vision, he could clearly see that a spacious room in the southeast corner of the first-floor hall had been transformed into something similar to the command center of a starship. The main control console could not be installed in this room, so it was replaced by a medium-sized photon processor. The holographic projection generated by the photon processor was a three-dimensional map of the mining area.
The map was not complete because the lines were slowly moving downward. It was obvious that the excavation work was in full swing. A group of workers surrounded the map and pointed at it, seemingly discussing the progress of the excavation.
After Ding Meng scanned it carefully for a while, Xiao Ai said, "Okay, I have recorded all the data. We can go now."
"Don't be in such a hurry!" Ding Meng's gaze landed on the second floor of the palace.
The Alliance soldiers did not enter the second floor because the first floor was vacated by the Greentree Tribe. The second and third floors were the residences of the royalty and nobles.
What was strange was that the king and the two priests were not there. Only five or six nobles were holed up in the various large rooms. These people's expressions were fearful and uneasy, but only one family lived on the third floor.
Since the two priests were not there, Ding Meng's telekinetic vision was like a no-man's land. It traveled freely within the palace, observing every movement clearly. This was especially true for this standard family of three. Judging from the decorations of the room and the way they dressed, this family's status in the Greentree Tribe was definitely not low.
The man kept pacing back and forth in the room, looking like he had a lot on his mind. The woman sat at the head of the bed with a worried look on her face. These two were obviously husband and wife because there was a short female Ent in the corner of the room. She should be the couple's daughter.
Her parents were gloomy, but the daughter had a blank look on her face. "Dad, why are there twelve holes around the Tree of God?"
The child was young and ignorant, but it did not mean that the parents did not know. The woman's tone was very worried. "Tang Cheng, did these humans go under the Tree of God?"
The man called Tang Cheng was still pacing back and forth, ignoring her.
The woman continued, "This has never happened in the once-in-a-decade worship ceremony. Now that the king wants to work with the Alliance of Gods, I feel like the king is going against the will of the gods."
Tang Cheng was a little impatient. "What does a woman like you know? If you don't know, don't talk nonsense. There are people from the Alliance everywhere. It won't be good if they hear you."
The woman was even more worried. "You also know that the situation is not good. Princess Lingyun has already been killed. Why don't you persuade the king?"
Tang Cheng frowned. "No one can persuade him. He listens to the priests. He might have already gone down."
The woman said, "They went down too?
With those humans? "
Tang Cheng said, "What else?
Where do you think they can go? "
Ding Meng thought to himself. Did the king and the others go down to the mining area too?
The woman said, "Are they going to check out the ore?
I heard the priests say that the ore is very valuable. They can sell it to the Alliance. The Alliance will exchange a lot of resources for it. Is that right? "
The daughter ran over excitedly. "Father, the chocolate of the humans is very delicious. Can we exchange it for chocolate?"
Tang Cheng was annoyed by the mother and daughter's questions. He looked around and lowered his voice. "I suspect that they are not digging for the ore. Their real purpose is to look for the temple."
Not only was the woman confused, but even Ding Meng was confused. Wasn't the temple on the roof of the palace?
Could it be that there was another temple?
Fortunately, Tang Cheng was already explaining, "The Divine Temple above our heads is used to preserve the Holy Spirit. Aside from protecting us, the Holy Spirit also has another important function. It can communicate with the Tree God. We can only see the Tree God once every ten years because the Tree God isn't in the Divine Temple."
The woman was shocked. "There's another temple?"
Tang Cheng nodded. "The real temple is actually underground. Legend has it that as long as you find the real temple and open the door to the temple, you can obtain eternal life."
The woman was suspicious. "Who did you hear this from?"
Tang Cheng sighed deeply. "The previous monarch accidentally revealed this to me when he was drunk. You mustn't tell anyone else."
The woman was stunned for a moment before continuing to ask, "But how did the king and priests know about this?"
Tang Cheng sighed even harder. "I can only tell you that because of this big secret, the previous king's mysterious death was definitely related to the two priests."
The woman was stunned. "You're saying that the two priests conspired to kill the previous king?"
"Shh —" Tang Cheng was frightened and quickly interrupted her. "Keep your voice down. Some things can't be said carelessly. If it reaches the priests' ears, our family will definitely die."
This news was too shocking, and the woman was indeed frightened. "Perhaps Princess Lingyun was also killed because of this secret."
Tang Cheng sighed. "After all, the princess is the new king recognized by the Tree God. Now that the new king is dead, it depends on when Prince Ling Jian can return …"
…
Hearing this, Ding Meng almost instantly understood the ins and outs of the matter.
This secret of the Green Tree Clan should have been passed down from generation to generation, but only the kings knew about it. However, this secret was inadvertently known by the two priests, and the priests definitely had their own selfish motives.
With the reverence of the entire Green Tree Clan toward the gods, it was impossible for them to touch the Tree God. Even if they had the guts, they didn't have the ability to excavate such a huge underground mine. Therefore, they had to rely on external forces, and this external force was the God War Alliance. With the technology of the Alliance, excavating this mine was child's play.
Xiao Ai said, "My personal preliminary judgment is that the king, Lingyun, and Lingjian should not know about this."
Ding Meng said in a deep voice, "I'm afraid that Zhi Yan himself doesn't know that he is being used by the two priests."
This analysis was reasonable. If Zhi Yan knew about something like immortality, why would he cooperate with them? He would have come knocking on their door a long time ago.
However, the method of the two priests was really ingenious. They persuaded the king to cooperate with the Alliance, using wood to exchange for supplies. They calculated that Lingyun would interfere sooner or later, and the quality of the wood would decline year by year. The Alliance would definitely send people to negotiate every year. The people from the Green Tree Clan who went to negotiate should be the two priests. The results of the negotiation would get worse and worse, and sooner or later, the Alliance would be forced to use force.
If the Alliance wanted to use force, they had to go through the Tree God. It must be the priests who informed the Blue Light Group of the specific time of the worship ceremony, and Zhi Yan chose to make his move on this day.
Kadiga's First Fleet was used as cannon fodder. If the First Fleet fought against the Tree God, the Tree God's energy would be depleted. At this time, Zhi Yan's Second Fleet would be able to move freely. When the Alliance's army arrived, it would be difficult for the king not to cooperate fully.
Of course, these plans to murder Ling Yun were all within the priest's calculations. The only thing that happened was that Kadiga escaped. Halfway through, Ding Meng's group appeared and snatched the Holy Spirit away.
But so what?
Now that the mining area was being excavated, all the plans were being carried out according to the will of the two priests.
After understanding all this, Ding Meng could not help but sigh. Sometimes, desire was enough to drive anyone crazy. The plan of the two priests completely ignored their own kind. As for things like immortality, Ding Meng definitely did not believe in them.
Xiao Ai also expressed her agreement. "In this universe, even the Divine level experts from the most advanced civilizations will fall in the face of time. No species can achieve immortality."
Ding Meng nodded. "Let's go down and take a look. What exactly are they looking for?"