Chapter 47

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Chapter 47: Strange Beasts from the Shan Hai Jing

Mo Chuan set down her wine glass and opened the footage linked to the two messages, projecting it into the air in front of her.

The exploration team heading to historical time periods is expected to have six observation points. Their previous explorations covered the last eight thousand years, so this time, the focus will be on the period between ten to thirty thousand years in the past.

They plan to transmit footage from one to thirty thousand years ago, specifically at the points of ten thousand, thirteen thousand, seventeen thousand, twenty thousand, twenty-three thousand, and twenty-seven thousand years ago for analysis on the ground.

This afternoon, the time capsule launched on schedule and is expected to take five hours to reach the first observation point, which is ten thousand years in the past. Mo Chuan glanced at the time displayed below the projection; it was eleven-thirty. Considering the exploration team’s observation time in that local time period, they must have just sent back their messages not long ago, which Ti Ran forwarded to her immediately. It seems Ti Ran did not rest and has been waiting for news at home.

Mo Chuan first played the initial footage. It showed a low elevated rail traversing a desert, where a train-like object could be seen moving rapidly. There seemed to be some people near the rail nodes, but the distance made the image unclear, lasting only about ten seconds.

After watching it, she opened the second footage, which featured a bird, entirely black with an extremely long wingspan. It had a tuft of white feathers on its head and a flat face that appeared to have a human likeness from a distance. The most peculiar aspect was that the bird had three claws.

However, this footage was even shorter than the first, lasting only seven seconds, with the strange bird flashing by the camera. Mo Chuan watched it again after the first viewing.

Just then, the communication light on the desk lit up. She turned to see it was Ti Ran and connected the call. After a moment, Ti Ran’s holographic figure appeared beside her, just a step away.

“Did you watch the two videos I sent you earlier?” Ti Ran asked directly.

Mo Chuan nodded. “I just finished watching them. The second bird looked so strange; I watched it twice.”

Ti Ran smiled slightly and raised a book she was holding, pointing to a passage inside. “There is a bird that looks like a quail, with a white head, three feet, and a human face. It is called ‘Quru’.”

Mo Chuan read the passage and looked back at Ti Ran. “Is this from the Shan Hai Jing?”

Earlier, when they were traveling with Luo Yu to Qingqiu Mountain, Ying Zhao had shown them the Shan Hai Jing scroll she carried. Later, Ti Ran borrowed it to make a replicated version along with a translated comparison edition. The book in her hand was indeed this version.

“The bird in the second footage closely resembles the description in the Shan Hai Jing. I also noticed some similarities in the landscape; this is very interesting,” Ti Ran said, full of energy. “Their time, our time, and our time ten thousand years ago all show a certain degree of civilization discontinuity, but there are subtle connections in some details.”

“Yet another civilization discontinuity…” Mo Chuan muttered to herself.

“These footages are still unclear and brief, but that they could send back such useful information so soon after arriving is already great,” Ti Ran said enthusiastically. “They will stay there for a day, and we can expect more footage to come back tomorrow for our analysis.”

She then asked Mo Chuan, “I think Ying Zhao would be very interested in this. How is their Return Simulation going? Do you think she can come to the time travel center tomorrow to analyze these videos with us?”

Recalling the message from Lei Ming earlier, it seemed the simulator was running smoothly, but she didn’t know the specifics. After a moment’s thought, she replied, “I’ll go check on her tomorrow morning. If she’s free, I’ll ask her to join us in the afternoon.”

Ti Ran nodded. “That sounds good. Feel free to come anytime; I’ll be at the time travel center all day tomorrow.”

After that, they discussed the strange beasts mentioned in the Shan Hai Jing. When Ying Zhao had shown them the scroll, they noticed that the place names in it overlapped significantly with those in the Ponsuo Tribe, but there were discrepancies in the descriptions of the locations and geography. The strange beasts mentioned in the book were absent in their time.

“Thirty thousand years of change has transformed landscapes, so it’s normal for those place names to be based on ancient legends; they may not correspond to the true origins anymore,” Mo Chuan analyzed.

Ti Ran agreed, “As for those strange beasts, they likely had a high degree of association with that historical civilization, so as the civilization disappeared, so did they.”

After pondering, they recalled the reactions of Luo Yu and others when seeing the wildlife during their last trip to Qingqiu Mountain. Some of the animals were familiar to them, while others appeared completely new.

However, the three of them didn’t have deep knowledge of the fauna in their world, so they couldn’t clearly identify which species were common between the two time periods and which were entirely absent.

Additionally, Ao Ci’s comparative report based on the biological sample library they brought with the time capsule showed that all the plants and animals in their world existed there, but their variety was much lower. They were uncertain whether the unlisted species were entirely absent or had gone extinct due to environmental issues.

Discussing further, they felt a twinge of sadness thinking about the natural environment in Luo Yu’s world. Both of them looked up at the moon above, momentarily silent.

“The moon is truly beautiful,” Ying Zhao remarked once again.

“Come on, you’re an intellectual. Can’t you be a little more poetic? Use some adjectives, be vivid,” Zhu Huai teased from the side.

“Oh, moon, you are like a glowing bun; the bun soothes my stomach, and you soothe my loneliness.”

“…” Zhu Huai glanced at Ying Zhao, “Nice rhyme, but don’t write poetry next time.”

Ying Zhao smiled with pride, “You just don’t appreciate it. My poetic style is unique.”

