Chapter 57

The coffee bean germ inside the pocket watch pierced through the copper casing. The tender sprout grew at a speed that defied biological laws, swarming over Qiyue’s arm in the blink of an eye. Jane’s quantum left hand reacted automatically, data streams bursting from her fingertips in an attempt to sever the vines, only to be counter-hacked the moment they made contact— Her field of vision suddenly vaulted to a bird’s-eye perspective, revealing the New World in an entirely different light: The World Tree was merely a decorative layer on the surface; the crisscrossing bronze root system deep underground was the true entity. At a depth of seven thousand meters, these roots wove into a cocoon, enveloping a massive, pulsating existence. "This is..."