Chương 232: Chapter 231 End of summer
The end of summer was a special time. During this time, the leaves would slowly wither, and the creatures would start to store food and hide, waiting for winter to come as the surroundings turned cold...
But in reality, they did not do that.
Due to the change in environment, everything was different. Wood decomposed by fungi underground, and the massive amount of nutrients that came with the torrential rain and seawater allowed the twisted trees to grow wildly. They rushed towards the desert with the torrential rain, using their long and twisted roots to occupy the desert that had been dry all year round.
In just ten days, the Twisted Tree could grow into a tree that was almost ten meters tall from its roots with a large amount of nutrients. They spread towards the desert at this speed. The Twisted Tree and the rain turned the sand into mud, and many creatures followed the Twisted Tree and slowly began to live in the desert.
At the same time, in the direction of the mountain, because the black mud underground seemed to have flowed out, the Twisted Trees began to spread towards the barren area around the mountain. These crazy plants seemed to want to occupy everything. The only place that was not attacked was the canyon in the underground world. The Twisted Trees seemed to be unable to directly absorb seawater, but whenever the storm flooded the canyon with water, the Twisted Trees could absorb the nutrients in the seawater.
At the same time, on the floating island, the Hometrees were also growing rapidly. These Hometrees also showed Lin a strange thing, which was that even the Inca insects did not record the origin of the underground world...
After observing for an entire summer, Lin finally understood the situation.
The Hometrees planted explosive seeds into the soil of the floating island, and these seedlings grew very quickly. They looked green and tender. Large fluffy leaves grew out of them. Lin found that they used these leaves to capture the debris in the air for food. It seemed that the soil of the floating island did not have enough nutrients, but Lin did not think that there was any food in the air so high up in the sky, but they just had to grow this strange structure.
But Lin only thought so at first. Later, Lin discovered the meaning of these fluffy leaves.
The Hometrees' trunks were quite straight, not at all curved like the Twisted Trees, but they grew in a strange direction, vertically downwards.
That's right. They did not grow from the top of the floating island, but from the bottom of the island. It was usually darker here, and there was no direct sunlight, but they could still obtain some light energy, plus the absorption of the roots. And because the floating island was moving slowly, they would drop a lot of debris every time they moved. They relied on their large leaves to capture the debris from the floating island to increase their nutrients.
Lin always wondered why they were so complicated. Wasn't it better to just grow on the surface and absorb the sunlight? Only later did Lin discover the reason. The bark of one of the larger Hometrees had a solid wooden structure, and its whole body formed a pointed downwards like a cone. A large amount of sap gathered at the tip to increase its weight, and its bark had a heat resistant structure.
When it reached a certain weight, usually more than a ton, these larger Hometrees would break off their roots, and at the same time, their leaves would break down and they would fall from the floating island. These fallen cone-shaped trees would directly plunge into the soil, sometimes falling into the sand, some would smash into rocks and shatter. Lin even saw a tree directly impale a passing beetle.
Although the beetle was pitiful, the tree was also dead. It could no longer move on the ground, and only when it landed in a good place with no shelter and soft enough soil could the Hometrees rely on the momentum to plunge tens or even hundreds of meters into the ground. After stabilizing, this Hometree's life had just begun.
The Hometrees would grow roots at both ends, plunge into the soil to absorb various nutrients, and grow small leaves. At the same time, their bark would crack, and a group of small creatures would emerge from within.
These small creatures were all glowing, and Lin discovered that they were exactly the same as the glowing creatures in the Underworld.
They seemed to have formed a symbiotic relationship with the Hometrees. They would live and reproduce around the Hometrees, and the Hometrees would absorb nutrients from the soil to provide these creatures. These creatures would also provide light to the Hometrees, and these creatures would also search for food in the soil.
Lin later discovered that the seeds of the Hometrees themselves contained the eggs of these creatures.
Following that, the Hometrees continued to grow underground. That was all Lin could see, but it was clear that they would continue to grow bigger and bigger, eventually forming a large space. Meanwhile, the glowing creatures would also attach themselves to the top of this space and continue to reproduce and grow.
Lin didn't discover any symbiotic relationship between the Hometrees and the glowing creatures in the Underworld. Perhaps the glowing creatures had already multiplied a lot by then, as they were different species, they could form their own ecosystem and no longer needed the Hometrees to provide energy. However, they were still glowing, maintaining the light of the Underworld …
Was this the origin of the Underworld?
If a large number of Hometrees were fully grown, they would indeed be able to support a whole new world.
It was a strange feeling, how did they evolve into such a system? But it was true that the Hometrees relied on the 'moon' to achieve this. Only with the moon could they fly to the sky and burrow into the ground.
However, Lin hadn't seen any Hometrees that could burrow so deep into the Underworld. Perhaps the reason why they were so deep was related to the Inca insects. Lin had seen them surrounding small statues of Hometrees.
But these Hometrees had already burrowed deep enough. Lin wanted to use their structure to research something special, like a burrowing bomb or something.
Lin also noticed that the Hometrees seemed to be afraid of direct sunlight. If a small Hometree was exposed to direct sunlight, it would quickly die. As for the larger Hometrees like the ones in the canyon, although they didn't seem to have any problems, they would slowly die. This would explain the death of the Hometree on the surface.
Lin wanted to see how these trees supported the earth, but another factor stopped her from doing so.
It was winter.
After the plants went through their final frenzied growth at the end of summer, they had no choice but to stop due to the cold weather. Snowstorm clouds gathered in the sky, and white dust scattered in the air. The season of hibernation had finally arrived.
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