I, from the Celestial Empire, have parachuted into Teyvat.

"Could it be that this crystal ball was originally set in the Heart of God?"

Ivan examined the structure of the Heart of God but could not find a place to embed or place the crystal ball.

"Or am I mistaken? Did Wendy give me anything else besides the Heart of God?"

While lost in thought, Ivan's mind wandered and the crystal ball accidentally slipped from his right fingertip, rolling down the edge of the bed to the floor.

By the time Ivan realized what was happening and tried to grab it, it was too late. The crystal ball rolled off the bed with a crisp sound and shattered into pieces.

"broken!"

Ivan jumped out of bed in a flash, his face filled with panic.

He never imagined that the crystal ball would be so fragile; the edge of the bed was only thirty or forty centimeters from the floor, yet it shattered at such a low height.

"It's all over, it's all over..."

Looking at the shards of the crystal ball, Ivan felt a pang of pain in his face.

Can this thing be restored?

Just as Ivan squatted down to pick up the crystal ball fragments, the scattered fragments suddenly glowed with a green light. Ivan was slightly taken aback by this, and the next second, the green light floated out from the crystal fragments, and the small points of light quickly gathered into a small green ball of light. Then, the small ball of light instantly entered the Heart of the Wind God that Ivan was holding tightly in his left hand. As the ball of light entered, the surface of the Heart of the Wind God also shone with a faint green light.

"This is......"

Ivan raised an eyebrow slightly.

He suddenly realized that after the green ball entered the heart of the wind god, his connection with the heart of the wind god seemed to have strengthened.

If his previous connection with the Heart of the Wind God was a great river, then Ivan can now clearly feel that this great river has become a mighty river!

Moreover, the white light originally emitted by the Heart of the Wind God has turned into the green color associated with wind elemental power.

Sensing this change, Ivan murmured, "Could this be the complete form of the Heart of the Wind God?"

However, just as Ivan was still wondering and amazed, a pheromone suddenly entered Ivan's mind from the heart of the Wind God.

In that instant, Ivan seemed to enter a state of chaos, where he saw an endless, towering tree trembling incessantly. Most of its trunk was already covered in red, and at the base of the tree, a red figure was sitting cross-legged and hovering there. Red mist constantly emanated from its body, seeping into the tree's trunk from its roots. Meanwhile, large amounts of red energy were constantly emerging from the red-covered parts of the tree and entering the red figure's body, as if in a cycle.

The next second, Ivan's consciousness returned to his body, and his expression became serious.

"That figure just now... was Pride!"

"That towering tree, could it be...?"

Ivan instantly realized what was happening, but just then, the ground suddenly began to shake violently...

Chapter 490 Confirming the Traces of Arrogance

"Warning! Warning! The base's outer defenses are under attack..."

Inside the Qianhai base, alarms sounded, and an unknown disturbance caused the entire base to shake. At the same time, the entire Qianhai base's evacuation and support system began to operate urgently.

Multiple layers of outer protective devices at the Qianhai base were activated simultaneously.

Numerous pillar-shaped security bunkers rose above the ground in various areas of the base. Upon hearing the alarm, soldiers and staff training in each area quickly took refuge in the nearest bunkers. In less than twenty seconds, the entire outer area of ​​the Qianhai base was completely deserted. The bunkers then rapidly sank and returned underground.

Meanwhile, the indoor refuge device had also been activated. On Ivan's side, the bed in the room suddenly rose mechanically, revealing the emergency refuge space underneath. Ivan immediately bent down, slid sideways into the refuge space, and then pressed the button inside, causing the bed to fall down.

"Alarm, alarm, abnormal seismic waves detected..."

Inside the command center, alarms continued to sound. General Hong Jianjun frowned and asked, "What's going on? Wasn't there any advance warning?"

The informant shook his head and said, "The earthquake wave early warning equipment did not report it."

"No report?"

Hong Jianjun asked in bewilderment, "How could there be no warning before the earthquake?"

The informant was also somewhat confused.

"But sir, there really was no warning..."

Hong Jianjun frowned even more as he looked at the intensity of the seismic waves displayed on the large screen in the command center.

A magnitude 9.0 earthquake!

The epicenter originated in a location slightly west of the center of the First Ocean, east of Japan.

This underwater earthquake came so suddenly. If the Qianhai base hadn't been designed and constructed with this situation in mind, and its structure hadn't been strong enough to withstand underwater earthquakes of this magnitude or even higher, such a violent tremor would probably have buried everyone in the base in the deep sea.

The base is still shaking with the earthquake, but it is much better than it was at the beginning.

The earthquake continued for several more minutes before finally stopping.

After the earthquake, Ivan, along with Xiang Feng and Mu Zechanghui, rushed to the command center to inquire about the situation from Hong Jianjun.

Hong Jianjun explained, "It was a sudden undersea earthquake, with absolutely no prior warning. The epicenter was in the southeastern waters of Japan."

"Without any warning?"

Ivan raised an eyebrow and fell into thought.

Just then, a communications officer quickly walked over and handed a phone to Hong Jianjun. Hong Jianjun listened for a while, then his expression changed slightly. After hanging up the phone, he said, "Strange."

Ivan asked in confusion, "Commander, what happened?"

