An 12 – magnitude earthquake occurred in Antarctica, affecting 400 million people.
A team of experts went to Antarctica for surveying, only to find a strange conical mountain at the South Pole.
Countless people suffered a mental breakdown, and some even committed suicide by shooting themselves.
A very few experts who still retained their rationality issued a joint appeal to all mankind:
“Leave the Earth immediately at all costs!”
1
My name is Tian Mu, an intern researcher at the Jilin Earthquake Bureau.
On the night of Singles’ Day, just as I turned off the shopping live – stream and hadn’t fallen asleep yet, the leader of the bureau suddenly called, asking everyone to gather urgently.
I rubbed my eyes and walked into the meeting room, only to learn that a 12 – magnitude earthquake had occurred in Antarctica.
The images transmitted back by the land observation satellite showed that the Antarctic continent was on the verge of collapse.
Cracks stretching for hundreds of kilometers ran across the Antarctic ice sheet.
Magma spurted out along the cracks, then was extinguished by the sea water mixed with ice and snow, and condensed into large patches of basalt.
This genuine “Song of Ice and Fire” was the most intense earthquake in human history, and perhaps even in the history of the Earth.
The director of the bureau frowned tightly, pointed at the map and said:
“At present, the seismic waves have affected South America, Oceania, and Africa.
“Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay are experiencing super – tsunamis, and the disaster situation in New Zealand is also extremely serious.
“On the African side, no data has been transmitted yet, but the situation is not optimistic.
“The higher – ups require that each province organize an expert team to gather in Beijing overnight.
“After the aftershocks subside, we will immediately head to Antarctica to carry out post – earthquake surveys, data collection, disaster assessment, and other work.
“This earthquake is a disaster for all mankind, and no one can stand by idly!”
2
In the following few days, I saw a large number of news about the earthquake on the Internet.
In Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay in South America, someone stood on the top of the 26 – story Salvo Palace, filming the towering giant waves that were just a stone’s throw away.
The top of the giant waves was more than twice as high as this hundred – meter – tall building!
That sense of oppression and despair penetrated through the screen and pressed firmly on my chest. I could almost smell the salty and damp smell from the deep sea.
The moment the shooter clicked to upload, the giant waves crushed the entire Salvo Palace, along with the shooter and his equipment.
This video went viral on TikTok, with over 100 million views globally.
Tierra del Fuego Province in Argentina was almost completely destroyed.
In South Africa, in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, people screamed and fled the coast, but were still swept into the sea.
This was just the tsunami triggered by the seismic waves.
In Antarctica itself, all scientific research stations were severely damaged, and there were very few survivors.
Under the threat of this natural disaster, even the penguins and seals, natural enemies, were shivering on the same ice surface.
Naturally, humans would not sit back and watch their compatriots suffer from the disaster.
The five permanent members of the United Nations organized countries around the world to provide humanitarian aid to the affected countries.
One after another, ocean – going freighters headed for the disaster – stricken areas, and engineering vehicles rushed to the front line of the disaster.
People speaking different languages worked together to dig through the ruins and rescue the survivors.
In this catastrophe, all mankind was united as never before.
Seven days after the earthquake, the higher – ups approved my application and allowed me to join the “Post – earthquake Survey Expert Team” to go to Antarctica.
3
Seventeen people from our bureau applied, and only I and two other researchers were selected for the expert team.
One of them was a full – research – level researcher, and the other was an associate – research – level researcher. Both were experienced and senior scientific researchers.
The only reason I, a young fellow, could be selected was that I wrote the following sentence in my application materials.
“I have no parents above, no wife or children below. I am alone and fearless of sacrifice.
“After twenty years of study, I have achieved some success. I only hope to show my talents and have a clear conscience.”
The reply from the superior leader was: “Approved. Wish you safety!”
An hour after receiving the reply, the three of us came to Longjia Airport and took a special plane directly to Beijing.
At Beijing Capital International Airport, I met the expert representatives from all provinces across the country, including many big names in the industry that I had only heard of in academic journals.
Together with the security team, we boarded an urgently – dispatched C919 and flew to Warrnambool at the southern tip of Australia.
Warrnambool is a small city with a population of only a few tens of thousands.
We took a short rest at the airport and then took a bus to the Warrnambool Port.
Along the way, it was in ruins. Trees were toppled over, and many houses had cracks, with quite a few collapsed.
I even saw several frenzied kangaroos rushing onto the street, which were quickly dealt with by the local residents.
Obviously, these manic kangaroos were affected by the infrasound waves accompanying the Antarctic earthquake and thus rushed into the city to attack humans.
4
A few hours later, our bus arrived at the Warrnambool Port.
Dozens of buses lined up in a row. Expert teams and security teams from various countries got off the buses and boarded a scientific research ship.
This ship is called “Xuelong 2”, which is 122.5 meters long and 22.32 meters wide. It is China’s first self – built polar scientific research ship.
After the earthquake, a large number of glaciers within the Antarctic Circle collapsed. We needed the Xuelong 2 to break through the ice layer to penetrate deep into the polar region.
In the meeting room, hundreds of experts gathered.
An Argentine expert with grizzled hair and beard stood on the stage and introduced in a thick Latin American accent:
“The 11·11 Antarctic earthquake had a Richter magnitude of 12Ms and a moment magnitude of 12.4Mw.
“Seismic waves were observed by seismographs in many countries. Through calculating the time difference, it can be known that the epicenter of this earthquake is located at the South Pole.”
Although most experts had already known this conclusion, the meeting room was still in an uproar.
As is well – known, an earthquake is a vibration caused by the release of energy in the earth’s crust.
According to the causes of earthquakes, they are usually classified into tectonic earthquakes, volcanic earthquakes, collapse earthquakes, induced earthquakes, and artificial earthquakes.
The most common one is that when plates squeeze and collide with each other, internal dislocations and fractures occur, resulting in a tectonic earthquake.
In 2020, on King George Island on the edge of the Antarctic Plate, a continuous volcanic earthquake occurred.
In four months, a total of 85,000 earthquakes occurred on King George Island, and the island was even shifted by ten centimeters.
After analysis by experts, the cause of this continuous earthquake was the eruption of the Orca Submarine Volcano at the bottom of the Bransfield Strait.
But… the South Pole is located in the center of the plate!
There is no plate collision there, no volcanoes, no underground caves or mined – out mines, and there is even less possibility of intelligent creatures creating an earthquake.
The Argentine expert on the stage played the next set of data, presenting another mystery.
“According to our computer model, the focal depth is initially determined to be 700 kilometers.”
5
In the meeting room, experts from various countries actively spoke, expounding their speculations on the cause of the earthquake.
I, on the other hand, remained silent, staring intently at the data on the projection screen, and my pen was unconsciously drawing on the notebook.
The data on the focal depth was consistent with the observation data of our bureau and could be considered correct.
Academically, an earthquake with a focal depth exceeding 300 kilometers is called a deep – focus earthquake.
The cause of deep – focus earthquakes has always been an unsolved mystery.
In human history, the earthquake with the deepest focal depth was the “June 29, 1934 Sulawesi Island earthquake in Indonesia”, with a focal depth of 720 kilometers.
