Chapter 29: The Missing Planet

  This is an unimaginable shock. It's not like playing with building blocks, where you can still play even if one block is missing. Of course, the solar system would still be the solar system even if it lost a planet, but losing a planet is just too huge, I mean, look at Pangu's massive body, standing on a planet would make him just a tiny dot, not even a pixel. Losing a planet, my god!

  The question suddenly appeared in my mind, and I asked: "Which one is missing?" Key! I found that I can always ask the most critical questions. Although others may have thought of this question too, they are not as quick-witted as me.

  The old man was thoroughly engrossed in the carving. He pointed with his finger and interpreted: "These should be the asteroid belt, which divides the planets of the solar system into two blocks. The outer ones, Mu, Tu, Tian, Hai, and Ming are all there, but the inner block... is missing a planet."

  "Which one?" I really wanted to slap myself, just now I thought my mouth was the fastest among these people, but I didn't expect this key question to be asked by Su Yi first.

  The old man continued to point at the several planets, saying: "Water, gold, earth, fire, four inner planets, Mercury is the smallest, this one should be the closest and smallest, Mars is closest to the asteroid belt, second largest, it should be this one. Could it be that Jupiter is missing?"

  The old man pointed to the last planet with the exclusion method and said, "Only Earth and Venus are left. This should be Earth. Without Venus, it seems that the ancients also had places where they couldn't observe."

  I found the old man staring at me intently, and I'm sure my face didn't look good at that moment. When the old man mentioned losing Jin Xing, I suddenly thought of something. I strongly opposed the idea in my mind, but it kept emerging and occupying my entire brain.

  The old man apparently also thought of this possibility, his voice trembling slightly, and asked me: "What did you think of?"

  I shook my head, trying to shake off that idea, but it came right back. I took a few deep breaths and then said, "I think it's not that there is no Venus, but rather that there is no Earth."

  "What a joke." Su Yi's kick was already on its way, but I didn't feel like dodging at all.

  The old man looked at the carving carefully and said, "It's fake, it's all fake. It's impossible without the earth, without the earth, how could humans appear? The carvings here are fake, they can't be real."

  "Fake?" I hesitated to say: "To build such a magnificent Heavenly Tower, to set up such a mysterious Heavenly Array, the result is just to protect some fake carvings, it's impossible, right?"

  The old man should also be a little hesitant, he said slowly: "If it's true, then what about the earth? What about us? Who are we? Where did we come from? And where are we going to go? Without the earth, where does life originate? Without the earth, is our whole life just an illusion?"

  I fell silent again. The old man's words were also very reasonable. Without the earth, are all things now an illusion? Are we all an illusion? Does everything not exist anymore?

  "There really is no earth." Wu Feng, who had been standing beside him all along, said at this time: "Because I didn't see the moon."

  His wife is old, this sentence is absolutely killing. Our eyes were immediately brought to the sculpture. First look at Jupiter, on the sculpture it should be about thirty centimeters, by logic the Earth and it shouldn't differ much, according to the ratio of the Moon and the Earth, the Earth is nearly thirteen times bigger than the Moon, that means the Moon in this sculpture should have at least more than two centimeters of space. But there's nothing on top. Among the planets closer to the Sun, none of them has a satellite.

  "My god!" Su Yi sat down on the ground with a thud, saying, "Isn't this just to prove that the Earth doesn't exist? Then what about us? Are we also non-existent?"

  Wen Long said on one side, "I played a game before, but I forgot its name. The general content of the game was to prevent something from waking up, because the world we live in is just a dream of that thing. Once that thing wakes up, we will disappear."

  "I said, 'Don't talk nonsense, is this really impossible? Think about it, our civilization has already been around for 5,000 years. If we add the period without civilization, then shouldn't the earth have been formed a very long time ago? How can there be none?"

  "Calm down, calm down." Wu Feng said: "Let's not discuss these useless things for now. You say that Earth is a later planet, the kind that entered the solar system later, who knows? Right or wrong?"

