Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1226
At this moment, the specialists and professors from dozens of renowned universities of the federation had gathered in the town. They were all rubbing their hands, waiting for the items to be excavated from the Nuwa warship and the Pangu laboratory.
Naturally, until absolute safety was ensured, those strengthless specialists and professors would never be allowed to enter the Nuwa warship or the Pangu laboratory in person.
Further ahead, several of the most elite crystal suit legions of the federation were stationed, and tens of thousands of Exos and the super enormous crystal cannons were standing by. Should the giants of the Pangu Clan crawl out of the earth, they would certainly be bombarded by the federation in less than three seconds. It would be a miracle if they could keep their back straight.
Guided by the memory of Meng Chixin and Wu Suiyun, the only two to have visited the Pangu laboratory personally, the federation had made thorough plans for the operation.
The first to explore the laboratory, besides the eleven experts of the Ancient Sages Sector and Li Yao, included more than a hundred elite Exos who were all above the Core Formation Stage.
Everybody carried tremendous beast puppets and Grand Illusionary Soldiers. They had also been injected with various vaccines and genetic drugs. As of now, they were unaware of the specific elements of the poison inside the 'giant crabs' or its mechanism. However, all the vaccines and drugs slowed down the mutation of genes. Should anybody be accidentally poisoned, their mutation would certainly be greatly delayed.
Other than that, their crystal suits had all been through the most rigorous airtightness and anti-pressure tests. It was made sure that there would not be a single gap on them when the crystal suits were placed tens of thousands of meters deep in the water. Even if the giant crabs jumped on the explorers, they would have nowhere to inject the poison at all!
The average height of the Pangu Clan was impressive, and the tallest of them could be dozens of meters tall. According to Meng Chixin and Wu Suiyun, the Pangu laboratory was also splendid and immeasurable, like an underground palace of giants. Weird mist that could absorb spiritual energy and telepathic thoughts also covered the palace. A team of only a hundred members was certainly not enough to figure out the general picture of the place.
However, other than 'the living', they also had a troop of almost a thousand spectral Cultivators, who were all warriors that had lost their physical bodies and kept their souls in iron shells.
Those spectral warriors were partly from the famous ghost troop of the Flying Star Sector that had a long history and partly made of the natives of the Nether World Sector.
Since the 'giant crabs' had to unlock the mysterious strength in the genes by injecting poison, the technology must be similar to 'biochemical modification'. Then, for the spectral Cultivators who had no fleshly bodies, the giant crabs would have nowhere to bite, right?
The prospection and cleaning regarding the Nuwa warship had started three days ago.
The armor, flying swords, magical equipment, and fragments that were carved with the primeval runes indeed hooked and intoxicated the professors and experts from the renowned universities.
Today, the defense array and the cannon bastion around the Nuwa warship was finally set up, and the dozens of warships in the sky had all locked onto the target, too. All the preparations had been made to unveil the seals inside the Nuwa warship.
The code name of the operation was very simple—'Archaeology'!
Li Yao, Long Yangjun, the other ten experts of the Ancient Sages Sector, almost a hundred elite Exos, and a thousand ghost warriors marched into the Nuwa warship and toward the seals at the head of the warship.
"Are you really coming down with us?" Long Yangjun asked Li Yao for the tenth time.
Without changing his countenance, Li Yao declared, "You can stop persuading me. I know that it must be highly perilous down there, but that is all the more reason I should lead the charge! I was already able to kill one member of the Pangu Clan in the beginning. Even if there are a dozen of them right now, so that? They will be the best targets to test my new blade!"
"You know that is not what I mean," Long Yangjun said gloomily. "I'm saying that the operation is already dangerous enough by itself, and every operation is ten times more dangerous if you are in the team. So, why don't you stay above as a commander instead of adding to our trouble down there?"
"…No!"
"Fine," Long Yangjun conceded. "You can't stop a man who is determined to get him killed. If uncanny changes take place, don't blame me for not warning you in advance."
Three years ago, Li Yao and the eleven experts of the Ancient Sages Sector once trained for half a year in the Nuwa warship and knew the general structure of the warship very well. Naturally, they did not meet any trouble in finding the place where the Pangu laboratory was sealed.
The seals that they had left years ago were already lackluster and dim.
The rocks behind the seals were full of cracks that looked like spider webs, too, as if the seemingly solid rocks would crumble into powder at a light cough and release the fiends caged deep underground.
The shocking view made everyone breathe heavily.
"The first defense line is deployed!"
"The second defense line is deployed!"
"The peripheral defense line is deployed. The geological investigation has been completed. The rock stratums here are relatively stable. No big tectonic changes will happen anytime soon."
On everyone's tactical crystal processor, information and holographs flashed, suggesting that the last defense measures had been paved.
"Senior Meng, Senior Wu."
Li Yao suddenly asked the two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators who once explored the Pangu laboratory, "When you were injected with poison by the 'giant crabs' and about to be transformed into members of the Pangu Clan, what did you feel? Did you keep your original self-awareness? Was your soul twisted or injected with something new, as if you were 'possessed' by something powerful?"
