Unlike the previous ruins, these buildings were still intact. Even from tens of kilometers away, they appeared remarkably tidy through the electronic telescope.
The pillar of fire persisted for nearly half an hour before suddenly vanishing before Fang Er's eyes, as if it had never been there.
Even the scorching high temperatures rapidly subsided in a very short period.
Fang Er immediately restarted the ore-collecting ship and headed towards where the pillar of fire had disappeared.
Upon arrival and seeing what was before him, he was speechless.
To describe it in one sentence.
It was like opening the door with a goddamn surprise...
He had arrived!
This was a circular structure exceeding 200 meters in height, cast entirely from silvery-white metal.
It appeared to be a wall, yet even the wall's thickness surpassed one hundred meters!
Furthermore, the metal comprising this structure was extremely peculiar, capable of withstanding such terrifying high temperatures.
Although the temperature of the fire pillar hadn't been measured, it was certainly over ten thousand degrees.
After all, he could feel the terrifying heat from tens of kilometers away at the time.
It could only be said that these materials were incredibly strong, beyond Fang Er's comprehension.
He wanted to pry off a piece to examine it, but discovered that no matter what tools he used, he couldn't leave even the slightest trace on the structure.
After circling the building a few times, a bold guess suddenly appeared in Fang Er's mind.
The shape of this thing...
Holy hell!
Could this be an engine???
He instinctively stopped the ore-collecting ship and looked down at the structure from high above. The more he looked, the more this guess seemed to be the only truth.
Even though it sounded preposterous! He couldn't find any other possibility.
Using the thrust of a planetary engine to interfere with the Moon's orbit at any time, and keeping this part of the Moon perpetually facing away from Earth, so that those people could monitor Earth's development without being discovered by Earthlings.
Hiss...
Fang Er startled himself!
Such technological means could probably rival the Yanhuang tribe of that era!
Why!
Why did they fear Earth so much?
With such technology, they could have annihilated Earth countless times!
Yet, they merely monitored, and at certain times, disrupted the civilization's inheritance on Earth, forcing humanity to return to primitive society and develop slowly.
Then, what was Earth to them?
A sandbox game?
Or slaves in a beast-fighting arena?
Fang Er felt his hands and feet go cold. This guess was too terrifying!
Cold sweat uncontrollably seeped out, drenching the front and back of his clothes.
Before even finding Earth's core, he had made such an astonishing discovery.
Facing this situation, he didn't know what he could do.
[Fang Da Bang, why aren't you speaking? What did you find?]
On the spaceship, Xi Tong, who hadn't received a response from Fang Er for a long time, couldn't help but ask.
"Come see for yourself!" Fang Er sat down on the ground, lying back listlessly.
So tired!
How long had it been since he'd experienced a life of wife, children, and a warm kang?
Xi Tong flew her ship over and was also shocked when she saw the planetary engine.
[Motherfucker! What the hell is this thing!]
She disembarked from the ship and, dumbfounded, asked Fang Er.
"Perhaps, it's a planetary engine..."
Fang Er explained his guess in detail.
[Engine?? Fang Da Bang, you really dare to imagine!]
[No, such a good thing, I must get its first-hand data!]
Xi Tong did not appear as dejected as him. Without a word, she rushed towards the engine.
Seeing her excited demeanor, Fang Er was momentarily stunned.
Her soul came from a smart brain. If she could find a control interface, she might really be able to obtain the engine's relevant data.
Then, replicate one...
No, replicate thousands upon thousands of them!
Take back the star core!
Then, if these behind-the-scenes manipulators dared to attack Earth again...
At worst, they could wander through space with Earth!
Damn it!
As he thought, Fang Er leaped up from the ground with a whoosh and shouted at Xi Tong.
"Wait for me, I'm coming with you!"
Dismantling this engine seemed somewhat unrealistic. If the moon moved away, it would be game over.
Therefore, obtaining the data was the most reliable choice.
This engine had just been activated, so for a short period, they didn't need to worry about it suddenly starting again.
Entering the engine, they illuminated the surroundings with lights.
The engine's nozzle was very deep, about two thousand meters.
At the bottom of the engine, ten concentric rings of different sizes were nested together. The outermost one was rotating at an extremely slow pace.
The nine inner rings were stationary and were connected by a groove.
Bending down to look at these rings, Xi Tong suddenly spoke.
[This is a timing device!]
[Look here, for every rotation of the first layer, the second layer rotates by one segment.]
[Correspondingly, when the second layer rotates by one segment, the third layer should also rotate by one segment.]
[Until the tenth ring completes one rotation, the grooves on all these rings will coincide.]
Fang Er instantly understood what she meant. Looking at the ten circles beneath their feet, he subconsciously exclaimed.
"What a primitive timing device!"
"But I must say, such a device is the most reliable!"
Computer clocks could have errors, but such mechanical devices could minimize errors.
It was just unknown where the power for this device came from.
The internal space of the engine was vast, and they didn't overlook any corner.
Lights, naked eyes, divine sense – every method they could use was employed.
Finally, two days later, they found it!
It was a large box exceeding fifty meters in height. After prying it open, they found the core system of this engine inside.
Within the box, there were no various pipelines or circuits, only a complete metal platform.
Initially, they didn't pay much attention to it until Xi Tong accidentally spilled a glass of red wine on it while resting.
Dense patterns instantly appeared on the metal platform.
These patterns spread across the entire platform, as if a metal ingot had been etched with grooves and then filled with other materials.
After staring at the metal platform for a moment, Fang Er subconsciously said, "These patterns look so familiar!"
Xi Tong also froze.
The next moment, they both looked towards the ore-collecting ship parked nearby in unison.
["The parts inside the ore-collecting ship also have such patterns!"]
When they dismantled the ore-collecting ship, they had noticed such patterns, but hadn't paid much attention to them, thinking they were merely decorative for artistic purposes.
However, seeing these patterns again here forced them to consider other possibilities.
["Could this be a formation?"]
Xi Tong thought for a long time before coming up with this word.
Fang Er nodded at her words, but quickly shook his head.
"Yes and no!"
"Yuan Tiangang once told me about formations; they are real."
"According to him, the wiring in all electrical appliances, as well as the sewage and drainage pipelines in cities, can be considered formations."
"But strictly speaking, these are all for guiding energy."
"Whether tangible or intangible, any energy can be guided through corresponding methods."
"These patterns should serve the same purpose."
"In other words, these patterns act as wires!"