Chapter 1432: Corals
The underwater reef was a massive web of rocks that had giant holes and equally giant rocks creating nonuniform criss-cross latices that made it look as though the giant cliff that once stood here had eroded in a weird pattern.
The submarine got closer and closer to the grand design underneath the ocean and showed a natural beauty that not many had seen.
“How is this possible?” Tony couldn’t help but ask out loud.
“It is,” Ning said.
“I’m certain something like this does not exist near the surface. If it did, we would have known long ago. What exists there is nothing but giant landmasses with corals growing on them.”
“I’m aware,” Ning said. “The top is not the same as the bottom. Which is why we can only travel this way and not from the top.”
“Still rocks… they shouldn’t erode in such a pattern. How does this happen? Are there weird water currents down here that create such a thing?” he asked.
“Actually, it is so much weirder than whatever you can imagine,” Ning said.
Tony was about to say something again when Jasmine caught his arm and shook his head. “You should stop talking or you won’t let him explain.”
Tony looked toward Ning who was smiling back at him.
“Let me show you something,” he said and manually steered the submarine until they got close to the archway that they were going to go through.
“Look at this,” Ning said and pointed to the screen. On the screen, they were staring at the wall, parts of where corals grew. “Look at it closely and you will see something.”
Everyone gave a weird look and waited for whatever they were meant to see to happen.
As they waited, one of the corals lengthened its tentacles and started stretching all around the place until another coral did the same and they came into contact.
As soon as they contacted, the corals touched all their tentacles for a while, doing something.
“What are they doing?” Tony asked.
“Let us see,” Ning said and the image on the screen lowered as it showed the ocean floor that was a mere 5 meters below them.
From the screen, they saw one of the coral with long tentacles reach the ground below and seemingly search for something in the ground.
After a while, it extended its tentacles and once again did the same thing as before.
“It passed something to the other coral, what?” Tony asked in a flabbergasted voice. He wondered if the coral was somehow intelligent.
“What do you think it passed?” Ning asked.
“Food?” Tim asked. He couldn’t imagine what else it could be.
“It doesn’t pass food,” Ning said. “It eats the food and if it isn’t hungry, it does pass it, but that is not what it is doing.”
“Then what is it passing?” Tim asked.
“Dirt,” Ning said. “It’s passing the soil.”
“What?” Tony asked. “Why?”
“Do you know how corals eat?” Ning asked the group, and none of them could answer.
“There are algae that attach themselves to the coral, who in sunlight create food, sugar. The corals eat that sugar,” Ning said. “But you should notice that we are at the bottom of the ocean and there is a significant lack of sunlight.”
Everyone nodded.
“So why are the corals here?” Tony asked. “I cannot imagine they would even survive in this place.”
“Well as I said, they do sometimes get food from the ocean floor where parts of dead fishes drift around. But that is not what is special about these corals.”
“You see, these corals were first found all over the planet in every location,” Ning said. “But then one day, long long ago, at a time when bipedals didn’t even exist yet, there was a terrible time period where the sun was clouded all around, with no sunlight for any of the world.”
“All animals and plants started dying one by one, except for the ones that lived in warmer climates. The corals that lived in the equator barely survived as the sun was closest to them.”
“However what they got wasn’t enough, and they needed more. And so, they evolved to become a thing that tried to reach for the surface.”
“And in that evolution, they got a fantastic knowledge that they have been using ever since.”
“Their tentacles became capable of picking up soil from the ocean floor and using it to build a structure for themselves. They would create a clump of something in the ocean floor and then more corals would grow on top of those clumps.”
“Then those corals would take the soil from the one below, and keep adding to the clump. Together, over time they started creating structures that sent them closer and closer to the surface.”
“They evolved to survive without sunlight too, eating what they found at the bottom of the ocean, but they also evolved to build these giant structures.”
“Those corals grew, detached from those clumps they created and moved around. Within a few millennia, those corals had spread all throughout the equator and started building these structures.”
“Time passed, hundreds of thousands if not millions of years, and this is what they created in that time. A kingdom of their own,” Ning showed to everyone.
They could only watch the giant archway in awe now.
“The structures they created grew and fell and grew again. The more upper they went, the further they spread. They learned what design was good to keep their structures erect. They learned to create a certain enzyme in their body that when used became a solid glue for the soil to stick to each other even in the water.”
“They learned that they could join structures to make them stand stronger. They learned that if they made the top flatter and filled it with fewer holes, it would become more buoyant and have less chance of collapsing.”
“They ended up making it so strong in the end humans could ride their ships on top of them and they wouldn’t crash,” Ning explained.
The three humans were in utter awe at the information they received. “The Great Reef… was created by these tiny corals?” Tony asked.
“Don’t underestimate what one does to survive,” Ning said. “And don’t underestimate the power that one has when they have hundreds of thousands of years to work with.”
“Everything you see around you and above you was created by these tiny creatures that don’t even have the brain to think. They work on instincts and instincts alone. It is their hard work that let them survive and the world fears what they created, not knowing what they are.”
Tim could only stare at the screen with nothing to say. There was nothing he could say in this situation that would be anything meaningful, so he chose to remain silent and in awe of the knowledge he had just received.
“They worked hard for this,” Jasmine said. “They worked hard and together.”
“This is what I’m talking about,” Tony said suddenly. “This. Nature. Nature is a lot stronger, a lot weirder, and a lot more fantastic than anyone cares to give it credit for.”
“There are people out there that believe Zurinus created the Great Reef to separate the humans on the two different hemispheres because of some great tragedy that occurred in the past,” Tony said. “When the truth is that it was these tiny creatures that made this. There was no God’s hand here. There was no miracle. Just many tiny things working together.”
“Humans could create a lot more miracles if they work together too.”
Tony seemed so much more invigorated after learning about the corals and the history behind the existence of the reef.
“It is incredible, isn’t it?” Ning asked. “There are many such things that you simply dismiss in a day-to-day life. Take a moment to pause and see the things for what they are. What was once seemingly nothing to you would look like a miracle too.”
Tony nodded.
“Just this alone is enough to make me glad I decided to follow you, sir Ning,” Tim said. “Thank you for forcing me away from my comfort zone. I would’ve never got to see this otherwise.”
Ning smiled. “This is just the beginning. There are so many more incredible things that you can see in the future. For example, don’t you wish to meet the monster that guards the Zurin treasure?” he asked.
Everyone looked at Ning with a look of fear in their eyes.
“Monster?” Jasmine asked.
“Of course,” Ning said. “Where there is a treasure, there is a monster. Since we are on our way to one of the treasures, it is the truth that we will meet one of the monsters as well.”
Jasmine gulped.
“You guys don’t have to fear anything,” Tim said. “I’ve seen sir Ning destroy one of those monsters in a snap.”
“You have,” Ning said. “But did you know that the Zurin treasures improve in strength the longer they aren’t bonded?”
“Is that true?” Tim asked.
Tony seemed surprised as well.
“You wouldn’t know if we are talking just 10 or 20 years,” Ning said. “But let something without being bonded for 200 years, and you will see how strong it becomes.”
The two scholars gave some thought. They did know that treasures came in different strengths, so what they heard made sense to them.
“That begs the question,” Ning said. “How long has it been since someone had bonded with the treasure we are going to find in the middle of the Great Reef?”
“How strong do you think this treasure will be?”
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