  We are relieved, and this explanation may be the most comforting one at this time. Moreover, it is not entirely impossible. Because the entire solar system is rotating in the universe. Maybe somewhere we met someone who knew our heart and joined that group.

  The old man relaxed, no longer feeling the excitement he had earlier, only looking a bit weak. It seemed that getting too excited was indeed bad for his health, especially at his age. The old man said: "Wu Feng is right, there are many explanations that can resolve the situation without Earth. Let's not talk about this for now, Wu Feng, you're in charge of taking all the pictures, Wen Long, go find the entrance to the next level."

  Several people immediately dispersed, I looked at the sculpture without the earth, feeling that things would not be as simple as we imagined. But indeed, nothing new could be brought out. Had to default to Wu Feng's explanation.

  "Never mind," Su Yi said, seeing me still staring blankly at the carving. "Look, based on the height of this pagoda and the two levels we've descended so far, there should be another seven or eight levels below us, right? I think if we keep going down, we'll definitely find an answer. You can't figure it out by thinking about it here, why not just save your brainpower and think about what kind of formation is waiting for us below?"

  I came to my senses. That's right, there is still such a large space below, how can it not be given a standard answer? As for the Tian Di array, I smiled wryly and said: "As soon as you mention seven or eight layers, I get a headache. If what's really laid out here is the Ten Extremes Array, then there are several arrays that I absolutely do not want to encounter."

  "What's up? What's up?" Su Yi obviously became interested and said, "Take advantage of the fact that we have some time now, tell me about it."

  "What a pity, you don't have time now." Wen Long returned at this moment, shouldered his backpack and said, "I've found the next entrance."

  Su Yi said with some displeasure: "He's really a guy who doesn't show up when he should and shows up when he shouldn't."

  Racing down the passage, this time I was fully prepared. No matter what's below, I definitely won't fall again. That's what I thought to myself. But then I finally understood what it means for heaven not to grant one's wishes - I didn't even land on solid ground because when I fell, my feet landed in water, bloody water. The Ten Extremes Red Water Formation. Oh no, why did I have to go swimming? I didn't even bring a pair of goggles.

  This time when I came down, I happened to hit the old man's head, and it was clear that he hadn't completely swum away. Su Yi immediately followed suit, and I quickly pushed the old man forward before being pressed down by Su Yi. Wu Feng even added insult to injury by piling on top of me. Whoa, this time I really inhaled a big mouthful of water - it was both salty and bitter. When I resurfaced again, I only then realized that this broken red water array truly had no bounds. Then, I was hugged from behind.

  It's Su Wei, I felt a thrill in my heart, then heard Wu Feng say from behind: "You damn well find a way out quickly, this broken place can't be stayed for a moment, this is a bloody pool."

  "I'm going," I cursed: "You're not a good-for-nothing either, you can swim too, why are you holding me?"

  Wu Feng suddenly changed his expression and said: "Ah, I thought Su Yi wanted to hug you, I think it's better to take the initiative."

  "Haha." Wen Long laughed out loud and said: "Wu Feng, you rascal, are you eating vinegar from a man or a woman?"

  "I'm going," I said, "What kind of occasion is this? You still have the heart to joke around, can't you just work?"

  This time it was faster, and I almost didn't spend any effort to find the place. I took the lead and swam to the safe zone first. When I turned back, I burst out laughing. Because I saw them swimming on the ground in a swimming posture, constantly moving forward. This is really funny, Wen Long, Lao Ye Zi, and Su Yi Qing all did freestyle, only Wu Feng did breaststroke, that posture, don't mention how embarrassing it was. How can such a good show be watched alone?

  "Hurry up and shout to them: 'Wu Feng, don't come over here for now, I have a task for you to complete over there. Take a break where you are first.'"

  Wu Feng immediately stood up. Because our backpacks had buoyancy in the water, as long as we straightened our bodies, we could naturally float on the surface without swimming. At this time, Wen Long had already swum over and looked at the old man and Su Yi who were still struggling, and he burst out laughing too. Then he said to me: "You little devil is quite bad! Haha, this has some meaning, wait a minute, I came over like that just now?"

