"First question: Is this Earth? Or, do you even have a concept of planets?" Jill Young decided to start with the big picture.
The caveman in the pit stared at Jill Young like she was an alien. "Of course this is Earth! Of course I know what a planet is! Oh my god, miss, who are you?"
"Cut the nonsense!" Jill Young flicked her wrist, sending a pebble straight at the caveman's head. Yep, pelting people with stones felt pretty good. Sitting on the edge of the pit, Jill tossed another pebble in her hand. "You’re a pretty advanced caveman, knowing about planets and all."
"I... I'm not some caveman! Before I got here, I was a professor of planetary geology at Yale University! Even if everyone in the world forgot what a planet was, I wouldn’t!"
"Too fast." Another pebble hits. "Never heard of that university." Two more pebbles. "Too many technical terms." Three pebbles. "Remember, don’t make the same mistakes again."
The lump-covered caveman was teary-eyed. "Okay, I got it."
Jill Young nodded with satisfaction and continued, "Since you’re a university professor, tell me what year it is, and introduce yourself."
"Now, uh, now it should be..." The caveman counted on his fingers. "It should be 1997. Ever since I came here, keeping track of time has been tough. My name is Max Trevor—you can call me Max. Yale, uh, it’s just a university. I study the history of rocks and mud."
1997? Earth? University professor? Jill Young looked around—the place was wild and ancient, with towering old trees. There was light in the sky, but it wasn’t the sun. It looked more like streams of particles, like a solar storm, flowing and surging across the "sky," shining as bright as noon.
This place was drenched in a heavy alien vibe.
"Honestly, if you told me this was somewhere millions of light years away from Earth, I wouldn’t be surprised. But you say this is Earth? I don’t buy it."
"This really, truly is Earth!"
"Then tell me, which part of Earth is this?"
"Underground."
Jill Young stopped scanning the surroundings and looked seriously at Max. "Is my English messed up, or are you saying we’re underground?"
"Yes, we’re underground!" Max’s glasses practically lit up when he got onto this topic. "I’ve done geology my whole life, and the heavens put me here! We’re two thousand kilometers beneath the surface—in the crust itself. We’re in Coreworld!"
Jill Young’s eyes sparkled at Max’s answer. Now this was an adventure she hadn’t seen coming!
After a quick chat, Jack Young confirmed a few things.
She’d arrived in a truly magical place. According to this wild professor’s gestures, some ancient geological upheaval had caused the crust to collapse, sending a massive chunk of land deep underground. Thanks to nature’s weird handiwork, a whole new ecosystem took shape, preserving its ancient vibe.
This underground space was huge. The wild man hadn’t measured it, but the place had its own atmosphere and water cycle, with wind, rain, and other weather. It had to be massive. Of course, the creatures here were fierce—think pre-upright apes, all primitive and tough.
Of course, predators were still pretty rare—resources down here weren’t exactly unlimited.
This wild professor ended up trapped here by accident, and no matter what he tried, he couldn’t get out. As for how long he’d been stuck, he measured it by his beard: from zero to chest-length, shave it all off, grow it out again, repeat—who knows how many times.
Not the most scientific way to keep time.
"Your Majesty the Queen, I know I was wrong! I’ve got a wife and kids, I’m an educated gentleman—I just got too excited after not seeing another human for so long! We need to get out of here, it’s not safe! Those black demons could come by again!"
After Max’s wailing and begging, Jill Young figured having a local guide wasn’t so bad—and she wasn’t worried about him trying anything funny. So she let him live, grabbed her machete, and marched him along.
Max had been surviving here for quite a while. He hadn’t explored the whole place, but he knew the nearby "jungle zone" like the back of his hand. He’d picked a big tree as his base, turning a hollow into his little hideout. The tree was huge—maybe not quite an elven tree from the movies, but big enough to carve out a ten-square-meter study seven or eight meters above the ground without killing it. You can imagine the size.
