Close to fourteen months since the birth of the Royal Zinger, the Biome Bomb train continued to travel through the darkness, fighting against the stream of water pushing on it.
The deeper they went, the stronger the push of the stream of water grew, making the travel slow. Thankfully, the two Biome Bombs had enough resources within to satisfy the needs of the Quip Clan atop its consumption while moving.
"We're almost there." Inala said upon observing his surroundings begin to brighten up, "We're reaching the end."
"Finally!" Wittral exclaimed in joy, "It seemed like forever. If you didn't continue reassuring me of this route, I would have brought us back to the Dralh Sea."
"The place we're heading towards appeared in Sumatra Chronicles." Inala said, "Though the route used by the Mammoth Clan was different, any strange water body should have a route leading to this place. So, I guessed the Abyss Fall to be one such place. The Brimgan Founder's collection of knowledge only reinforced my guess."
As he spoke, the darkness faded as the Biome Bomb train exited a gigantic hole that was close to 20 kilometres in diameter. Moving against the flow of the water, it entered a region that seemed to be a hollow in the earth.
"What the heck is this place?" Wittral screamed in a fluster. All the Quip Clansmen stared in fear as the stream of water moved through space, shaped like a tendril.
Beyond the stream of water was the void, bereft of any air. Staring to their front, they spotted a glimmering star in the darkness, the sole object present in this hollow.
"We're at the right place," Inala looked around and noticed similar streams of water behaving like tendrils as they jutted out of the ground and flowed toward the star in the distance.
He could only see three water tendrils, that too only thanks to his exceptional eyesight as a Royal Zinger. Due to the sheer distance between them, the other water tendrils appeared like a mere line in the distance.
Inala observed that all these water tendrils were flowing towards the surface, 'We're along the exit side then.'
"Be patient as there's still a long way to go." He said upon staring at the star that was a mere dot in their vision. They would have to travel for a while before arriving at it, since the star was their destination.
"Had we found an entrance, we would have reached it in a few days or even faster." Inala said as he observed the sheer speed of water flow in the water tendril they were travelling through, "At least, our exit will be rapid. With this water speed, we'll return to the Dralh Sea in a day."
The Biome Bomb train propelled itself through the water tendril that meandered across the void, forming a multitude of patterns.
If Inala were to calculate the distance between their current potion and the star, the result would barely be one-thirtieth of the length they were travelling. It was because the water tendril jiggled erratically, like the graph of a seismograph.
"Can't we just propel ourselves from the outside?" Wittral asked as he stared beyond the water tendril, "Since there's no resistance, we can free fall through gravity once we propel ourselves toward that star."
"That's not possible," Inala laughed. The water tendril had its own field of gravity, similar to the tunnels in Guna Caves. As a result, water continued to travel through this tunnel of gravity, heading towards the Dralh Sea to form the Abyss Fall.
But outside this water tendril, two forces of gravity existed. One from the star and the other from the landmass surrounding the hollow. "If we make a mistake, we'll be caught in the location where the two gravitational forces are equal to each other."
The L1 Lagrange Point is the best example on Earth. It is a point between the Earth and the Moon where the gravity acting by both the celestial bodies becomes equal to each other, resulting in a net zero gravity.
Lagrange Points exist between any two celestial bodies. And in this hollow, the Lagrange Point was dangerous, since it wasn't a point but existed as a layer that was spherical in shape.
So, when caught in it, even if Inala unleashes a powerful thrust through his Biome bomb train, the propulsion would make them orbit through the Lagrange Layer. Basically, they'll be caught forever in this pocket of void and be unable to break out.
"Something like that exists?" Wittral exclaimed in shock as he stared at the void in fear, "What in the cosmic horror is this place?"
"To think such a massive hollow exists in the earth under us."
Wittral stared at Inala, hoping he would have some answers. In response, Inala scoured through the tremendous volume of information he had inherited from the Brimgan Founder, shaking his head upon feeling a migraine, "There's a lot related to it, but if I have to say anything concrete…"
As he focused on the piece of information, Inala was in a state of shock, "Blessed Race! That makes sense!"