  I couldn't help but burst out laughing. Su Youyun walked over, puzzled, and asked: "What are you guys laughing at?" The old man followed closely behind.

  I held back a smile and pointed at Wu Feng who was still in his original position, saying loudly: "Wu Feng, it's all right, your task is already completed, hurry up and cross over!"

  Wu Feng swam over with a helpless expression, while Su Yi burst out laughing in an even more exaggerated tone than us. "No way, we all came this way?"

  I shook my head and said: "Not that either, you guys are all freestyle, only this guy is breaststroke, it's too ridiculous. Can't take it anymore, stomach hurts."

  Wen Long was laughing so hard he was holding his stomach, Su Yi was laughing so hard she was rolling on the ground. The old man had been trying to hold it in, but felt even more uncomfortable. Wu Feng swam over with great effort and saw us laughing like this, asking puzzled: "What are you guys laughing at? Share it with me, let me be happy too. That last lap of swimming almost killed me."

  He didn't say a word, and we were already almost stopped laughing, but when he said that, we laughed even more uncontrollably. Wen Long patted him on the back while laughing and said: "Oh my, Vice Wu, this is really something that can't be shared with you. Haha!"

  The old man coughed twice and said, "Alright, alright, some things are better left in the heart. Isn't that one still not completely out of danger? Hurry up and head out."

  I nodded and continued to lead everyone out of the Red Water Formation. As we walked, I suddenly discovered some different places, and I asked Wu Feng: "Let me take a look at your camera."

  Wu Feng handed the camera to me, I took it and snapped a few shots, taking pictures of those stone pillars that we had previously taken in the Red Sand Array. After looking at them, I said: "This can't be right, why have these stone pillars shrunk again?"

  "What? What's been found?"

  I smiled wryly and said, "The road ahead is probably going to be tough. Look at these stone pillars, they've already left the ground and are starting to hang from the top. If it continues like this, maybe the ones behind will be directly on the ceiling. In that case, we won't have any way to determine our direction."

  "Ah," said Wu Feng, "you're not mistaken, are you? What if this place can't even determine its orientation?"

  I sighed and said: "Let's take it one step at a time, let's get out of this formation first."

  "Right," Su Yu continued, "you didn't finish what you were saying earlier. What kind of formation is it that you don't want to encounter?"

  "I replied as I walked, 'To be honest, the three arrays we've encountered so far are just ordinary ones because there's no one in charge, so they can't activate particularly severe illusions. Moreover, with our current technological products, it's not a big deal even if we do encounter an array. As for the arrays we haven't encountered yet - Wind Howl Array, Earth Fierce Array, and Blood Transformation Array - although these three are relatively more severe, I think as long as we're careful, we shouldn't have too many problems. And then there are four more arrays...I can hardly imagine what they'll be like.'"

  "What is it?" Su Yi asked.

  I said: "Tian Jue Zhen, you think the sky is going to collapse, what kind of formation would that be? And then there's Jin Guang Zhen, with a single flash of golden light, your soul will scatter. Lie Yan Zhen, if you fall into it, it'll be a pile of flames, I reckon in my subconscious, I'd be burned to death instantly. The most terrifying one is probably Luo Po Zhen, they say that thing can capture a person's three souls and seven spirits, it's unimaginable, what kind of principle is that formation built on?"

  "It can't be," Su Yi said: "How come you sound so uncertain? We won't die here, will we?"

  The old man said at this time: "Don't talk about those depressing words, as long as it's something built by humans, there will be a way to crack it. We've already passed three, right? As long as everyone thinks of a solution, it should be no problem."

  I nodded and said: "That's also right, let's think of a solution together. Look, this formation has come out too."

  I walked out of the Red Water Array and sat down on the ground with a thud, thinking that after coming down from above, these arrays were getting harder to deal with one by one. If I really got into those few arrays that sounded scary just by their names, what would I do? Wu Feng came over and said, "You're right, these stone pillars are indeed too short, what's going on?"