"It's a call from the Senate. We just received a report from the National Disaster Management Agency that, in addition to the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that just occurred in the southeastern sea area of ​​Japan, large-scale earthquakes of varying magnitudes occurred simultaneously in the Mediterranean region, the western part of the second ocean, the southern Philippines, and the western part of the United States. The largest was a 10.2 magnitude earthquake in the western part of the second ocean, and the smallest was a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in the southern Philippines. Coastal countries near the epicenter were also hit by tsunamis. At the same time, the earthquake in southeastern Japan has caused Mount Fuji to show signs of an impending eruption. Japan is currently evacuating people from cities and counties near Mount Fuji. It's really strange that so many disasters are breaking out in various parts of the planet at the same time."

Upon hearing this, Ivan's eyes suddenly sharpened.

"Sir, I need to make an emergency video call with the Senate immediately!"

......

Ten minutes later, the Grand Elder, Zhang Changyun, and several other high-ranking officials who had attended every previous Senate meeting appeared on the other side of the screen.

"Xiao Yi, is there something you need to report?"

Xiang Feng, Mu Zechanghui, Hong Jianjun and others were standing behind Ivan, while Ivan nodded in front of the large screen in the command center.

"Elder, I think I have found traces of arrogance."

Afterwards, Ivan recounted his discovery in great detail to everyone.

The reason why we couldn't find Pride's location on Earth was not because Pride left Earth, but because Pride went to the inner layer of Earth, where the World Tree is located.

The crystal ball Wendy gave to Ivan enhanced, or rather perfected, the power of the Heart of the Wind God. Although Ivan doesn't yet understand the principle behind it, he is certain that the scene he sees through the Heart of the Wind God is the scene of the World Tree.

Arrogance lurks at the very bottom of the world, at the roots of the World Tree, constantly eroding the World Tree with its destructive aura, and thereby continuously restoring its power.

"Over the past month or so, various abnormal weather events and natural disasters have occurred frequently across Blue Star, and they have become increasingly severe recently. This is caused by the destructive aura eroding the World Tree. The World Tree and our Blue Star are two sides of the same coin, each being another manifestation of the other. All the malignant events that befall the World Tree will be reflected synchronously on the surface of our Blue Star world. This is the reason for the recent frequent disasters. I only just realized this myself."

The Grand Elder said in a deep voice, "In other words, our Blue Star, like the continent of Teyvat, has a World Tree. And now, Pride is hiding at the foot of the World Tree, using its destructive aura to constantly erode it. All the large-scale disasters happening on Blue Star now are caused by this?"

"Yes."

Ivan nodded.

The Grand Elder continued, "Is there any way for us to reach the World Tree?"

"Have."

Ivan continued, "Using teleportation technology. Teleportation technology is based on the World Tree's ley lines, which are the World Tree's veins, a part of the World Tree. Through teleportation technology, we can reach the roots of the World Tree. Just like the Teyvat Abyss, the Teyvat Abyss is the root of the Teyvat World Tree."

The Grand Elder asked, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Ivan said, "Based on what I've seen before, Pride is also taking advantage of the opportunity to erode the World Tree to continuously recover its power. More than a month has passed so far. In this month, how well its power has recovered is unknown. To be on the safe side, I need more power to fight it."

"Hmm..." The Grand Elder nodded. "In that case, Old Hong, let the Qianhai Base provide full assistance."

Hong Jianjun, who was standing to the side, smiled and said, "Please rest assured, organization."

Zhang Changyun added, "The military will then transfer some troops from nearby military regions to Qianhai Base for support. If there is any further need, you can ask us at any time, and we will definitely provide full support."

"Thank you, Mr. Zhang. I think this should be enough for now."

Ivan paused slightly at this point, then fell silent as if suddenly remembering something.

"Elder, I also wish to obtain one more privilege..."

"One usage permission."

Chapter 491 Deep Roots

Qianhai Base, in front of the transfer plaza.

Rows of fully armed soldiers stood ready for battle.

Standing on the high platform directly in front of him, Hong Jianjun stared intently at the soldiers before him and shouted, "This mission is a secret mission, and also a mission of paramount importance, because it concerns the life and death of Blue Star! So if we fail, the price we will have to pay will be enormous!"

"Comrades, the time to test us has come! Give it your all and crush every enemy you see! No matter what we face next, victory is the only unchanging rule for us Chinese soldiers!"

At this point, Hong Jianjun glanced once more at the young yet resolute faces below the stage and loudly announced, "Let's go!"

"All battalion members, stand at attention! Right turn! March on foot!"

"The entire Second Battalion is..."

"The Third Battalion..."

At Hong Jianjun's command, all units immediately sprang into action. With each command, fully armed soldiers marched with incredibly neat and heavy steps toward the space teleportation device located in the center of the transfer plaza.

At this time, the space teleportation device was already at full power, and the traditional passage was also enlarged to nearly ten meters wide with the high power, enough to accommodate multiple teams to enter at the same time.

As the soldiers stepped into the space teleportation channel, Hong Jianjun turned around and looked at Ivan behind him.

"I will command remotely from the base, Xiao Yi. The rest is up to you."

Ivan saluted and said, "Don't worry, sir."

Nodding, Hong Jianjun turned and left, returning to the command center. Ivan, watching the waves of soldiers entering the spatial teleportation channel, breathed a sigh of relief.

"What's wrong? A little nervous?"

At that moment, a familiar voice came, and then Qin appeared beside Ivan.

Ivan said in a deep voice, "It would be a lie to say I'm not nervous. In the past month, Pride has probably recovered a lot of strength. We don't know what the situation is like at the foot of the World Tree Roots. I hope our operation this time is overkill... Thank you for coming to help again."

Qin smiled and said, "It would be too formal for us to thank each other, and like before, everyone volunteered to come this time."

Ivan nodded without saying anything more, then looked back at the spatial teleportation channel and said, "It's getting late, let's set off."

......