Generally speaking, when the energy of a deep – focus earthquake reaches the ground, most of it is lost due to conduction, and the destructive power is greatly weakened.
But this Antarctic earthquake had extremely strong destructive power and almost completely destroyed the surface.
So, how huge should the energy released at the focus be?
6
The Xuelong 2 cut through the waves and advanced bravely towards Antarctica.
As the latitude gradually decreased, the climate became colder and colder.
Three days later, the Xuelong 2 entered the Antarctic Circle.
The ice – breaking shovel at the bow crushed the thick ice layer into powder, making a teeth – aching “creak – creak” sound.
Early on the fourth day, the noisy discussions woke me up from my sleep.
I rubbed my eyes and looked out through the porthole. A white continent came into view.
This is Wilkes Land in Antarctica, where we were about to land.
The captain’s voice came through the loudspeaker: “All personnel, please put on cold – proof clothing, goggles, and sunscreen masks, and line up to take the sampan to get off the ship.”
Antarctica has a warm and a cold season. November is just the warm season, and the temperature in the coastal areas is around zero degrees.
The coldest temperature in the inland areas does not exceed minus 35 degrees, which is similar to the winter in Northeast China.
I got dressed neatly and queued up with the Chinese expert team to wait to get off the ship.
After floating on the sea for several days, I finally set foot on the snow – covered land of Antarctica, feeling a sense of steadiness.
Security personnel from various countries carried the equipment down from the ship and, according to the pre – arranged personnel grouping, carried out the survey work in an orderly manner.
I was grouped with a young expert with a Sichuan accent, and we were responsible for collecting rock samples.
This guy’s name is Tang Dianwei, which is a bit of a mouthful, so I simply called him Dianwei.
Dianwei fiddled with the snowmobile that had just been brought down from the ship and whistled at me.
“Old Tian, let’s go!”
7
This specially – modified Bombardier snowmobile can reach a maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour.
I held a large and small package of equipment, clamping the back seat of the snowmobile tightly with my legs, for fear that Dianwei would accidentally throw me out.
Fortunately, Dianwei’s skills were good, and we had a thrilling but safe journey.
Our task was to penetrate as deep as possible into the Antarctic continent, find the granite exposed due to the earthquake, extract rock samples, and judge the impact of the earthquake on the Antarctic plate.
After a few hours, Dianwei stopped the snowmobile and told me that there was still half of the fuel left, and if we went further, we might not be able to return.
I patted the oversized fuel tank of the snowmobile and said to Dianwei:
“Okay, then we’ll sample here. After sampling, we’ll ask the superiors whether to send a plane to deliver fuel or if we should turn around and head back.”
In front of us was a cracked and collapsed ice sheet, and a three – meter – wide and more than twenty – meter – deep fissure appeared on the ground.
Looking at this terrain, Dianwei and I couldn’t help but feel a bit headache.
Both sides of the fissure were ice, and only by climbing down to the bottom of the fissure along the rope could we extract rock samples.
“This is too high. It’s really troublesome.”
“What should we do? Just climb it somehow.”
Dianwei and I grumbled as we took out the climbing tools. First, we placed a snow anchor on the flat ground, and then we hammered ice screws into the ice wall little by little to fix the ropes.
It took us more than an hour to finally reach the bottom of the fissure.
Dianwei was responsible for taking pictures and mapping the cracking situation of the ice sheet.
I, on the other hand, silently assembled the portable core drill, preparing to drill for samples.
Suddenly, Dianwei stopped and asked suspiciously:
“Old Tian, did you hear anything?”
8
I listened carefully for a while but didn’t hear anything.
“Nothing. Don’t scare me. Hurry up and fiddle with your camera.”
I didn’t take his words seriously. I held the handle of the core drill, turned on the power, and started working.
The “buzzing” sound of the drill bit echoed throughout the crack.
Dianwei came over and shouted at the top of his voice: “Be careful, you brat! If there’s an avalanche, we’re done for!”
I shook my head and said: “This is all thousands – of – years – old ice. Where can I get an avalanche for you? As long as there’s no aftershock, nothing will happen…”
Before I could finish speaking, I suddenly felt something was wrong.
The ground was shaking.
At first, I thought it was the vibration caused by the drill working, but how could this portable drill have such a high power?
Dianwei touched the ice wall, and his face turned pale instantly.
He immediately pressed the emergency stop button on the drill and shouted loudly:
“Damn it! You crow – mouth! There really is an aftershock!”
I didn’t react for a moment. Dianwei kicked over the drill, grabbed my sleeve, and rushed towards the rope on the ice wall in three steps at a time.
The shaking became more and more intense, and the entire ice sheet was shaking.
“Kaka – kaka…”
Horizontal cracks suddenly appeared on the ice wall on the other side.
If the ice wall over there collapsed, we would be instantly hit by the ice cubes and be buried forever under the Antarctic ground.
At the thought of that way of dying, I panicked. I grabbed the rope with all my might and climbed up desperately.
Dianwei was quick – witted. He climbed up first and then turned around to urge me:
“Climb quickly! If you’re slow, you’ll be crushed!”
He was so anxious that he was jumping up and down on the spot, wishing he could lend me two hands.
“Boom!”
In an instant, the ice wall on the other side completely collapsed, and thousands of tons of ice filled the entire fissure.
Fortunately, at the last moment, Dianwei grabbed my arm and dragged me up.
I sat in the snow in a state of shock, feeling that the entire ground was shaking violently.
The wind howled, and snow and ice flew everywhere. A gully appeared on the snow, completely blocking our way back.
The strong seismic waves seriously interfered with the communication signal, and there was only noise in the headphones.
We couldn’t get in touch with the Xuelong 2, and we didn’t know where the other members of the expert team were.
Dianwei pointed to the snowmobile not far away and waved to me.
“Get on the snowmobile! Let’s go!
“What are you looking at me for? Hurry up and drive!”
The wind carried our voices into the distance. We exchanged glances, and it didn’t delay our communication.
The snowmobile sped through the ice and snow. The two tracks were smoothed by the wind and then swallowed by the cracks.
9
This earthquake was extremely intense, at least magnitude 8.
Dianwei held the handlebars tightly, twisted the throttle to the bottom, his eyes wide open, staring closely at the road ahead.
I sat behind, clutching Dianwei’s clothes tightly, filled with fear.
If the snowmobile fell into the gully, even if we survived, we would never be able to walk out of Antarctica.
When an earthquake occurs, it is common sense to take shelter in an open area.
But this is Antarctica. Under our feet is a snow layer several kilometers thick, and beneath that is an ice sheet that can crack at any time.
We could only keep moving, trying our best to avoid danger and wait for the earthquake to stop.
The snowmobile had been speeding for half an hour, but this earthquake not only didn’t subside but became even more intense.
Suddenly, Dianwei’s body shook, and he tightly grasped the emergency brake on the left handlebar.
The snowmobile lost control and drifted sideways.
We, along with the vehicle, slid out more than ten meters. The snowmobile seemed to hit a small fissure, and Dianwei and I were thrown out on the spot.
The moment we landed, Dianwei didn’t care if he was injured or not. He quickly got up, grabbed my collar, and pointed to the south.
