Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 529 Data Analysis, Biological Anatomy, The Way Out for the Lord of Twilight

The dedicated line takes two hours and twelve minutes to travel from Tianhe Base to Xingdun Star City. The electromagnetic wave communication time is approximately 2.2 milliseconds, while the fiber optic communication time is 3 milliseconds.

Many people believe that wired is faster than wireless, but this is actually incorrect. Because optical fiber has a refractive index of 1.5, the transmission speed of optical signals in optical cables is only two-thirds of the speed of light in a vacuum.

When the first batch of data arrived at the research base in Star Shield New City, all the research institutes were in an uproar.

Science students have their own research topics, and humanities students have their own explorations.

The base was brightly lit from then on.

The Institute of Social Sciences, the Institute of History, the Institute of Culture, the Institute of Paleography, and the Office for the Analysis of Star Civilizations have chosen to merge their offices in the central hall.

Bright lights filled the open space, and more than two hundred screens on three sides displayed various pictures and videos taken from the old caves of the Dragon Clan in the Starry World.

Stone slabs, bone fragments, wooden tablets, animal hides, metal foil, audio recordings from sound-recording stones, and thin books woven from unknown plant fibers... all sorts of images were presented to the expert team in a powerful and impactful manner, categorized by type.

Heavy breathing filled the air, occasionally broken by a low-pitched exclamation that drew disapproving sidelong glances from the others. Upon discovering it was the lab's senior mentor, they could only reluctantly let it go.

For several hours, the elderly professor remained hunched over the screen, constantly zooming in and out of the images. Every now and then, he would brush his gray hair aside with his finger or adjust the frames of his glasses that had slipped down his nose.

Zhao Mingyuan, 67, was once a leading expert in the field of history at Dongxia University and is now a leading figure in the field of deciphering ancient books.

"Teacher Zhao, have some water..."

"Shut up!"

The old professor quickly searched through the historical archives and soon retrieved several pictures.

It was a stone slab obtained from the ruins of the Elven royal court. Although its color, shape, and even texture were significantly different from the one in the picture, Professor Zhao still found some clues from the direction of the lines.

He held his breath, combined the two images, and then adjusted the angle and proportions little by little.

The experts' extreme patience, coupled with years of dedication to sifting through countless historical records, finally led to the completion of this matching set among millions of archives.

"That's it!"

“These pieces have been weathered in very different environments, resulting in significant differences in their shapes, but the extension lines at the ends of the lines basically match, so they are from the same piece of stone.”

By connecting the missing parts with virtual lines, a simple line drawing with staggered lines appears on the screen.

"This is... a map?"

The assistant beside him followed the instructions and carefully adjusted the thickness of the lines, gradually making the pattern a seamless whole.

The old professor's finger hovered above the screen, slowly moving along the winding marks, as if touching a memory that had been shattered and sealed away for countless years.

"That's right, it's a map."

"It's a map of the starry world."

Suddenly, all the heads around the workbenches swarmed over.

On this piece of stone, which had been pieced together and then supplemented, the lines finally revealed a relatively clear outline.

In the middle is a vast, irregularly shaped continent, with mountain ranges as two thin lines and a river as a thick line, meandering across the continent.

The Dongxia team, which had already completed the initial mapping and satellite photography of the mainland, immediately recognized the vertical, curved double line in the middle as the spine of a giant dragon.

"Is this the Starry Continent from ancient records?"

"Was it left behind by elves or dragons?"

"It's more likely to be a dragon. This crude painting style is extremely similar to the technique used in the rubbing of the previously identified dragon remnant, numbered XY-4071. Look at how this creature is depicted!"

Indeed, on this continent outlined by lines, the forms of several creatures are symbolically drawn. They are quite abstract, but the pointed face with pointed ears is instantly recognizable as representing the elves.

The elf himself would never draw himself to look this ugly.

Everyone's gaze shifted to the right side of the map, which was east of the Starry Continent, on the other side of the empty, endless sea.

Here, there is a circle of slightly messy lines.

Judging from its location, it is the Misty Continent.

On that continent, there were also several small, simple-line-style carvings.

