Professor Huang is a seasoned heritage conservation expert from the Ancient Architecture Research Institute under Tongji University.

In this line of work, one must have an extremely rich knowledge reserve, and quick mental responses are also necessary.

For instance, upon seeing a certain carving, one must quickly identify its characteristics to ascertain its origin.

Thus, when he heard Chang Qixiang mention the Qinling Mountains, Professor Huang suddenly thought of another matter.

A matter that isn't particularly well-known even within the industry.

He raised his hand and said to Qin Zhendong:

"Secretary Qin, speaking of the Qinling Mountains, I remember an unresolved mystery in the history of ancient architecture."

Qin Zhendong perked up with interest upon hearing this:

"Oh? What unresolved mystery?"

Professor Huang organized his thoughts and said:

"Everyone should know that the center of the Qinling Mountains is in Shan Province.

And within Shan Province, there is a place called Phoenix Ancient Town—it's a town, not the Phoenix Ancient City in Xiang Province.

This ancient town has a relatively obscure unresolved mystery:

That is, almost all the buildings there are in Hui-style architecture, with white walls and gray tiles, and horse-head walls everywhere.

This ancient town is the only large concentration of Hui-style buildings in Shan Province.

You must understand, Shan Province and Huizhou Province are separated by a great bowl of stewed noodles.

In the context of ancient backgrounds and industry barriers, it's relatively difficult for a large architectural style congregation to cross provinces.

Although Phoenix Ancient Town was historically a major hub for north-south trade, this had little to do with the Huizhou merchants, and the Qin merchants of Shan Province were also very famous in ancient times.

However, ancient architecture research is relatively niche, and nowadays, even heritage conservation majors rarely attract applicants.

So, as time went by, this unresolved mystery received little attention, and even local people are unaware of it."

There was a hint of melancholy in Professor Huang's voice.

Indeed, as he said.

The heritage conservation major has been declining in recent years, with many universities canceling the major and funding decreasing.

Even many professors have been helplessly transitioning to other fields.

However, Professor Huang also understood that this occasion was not suitable for complaining about social trends, so he quickly adjusted his mood and continued:

"I personally believe that if one needs to research the relationship between Hui-style architecture and the Qinling Mountains, Phoenix Ancient Town might be a good starting point."

As Professor Huang mentioned, Phoenix Ancient Town has been a special case in heritage conservation, remaining difficult to explain clearly for many years.

If something similar happened in a certain area in Chang'an, it would be quite normal. After all, it's the ancient capital of thirteen dynasties, and at certain stages, it would make sense for nobles to favor Hui-style architecture.

But Phoenix Ancient Town is different; it is an ancient trade hub located in Shannan Shangluo, deep within the mountains.

Truth be told.

In the context of ancient backgrounds, this area's trade value was not low, but its cultural value was limited to that.

Moreover, it was a major stronghold for the Qin merchants, and historically, the footprints of the Huizhou merchants never left a deep impression here.

Phoenix Ancient Town, under Zhashui County, retains a large number of buildings in the style of the Qin merchants, except for this particular small area with a unique style.

This is like opening a Honor of Kings section in a professional League of Legends forum, the incongruity is striking.

With the potential connections between the Qinling Mountains, Hui-style architecture, and alternate dimensions, Professor Huang couldn't help but think of this ancient town.

Qin Zhendong nodded slightly afterward:

"No problem, I will report this matter to the core team.

If all goes well, our search direction may somewhat shift towards Huizhou and Phoenix Ancient Town next."

Even though he wasn't sure if there's a connection between the Celestial Palace ruins and the Qinling Mountains—or even if there's an alternate dimension on the Qinling side.

But as the saying goes, whether you hit the target or not, try a few shots; this kind of starting point is undoubtedly better than blindly searching.

The Qinling Mountains are considered Huaxia's dragon veins, akin to the spine of a human body.

Apart from its very special location, its geographic span isn't small at all.

Therefore, if one were to scan it conventionally, it would probably take at least a few months to sweep through the entire mountain range.

After discussing the differences in architectural styles, numerous experts gradually analyzed some other information.

They ultimately determined that the historical background of the main hall was from the Eastern Han Dynasty, precisely around AD 80-100.

As for questions like why the palace was built so large, this involved the subjective intentions of the builders, requiring some cultural background to judge.

