The fire that burned in the sky brightened up all the clouds, like an impassable wall of fire.

From a distance, it was just a huge flame. When they were forced to get closer, the challengers realized that it was large enough to occupy the entire field of vision, as if they were in a building with dozens of floors, looking out of the window over the endless fire below.

And at the end of the earth, beyond the skyline, the jellyfish continue to fly slowly and leisurely. The group followed some kind of instinctually active creature that followed a different path than the fall of the Dead or Alive, circumnavigating the fire from the side. The firelight reflects everything, and the jellyfish are like bubbles blown out of soapy water, colorful and dreamy.

Light and heat provided them with an environment that was warmer than ever before, and for the first time, they showed a change that the explorers had never seen before.

Originally, their skin was just close to each other, but now, it was as if they had broken through a barrier at the temperature and completely blended together.

Each other's bodily fluids have completed some kind of mysterious exchange.

It is only when close to a fire that the dreaming jellyfish undergoes such a change. After a few stages of this change, they move away from the fire again.

Perhaps it's because it's only in this kind of change that they need so much temperature and heat.

This cycle of life cycles, for the Dream Jellyfish, has been maintained for hundreds of years, or thousands or tens of thousands of years, and must have existed longer than the existence of toedless people. Because the ancestors of the toeless people must have seen the jellyfish that periodically returned on the fire, they gradually discovered that the jellyfish were a possible migratory foraging route.

At that time, the young man thought ramblingly.

And then the next thing about the jellyfish, he didn't see.

Because the Dead or Alive has flipped in the air, the vision is naturally different. The burning twilight of the world passed by the window of the Death or Living, and the jellyfish disappeared to the left side of the window. On the right side of the window, a blazing fire poured into their field of vision until it took over all the visitors' eyes.

The world of flames, brilliant red light, is like the deepest sunset and sunset.

The Dead or Alive continued to fly through the air, and the boundless flames followed in the footsteps of the jellyfish, brushing the same way from their view in front of their windows. Successive colors of steel blue, gray and brown and yellow entered the view of the window.

It was the "earth" above the "fire".

They are about to have a collision with the land.

In this air, people can't fly with wings.

Only Zaiyi was not flustered, he grabbed the support of the telescope, and said proudly:

"Trust my people's technology. The shipwreck of the previous generation was not just a simple collision. ”

His thoughts were the same as Gu Chuan's.

The young man grabbed the mechanical hand stretched out from the telescope and said:

"Yes—I believe in you."

Near-substantial wind and fog cut through the perimeter of the ship's hull, whistling burning, and splashing sparks, and the world getting closer and closer.

Then, there was a thud, and the Dead or Alive was forced to make a hard landing.

The gearman's specially built hull collided with the complex, rugged ground of metal, planks, glass, foam, soil, sand, and other materials that I couldn't tell what it was, sending smoke billowed and debris scattered and dust flying.

The black mist of crumble rose hundreds of meters into the air, blending with the white hazy fog and clouds.

The locked box shook in place, and the glass book in the cabinet collided back and forth with the door and cabinet seat.

The external general observation room was not good, and the young man hit his head against the wall and felt numb all over.

Fortunately, now Gu Chuan's physique is outstanding, and he only took a few deep breaths before coming back to his senses. He looked around, and everyone was fine, except for Mr. Dandan, who was unlucky enough to fall out of the sleeping box, but fortunately was caught by the propeller gear machine.

Dead or alive really isn't much different.

A terrible crater appeared on the surface of the ground that had been struck, and the Death or Life was now sinking in it.

This phenomenon can basically be confirmed, the ship of the previous generation of the Gear Man must have crashed somewhere in the Netherworld for other reasons.

Combined with the actions of the Dream Jellyfish, the ship must have been brought here by the jellyfish as a light because the searchlight was still shining later.

Voices from the outside world echoed endlessly. The slags of glass, sand, planks and metal in the field quickly fell and filled the craters that had been knocked out, piling up all the way to the windows of the Dead or Alive, like an abstract painting.

"Look, isn't there anything special going on?"

