The Ravages of Time

The laboratory left behind by the Hui civilization differed from the stargates. Rather than neutron-degenerate matter, it had been built from molecular materials and could therefore still be affected by chemical bonds.

The two Collectors used chemical coordination to etch a one-centimeter-wide hole into the laboratory's outer wall, then extended their already-grown roots through it and into the laboratory.

"Good. I'm inside. No abnormalities. Everything's normal."

The Collector that entered the laboratory first cautiously surveyed its surroundings. Only after carefully confirming that nothing was amiss did it inform its fellow kin, who had yet to act.

They were being so cautious mainly because they feared the laboratory's defensive mechanisms might still function. If they did, at most one Collector would die, while the other, which had not yet acted, could escape disaster and continue researching and probing the ruins of the Hui civilization.

The laboratory's interior was very dark, with no lighting whatsoever, much like the Hui civilization ruins on the Carterians' side.

Once the other Collector's roots had also penetrated the laboratory, the two Collectors began a net-like search of its interior.

That was not merely a figure of speech—it truly was a "net-like" search. Crisscrossing roots resembled the tangled root system of a tree, spreading across the floor, walls, ceiling, and even inside the walls themselves, weaving together into a vast net that continued to spread.

"Based on the information found in the Hui civilization ruins on the Carterians' side, these ruins belonged to a relatively high-ranking laboratory of the Hui civilization. It must contain detailed experimental records of the experiment that destroyed the Hui civilization."

"Eight hundred million years have passed. Even if such records existed, they're probably gone by now."

"That depends on what the Hui civilization used as the medium for their experimental records. If