Chapter 1100: Chapter 597: A World Where One Can Truly Stand

Worthy of being called a "World Tree."

This vast, boundless space inside the tree—calling it a small world is absolutely no problem!

A map surfaced in his mind.

Xu Xin was surprised to find that his map ability had also undergone some changes after he entered the World Tree. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The map in his mind had become two separate ones.

One was the original map, where he could see his location: in Crystal City, inside the World Tree.

There was nothing unusual about that.

The second map, however, was... a map of the inside of this World Tree.

Because he was the owner of the World Tree, inside it he didn’t have the same limitation as outside, where only the places he had been to would show up on the map. Instead...

Everything was laid out before him, completely and thoroughly!

He was like a god of this World Tree world, overlooking everything within it.

Of course, for now, in such a vast interior, there was absolutely nothing.

Only clouds formed from rising water vapor drifting in the air for some reason, and a stretch of barren land.

He turned his head and looked toward the spot where they had walked out of the door.

It was a... strangely shaped, spherical wooden lump protruding from underground.

As if a very rare and bizarre plant had grown out of the soil.

The inside of the wooden sphere should be those ball-shaped vines that had carried them up here.

When Xu Xin looked at the thing, it had already shrunk more than half of itself back into the soil.

Only half the door remained above ground; the other half was buried beneath it.

Xu Xin wasn’t anxious at all. Perhaps because he was the holder of the World Tree, he knew very clearly in his heart that he could make this thing grow back out at any time.

But Zeng Tao noticed as well, and she immediately lost her composure.

"Ah! The door’s shrinking back!" She dove forward and threw herself onto the wooden sphere.

Because of her weight, she directly pushed the wooden sphere another ten-odd centimeters downward.

"What are you doing! Get up!"

Lou Fei’Er hadn’t been worried at first, but seeing Zeng Tao like that, she couldn’t stay calm either: "What if you break it!"

Zeng Tao hurriedly pushed herself up, and the wooden sphere got shoved more than half of the way down again.

Now only forty to fifty centimeters of it remained above the surface.

"Oh my god, it really is going back down!" Zeng Tao grabbed the wooden sphere at once, trying to pull it up. "So—heavy—!"

Even with her strength, using all her might, she couldn’t stop the wooden sphere from slowly sinking.

"Nngh, nngh..." Keke watched Zeng Tao struggle to yank the wooden ball up, covering her little face with her tiny paws, looking completely speechless.

"Enough, if Xu Xin could bring us in, he can definitely take us out." Lou Fei’Er also covered her face.

"Huh? Ah, right..." Zeng Tao blinked and relaxed her grip.

Xu Xin chuckled and patted her on the head. "Let me do it."

"Oh, oh, you do it, you do it." Zeng Tao quickly stepped aside.

With only about thirty centimeters of the wooden sphere still above the ground, Xu Xin didn’t even bend over. He just lifted his foot and kicked the sphere, and it started "growing" upward again.

Just like a plant slowly growing out of the ground.

"It listens that well?!" Zeng Tao’s face reddened a little on the spot.

"With me here, what are you afraid of?" Xu Xin shook his head.

"Hehe..."

"So this really is... the inside of that tree?" Lou Fei’Er looked at the endless surroundings, then raised her head toward the sky. "But that can’t be right, this is obviously the outside world. How could this be inside a tree?"

Clouds floated in the sky, and there was a faint mist.

Xu Xin could see the dome above, but with their current eyesight, the others couldn’t.

Xu Xin looked up again and said, "There are no stars in the sky. Doesn’t that strike you as strange?"

This world had no real pollution, and before Crystal City appeared there hadn’t been much nightlife lighting either, so unless it was overcast and rainy, the starry sky was always brilliantly bright.

"...Isn’t it just because it’s cloudy?" Jin Yue guessed.

She didn’t really believe this was the inside of the World Tree either.

"I’ve got vision amplification. I can see the... dome above. Wood. Like the ceiling of a treehouse." Xu Xin lowered his head to look at them and said, "What’s up there is definitely not the sky."

"No way..." Zeng Tao’s eyes went wide and she stomped hard on the ground.

"Not the sky..." Lou Fei’Er stared blankly upward, her throat bobbing.

"Nngh..." Keke also tilted her little head back to look up, then nearly slipped off Xu Xin’s back. "Nngh nngh!?"

All of them were stunned.

"I can confirm it too." Shi Wanyun glanced up at the sky, then lowered her head to look at them. "I’ve got vision amplification now as well—I can also see the top of the World Tree. It’s... a wooden dome just like a treehouse."

She had slept in her own treehouse last night, so she had also received a random amplification.

Xu Xin turned his gaze to the sky again.

There was no light source here, yet it wasn’t dark.

It was somewhat like the level of brightness outside after nightfall.

A guess formed in his mind.

Could it be that...

The brightness level here changed according to the outside world?

When it was daytime outside, the World Tree’s internal space was daytime too.

And now that it was night outside, it was night here as well?

Very likely!

If that was true, then this place really was a small world in every sense of the word!