Zai Yan said.

"Yes, it's remarkable."

The young man was glad that he was on a ship made by the Gear Man.

But now, they don't have the time to talk about it. Soon, the trio agreed to start inspecting the entire hull from the inside to the outside.

After that, Zai Yi had the idea of searching for the ships of the previous generation of the Gear Man. After that, the explorers have to think about how to get out of this strange hanging land-

The Dead or Alive ran aground.

The toeless watched the whole time of the Dead or Alive's stranding, and a skinny toeless man said that it was the death beast asleep.

These words inexplicably gave them a little courage, and they soon came to the outermost side of the jellyfish swarm, and when the jellyfish had circled the fire and approached the graveyard on the top, they leaped out of the water one by one, and the strong toed men who jumped out of the water were followed by the soft toed ones.

Eventually, all the living Toeless came to this mysterious land once again after their previous generation had died.

"We seem to be the first to arrive?"

Anafanta thought.

The soft soles of her feet, gently covered by the solid mixed complex soil, had a tingle that was different from that of water and clouds and qi.

Everything here is foreign to them.

Only the death behemoths that lay dormant on the edge of the Sky Island felt familiar to them.

They believe that the Dead Gatekeeper is not damaged on the basis of the fact that the Dead or Living Horn has no scars on its body and reflects a glittering brightness in the light.

It's not like death, it's extraordinarily glossy.

Anavineta stared at Death or Life for a long time, and for the first time she saw the thing that had swallowed herself look in the sunlight. Her friend, a female named Gulsu, asked her:

"I'm curious, Anafanta, what does death look like?"

Anafinta began to recall:

"Two hairy weirdos, one with a lion's head...... There are also round, chaotic things...... And also...... There are many images of death. ”

"That's weird."

Gulsu imagined their image...... Her imagination was completely different from what Anafita had seen. She imagined the hairy man as a hairy thing like a tentacle monster, and the lion-headed man as a kneeling thing with a lion's head walking on the ground.

She shook herself. Again:

"What did death ask you to get you out of the door?"

Anafinta had a hard time answering this question, recalling the scene and saying:

"Death asked me how many people are still in this world, and I didn't answer. It didn't look dissatisfied. ”

Gu Lisu looked sideways and said on a whim:

"Maybe you're right."

"Why?"

"Because the number of people is not fixed, we have a companion who is pregnant! So, is one person two people? Or is it a person? ”

Gu Lisu counted his fingers beyond count. This is the most mysterious imagination among the toeless people, and she said with faith and excitement:

Therefore, the number of the living is an indefinite word, and it will increase as people continue to be born...... So the real answer is...... It's ......"

At the time, she didn't figure it out.

Because it was an overly abstract word, beyond the cultural level of the toedless people at that time.

But a long, long time later, her descendants came up with the word for her. That word means "infinite".

"But in short, if you answer a specific number, you have answered incorrectly!"

Although Anafinta didn't understand it, she somehow felt that she had suddenly come to her senses.

Toeless people without food can't stay together for long. They scattered in groups of four or five, and like their ancestors, they began to explore the land carefully, some digging the earth, some pushing away the rubble, and some boldly, standing on a glassy mirror that stretched across the earth, saw their own shadows, and shouted at their own shadows.

But they soon discovered the barrenness of the place.

"There's nothing to eat here."

A hungry toeless man licked a piece of glass, but scratched only its own tongue.

"It's cold, you can't eat it."

The boundless light was glaring to the long-lived darkened race, but surprisingly their eyes were not unsuitable for this brightness. The dry air makes the toeless feel sluggish, but it is also surprising that their skin doesn't seem to resist the dry air, but prefers moisture.

It's just that the fabled "Land of Fire" with no food worries and irritates the Toeless, and in the course of the journey, they have lost two of their companions, and this uneasiness has caused the strong, disagreeing Toeless of the clan to quarrel again.

Anafanta was originally the victim of abuse, but her status as a "person returning from the dead" casts a sacred shadow over her. At that time, she just shouted as she was:

"Don't make any more noise! There is nothing wrong with the teachings of our ancestors! ”

As a result, the crowd fell silent.