  I looked at the stone pillars that were now only half of their original size and shook my head, saying: "I really don't know, these heavenly arrays, I'm afraid they're not just built to protect this place, but to trap people to death here."

  Wu Feng patted me and said: "Cheer up, it's not necessarily that pessimistic. Just like you said, take one step at a time. Maybe the next part will be easier."

  I stood up and said: "What can we do? Everyone has entered, it's the only way. Let's go and see what's going on in this floor."

  The carvings on this layer are all about the content of life. The first carving is about the Pangu tribe building their living place in a certain area. Now it seems that they really do look like snakes, because they don't build houses at all, but dig caves in the mountains.

  The old man explained: "Indeed, it is an ancient god. According to mythological records, generally speaking, the gods of the ancient times all lived in caves, and they were all called Dongfu. This is also one of the reasons why humans initially lived in caves. If it weren't for the Nest Clan building the first treehouse, who knows what human development would be like?"

  On the second sculpture, those gods have apparently solved their housing problem and seem to be building something else, which feels more like a scientific laboratory.

  "I wondered: 'Don't these guys eat? I think it's time to open up the land and plant crops, how can they set up a laboratory like this?'"

  The old man was also stuck, and it seemed that he didn't understand everything either. We took another close look at the carving, making sure we couldn't find any other content, before turning to the third one.

  I finally understand why they set up this lab, it's not a lab at all, it's an injection machine. We can clearly see that they are constantly injecting some kind of ** from that arrow-shaped flying saucer into the lab.

  The old man said: "Good heavens, they're pouring water into this planet."

  "No way," I said: "Old man, I've seen water-injected pork, but a water-injected planet, that's just too ridiculous."

  Su Yi flew over to me with a kick and said, "Dumb, they're not trying to sell the planet, but rather inject water into it so that this planet can obtain the basic elements necessary for life."

  The old man said: "That's right, water is the source of life. So if a planet wants to generate life, it must have water first, they are not doing this for no reason, but in creating living space."

  "I thought for a moment and said, 'Old man, I think I understand something. This planet, I think it should be the early Earth. You see, at that time, there was no water on Earth, so it didn't look as colorful as it does now. Later, they injected water into the Earth, you see, and then it gradually developed into the Earth. Am I right?"

  "Look at your head." Su Yi flew in with a kick and said, "Take a closer look, this kind of hydration is not on the surface, but deep into the interior of that planet, which means, this planet is Mars."

  "How did you know?" I asked back: "Can't those waters just overflow along the surface like groundwater?"

  "I understand what you mean," said the old man. "Because in the solar system we see above, there is no Earth, so one always feels that his life is an illusion, and for you, it's especially desirable to turn this planet into a prototype of Earth. However, facts are facts, if what we've seen isn't wrong, then this planet should be Mars."

  I said: "It's the first time I've heard of water on Mars."

  "It's not surprising." Wu Feng explained while finishing his photography work, "According to research findings, there is actually a large amount of frozen water on Mars, which means that there is water on Mars, it's just all frozen into ice."

  "Alright." I raised my hands in surrender and said, "Mars, if this is Mars, then that means the first planet with life in the solar system is Mars."

  The old man said: "You're right, and now many scientists believe that humans are transformed from life on Mars, and the origin of humanity is from Mars."

  My head is a bit big, I've heard of the theory that there's life on Mars, and it reminds me of an old cartoon from my childhood, although I forgot its name, but it seemed to be about a group of Martian mice. Is Mars the starting point of human life? A huge question mark has been etched in my mind.

  We came to the fourth sculpture, and I was amazed with my mouth wide open, because I really saw - life. It was a completely pastoral scene, several mischievous children, seemingly naughty godchildren, playing by a small lake full of unknown plants. One of them was carved in close-up, half-length portrait, holding a tiny insect in his hand, oh my god, although my knowledge in this aspect is extremely lacking, I still recognized that tiny insect.

  That is a trilobite.