Three days later.
The Great Rift Valley in East Africa.
Satellites from various countries were already in position, ready to provide comprehensive coverage of the event.
The repositioning of the Earth's core had been announced globally, and billions of people were now holding their phones or sitting by their computers, eagerly awaiting the moment.
As for television...
Apologies, but that medium, with its excessive advertisements and mandatory VIP subscriptions, had long since been rendered obsolete by the times.
A specialized tunnel boring machine, 300 meters long and 50 meters in diameter, was positioned vertically with its head down and tail up, suspended by a gantry crane.
The entire machine was constructed from titanium-titanium alloy, capable of operating normally at temperatures as high as 8000 degrees Celsius.
Despite its massive size, the usable cabin space within the vehicle accounted for only one-twentieth of its total volume.
The remaining space was filled with cooling pipes, utilizing liquid nitrogen for heat dissipation to withstand the threat of the subterranean magma layer.
This was the advantage of domestic operations; any need Fang Er had would be met immediately.
Even though over seventy percent of countries were now trying to curry favor with Fang Er, did Grandpa Fang need it?
He had his motherland for everything!
That was more than enough!
At eight in the morning, Yuan Tiangang looked up at the sky, calculated for a moment by counting his fingers, and then shouted into the microphone.
"The auspicious time has arrived, depart!"
"Rumble..."
As his voice faded, the tunnel boring machine was slowly lowered by the gantry crane.
The ion cannon mounted on the vehicle's head immediately unleashed a stream of pale blue ions.
The power of this ion cannon far surpassed those previously used on Yanhuang Star, achieving a terrifying speed of 100 meters per second in creating the path to the Earth's core!
The Earth's diameter is 12,742 kilometers, which, converted, meant it would take only 17 hours and 40 minutes to reach the core!
As the tunnel boring machine detached from the gantry crane's control, the entire vehicle vibrated violently before instantly burrowing into the ground, disappearing from sight.
Fang Er and Xi Tong sat side-by-side in the tunnel boring machine, watching the depth indicator on the control panel steadily decrease.
With such thorough preparation, the process was exceptionally smooth.
The heat from the scorching magma was efficiently cooled by the liquid nitrogen, keeping the cabin temperature consistently at 38.6 degrees Celsius...
"Can't escape your optimization, like fish swimming in sand."
"Knowing there's no end, yet unafraid of a bloody head..."
Under the surround sound of the bass, more than ten hours passed in a flash.
Fang Er straightened his clothes and stood up, glancing at the holographic screen on the control console, which had been salvaged from a spaceship. It allowed them to project the external scenery at any time, even without windows.
The core world before them was different from Kunlun Star; it had no light source and no fissures. They could barely see anything even with the illumination of the ion flow.
This was not a giant magma pool as the world had speculated, nor was it a solid iron sphere.
Strictly speaking, it was a body of rock compressed together, possessing astonishing density.
"It's here!"
Xi Tong fastened the top three buttons of his shirt and casually pointed to a coordinate on the holographic screen.
Fang Er nodded slightly, gently nudged the control stick, and the tunnel boring machine turned and moved towards it.
Upon reaching the location, the machine rotated in place, using its ion cannon to melt away the surrounding rock until a spherical space with a diameter of about a kilometer was created, after which it slowly stopped.
The cabin door opened, and the two of them jumped out of the tunnel boring machine.
Following that, the Earth's core, stored in the system's warehouse, was brought out.
Instantly, the rock beneath their feet began to shake violently. Caught off guard, Fang Er stumbled, nearly colliding with the ion cannon. Fortunately, Xi Tong's quick reflexes pulled him back, otherwise, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
By the time he recovered, the core had already moved away from them, hovering in the air not far away, slowly rotating.
"Boom!"
After only a few rotations, the core gave a violent shudder, releasing a large amount of Xirang mist, which rapidly expanded outwards.
"What's going on!"
Through the Xirang mist, Fang Er suddenly realized that the core looked different from before!
Xi Tong also followed the direction of his finger.
The previously irregular pattern on the surface of the core had shed large flakes of debris after that recent tremor.
The remaining imprint vaguely resembled distorted, irregular strips, but their nature remained undetermined.
Just then, the core vibrated again!
Back on Kunlun Star, the core released Xirang mist only once a month. Now, it had released it twice consecutively!
"Boom!"
Before they could figure out what was happening, the core experienced a third vibration!
Then, a fifth!
A sixth!
It was only after the seventh vibration that it resumed its steady rotation.
With these seven tremors, the released Xirang mist transformed the entire thousand-meter diameter spherical space into a scene reminiscent of an immortal realm.
And the imprint on the core, with each tremor, shed more fragments.
When everything finally calmed down, Fang Er was astonished to find that the imprint on the core had transformed into a lifelike dragon!
A five-clawed golden dragon, shimmering with golden light and exuding majestic might!
"This!!!"
"Dragons, aren't they creatures pieced together by the people of Wan Qu Realm using genetic technology?"
"Why is there a dragon imprint on the core!"
He was completely stunned!
Xi Tong knew what he was wondering without him asking. After a moment of thought, he voiced his speculation.
"Even if they were pieced together using genetic technology, wouldn't they need a reference?"
"So, dragons, they actually existed?"
Fang Er's eyes widened.
Artificial versus natural, this difference held completely different meanings for the Chinese people!
Xi Tong shook his head. "Perhaps they used the imprint on the core as a reference for their creation."
"Rumble..."
At that moment, the surrounding rock walls began to shake with unprecedented intensity, and countless rock fragments flew towards the core from all directions.
Fang Er's heart tightened. He quickly rushed beneath the core, collected the fragments that had fallen from the imprint into his spatial storage, and then grabbed Xi Tong, pulling him back into the tunnel boring machine.
"Let's go back first!"