“Old Tian! Look!! What is that thing?!”
I looked in the direction Dianwei pointed, and I stood there stunned.
On the originally flat white plain, a towering and sharp mountain suddenly appeared.
10
That mountain was extremely abrupt, as if it had appeared out of thin air.
Judging from its direction, it should be at the South Pole.
My current position is at least two or three hundred kilometers away from the South Pole.
Plate movement can indeed form mountains, but it’s been less than an hour!
Moreover, this mountain peak could be seen by me from two or three hundred kilometers away…
Its height is at least five thousand meters, or even… higher than Mount Everest!
I sat in the snow, staring blankly at the mountain, not even knowing when the earthquake stopped.
Dianwei came to his senses first, pressed the intercom button, and shouted at the top of his voice:
“Call Xuelong 2! Call Xuelong 2!”
There was still only noise in the intercom and no response.
Dianwei scratched his helmet and patted me, saying, “What should we do? Go and take a look?”
I firmly opposed it, “The snowmobile doesn’t have enough fuel. If we go, we won’t be able to come back.”
Dianwei lifted the motorcycle, wiped the floating snow off the fuel gauge, and said dejectedly, “We consumed some more fuel while escaping just now. Without replenishment, we surely can’t make it back.”
Replenishment?
The earthquake just now must have had a huge impact on the Antarctic coast.
Whether communication can be restored is still uncertain, not to mention whether a snow – plane can send supplies.
When I volunteered, I had considered the possibility of encountering danger.
But when the danger was really in front of me, clearly telling me “you’re going to die,” the sense of despair in my heart gradually spread, as cold as the white snow in front of me.
Well.
Anyway, the purpose of my coming here was to figure out the cause of the Antarctic earthquake.
My intuition told me that there must be something wrong with that mountain that defied common sense.
Confucius once said, “If one can hear the truth in the morning, one can die content in the evening.”
Since the chance of survival is slim, why not… leave a name in history!
Thinking of this, I cheered up again and said casually, “Then let’s go and take a look. At worst, the superiors will erect a monument for us, writing ‘The Tomb of Tian Mu and Tang Dianwei’.
“Later, when mountain – climbing expeditions come to challenge this mountain, they can also pay their respects to us by the way. It’s not a loss.”
Dianwei also laughed heartily, “Forget it. I won’t be buried with you.”
11
We got on the snowmobile again. Dianwei twisted the throttle and sped towards the mountain.
I would use the intercom to call the “Xuelong 2” from time to time, but I never got a response.
The clearer the outline of the mountain became, the faster my heart beat.
This was a conical mountain with a sharp peak.
According to my judgment, its height must be over ten thousand meters, and the diameter of its base is at least two thousand meters.
Two hours passed in a flash. When the fuel was about to run out, Dianwei and I reached the periphery of this “Cone Mountain”.
The remaining distance was less than one kilometer.
However, this one – kilometer distance was like a natural moat.
Bottomless abysses ran through the two – kilometer – thick ice sheet.
I approached and looked down. I could vaguely see the lava flowing in the abyss.
On the other side of ice and fire was the dark mountain wall of the Cone Mountain.
I took out a telescope and observed carefully. The mountain wall seemed smooth, without soil or ice and snow covering it. It was impossible to tell what kind of rock it was made of.
Dianwei was bold. He found ropes and ice screws and tried to find a way to get closer.
We carried our survey equipment on our backs and climbed up and down like two ants.
When we were tired, we would find a platform to rest.
When we were hungry, we would share the few remaining foods.
After another three hours, we finally stood at the foot of the Cone Mountain.
The angle between the mountain body and the ground was a full 80 degrees, almost like a high wall, and we simply couldn’t climb it.
I looked at the time. It was already midnight.
But at this time, Antarctica was in the polar day, and the sun wouldn’t set.
Exhausted as we were, we relied entirely on our willpower to complete the next exploration move.
Due to the earthquake and the lava, the temperature at the pole was only minus twenty degrees Celsius.
Dianwei took off his gloves and put his bare right hand on the dark mountain wall.
The next second, Dianwei asked a question that made my hair stand on end.
“Old Tian, is this Cone Mountain really a mountain?”
12
I was stunned for a moment, then took off my gloves and gently stroked the mountain wall.
It felt smooth to the touch. Instead of being as cold as I had imagined, it was slightly warm.
I took off the geological hammer and tapped on the mountain wall.
With this tap, I found something unusual.
The Mohs hardness of granite is 6 to 7, and that of obsidian is 5 to 5.5.
But the mountain wall of the Cone Mountain had a Mohs hardness of at least 9. Even tungsten – steel alloy wasn’t this hard.
Our core drill had been lost long ago. Now, if we wanted to sample, we could only use the most primitive method – knocking.
But Dianwei and I took turns knocking for a long time, and we didn’t even make a small pit.
Dianwei threw away the geological hammer, sat on the ground, and gasped for breath.
“Old Tian, what on earth is this thing?”
I shook my head, “I’ve never heard of it. It’s not metal, nor does it look like stone.”
Dianwei slapped the mountain wall hard and joked, “Could it be a man – made object? A material of strong – interaction force? An alien spaceship?”
I was amused by Dianwei, “Then if it drills out from the ground, does it mean the aliens are about to run away?”
As soon as I finished speaking, I was stunned.
The moment I first discovered the Cone Mountain, I felt something was wrong.
A terrifying idea gradually formed in my mind.
“Dianwei.”
I swallowed hard and said in a low voice.
“You also study earthquakes. The Antarctic plate couldn’t have squeezed out a mountain on its own, right?”
Seeing that I was serious, Dianwei stopped joking and replied,
“Right. Besides, the gravity of the Earth doesn’t allow a mountain to reach a height of ten thousand meters. And…”
“And.” I cut in and continued, “A mountain formed by plate extrusion is made of soil and rocks. But this Cone Mountain is more like a ‘naturally’ formed ‘big rock’, right?”
Dianwei nodded again, his eyes puzzled and solemn.
“That means the Cone Mountain was pushed out from the interior of the Earth by some force.
“This force is so powerful that it even made the Cone Mountain penetrate the Antarctic plate.”
I said my thoughts with difficulty, and cold sweat soaked my thermal underwear.
“Seismological bureaus around the world have measured that the focal depth of the ’11·11 Antarctic Earthquake’ is seven hundred kilometers.
“That is to say, the original position of the Cone Mountain was below the Earth’s crust, perhaps even below the mantle!”
13
As taught in high – school geography, the internal structure of the Earth is divided into the crust, the mantle, and the core.
The civilization that humans are proud of is only built on the surface of the crust.
The average thickness of the crust is about 17 kilometers. However, the most in – depth exploration ever carried out by humans – the Soviet Kola Superdeep Borehole project – only reached a depth of 12 kilometers. It should be noted that the average radius of the Earth is more than 6,000 kilometers.
What exactly is underground?
A civilization in the Earth’s core? Aliens? Prehistoric beasts? Or… some indescribable things?
Our understanding of the depths of the Earth is no more than that of the cosmic starry sky above our heads.