'Mystic Transcendents become Continents when they lose their will to live? The reason Empyrean Tentacles are called the blessed race of Sumatra is because Sumatra Continent itself is a Transcendent Mystic Empyrean Tentacle.' Inala felt his heart rate pick up in response as he accessed more information from the Brimgan Founder's data, 'The thing that transformed into our ground is the skin and the flesh underneath the Transcendent Mystic Empyrean Tentacle's skin. That means…'
He stared around him, 'Have we probably entered an organ or something?'
There wasn't any specific information regarding what type of organ it was. The Brimgan Founder had been steadily gathering information from Sumatra Continent itself, which was how he knew about this.
But even he couldn't find everything, as even though the number of years he existed as a Major Treasure was incomprehensibly long for a living being, it was a mere speck when compared to the time Sumatra Continent existed.
"What makes sense?" Wittral asked, becoming frustrated when Inala didn't answer.
"Half knowledge is only dangerous." Inala said, unwilling to reveal the information he had fought out, "I'll tell you once I understand everything fully."
He didn't know how Wittral would handle the information related to Sumatra Continent's origin. Even he, with the experience of another life on Earth, found it hard to digest that a living being could transform into a continent.
'What exactly are Transcendents?' He frowned in thought, feeling that the more he knew about them, the less he understood. It was a strange dichotomy.
In the end, he could only put the information at the back of his head, 'I'll try to process this once I hit the 5-Life Stage.'
Once he starts reaching the end of his journey as a cultivator, he could begin thinking about Transcendents. For now, his goal was to face Brangara and win. Once he survives, he can take his sweet time gathering information regarding Transcendents and make preparations to become one himself.
"It's frustrating to lack knowledge," Wittral sighed.
"Once you become a Zinger, I'll transfer you the entirety of Sumatra Chronicles." Inala said, "It may or may not help you much, since you only appeared in it for a short duration. But it will give you knowledge about a lot of things."
"I'm looking forward to it," Wittral expressed with desire, exhibiting a sense of urgency, "Do it faster, Inala."
"Make a Sumatra Gold already!"
"Yes, I'll finish it once we arrive at our destination." As he spoke, strings of Prana shot out of the Biome Bomb train in habit and coiled around dozens of Phells to steal their Pran and Lifespan.
Inala performed this regularly to gather enough energy for their travel. A small profit was being made, allowing him to accumulate Prana and Lifespan at levels a bit more than their consumption. It was being used to develop the terrain in the Biome Bombs better.
The closer they travelled toward the star, the stronger the Phells started targeting the Biome Bomb Train. As the resistance continued to grow, Inala had to focus on defence more and more.
Soon, he could make faint silhouettes on the star, one that was no different from a luminescent planet. Two-thirds of the planet was covered by water. Due to the luminescent seabed, the entire planet glowed like a star.
One-third of the planet was covered by land, occupied by people. They appeared as faint dots, with a good portion of them venturing into the ocean to fish. As he observed, Inala was shocked to see that the sole marine creature in the ocean was the Phell.
And strangely, they were docile, acting as regular fish towards the people. It formed a strange contrast to the Phells bombarding his Biome Bomb train nonstop, similar to the aggression they displayed at the Dralh Sea.
'What's the reason for this contrast?' He frowned in thought and continued to observe, realising that their expenditure had already surpassed their gains. And the closer they got to the planet, the greater their expenditure, for the aggression from the Phells increased exponentially.
A large crowd had gathered around the Biome Bomb train and exploded nonstop, piling damage upon the two Biome Bombs, forcing Inala to expend Prana to mend the damage.
'Wait, there's one difference!' Inala thought as he churned Prana, causing the presence emanated by the Biome Bomb train to change from the Royal Zinger's to the Quip Tribe's. Immediately in response, the Phells stopped targeting them, turning docile around them.
'I should have done this before.' Sighing disappointedly at how long he took to observe this detail, Inala continued to row the Biome Bomb train, 'I'm getting overconfident due to this wealth of knowledge. I'm becoming reliant on it while abandoning my original strength, which is paying attention to detail.'
He admonished himself mentally as the Biome Bomb train began to close in on the place, revealing the silhouettes of the people living there to the Quip Clansmen.
"Are they all…?" Zaihaya exclaimed as she stared at Kenzar and Kenka.
"Yes, they are." Inala smiled as he introduced the place to the Quip Clansmen, "This is a special place on Sumatra that has been influenced by the Major Treasure of Pet to become a blessed land for the Ravaged Tribes."
"Welcome to the Ravaged Federation!"