With just the two of them moving, it actually felt a bit easier.
Right now both of them were wearing the concealment cloaks made by Zhao Xiaochuan, walking through the jungle.
"Brother, donât get too far away from me. If thereâs any danger, I can still pull you back directly." Xu Ying turned her head to look at Xu Xin. "Also, only when youâre close to me can I guarantee our conversation wonât be eavesdropped on."
The two of them had come here via the Transmission Array.
Because Xu Ying had never been to Area 1, had never set a marker here, she naturally couldnât teleport directly.
But going back wouldnât be a problem.
As long as she wanted, she could return at any time.
"Okay, I got it. Look, thatâs the treehouse."
Xu Xin pointed into the distance at a treehouse a whole level taller than his own, confirming that it was Shi Wanyunâs treehouse.
The last time he contacted Lou FeiâEr, the three girls had all been in this treehouse.
"...Thereâs no one in the treehouse." Xu Ying glanced at it and shook her head.
"You can tell that too?" Xu Xin turned to her, a little surprised.
"Isnât that normal?" Xu Ying spread her hands. "You can call me a humanoid infrared sensor. As long as itâs a living creature, it canât escape my eyes. Ah..."
A flicker flashed through Xu Yingâs eyes, and she said softly, "If itâs a dead person... then I canât detect them."
The corner of Xu Xinâs eye twitched, then he shook his head. "No, theyâre not dead."
After he came out from the World Tree, he immediately sent voice messages to the three of them again.
They still didnât pick up, but at least the connection could still be established. If they were dead, their names would have gone gray, and he wouldnât even be able to perform the action of sending a voice message.
"Besides, if Shi Wanyun were dead, this treehouse of hers would have withered."
Xu Xin looked at the luxuriant treehouse and said.
"Uh... I donât want to rain on your parade, but I just want to say, they could at least change the owner of the treehouse." Xu Ying said quietly.
"Hm? A normal treehouse like this can have its owner changed?" Xu Xin turned to look at her.
According to everything they understood about treehouses, the owner of a main treehouse couldnât be changed; only the owner of a parasitic treehouse could.
"Over where you are, Area 188, it really canât be changed. That place is our chosen feng shui treasure land, not affected by any other World Tree." Xu Ying looked down at the ground and stamped twice. "But here, theyâre not that lucky."
"You mean..." Xu Xinâs pupils shrank. "This place is within the influence range of the alien invadersâ World Tree?"
Xu Ying nodded slowly.
"Under the influence of the World Tree, these treehouses are equivalent to parasitic treehouses of the World Tree. As long as the World Tree opens up the permissions, the owner of a treehouse can be changed at will."
So it really was under the alien invadersâ World Treeâs influence.
Area 1.
...Just that area number alone made it feel unusual.
"This Area 1 is actually already quite close to the other hemisphere." Xu Ying turned to look toward the east where the sun was rising. "Here, weâre very close to the coast. If you go another six or seven hundred kilometers that way, youâll reach the sea. Cross the ocean, and youâre in the alien invadersâ territory. You could say this is the point on our side thatâs closest to the alien invaders."
The ocean...?
Xu Xin took a deep breath.
He had almost forgotten that this world had oceans as well as land.
Six or seven hundred kilometers wasnât that far on this swollen Earth.
Right now, Earthâs diameter had expanded tenfold from before, its surface area a hundredfold, and its volume a thousandfold.
Distance is a length, so six or seven hundred kilometers here would have been only sixty or seventy kilometers on the Earth from a thousand years ago.
Back then, people living here could get on the highway and reach the sea in half an hour to an hour.
Rounded up, thatâs basically living by the sea.
"...The Pacific Ocean?"
"Yeah, the Pacific Ocean." Xu Ying looked at Xu Xin and smiled. "Weâre still on our homelandâs territory right now. How about it, touched?"
"...A little bit." Xu Xin sighed.
"Hmph, of course weâd pick somewhere nearby. We wouldnât choose a place thatâs ridiculously far, right?"
Xu Ying turned her head back toward the treehouse again.
"Our side is the one that wasnât bathed in red light during the Cataclysm, where the creatures didnât mutate. But the other side of the ocean had it rough. At the very beginning of the disaster, all living things over there mutated under the red light and became the alien invadersâ... first batch of cannon fodder and running dogs."
"So for now, on the land of the other hemisphere, there are no normal creatures like the ones on our side. Over there... itâs pretty much all mutant creatures."
Xu Xin immediately thought of that region beside the World Tree on the other hemisphere from Shi Wanyunâs memories.
Mutants everywhere.
And they were basically all high-level mutants, each one extremely powerful.
It seemed that on the land of that hemisphere, the entire region was probably like that.
Of course, the mutants near the World Tree should be even stronger; other areas probably wouldnât be quite so exaggerated.
Suddenly, a flash of insight crossed Xu Xinâs mind. "Wait, the alien invaders colonize worlds using the World Tree. That vast ocean, they canât colonize it at all, right? Then the underground world beneath the ocean..."
"Very clever." Xu Ying smiled. "Youâre right, they canât control the underground world beneath the ocean. Their world-ending red light back then did shine on the sea, but it only affected creatures in shallow waters. They couldnât affect the deep sea. That red light didnât have much penetrative power; itâs about the same as sunlight."