This phenomenon has never been seen by Anafanta herself.

Anafunta was frightened by the crowd's actions. She felt nervous and uneasy. But everyone looked at her, as if they were all waiting for her next word.

She cringed and said:

"We just have to look, and it should be soon, and we'll meet other people who are going to do the puzzle."

She didn't realize then that convincing comes from authority, and authority comes from the unfathomable.

She only saw that the people listened to her.

The toedless people soon came to a large glass curtain wall, a creation that was not created by the Gear Man, and stopped there.

The years do not seem to have left any changes on the walls.

There, they saw a man who was not the same as them, who had cautiously poked his head out.

He also had no hair, but his body was stronger than all the toeless, or fat. His body was draped in some strange fabrics, his bare complexion, his limbs were dark, and his abdomen was white. His hands are short, and his head is round.

The man saw them too.

"Branch?"

The Toeless don't understand what branching means, they've been out of the Netherworld for too long. At that time, the toeless people were silent, but Anafita plucked up the courage and said:

"We're here to do the puzzle."

Their pronunciation can be traced back to the same ancestor, and although there is now a subtle difference in tone and phoneme, they are intelligible to each other.

Then the fat man understood:

"You're the long-spotted branch, come here, the puzzle is still a while before it begins."

The strong toeless man followed on his own, and Anafanta thought about it, and followed him with the thinner toeless.

"You should feel lucky."

The fat man who walked in front glanced at the death or life number that had fallen to the surface in the distance.

The large, still alive metal hull did not look the same as the dead thing in the ship's grave.

He'd already learned from the Toeless that it was a Death Watch Beast, and he didn't really care about that, the Netherworld was always haunted by great creatures.

"Because long ago, our common ancestors made this plan to prevent us from harming each other."

He couldn't wait to start showing off his knowledge to the new group of toeless.

The Toeless People followed him, seeing a breach in a steel "corpse" as huge as a dead gatekeeper. The fat man said that was where they would meet as a common "human line."

At that time, the explorers had just completed their initial examination of the inside of the Dead or Alive.

The huge hull of the ship made the few three people busy and embarrassed.

But every place has to be checked, it's like a real ship, and a water leak in any one place can cause the whole ship to capsize.

The three of them agreed on the time of the shift, and the two people who made meat ate something and were ready to rest and sleep.

When Gu Chuan gobbled up, he glanced out the window. The glance distracted him.

He asked:

"Did you find this place weird?"

"It's very weird, the whole Netherworld is completely different from the Great Wilderness."

Jae-bin is re-flipping through the glass book. Its lion's skin had been washed by it, so that the hair hung down and clung to the outline of his machinery.

"It's completely different from the Sunset Basin."

Chu Yun took a sip of water, looked at his own shadow in the water, and said.

"No, that's not what I meant." Gu Chuan said, "What I mean, the substances that make up this island on fire seem to be all ...... Not...... Inorganic ......"

There is no sign of organic, neither soft, nor lifeless.

Everything is like the material of a ship.

The most organic matter may be considered wood, but there is also very little wood, and it seems to be rotten. And the wood is rotten, and there seems to be no trace of insects.

Soils of sand, glass, metal, salt, and all sorts of inorganic substances...... There were no grass roots, no crawling insects, no moss, nothing else that could be said to move.

This discovery made him feel uneasy.

But when the young man woke up from a nap, he looked out the window and knew that his conjecture yesterday was not even half right.

There are people here.

Multitudes of different people are not far away, whether by a glass wall, under a collapsed metal plate, behind a rock, or lying in a small pit. And what they do is similar.

They were all observing the Death or Life number, as if they were observing an unexpected beast of prey.

They had seen the Gearmen's ships, but they were only broken fragments, and now they had seen the ship intact for the first time, and they had seen the sky deep and pale, and the clouds illuminated by the fire, fell on the edge of the outline of the Dead or Alive, like a raging fire.

As for the still clean black jade surface of the hull, in the bright red color of the dusk, it seems to flow with sparkling waves.