Now, this “Cone Mountain” that soared into the sky suddenly rose from the depths of the Earth, instantly shattering human understanding of the Earth.
“Xuelong 2 calling Tian Mu! Xuelong 2 calling Tang Dianwei! Come in, please! Come in, please!”
A man’s shout suddenly came from the headset.
I came back to my senses, pressed the intercom key with joy, “This is Tian Mu. Tang Dianwei is next to me. Go ahead!”
“Tian Mu, Tang Dianwei, please immediately calculate your current longitude and latitude and stay where you are waiting for rescue!”
Dianwei replied with a bitter smile, “What’s the use of calculating? We’re at the South Pole.”
Dianwei and I took turns reporting our initial speculations about the Cone Mountain to the Xuelong 2.
There was a long silence on the other end of the intercom, and then they said to us,
“Regarding the Cone Mountain, the superior experts have put forward a hypothesis.
“If this hypothesis is true, you must not come into contact with the Cone Mountain any further. It’s best to evacuate to a safe area and wait for rescue.
“This mountain may be alive!”
14
Dianwei and I felt creepy, but no matter how we asked, they wouldn’t reveal more.
So, we followed the arrangement, climbed back to the periphery of the Cone Mountain, and kept a few hundred – meter distance from those dense cracks.
Ten hours later, the rescue team finally arrived.
It was more like an investigation team than a rescue team.
Dozens of snowmobiles fully loaded with supplies lined up in the snow.
Dianwei and I stood up, swept the gobang board on the snow with our boots, and joined the investigation team.
Dozens of people worked together, and soon built a temporary plank road in the cracks.
The staff responsible for sampling were using some mechanical equipment I had never seen before to attack the mountain wall.
On the other side, more than a dozen experts from different countries were arguing fiercely about the possibility of the Cone Mountain.
Dianwei and I sat in the temporary camp dozens of meters away, roasting by the warm stove, holding a cup of hot tea in our hands.
Professional equipment was really different. Before long, the staff successfully extracted a sample of the Cone Mountain and took it to the adjacent tent to test its material.
Dianwei came over and joked, “Old Tian, what do you think they’re still researching? According to the international naming convention, the one who discovers it first gets to name it. The Cone Mountain should be named Tang for sure.”
I gave him a blank look, “You still have the time to talk nonsense? Be careful there’s another afte…”
Before I could say the word “shock”, Dianwei immediately threw away the cup, rushed over in panic, and covered my mouth with his hand.
“You idiot! You’re a crow – mouth, you know that!”
I pushed Dianwei away and said angrily, “Get lost. You’re a scientific researcher, and you still believe in such superstition? Aftershock, aftershock. Did it shake?”
Just as I was about to give him the middle finger, I saw Dianwei’s eyes suddenly widen, his mouth open, a textbook – like look of shock.
“What are you looking at this time?”
I thought Dianwei was joking again, but I found his lips trembling, and there were faint sounds swirling in his throat.
This reaction didn’t seem to be faked.
I blinked and turned my head carefully.
The next second, my body and my reason seemed to be frozen in place by the ice and snow.
The towering Cone Mountain quietly split open a V – shaped crack.
It was like a huge pair of scissors.
At the same time, from the tent next door came maniacal, broken, and desperate laughter.
I immediately got up and rushed into the tent. I saw the white researcher in charge of the inspection kneeling on the ground, holding his belly, laughing heartily.
“Buddy, what’s wrong?”
The white researcher heard my voice, slowly raised his head, and his blood – shot eyes met my gaze.
“Dear Tian… The test result… Hahaha!”
I shifted my gaze to the row of instruments on the table.
The sample extracted from the Cone Mountain was lying under the metallographic microscope.
I bent down and looked into the eyepiece.
The structure of the sample was layered. Fibers were tightly intertwined and wound, forming a complex network structure.
What was this?
If it was a rock, it should have a complex crystal structure.
If it was metal, it should have a regular crystal structure.
But it was neither a rock nor a metal. Instead, it was more like…
“Hahaha!”
Suddenly, I understood the key point.
A more maniacal laugh than the white researcher’s burst out from my throat, rushing towards the fragmented Antarctic continent and fleeing into the vast universe.
Like a complete madman, I stumbled out of the tent and announced this fact to everyone in the camp:
“The material of the Cone Mountain is stratum corneum!!
“It’s a living being!!”
15
The stratum corneum is composed of flat dead cells.
The epidermis of humans, the claws of cats, the horns of antelopes, the scales of sharks.
These are all made of keratin.
If the ten – thousand – meter – high Cone Mountain was just the claw or horn of some living being, how huge would this living being be?
Hearing my announcement, the experts rushed into the tent in a hurry and took turns observing the sample under the metallographic microscope.
A black scholar exclaimed, “Incredible! How could there be a living being inside the Earth?”
The fair – haired and blue – eyed white scientist trembled, “Even if it’s a living being, how could it grow so big? Where does it get its nutrients from?”
The Chinese expert next to him frowned and murmured, “So, what kind of living being is it? Mammalia? Reptilia? Or…”
Suddenly, the tent fell silent.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the V – shaped crack of the Cone Mountain.
“Hahaha!”
The black scholar suddenly collapsed to the ground, his eyes wide open, bursting into creepy laughter.
In an instant, wild laughter and sobs resounded through every corner of the camp.
I understood what they were laughing at.
The Cone Mountain was not a claw or a horn.
It was a beak.
A beak that should have belonged to a sparrow, a chick, or a pigeon.
But it broke through the ground, reaching a height of ten thousand meters, pointing straight to the sky.
No, not just that!
The focal depth of this Antarctic earthquake was at least seven hundred kilometers!
That is to say.
This was a pair of… beaks that were seven hundred kilometers long!
16
For most birds, the body length is ten to fifteen times the length of the beak.
Fifteen times seven hundred kilometers is ten thousand five hundred kilometers.
And the diameter of the Earth is twelve thousand kilometers.
There was no so – called Antarctic earthquake.
There was only a newly – born chick struggling to peck at its eggshell.
That’s all.
17
This egg had been floating in the universe for 4.6 billion years.
After 800 million years of silence, the first prokaryote appeared.
It took 1.3 billion years to bloom large patches of blue – green algae on the surface of the eggshell.
The Archean, the Proterozoic, the Paleozoic.
4 billion years of accumulation finally evolved into the Cambrian explosion of life.
Anomalocaris launched a hunt for trilobites, and sea scorpions shattered the shells of brachiopods.
The Ordovician, the Silurian, the Devonian, the Carboniferous, the Permian.
The tardy dinosaurs dominated the eggshell for 150 million years.
However, reproduction and extinction were just a moment.
The Tertiary, the Quaternary.
Mammals became the overlords on the eggshell, killing each other for 66 million years.
Until that ancient ape looked up at the sky from afar.
Then humans appeared. They built a glorious civilization on the surface of the eggshell at an unprecedented speed.
In just 10,000 years, the 120 billion humans who had lived on the eggshell became the masters of this egg.
Until the life in the egg hatched.
It struggled to peck through the eggshell, trying to break free from the cage that had bound it for 4.6 billion years.
The battles on the surface of the eggshell had nothing to do with it.
