Chapter 1048 - 578: Are They Planning a Backdoor Attack? (Part 3)

"First, there’s Crystal City above. They’re not easy to get into." Ji Chaoyang patted the World Tree. "Second, this World Tree is also a treehouse, surely... it has a treehouse core."

Treehouse core...

Indeed.

Everyone immediately caught on.

Where is the treehouse core?

Half-buried in the soil beneath the hollow of the trunk.

If you invade from underground...

Perhaps you can directly dig out the treehouse core of the World Tree!

That way, there’s no need to damage the World Tree much. A World Tree that loses its treehouse core will naturally wither and die.

They are all too familiar with the fate of a treehouse that has lost its core.

And if you try to damage the World Tree from the surface, it would be extremely difficult.

Simply causing some damage won’t kill the treehouse. To destroy it from the surface, you’d need to cut the treehouse down completely.

But the World Tree is so thick...

Xu Xin looked again at the World Tree.

The diameter of the World Tree’s trunk now surely exceeds ten meters.

An immensely thick and tall towering giant tree!

Trying to sever this tree from the ground level seems almost impossible.

Thus, Xu Xin’s speculation about focusing underground is increasingly plausible.

However...

Xu Xin glanced once more at the World Tree.

This World Tree, isn’t it... a bit too thick?

The World Tree in Shi Wanyun’s memory was just about as thick, wasn’t it?

And this World Tree seems like it needs a few more days to grow.

Could this tree be stronger than the World Trees of those alien invaders?

... When Yingying was here earlier, I should’ve asked more about this World Tree.

All I know now is that this World Tree was their most successful treehouse seed experiment.

"Now that we know, how do we fix it?" Wang Lei pointed to the ground. "We don’t seem to have any methods to deal with the mutated creatures that dig underground, do we?"

Indeed, they don’t.

Everyone frowned, pondering how they should react if Xu Xin’s hypothesis proved true.

At this moment, Lou Fei’Er tugged on Xu Xin’s clothes and whispered, "Can’t your pangolin also dig? I checked this morning, those two small ones have grown pretty big. Can they be of use?"

The pangolin Ai Fei and those two little fellows?

That’s right!

Ai Fei should now be an upgraded intermediate mutant creature!

"Xu Xin, can your pangolin pull some digging rats out from the ground?" Wen Guixin said, "If possible, I can infect the ones we pull out, and send them back in..."

Upon hearing this, the surrounding people all brightened up.

Let the infected creature infect the entire underground army!

Let them all perish underground!

"Great idea!" Wang Lei clapped his hands and laughed. "Haha, with Sister Gui Xin around, dealing with the beast swarm is so much easier!"

Xu Xin exchanged glances with Ji Chaoyang and nodded.

"But, we can’t be complacent." Xu Xin said, "This doesn’t cover all possibilities."

"Exactly, their dug tunnels might not be connected, large-scale infection might not be easy." Ji Chaoyang agreed, "And we also need to watch out for any very strong creatures underground that Wen Guixin can’t infect quickly."

"Then we should..."

"Dig trenches." Qi Xuefei suggested, "Dig a circle of deep and wide trenches around the World Tree. This could slow down their digging. If they dig into the trench, we could attack them there. The treehouse ballista could also be useful."

"Great idea!"

"Makes sense!"

"If we dig deep enough, they would have to dig out of the trench!"

"Yes, at least it could slow them down, and make it easier for me to infect." Wen Guixin agreed, "But, how deep should it be?"

"They dig holes five meters deep." Qin Fu spoke up, "Should we dig ten meters deep? Fifteen meters?"

"That’s deep..."

Ten meters, that’s the height of a three-story building.

Luckily, they have advanced tools, making digging easier.

Plus, three pangolins that dig incredibly fast.

"Yes, it’s worth a shot." Xu Xin contemplated, "However, the roots around the World Tree might be close to the ground. If we don’t want to damage the roots, we’d need to dig further out."

But if too far, the workload of digging a deep circle trench is enormous.

This distance needs to be measured carefully.

"Since that’s the case, let’s act quickly!" Zhao Xiaochuan directly pulled out a shovel. "I don’t want the World Tree’s core to be extracted!"