Chapter 835: Searching for the Ancestors |
Xiao Yu had once obtained life twice from the Solar System. Now, Xiao Yu hoped he could obtain a third life from the Solar System. This was indeed very important to Xiao Yu. This was an enormous mystery, and the key clue to unraveling it might very well be hidden within the Solar System.
Xiao Yu did not adopt the method of remote observation. Instead, he guided his exploration fleet to slowly approach the Solar System by conventional navigation. The first thing Xiao Yu crossed was the Oort Cloud of the Solar System.
The Oort Cloud was as empty and silent as ever. It was basically no different from the rest of outer space. Yet through the telescopes, Xiao Yu could perceive that countless asteroids and debris were scattered throughout this vast emptiness. There was nothing here worth observing, so Xiao Yu passed directly through it and continued onward toward the inner Solar System.
Xiao Yu used only observation instruments equivalent to human naked-eye vision to gaze from afar at that dim star in the distance. At this distance, the Sun was merely a star. Although it was a little brighter, it was no different from the other stars in the celestial sphere. It was only a point-like structure, and with human eyesight it was impossible to see any details on it from here.
Xiao Yu’s fleet continued forward, and more than a year later, Xiao Yu arrived at the first outer planet of the Solar System, Lost Star.
After adjusting the course, Xiao Yu’s exploration fleet successfully entered orbit around Lost Star and dispatched landing forces onto its surface for further investigation.
The Lost Star still remained quiet, as though endless time had brought it no change at all. There were still piles of hydrogen, methane, dry ice, water, and the like, frozen into solids on its surface, flashing with strange light under the illumination of the exploration robots’ lighting equipment. It was dark and cold here, and an ancient, primitive aura filled all of the near-surface space.
The near-surface exploration robots did not discover anything unusual here, but in orbital space, the exploration equipment with the broader field of view detected a slight abnormality. Xiao Yu noticed that compared with the data from his last exploration of Lost Star, back when he had not yet destroyed the Sweepers Civilization, the number of meteor impact craters on Lost Star had decreased by about three percent. Moreover, the positions of several giant dry ice glaciers that had been slowly moving had retreated a little as well.
Xiao Yu understood very clearly what this meant. This was not a good sign. Xiao Yu’s mood became inexplicably heavier again.
Xiao Yu’s exploration fleet visited these planets one by one, but found nothing. The scientific value of these celestial bodies was not particularly great, so even the Xiao Yu of the past had not spent much effort on them.
After passing these planets, Xiao Yu’s fleet arrived at the Solar System’s first true major planet, Neptune. Neptune was a vast planetary system, with many moons of various sizes orbiting it. Xiao Yu knew much more about Neptune. After carrying out a thorough exploration of Neptune, Xiao Yu’s mood sank again.
Neptune was not greatly different from the data Xiao Yu had previously explored. In fact, several million years was really not a very long period of time for stellar evolution. Even if Neptune had also experienced time reversal, several million years was still not enough to cause too great a change in Neptune. But a tiny subtle change was already enough for Xiao Yu to detect it.
For example, one of Neptune’s moons, because it was constantly being pulled by Neptune’s gravity, had already shown some signs of instability in its geological structure. There were volcanoes and earthquakes on it, and mountain-building movements as well. The hot underground magma surged out, melting the dry ice and water ice on its surface, creating something like fountains there.
After taking measurements, Xiao Yu confirmed that this moon’s geological activity had decreased by a few tenths of a percent compared to before. This meant that time on it had also undergone a certain amount of reversal. Its instability should have been slowly increasing over time, and now it had become a bit more stable, which naturally meant that time on it had reversed. And the degree to which its geological activity had declined matched Xiao Yu’s predictions exactly.
Aside from these things, Xiao Yu also discovered that on several of the other moons, the number of meteor impact craters had decreased slightly, and the massive cyclones on Neptune were also returning, at normal speed according to Xiao Yu’s predicted data, to the positions they should have occupied several million years earlier.
This too was not a good sign.
“It can now be confirmed that time reversal has occurred within the Milky Way.” Xiao Yu thought silently. The discoveries within the Solar System had thoroughly shattered the last bit of pining for luck in Xiao Yu’s heart. Now Xiao Yu’s hope was reduced to only one thing. That was that even if time really had been reversed, primitive apemen still existed on Earth. As long as primitive apemen existed, Xiao Yu would be able to prove that he truly had once existed here.
