Industrial Cthulhu doesn't believe in the end times.

Chapter 246 Deadlock
The meeting room fell silent instantly. Tao Yue looked around and hid the half-eaten peach under the table.

The atmosphere at the scene turned tense, with many officials staring intently at the incarnation of the tree spirit.

In fact, everyone present wanted the Tree Spirit to be trustworthy more than anyone else, but this plan was of utmost importance.

With a permanent population of 30 million, and potentially more in the future, if these survivors are entrusted to a supernatural plant, who will take responsibility should problems arise?
Even Su Xun couldn't do it.

He was able to persuade the East to prepare for the apocalypse in advance because such preparations would not cause any irreparable consequences. Even if the catastrophe did not happen, they had corresponding contingency plans. After mastering the series of new technologies brought by Su Xun, the benefits of development could completely offset the waste of resources generated during the preparation process.

Subsequent events proved these preparations to be correct. Just over six months after the cataclysm, many people no longer believe they live in the apocalypse, and the term has even been gradually reduced in official propaganda to help more people forget the painful experience of the cataclysm.

Not so now.

If Taodu itself encounters problems, or to put it more bluntly, if it descends into madness and becomes hostile to humanity, then the city will be destroyed in an instant, and everyone except for a very few top-tier superhumans will be doomed.

This is equivalent to building a city on a thousand high-yield nuclear bombs, but the switch for the nuclear bombs is in the hands of one person, who can decide whether to press the switch at any time.

No matter how trustworthy this person is, this is not something a responsible national institution should be able to do—in other words, this button should not exist in the first place.

Among the crowd, the cadre stood ramrod straight. He seemed slightly nervous, yet very determined.

Su Xun looked at him and suddenly felt that he was also looking at her. After thinking about it, she understood.

Yes, although Su Xun himself had been somewhat ignoring it, in reality, after the apocalypse actually occurred, his status and prestige had reached an extraordinary level. Because of his presence, even a meeting like the Summit of Extraordinary Beings was held in Xinfu.

The plan to build Taodu was proposed by him. Although he did not make a final decision but left it to the discussion, it obviously took a lot of courage for people to stand up and oppose him.

Furthermore, such a head-on confrontation with the Peach Capital Tree Spirit within the core area of ​​the Peach Capital trunk is, in itself, a risk.

Su Xun glanced at the other person's name, but then felt that it wasn't important. He wasn't the only one watching him, nor was he the only tree spirit beside him.

Clearly, he wasn't the only one with this question, nor was he the only one with this courage.

Su Xun turned his head away. His trust in the tree spirit was based on his trust in Fuxi, Meng Po, and other beings. If it weren't for them, even his rebirth would be nothing but empty talk.

But that didn't seem enough. He looked at the tree spirit, only to see it slowly shake its head.

Clearly, proving one's own credibility is not a simple matter; it can even be said to be an eternal problem for intelligent beings. If one could truly prove oneself, then there would be no wrongful convictions or miscarriages of justice in the world.

Faced with such a situation, all vows and guarantees seem pale and powerless. This cannot be convinced by words, explanations, or epic stories. Therefore, the Tree Spirit did not say much on this issue.

The meeting thus reached a stalemate. In fact, if they were facing an ordinary mutated plant, they wouldn't be entirely without a solution, but as a Peach Blossom Tree Spirit with tenth-tier cultivation, these methods were essentially ineffective.

For example, some mental abilities have little effect on tree spirits. This can be said to prevent supernatural beings like the Zombie King of Haizhou from influencing Taodu, and also makes it difficult for the legion to use a series of methods.

This has created a vicious cycle: they hope to use the power of Taodu to protect the people because the giant tree itself is extremely powerful, but it is precisely because of its power that it is difficult to control.

However, everyone wanted to utilize the power of this giant tree, but a suitable method had not yet been found, so the meeting did not end there.

"Lady Tao, has your prophecy come to fruition?"

During the discussion, someone asked about Tao Yue.

Tao Yue glanced at the tree spirit. She wasn't quite used to discussing it like this in front of others, even though it wasn't actually a person but a tree. But there was nothing she could do about it, so she still said, "I can only see the situation for a few days at a time. It's stable, friendly, and trustworthy."

"What if we take the entire city-building plan as a foreseeable goal?"

“I’ve tried, but I can’t see it.” Tao Yue shook her head. “It’s not that the plan hasn’t been carried out, it’s just that it involves too many things and is hard to predict… But it seems that we won’t be able to come to any conclusions in the next day or two.”

Although theoretically Tao Du's rank is only one level higher than Tao Yue's, its energy level is too high and its total spiritual power is too large, which puts great pressure on Tao Yue's precognition.

And as she said, several meetings were held in the following days, with high-ranking officials from several security zones coming and going, and dozens of plans were discussed, but no good conclusions could be reached.

In the end, Song Lin even sighed, "Forget about building a city. Just treat it as a big peach tree and wait to eat peaches."

This was clearly a helpless statement. In fact, Song Lin himself was a supporter of the Taodu city-building plan—the reason being simple: Haiqu City, which he governed, was already completely under the jurisdiction of Taodu at this time.

If the risks of Taodu are questioned, then not only Haiqu, but also several surrounding cities should actually begin a large-scale migration, leaving the coverage area of ​​Taodu.

It can be said that the current meeting is divided into two factions: the skeptics and the supporters. Whether or not to relocate the survivors who are currently within the Taodu area is the main weapon used by the supporters to oppose the skeptics.

Su Xun glared at Song Lin, but he himself was undecided.

At this point, only a few representatives from each side remained at the meeting, as many high-level officials were too busy to dedicate their time to this task.

During the meeting, some people sought the opinions of other corps, including Feng Zhengze who was in Yanshan, on this issue. However, it was clear that even Su Xun was undecided, so these people who were far away could not offer any effective advice.

After another meeting, the high-ranking officers of the Corps returned to their respective posts through the passageway built by Taodu, but Su Xun remained there, pondering a way to break the deadlock.

(End of this chapter)