Chapter 3673

At night, Jin Ling Airport.

After the Gulfstream business jet landed smoothly on the runway, it proceeded directly from the taxiway to the arranged hangar.

The hangar had a very high security level; ordinary people had no chance to access it, and even the ground crew had been cleared out at this moment. The aircraft taxied all the way into the hangar interior, where two low-key black Red Flag sedans were already parked on one side. Qiu Ying Shan, accompanied by his wife, Old Zhang, and the two drivers from the Qiu household—including the housekeeper Xian Jie—stood together outside the hangar waiting.

The plane came to a smooth stop, the cabin door opened, and Ye Chen and Lin Wan'er stepped out one after the other. Qiu Ying Shan and his wife, along with Old Zhang, immediately stepped forward to greet them respectfully.

"Young Lady, Mr. Ye." The three bowed deeply and respectfully in greeting. Lin Wan'er smiled and said, "You've all gone through so much trouble; at your age, you still have to come out to meet me."

Qiu Ying Shan respectfully smiled and said, "Being able to serve the Young Lady is no trouble at all. Besides, with the opportunity Mr. Ye previously bestowed upon us, these three old fellows are still in good health."

Lin Wan'er let out a light laugh, slightly nodded, and said: "Old Qiu, tell Old Sun that the plane will remain on standby here. I and Mr. Ye may need to fly back to Shu Du at any time via the same route."

Qiu Ying Shan first respectfully nodded and said: "Very well, Young Lady. I will contact Zhī Dòng later, but you and Mr. Ye have returned so hurriedly this time—must you leave again so soon?"

"Yes." Lin Wan'er nodded slightly and said: "There are still some matters left unfinished."

Qiu Ying Shan bowed with clasped hands and said: "Very well, then let us first return to the mountain villa."

"Good."

In the darkness, the two Red Flag sedans drove out of the airport and headed straight for Zijin Mountain Villa.

Upon arrival, Ye Chen and Lin Wan'er went to the top-floor courtyard of the villa. The mother of the Pu Cha tree had grown significantly larger compared to before, and now, with the transition from spring to summer, it appeared even more lush and verdant, its trunk as thick as an adult's arm.

Lin Wan'er looked up at the branches of the Pu Cha mother tree, gazing through the leaves at the mottled starry sky, and smiled softly: "I have gazed at the starry sky for four hundred years, and today, for the first time, I feel something different. Before, I only felt the vastness of the heavens; now, looking again, amidst that vastness, there is an added sense of unknown fear."

Ye Chen likewise looked up at the starry sky, nodded, and sighed: "I once thought the universe so vast that even just the Milky Way contains two hundred billion stars, each like the Sun, with its own stellar system, so there must certainly be other life existing in the universe. But I previously felt superior about ourselves, believing that even if some extraterrestrial life existed, the vast majority would merely be microorganisms or low-end life forms living in water, hardly having the opportunity of favorable timing, location, and harmony to evolve a civilization comparable to humanity's. But now, looking up at the countless stars, I think of how humanity still lacks the ability to land on planets within our own solar system, yet another group of people tens of thousands of years ago could already leap between these stars—my heart cannot help but feel a chill."

Having spoken, Ye Chen suddenly smiled, then added with a sense of relief: "But pondering these things is ultimately meaningless. Given my current strength, I cannot even defeat Wu Feiyan. If faced with those top-tier cultivators, I would not even be as significant as an ant—I would be a true, genuine ant."

Lin Wan'er laughed and said: "If that is the case, then Young Master, you need not let this affect your mood. Those cultivators with great divine powers have long since departed. To them, Earth is merely a resource-depleted dumping ground, and they will certainly never return. Yet they have genuinely left you immense benefits."

"That underground city is practically the strongest fortress in this world, and it also has nine teleportation arrays leading directly to various places. For you, Young Master, it is as if aided by the gods. In the future, when facing the Po Qing Hui and Wu Feiyan, you can advance swiftly and retreat just as quickly. Even if Wu Feiyan learns your identity, as long as you enter the underground city, she can do nothing to you. With her strength, trying to shake the underground city built by those great divine beings is like a termite trying to shake a tree—pure fantasy."

Ye Chen nodded in agreement and self-mockingly said: "I used to think that no matter how strong a cultivator was, they could not surpass powerful modern technology—just like the Earl of Po Qing Hui, who suffered years of asceticism, would be utterly helpless before close-defense cannons. No matter how strong a cultivator, facing nuclear weapons—such a formidable weapon—would also be futile..."

Saying this, Ye Chen sighed: "But looking at it now, I was still naive. True top-tier cultivators possess strength far beyond our comprehension. Even if our technology advanced for another ten thousand years, it could not achieve interstellar jumping for interstellar migration, yet they can accomplish interstellar migration through teleportation arrays. This strength is absolutely beyond what modern technology can shake. Therefore, the protective formations of the underground city they built—how strong they truly are—I suspect even exhausting all modern technology could not reach their limit. I even have an intuition: even if the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs struck Earth again, that underground city would remain unharmed."

It was at this moment that Ye Chen truly understood why these cultivators built this underground city: beneath kilometers of ice cap and hundreds of meters of rock layer, they hollowed out several square kilometers of rock to a height of several dozen zhang, yet it remains intact without a single load-bearing pillar, preserved for thousands or even tens of thousands of years. This is true great divine power—using only spiritual energy and techniques to effortlessly resist immense gravity. From this, one can see that the defensive formations must also be immensely powerful.

Lin Wan'er looked at Ye Chen and smiled: "If that is truly the case, then this underground city is the strongest fortress on Earth, and you are the only one who can use it. Not to mention a mere Wu Feiyan—even if the apocalypse came, hiding there would keep you completely detached from worldly affairs. Moreover, you now possess a storage ring, allowing you to transport large quantities of supplies effortlessly into the underground city. If I had had such a place these past years, I would not have been relentlessly pursued by Wu Feiyan for so long."

Ye Chen exclaimed delightedly: "Lin Wan'er has reminded me again—the underground city is vast, but it contains almost no supplies. In the future, we can gradually renovate it, using the storage ring to transport large amounts of supplies in. The spiritual energy there is abundant beyond imagination. If some medicinal herbs could also be cultivated there, their potency might be greatly enhanced. I brought the cauldron furnace with me—perhaps I could refine even better pills."

Lin Wan'er asked Ye Chen: "Young Master, the only teleportation array in Huaxia is located at He Ming Shan. Though it is somewhat remote, it is only a few dozen kilometers from Shu Du. You might as well first establish a new base near Shu Du Airport—acquire real estate and warehouses, have people prepare the necessary supplies in Shu Du. I will have Old Sun handle the relations and approval process, and have Old Ying invest in an aviation company, purchasing several helicopters. This way, traveling to and from He Ming Shan from Shu Du will become much more convenient."

Ye Chen agreed: "Lin Wan'er makes sense. If we wish to take root domestically while easily using the teleportation array to travel back and forth to the underground city, or to the other eight teleportation arrays worldwide, we must be near He Ming Shan. Shu Du's old airport is the closest to it. If we establish a base in Shu Du, future operations will be far more convenient. Since we are already setting up an aviation company, why not simply invest tens of billions of US dollars, buy a plot of land near Shu Du Airport to build a base, using Shu Du Airport as headquarters, and create a shipping company rooted in the southwest? This would make future personnel and material allocation much more convenient!"