Chapter 2347 The Lifeblood of the Underground!

"What kind of eyes do you have?"

Li Yao was confused by Li Jialing, Monk Zhang Er couldn't figure it out, "Why do I read a strong meaning of 'caring' from your eyes, what's the situation!"

"nothing."

Li Jialing narrowed his gaze, and said solemnly, "I just hope Brother Yao knows that no matter what path I choose in the end, and no matter what kind of person I become, I will never forget that you are mine. ... Dear, in my heart, you are even more important than Her Royal Highness, I sincerely treat you as a big brother, I hope you are always safe, er, and healthy."

"Yeah?"

Feeling Li Jialing's sincerity, Li Yao grinned and said, "I really treat you like a little brother, anyway, little brother, don't be bewitched by that female devil, Long Yangjun, and don't encounter some little darkness and difficulties." Let’s get on the edge of a dead end. Anyway, let’s take it step by step. Let’s let go of saving the world and learn how to help each other when confronted with injustice. It’s also good to be brave enough to fight against the strong and help the weak. In short, brother Yao has confidence in you and believes in you One day you will realize the essence of the Dao of Comprehension, and become a stronger cultivator than Brother Yao!"

"maybe."

Li Jialing said, "I still need to walk more, see more, and think more before I can choose the final path. Only in this way can I run on my own road without looking back!"

The two of them talked, and unknowingly walked to the deepest part of the town.

This is a rock wall hundreds of meters high, but it is full of honeycomb-like caves. The diameter of each hole is about three to five meters. sound.

Numerous underground people carried a large amount of moss, vines and fungi on their shoulders, and even barrels of finely crushed ore, and filed into the cave. It can be seen that the weight on them was extremely heavy, making their bones protruding and veins bulging. Bi Lu's expression was ferocious and painful.

After a while, the people in the depths of the cave emptied the moss and vines, and came out with buckets of stinking feces. The burden was finally relieved, and the originally hideous faces showed the usual numbness.

Both Li Yao and Li Jialing were distinguished guests here, and the underground people didn't stop them from entering the cave, and they didn't even dare to make eye contact. They lowered their heads and hurried past them.

The two entered a cave at random, and saw dozens of raised rock worms.

The rock worm is not really a worm, but more like a white and fat pig, but a little slender, with a length of three to four meters and a diameter of about two meters, like a big oval meat ball.

Rather than calling them "rock worms", it would be more appropriate to call them "rock porpoises".

Li Yao didn't know if the rock worms had feet or claws, at least they couldn't see any organs for movement, maybe they were all covered by layers of fat.

This is an extremely slow-moving spirit beast like a sloth. It curls up in the depths of the cave like a statue, and Li Yao doubts that they even have the ability to forage for food on their own.

The sound of "humming, chirping, chirping" turned out not to be their cry, but the sound of breathing from the vents above their heads. These stupid and lazy spirit beasts didn't even bother to make a sound.

The underground people chopped up a large amount of moss, vines and fungi, mixed them with finely ground ore, stirred them evenly, and put them into the feed trough, and several rock worms slowly swarmed over. The "head" where the eyes come out is cracked with a cross gap, and countless white silk threads are sprayed out, wrapping the food into snow-white balls and being drawn into the cross gap, which is regarded as a complete eating action.

While the rock worms were eating, the underground people bypassed them and went to the depths of the cave to collect their dark green feces, carefully scraping every corner and every corner, not missing a single bit.

There are also some underground people, holding long-handled brushes, and scrubbing the rock worms vigorously. At first, Li Yao thought that they were going to be cleaned and then slaughtered to eat, but after a closer look, it was wrong. It turned out that the underground people were cleaning the rock worms. Bug massage is relaxing too!

It can be seen that rock worms are almost the only means of production for all residents in District 10084, and they have really taken great care in raising and caring for rock worms.

Li Jialing told Li Yao that rock worms were a kind of edible spirit beasts that had undergone a lot of genetic modification in the era of the Star Sea Empire 10,000 years ago. The earliest research had even begun in the period of the Monster Beast Empire, which was good at biochemical technology. .

Rock worms can devour up to tens of thousands of the roughest food materials, including ores containing a large amount of trace elements, and convert them into a large amount of fat and protein, which can supply the energy necessary for human survival in the worst environment.

The rock worm is full of treasures. It incorporates some special spider and silkworm genes. The silk thread used to wrap food is also a good textile raw material. It sheds its skin once a year, and the skin it takes off can also be used to make A leather jacket that is both lightweight and warm.

In addition, the excrement of rock worms hardly needs to be refined, it is a natural fertilizer, which is suitable for the nourishment of most plants, even mushrooms and mosses, and can make wild plants domesticated by humans into crops with soaring yields.

