Worthy of being called a "World Tree."
This vast, boundless space inside the treeācalling it a small world is absolutely no problem!
A map surfaced in his mind.
Xu Xin was surprised to find that his map ability had also undergone some changes after he entered the World Tree.
The map in his mind had become two separate ones.
One was the original map, where he could see his location: in Crystal City, inside the World Tree.
There was nothing unusual about that.
The second map, however, was... a map of the inside of this World Tree.
Because he was the owner of the World Tree, inside it he didnāt have the same limitation as outside, where only the places he had been to would show up on the map. Instead...
Everything was laid out before him, completely and thoroughly!
He was like a god of this World Tree world, overlooking everything within it.
Of course, for now, in such a vast interior, there was absolutely nothing.
Only clouds formed from rising water vapor drifting in the air for some reason, and a stretch of barren land.
He turned his head and looked toward the spot where they had walked out of the door.
It was a... strangely shaped, spherical wooden lump protruding from underground.
As if a very rare and bizarre plant had grown out of the soil.
The inside of the wooden sphere should be those ball-shaped vines that had carried them up here.
When Xu Xin looked at the thing, it had already shrunk more than half of itself back into the soil.
Only half the door remained above ground; the other half was buried beneath it.
Xu Xin wasnāt anxious at all. Perhaps because he was the holder of the World Tree, he knew very clearly in his heart that he could make this thing grow back out at any time.
But Zeng Tao noticed as well, and she immediately lost her composure.
"Ah! The doorās shrinking back!" She dove forward and threw herself onto the wooden sphere.
Because of her weight, she directly pushed the wooden sphere another ten-odd centimeters downward.
"What are you doing! Get up!"
Lou FeiāEr hadnāt been worried at first, but seeing Zeng Tao like that, she couldnāt stay calm either: "What if you break it!"
Zeng Tao hurriedly pushed herself up, and the wooden sphere got shoved more than half of the way down again.
Now only forty to fifty centimeters of it remained above the surface.
"Oh my god, it really is going back down!" Zeng Tao grabbed the wooden sphere at once, trying to pull it up. "Soāheavyā!"
Even with her strength, using all her might, she couldnāt stop the wooden sphere from slowly sinking.
"Nngh, nngh..." Keke watched Zeng Tao struggle to yank the wooden ball up, covering her little face with her tiny paws, looking completely speechless.
"Enough, if Xu Xin could bring us in, he can definitely take us out." Lou FeiāEr also covered her face.
"Huh? Ah, right..." Zeng Tao blinked and relaxed her grip.
Xu Xin chuckled and patted her on the head. "Let me do it."
"Oh, oh, you do it, you do it." Zeng Tao quickly stepped aside.
With only about thirty centimeters of the wooden sphere still above the ground, Xu Xin didnāt even bend over. He just lifted his foot and kicked the sphere, and it started "growing" upward again.
Just like a plant slowly growing out of the ground.
"It listens that well?!" Zeng Taoās face reddened a little on the spot.
"With me here, what are you afraid of?" Xu Xin shook his head.
"Hehe..."
"So this really is... the inside of that tree?" Lou FeiāEr looked at the endless surroundings, then raised her head toward the sky. "But that canāt be right, this is obviously the outside world. How could this be inside a tree?"
Clouds floated in the sky, and there was a faint mist.
Xu Xin could see the dome above, but with their current eyesight, the others couldnāt.
Xu Xin looked up again and said, "There are no stars in the sky. Doesnāt that strike you as strange?"
This world had no real pollution, and before Crystal City appeared there hadnāt been much nightlife lighting either, so unless it was overcast and rainy, the starry sky was always brilliantly bright.
"...Isnāt it just because itās cloudy?" Jin Yue guessed.
She didnāt really believe this was the inside of the World Tree either.
"Iāve got vision amplification. I can see the... dome above. Wood. Like the ceiling of a treehouse." Xu Xin lowered his head to look at them and said, "Whatās up there is definitely not the sky."
"No way..." Zeng Taoās eyes went wide and she stomped hard on the ground.
"Not the sky..." Lou FeiāEr stared blankly upward, her throat bobbing.
"Nngh..." Keke also tilted her little head back to look up, then nearly slipped off Xu Xinās back. "Nngh nngh!?"
All of them were stunned.
"I can confirm it too." Shi Wanyun glanced up at the sky, then lowered her head to look at them. "Iāve got vision amplification now as wellāI can also see the top of the World Tree. Itās... a wooden dome just like a treehouse."
She had slept in her own treehouse last night, so she had also received a random amplification.
Xu Xin turned his gaze to the sky again.
There was no light source here, yet it wasnāt dark.
It was somewhat like the level of brightness outside after nightfall.
A guess formed in his mind.
Could it be that...
The brightness level here changed according to the outside world?
When it was daytime outside, the World Treeās internal space was daytime too.
And now that it was night outside, it was night here as well?
Very likely!
If that was true, then this place really was a small world in every sense of the word!