Chapter 6204: Soul Engine Utopia (71)

Chapter 6204: Chapter 5214: Soul Engine Utopia (71)

Professor Dale walked for about a day and a half before stopping to take a short rest. By this time, they had already entered the valley where the real challenge began, as the path ahead was all snowy mountains, and they were about to start Arctic climbing.

Professor Dale took out ropes and an ice axe. In this era, climbing snowy mountains didn’t involve much advanced equipment; it relied on one’s own strength to carve out a path. Professor Dale first fastened the rope securely, then adjusted the center of gravity of his backpack, swung the ice axe, and prepared to climb.

Shiller certainly couldn’t stay on him and add extra weight; he directly controlled the equipment and flew up. He held the rope in his mouth, not to pull Professor Dale up, but simply to go up first and tie the rope, thus preventing Professor Dale from slipping and falling.

Shiller flew over a hundred meters upwards, found a roughly suitable spot, and used the Mechanical Arm to drill a slanted downward hole in the ice cap, then drilled another slanted upward hole from the other end. After opening the two pits, he put the rope in, pulled it out, and then tied it securely. This was safer than hammering a wedge in, because as long as the passage inside the ice layer was long enough, the downward force would be evenly distributed across a long strip of ice rather than acting on a single point, making fractures less likely.

After everything was set, Shiller flew back down, indicating to Professor Dale that he could start climbing. When Professor Dale climbed to over a hundred meters and saw Shiller’s secure measures, he couldn’t help but smile wryly and said, slightly breathless, “If I can return alive, next year we’ll go climb Mount Everest, and I definitely will break the world record.”

Shiller replied with a nonchalant meow. They climbed up little by little like this; though slow, it was incredibly safe. During this time, Professor Dale did slip and fall, but unsurprisingly, he was always caught. They continued to climb over hills and valleys for about four or five days until they finally saw the actual silhouette of the black mountain.

Professor Dale stood at the foot of the mountain and gazed at the enormous peak. The awe inspired by nature’s might was vividly illustrated at this moment. But he didn’t have much time to marvel because the temperature here was even colder.

Near the mountain, the temperature dropped close to minus forty degrees, making any activity quite strenuous. Additionally, the sound of the wind carried a strong ominous vibe, with the high mountains emitting an equally annoying buzzing sound, like wind passing through a tunnel.

Professor Dale exhaled, hoisted his backpack higher, petted the cat in his arms, dispelling the nervous energy, and slowly stepped towards the edge of the rock wall.

As planned, he wasn’t in a rush to climb up but walked along the base of the mountain. After about half a day of walking, he suddenly spotted a place resembling a cave entrance on the upper part of a rock wall.

Professor Dale hesitated a bit, lifted the cat, and asked, “Do you think we should go inside? Just to take a quick look at the entrance, definitely not going further in.”

Shiller rolled his eyes. Professor Dale wasn’t truly seeking his advice; he had long made up his mind to do it. But what could Shiller do about it? People couldn’t resist cats, and cats couldn’t resist people; he simply went along with him.

Actually, he also knew that the mountain’s outskirts posed no real danger and might even have many archaeological finds, so while physical strength was still ample, it was reasonable to go in and investigate.

This time, Shiller first took Professor Dale’s backpack up, then helped him secure the rope. Professor Dale didn’t use an ice axe; he just grabbed the rope directly and climbed up like a special forces soldier, swiftly ascending. Is this the composure of the older generation of geological explorers?

Once he was up, Professor Dale intended to hoist his backpack, but Shiller was faster, using the Mechanical Arm to lift the backpack. Now that they were exploring areas like this, bringing such bulky baggage would hinder running if necessary; better let him carry it. Just in case of danger, tossing the bag aside would allow for a quicker retreat.

Professor Dale felt somewhat helpless, but he couldn’t fly nor snatch it back; he sighed as he prepared to walk into the cave. Suddenly, his notebook and pen were thrown down. He looked up and saw those gray eyes shining slightly.

Professor Dale hurriedly picked up the pen and notebook. He had a hunch that many valuable pieces of information ahead were worth recording, so he quickened his pace and walked inside the cave.

Once inside the cave, there was no light. However, Professor Dale understood that this Alien race lived in the Deep Sea, where there was inherently no light, so they didn’t need illumination to see. Thus, the city they built might have no lights.

Professor Dale had brought some lighting equipment but had no need to use it now because a cat was flying above his head, providing illumination. Not only did it light the path at his feet, but it also illuminated the surrounding area clearly, obviously equipped with a high-powered flashlight. Professor Dale shook his head; everyone said Antarctic expeditions were extremely dangerous, so why did he feel like he was on a tour?

