Chapter 1379: Vicious Move
There were three great unsolved natural mysteries in the history of mankind.
1. The Mythical Massacre of Mohenjo Daro in India more than 3000 years ago.
2. The bizarre explosion which occurred at 9 a.m. on May 30, 1626 A.D. (the sixth day of May, the sixth year of Tianqi in the Ming Dynasty), the day after the Dragon Boat Festival, in an area near the gunpowder magazine of the Wanggong factory in the southwest corner of Beijing.
3. The major explosion which occured in the Evenk Autonomous Okrug in Siberian Russia at 7:17 a.m. (UTC 0:17 a.m.) on June 30, 1908.
(TL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/tunguska_event.htm)
Yes, when Sindalor looked towards the northwest of the Greater Khingan Range, the first place Sheyan thought of was the site of the Tunguska explosion, one of the three great natural mysteries!
The power of the explosion was estimated to be equivalent to the detonation of 15-20 million tons of TNT explosives, or 2000 atomic bombs. It had caused more than 60.04 million trees within 2153.2 square kilometres to fall. A 2000 square kilometres area of virgin forest was knocked down by the shock waves, and at least 300,000 trees later died due to radiation.
In some places, the tundra melted into marshes. In later explorations, scientists found that the soil in the explosion area had been magnetised, and the tree rings from 1908 to 1909 showed abnormal signs of radioactivity. Some of the animals were also displaying genetic mutation.
Sindalor's old eyes were already full of tears. He cried out excitedly, "The Land of Miracles, the Land of Miracles! The land in the legends that only the World Tree could savour! Why has it appeared in this hopelessly filthy world!?"
Seeing the naive Melody staring at the Sacred Oak tree with large watery eyes that were filled with admiration, Sheyan immediately understood that her mind must be thinking "I have no idea what he's talking about, but it must be something really amazing"....
Sheyan quickly recalled the information regarding the Tunguska explosion in his mind. He immediately made some deductions. The next thing they did was naturally to board a plane and rush over to the place.
Zi had sent some people to receive them without Sheyan even asking her to do so. All their expenses on this trip would be covered by the ES consortium. Sheyan took advantage of the spare time on the plane to inquire about all sorts of information.
After a while, he told Old Sindalor, "If I'm guessing correctly, our world should have more than one of the holy land you speak of."
"That's...That's impossible!" exclaimed Sindalor in shock.
"Why is it impossible? I've already thought of a few other places you may regard as holy lands. We'll visit the one you spoke of first. After that, we'll fly to the other places on a plane. You seem to be able to sense them from thousands of kilometres away, so we'll know if it's true long before we reach the areas," said Sheyan with a smile.
Sindalor shook his head. "I can only feel the presence of the holy land after planting my roots in the ground. Once my feet leave the ground, I'll be as good as blind. Moreover, it was not I who discovered the holy land just now; something there was calling out to me with a special resonance!"
Sheyan nodded. "I see. But since a miracle has already appeared in our dark and filthy world, why can't you believe that it would appear a few more times? Light is often born from the deepest darkness, and the filthiest place would often give birth to the most flawless purity!"
Sindalor could not find a reply to that.
To be honest, it was not Sheyan's eloquence that made him speechless, but the fact that the holy land had appeared here was irrefutable.
At this time, a stewardess came over and told them with a sweet voice, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have to make a landing now. We've only obtained the permission to fly here in China. If we enter the Russian airspace, we might cause a very serious diplomatic dispute."
"Do it at once, at the fastest speed," Sheyan waved her away impatiently.
After the stewardess left, Sindalor suddenly said, "There's no need to land. I've already studied the magic in your world. I can easily block a spell of this level."
Sheyan smiled and replied, "We call this thing science, not magic. But are you sure we won't be detected? If the other party manage to detect us, they have the ability to strike us down from the air. Well, to be more precise, an attack no less powerful than ten 'Great Fireballs' will hit this machine we call an airplane. And if one attack doesn't work, they might repeat it a thousand times."
The old tree said angrily, "I'll never do anything that I'm not confident in."
"Okay, then," Sheyan nodded.
Then, he went to the cockpit at the front of the plane and asked the captain, "How much fuel do we have left?"
"Uhm, we refueled an hour ago, and in order to deal with any unforeseen circumstances, we filled all the tanks, so we still have 93% of fuel left. In theory, we can circle the Earth two and a half times," answered the captain, slightly surprised.
"Maintain radio silence and fly directly past Russia's border. There's no need to ask Russia for permission. I recall that this new Gulf Stream model can take off and land vertically. Just fly straight to the destination. We should be able to find a place for vertical take-off and landing there," said Sheyan casually.
