Vernal swore that even though he had discovered many miracles in the civilized world, he had never been so shocked before.
An open space near the size of a football field was in front of him. The ceiling was about a hundred meters high. The square stone steles were like chess pieces on a chessboard, planted all over the open space. The smooth and flat surfaces were like mirrors. The edges and corners were sharp, like they were cut by a knife.
What was amazing was not the huge amount of work akin to the terracotta warriors, but the fact that even after billions of years, there weren’t any scratches on the stone surfaces.
“God… This is incredible.”
Professor Vernal took a trembling step forward. He walked past Schultz, who was dumbfounded, and walked to the nearest stone monument. The old professor reached out his trembling right hand and pressed his palm on the flat and smooth surface.
“This is a cemetery…”
Professor Vernal’s hand was on the nearest tombstone. He murmured to himself, “The cemeteries of civilization… It is hard to imagine how they have remained intact during these long years, and why they accomplished this miracle…”
Schultz finally recovered from the astonishment. He gulped, walked up, and stood beside Professor Vernal. He looked at him and spoke in a questioning tone.
“Cemetery…?”
“Yeah.”
Professor Vernal nodded. After hesitating for a while, he finally took out the multifunctional shovel he had picked up earlier and slammed it up with all his strength.
After some crisp dinging sounds, the mirror-smooth stone finally couldn’t withstand the beating. It was broken like a piece of tofu, cracking along the place where the shovel had hit.
A fragment was knocked down along the crack. Professor Vernal picked it up and examined it. He began to analyze.
“Three billion years ago, this piece of fragment in my hand should have come from some kind of metal alloy material. After billions of years of weathering, it turned into hematite. The rare metals scattered in the alloy are not completely oxidized because the oxide layer is well preserved and a special natural alloy with iron oxide as the main component has been formed. This should also contain cadmium, nickel, and carbon. The specific composition requires professional equipment to analyze.”
After a pause, he continued, “This is not the only thing that surprised me. This ‘artwork’ made from high-strength alloys is covered with some kind of debris containing calcium carbonate minerals.”
“These things are like coffins… No, they are coffins to be precise.”
Professor Vernal carefully put the collected sample into the sample bag he carried with him. He added the sampling location and other information on the bag.
Schultz gulped. It took a while before he spoke.
“But… Why did they send the coffins to the seabed several kilometers below the surface? I remember you said that this place was a sea billions of years ago.”
Carrying out such a large project on the seabed was not an easy task.
Schultz was quite skeptical that even with the current technology on Earth, it might not be possible to dig such a huge space on the seabed several kilometers below the surface.
Professor Vernal nodded in response to Schultz’s statement.
“That’s right, I did say that. It is quite deep here. As you said, it must be at least several kilometers or even dozens of kilometers deep.”
He looked at the square stones that were so neatly placed that they could almost be measured with a ruler. He couldn’t help but frown slightly and sink into thought.
“Maybe it’s some kind of special religious ceremony, maybe it’s a sacrifice to that Holy Relic…
“Or… it’s actually not a cemetery here.
“It’s some kind of shelter?”
Vernal felt a little confused.
While Professor Vernal and Schultz were so shocked that they almost forgot the purpose of their trip, Lu Zhou was standing in an empty grotto. He finally heard the voice from the other civilization.
“I thought it would take at least a few centuries before I see you guys again. I didn’t expect this day to come so soon.” There was a hint of approval and joy in the voice. “Congratulations, the chosen one, I believe you should have brought the answers I need?”
“Yes.” Lu Zhou nodded and said, “I have turned on file transfer. If you can successfully receive the data, you should be able to see my proof. If you don’t understand something, I can explain it to you.”
“No need, there are many ways to verify your proof. Besides, mathematical problems of this level are not difficult for us.”
Not difficult…
This world-class problem that troubled him and his collaborators for a month was actually “not difficult” in the eyes of this guy.
Lu Zhou had a dumbfounded expression on his face.
Lu Zhou put his sense of frustration aside for the time being. He took a deep breath and spoke in a clear voice inside the empty grotto.
