Chapter 138: Experiment_1

Now, the location of the "Black Cube" is known as "Black Cube Base."

Inside the base, there is a platform that offers a full view of the top surface of the "Black Cube."

Thirty-Six on the platform was somewhat shocked, because the "Black Cube" was too special, not only large but also exceptionally regular, standing out distinctively in the desert.

Jiang Yu asked, "Do you have any thoughts?"

Thirty-Six counter-asked, "Do you remember the stone I gave you five years ago?"

Jiang Yu nodded, understanding that Thirty-Six was suggesting that the "Black Cube" might be a special form of life that surpasses human understanding of life.

He explained, "Although within a certain range, one can feel that the 'Black Cube' seems to be alive, we haven't found any signs of life on it."

Thirty-Six pinched his chin and asked, "Is it solid or hollow?"

The white-haired Wu Zheng said, "Sorry, we haven't been able to find any clues yet.

"However, we speculate that it probably has a hollow structure."

After waking up from hibernation, it was only from Di Fengyi that Jiang Yu learned Wu Zheng was actually only in his fifties, despite his prematurely white hair making him appear much older.

Jiang Yu said helplessly, "I lean towards the 'Black Cube' having an internal space, so try to think in that direction."

In his mind, he thought, well, it wasn't so much "leaning" as stating a fact.

After some thought, Thirty-Six said, "Have you heard of a hypothesis in biology that the human body is very much like a chimera?

"Firstly, the functions of the human body are powerful and seem notably different from other organisms on Earth. The most crucial point is that all humans today are descendants of the same great mother who lived over a hundred thousand years ago!

"Many scholars speculate that humans may have been modified?

"It's because that mother was so exceptional that the tribe inheriting her superior genes survived.

"Could this 'Black Cube' unveil a piece of unknown history for us?"

Jiang Yu sighed, "If that's really the case, it's pretty disappointing."

What are humans? Are we just playthings of a higher civilization?

Or did some alien migrants actually come from the "Black Cube," and in order to adapt to life on Earth, they fused their own genes with those of Earthlings?

Then what exactly does humanity belong to? Descendants of aliens? Or a hybrid of alien and Earth life?

If what Thirty-Six speculated was true, then the essence of humanity would undergo a tremendous change.

Wu Zheng, who had been listening all the while, suddenly said, "We now have some vague evidence that the 'Black Cube' isn't significantly related to humans.

"However, it's quite late today; I'll show the evidence to you tomorrow."

He paused, then added, "I've also heard of the hypothesis that the superior physical functions of humans are likely the result of evolution, with optimized food providing us an advantage.

"Take our appendix, for example; it's a remnant from when we were omnivores, used to digest leaves and such.

"Now we directly eat grains and meat, with one meal today having more energy than ten pounds of food in the past, so naturally, our bodily functions are superior to those wild animals!"

Jiang Yu smiled and said, "Guessing in different directions might lead us to new inspiration."

He then said to Wu Zheng, "It looks like you guys have made some significant breakthroughs."

Wu Zheng also smiled and said, "Thanks to the ideas you provided us."

He paused, then added, "I can now report on the results of our experiments with the 'Black Cube.'

Jiang Yu nodded and gestured for him to continue speaking.

So, on the platform, Wu Zheng reported, "We have used more than five hundred types of solvents, corrosive liquids, high-temperature fluids, and so on, in experiments on the 'Black Cube.'

"Pouring liquid aluminum onto the 'Black Cube', the contact surface briefly emitted blue light."

"Pouring molten iron onto the 'Black Cube', the contact surface briefly emitted red light."

"Pouring ginger juice onto the 'Black Cube' would produce white bubbles, but there were no other changes on the surface of the 'Black Cube'."

"Only these three high-temperature liquids or organic liquids caused changes on the 'Black Cube'; there were no changes with any others."

Jiang Yu thought to himself how thorough their experiments had been, to even try ginger juice.

Wu Zheng said, "We originally planned to use these three reactions as a starting point to further understand the 'Black Cube', or to stimulate further reactions from it."

"But all subsequent attempts failed. Except for these three liquids, the Black Cube did not react at all."

"Therefore, we tried to summarize the common properties of these three liquids in the hope of finding some clues."

"Iron and aluminum are manageable to categorize; they're both metallic substances. But how can ginger juice be grouped with molten aluminum and iron?"

Jiang Yu nodded, acknowledging the difficulty of the problem.

The presence of ginger juice was like gravity among the four fundamental forces of nature—unique and difficult to unify with the other three forces.

Thirty-Six then asked, "Have you tried any low-temperature liquid gases?"

Wu Zheng replied, "We have tested five types of liquid gases, including oxygen and hydrogen; there were no reactions. However, we could confirm that the surface temperature of the 'Black Cube' would decrease when in contact with these low-temperature liquid gases."

Thirty-Six pondered for a moment and shook his head, "This discovery only proves that the external structure of the 'Black Cube' has a temperature response!"

Wu Zheng nodded, as they had also arrived at this singular clue.

Jiang Yu speculated, "Could it be that some component within the 'Black Cube' reacts with aluminum, iron, and ginger upon contact?"

"We've considered this direction as well," Wu Zheng said with a wry smile. "But we haven't found any material that corresponds to all three types of reactions, either together or separately."

Jiang Yu pinched his forehead, "I'm completely baffled!"

In contrast, Thirty-Six said, "This may indeed prove that the surface of the 'Black Cube' might contain natural substances, which is why it reacts with these three liquids.

"Or perhaps the composition of the 'Black Cube's surface is capable of reacting with certain natural substances, meaning its material composition would not be beyond our understanding."

Wu Zheng nodded as if that made sense.

Wu Zheng then reported, "Over the past five years, we've used more than a hundred types of drill bits in the hopes of forcefully destructing the 'Black Cube', including over a dozen that we designed ourselves.

"A few drill bits indeed created some scratches on the 'Black Cube', and we collected the powder from around the scratches."

"Unfortunately, most of the powder was from the drill bits, making it hard to distinguish from the material scraped off the 'Black Cube'."

"We noticed that the powder's mass was heavier than ordinary metal powder. The heavier material should be from the 'Black Cube'."

"But despite using high-resolution microscopes, dissolving methods, and electromagnetic separation, we were unable to find anything scraped off from the 'Black Cube'."

Jiang Yu lit a cigarette, "Now that's strange. Could the particles scraped off the 'Black Cube' be very small?"

Wu Zheng said, "We guessed as much. The particles are small yet heavier than metal.

"Another theory was that the material scraped off the 'Black Cube' and the drill bits were made of the same material.

"But that theory was dismissed since the materials of different drill bits are not the same; there is no reason that the composition of the scraped off material would be changing!"

Jiang Yu sighed, "Five years of research, and the mystery has only deepened."

Wu Zheng laughed, "We did, however, develop several alloys of extremely high hardness, so there is some gain there."

He paused, then added, "Moreover, we've found another direction to unravel the mystery of the 'Black Cube'.

"The indigenous tribe in the desert you asked us to look for—we found them. Indeed, we discovered some clues from them!"