He soon realized that this wasn’t an unfounded association he made to alleviate tension. Suddenly, the flashlight’s beam flickered, shining in another direction. Professor Dale turned his head and saw a huge mural, with the feline guide signaling him to look over here.

Professor Dale was amused yet helpless, but soon turned his attention to the mural, picking up paper and pen to start recording. The mural wasn’t just one piece; within the vast hollow tunnel, countless murals were densely painted in sequence from the outside to the inside, as if designed specifically for those who could enter the cave to see.

Professor Dale’s heart began to gradually sink. Such murals, with very explicit intent for display, were not for decoration or self-amusement but for one day, someone to discover them and understand the messages they wished to convey from these murals. This implies that the other party may already be nearing their end.

The thing one most desires to be understood in one’s lifetime is their last words, and civilization is no different. When a civilization knows it no longer has a future, it can only find ways to leave behind its information, wanting more people to know that they once existed.

Even a civilization as advanced as the Ancient Ones, when reaching the end of their road, can only etch their last words onto walls like primitive people. The cruel nature’s unmoving indifference, at this moment, becomes the protector of history.

Professor Dale walked through the great murals as if reversing the flow in the river of the Ancient Ones’ history, yet he was marching from birth towards extinction. Everything about this race seems to be contrary to the human race, hiding in their history is an evolution process unimaginable to humans.

The Ancient Ones were not originally marine creatures; their mother planet also had land, and their ancestors were terrestrial animals similar to Earth’s Beasts, not octopus-like marine cephalopods.

However, fate played a joke on them. When they evolved into primary groups and settled civilizations, their planet disintegrated, possibly due to collision or inherent instability. In short, the planet shattered and was swallowed by another planet.

This sounds more terrifying than a meteor hitting Earth, but because the original living planet’s environment was relatively harsh, their tolerance to cosmic conditions is much stronger than humans. Even with such events occurring, a small group of primitive Ancient Ones survived.

The intense collisions and devouring between celestial bodies appear fierce but actually take hundreds of millions of years to complete; the Solar System of yesteryear was like this, and the Ancient Ones’ homeland was no exception. The rule of all life evolution is: what doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger. The Ancient Ones evolved a powerful physique far beyond human imagination in such a harsh environment.

They transformed themselves into a special kind of plant that can take root on asteroids or even within meteor belts, extracting nutrients from inorganic materials, and can grow with barely any need for illumination. Those tentacles are actually not tentacles but their root system, which can hold their body steady even when the gravitational environment changes.

This sounds incredible, but when you think about it, it makes sense. The place on the entire Earth most resembling the cosmic vacuum environment is the Deep Sea, similarly dark and vast; trying to survive in such a place would lead evolution paths to converge. That’s why the Ancient Ones resemble ancient marine creatures of Earth.

After adapting to the environment, the Ancient Ones further completed their evolution, not only growing bat-wings for advancing in low-gravity cosmic environments but also regaining their animal instincts to form groups again. However, this time, they became strong enough to traverse the cosmos bodily.

According to the mural records, at their peak, the Ancient Ones could truly be called Space Octopuses, meaning creatures able to survive in cosmic vacuum environments merely with their body. Although they couldn’t stray too far from heat sources, they were far beyond the capability of surface creatures to compare.

Unsurprisingly, this race developed powerful technology and then embarked on interstellar travel. During cosmos exploration, they realized that their homeland actually had a harsh environment, not suitable for habitation.

As described by the Ancient Ones, the star system they were located in could indeed be called a planetary battle royale game; the entire star system’s gravity was very chaotic, causing frequent mergers between planets—today you crash into me, tomorrow I crash into you, with planet corpses everywhere.

Such an environment was very conducive for early civilizations to gather resources; if they wanted materials, they could simply go out into the cosmos to collect them. In their primitive stages, the Ancient Ones’ civilization did exactly that, collecting materials to develop technology with their bodies, but now at this point of development, this place was no longer suitable for survival.

So they dispatched numerous pioneering groups to various places looking for suitable star systems to reside in, and moved homes three times over. In the process, they researched and developed the Great White Space, which is not what humans imagine as the Teleportation Portal but rather a transit station.

The Great White Space is a place similar to a Pocket Universe, where upon entering there’s a large area to store things, and it can function one-to-many—meaning once you enter through one door, you can choose different doors to exit, but no matter which door you enter from, you can access the same white hall and retrieve items, somewhat akin to a hyperspace warehouse. It clearly seems designed for facilitating house moves.

Using this convenient technology, the Ancient Ones moved several more times and continued searching for new homes. Eventually, a pioneering group arrived in the Milky Way and discovered the by-then-stabilized Solar System, along with Earth, which although showed no signs of life at the time, already had quite a good environment.