Iron Carapace

Two months later.

Bridge of the Hope.

It was a rare opportunity for Yi Kai to return to the Hope from the Wolf 1061 c Space Station. Having just completed a thorough investigation of various microorganisms, he rushed to the bridge to find Yue Yuan.

"Chief, it's basically confirmed that there is no Sentient Life." As soon as he arrived on the bridge, Yi Kai found an empty seat and plopped down.

"Basic? How basic?" Yue Yuan gave him a look.

"Ninety-nine percent."

Yi Kai leaned back in his chair to make himself more comfortable. "Recent research on various data suggests that the current stage of life evolution on this planet is roughly equivalent to 300 to 400 million years ago on Earth, between the Cambrian and Ordovician periods. If the evolution of Carbon-based life also has similarities to technological development..."

"Well, I said this mainly to make it easier for the Chief of Staff to understand. In fact, the evolution of life on the planet Wolf 1061 c is quite different from that on Earth. After all, the ecological environment is very different. I think there shouldn't have been so many woolly animals on Earth at that time."

"Geologists are still conducting excavation and analysis work on the bottom layer. They want to know if this planet has had a period of great prosperity and mass extinction similar to Earth. I think in another year or two, the geological history of this planet will be included in our database. By the way, Professor Bu Lianshi personally led the team to land and excavate."

"I know." Yue Yuan stood up and slowly took a step toward the porthole.

Although Yue Yuan generally doesn't pay attention to personal private lives, he did take notice of this Professor Bu Lianshi, mainly because she had just gotten married when she was widowed; her husband had died in the line of duty in Ross 154-4.

Therefore, Yue Yuan paid more attention to her situation.

Bu Lianshi now has a son and a daughter, which should be the result of Qin Xiansheng's double sedition before he left. However, Yue Yuan only paid a little attention to it and did not know whether she was looking for other men.

The Hope is quite open-minded in this regard, and its policies do not support women remaining widows indefinitely. After all, the new social norms have long held that widowhood is against human ethics.

Specifically, it discusses loneliness from two aspects: spiritual loneliness and physical loneliness.

These are all natural human feelings, and there's nothing to hide.

Of course, biologists have different views on the human body's desire for physical pleasure and loneliness. For example, Yi Kai believes that it is a manifestation of the human spirit being controlled by genes rather than the body.

However, despite saying this, Yi Kai has always enjoyed it and has not advocated "preserving heavenly principles and eliminating human desires". On the contrary, he believes that these are things that humans should retain. He believes that even if it comes to the point where it is possible to deceive genes, humans should still retain their desires.

Of course, there are also those who advocate 'abstaining from desires' to keep humans in a sage-like state, but it is too early to talk about these things now, since humans have not yet been able to edit genes at will.

At this moment, Yi Kai also got up and followed Yue Yuan's steps toward the porthole.

As he walked, he said, "In short, we've really struck gold this time. According to our initial deductions, it should still be in the stage of biological explosion. The biodiversity of this planet is so rich, it's as if it was prepared for a civilization like ours that has lost its home planet."

There are all sorts of creatures, can you imagine? Just recently, we discovered a creature with incredibly high resistance to impact. Its bone density is extremely high, and its internal skeletal structure is vastly different from that of humans. We tested it with a blunt object; a 30G instantaneous acceleration impact left it completely unharmed. After rolling over, it continued to behave normally, eating and drinking as usual—it's practically a miracle.

It was indeed a miracle. Yue Yuan knew that Yi Kai's point was not that this creature's body structure could withstand high-G impacts, but rather that it had a brain.

It's truly a miracle that such high acceleration didn't cause brain damage.

Yi Kai walked to the porthole in a few steps, rested his hands on it, and continued, "There is another type of arthropod whose carapace has a very high proportion of metallic elements, almost as hard as steel. It's an evolution against the heavens. If it continues to evolve like this, I wouldn't be surprised if it one day evolves into Steel Body."

Yes, we've dissected it. This organism's stomach contains a magical liquid that can easily break down iron. Its cell structure is extremely unique, and it can use this broken-down iron as a compound for synthesis, just like having an iron alloy synthesis factory.

That's how their carapaces formed— True God. If these creatures aren't exceptional, fossils of their ancestors have been found in geological strata during surveys; those Iron Carapace probably wouldn't be considered fossils then.

It's definitely not called a fossil.

Yue Yuan knew about this; it happened just a few days ago.

The discoverers were the Bu Lianshi team. At the time, they were conducting preliminary excavations in the strata of the planet Wolf 1061, and they found a rusty iron lump on every dig. They didn't dig very deep before they unearthed it.

At first, they thought they had unearthed the Civilization Ruins. However, after reporting back to headquarters and searching the database with "Tianhe Light," they discovered that there was a creature in the orbital Space Station that had just been captured and kept there for a short time and had the appearance of a lump of iron.

Later, after component analysis, it was discovered that the iron lump was actually the carapace of that creature.

This discovery has not only refreshed humanity's understanding of living things, but also our understanding of the starry sky.

Based on this discovery, some scientists speculate that there may indeed be a type of creature in the universe that can travel through the cosmos on its own.

Although this speculation was only uttered briefly before being overwhelmed by questions about the conditions required for the survival of various organisms, it still proved the wonder of the universe from another perspective.

Indeed, it's not reasonable to say that such a creature can survive in space just because it has an iron shell. In addition to considering the creature's basic needs such as eating, drinking, and excretion, we also need to consider many other factors such as air pressure, environment, and radiation. Furthermore, we need to consider how such a creature can escape the Planetary Gravity.

"There's another piece of good news, and two pieces of news that aren't too bad." Yi Kai took the water bottle that Long Xiaolin handed him, opened it, took a sip to moisten his throat, and then continued, "The good news is that the DNA of the organisms on this planet also has a double helix structure."

"The first piece of news, which isn't too bad, is that the DNA of most animals and microorganisms on this planet is predominantly left-handed. The second piece of news, which isn't too bad, is that we discovered that the biological enzymes on this planet are predominantly Dextrorotatory Enzyme."

Human DNA is right-handed, while enzymes in the Earth's biosphere are mostly left-handed. Wolf c-1, however, is the opposite: biological DNA is left-handed, while enzymes in the biosphere are mostly right-handed.

This is indeed bad news.