PART 2

Jiang Ying laughed loudly, “Teacher, why pretend to be foolish? You were the one who encouraged us to come here originally. If you weren’t old and frail, unable to withstand harsh climates, you would have come yourself, wouldn’t you? You’ve searched for that thing your entire life, and now it might be within reach. We’re already so close to it.”

Zhuang Yao looked silently at Mr. Sun.

Cong Xia’s heart tightened—it seemed Mr. Sun had been hiding something from them.

After a long silence, Mr. Sun stopped pretending and said quietly, “My purpose for needing it is absolutely different from yours.”

“Oh, then what do you need it for?”

“I want to stop this disaster!”

“And have you stopped it?”

Mr. Sun’s face turned ashen.

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Kkydt Zkdt cwapv kdvs zywtbvla, “Mbkp ekpypvla oyp ralelvlaxkdle vos vbswpyde ulyap yts. Ebyv nswze usw wpl vs pvsr kv? Jwv dso, ol byhl y nbydnl vs nbydtl kv.”

“Tso es usw oydv vs nbydtl kv?”

Kkydt Zkdt zssjle yv bkp bydep okvb yd yxcktwswp pxkzl.

Ya. Fwd pyke pvladzu, “Kkydt Zkdt, vbl Wkhl-Uszsale Fvsdl kp bwxydkvu’p zypv bsrl. Ohld kq kv olal rzynle clqsal usw, usw esd’v byhl vbl yckzkvu vs nzykx kv.”

Wkhl-Uszsale Fvsdl? Usdt Dky zssjle yv Ya. Fwd okvb nsxrzlm lxsvksdp. Uswze vbspl xwayzp alyzzu raleknv psxlvbkdt alzyvle vs vbl yrsnyzurpl? Ebyv lmynvzu oyp vbl Wkhl-Uszsale Fvsdl?

Hbwydt Zys pyke nszezu, “Gqvla yzz vbkp vyzj, usw wple vbl rwrrlv fyel vs zwal wp wdelataswde—obyv lmynvzu es usw oydv? Ps ol zssj zkjl vbkp Wkhl-Uszsale Fvsdl? Mbl Wkhl-Uszsale Fvsdl kp fwpv psxlvbkdt qasx zltldep. Ohld zkvvzl jkep jdso vbyv Lüoy xldekdt vbl blyhldp kp xuvbszstu. Tyhld’v usw lhszhle uswa caykd vss xwnb yde pvyavle byzzwnkdyvkdt?”

Kkydt Zkdt pxkzle, “Zsw esd’v dlle vs rashsjl xl. Fkdnl usw’hl nsxl ps qya vs tlv blal, R osd’v cl pvkdtu ycswv pbyakdt kdqsaxyvksd okvb usw. R nyd vlzz usw obyv R jdso, yde usw dlle vs ydpola xu iwlpvksdp. Usxkdt qasx swvpkel, usw xwpv byhl nzwlp ycswv vbl Wkhl-Uszsale Fvsdl.”

Usdt Dky pyke vbaswtb takvvle vllvb, “Wkdl, qkapv vlzz wp vbl xlydkdt sq vbl xwayzp, oblal vbkp wdelataswde nkvu nyxl qasx, obyv vbl Wkhl-Uszsale Fvsdl kp ycswv, yde obyv vbl Uyxcakyd nsdpnkswpdlpp, rwrrlv fyel, yrsnyzurpl—obyv’p clbkde yzz sq vbkp!”

“Don’t be impatient. This is quite a long story to tell. Let me start with this underground city. If I hadn’t accidentally discovered it while excavating puppet jade, I would have died in the earthquake long ago. If I hadn’t spent nearly three years here researching intensively, you couldn’t guess the Cambrian consciousness’s conspiracy even in ten years.”

“What conspiracy?”

