At this very moment.
Inside the NBDX laboratory.
Gazing at the images transmitted back by the particle imaging equipment.
The entire site instantly fell silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
In the images.
The number of fox skeletons on the spatial surface was immense, with at least two hundred visible to the naked eye.
Combining with the clues previously discovered by Lu Chaoyang and others, it's not difficult to make this judgment:
The space beneath this icy coffin is the mythical land of ancient legends, the Demon Fox Ancestral Court mentioned in countless unofficial historical records....
Qingqiu!
Or more accurately, it's a ruined Qingqiu.
Whether it's the withered trees in the distance or the ruins and fox skeletons on the ground.
They all indicate that this mythical place has long been extinct for countless years.
If it weren't for Panghu... no, if it weren't for the concept of Spiritual Energy being introduced to the homeland.
Qingqiu might never have seen the light of day—according to Academician Pan, the exit point torn open by zero-point energy was 'self-healing'.
It might take decades or even centuries to fully recover.
By then, no cold air would seep out from within the icy coffin, and the temperature of the cave would gradually return to normal.
The warmth would cause the ice to melt, the external wind and sand would blow in, even footprints could be covered and buried.
By then, even if someone discovered the icy coffin.
They wouldn't know what happened here in the distant past.
Much less know that within the icy coffin, another version of an alternative ancient history obliterated by time was buried.
The sight returned to reality.
The scene of desolate barrenness cast a thin layer of gloom over everyone's hearts, and a thought simultaneously arose in the hearts of almost everyone:
How did Qingqiu decline?
Was it natural demise, or external invasion?
Why didn't they escape from this space?
And the owner of the footprint found beside the icy coffin, what connection do they have with Qingqiu Space?
Just an ordinary clan member?
Or an elite Fox Demon?
Or perhaps....
The Master of Qingqiu?
And just when the atmosphere in the scene was somewhat gloomy, Wang Qiang suddenly clapped her hands:
"Wait, I think I understand!"
The sound of clapping in the laboratory was quite clear, thus quickly attracting everyone's attention.
The academic atmosphere of the Fire Camp was not that serious, and the rules were relatively relaxed.
Team members could express their thoughts freely anytime—as long as it doesn't affect normal work,
for example, if everyone is intensely analyzing samples, and you suddenly suggest having a spicy duck-blood casserole for dinner, you'd surely get knocked on the head.
As for Lin Li, he knew his disciple quite well—although this rebellious disciple would often talk nonsense and had a wild imagination, he was usually sensible when it mattered.
Thus, he didn't reprimand Wang Qiang for not respecting her elders, but instead, with a hint of curiosity asked:
"Xiao Wang, what did you understand?"
Wang Qiang raised her eyelids to look at him and said:
"Teacher, do you remember the records we found about Qingqiu?"
Without waiting for Lin Li to answer, Wang Qiang began to recite softly:
"For example, the 'Yuanhe Junxianzhi' records, 'It's said that the initial establishment of the county lies south of the Pu River, often tunneled by Divine Foxes'.
Or as noted in the 'Heze County Records', 'Fox holes have no trace to follow, moving restlessly, unbearably cold'..."
After Wang Qiang finished speaking, Lin Li reminisced briefly and affirmed:
"Indeed, there are such records."
Wang Qiang nodded slightly, and continued to explain:
"Teacher, did you notice?
In the records we collected, the entrance to Qingqiu is not fixed.
Almost every place at the junction of Central State and Haida has witnessed 'Qingqiu entrances', according to records.
Besides that.
The concept of Qingqiu's severe coldness is deeply rooted in people's minds, almost every ancient text mentions it, which clearly isn't a normal thing."
Saying this, Wang Qiang pointed to the big screen, where a hotspot top-view map inside the icy coffin was shown, and the colors near the entrance were the darkest:
"Currently, we can confirm that the bottom of the icy coffin is a dimensional entrance, not connected to the ground in reality.