There are people, beasts, and monsters...

The human figures were drawn extremely hastily, with a circle representing the head, several straight lines representing the limbs, and the torso simply a small triangle. Strangely, almost all the human figures had a dot on their chest, whether for marking or decoration was unclear.

"So, there are humans on the Misty Continent, or at least there used to be?"

"Holy crap, why didn't the main lineage of the dragon clan leave any records of this? Instead, they left half of the design with Silvermoon."

Who knows?

Zhao Mingyuan slowly straightened up. "History is inherently shrouded in mystery, waiting for us to uncover it little by little."

"Reporting to the [Compassionate Journey] Command!"

This significant discovery has greatly inspired the team. Going forward, this batch of precious old cave data will be continuously compared and integrated with existing data, striving to gradually unveil the mysteries of the ancient Star Continent.

Of course, besides official history, there are also many anecdotes from rural areas in the records.

For example, some of the lengthy dialogues extracted from the audio of "Dragon Language Stones" are about a dragon couple who have a fierce confrontation and argument because the color of their child is wrong. The argument even escalates to the point of asking the gods to witness.

As a result, the gods ignored them.

Both sides used very vulgar language, and in an era without paternity testing, this matter likely became an unsolved mystery that could never be proven...

For example, in a record left by a giant race that is suspected to have disappeared, a branch of the giant race called the Furnace Giants eventually became extinct on the continent, due to an extremely sad story.

There was originally no conflict between giants and humans.

Giants don't demand much territory, their food sources differ, and there's really nothing about giants that humans can actually use. At most, some human nobles and lords would use the heads and hearts of giants they hunted as decorations to flaunt their bravery.

Sadly, these furnace giants, like the dwarves, were skilled at crafting equipment, and because of their size and strength, only they were able to forge some protective gear for the dragons.

For example, armor to cover the weak points of a dragon's abdomen, or a meteor hammer covered with spikes to cover the dragon's tail.

Then, because they coveted the materials from the dragon bodies, and because the Forge Giants were clearly disadvantageous to humans in attacking dragons, the humans gathered a large number of lords and launched a large-scale extermination, wiping out this gentle Forge Giant race.

The final record of the Forge Giant is filled with anger and bewildered questioning.

"why?"

What did we do wrong?

The deciphering of this document filled the researchers with a profound sense of sorrow.

However, this is the absurdity and cruelty of history.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Liberal arts students are studying history and culture diligently.

The science students next door, after thoroughly warming up their bodies and familiarizing themselves with the information, immediately began their eager disposal of the dragon's corpse as soon as it arrived.

This is the carcass of a sub-dragon, designated YL002. It measures 37 meters in length, has a wingspan exceeding 55 meters, and weighs an estimated 130 tons. Even in the largest central operating room in the history of Earth, this carcass cannot be fully extended.

As a last resort, before entering the operating room, Yalong's enormous wings were cut off, and the main body and membranous wings were sent to different giant conveyor belts.

On both sides, there were densely packed robotic arms, which, under the command of several leading biologists and medical experts, began to perform the dissection, one cut at a time.

Standing at the front was a female academician from the Institute of Paleontology. The elderly lady had been working for more than eight hours straight and was supposed to be taking a break, but as soon as she heard that a large group of people had arrived at the laboratory, she rushed to the scene, bumped past her students, and took the lead in standing at the front.

At that moment, her surging energy was like that of a vibrant young girl.

Her slightly hoarse voice never stopped as she looked at the screen.

"Here, cut along this line, yes, with a water jet." That's why he's an expert; his awareness is definitely a step ahead.

Traditional medical surgeries, including anatomical procedures, use high-speed drills, ultrasonic bone scalpels, or reciprocating oscillating saws, but never water jets.

Firstly, these items provide very clear tactile feedback in a doctor's hands. When the tool penetrates a piece of tissue, the feel changes noticeably, prompting the doctor to adjust the pressure in time.

Secondly, there are micro-vibration cutting techniques like ultrasonic scalpels, which are effective against hard surfaces but not soft ones. They can break bones with a single cut while leaving soft tissues and blood vessels unharmed, making them extremely safe in certain surgical categories.