"But!..." The captain exclaimed in shock.
Sheyan gave him a deep, meaningful stare.
"I'm not discussing this with you or asking for your opinion, sir. This is an order."
As an employee, what else could the captain say? In order to make himself feel better, he could only imagine Sheyan's embarrassing reaction when a few Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets flew over to "escort" them later.
However, the situation he anticipated did not happen! Minutes after minutes passed, but they safely travelled thousands of kilometers into Russian territory without any incident. Only when the copilot reminded him that they had arrived at the destination did he wake up from his daze with a jolt!
The Podkamennaya Tunguska River twisted and turned below them. Although it was currently the rare time of the year when the local temperature was above zero, a human could hardly be seen in this place. Vast lands and small population had always been the trademarks of Russia.
When the plane made a vertical landing on a field beside the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, the captain and the flight crew were surprised to find the plane covered in a layer of light green moss. The moss layer was only less than a centimeter thick, but it was truly bizarre. The whole plane now had a rather strange colour.
The crew stared at each other. They did not even know when the moss had started growing on the plane!
A maintenance crew wanted to scrape it off, but he was strictly forbidden from doing so by Sheyan. Obviously, this layer of green moss was the most crucial reason why this new Gulf Stream model, that was capable of vertical landing and take-off, could enter and leave the Russian airspace at will without being detected!
The captain stared at the moss while he murmured, "This is incredible. The stealth technology that the Pentagon spent decades and hundreds of billions of dollars to develop has lost to this layer of moss!"
***
Because the epicentre of the Tunguska explosion was now a primitive jungle, the place they landed on was a considerable distance away from the core area, but the distance that was like a natural chasm for ordinary people turned out to be a very pleasant journey for Sheyan, Melody and Sindalor.
As soon as they were out of sight of the crew, the three of them climbed onto an Ent who had been endowed with life on the spot. The Ent marched across the strange and mysterious forest with the three riding on his shoulders. Sindalor was so excited that his long white beard would not stop shaking.
"The holy land, this is the holy land! Such an abundance of powerful primitive energy! So pure! Every breath felt so refreshing!" he kept murmuring, as if to himself.
Sindalor gave a start all of a sudden. He rapidly turned back into his original form of the ancient and powerful Sacred Oak, unable to suppress his impulse any longer! Fortunately, the place they were in was a dense primitive coniferous forest, so the sudden appearance of a huge oak tree was as noticeable as the addition of a grain of sand to a beach. There was no danger of being detected by a satellite.
"Over there, over there!" Sindalor bellowed excitedly, totally out of character from his usual personality of a wise old tree!
His Perceptive Sense had increased tenfold after he turned back into his original form! Every time he stepped on the ground, a large number of golden roots would burrow deep into the earth! After detecting the signal, Sindalor instantly moved forward with large, quick strides. The coniferous forest here was so dense that even the winds had difficulties blowing through, and the cold climate of the alpine zone made the surface of the trees extremely tough, but thanks to the power of the Sacred Oak, the trees pulled their roots out of the ground one after another and moved aside to give way to him!
After about seven or eight kilometers of running, Sheyan saw that the vegetation in the area ahead was gradually growing sparser, turning from towering trees to dense bushes, and from dense bushes to sparse grasslands. Finally, not even grass grew on the ground anymore. The dry, hard land, dark grey in colour, was directly exposed to the air.
The dark grey land sprawled over an area of about two or three square kilometres, forming a slightly sunken basin in the ground. Sindalor stopped at the central area of the right side of the basin. Unlike his previous expression of unbridled joy and hysteria, he was currently gnashing his teeth, as if he was in the middle of a fierce fight with heaven and earth.
Sheyan had excellent Perceptive Sense, and excellent eyesight as well, so he could naturally see a plant in front of Sindalor that was only about half a metre tall. The plant's growth was so crooked that it had distorted into an abnormal shape. Its stem that was only half a metre long was covered in burls the size of ping-pong balls!!
(TL: A burl is a tree growth in which the grain has grown in a deformed manner. It is commonly found in the form of a rounded outgrowth on a tree trunk or branch that is filled with small knots from dormant buds.)
What's more, it was the only plant that was growing on this wasteland!
"This is the thing sending the signals that Sindalor could receive from thousands of kilometres away?" While Sheyan was still surprised and puzzled, something suddenly occurred which made his eyes widen in astonishment.
Sindalor, the great wise oak who had a "Sacred" prefix, actually raised his giant foot and stomped down mercilessly on the pitiful crippled and deformed plant in front of him!