18
The temporary camp almost became a madhouse.
Some people were roaring, some were crying, and some even committed suicide by shooting themselves.
Many of these experts who had a mental breakdown had dedicated their entire lives to seismology.
Like the turkey scientist in the “Turkey and the Farmer Hypothesis”, they spent their entire lives exploring a illusory truth.
And now, seismology no longer existed.
The moment this giant bird hatched, the entire Earth’s crust would surely shatter like a fragile eggshell.
The human civilization that lived on the Earth would come to an end.
I walked around the insane experts, found a satellite phone on a snowmobile, and dialed the number of the superior.
“This is the expert team of the Xuelong 2. I’m Tian Mu from the Jilin Earthquake Bureau.”
I heard my voice float out, following the electromagnetic waves towards the north, far, far away.
“We sampled the Cone Mountain and found that it is the beak of a giant bird.
“This is not a joke. Please remember my words and tell the truth to all mankind.
“The Earth is not a planet, but an egg.
“The core is the yolk, the mantle is the egg white, and the crust is the eggshell.
“Now, the yolk has become a chick, devoured all the nutrients in the egg white, and is about to break through the shell at any time!”
I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the piercing cold wind.
Then.
“All mankind must unite! At all costs! Leave the Earth immediately!!”
19
Facing the life – and – death crisis, the response of the countries around the world was much faster than I had imagined.
Half an hour later, a world interim government with the five permanent members as the core was established. The heads of state of various countries connected online to hold an emergency United Nations meeting.
I held the satellite phone and stayed at the foot of the Cone Mountain. A special person synchronized the progress of the meeting to me in real – time.
The opinions of all parties could be roughly divided into two camps: the strike camp and the escape camp.
The strike camp advocated killing the giant bird to completely resolve the crisis.
Some people proposed to throw nuclear weapons into the bird’s beak.
But after calculation, the killing range of nuclear weapons was limited, and it was impossible to attack the brain of the giant bird.
After all, according to the proportion, the bird’s beak was in Antarctica, and its brain might be in the Indian Ocean or the Pacific Ocean. No kind of nuclear weapon could reach that far.
Some people proposed using hydrofluoric acid.
According to the test results, the giant bird was a carbon – based organism, so hydrofluoric acid would surely be effective.
However, the corrosion of hydrofluoric acid required time. Once the giant bird struggled in pain, the earth’s crust would shatter, and humanity would still face the end of the world.
There were also suggestions such as creating a small black hole with a thermonuclear bomb, towing an asteroid to hit it, injecting nerve toxins, setting the whole world on fire to roast the giant bird into a “live – boiled egg”, and so on.
These methods were either too theoretical, too science – fictional, or too inhumane.
Everyone was arguing noisily, and no one could come up with a truly feasible suggestion.
20
On the other hand, the opinions of the escape camp were relatively unified:
Since humanity didn’t have the ability to escape the solar system, they proposed sending elite humans into geosynchronous orbit and waiting for the giant bird to hatch and leave.
The fragmented earth’s crust would be impacted and re – combined by gravity. Then they could leave the orbit and return to the new earth.
They believed that the only problem was how to allocate the quotas for the “elite humans”.
After all, the global launch platforms could send at most a few hundred people into space, not to mention considering the supply problem.
Unfortunately, before they could reach a conclusion, the physicists rejected the idea of the escape camp.
The time required for the fragmented earth’s crust to re – combine and become stable was calculated in tens of millions of years.
Since the mantle and the core no longer existed, the fragments of the earth’s crust might be captured by the gravity of Venus.
In that case, the so – called elite humans would just be the undertakers of human civilization.
For a moment, all parties fell into silence.
There were only a few people still speaking. They were the negotiation camp who “pleaded with the giant bird to spare humanity” and the ostrich camp who “simply didn’t believe the giant bird existed”.
The first meeting ended without reaching any decision except for the naming of the giant bird.
The voice on the satellite phone relayed, “… Considering the survey contributions of Tian Mu and Tang Dianwei, China has obtained the naming right of the giant bird. This bird is named ‘Xi You’, which comes from the Han Dynasty classic ‘Shen Yi Jing’. Congratulations, two teachers.”
I had read “Shen Yi Jing”. In it, Xi You was a giant bird with a wingspan of 19,000 li.
“So, the conclusion of the world interim government is that humanity has no way to deal with Xi You, right?”
Hearing me ask this, the person on the other end of the phone sighed and replied, “Sorry, Teacher Tian Mu. All the ideas that could be thought of have been rejected, so…”
Suddenly, Dianwei stumbled over, slapped the satellite phone flying, and then threw me to the ground.
“Old Tian! I’ve got an idea!”
21
Dianwei’s idea was simple and straightforward.
“As long as it’s a carbon – based organism, it must follow the laws of biological organisms!
“Since it’s so difficult to damage its brain, we can try to break its spinal cord!
“Once the spinal cord is broken, it will immediately collapse and pose no more threat!”
I pushed Dianwei away, picked up the satellite phone, and reported Dianwei’s idea to the person on the phone.
The person on the phone asked in confusion, “It’s theoretically feasible, but how do we find Xi You’s spinal cord?
“Xi You’s body is under the earth’s crust. Even if we can locate it accurately, we need to drill a hole dozens of kilometers deep, which will take at least ten years!
“If Xi You’s spinal cord is under the Indian Ocean, we have to drill a hole on the seabed. That’s an almost impossible task.”
Obviously, Dianwei hadn’t thought of this. He stared blankly at the back of his head, speechless for a moment.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration crossed my mind.
“Since we can’t do it from the outside, we can attack from the inside.”
I jumped up, pointed at the Cone Mountain, and said, “We can climb in through its beak! No matter how hard its surface is, its interior must be soft! Dianwei is right. As long as we blow up its spinal cord, it won’t even be able to struggle!”
This idea was quickly passed on.
In the United Nations meeting hall, discussions were rising and falling.
The medical experts spoke first, “Compared with blowing up the spinal cord, blowing up the medulla oblongata is more appropriate. As long as the nerves on the medulla oblongata are broken, the organism won’t be able to process information about breathing and heartbeat, and it will surely die after a long time.”
The biology experts added, “Yes. In that case, the explosives will enter through the bird’s beak, descend 700 kilometers to reach the pharyngeal cavity, pass through the sphenoid bone to the foramen magnum, then break through the dura mater, find the medulla oblongata, and blow it up. According to the proportional estimate, not counting the 700 – kilometer vertical descent, it will need to travel at least 300 kilometers.”
The communication experts shook their heads, “Then we can only send people in. Satellite signals can’t reach that deep, and the remote – control distance of unmanned equipment is not enough.”
The military experts calculated with their heads down, “If we send a combat team, it’s equivalent to a cross – country march with a load. 300 kilometers will take seven days. Counting the screening, preparation, and troop transportation, it will take at least ten days! Who can guarantee that the big bird won’t hatch within ten days?”
No one could guarantee.
But at this point, this was the only way.
All the participants in the conference and the heads of state connected online nodded, believing that it was worth a try.
In the connected video, only one person frowned.
“How will the people who carry out this mission get out?”