However, nowadays, when cutting such a behemoth, it's not a human hand wielding the knife, but a machine. So, tactile feedback is completely meaningless, and the advantages of water jet cutting—no heat and no vibration—become very obvious.

High-pressure water jets from the nozzle with a low hiss, precisely tracing the limb along a pre-set trajectory. Soon, a high-precision scan of the cross-section of the bone is projected onto a large screen.

"The axial skeleton is very strong. It is not solid, but has a porous structure similar to a honeycomb, which greatly reduces the weight while ensuring hardness and toughness."

"No wonder he's so strong and has such good weight control; it must be a unique feature that evolved to allow him to fly."

The laser pointer's spot fell onto another image.

“Look here, at the junction of the pterygoid bone and the trunk, there are three sets of auxiliary bone plates that we have never seen before. The surface of these plates is covered with a thick layer of gelatinous soft tissue, which is distributed radially. I understand that their function is to provide cushioning.”

"When the dragon dives and lands or makes a sharp turn, its enormous weight and impact force are all applied to the skeletal structure. However, the soft tissue on these sets of bone plates has an extremely high compression ratio, which can absorb and disperse the impact force step by step!"

"It's simply a miracle of biological structure!"

A researcher walked quickly over, holding a newly printed report in his hand.

"Professor Shen, the microstructure of the scales has been revealed."

"The outermost stratum corneum has a hardness close to that of the best armor steel; the middle layer is a composite structure of collagen and a certain mineral, with excellent toughness; the innermost layer is close to the dermis and is full of capillaries and nerve endings."

“So,” the old lady took the report, raising an eyebrow, “this thing is not only armor, but also a sensor?”

"Yes. We speculate that the dragons can sense air pressure, temperature, vibrations, and even faint psionic fluctuations in the starry world through their scales. In dense fog, at night, or even underwater, they can detect subtle changes in their surroundings without needing eyes."

"These are natural hunters; the harsher the environment, the more advantageous it is for them!"

As the dissection progressed, more and more incredible structures were revealed.

Yalong's circulatory system has a dual-core configuration.

It uses two hearts for dual blood transfusion: one is located in the center of the chest cavity, tightly protected by the ribs, and mainly supplies blood to the brain and wings; the other is hidden inside the pelvis, mainly serving the hind limbs and tail.

Each of the two cores is connected to a circulatory system, ensuring comprehensive blood supply throughout the body. They also have interconnected components, allowing for mutual replacement in case of emergency.

"In the video footage provided from the front lines, large-caliber sniper rifles fired continuously, blasting the hearts of some dragons. As a result, these guys were still able to launch attacks, which must be the reason for this strange phenomenon."

"The dual-circulation system has a shorter output and energy supply path and higher output efficiency. The entire circulation path from the heart pumping blood out to the completion of energy supply and return is shortened by more than 60% compared to the single-circulation system. No wonder such a large body has such good reaction and agility."

There are also breathtaking respiratory organs, highly efficient heating and cooling systems, a bizarre and complex telencephalon structure, and a twisted and well-developed cerebellar vermis structure...

In summary, the entire dissection revealed that the dragon's body structure was within the physical limits that the expert team could comprehend. Those aspects exceeding these limits were addressed using psionic energy and magic as supplementary aids.

Just like how ordinary people can't hit the bullseye every time, we believe that people with similar physical abilities can do it, and even if the target is moved to a position where we can't see it, they can still do it with a telescope.

The body structure of the Yalong is completely beyond the biological characteristics that experts can understand. With an inconceivable structure and mechanism, it has penetrated the numerical limits that the biology of Earth can comprehend.

It's like when you're shooting at a target, it suddenly sticks out a long tongue, sends the gun half a meter away from the target, and fires, hitting the target.

This thing doesn't seem to be a type of creature like us...

"My understanding is that this thing doesn't seem to be a native species of the planet, or at least it has some other genes mixed in."

"It's a pity there's no living specimen, otherwise we could have learned much more from its bodily reactions and intelligence."