“Can I ask a question?”
“Go ahead.”
“In fact, this is not the only way to get here.”
“Yes, but this is the fastest.” The voice continued with a hint of joy, “There is more than one way to solve the problem itself. Finding all the results through the endless possibilities is also one of the joys of exploration. Of course, you can also be opportunistic as you are now and let yourself flow in the four-dimensional space, but I have to say that this requires not only courage and wisdom but also a lot of commitment.”
Joys?
Lu Zhou had a weird look on his face.
He didn’t know what was joyful about this.
“I don’t understand the reason for this test.”
“Someone asked me this a long time ago… Before humans even exist.”
The voice had a hint of nostalgia.
“The reason for the test is to let the right person inherit what belongs to them.”
“You must know that civilization itself is an abstract concept. It’s not enough to package the gifts and throw them at a civilization. We have to filter using special methods and find the appropriate individuals. Then train the individuals who have passed the tests and guide them to find and inherit the gifts that were given. Only this way, can the gifts be used as they should be…”
Lu Zhou: “So you are not from The Observer’s civilization.”
“No… But it seems you have met them?”
There was a hint of interest in the voice.
Lu Zhou nodded and spoke concisely.
“Fortunate enough to meet once before.”
“Being able to meet with the Void is not some kind of luck that ordinary people have. Although sometimes being too lucky is not a desirable trait.”
Lu Zhou did not speak. He waited for the voice to continue.
“Well, since you have met The Observer, it must have told you about the ‘legacy’. You might even know more secrets than me.”
“Go ahead.”
“The gift from the Void is just ahead.
“Since you are already here, it should not be difficult to pass the last test.”
Lu Zhou nodded.
“Of course.”
After that, he took a step forward and came to the invisible wall. He slowly extended his right hand toward it.
When his right hand finally touched the transparent wall, Lu Zhou could feel an obvious resistance, preventing his hand from moving forward.
However, he could also feel that nothing was there.
It was as if the thing blocking him was not something that could be seen, but something similar to a physical law.
After pondering for a long time, a look of interest suddenly appeared in Lu Zhou’s eyes. He said to himself thoughtfully, “I didn’t expect the cracks in the four-dimensional space to grow like this.”
There was a hint of approval in the voice.
“Not bad, you are the first human to discover this.”
“What about the Martians?”
“They took 20,000 years.”
“20,000 years… That’s a long time.”
“Going from the tribal period to the information age, they were close to the truth, but, unfortunately, those guys were too conceited about their power. This truth eventually destroyed them.”
Lu Zhou’s hands continued to fumble on the invisible wall. He casually asked, “What happened to them?”
“Disasters, part man-made, part natural… If you want to know, you’ll receive answers when you pass through the barrier in front of you. Some information has been saved. If you are interested, you can take them with you.”
“That shouldn’t take long.”
With that said, Lu Zhou took two steps back.
“What are you going to do?”
There was a hint of curiosity in that voice, as if it was looking forward to Lu Zhou’s next move.
Lu Zhou smiled faintly.
“Do you really need to ask that?
“I’m going to continue the unfinished work from billions of years ago.”
After that, he reached out and pressed a few buttons on his wrist-mounted computer.
Soon, lines made of different colors were projected on the screen inside his mask. A reflection could be seen in Lu Zhou’s pupils.
The zigzag lines corresponded to the passages in the ruins; the same image he showed in the conference room before.
Although only a small part of the surveying and mapping of the ruins was completed, since the maximum exploration distance of the remote control car operated by Fan Tong was only one kilometer, it was enough for Lu Zhou.
The four-dimensional space fragment interacted with three-dimensional space by certain laws.
It didn’t matter if he didn’t have a complete map.
A soft voice of approval came from the communication channel.
“I underestimated you…
“But, unfortunately, you only have two hours.”
“It’s fine, it’s just a topology and geometry problem, although it’s a little complicated…” Lu Zhou turned off the communication module, took a deep breath, and said, “But two hours is enough for me.”