22
I stayed in the camp, drew a chessboard on the snow, and continued to play gobang with Dianwei.
The person on the satellite phone said to me, “The world interim government has reached a consensus. The five permanent members will send five combat teams to jointly solve the greatest crisis in human history. The combat teams will arrive in three days. In these three days, we’ll have to trouble your expert team to stand guard.”
While thinking about where to place the chess piece, I complained, “The supplies in the camp are almost running out. We can barely last for three days. I hope the superiors can send the supplies along the way.”
“Don’t worry, Teacher Tian Mu.” The man on the phone laughed heartily, “The supplies will go ahead. They will set off from the ruins of Ushuaia this afternoon and will arrive at the South Pole in two days.”
Dianwei drew a circle in a grid on the chessboard, then drew a straight line, connecting four circles together, and shouted,
“Brother, remember to ask them to bring a set of mahjong! I can’t play Genshin Impact, and I don’t even have mahjong to play! I’ve been scribbling on the snow every day!”
I blinked and said to Dianwei,
“Bro, I know you think I’m bad at gobang, but the key is that I’m even worse at mahjong. Let me tell you, if I hadn’t not gone to Canada, otherwise…”
The sudden shaking of the ground interrupted our conversation.
I grabbed the tent – fixing spike, turned my head, and looked.
The Cone Mountain, or Xi You’s beak, visibly rose at least ten meters.
I shouted at Dianwei, who was hanging on another spike, “See that! This time it’s not my crow – mouth! Don’t blame everything on me!”
Dianwei had no intention of bickering with me. He stared at the beak and shouted in the direction of the satellite phone,
“There’s no time to wait for you to send people! It surely won’t take ten days to hatch!”
23
When the ground stopped shaking, Xi You’s beak had risen several hundred meters.
I let go of the spike, got up in a disheveled way, and picked up the satellite phone from the corner.
“Buddy, tell the superiors that there’s no need to send the combat team. Design the route plan immediately.
“I’ll go.”
The voice on the phone paused.
“Teacher Tian, are you sure?”
I didn’t answer him but quickly described the situation in the camp.
“The tents in the camp can be used to make a temporary parachute. There’s also enough explosives. The only problem is food supplies, but if we pool them together, it should be enough.
“For lighting, the standard equipment for camp personnel is a scientific – research flashlight. The stealth mode has a battery life of 400 hours, and the super – bright mode has 4 hours. I’ll take a few more, which should be enough to complete the mission.
“And…”
Before I could finish speaking, a solemn voice came from the satellite phone.
“Comrade Xiao Tian, you should understand that this is a one – way journey, and the possibility of survival is extremely slim.
“You and Xiao Tang risked your lives to bravely explore the pole, bringing accurate information to humanity. This is already a great achievement that will go down in history.
“The organization hopes you’ll stay in the camp and wait for support and supplies. Leave professional matters to professionals.”
I smiled bitterly, “If I had a choice, I wouldn’t want to die either. But some things have to be done by someone.
“Please design the route plan as soon as possible. Every second we delay, Xi You is one second closer to hatching.”
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone, and finally, it said, “On behalf of the country, I thank you for your dedication to humanity.”
Only then did I realize who was on the other end of the phone.
For a moment, I didn’t know what to say.
Countless thoughts collided in my mind, and finally, two lines of words were pushed to the forefront.
I stood up straight and said loudly,
“I have no parents above, no wife or children below! I am alone and fearless of sacrifice!
“After twenty years of study, I have achieved some success! I only hope to show my talents and have a clear conscience!”
The next second, someone fifteen thousand kilometers away clenched the red phone and replied again,
“Approved. Wish you safety!”
24
According to the plan sent by the superiors, I worked with several experts to cut the tent and make a simple parachute.
After calculation, if I free – fell and opened the parachute at a low altitude, I would be torn apart by gravity together with the parachute.
I had to open the parachute immediately after jumping into Xi You’s beak. The 700 – kilometer slow – descent was estimated to take 18 hours and 40 minutes.
I folded the parachute into the backpack and started to check the supplies.
All the explosives in the camp, ample food and fresh water, five scientific-research flashlights, a sapper shovel, several bundles of ropes, and a kerosene lighter.
I also took two pens and a notebook to write down my experiences and a suicide note.
Once the task was completed and Xi You couldn’t break through the shell, humanity would have enough time to find a way to kill Xi You, and my suicide note would surely see the light of day eventually.
The others in the camp took out the few remaining foods and helped me gather enough rations.
I put on the parachute pack, hung the equipment bag on my chest, and with the help of everyone, walked to the crack of the “Cone Mountain”.
Looking down, it was deep darkness.
Seven hundred kilometers was almost like a bottomless abyss to humans.
And I was about to jump into the abyss to complete a mission that was almost certain to end in death.
Dianwei patted me on the back and said with a smile, “Old Tian, are you scared?”
I was about to retort when I turned around and found Dianwei wearing the same parachute pack, looking at me with a smile.
“If you’re scared, just call me Brother Tang and ask Brother Tang to accompany you on this journey!”
I was stunned for a moment, then said seriously and angrily, “Get out of here! What are you doing here? I’m alone. If I die, I die. But you’re different! If you die, who will take care of your parents? Who will take care of your sister?”
Dianwei spread his hands, “Old Tian, you said it yourself. I have a sister at home, and my buddies can also help out. My parents will be taken care of. What are you worried about?”
Seeing my serious expression, Dianwei added with a smile, “Don’t worry. I just said goodbye to them. My dad even praised me as a hero and said that there would be one more page added to the family tree this time.”
In fact, I knew very well that it was very difficult for one person to complete this task.
I didn’t want to see Dianwei die with me. After all, we had just shared life and death together. I would rather sacrifice my life to ensure his safe return to China.
But…
“Tang Dianwei.” I called him by his full name for the first time.
Dianwei looked at me in confusion, “What’s wrong, Old Tian?”
I wiped my wet eyes hard and said to Dianwei seriously, “Thank you.”
Dianwei grinned, “What are you thanking me for, you fool.”
25
The diameter of the part of Xi You’s beak that protruded from the ground was a little over two kilometers.
Dianwei and I discussed that we would each stand on one side and jump at intervals to avoid our parachutes getting tangled.
Dianwei was a little lighter than me, so he would jump one hour after me.
Time passed by minute by minute. Soon, Dianwei’s lazy voice came from the intercom.
“Old Tian, I’m in position.”
I replied with a “Mmm”, looked back at the people in the camp for the last time, and then glanced up at the sun.
Goodbye.
Hope to see you again if there’s a chance.
I turned around, faced the abyss, and jumped.
Endless darkness instantly swallowed me.
The wind whistled in my ears. I could see nothing except the sky above that was getting smaller and smaller.
I quickly opened the parachute according to the method taught by the superiors.
The parachute ropes pulled my body, and there was a sudden jerk. The falling speed slowed down a lot.
When I looked up again, the sky was covered by the parachute, and there was only darkness in the whole space.
After opening the parachute, the wind sound became much smaller. For a moment, I even thought I was in a bedroom without the lights on.
I panicked and quickly turned on the scientific – research flashlight fixed on my waist.