According to him, this was the best spot in the jungle zone to hide from the black demons. Yeah, those black demons were the same kind of black wolves Jill Young had pummeled earlier. Max said they were some ancient animal from who-knows-how-many years ago—not really wolves, more like proto-wolf ancestors or whatever. Basically, they were bigger and nastier than regular wolves, but Jill Young didn’t care about the details.
"Alright, this should be safe enough. So next—" Jill Young pulled out a rope, snapped it with a flourish, and grinned at Max. "Sorry, but I’m gonna have to rough you up a bit."
"W-what are you doing?" Max trembled and backed away. "I’m not into that!"
"But I’m a total sadist, and honestly, just looking at you annoys me. So, you’re about to see my rope skills!"
A moment later, Jill Young had Max tied up tight and dangling from a southeast branch, swaying in the wind like a weather doll. Then she stepped into Max’s treehouse and found a simple bed and table—turns out Max was pretty handy.
She put the black wolf on the table and started working on the beast’s corpse. According to the Titan Spirit Method, absorbing the essence from fierce beasts’ bones and flesh speeds up cultivation. Jack Young had never found a proper beast before, so he had to make do with herbal tonics for qi and blood. Finally, a real specimen!
Jack Young had thought about the whole killing thing. The history of the Titan Spirit Method probably goes back to Hinduism or even earlier, so he didn’t sweat the morality. For proof, the related Insight Technique isn’t really religious either, so the Titan Spirit Method isn’t just Buddhist. The manual even lists three ways to absorb beast essence: lower, middle, and upper.
Lower method: eat! Whether you grind it into bone-meal pills or whatever, just eat it, then use the Titan Spirit Method to stimulate your gut and absorb the essence. Pros: anyone can do it. Cons: if you’re stuffed, you’re out of luck.
Middle method: soak! Toss the beast in a big cauldron and boil it, boil it, boil it some more, until the broth goes from clear to cloudy and back to clear again. Then you bathe in it like a medicinal soak, using the Titan Spirit Method to stimulate your skin and absorb the essence. Pros: you don’t have to eat anything, and absorption is thorough. Cons: takes forever to cook.
Upper method: absorb! Put your hand on the beast and use the Titan Spirit Method’s secret technique to suck out the essence, just like the famous energy-draining move. Pros: quick, easy, stylish, and good for your gut. Cons: super hard to pull off!
Of course Jill Young wanted to use the upper method, but it’s tough. Directly absorbing life essence through the skin takes serious skill, and the Titan Spirit Method isn’t specialized for it. Sure, it sounds badass—like some ultimate move. But as long as the creature’s alive, it’s basically immune. It’s like how healthy people are clean, but after death, all sorts of nastiness shows up.
Especially absorbing life essence through the skin—it’s nearly impossible unless you’ve mastered seven or eight layers of the Titan Spirit Method. Basically, this trick is just for top-level experts, since their energy needs are so huge that eating alone won’t cut it, no matter how good their teeth are.
Jill Young only had two layers of the Titan Spirit Method, so that fancy method was out. But she had an edge—her body also had two layers of the Insight Technique! The Insight Technique boosts mental power and control over the body. Jill couldn’t just suck out the wolf’s essence by hand, but she could focus it into one spot.
Jill Young pressed her right hand to the black wolf’s chest, eyes focused. It was like a buzzing sound echoed—a ripple of invisible energy poured into the wolf and vibrated through its body.
(That’s right, the answer is Jules Verne’s novel "Journey to the Center of the Earth!" The famous French sci-fi author—his descriptions have inspired all sorts of movies and games. Of course, I’m just borrowing the setting this time. Some folks say "Journey to the Center of the Earth" is boring, and I agree—it’s the only Verne novel I couldn’t finish. But the underground world concept is too cool, so here’s my Jill Young version. If you guessed right, go stand in the hallway and get ready for your boxed lunch!)
And then, after more than twenty hours on a long-distance train, I’m about dead. I’m the type who can’t eat or drink at all on a train...