Two million five hundred thousand years ago, primitive apemen had already appeared on Earth. Divided by region, there were Yuanmou Man, Lantian Man, Peking Man, Java Homo erectus, and so on. That was an age when mammoths and saber-toothed tigers roamed freely. But even at that time, ancient humans had already displayed their uniqueness. They chose to walk upright and had mastered fire and simple stone tools.
Primitive apemen could not yet be considered true humans, but there was already not much difference between their genes and those of modern humans. As long as they existed, Xiao Yu would be able to prove what he wanted to understand.
With some unease in his heart, Xiao Yu’s fleet continued onward. After crossing Neptune came the orbit of Uranus. But Uranus was currently on the other side of the Sun, so Xiao Yu did not go explore it. Instead, he slightly altered his trajectory and advanced toward Saturn’s orbit.
Saturn’s moon, Titan, was Xiao Yu’s second important exploration target after Earth. This place was almost equivalent to Xiao Yu’s second homeland. Back then, it was precisely by using Titan as a stepping stone that Xiao Yu evolved from interplanetary navigation into the stage of interstellar navigation.
Xiao Yu’s exploration ship successfully entered Titan’s orbit and landed on it. What appeared before Xiao Yu was a somewhat dark sea. Titan also had tides. The crashing waves continuously struck the shore, and the sound was carried through Titan’s dense atmosphere into the sensory instruments of the exploration robots.
Titan had never changed. Here, Xiao Yu sent out the preset activation key for the Titan base, but after waiting for a moment, Xiao Yu received no response.
Just as Xiao Yu had expected, all of the bases and all of the buildings he had once constructed on Titan had vanished without a trace. Xiao Yu arrived at the Shangdu Region on Titan, but Shangdu Region was only a flat stretch of open ground, empty and vast. Only a few small lakes composed of liquid methane lay there quietly, without any sign that anyone had ever set foot there.
Xiao Yu was not willing to leave just like that, and instead turned his gaze toward those giant methane lakes and methane seas. After successfully creating several heat sources, the scene Xiao Yu had been hoping for appeared.
It was a vast dense tide of Black Bugs. Endless black insects crawled out of the methane lakes and desperately crawled toward those heat sources.
“These are Black Bugs…” After capturing some of the black insects and carrying out a detailed analysis, Xiao Yu confirmed this. These were without question the same Black Bugs he had once encountered and captured, the ones whose corpses he had used to manufacture spaceships.
This was the first living thing that matched Xiao Yu’s memories. At this point, Xiao Yu’s spirits finally lifted a little.
Titan had also clearly undergone time reversal, but the history of these Black Bugs obviously extended far longer than just two million five hundred thousand years. So even though time had reversed by so much, these Black Bugs still existed.
After leaving behind some exploration instruments on Titan, this exploration fleet of Xiao Yu continued onward and arrived at Jupiter’s orbit. Just as Xiao Yu had expected, within Jupiter, there was not a single one of those primitive Specter Race beings, the Jovian Phantoms.
Beyond Jupiter’s orbit was the asteroid belt, and beyond the asteroid belt was Mars. The present Mars was a little different from the Mars in Xiao Yu’s memory, because all the meteor impact craters of various sizes caused by the enormous quantity of meteor impacts from Earth’s explosion had vanished from Mars, and the phenomenon of its atmosphere being stripped away due to the Jupiter-Moon Collision had also disappeared. The current Mars seemed to have reset itself, returning to its original appearance.
Beyond Mars was Xiao Yu’s homeland, Earth.
At this moment, Xiao Yu’s emotions tightened to the utmost. Earth still showed the same faint blue color as before, with some white filling the spaces between the blue, but there was not much green.
Xiao Yu’s heart sank slightly. Xiao Yu knew very clearly that the blue was seawater, and the white was all glaciers.
Without question, Earth had already retreated back into the Ice Age.
Although this disappointed Xiao Yu, he had at least been mentally prepared, so it did not create too much emotional fluctuation. After examining Earth’s overall condition, Xiao Yu dispatched his landing forces.
“Whether it is Peking Man, Yuanmou Man, Lantian Man, or Homo erectus, it does not matter. As long as I can find humanity’s ancient ancestors here…” Xiao Yu silently prayed in his heart.