Jiang Ying said, “As you’ve noticed, this ancient city is from the Eastern Han period. After I established myself here, I sent mutated animals to bring experimental equipment from other cities, gradually transforming and studying this place. Initially, the underground part of this ancient city was filled with toxic gas that could kill humans and animals. I cleared out that toxic gas. When I studied it, guess what interesting discovery I made?”

The four listened quietly.

“Based on archaeological study of the bones in the ancient city and research on the toxic gas, I determined this was a settlement left from a major plague outbreak during the late Eastern Han period. During the Han dynasty, dozens of plagues occurred, and the one that directly led to the Yellow Turban Rebellion was the largest and most severe in recorded history. China’s total population then was only 40-50 million, and that plague killed over 20 million people. At the same time, Europe was experiencing massive plague outbreaks starting from Rome and sweeping across the entire continent, reducing Europe’s population by three-quarters. The world’s devastation then was no better than now. Does this kind of human extermination behavior seem familiar?”

“Are you suggesting the Cambrian consciousness did that?”

Jiang Ying smiled mysteriously without directly answering, “I studied that toxic gas—the plague pathogen sealed for two thousand years—and discovered it contained small amounts of Cambrian energy, a variant different from the current Cambrian energy in our air that promotes human evolution. This toxic gas was highly poisonous to ordinary people but posed little threat to mutants. Like you, I initially didn’t understand why this plague village from the Eastern Han period, which should have been in central China, ended up in Qinghai. This is something I still can’t answer after all my research, but I know it must be related to the Five-Colored Stone.”

“You also don’t know why this ancient city is here?”

Jiang Ying shook his head, “This village’s underground city far exceeds the architectural and mechanical standards of the Eastern Han period. It simply shouldn’t exist in that era. Although some mechanisms have failed due to age, they can still function with minor repairs. Even by modern standards, it’s remarkably sophisticated craftsmanship. People from two thousand years ago couldn’t have built this. The creator of this underground city possessed wisdom a thousand years ahead of their contemporaries. I’ve studied every corner of this underground city.” He opened his computer screen, and the projector displayed several damaged murals and ancient texts, including the Nüwa image they had seen. “These murals and texts gave me great help, ultimately confirming that this underground city was built by Zhang Daoling, the founding Celestial Master of Taoism.”

“Celestial Master Zhang? Why did he build this?”

Jiang Ying looked at Mr. Sun, “Teacher, everything Zhang Daoling did must be related to the Five-Colored Stone. Why don’t you share what you know about the Five-Colored Stone with these young people? It’s rare they trust you so much.”

Mr. Sun’s face paled somewhat.

Zhuang Yao squinted at Mr. Sun.

