Chapter 948 Fifteen. Above the Surface

  Professor Hagrid's useless dissuasion, Lu Li followed Professor Chriss out of the tree canopy and took the tree-hole elevator in the mixed area to the lower level.

  The proportion of human beings is as small as an ant in the dark tree hole leading to the depths of the ground—Professor Chris is the slightly larger one.

  The other elevators with fluorite lamps hanging around them rose or fell, and the dark tree holes echoed the sound of the winch rolling.

   Passing through the middle and upper grades, their elevators did not stop and continued to descend.

   "He's not in the giant tree?"

  Luri looked at the glowing edge at the bottom of the tree hole, which should be the surface.

   "As heresy, that guy is not qualified to enter the academy." said Professor Chris, who hugged his chest beside him. In the dark, she was even whiter, as if draped in a shimmer of light.

  Professor's title comes from his identity in the old days——

   After a few minutes, the slightly swaying elevator was inserted into the bottom platform, and the exit of the tree hole was illuminated by bright light.

   It’s just that this is not the point. There is space behind the wooden board under your feet, leading to the dark and dark underground tree root area.

   There is the location of the lower academies and the restricted areas.

  The students who traveled between the surface platforms consciously avoided Professor Chris. Not just respect for his identity, but also awe for his strength. The sight that fell on Lu Li was much more elusive. Although it has nothing to do with malice, it is by no means benevolent.

   "That's why we make a distinction between low, middle, and high grades. What's light and what's darkness. Staring too long with the abyss...and not being part of it."

  Humans are adaptable, and all beings are adaptable—because those who cannot adapt are long lost.

   And this also brings a terrible guess: from the abyss, from the darkness, from the fog, from the inner world whether the weird people were like humans.

   Just in the long time and contact, they lost their nature, civilization and history?

   Giant Tree Academy must stop this from happening.

  The tiny figure was walking under the tree hole, and the gatekeepers in front blocked the way.

   "Vice Dean Chriss...and our exorcist Mr. Exorcist." The elder gatekeeper stationed in the tree hole turned one eye and observed Professor Chriss and Lu Li: "Where are you going?"

   "Lord Street, see a friend." Professor Chris said proudly, she didn't seem to like the night watchmen.

   "Where are your masks?" asked the elder gatekeeper.

  Professor Chris took out two medicine tubes from her handbag and distributed them to Lu Li.

   "Drink." She lifted her neck and swallowed her own.

   "Safety area, stay until dark." After a brief pause in sight, the elder gatekeeper signaled his men to get out of the way.

  Professor Chris maintained a proud nod, and walked out of the tree hole with Lu Li to the surface.

After    the primordial darkness enveloped the earth, Lu Li saw them again.

   Black lines that are finer than snowflakes and more disordered than flying insects are blocked at the bright edges. They were barely visible in the gloomy noonday in the pervasiveness of the outside world. Different from normal darkness, they are like living creatures, corroding everything they occupy all the time, so they are also called "living darkness".

"I don't like them...take the rules too seriously." Professor Chris rang in his ear to the Night's Watch's complaint: "I called them many times when I was not the vice president. Better pray you You will not be caught by them during your time in the Giant Tree Academy, and if you are caught, don’t try to resist, or you will be waiting for endless trouble.”

   The almond-like sweeteners taken take effect. The surging dark lines were blocked from the mouth and nose. The surrounding figures did not receive this treatment. They all wore crow masks or closed masks. The dark masks followed Lu Li and Professor Chris, and they could not tell their expressions.

   But Lu Li could smell the blood on some people.

   "You can start taking missions when you become a middle grader."

  Lu Li's attention fell on the building outside the black fog.

   These decayed, faded buildings have some windows lit up. Although not many, the occasional shadows cast on the curtains indicate that people still live on the surface.

  Professor Chris told Lu Li the answer: This is a colonial area.

   means an area already occupied by them.

The evidence of    are figures and patrolling soldiers passing by occasionally on the street.

   But the meaning of the colony is more than that: many people think that the surface is no longer their own, and they will become underground cave creatures for a long time.

   That's true. The colony area only exists in a circle at the foot of the giant tree, and beyond that is the safe area. The area that has been cleaned up, but cannot be stationed, is more peripheral to the cleaning area.

The    safe zone and clearing zone are also known as the buffer zone - the area where the colony is not directly exposed to the darkness, and is also the farthest distance that the Giant Tree Academy can radiate.

  The Rhodes neighborhood is in the safe zone, the streets here are quiet, away from the light and noise.

  【Stirling House】

  Professor Chris walked up the steps of a house with a wooden sign and pushed open the half-closed door.

  Squeak-

   Enter the quiet house, where the light of oil lamps illuminates the graffiti-like ancient marks and other symbols on the walls.

  Professor Chris led him to open the door to the basement and ducked into the passage.

   After more than a dozen steps, a rough and deep cave appeared in front of you, with fluorescent blocks scattered on the rock wall, and suspiciously exposed brains growing next to it.

   "Monkey brain fungus, only grows in places where the filthy damp fluorite light shines."

  Professor Chris said: "It looks like it will lose sanity, but the Naozhi soup with it as the main material is an excellent potion for warming sanity."

   "Recovery?"

   "No, but it can ease the speed of the reduction, the standard medicine for middle and high school students and lower-level colleges." Professor Chris's voice echoed. "So you need to learn, honey, there's a lot about us that you don't know about this era."

   A distance ahead, they saw desk utensils placed in a simple cave, as well as a dirty, slovenly old man.

   "Sterling, you should sort this out."

   "I might be able to solve a problem or come up with a new idea in the time I organize." The old man in front of the table glanced and lowered his head to continue his research. "I know you, Mr. Exorcist who everyone knows. Chris, what are you bringing him for?"

   "Experiment."

   Stirling paused, took off his glasses, and looked at Lu Li with bloodshot eyes: "Do you believe in science?"

   "Science doesn't need to be believed, it exists." Lu Li said calmly.

   "Honey, it looks like we are very similar..." Professor Chris covered his mouth and chuckled charmingly.

"If I didn't know you, I thought you made him say that." Sterling's eyes on Lu Li became friendly: "Chris also said the same at that time. She said that science doesn't need to be believed, it exists objectively, but it is no longer there. It belongs to this era...for this reason I ignored her for a long time."

   (end of this chapter)