Meng Chixin and Wu Suiyun looked at each other and replied, "The feeling was rather weird. As our body continued expanding, our self-awareness became blurred. A lot of things seemed to be removed from our soul, but we 'recalled' many more things. Yet, despite all the contortion, no new self-awareness was sent in. It was certainly not 'possession'."
"Got it. It means that all the members of the Pangu Clan underground are dead. The 'giant crabs' can merely transform humans into new members of the Pangu Clan but cannot revive the old ones."
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao pressed the dim seals with his hands that were armed by the crystal suit. "Come on, fellow Cultivators. Let's see what kind of secrets are kept in the Pangu laboratory from hundreds of thousands of years ago!"
Chapter 1904: The 'Fossil' Has Come Back to Life! |
BAM!
After one last moment of brilliance, the thousand lackluster seals ran out of spiritual energy and splashed like ice before they melted into nothingness.
Losing the support of the seals and barriers, the rocks that were full of cracks immediately crumbled without a sound, as if they had always been made of sand. They poured out like water, revealing the deep, dark cave behind them.
Hu!
Freezing wind blew out of the cave immediately, mixed with some dark gas that lunged at everyone like erratic devils.
The members of Operation Archaeology were long prepared for that. They knew that tremendous venomous air must have accumulated underground, as it had only been briefly opened once or twice in the past hundreds of thousands of years. Besides, the environment hundreds of thousands of years ago could have been vastly different from the present. The air on the planet possibly contained a lot of impurities that modern people were not aware of or adapted to.
They had already completely blocked the head of the Nuwa warship and installed the most advanced air test and filtration system. Everybody also activated the internal circulation mode on their crystal suits, not touching the unknown gas of the outside world at all.
As they expected, the air test system beeped nonstop, implying that the gas spurting out from the underground space contained almost a hundred bizarre elements, some of which could never have possibly existed on this planet. How strange!
Thankfully, none of the elements were too toxic or corrosive. With everyone's Cultivation that was no lower than the Core Formation Stage, they could breathe normally inside the cave. It was needless to mention the beast puppets, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, or the spectral Cultivators, which did not require such a thing as air in the first place.
After a minute, the speed of the flowing black gas was much lower, suggesting that the internal air pressure and the external air pressure had reached a balance.
The heat examination devices and the biochemical activity examination devices did not report any signs of living creatures inside the cave.
The first to be projected into the cave were the spider-shaped beast puppets that carried highly-precise crystal cameras and soundwave collection facilities. They could be remotely controlled through telepathic thoughts.
However, they encountered exactly the same problem here as Li Yao once had during the exploration of Kunlun. The vast Pangu laboratory was filled with vague, black mist, which posed huge interference on the transmission of signals.
The beast puppets were all out of reach when they were a certain distance away. Even when they were still within reach, the videos that they managed to send back were fuzzy and obscure. It was impossible to tell what was on them exactly.
So much for remote control. Eventually, it required human beings to enter the cave in person to figure out the truth.
Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and the other experts of the Ancient Sages Sector looked at each other. They turned on the power rune arrays of their crystal suits and floated at a low altitude half a meter from the ground. Then, they flew into the dark, narrow pathway without touching any part of the building.
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers and the spectral warriors followed them closely as the main force of 'Operation Archaeology', and the hundred Core Formation Stage Cultivators were responsible for covering the retreat. They were closest to the entrance. Should anything go wrong, they could escape in time to ensure their own safety.
The pathway led straight down. There was no telling how far they had gone, but the black mist around them grew thicker and thicker and came at everyone like tides.
The black mist was indeed weird. All the waves—regardless of whether they were from the searchlights of the highest power, the Cultivators almost in the Divinity Transformation Stage, or the mobile Spiritual Towers that they deployed—were absorbed with absolutely nothing left after they were transmitted to two hundred meters away at best, making it impossible to get a general picture of the Pangu laboratory.
However, from what they could see in the limited range of exploration, the scale of the Pangu laboratory indeed far exceeded their imagination.
Any random pathway could be almost thirty meters wide and fifty meters tall. Also, the pathways were full of branches, many of which leaned downward. There was no telling how deep they went.
There were also gates that were carved with primeval runes, which were locked tightly as if cages where primordial beasts were sealed were behind them. They appeared even more mysterious in the middle of the black mist.
The exploration team of a thousand members, plus ten times more beast puppets and Grand Illusionary Soldiers, was like a handful of pebbles thrown into a vast lake after they entered the palace of giants. They were as good as nothing and could not raise the slightest wave.
Faced with such tricky mist and such unexpected enormity, even Li Yao and the rest of them did not have a satisfactory solution.
Thankfully, they had prepared rather sufficient resources for the operation. By establishing a mobile Spiritual Tower every hundred meters, and even opening the reels of crystal wires with the most stable wired connection, they were finally able to keep in touch with the reinforcement team and specialist team outside.