Because of the long distance, the flashlight couldn’t shine on the beak. But this just proved that I was safe.
Once I observed the reflection of the beak, I had to adjust the angle of the parachute to keep myself away from the edge.
Ten minutes… thirty minutes… one hour…
According to the time, Dianwei had already jumped, but I couldn’t hear any sound from above.
I shouted a few times at the top of my voice, but I could only hear my own echo.
Now, I was no longer as nervous as I was at the beginning.
My tense nerves relaxed, and I even felt a little sleepy.
During the 18 – hour – and – 40 – minute slow – descent, to avoid boredom, I had collected all the movies and novels on everyone’s mobile phones in the camp in advance to pass the time.
I took out my mobile phone, carefully fixed it on my wrist, and opened Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”.
While falling towards the center of the Earth, I read the fantasies about the Earth’s core written by people 150 years ago.
26
“Journey to the Center of the Earth”, “At the Mountains of Madness”, “The Wandering Earth”…
I read one after another, and unconsciously, I even fell asleep.
It was not until I realized that I was asleep and desperately woke myself up that more than ten hours had passed.
I grabbed the flashlight in a panic and scanned around to confirm that I was not in danger of hitting the beak. Then I let out a sigh of relief.
The mobile phone was still hanging safely on my wrist, not lost.
After watching two more movies, the battery of the mobile phone was running out, and I reluctantly put it back in my pocket.
It had been nineteen hours since I jumped into the beak.
It seemed that the superiors’ estimate of the length of the beak was wrong, but it must be almost at the bottom.
I cheered up, adjusted the scientific – research flashlight to the strong – light mode, and shone it down.
Half an hour later, I finally saw the dark – red reflection.
The reflective surface became larger and larger, and I could confirm that this was Xi You’s pharyngeal cavity.
I estimated the distance, adjusted my posture, and controlled the parachute, trying to land smoothly.
However, my body, which had been falling for nineteen hours, was completely out of control. The moment my feet touched the “ground”, my legs went weak.
I rolled like a tumbling gourd for seven or eight circles before stopping.
Fortunately, the “ground” was soft, feeling like rubber with excellent elasticity.
After confirming that I wasn’t injured, I got up and started looking for directions.
It took me a full half – hour to identify the direction of the sphenoid bone. I ate, drank, and rested on the spot, waiting for Dianwei to land.
We were quite lucky. Dianwei landed about a hundred meters away from me.
Before he landed, the game sound effect from his mobile phone flew over first.
“Pick up!
“Eight of bamboo!
“Self – draw! Hahaha, I won this round big time!”
After Dianwei landed, I asked curiously, “Where did you get the network? You can even play mahjong?”
He rolled his eyes at me. “It’s the offline version. Don’t you know?”
27
After Dianwei had a rest, we threw away our parachute packs and walked one after the other in the direction of the sphenoid bone.
It was easy to distinguish the direction, but as the saying goes, “the mountain looks near, but it takes forever to reach.” The diameter of Xi You’s pharyngeal cavity was at least ten kilometers.
It took us a full two hours to get close to the outline of the sphenoid bone.
According to the plan given by the superiors, we needed to cut through the pharyngeal mucosa of Xi You here, pass through the gap in the sphenoid bone, and enter the bottom of the skull.
The strong light of the two scientific – research flashlights shone around. I carefully recalled the instructions from the superiors, trying to find the most suitable entry point.
Suddenly, Dianwei pulled me.
“Old Tian, what’s that thing?”
Dianwei’s flashlight beam pointed about two hundred meters away, and a black patch was illuminated.
This patch was about five meters in diameter and was quite out of place compared to the dark – red pharyngeal cavity.
Our curiosity was greatly piqued, and we decided to go and take a look.
Two minutes later, we stood beside the patch, too shocked to speak.
It wasn’t a patch at all. It was clearly a hole!
And what made me even more terrified was that beside the hole, there actually lay a pickaxe.
28
The wooden handle of the pickaxe had been completely carbonized, and the head of the pickaxe was made of some kind of metal.
We didn’t understand metallurgy and couldn’t tell what kind of metal it was, but it was definitely a man – made object.
The position of this hole was basically the same as the position given by the United Nations’ avian experts.
I noticed that the walls of the hole had necrosed and turned black. Obviously, it had been dug out a long time ago.
The passage in the hole slanted downward, and we didn’t know where it led.
Could it be that before us, there were others who had tried to kill Xi You?
Or… was the one who dug this hole not human, but some other intelligent creature?
The more I thought about it, the more horrified I felt.
Dianwei patted me. “Old Tian, shall we go down?”
I made up my mind and gritted my teeth. “Let’s go! Since someone has dug a ready – made passage for us, why not take the shortcut!”
We checked our supplies, and then Dianwei and I jumped into the hole one after the other.
The moment my soles touched the wall of the hole, I immediately felt something was wrong.
Why was it so slippery!
I felt as if I had returned to my hometown in Northeast China, stepping on the ice layer under the snow and falling flat on my buttocks.
Every inch of the hole was extremely smooth. No matter how much I struggled, I couldn’t get up.
Dianwei and I were like two people who had strayed into a slide in an amusement park, and we could only slide rapidly along the track of the slide.
The “slide” wound downward, turning left and right, sometimes spiraling and sometimes rising.
Dianwei couldn’t help it and started retching loudly. My brain was almost shaken into a pulp, and I even forgot the instinct to retch.
I don’t know how long it took, but finally, the “slide” came to an end.
I felt my body go empty, and I flew into the air.
A few seconds later, I landed heavily on the ground.
Fortunately, this wasn’t a cold cave. It was the inside of Xi You’s skull, and everything around was soft tissue.
Even so, I was still dazed from the fall.
I gritted my teeth and got up, moving aside by instinct and willpower, for fear that Dianwei would also fall from the sky and crush me to death.
Sure enough, five seconds later, Dianwei landed near me with a scream.
Suddenly, Dianwei’s scream turned into an exclamation.
“Old Tian! Look! Murals!”
29
Murals?
I raised my flashlight, adjusted it to the strong – light mode, and shone it around.
This was a huge space, and its length, width, and height were unknown.
Hundreds of meters behind us, there was a large black hole. Dianwei and I had slid out from there.
Dianwei was right. On both sides of the large hole, there were actually several black murals.
We checked our bodies to make sure we had no fractures, and then limped over to the murals.
The style of the murals was very rough. A few simple strokes formed a picture.
The main body of the first mural was a circle, with a small bird curled up inside.
Outside the circle, there were a few trees and several stick – figure people.
The second mural seemed to be an altar. The stick – figure people wearing tall hats held up scepters, and more stick – figure people were prostrate on the ground.
The main body of the third mural was a bird’s head. Many stick – figure people were waving tools in the bird’s mouth, digging a passage.
The first three murals were easy to understand.
But after seeing the content of the fourth mural, Dianwei and I stared at each other, speechless for a long time.
A thick pillar stood in a cylindrical space.
The stick – figure people wearing tall hats leaned against the wall, and their bodies were covered with a layer of shadow.
At the edge of this mural, big trees were toppled over, and the stick – figure people were decapitated.
What shocked us even more was the fifth mural.
