After the fairy disappeared

Chapter 2695 Careful Consideration (Bonus Chapter for the New Year)

Countless days and nights of research and calculation, and countless exhaustive deductions, have finally been perfectly validated today!
His deduction was correct; Mother Earth would indeed return to her birthplace, to the deep crater left by the meteorite impact, before the final deadline!
Over the past three years, even though Duanmu Heng was very confident in his theory, it ultimately lacked factual support.

The Earth Mother is such a mysterious monster that there is very little information about her, and she is from a very ancient era. Duanmu Heng could not confirm his conjecture.

The more the gods valued his speculations, the greater the pressure they placed on him.

Today, my dream has come true!
He carefully observed Mother Earth for a while through his divine eye, then closed the doors and windows and began to seek an audience with Helutian.

Upon hearing that the Earth Mother had appeared, Helu Tian's communication arrived with lightning speed, without the slightest hesitation.

He saw the scene conjured by the lamp spirit, and his voice was filled with a rare excitement:
"Let's zoom in for a closer look and see what Mother Earth is doing!"

Duanmu Heng gave the order, and the screen immediately switched to the Sky Eye, which was closest to the lake.

The Earth Mother Plain is almost level with the ground of the Trapped Dragon Cave, but it rises to a height of about two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) near the lake. Duanmu Heng speculated that it did not want the lake water to flow back into the plain behind it, probably because there were farmlands on the plain, and many humans and livestock lived there.

The waters of the Dragon-Trapping Gorge are extremely harmful to outsiders.

Then, it was as if a sluice gate on the Earth Mother Plain had been opened, and a surging torrent, taking advantage of a drop of two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters), poured from the plain into the lake, instantly creating a misty spray.

"Is it draining water into the lake?"

Duanmu Heng answered the question: "This is probably the last bit of salt it brought out of the sea."

Lake Koryubori is not entirely freshwater; salt from the surrounding land flows into it. While the Earth Mother Plain discharges salt here, it also releases many highly nutrient-rich substances, which are extremely beneficial to the ecosystem of Koryubori.

"Why is it taking so long to expel the last bit of salt?" Mother Earth must have been exhausted after traveling all the way here, so she wouldn't have deliberately left the salt here to expel it.

“The most likely explanation is that it had already reached its limit.” Duanmu Heng pointed to Panlong City and ordered Tianyan, “Look at the city wall, yes, the base of the wall!”

The base of the outer wall of the south gate of Panlong City is almost level with the ground of Kunlongmu, and it is also located on the edge of the Earth Mother Plain, making it the best observation target.

After being magnified several times, the base of the city wall became high-definition, and even the stains on the boulders and the color of the soil could be clearly seen.

“Here!” At the base of the wall, a few streaks of ochre red appeared.

It's very fine, very faint, and inconspicuous.

But Duanmu Heng still found out.

"Once the Earth Mother rises to the surface, she begins to absorb the special nutrients from the Dragon-Trapping Cave, which gives her the energy to expel the last bit of salt. This means that she is very tired and needs to recover and rest properly."

"Can it rest and recuperate in the Dragon-Trapping Cave for twenty days?"

“It will probably take longer,” Duanmu Heng deduced. “Given its level of fatigue, I estimate it will be more than twenty-five days.”

“Very good. The longer it stays, the more relaxed we will be.” Helutian was satisfied. “Now that Mother Earth has arrived as promised, let’s get started on the follow-up plan.”

The gods had been waiting impatiently for a long time.

"Also, are you sure it won't just burrow underground and disappear?" The hunting plan was about to begin, and even He Lutian was a little uneasy. "No one in the world can create such a large barrier to prevent it from escaping."

No matter what kind of barrier or formation it is, it ultimately has a limited area and cannot be expanded indefinitely. The area occupied by the Dragon-Trapping Mound and the Earth Mother itself is too astonishing, exceeding the effective range of the barrier and formation.

The Heavenly Palace tried countless times at the Dragon-Trapping Cave, whether by using broken points or by using convergence, but they could not create a barrier that could prevent the Earth Mother from descending. Even composite formations were ineffective.

In other words, if the Earth Mother discovers something is wrong in the early stages of the plan, she can disappear underground, making all the hard work of the Heavenly Palace and Duanmu Heng over the past few years go to waste.

This is also the most difficult thing for Mother Earth to deal with.

“As long as we arrange things well, it won’t happen.” Duanmu Heng had already thought things through carefully, filtering out almost every detail. “First of all, the Earth Mother was already exhausted after arriving at the Dragon-Trapping Cave. As long as she doesn’t sense any threat, she won’t easily move. It’s like a soldier who has marched for seven days and seven nights and finally manages to sit down and rest. If you let him sit for even a short while, he won’t want to stand up anymore. His whole body feels like it’s falling apart, and the more he rests, the more tired he becomes.”

"Secondly, after the Earth Mother settles down in the Dragon-Trapping Cave, she will most likely be in a relaxed state, or even go into seclusion and hibernation."

Helu Tian asked, "Are you sure?"

"This is my deduction, but it's pretty close." Duanmu Heng knew this wasn't the time for modesty; the more decisive and confident he was, the more at ease the gods would be. "Kunlongku was formerly known as Liaotianyuan. The last time the Earth Mother returned to Liaotianyuan, she was still under Shangguan Biao's control, and her own divine soul was dormant. But several demons in Yujing City mentioned that at that time, the operation of the Earth Mother Plain would occasionally malfunction; sometimes even using a pass token wouldn't open the door; some roads were inexplicably blocked by boulders emerging from the ground, becoming dead ends; the most outrageous thing was that once the water from the Ocean Secret Realm flowed out, flooding the neighboring secret realm. It was only afterwards that we learned that the two secret realms had devoured each other, and the Earth Mother's Heart hadn't warned Shangguan Biao at all. Every time she returned to Liaotianyuan, Yujing City would experience some problems, and even Shangguan Biao, who controlled the Earth Mother's Heart, couldn't fix these ailments. What do you think, Heavenly Venerable?"

"Indeed, the Earth Mother's body is also in seclusion. Before the great battle of the Reversed Sea, Miao Zhantian collected detailed information on the True Immortal Qianhuan, and there was a similar situation: during Qianhuan's seclusion, the disciples of the Illusion Sect lived in the Reversed Sea and occasionally encountered some unreasonable strange things. Even a True Immortal's body is not immune to these problems."

"Yes, so Liaotian Plain is indeed the best choice for us to ambush Mother Earth. As we know from the past, Mother Earth disdains humans. If we operate properly, we can effectively paralyze her until we achieve our goal!"

"As far as I know, the Cangyan people are active on the Earth Mother Plain, and most of them are shrewd people planted by the Nine Netherworlds. They may also go out."

"I've arranged everything, you can rest assured," Duanmu Heng said softly. "They won't be able to uncover the truth, not even in Longhu West Town!"

At this point, he finally asked in return:

"There is only one question: Can the Celestial Venerable confirm that the Nine Nether Emperor himself is indeed in Ju City?"

The last time the Heavenly God and Shangguan Biao collaborated to plot against Panlong Ancient City, the Nine Nether Emperor also claimed to be in seclusion. However, he secretly arrived at Panlong Wasteland and caught both sides completely off guard.

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