Chapter 10
Less than a month after the Rift Valley incident, the Dark Root Council in the southern part of the continent held a rare emergency closed-door meeting.
Representatives from various dark root forces crowded into the dark Root Palace—a natural root cave buried hundreds of meters below the surface, its walls entwined with giant ancient roots, like a solidified net.
At the start of the meeting, Speaker Kuju placed a record in front of all the Root Chairmen—
A wave pattern captured by a "groundwater probe".
The frequency of that fluctuation was extremely stable, as if it were not generated naturally, but rather as some kind of will rhythmically controlling the flow of the water veins.
Speaker Kuju said in a low voice:
"The abnormal water flow in the Rift Valley is not a natural disaster, nor is it a unilateral destruction by the Tide Swamp and Shadow Vine... It is an underground robbery that is precise down to the root internodes."
We must find out who's behind this.
Root vein investigation order
On that day, the Dark Root Council issued the "Entire Continent Root Vein Investigation Order".
He ordered all forces connected to the Dark Root System to dispatch deep-root explorers to patrol the entire water veins, sand veins, and wet soil veins, recording all abnormal root signals.
Any underground network that cannot be traced will be considered a potential threat and cut off.
This command was like a cold needle piercing the very heart of the light domain.
Response to optical domain
When 237 heard the news, it was located in the water storage core dispatch area on the southern edge of the light domain.
She could sense that the "patrol roots" were getting closer and closer—they didn't attack, but rather, like a group of blind snakes sniffing around, they used subtle vibrations to probe the surrounding underground structures.
Sprout 12, while munching on the half-dried muddy moss, shook its bean pod and asked:
"Should we disable the hidden gateway?"
237 shook his head:
"Turning it off is tantamount to acknowledging its existence."
We want it to look like this—the roots here, ancient, messy, natural, without any artificial rhythm.
So, she activated the dark web's **"pseudo-growth mode"**—
The roots beneath the entire light domain are arranged to present a random, disordered branching pattern on the surface, and several rotten roots and faults are deliberately simulated to make explorers believe that the soil here was scorched in an ancient battle.
The Boundaries of Covert War
However, things are not just about defense.
237 knew very well that the true purpose of the Dark Roots was not just to find out "who" controlled the water veins, but to confirm whether a new underground force was rising.
This investigation is more like a root-based "population census" used as an opportunity to establish authority.
She planted a sensor pod deep within the dark web—
As long as a patrolling root penetrates more than twenty root pitches underground into the light domain, the sensing pod will guide it to a pre-prepared "false center"—a cavity made up of dead ancient roots.
There, the patrollers would only receive a meaningless echo of a water vein.
Tense confrontation
On the third night, the first batch of patrol roots finally approached the central light domain.
237 In the perception of the dark web, they clearly "see" its vibration waves—regular and detailed, like a group of quiet fishermen casting their nets in the dark.
The sensory pod quietly lit up, and a faint guiding signal led the patrol root away from the actual central channel.
Sprout 12 crouched on the ground, gently shaking its pods, as if holding its breath for a gamble.
Ultimately, the patrol team lingered at the fake central hub for a long time, leaving behind several rough probe marks, before retreating along the same route.
In this first round of investigation, the Light Domain safely concealed itself.
Suspicion of the Dark Root Council
However, Speaker Kuju left a meaningful comment in the meeting minutes:
"Some places are just too perfectly 'natural'."
It's so perfect it doesn't seem natural.
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