A big bird was soaring in the sky. The stick – figure people wearing tall hats, together with many strange – shaped creatures, were sitting on the bird’s back.
Under the big bird, beside it, and above its head, there were one star after another.
30
“Old Tian, do you understand?”
I said hesitantly, “Looking at these paintings together, I guess that before humans, there was another intelligent civilization. Their priests, through some means, discovered that the Earth was an egg. They entered the egg, found the skull of the chick, and then… this civilization perished? The priest flew to… galaxies outside the Earth with the big bird?”
The content of the murals wasn’t difficult to understand, but it was indeed incredible.
Dianwei hesitated for a long time, then suddenly slapped his thigh. “Forget it. We’re not archaeologists. Let the experts worry about these scribbles. Old Tian, let’s keep going down. Don’t waste time here.”
Dianwei and I took pictures of the murals with our mobile phones and then continued to move forward.
According to the estimate of the superior experts, starting from Xi You’s pharyngeal cavity, we had to make a detour of at least three hundred kilometers to reach the medulla oblongata.
But with this hole that led directly to the occipital bone, we saved a lot of time.
As I walked, I pondered.
The civilization depicted in the murals dug a shortcut from the pharyngeal cavity directly to the foramen magnum. Their purpose was obviously the same as ours.
So, why didn’t they kill Xi You?
31
Dianwei and I identified the direction, endured the soreness all over our bodies, and headed towards the medulla oblongata.
Not counting the breaks in the middle, we walked for a full thirty – odd hours and finally saw Xi You’s dura mater.
There was also a large hole in the two – layer dura mater. We didn’t need to find a way to tear the dura mater and could directly reach the side of the medulla oblongata.
For an ordinary small bird, the diameter of the medulla oblongata is measured in millimeters.
But the medulla oblongata of Xi You was so large that I couldn’t see the end at a glance. Its diameter was at least one kilometer.
With the help of the flashlight, I could clearly see the three – meter – thick nerves on the medulla oblongata.
Strange.
I didn’t know much about medicine, but Xi You’s medulla oblongata and nerves seemed to be intact.
Could it be that the civilization in the murals gave up their original plan at the moment of victory in killing Xi You?
Dianwei didn’t think that much. He pointed at the medulla oblongata and grumbled,
“Those experts above said that blowing up the medulla oblongata would kill Xi You. But this thing is so thick. How can we blow it up?”
I took out the explosives from my backpack and started assembling the detonating device. Without looking up, I said to Dianwei,
“Just by looking at you, I can tell you didn’t listen in class when you were a kid. We don’t need to blow up the medulla oblongata. We just need to break the nerves, and Xi You’s brain won’t be able to control breathing and heartbeat, and it will die in a short time.”
Dianwei and I divided the explosives into several parts and fixed them on the nerves one by one.
When everything was ready, I picked up the detonator, walked to a safe distance, and prepared to complete the final task.
Just as I was about to press the button, an odd feeling suddenly welled up in my heart.
It was as if an electric wave from the depths of the universe had swept straight through my mind.
The world suddenly changed. The images captured by my eyes were like a broken and reassembled mirror, chaotic.
Gradually, these broken images formed two large characters.
“Stop!”
32
I closed my eyes, making the world dark again.
When I opened my eyes again, I could still see these two characters.
“Who are you?” I asked loudly.
The words in front of me changed.
“I am what you call ‘Xi You’.”
I was stunned.
Dianwei, not understanding what was going on, shouted, “Old Tian, who are you talking to?”
“Wait a minute. Don’t make noise! It seems that Xi You is communicating with me!”
As soon as I finished speaking, the words in front of me changed again, forming a longer sentence.
“Don’t kill me. I will give you eternal life.”
A picture suddenly appeared in my mind.
It was a cylindrical space. A thick pillar stood in the center of the space.
On the walls made of flesh and blood, there were many indescribable shadows.
They merged into the flesh and blood, becoming part of the wall.
This… was the scene depicted in the fourth mural!
Sentences emerged in front of me. I knew that Xi You was talking to me.
“They also once lived on my eggshell, and I gave them eternal life.
“When I break out of the shell, they will wake up from their slumber and fly with me to a broader universe.
“They will have a more glorious life.
“Now, you also have such an opportunity.
“Don’t kill me. I will give you eternal life and a new life.”
I understood.
The fourth and fifth murals meant this.
Xi You’s hatching would kill all the creatures on the surface of the earth.
But we could leave the solar system with Xi You and fly to the “broader universe” it described.
That priest wearing a tall hat had done exactly that.
I closed my eyes, dispelled the pictures in front of me, and asked the last question.
“Xi You, these ‘people’ chose you. Then, what about their civilization?”
Xi You’s answer was simple: “Fragile civilizations don’t need to exist. They themselves are the continuation of civilization.”
I nodded. My right hand, which was gripping the detonator, suddenly tightened. The whitened joints clenched tightly.
“Boom!”
33
The moment the explosives exploded, my vision returned to normal.
Dianwei looked at me with concern and asked, “What’s going on? Why did you suddenly detonate?”
I smiled and shook my head. “If you had to choose between sacrificing human civilization to save your life or sacrificing your life to continue human civilization, what would you choose?”
Dianwei laughed heartily. “If we chose the first one, why would we have gone through so much trouble to come here and risk our lives?”
The three – meter – thick nerves were blown open with huge gaps.
Dianwei and I rushed forward, brandishing the two entrenching tools vigorously, hacking at Xi You’s nerves.
As one nerve after another was completely severed, the entire space began to shake.
This giant bird born from the Earth was making its final struggle.
But its struggle was extremely limited.
With its medulla oblongata severely damaged, its brain couldn’t process the commands for heartbeat and breathing, which would quickly lead to respiratory failure, cardiac arrest, and eventually death.
34
Outside.
Earthquakes occurred in many regions around the world, with the focal depth below 700 kilometers.
However, the magnitude of this earthquake was very low, and it only lasted for a few minutes, having little impact on humans.
After the earthquake stopped, various countries organized scientific research teams and headed to Antarctica in a mighty way.
After confirming Xi You’s death, the United Nations announced the investigation results of the Antarctic earthquake to the public.
The giant bird born from the Earth, the human civilization on the eggshell, the prehistoric civilization erased by history…
One blockbuster piece of news after another continued to dominate the news media of the entire human world.
Tian Mu and Tang Dianwei also topped the global news headlines.
A few months later, the scientific research team brought back the remains and suicide notes of the two.
Tang Dianwei’s suicide note was as relaxed as he was.
“I’m so unlucky! There’s no mahjong or hot pot here. I died so stupidly!
“Forget it. I’m leaving first. I’ll go down there and promote Sichuan culture, mahjong, hot pot, and rap. I’ll give it a good publicity!”
Tian Mu’s suicide note was much more serious, but everyone who understood it felt creepy.
“Since the Earth is an egg, Mars with its extinguished core may be a ‘dead – embryo egg’ that can’t hatch.
“Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, may be an egg that has been baked and spoiled.
“So, the sun we depend on for survival is actually a…
“All mankind must unite! At all costs! Leave the Earth immediately!!”
– The End –