It can be said that in the exploration and colonization of unknown regions by human beings, as long as rock worms are brought in, the two key problems of "clothing" and "food" will be solved, and a solid foundation for the development of agriculture will be laid by the way.

It's just that too much genetic modification has been carried out in terms of "omnivory" and "availability", and the result of the rock worm's desperate growth of fat and protein is that the mobility and predation ability are greatly weakened, weakened to almost zero.

This is a kind of life born in the laboratory. Under the premise of maintaining the existing traits, it is extremely difficult to adapt to the harsh life in the wild. It can only stay in the breeding room honestly and be raised by humans.

When the Xinghai Empire 10,000 years ago designed these underground shelters, it naturally had a set of extremely advanced and sophisticated automatic breeding equipment to ensure that this "meat factory" could continuously output products, from the very beginning of rock worm mating In the end, it becomes a box of ready-to-eat meat packaged in cans. The whole process does not require many workers and breeders to manipulate.

However, with the erosion of the years, the past automatic breeding equipment has long been exhausted, fragmented, and no longer exists, and the knowledge of raising rock worms at the beginning has long been lost. Today's underground people can only use the most primitive methods to raise them. them.

Since the rock worms can grow so much meat, their food intake is naturally huge. They can't go out to look for food by themselves. They all rely on underground people to collect moss, tear off vines, cut down mushrooms, dig ores, grind and mix them laboriously, and throw them into the feed trough. This is very heavy physical labor, and three or five strong men work all day long to barely satisfy the appetite of a rock worm.

In order to ensure that so many mosses, vines, and fungi can grow in the underground world, rock insect feces must be continuously thrown into the crevices of the rocks, and then carefully serve various crops. The underground world is not suitable for the growth of crops. The smallest tuft of moss was watered by the blood and sweat of the underground people.

Because the real automatic breeding tank has been destroyed long ago, the rock worms are not adapted to the environment deep in the cave, so people have to massage their bodies day and night and force them to get up to exercise, otherwise the rock worms will soon grow black Spots, that means all the flesh and blood in them are necrotic, so you can't eat them.

These jobs accounted for 99% of the underground people and 99% of the time. It can be said that the entire 10084 district exists around the "rock worm".

Based on the number of stalagmites, stalactites, and caves on the rock wall that Li Yao saw just now, he quickly calculated the ratio of the number of rock worms to the number of underground residents, and found that compared to the population of District 10084, the number of rock worms seemed too large. If there are a few more, even if they are all killed and eaten, they will not be able to eat so much. Wouldn't people be much more relaxed if they could raise a few less animals?

Li Jialing shook his head and said that he only knew one thing but didn't know the other. As I said just now, although the underground people have worked so hard to raise so many rock worms, they are usually reluctant to eat large pieces of meat. Every few days, a small piece of meat can be cut It's good to mix it into meat porridge.

Most of the rock worms have moulted three times, and after they are fully mature, they have to carry them to the above towns, which are the "four-digit areas" numbered between 1000 and 9999, to exchange for precious energy, civil weapons and weapons. .

The underground residents of area 10084 are not completely ignorant barbarians after all. They still retain their basic language and culture, and a small number of magic weapons and formations are still in operation. They are also eager to know what the world above is like. Both rock worms and fuels are exchanged by rock worms, but all kinds of synthetic foods are popular in the world above, rock worms cannot be sold at a high price, and three or five rock worms may not be able to exchange for a standard wafer box.

Even if they bite the bullet and don't want any magic weapons and energy sources, there is at least one essential item that must be purchased in the town above, and that is fresh compressed air, and components for repairing the air circulation and filtration systems.

A town tens of thousands of meters underground, even with the largest and most efficient ventilation system to continuously introduce fresh air from the ground, is still a very depressing and dull world, full of all kinds of deadly poisonous gases.

And once the exhaust gas exhaled by humans accumulates too much, it will also cause everyone to suffocate to death.

Therefore, the underground residents can abandon all magic weapons, even the lighting talisman above their heads, and become ghosts in the dark, but it is absolutely impossible to abandon the air circulation and filtration systems.

Once the air circulation and filtration system fails, it is necessary to release ultra-highly compressed fresh air in time to gain valuable maintenance time.

No air, more terrible than no sunlight, is a real disaster.

Residents of four-figure towns will suffer from the Achilles' heel of underground people in five-figure towns. The lion opened his mouth wide and set the price of the relevant magic weapon components and compressed air to extremely high prices. Only dozens of rock worms can be exchanged for one. Small cans of compressed air.

Therefore, the residents of the 10084 area work hard every day to plant and raise, not only the food they wear and eat, but also the air that is vital for survival, and cannot be lacking for even a second!