What was happening on the surface was of little concern to Jia Yan now.
He was soaring through the cavern!
The buzzing noise was deafening in the cramped space, with echoes reverberating all around.
"Where does this cave lead to? How is it that the Northeastern Wild Tigers can extract the Night Liquid from the boiler through that crack?"
To Jia Yan, it was all a mystery.
The cave he was in was about five or six meters high and seven or eight meters wide.
Jia Yan tried to maintain a flight altitude of about three meters, roughly half the height of the cave, ensuring the best evasion route from attacks coming from any direction!
He felt there was definitely some secret at the forefront of this cave.
Otherwise, with the crude conditions of the Northeastern Wild Tigers, it would be impossible to autonomously refine the Night Liquid capable of undergoing a third mutation!
Jia Yan vaguely speculated that his type of organism, having undergone three mutations, was definitely extremely rare because each mutation was incredibly difficult!
He even wondered why those centipedes and similar creatures could all mutate successfully?!
Even if it was just the first mutation, Jia Yan felt that it should be very difficult for ordinary creatures to cross over. If he hadn't trained himself since birth, coupled with the resilient nature of having a human soul, he might not have made it past the first time. How could those creatures with low intelligence possibly overcome this hurdle?
"Wait! I missed a detail, which is that the mutated creatures I've seen are mostly arthropods like centipedes and pill bugs. The characteristic of these animals is that they have much stronger physical constitutions than mosquitoes! Could that be the reason?"
Jia Yan vaguely organized his thoughts.
He felt he was right!
Mosquitoes are dipteran insects, and dipteran organisms are generally relatively weak. So far, he hadn't seen any mosquitoes besides himself that had mutated successfully.
Jia Yan was unique.
"Upon careful consideration, apart from dipterans, it seems that I haven't seen any successful mutations among other flying creatures."
"That's right, flying creatures generally have relatively poor physical constitutions. It's normal for them not to succeed in mutation. In that case, among flying insects, even if accidents happen frequently, it's very likely that I'm the only one who has mutated three times?"
Jia Yan was confident in his uniqueness. After all, he had survived three mutations, with the human soul playing a significant role.
"But what about that fiery red centipede I just encountered? Could it also be a mutated creature? It can grow to over two meters long, which is beyond description."
If converted into mutations, for an ordinary centipede to grow to over two meters long, it would require at least three mutations or more. Otherwise, it would be impossible to have such a length of body.
Of course, the creatures in this cave might not be explained by mutations. Perhaps they are some kind of ancient species that have been evolving and surviving here until now!
Jia Yan continued to fly forward.
Some questions became clearer the more he thought about them.
This cave that extended to an unknown location, Jia Yan also had a certain guess about it!
"If such a large centipede is to be provided for survival, the front of this cave is likely to be completely different from what it is now! And the creatures definitely won't be few. Otherwise, according to the current situation, that centipede wouldn't be able to obtain the necessary food for survival!"
Centipedes are carnivorous animals, although they occasionally eat tender leaves and algae, their favorite food is still meat. Jia Yan believed that even if the centipede he saw earlier was huge, it would be unlikely to deviate from its own group's living habits. So it was very likely also a carnivorous animal.
So, such a huge carnivorous animal can only survive with a vast source of food, otherwise it would be impossible to survive.
So Jia Yan could be sure that ahead of the cave, there would definitely be a different scenery.
It's even possible that what he would see in front of him would be a vast underground world of creatures!
In Jia Yan's compound eyes, there was a more intense look of interest.
An unknown and complex world, it was truly fascinating, filling him, who already loved zoology, with enthusiasm.
If he were still human, just releasing that centipede alone would have been shocking news to the world.
But now it's even better. Jia Yan felt that enjoying the feeling of having a secret all to himself was also nice!
He continued to fly forward.
Just as Jia Yan flew past a cluster of stalactites, under the glow of luminescent moss on the ceiling, something metallic flashed faintly in a corner of the cave.
"What's this?"
Jia Yan flew over.
"Huh? A helmet, seems like one worn by soldiers."
On the ground, a severely rusted metal helmet, under the dim light, reflected a faint gleam.
Perhaps due to its age, the helmet was already half rotten.
"This helmet looks very decayed. It's probably been decades. Did humans come here before? It's possible since the Northeastern Wild Tigers' factory is connected to this place, so it's normal for people to come down from above. And judging from the appearance of this helmet, it's still from the military?"
Jia Yan thought of the bullet marks on the three buildings of the factory.
In that era of war, it was too normal for all sorts of things to happen, even if such huge scientific discoveries were submerged in the river of history for certain purposes.
Jia Yan continued to fly forward.
Next, scattered human items appeared one by one in Jia Yan's eyes.
These were mostly soldiers' belongings, including heavily corroded firearms and ammunition.
Jia Yan even saw several sets of snow-white skeletons!
The bone-white sight was terrifying.
"It seems that it wasn't just one or two soldiers who came here before, but an organized action by a certain army." Looking at everything before him, Jia Yan was puzzled. How could so many soldiers have died here? Could there be some danger that he hadn't discovered yet?
He became more alert!
After flying forward for a while, he estimated that he had flown over two hundred meters in this cave!
The space above was getting higher, and the surroundings were getting broader.
Jia Yan felt that the numerous glowing mosses around him were also flourishing.
Finally, after passing a pile of rubble.
The world before him suddenly opened up!
As expected, just as Jia Yan expected, a new world appeared before his eyes!
But this new world was far more vast than he had imagined!
The space above reached at least twenty to thirty meters high, and the space around him was so vast that Jia Yan couldn't see the end with his vision!
And not far from him, streams formed by countless underground waters converged and flowed slowly.
Countless glowing mosses, like blooming flowers, flourished at the top of the cave, illuminating the space as if it were daylight!
Splash!
Just as Jia Yan was amazed by the scenery around him, a burst of water splashed into the air from the pond below him!
A fish about fifty centimeters long leaped from the water, shooting towards Jia Yan in mid-air.
"What?"
Jia Yan was startled, and his wings flapped quickly, moving away from his original
position!
The giant fish, resembling a kind of grass carp but with a much larger size, opened its mouth and bit towards where Jia Yan had been before!
Fortunately, Jia Yan had already moved away from that position. The giant grass carp just splashed a canopy of water in the air, soaking Jia Yan all over.
Then it fell back into the water.
"It can jump to a height of two meters. The jumping ability of this fish is too strong!"
Jia Yan strongly felt that his current altitude was not enough. Fortunately, the top space was also larger, so he quickly controlled his body to climb higher.
When he looked back, he realized that the cave he had come out of was just one of the caves in this vast space, and there were several similar caves nearby.
"The real underground world does exist!"
Jia Yan remembered when he was human, he had seen many science fiction movies, novels, and analyses about the underground world.
Those analyses proved that the underground world could really exist, and there wouldn't be few of them!
But the scale couldn't possibly be as vast and boundless as described in novels or science fiction movies!
This space now was obviously one of those underground worlds.
"It's very large, estimated to be over five kilometers in length and width! Plus, there are some small caves connected to it everywhere nearby. The total area combined is already very huge."
Relying on his vision after three mutations, Jia Yan tried his best to feel the light from the glowing mosses in the distance and roughly judged the size of this huge space!
Moreover, there were many plants among them. These plants did not rely on sunlight for growth but grew with water sources and the high concentration of oxygen around them.
It seemed that after countless years of evolution, a unique ecosystem had formed here!