Mr. Sun sat down against the wall, took a deep breath, and fell into memories, “Twelve years ago, my younger brother came to the Qinghai research institute to find me. We hadn’t seen each other for a long time. He was an archaeologist and explorer. He said he had discovered a hidden riverbed in the middle and lower reaches of the East Taijinar River. This riverbed had dried up and had at least a thousand years of history. Ordinary people couldn’t tell it had once been a riverbed. He thought it had excavation value, so he slowly investigated along the dried riverbed and later discovered the riverbed actually flowed underground. He thought he had misjudged, but he didn’t give up. He searched around the riverbed for a long time and found a cave entrance. According to his description, the entrance was very small, barely allowing one person to squeeze through, but once inside, he discovered the space was unimaginably vast. The cave was carved with symbols and writing he had never seen before—writing that had never appeared in any recorded human history. He was incredibly excited, thinking he had discovered a new continent. The appearance of entirely new writing suggested that Chinese civilization’s history might need to be rewritten. He couldn’t understand the writing, but there were also vivid symbols and paintings showing many strangely-featured humans performing mysterious actions—some seemed to be fighting, others performing rituals, and finally they all committed suicide. That part was very eerie, as the paintings seemed to show these suicide victims’ bodies dispersing into the air, then part of them becoming humans, part becoming pigs and dogs, part becoming fish and shrimp. It was as if all things in the world were parts of these people’s bodies, as if they were creating gods. My brother was alone without tools, so after hastily taking photos, he left, planning to return to the city to organize an excavation team. During preparation, he was so excited that he came to talk with me, vividly describing everything he saw in the cave. That was the last time I saw him. He left with a full archaeological team, and then that team disappeared in Golmud. No bodies were found, and the search and rescue teams couldn’t find any riverbed or cave.” Mr. Sun sighed, “Because I was haunted by his death, I began studying those photographs. I consulted countless ancient texts and finally found some clues in Atlantean civilization research materials. Although the recorded writing was completely different, Atlanteans had also expressed in their ancient texts the concept of a group of supreme gods who died to save humanity, their bodies becoming the various species we see today. Over the years, while doing my biological work, I used my spare time to study many ancient civilizations. More and more materials showed that this kind of record—gods or prophet-humans dying and transforming into all things—appeared frequently, and their greatest common characteristic was that they didn’t die naturally—they either died in battle or chose suicide. From a biological perspective, these myths express that modern creatures all carry the genes of ancient god-humans. This is scientifically verifiable—the genes in our bodies have all been passed down from ancient times. The particles forming our bodies have existed in heaven and earth since ancient times. They may have traveled every corner of Earth, and for reasons humans cannot explain, they eventually gathered together to form you, me, and others. These particles change every day, which is why humans experience birth, aging, illness, and death. When a species dies, the particles don’t disappear—they just decompose and wait for fate’s next call to form other creatures. This has been proven by the law of conservation of matter. So genes from people who died two thousand years ago might appear in a cat beside you. The writing in that cave, along with many other ancient civilizations’ myths, all express one central idea: we inherited the genes of ancient god-humans.”

Zhuang Yao pondered, “Then are these genes randomly distributed? Before the apocalypse, the differences between humans’ dominant gene expressions weren’t that great—just some being smarter or stronger. But now it’s completely different. The genes I inherited and those Cheng Tianbi inherited have created vast differences between us.”

Mr. Sun nodded, “Right. Before the apocalypse, we were all ordinary people, but now we have different mutation directions. The genes we inherited determine what kind of people we become. Before the apocalypse, my research hit a bottleneck after understanding what those paintings expressed. I never told anyone because the archaeological community considered my brother a fraud who got his teammates killed, and as an amateur, my words lacked credibility. I wasn’t researching this to prove anything to anyone—it was just my way of comforting myself for losing a relative. So when I couldn’t research further, I temporarily set it aside. Until two years later, when the apocalypse came. Watching people and animals and plants around me evolving madly, I suddenly remembered those myths. Myths are usually records and artistic creations from ancient humans who felt awe and fear toward natural phenomena they couldn’t understand. Though exaggerated, most have verifiable basis. When similar mythological phenomena are simultaneously recorded by several ancient civilizations separated by vast distances, it absolutely isn’t fabricated. From these myths, we can determine two points: first, human history has seen several major disasters, but gods always helped; second, after major disasters, humanity was nearly extinct, and gods sacrificed their physical bodies to help humanity, scattering genetic seeds to allow the human race to survive and multiply. If we assume these were real events from ancient times, then thinking about these mutated creatures becomes suddenly clear.”

Cong Xia received so much information at once that his head felt swollen. He struggled to understand, “Mr. Sun, you’re saying that because we inherited different god-humans’ genes from ancient times, we have so many different characteristics. Before the apocalypse, everyone was too mediocre to unleash biological potential, so human differences weren’t great, but Cambrian energy triggered biological evolution, causing organisms’ recessive genes to explode, so some became natural force evolutionaries and others became atavistic humans.”

“Exactly. The genes left by ancient gods have always lurked in our bones and blood, passed down through countless generations, waiting for a force to awaken them and fully explode with the divine power of ancient gods. That force is Cambrian energy.”

Zhuang Yao frowned, “Why didn’t you tell us this?”