Chapter 53
Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW
Chapter 53: Billions of Years of Evolution
The footage returned by the exploration team this time had a much closer filming distance compared to the previous segments. The earlier clips only showed distant crowds on the ground, making it difficult to discern any details, but in this tribal battle, they could clearly see warriors waving weapons and shouting, along with various strange beasts snorting continuously. It felt as though they could hear the chaos of the battlefield, mingled with the scent of blood and earth.
In the front line of the formation were a group of strong warriors riding on massive four-legged creatures that somewhat resembled qilins. The warriors wore long fur armor covered in bone plating, holding weapons with powerful arms, all turning back to shout something towards the rear, seemingly conveying information about the battle ahead.
Opposite them stood a group of even larger strange beasts, multi-headed and multi-legged, grotesque in appearance, twisting and thrashing, their tails striking the ground, causing the earth to shake and sand and stones to fly.
After watching for a while, they figured out that this was a confrontation with gigantic ferocious beasts. Taking a closer look at the people in the footage, it was evident that the warriors at the front, riding what appeared to be qilins, were all tall women. On either side of the formation, there were fan-shaped teams preparing to hurl stones, tasked with disrupting the rhythm of the enemy and securing advantageous positions for the central warriors.
The warriors in the stone-throwing team looked like a younger group of women, and further back in the formation, one could see older women dressed elaborately, directing people to relay messages, clearly serving as commanders of the battle.
Behind the command team were a group of men, smaller than the previous group of women, busily transporting supplies and injured warriors, diligently handling complex logistical tasks.
This segment of footage was much longer than the previous clips, lasting a full five minutes. After it finished playing, the three sat silently in the spacious leisure room, blinking in thought, still savoring what they had just seen. At that moment, Zhu Huai reached out and tapped the awakening light on the round table to replay the footage.
They sat on the soft cushions and watched the footage three times. Finally, Ying Zhao spoke slowly, “So this footage depicts the world from seventeen thousand years ago.”
“Divine beasts, monsters, valiant warriors.” Zhu Huai leaned back against the cushion, saying wistfully, “It really captures the essence of an ancient tribe.”
Luo Yu recalled the footage the exploration team had sent back since their departure, “This time, the exploration team has three observation points from ten to twenty thousand years ago. So, in chronological order, that time frame must have first experienced the era of ancient tribes fighting giant beasts. Afterward, they likely overcame some threats to human existence and transitioned into an era of agriculture and nomadism, retaining some ancient sacrificial customs, and then advanced into a period of technological development, leading to the highways and flying vehicles we first saw.”
Putting it all together, Wanhua’s earlier comment about the “cycle of reincarnation being exactly ten thousand years” seemed to have gained more support.
Ying Zhao nodded in agreement, “Now we just have to see what they bring back from twenty thousand years ago tomorrow. If evidence of advanced civilization appears again, then this ten thousand year cycle theory will basically be confirmed.”
As soon as she finished speaking, a notification light lit up on the round table. Upon checking, they saw Ti Ran’s note attached to the footage, stating that the exploration team had sent back three tubes of air samples using a drone when they departed from the seventeen thousand years ago time frame, which were expected to arrive by tomorrow morning. Ti Ran and Mo Chuan’s cross-time investigation team would hold a small discussion in the afternoon to analyze these air samples, and they asked Ying Zhao if she had time to attend.
At present, the fluctuations in the gravitational field for the return segment within the simulator had already been graphed by Ying Zhao over the past two days, using Yan Yi matrix theory. Coupled with Zhu Huai’s latest modifications, the control panel’s indicators could now show probabilities of gravitational wave fluctuations occurring at several high-frequency coordinates. Along with the exterior detector brought by a previous spacecraft designer, the current success and accuracy rates for the return simulation were continuously improving. Therefore, if Ying Zhao had other arrangements tomorrow, her absence from the simulation practice would not be a significant issue.
However, noting Zhu Huai’s excitement upon hearing this, it seemed she wanted to accompany Ying Zhao tomorrow. The new footage had indeed greatly sparked their curiosity about the cycle of civilization, prompting Luo Yu to suggest, “How about this? Tomorrow, let’s do the same as today. We’ll go to the simulator in the morning, then visit Professor Ti Ran in the afternoon. If we return early in the evening, we can squeeze in another round of simulation. What do you think?”
Zhu Huai and Ying Zhao immediately agreed. When they realized it was getting late, they decided not to say any more. They let the in-house housekeeping system clear the midnight snacks from the round table, stood up, exchanged “good nights,” and returned to their rooms to rest.
The next day, Luo Yu and her companions set out early. For the past two days, Zhu Huai had rarely gotten up early. Unlike her usual habit of sleeping until late, today she finished dressing and left her room before Luo Yu. On the way to the mountaintop, she eagerly discussed her analysis of last night’s new footage with Luo Yu and Ying Zhao.
“Last night, I finished reading the remaining pages of the book ‘The All-Seeing Eye’ that I brought, and combined with the recent videos about the cycle of civilization, I suddenly thought that since the strange beasts mentioned in the Shan Hai Jing have been confirmed to exist in the historical time frame tens of thousands of years ago, could some of the deities and creators mentioned in religious customs have been seen by people from a previous cycle at some point, witnessing divine miracles or even the true form of the creator? They could have documented it in ways that are hard to erase, but due to various geographical regions and miscommunication across eras, all sorts of adaptations in myths emerged.” Zhu Huai’s enthusiasm grew as she spoke.