Not long after the experts reached a consensus, Lin Ziming from Qingcheng Mountain delivered new information:

Academician Pan Jianwei and his team have prepared the experimental photons, and the entanglement observation can officially begin!

At this moment.

Inside the helicopter cabin.

A piece of equipment roughly 2X3 in size had been lifted and placed at the cabin entrance.

This is a photon polarization beam splitter, neither too large nor too small for indoor equipment, but highly challenging to operate.

Its square shape resembles a coffin board, and because it's often used for various peculiar but groundbreaking experiments, many researchers prefer to call it Newton's Tomb.

Its function, as its name suggests, is to conduct polarization state experiments.

As is well known.

In classical imagery, light is a transverse wave, with two degrees of freedom in the direction of vibration perpendicular to the direction of propagation.

In quantum mechanics, however.

Briefly speaking.

Due to the principle of quantum state superposition, only two mutually orthogonal directions need to be taken as the basis for the vibration direction to superpose any polarization state.

Well, the orthogonal here is not a physical position, but a state.

The polarization of photons is generally explained using the vibration direction of light waves, meaning that the spin of photons determines the polarization of light.

Simultaneously in the context of positive curvature, Rn is greater than 1 and infinite.

Thus, theoretically, as long as photons become entangled with the boundary, the device should be able to observe it.

Unless...

The boundary is independent of space and time.

This is an exceedingly important experiment, marking the first time in human history that a microscopic particle is used to anchor an entangled state.

Truth be told.

Even Academician Pan Jianwei himself doesn't know what will happen, or what data will be detected.

Outer universe?

Perturbation mapping?

Or some strange phase transition?

Or will photons disappear without causing even a ripple?

This is something that not even a resurrected Einstein, Planck, or Dirac could determine, and they wouldn't even know where to start guessing.

There's even the possibility that beyond the boundary lies outside the observable universe.

When photons, representing existing rules, collide with some unknown rules, it's entirely possible that the next second, a fundamental law of the original universe will alter—for instance, all cats suddenly turning into catgirls to repay your kindness.

It's indeed possible, akin to what people colloquially refer to as opening a blind box.

After one last round of equipment testing, Academician Pan Jianwei suddenly extended his arm toward Li Bai'an:

"Elder Li, look, I've got goosebumps."

Hearing this, Li Bai'an rolled up his sleeves too, revealing quite a few goosebumps on his arm:

"Same here."

The two exchanged a glance and burst into laughter.

It wasn't a matter of facing death with courage or boldness, but rather the excitement and joy of touching the unknown.

This is an experiment destined to be chronicled in textbooks, remarkable in value and nature alike.

Not just Academician Pan Jianwei and Li Bai'an.

Even this Zhi-18 helicopter and the laboring Wei Fan are destined to hold a place in the textbooks.

Then Academician Pan Jianwei exhaled deeply and said to Wei Fan:

"Clan Leader Wei, please go ahead."

Wei Fan waved his hand with a smile:

"Ah, it's just a small matter, we're all old friends, no need to be so polite, Academician Pan."

With that, he pulled up the measurement fiber with one hand, flew straight to the entrance, and stuffed it into the cavity.

On the opposite side of the entrance.

A tiny mobile port robot on standby proactively secured the fiber and slowly moved toward the edge.

During the earlier preparations, the fiber of sufficient length had already been placed inside the cabin.

This fiber is very fine, close to three kilometers in length, yet only about the size of a coffin board, allowing it to easily fit into the cabin.

The robot inside the entrance is even simpler.

Despite its small size, it is fully functional and can operate under various complex conditions.

It can work in environments as cold as -60 degrees Celsius, or even -120 degrees Celsius.

This device serves as an auxiliary mobile output terminal, somewhat akin to a satellite launch pad, providing fixation and calibration.

In fact, it can emit not only photons but also other negatively charged particles.

Originally, the researchers did not know the space was of positive curvature, so they simply prepared devices for all three curvature states.

Crunch, crunch, crunch—

The wheels of the port robot crushed over the gravel ground, advancing for about ten minutes before finally reaching the boundary on the left side.

With everything ready, detection began!

.....

Note:

The remaining two chapters might be posted around 6 AM tomorrow; I'm staying up late tonight to deal with something urgent.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.