Zhu Huai smiled, “Alright, alright! Great physicist Yan Yi, amateur soul poet, with your masterpiece ‘Glowing Bun,’ I hereby declare you the founding ancestor of the Moon Bun Poetry School.”

At that moment, Luo Yu walked over and entered the water in front of them, smiling at Ying Zhao, “Choosing physics is truly a great loss for the literary world.”

While the three of them chatted and laughed, the in-house housekeeping system’s robotic arm delivered the drinks they ordered to the center of the hot spring pool. They reached forward to grab their drinks and leaned back against the edge of the pool.

The three had been busy in the simulator all day. After Lei Ming and the spacecraft designer left in the afternoon, they conducted their own simulation. Although Luo Yu still couldn’t precisely predict all the gravitational wave fluctuations for her solo return trip, she managed to avoid the larger ones in a timely manner, showing significant progress in her simulation training.

After a day of training, they decided to unwind on their way back. They returned to the cave villa to change into swimsuits and headed to the hot spring in the upper garden.

Moonlight illuminated the pool, giving the calm water a delicate veil. The night was neither cold nor hot, and the spring water was perfectly warm. The three enjoyed their drinks, inhaling the lightly fragrant air of flowers and grass, and leisurely talked about the day’s simulations.

“I noticed your reaction speed in avoiding gravitational waves is quite fast, and your driving skills are very agile,” Zhu Huai praised Luo Yu, “Didn’t you used to fly transport planes in the air defense forces? Does operating a transport plane require such agility?”

At the Time Bureau, everyone’s resume only included one or two sentences. While their experiences were certainly real, some details were bound to be concealed. Inquiring about others’ pasts was considered a taboo, but since Zhu Huai had decided not to return, she disregarded these rules and directly asked about Luo Yu’s background.

Luo Yu took a sip of her drink. “I sometimes flew reconnaissance planes too.”

“Oh, that explains it,” Zhu Huai nodded. “I heard that air defense pilots need to be versatile. I once participated in an exercise where you had a chief pilot, Wen Jing, who could fly thirty-nine types of aircraft. That person is quite something.”

“You participated in military exercises?” Ying Zhao asked.

“Yeah, during that global drill three years ago, I was with the Space Administration’s team.” Zhu Huai tilted her head back and took a sip. “The representative from the Alliance’s air defense forces was this Wen Jing. I watched the whole thing, and there was a spectacular segment where they parachuted from high altitude to switch aircraft.”

“I’ve heard of that! Did you meet Wen Jing at that time?”

“Of course.”

Seeing Zhu Huai’s firm answer, Luo Yu raised an eyebrow and glanced at her.

“What does she look like?” Ying Zhao asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Didn’t you just say you met her?”

“I did see her, but she was wearing a helmet, along with a breathing apparatus and everything, so she was pretty covered up.”

“How tall is she?”

“About my height, maybe a little taller.” Zhu Huai squinted as she recalled, looking at Luo Yu across from her and pointing, “She should be around Luo Yu’s height.”

After saying that, Zhu Huai shook her head. “But after that military exercise, something happened, and she withdrew and disappeared. It’s quite unfortunate.”

“What happened?”

“I heard it was related to a secret mission with the Northern Continent,” Zhu Huai recalled. “Anyway, that’s what I saw online; they said she withdrew at the last minute, leading to the death of another backup pilot, and she seemed to have received some sort of punishment or something like that. Later, she left the military, but all the news online was unclear. Some people said she wasn’t even originally scheduled, and her departure was a normal retreat to a second line position, but I remember she was quite young; it’s unlikely for her to retire that quickly. There’s definitely more to this.”

Ying Zhao thought for a moment after hearing the timing of that news. “At that time, the biggest incident with the Northern Continent was the explosion of the single-sex biological experiment building I mentioned before. Could it be related?”

“Ah, the timing adds up,” Zhu Huai slapped her forehead. “Could it be that building she blew up? She withdrew from the surface mission but secretly did something big.”

“Really? Why would she do that?”

“She must have defected; that’s not surprising these days.” Zhu Huai’s analysis seemed more convincing. “Right, it must be true! Otherwise, the air defense forces wouldn’t allow her to retire at the peak of her career with such vague reasons. A chief pilot defecting would be a huge scandal.”

After saying that, Zhu Huai started speculating with Ying Zhao about the forces behind the destruction of the biological experiment building, and what the Alliance’s air defense forces’ stance was, which made the matter even more complex and confusing.

After a while of discussion, they both agreed that Wen Jing must know the inside story, but Ying Zhao disagreed with Zhu Huai’s speculation that she had defected or was a spy, insisting that there was certainly another hidden truth.

Ying Zhao thought for a moment, “Where has she gone since leaving the military?”

Zhu Huai recalled some gossip she had seen. “Some people said she switched to flying commercial planes, while others mentioned seeing her wandering on the streets last year, saying she was mentally unstable. But if she were really a spy, she should have been silenced after doing such work. Anyway, whatever the case, it must have ended badly for her. What a shame.”

Zhu Huai finished her drink in one gulp. Noticing that Luo Yu across from her had been silent and had a strange expression, she asked, “Hey, you were also in the air defense forces; do you know Wen Jing?”

Luo Yu paused at Zhu Huai’s question. Saying she didn’t know might seem insincere. She blinked, raised her hand, and took another sip of her drink. “Not well.”