Led by Meng Chixin and Wu Suiyun, the two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators who had once visited the Pangu laboratory, everyone continued going downward.
What they saw on their way was actually similar to the underground black city that Li Yao had come across on Kunlun. Everything was strictly horizontal or vertical without the slightest error, implying high disciplines and indifference. It was almost like a cold, lifeless grave.
That did make sense. If all the members of a civilization sealed their feelings and emotions, it would be hard to imagine that they had any culture or art. The buildings that they established in the end could only be square and unattractive like that.
As they went deeper, it could clearly be seen that the upper levels of the laboratory had been seriously damaged.
Most of the branches were blocked by the collapsed rocks. Traces of explosions and corrosion were obvious, too.
Corpses of giants in bizarre shapes were also found. They were identical to the ones on the Nuwa warship, except that their death was much more gruesome.
All the bodies were holding each other, broken. A lot of sabers and swords had been stabbed deep into each other's bones, suggesting that they did not stop fighting each other until their last breath.
After hundreds of thousands of years of corrosion, their flesh and blood were long gone. But their remains and their weapons were melted in a weird form, informing the latecomers of the perilousness of the great war hundreds of thousands of years ago.
The members of the exploration team hurried to scan the paths that they had been through and the appearance of the corpses, adding them up to a giant model in the crystal processor. A virtual Pangu laboratory was gradually outlined.
"It seems that our speculation at the beginning was correct."
Looking at the virtual Pangu laboratory on the light beam that had been added with a lot of details, Li Yao remarked, "At the last years of the primeval war, the situation of the Pangu Clan looked rather unpromising. For the succession of their civilization, a lot of members of the Pangu Clan initiated plans similar to our Monument Plan or 'Tinder Plan'.
"The planet of the Ancient Sages Sector deep inside the dark nebula was the best spot for secret experiments. The Pangu Clan established an enormous underground laboratory here. Or rather, the entire planet was a laboratory for them. They shipped, or procreated here, countless human beings as test subjects, searching for ways to pass on the Pangu Civilization through genes.
"Later, a Nuwa fleet accidentally discovered the secrets deep inside the dark nebula. Perhaps because it was practically impossible to send the message out due to the interference of the dark nebula, or because it was too urgent for them to summon reinforcements, they decided to attack the Ancient Sages Sector on their own and demolish the place.
"The fleet of the Nuwa Clan had a fierce fight with the guards of the Pangu Clan who were stationed on the planet. Both parties were exhausted and suffered heavy losses. That's why there are so many relics of primeval battlefields on the surface of the planets as the source of strength for the locals of the Ancient Sages Sector, and how they were dragged into the vicious circle of counting on only the primeval treasures instead of their independent development.
"Eventually, the last Nuwa warship, which had run out of supplies, finally found the biggest and most critical laboratory that was hidden below the ice.
"The Nuwa warship launched a suicidal attack. After adjusting to a certain collision mode, it crashed into the Pangu laboratory from the sky like a shooting star and penetrated through the laboratory's defenses.
"The most elite warriors of the Nuwa Clan crowded into the underground laboratory and fought the guards of the Pangu Clan. Although they failed to completely demolish the laboratory, they were able to seal it for hundreds of thousands of years, until it was accidentally opened by Fellow Cultivators Meng Chixin and Wu Suiyun a hundred years ago. At the same time, a certain alarm system inside the Nuwa warship was triggered, and a warning was sent to the direction of its base.
"After hundreds of thousands of years, the dark nebula that enshrouded the planet was already much thinner. The warning finally penetrated through the darkness and was received by the Star Glory Federation. Now, we have come to this place to finish what the Nuwa Clan started!"
There must be a lot of errors and missing parts in Li Yao's analysis, but in general, such a deduction was certainly the most self-consistent one.
Right then, a squad that had spread to the left edge of the Pangu laboratory discovered what appeared to be the remains of a 'giant crab' for the first time.
The Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators including Li Yao arrived as quickly as possible, only to discover that it looked like an obsidian ball more than one meter in diameter that was embedded in the dilapidated debris.
No changes of temperature or spiritual waves were detected from the item at all, as if it were a fossil that had been dead for billions of years.
However, along the uneven surface, it could clearly be seen that more than ten long tentacles were curled up and that a limb that was similar to a tail was spiraling back into the body.
"Is this a living creature or dead?" One of the spectral Cultivators was bold enough to approach it to get a closer look.
"Watch out!"
Intuitively, Li Yao felt that something was not right.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
The biochemical test system on everyone's crystal suit shrieked ear-splittingly at the same time. The index of living creature activity soared abruptly, implying that a living object with tremendous vigor was right before them!
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
The surface of the fossil of the giant crab broke apart into pieces. The dried shell fell off, revealing another gray, damp shell inside. The tentacles and the tail that had been curled before were all stretched out.
The 'fossil' had come back to life!