Just like how it can move from Panghu Cave to our camp, as long as you have the strength, you can carry the icy coffin anywhere, even to Tianshang Star with no problem.
Think about it, everyone.
Doesn't this completely align with the descriptions of Qingqiu in the ancient texts?—It wasn't that Qingqiu had many entrances, but that the icy coffin often changed position!
Sometimes it moved to Heze, and someone in Heze recorded finding the entrance.
Sometimes it moved to Shangqiu, and Shangqiu recorded that monsters came.
As for the reason behind Qingqiu's coldness, it's even simpler, the environment inside Panghu Cave explains everything."
Finally, Wang Qiang snapped her fingers and concluded:
"With an analysis like this, doesn't the Qingqiu entrance match the rumors in ancient texts perfectly?
It's just that what the ancients saw were appearances, leading to assumptions, whereas we have discovered the truth."
Just as Wang Qiang said.
In the past period, the exploration of Qingqiu on the homeland side had never ceased.
After all, unlike the Damo Realm.
The homeland currently had limited research targets, leaving few options besides Qingcheng Mountain Celestial Palace.
Of course.
Nowadays, with the unfolding of Wu Long's Tomb and the Beast Breeding Program, the research direction on the homeland will gradually diversify, with more choices available.
However, before the discovery of Wu Long's Tomb and the other, the research direction on the homeland was indeed monotonous.
And monotony naturally meant more time for deep exploration.
While poring over ancient texts, the researchers on the homeland discovered two very peculiar things:
First, the entrances to Qingqiu were inconsistent, scattered like ant nests:
Various places in Haida and Central State claimed to have seen the entrance to Qingqiu, with the furthest even reaching Luoyang.
If you say Fox Demons can be seen everywhere that's one thing, but why also claim the Qingqiu entrance for oneself?
In ancient times, it wasn't like now, where tourist attractions desperately try to associate themselves with legends, fabricating some story of Laozi or Nuwa visiting if nothing can be found.
Take Erlang God, for instance.
Many places held sacrifices to Erlang God, but only two counties claimed to be the meridian hall of Erlang God.
Aside from the entrance, the second anomaly was Qingqiu's temperature:
Whenever Qingqiu is mentioned, cold always follows.
Such an impression has even extended to other areas, with TV dramas sometimes featuring extensive snow scenes as well.
People who know the inside story are aware that Qingqiu is near Haida, while those who don't might think it's in the Da Xing'an Ridge.
Right now, with Wang Qiang's analysis, many records in ancient texts have become smoothly explicated:
It wasn't that there were too many entrances to Qingqiu, but that Qingqiu's entrance could move anytime, and it emitted a chill itself.
Of course.
There comes another issue with this:
Why did all the foxes in Qingqiu have to keep moving the exit?
In the past two thousand years, Qingqiu was only sighted within this small circle at the junction of Central State and Haida.
Such range movement clearly didn't seem like evading an enemy—if really running, wouldn't moving to 4V be better, adding more justifications.
However, obviously, such a problem cannot be solved by mere speculation, moreover, the current tasks were already completed.
Thus after repeated verification, and collecting the gases inside Qingqiu, confirming the interior only possessed low-temperature conditions,
Lin Li and others made a decision:
To blast the remaining space and directly dispatch people to enter and collect information!
It was mentioned before.
Currently, the rabbits had no means to break a complete space seal.
But for incomplete space seals, using Xicc++ baryons and specialized photonic plasmas was the perfect solution. (It seems there has been some progress in high-energy level oscillations abroad, I'm still verifying the accuracy, it sounds a bit far-fetched, if true, it would be quite incredible.)
After twenty-five minutes.
With a burst of high-energy micro-oscillations, the entrance seal to Qingqiu was completely blasted open:
It was a bottomless pit, from which the breath of decayed years, accompanied by cold ice winds, surged out.
Who knows how many years later.
Qingqiu, this mythical land of ancient times.
Revealed its veil once again to the world, albeit in a 'dead' state.
...
Note:
Third update today, continuing the daily challenge....
