Magic? My Iron Torrent will sweep it all away!

"hot pot."

Lin Mo knew without even looking that they must have come from nearby shops.

The initial residents of Tiankui Underground City were mainly people evacuated from Sichuan.

Although people from other regions have moved in over the years, the city's dialect and eating habits still retain distinct regional characteristics.

Even the station decorations are different from those in other cities.

The load-bearing columns were painted in black and white, and a row of panda footprints was printed next to the platform sign. Several round cleaning robots had two black semi-circular ears on their heads.

Thorin stared at the cleaning robot for a long time.

"Why did you make the machine look like this?"

A staff member next to him laughed:

"This is not an ordinary bear, it's a panda, our Great Xia's national treasure and mascot."

"There are even bigger ones ahead."

As the group walked out of the station, they saw a holographic panda projection, over ten meters tall, standing in the center of the hall, waving to the passengers as it held a bamboo pole.

Zhou Mingyuan, the city lord of Tiankui City, was already waiting outside the hall.

He had clearly gotten the information from the traffic safety system, and he even had a hastily prepared reception plan in his hand.

"Commander Lin, Deputy Commander Zhao, and representatives of Terra, welcome to Tiankui City."

"us--"

"Lord Zhou, you're too kind," Lin Mo interrupted in time.

Zhao Gang also waved his hand.

"We're just taking a look around. You can go about your business as you're busy. You don't need to come with us."

Zhou Mingyuan opened his mouth, glanced at the reception plan in his hand, and finally nodded helplessly.

"Yes, yes!"

"However, given your special status, the security center will monitor your itinerary remotely, so the security detail cannot be reduced any further."

He spoke with a Sichuan accent, which was quite distinctive and memorable.

The arrangement was reasonable, and Lin Mo did not refuse.

After leaving the station, the Sichuan flavor in the streets became even stronger.

Hot pot restaurants, noodle shops, and skewer shops are almost all connected, and the air circulation system has been specially enhanced; otherwise, the entire residential area would probably be filled with the smell of spicy food.

The Terra representatives were quickly drawn to the bubbling red broth outside a hot pot restaurant.

Fendona looked at the thick layer of chili peppers in the pot, swallowed hard,

"Um... can we eat this later?"

She had eaten hot pot before, and although she only ate vegetarian food, she couldn't resist how delicious it was; just thinking about it made her mouth water.

"Haha, of course we can eat it. Let's go. Since we're here to have fun, let's try some local specialties."

After enjoying a delicious hot pot meal at the warm hospitality of the owner, the group continued to explore Tiankui City.

Candied hawthorn berries, sweet and savory tofu pudding, sugar figurines, dan dan noodles, wontons, Zhong dumplings, "Three Cannons" (a type of glutinous rice ball), spicy rabbit heads...

Even after eating so much, Fendona couldn't help but massage her stomach to speed up digestion.

Thorin was carrying a large bag of takeout food, chewing incessantly, exclaiming that he couldn't stop eating, he just couldn't stop, it smelled so good it made him dizzy.

I have no idea where this little guy got so much belly fat.

The residents along the way all spoke with a distinct Sichuan accent. Some recognized Lin Mo and the others and waved to them from afar.

Whether they thought Lin Mo was hosting an official event and didn't want to be disturbed, or they received a government notice, in any case, no large-scale crowd gathered around anymore.

As Lin Mo walked down the street, he suddenly felt that these reappearing dialects, signs, and local foods carried more weight than cold, hard development data.

During the worst of the disaster, all the underground cities ate the same rations and wore the same assigned clothes. Every day, people only thought about whether they could survive until tomorrow.

Today, different cities have finally regained their own vibrant atmosphere.

This means that Da Xia not only survived, but also began to regain the life it had almost lost.

The group took the surface elevator to the outside of Tiankui City.

The moment the gate opened, a bright, emerald-green light shone down from above.

A colossal World Tree is rooted in the ice field, its thick trunk rising from the center of the newly built city.

The lush canopy spreads out in all directions, covering large areas of modular housing, greenhouse farmland, and public activity areas.

Beyond the tree canopy lies a gray-white ice field, but beneath the canopy, patches of green can be seen.

Children wearing environmental monitoring and positioning terminals ran around the square, several agricultural robots moved along the field ridges, and in the distance, residents sat on benches basking in the sunlight through supplemental lamps that simulated the dual-sun spectrum.

There are also many buildings on the thick trunk of the World Tree, and road railings have been built on the horizontal branches, where people move around.

A perfect scene of harmony between humanity and nature.

Fendona walked to the tree and reached out to touch the trunk.

Pale green specks of light spread from her fingertips and quickly blended into the tree bark.

"The life state is very stable, and it is still growing rapidly."

She looked up at the enormous tree canopy, her eyes filled with awe.

"The Great Xia Dynasty truly made the World Tree the core of each city."

As if struck by a thought, Zhao Gang tapped the terminal on his wrist, bringing up a holographic map of the Arctic ecosystem.

On the map, one hundred green dots are distributed around thirty-four underground cities.

Each underground city has a core tree on its surface, and they are also planted between neighboring cities, forming ecological relay nodes.

These World Trees are powered continuously by nuclear energy devices, and their purification range is expanding at a visible rate.

Once these green areas connect with each other, a relatively stable ecosystem can be formed in the Arctic.

Zhao Gang stared at the map, remaining silent for a long time.

Two years ago, this map was full of radiation zones, storm zones, and geological hazard zones.

Today, the green dots representing the World Tree are gradually covering those glaring reds.

"How long will it take to connect them all?" Fendona asked curiously.

Zhao Gang found the data planning details and said:

"Complete Arctic coverage will take a long time, but there are only seven gaps left in the first phase of the ecological ring."

A prominent countdown timer immediately popped up in the center of the screen.

"The first phase of the Arctic World Tree ecological loop closed: 29 days and 23 hours."

"One month from now, the first continuous purification belt composed of World Trees will be officially formed, at which time there will no longer be high-pollution isolation zones between the several city clusters."

Lin Mo looked into the distance and could indeed see the shadow of the World Tree.

For humans who had thought they would never be able to return to life on the surface and were prepared to spend the rest of their lives in the underground city, this was a huge surprise.

The day when humanity fully returns to the ground is no longer a distant prospect.

.........

The Great Xia Dynasty thus spent several months in peace and rapid development, and celebrated its most lively New Year.

Meanwhile, the demons on Blue Star and Terra were completely wiped out.

Even on the Kona satellite, the area has been almost completely cleared. Warning lines have been set up around several space wormholes to wear down and exploit the demons.

Just after the Lantern Festival, the Kona civilization suddenly sent a message.