The old lady clapped her hands: "Let's forget about it. If we bring a live one over, how can we control it? What if something goes wrong?"

"Anyway, judging from the combat data they provided, they don't seem to be very intelligent, and they're driven by very typical first instincts..."

"Stop the small talk, let's continue!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The institute's work has only just begun, and the expert team still has a long way to go to continue advancing.

Upon learning that the remains of an alien dragon had been transported to Earth, Belial, the Lord of Twilight, submitted a report to the Eastern Xia Command overnight.

Beria's life during this period was, well, a mix of joy and sorrow, filled with unease.

Fortunately, he encountered a lawful good force. Whether he admits it or not, encountering such a force is certainly not the worst option.

Although he believed he might achieve greater success if he landed on a bald eagle, he also feared he might die even faster.

The bad thing is that he himself is a "bad person".

That's right. Although he was dressed in a dark gray summer outfit with his buttons neatly fastened, and his expression, posture, and habitual gesture of blowing on his tea before drinking it all resembled that of an Eastern Xia person, he knew he wasn't.

Belial's biggest problem is not that he interfered with Chen Mo's teleportation channel, but that he did some things in his dark past in the Starry Sky that did not conform to the current mainstream values ​​of Dongxia.

Therefore, although Dongxia appointed him as an advisor and listened to his suggestions and opinions, in reality, they always maintained a psychological distance from him.

The reason he wasn't tried or dealt with wasn't just because he could provide some value, but also because the Dongxia people genuinely believed that there was no extradition treaty or cross-legal agreement between Fanxing and Lanxing, which did not conform to the principle of personal and territorial jurisdiction, so they didn't deal with his crimes in the Fanxing world.

Thanks to the Dongxia people for their stubborn sense of rules!

But the Lord of Twilight was unwilling to just drift along like this.

A genius like him should shine brightly; how can he just quietly rot away?

During this period, the Lord of Twilight studied frantically, studying and studying some more. His desk was piled high with textbooks and materials in various languages, and his three electronic screens were on day and night. He read everything from advanced mathematics to quantum physics, from international law to geopolitics, from internet hot topics to expert analysis.

The Lord of Twilight only sleeps two hours a day, spending the rest of his time studying this completely unfamiliar knowledge.

Believe it or not, he actually found a way.

Dongxia has a high sense of morality, but that applies to its own people. In other words, if you are a member of Dongxia, your ability and morality will simultaneously determine your path to promotion.

But what if we look at it from a different angle? What if they weren't members of Dongxia, but rather Dongxia's underlings or partners?

Then Dongxia's strategy would instantly shift to extreme pragmatism.

Even if you kill countless people, and you wipe out the entire planet Earth, as long as you don't kill any Dongxia people or break any Dongxia laws, Dongxia can still treat you with respect.

Furthermore, if you bring tangible benefits to Dongxia as a result, you may even become an old friend of the people of Dongxia.

What a pragmatic set of values!

Looking outwards, this blue planet is a land of evil.

Some people speak nonsense, some call a deer a horse, some distort the truth, some are plunderers, and some are antisocial, anti-human, slaughtering women and children, and committing inhumanity...

However, outside of Dongxia, these actions went unpunished, and a large number of people even applauded and cheered for them, enthusiastically supporting them.

Isn't this practically the Twilight Tower's home turf?
The Lord of Twilight quickly shifted his perspective and found his place.

He, Belial, should fully utilize his intelligence to become someone who is not subordinate to the Dongxia entity, but whom Dongxia considers controllable, and who can bring benefits and value to Dongxia.

Although the implementation path was somewhat complex, Beria had been tirelessly thinking about and planning, and had maintained a high level of study for it.

He even taught himself almost all the mainstream languages ​​of Earth, including local languages ​​like Caliphate and Persian.

Now, he feels he has found an opportunity.

Beria anxiously awaited the report's approval.

The sky outside the window is awakening. The eastern horizon is tinged with the pale light of dawn, then slowly turns into light gold, orange-red, and finally a sky full of rosy clouds.

The sun rises in the east, illuminating the plains.

(End of this chapter)