Ying Zhao pondered for a moment after she finished, “The multiverse exists with a regular matrix effect. Now that we’ve discovered the patterned cycle of human civilization, all of this further indicates that our entire universe did not form naturally. The so-called ‘creator’ must exist. Therefore, if there are indeed ‘miraculous events’ that allow us to look back at the creator, those must also follow certain rules.”
Ruminating on Ying Zhao’s words, both Luo Yu and Zhu Huai paused in thought, then nearly simultaneously turned to each other, speaking in unison, “At the end of every cycle!”
Each cycle’s endpoint is also the starting point for the next cycle. The creator may reveal their true form at this junction to humanity.
As they discussed this, they unexpectedly arrived at the mountaintop helipad. Because their conversation had involved such grand themes, and they hadn’t yet reached any conclusions, they noticed the hangar robot approaching as usual to report data from the simulator. So, they temporarily set aside their thoughts to focus on the morning’s simulation practice.
Today, Zhu Huai set the coordinates for the return simulation even further back, roughly two-thirds of the distance to the coordinate point they needed to reach for the actual return. The three engaged in three rounds of simulation in the simulator, which took approximately three and a half hours. When they finished, it was just noon.
They ordered some food from the hangar robot and then went to the relaxation chamber in the adjacent leisure room to rest for a bit.
The relaxation chamber was a facility designed to help individuals who drive long distances or sit for extended periods relax their muscles and minds. Over the past few days of focused return simulations, Luo Yu found herself mentally and physically exhausted after several rounds. Thus, she always came to lie down after simulations, and the relieving effects were instant.
After resting for a while in the relaxation chamber, they noticed that a sunshade and dining table had been set up near the helipad. Looking at the lush forest scenery, they ate lunch. When they felt it was about time to depart, they requested the hangar robot to bring a small spacecraft to the time travel center.
The guiding robot sent by Ti Ran had already been waiting for them at the helipad. After disembarking from the aircraft, Luo Yu and her companions followed the guiding robot inside. This time, instead of taking the cave train, they turned two corners and arrived at a research room.
Upon entering, they indeed saw Ti Ran and Mo Chuan, along with several experts from the cross-time investigation team and researchers from the time travel center.
After exchanging greetings with everyone, Ti Ran said, smiling as they sat down, “You arrived just in time. This morning, we received the air samples sent back by the exploration team, and the composition analysis report has just been completed.”
The exploration team’s mission when departing was to conduct remote observations of historical time periods and did not include any outside tasks. However, as the footage returned became increasingly astonishing, discussions had been ongoing at the time travel center, including the assembly hall, about whether to send the exploration team outside for an investigation.
Considering the strange beasts appearing in the returned footage and the drastically different ecological environment from the Ponsuo Tribe, they feared that venturing outside recklessly could be dangerous. Thus, they decided to first collect and analyze air samples, and then wait for the exploration team to finish their observations from twenty to thirty thousand years ago before deciding if an outside investigation was necessary.
Luo Yu and her companions sat down across from Ti Ran and Mo Chuan, each in front of a translucent display screen. After Ti Ran finished speaking, a report on the air analysis appeared on the screen.
The report showed three sets of test results, corresponding to air samples collected from three observation points the exploration team had already visited. The composition was roughly consistent, with the air primarily consisting of nitrogen and oxygen, at approximately seventy-four and twenty-five percent, respectively, while one percent was made up of rare gases like helium, neon, and argon.
After reviewing this report, another comparative report quickly appeared on the screen, contrasting the air samples from the Ponsuo Tribe’s time with those from the Shan Hai Jing spacecraft.
When the air compositions from these three timeframes were placed side by side, it was clear that their gas compositions were fundamentally similar, but the percentage of main components showed significant differences. The oxygen volume fraction decreased from twenty-five percent in the historical time period to twenty-three percent in the Ponsuo Tribe’s timeframe and to only twenty-one percent in the timeframe from which Luo Yu and her companions came. The proportions of rare gases also displayed subtle differences.
Given the millions of years of evolution on this planet, the air composition should not remain unchanged. The air collection timespan they were comparing had already exceeded forty thousand years, so it was not surprising to find certain degrees of differences.
However, coupled with the previous footage and the earlier live broadcasts from the Shan Hai Jing spacecraft, it was evident that the three timeframes shared similar patterns in their civilized development and displayed significant gaps. This could not help but connect with the differences in air composition before them.
“So… does each cycle’s air composition have a certain degree of customized adjustment, resulting in differences in ecological species?” Ying Zhao speculated.
“Not only the compositional ratios vary,” Ti Ran replied. “I also added a density comparison analysis, and the air density in this historical timeframe is higher than in our two timeframes.”
After Ti Ran spoke, the screen displayed the latest air density comparison report. At that moment, Mo Chuan interjected, “Currently, we’ve only gathered these data differences, but there is no evidence suggesting that these differences have been deliberately adjusted by some mysterious force. We cannot rule out the possibility that it’s due to a form of natural regulation by the planet itself. The gap in ecology and civilization could simply be a result of environmental influence.”
This indeed presented a more rational analysis. After hearing this, Ying Zhao felt she might have been too absorbed in speculating about the cycles of civilization over the past few days, making it hard for her to consider the situation from a fully objective viewpoint.
As everyone discussed and analyzed here, a notification sounded from the central message panel. Ti Ran looked up at the time—it was precisely when the exploration team was expected to arrive at twenty thousand years ago.
She hurriedly clicked to receive the message, and soon the latest footage sent back by the exploration team appeared above the long table.
