BAM!
After the thousands of dim seals flashed brilliantly for a moment, they exhausted all the spiritual energy contained in them and splashed everywhere like ice flakes. The ice and snow melted and vanished into thin air.
Without the enhancement of the seals and barriers, the rocks that were full of cracks immediately crumbled without a sound, as if they had been piled up with sand in the first place. They were now pouring to the ground like running water, revealing the deep, dark cave behind them.
"Hu —"
Bursts of bone-piercing cold wind instantly whistled out, and the wind was mixed with streaks of black gas, as if it was a ever-changing demon pouncing on the crowd.
The members of the 'Archaeology Operation' had long been prepared. They knew that a lot of venomous gas must have accumulated in the underground space that had only been opened once or twice in the past hundreds of thousands of years. Besides, the environment hundreds of thousands of years ago was different from today. Perhaps, the air of the Ancient Sages Sector at that time contained a lot of impurities that modern people did not understand and were not used to.
They had completely sealed the head of the Nuwa warship and installed the most advanced air detection and filtration system. Everybody had also activated the internal circulation mode of the Crystal Suit, ensuring that they were not in contact with the unknown gas in the outside world.
As they expected, the air detection system beeped nonstop. The gas spurting out of the underground space contained almost a hundred bizarre elements. Some of the elements could not even exist on the Ancient Sages Sector. It was truly uncanny!
Thankfully, none of the elements were too toxic or corrosive. With the Cultivation of everybody in the Core Formation Stage at the very least, it was perfectly possible for them to breathe normally inside. It was needless to mention the beast puppets, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, and the spectral Cultivators, who did not need air in the first place.
About one minute later, the black gas gradually slowed down, and the pressure inside and outside reached a balance.
The infrared heat detection magical equipment and the biochemical activity detection magical equipment did not detect any sign of living creatures inside, either.
The first batch of beasts that were sent in were the spider-shaped beast puppets that carried high-precision crystal cameras and soundwave collection magical equipment. They were wirelessly manipulated by telepathic thoughts.
But in this place, they encountered the same problem that Li Yao had encountered on Kunlun years ago. The spacious laboratory of Pangu was filled with a hazy black fog, which greatly interfered with the transmission of telepathic thoughts.
Not only did he lose contact with the beast puppets after a certain distance, but even if he was still in contact with them, the video signals that he managed to send back were all blurry and mottled. He could not see clearly at all.
After all, there was a limit to what could be done with a wireless remote control. In the end, it was still necessary for humans to go in personally to investigate.
Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and the ten experts from the Ancient Sages Sector looked at each other. They activated the power rune arrays of the Crystal Suit first, allowing them to float half a meter above the ground and fly into the dark, narrow pathway without touching the dust.
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers and the spectral warriors followed closely behind as the backbone of the 'archeology operation'. The hundred Core Formation Stage Cultivators, on the other hand, were responsible for covering the rear. They were closest to the exit and would be able to escape in time if anything went wrong.
The pathway went straight down. There was no telling how long they had walked, but the black fog around them grew denser and denser. It was surging toward them like tides.
The black fog was indeed weird. The searchlights of the highest power, the telepathic thoughts of the Divinity Transformation Stage experts, and the mobile spiritual towers that they deployed were all swallowed by the black fog after being transmitted for one to two hundred meters. It was impossible for them to see the whole picture of the laboratory of Pangu at all.
However, based on the limited range of their exploration, the scale of the laboratory of Pangu was indeed far beyond their imagination.
Not only was any of the common pathways almost thirty meters wide and fifty meters high, but the pathways were also full of branches. A lot of the branches were slanting downward. There was no telling how deep they led below the ground.
There were also gates carved with all kinds of primeval runes that were locked tightly like cages where primeval beasts were sealed. Enshrouded in the black fog, they looked even more mysterious and unpredictable.
The exploration team of a thousand people, plus ten times more beast puppets and Grand Illusionary Soldiers, was like a handful of pebbles thrown into a vast lake when they entered the palace of the giants. They were gone as soon as they entered, unable to raise any waves at all.
Faced with such a tricky black fog and an unexpectedly large scale, Li Yao and the rest of them did not know what to do.
Thankfully, they had made sufficient preparations for the operation. A mobile spiritual tower had been established every hundred meters. They had even separated the crystal wires in the most stable way of 'wire connection'. Finally, they were able to reach out to the 'support team' and the 'specialist team' outside.
Led by Meng Chixin and Wu Suiyun, two spectral Cultivators in the Divinity Transformation Stage who had once entered the laboratory of Pangu, everybody continued moving downward.
The sights they saw on their way were actually similar to the underground black city that Li Yao had passed through on Kunlun. They were both horizontal, vertical, and well-organized, indicating a high degree of discipline and indifference. It was like a cold tomb that had lost all vigor and vitality.
