A strangely shaped kerosene lamp hung on the dilapidated wall. The lampshade was stained with old bloodstains, giving the dim light a bloody hue.
It was not a big basement. The ceiling was very low, and there were piles of junk everywhere. Some of the junk had bent the rotten wooden floor, as if it would break if someone stepped on it. There was a long wooden table in the middle of the basement. The candlelight flickered, reflecting the incomparably murky color of the table. It was only because it had been stained with a lot of dirt, and the dirt had seeped into every grain of the wood, that it would become like this …
In the middle of the table, there seemed to be the body of a strange creature. The stench was overwhelming, and there seemed to be a figure standing beside the table...
Gu Jun wanted to take a closer look, but the illusions were fading. In front of him was still the dissection table, and he was in the gymnasium.
"The tissue of this lung looks like a bird's air sac," Wang Ruoxiang said in a surprised tone, her eyes wide open. "But it's bigger."
"That's strange." Cai Zixuan wrinkled his slightly red and swollen eyes. What he said was what all the teachers and students were thinking. The big screen was showing the situation of the dissection table.
There were six swollen membranous sacs outside the lung, all connected to the bronchus. The walls of the sacs were covered with capillaries, showing that it used to be full of vitality.
Gu Jun looked at the air sacs, and a feeling surged in his heart... Such a structure, it was amazing.
Humans always claimed to be the most intelligent of all creatures. The human body was indeed very exquisite, but it was not perfect. Instead, it had many flaws, and some organ structures were not as useful as other species on Earth.
Lungs were one of them. Human lungs were bidirectional. Air entered and exited through the same route, and they also needed to exchange and store gas. This made the new air diluted by the remaining oxygen deficient air in the lungs, and the efficiency was low. Also, the walls of the air sac were very fragile, and emphysema was easy to occur.
However, the lungs of birds were different. They had an anterior air sac, a posterior air sac, and a posterior air sac. These three parts had a clear division of labor. The lungs were only responsible for letting air pass through, and the air sac was only responsible for storing gas but not for exchanging it. This way, fresh air could constantly move in and out of the lungs at a constant speed, and oxygenated air passed through the lungs with each inhalation and exhalation. It was very efficient. This was the "double breathing" of birds.
Because of this, birds can fly for long periods of time and reach higher altitudes than humans.
Humans might be able to argue that "different species have different needs", but now, the humanoid creature on the dissection table had the lungs of a bird.
"Take it off and have a look." Gu Jun focused his mind and held the scalpel with a pen in his hand. He leaned over and cut off the pleura, nerves, and blood vessels connected to the lungs one by one. He also cut off the tubes around the air sacs, and perhaps the lung roots and ligaments. A bunch of tissues.
Because this was not drawn on the incomplete map, he had to be careful with every move he made. He could not cut any of the pipes. It was not only because Professor Qin and the others were keeping an eye on him, but also because of the completion rate of the dissection mission.
After Gu Jun removed the lung, he, Wang Ruoxiang, and Cai Zixuan would dissect it.
Everyone could observe it more clearly. The more they looked, the more amazed they were by the lungs. Every artery and vein had an exquisite and gorgeous plan.
"This kind of creature should be able to climb higher and dive deeper," Cai Zixuan said. "The operation of this lung is too efficient."
"I want this lung," Wang Ruoxiang said. "It will be very suitable for The Voice of China."
But soon, she wanted the heart of this creature even more.
After the three dissected the lungs, they moved to the mediastinum, then the pericardium. Gu Jun used the scalpel to cut the large blood vessels in the pericardium and removed the heart. This heart was one size bigger than a human's. Although it was now a lifeless mass, it must have been full of energy when it was alive.
They continued to observe and dissect the heart, and they were even more surprised.
The human heart was also not perfect, especially with a rather ridiculous defect — each region of the heart was only supplied with blood by one artery. Take the right atrium and right ventricle for example, they were only supplied with blood by the right coronary artery. If this artery was blocked, the right atrium and right ventricle would be deprived of oxygen, leading to myocardial infarction, heart attack...
Whether humans were created by the creator or evolved, this shabby design had to be given a bad review.
One did not need to be a mutant to know that there were many mammals on Earth, such as dogs. Dogs' hearts were supplied with multiple blood vessels from different routes. If one was blocked, the others could still be replaced. Therefore, a dog's lungs may not be a good thing, but a dog's heart was.
"Each of the four heart chambers has four coronary arteries supplying blood," Wang Ruoxiang counted and exhaled lightly. "This way, I will live a long life."
The teachers and students in the audience were also muttering and sighing.
However, Professor Qin and the others had a serious look on their faces. These strange organs were not something worthy of praise in their eyes.
"Professor Gu, can this still be caused by a human disease?" Xu Hai asked, not understanding. Zhang Haoran and He Yuhan also could not figure it out. Could this still be considered a disease?
"Students, I don't know." Professor Gu sighed sincerely. There was a hint of confusion on his old face. What had he been studying for so many years?
On the other side, Gu Jun continued to immerse himself in the operation, dissecting the coronary arteries on the heart one by one.
Every time he dissected an artery, his heart sank a little more. Gradually, he felt the emotions of the notes on the incomplete atlas. He was amazed by the structure of this creature, but also felt... flustered by his own structure. There were no defects in the lungs, no defects in the heart, did that mean that there were no defects in the other organs?
Especially, what about its brain?
The reason why humans could dominate other species, suppressing tigers and lions, was because of their intelligence.
What was the level of intelligence of this creature?
If the human body did not have an advantage, and the brain did not have an advantage, then...
Complex emotions entangled in his subconscious. Suddenly, Gu Jun's head felt a little painful, and illusions flashed before his eyes.
He felt that he had returned to the dark and cramped basement. There was a murmur in his ears, a strange foreign language...
Although it was still a little blurry, he could see it more clearly this time. On the long, dirty wooden table, there was a humanoid corpse. Its skin was dark, and its limbs were long. Its chest had been dissected, and the lamellar bone was tossed aside. The light from the kerosene lamp and candles illuminated the bloody scene.
On the side of the table was a rusty iron plate. A heart was placed on the plate, and its dark red blood flowed out of the plate, dripping onto the table and onto the floor.
Gu Jun could vaguely see that the figure standing by the table was holding something that looked like a fountain pen. He was leaning over the table and writing something on a stack of yellowed parchment... It was the old atlas! But in this illusion, it was still complete and brand new.
While the person compared the corpse on the table, he drew the blueprint on the paper, made markings, and jotted down notes.
As he wrote, he mumbled something. Gu Jun could not see his face, nor could he understand his words, but he could hear the surprise, panic, and confusion in his voice.
The more he wrote, the stiffer the person's posture became, and the more lifeless his tone became. He repeated his words over and over again, as if he was about to die.
When he mumbled for the fourth time, it was also the fourth time he wrote on the atlas.
Gu Jun's heart ached. Suddenly, he seemed to understand this sentence, and he understood what the four repeated lines of foreign language meant at the end of the note.
"They are better than us?
They are better than us?
They are better than us?
They are better than us? "
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