Under the soft glow of an ethereal blue light, a vast underground paradise stretched before them.
Lush streams and crystal-clear lakes shimmered, reflecting the glow above.
On the shore, clusters of bizarre vegetation swayed gently, as if dancing to the rhythm of an invisible breeze.
Brilliantly colored flowers blanketed the ground, their petals releasing a faint, intoxicating fragrance.
And overhead—
A massive sphere of blue light hovered in the air, casting an otherworldly radiance across the entire cavern.
It was breathtaking. Unreal. Impossible.
Debi's voice trembled as she whispered, "Is this… heaven?"
Jiang Chen's eyes gleamed with awe.
"No," he said. "It's not heaven.
But it's better than heaven."
—
The live chat was in complete chaos.
[HOLY SH*T?!]
[Am I dreaming? Is this CGI?!]
[How is this REAL? They're FOUR THOUSAND METERS UNDERGROUND.]
[This looks like something out of a fantasy novel.]
[A hidden world beneath the Earth… Jiang Chen just discovered a real-life paradise.]
—
For centuries, humanity had assumed that deep underground was nothing but a barren, lifeless void.
No sunlight. No photosynthesis. No vegetation.
The deeper you go, the more inhospitable the environment.
That was the ironclad rule.
But Jiang Chen and Debi had just shattered that belief.
This wasn't just a discovery.
It was a revolution.
A thriving ecosystem, flourishing in absolute darkness.
If life could exist here—what else was possible?
—
Debi finally snapped out of her trance, staring wide-eyed at their surroundings.
"This… this is beyond science. Jiang, how is this even possible?"
Jiang Chen exhaled slowly.
"There's only one way to find out," he said.
With that, he stepped forward, crossing the boundary into the underground paradise.
Debi followed, her every step careful, as if afraid the dreamlike world would vanish.
Their first priority—
The vegetation.
Up close, the plants looked even stranger.
Their stems twisted in unnatural patterns.
Their leaves shimmered under the blue light, pulsating as if alive.
And the flowers—
They glowed.
Soft, luminous hues of violet, crimson, and gold, radiating a quiet, mesmerizing energy.
But what stunned Jiang Chen the most—
None of these plants existed on the surface.
Not a single one.
Every species here—was unknown to science.
The live chat was frozen.
Then—
It erupted.
[NEW. SPECIES.]
[THEY JUST DISCOVERED AN ENTIRELY UNKNOWN ECOSYSTEM.]
[This isn't just history. This is EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY.]
[Bro… this is Nobel Prize-level discovery.]
[Humanity thought we knew our planet. Jiang Chen just proved we don't.]
—
Jiang Chen knelt down, running his fingers gently over the petals of a glowing flower.
"Debi," he murmured, "we're standing in a world no human has ever seen before."
She swallowed hard.
"I know."
Her voice was barely a whisper.
Jiang Chen's eyes burned with determination.
This was just the beginning.
They had uncovered something beyond imagination.
Now—
They had to find out the truth.
Because whatever allowed this world to exist—
Could change everything.
Jiang Chen had already made history.
Discovering an entire ecosystem at a depth of 4,000 meters was an earth-shattering revelation.
But now—confirming that every plant here was an unknown species? That was beyond extraordinary.
This wasn't just a major discovery.
This was a turning point for science.
A discovery that dwarfed even the ultra-deep well of the Kola Peninsula.
The world was in shock.
—
Debi's breath hitched.
"What's shining up there?" she whispered. "Is that… the sun?"
A sun.
Underground.
If that were true—if an actual sun existed beneath the Earth's surface—it would shatter modern cosmology.
Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed.
That light source.
It was bright. Warm. Suspended high above them, casting a glow over the entire cavern like a miniature sun.
But something felt… off.
Then—
He saw it.
"It's moving," Jiang Chen muttered.
Debi stepped forward, squinting.
Her eyes suddenly widened in shock.
"Oh my God… Jiang, you're not going to believe this."
He turned to her. "What?"
"That's not a sun."
Her voice trembled.
"That's a swarm of insects."
Jiang Chen's pupils shrank.
Insects?
He quickly grabbed his gear and zoomed in.
And then—
He saw them.
Thousands—no, millions—of luminous creatures, hovering together in a massive sphere.
Their bodies glowed like fireflies.
But unlike fireflies, their entire exoskeleton emitted light, not just their tails.
And they were huge.
Larger than any known bioluminescent insect.
Their glowing shells flickered in waves, pulsing like a living constellation.
Jiang Chen exhaled slowly.
"Another unknown species," he murmured.
If the underground vegetation had already driven botanists insane—
This discovery would send entomologists into a frenzy.
Scientists worldwide, glued to Jiang Chen's stream, were already scrambling to gather research teams.
Every top university.
Every biological research institution.
They all wanted to be the first to study these creatures.
To understand how they survived.
How they glowed.
But before Jiang Chen could get a closer look—
The swarm reacted.
As if sensing the presence of outsiders, the massive cluster suddenly dispersed.
Whoosh—
In a heartbeat, they scattered across the cavern ceiling.
And then—
The sky appeared.
A cosmic illusion, right here underground.
Tiny, glowing insects dotted the darkness above, like distant stars in a moonless night.
Debi stood frozen, mouth slightly open.
The live chat exploded.
[HOLY—]
[Is this real?!]
[Bro just discovered the underground Milky Way.]
[Forget Rolls-Royce's starry sky ceiling—THIS is the real deal.]
[4,000 meters underground, watching the stars… Nothing in life will ever top this.]
[Jiang Chen is out here experiencing things we didn't even know were POSSIBLE.]
Jiang Chen let out a low chuckle.
This wasn't just exploration anymore.
This was a dream.
A dream hidden beneath the Earth—
And they had stepped inside it.