It did make sense. If all the members of a civilization had their emotions and desires sealed, depriving them of all happiness, anger, sorrow, and so on, it would be impossible to imagine culture, art, and so on. In the end, the architecture that was formed could only be so square and rigid.
After they went deeper, they discovered that the few upper floors of the laboratory had all suffered serious damage.
Most of the branches were blocked by the collapsed rocks. The traces of explosions and corrosion could be clearly seen.
They also discovered the bizarre-shaped bodies of giants, which were identical to the ones on the Nuwa warship above. No, they were even more gory.
All the bodies were broken and hugging each other. Many sabers and swords were deeply stabbed into the gaps between each other's bones, indicating that they had perished together and would not stop until they were dead.
After hundreds of thousands of years of corrosion, their flesh and blood had long dispersed. The bones and the sabers and swords had been condensed in a certain weird form, silently telling the perils of the great war hundreds of thousands of years ago.
The members of the exploration team hurried to scan the paths that they had passed and the forms of the bodies. Gathering them into an enormous model on the crystal processors, the virtual laboratory of Pangu was gradually outlined.
"It seems that our judgment in the beginning was correct."
Looking at the virtual laboratory of Pangu on the light beam where all kinds of details had been added, Li Yao pondered for a moment and said, "At the end of the primeval war, the situation of the Pangu people was not good. In order to continue their civilization, many Pangu people initiated civilization continuation plans that were similar to the 'Monument Plan' and the 'Tinder Plan'.
"The planet of the Ancient Sages Sector deep inside the dark nebula was the best location for secret experiments. The Pangu people established an enormous underground laboratory in the place. Or rather, the entire planet was their laboratory. They shipped or bred tremendous human beings on the spot as' test subjects' to experiment on how to pass on the Pangu civilization with genes.
"Later, a fleet of the Nuwa Clan accidentally discovered the secrets deep inside the dark nebula. Perhaps because of the interference of the dark nebula, it was difficult for them to send out the information, or perhaps because the situation was too dire for them to summon reinforcements, they decided to attack the Ancient Sages Sector on their own and completely demolish the place.
"The Nuwa fleet had a fierce battle with the guards of the Pangu people who were stationed on the planet. Both parties were exhausted and heavily wounded. That was why so many relics of the primeval battlefields were left on the surface of the planet, which became an inexhaustible source of strength for the Ancient Sages Sector in the future. The development of the civilization of mankind on the planet was completely dragged into a vicious circle where they could only count on the primeval treasures instead of developing on their own.
"In the end, the last Nuwa warship that had run out of supplies finally found the largest and most critical laboratory of the Pangu that was hidden below the ice.
"The Nuwa warship launched a suicidal attack and adjusted itself to a certain crash mode. It fell from the sky like a shooting star and smashed into the ceiling of the Pangu laboratory brutally. As it turned out, the defense layer of the laboratory was completely penetrated through.
"The most elite warriors of the Nuwa Clan flooded into the underground laboratory and fought the defenders of the Pangu Clan. Although they did not completely destroy the laboratory, they sealed it for hundreds of thousands of years until Fellow Cultivators Meng Chixin and Wu Suiyun accidentally opened it a hundred years ago and triggered a certain alarm system inside the Nuwa warship, which sent out an alarm to the base hundreds of thousands of years ago.
"After hundreds of thousands of years, the dark nebula that covered the Ancient Sages Sector was much thinner than before. The alarm finally penetrated the darkness and was received by the Xing Yao Federation. Eventually, we were brought to this place to fulfill the unfulfilled wish of the Nuwa Clan in the past!"
In terms of details, Li Yao's analysis certainly had a lot of errors and omissions, but generally speaking, such a deduction was the most plausible one.
Right then, a squad that had spread to the left wing of the Pangu laboratory discovered the first debris that resembled a 'giant crab'.
Li Yao and the other experts of the Yuanying Clan hurried to the location of the discovery as quickly as possible, only to discover that an obsidian ball more than one meter in diameter was embedded in the collapsed debris.
No temperature change or spiritual waves could be detected from the object. It was like a fossil that had been sealed for hundreds of millions of years.
However, along the uneven surface of the object, more than ten long tentacles were clearly curled up. A limb that looked like a tail could also be seen spiraling back into the body.
"Is it a living creature or a dead creature?"
A spectral Cultivator was bold enough to go forward and take a look.
"Watch out!"
Li Yao's intuition told him that something was wrong.
Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep! Beep! The biochemical detection systems embedded in everyone's Crystal Suits were all shrieking. The index of bioactivity was soaring, which meant that a living creature with immense vitality was right in front of them!
"Kacha kacha, kacha kacha!"
Crack! The surface of the 'giant crab fossil' cracked. The dry shell fell off, revealing the gray, sticky shell inside. The tentacles and the tail that had been curled up earlier were all unfolded.
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