Chapter 1224 An Ant Nest From Three Billion Years AgoOn the space elevator heading to Celestial City, Jiang Chen stood by the floor-to-ceiling window of the head cabin and overlooked the blue covered with white that slowly drifting away from his sight.

Recalling the leisure time he had on the island over these last two days, it was really a shame to end it early. However, considering the importance of Mine 071, he could only sigh.

A man walked to him.

“It’s the view beautiful?”

Jiang Chen turned his head and raised his eyebrows after he saw the man. Then, he smiled and said, “Oh it’s you, what a coincidence”.

Wu Changfeng smiled and said in a sly tone. “Because of work, I have to travel between Shangjing and Celestial City. I have had to spend at least a week in the space elevator this month.”

Jiang Chen chuckled and started chatting.

“Oh, is that medicine effective?”

“…I did become younger.” Wu Changfeng nodded and said emotionally, “Your technical capability is astounding. Maybe after another ten years, the world will yearn for the citizenship of your country.”

“Haha, you’re exaggerating.” Jiang Chen laughed.

It was indeed an over-exaggeration.

Even now, Xin citizenship was coveted by many around the world. In his next term, President Zhang Yaping would gradually tighten the immigration policy.

“Right, I brought a few questions from my country. I don’t know if Mr. Jiang can shed me some light?”

“Oh?” Jiang Chen asked. “What questions?”

“I heard that the project you’re carrying out in the Martian colony is… related to extraterrestrial civilization?”

“That is a rumor. All projects involving extraterrestrial civilization will be made public to the primary members of the Earth Defense Alliance and a vote must take place to device whether the information is disclosed to the secondary member states,” Jiang Chen immediately said righteously.

Wu Changfeng processed the information and laughed.

“Mr. Jiang misunderstood, I have no other intention than clarifying…”

After the space elevator arrived, Jiang Chen and Wu Changfeng bid farewell before Jiang Chen took the express train to the Space Department of Celestial Trade.

Wu Changfeng’s words made Jiang Chen ponder while he was inside the train.

Project 071 is closely linked to strong interaction materials and is one of the most confidential secrets of Celestial Trade. It is reasonable to say that no information from the project can be leaked. However, it seems that people have gotten wind of the project.

He did not think Major General Wu would have just casually asked him that question.

The major general did not come from a simple background. While he was from the Army, he came from the renowned General Staff Department Division Two. The name General Staff Department was not unfamiliar with Jiang Chen as it served as the intelligence of Hua’s Army. Its presence was seen in everything from internal affairs to foreign affairs, not only powerful but also comprehensive.

However, from Wu Changfeng’s tone, they seemed to have indeed gained some information, but they could not verify the accuracy…

“Even Hua heard some information. Then, the Russians must also be aware of this. Is it through the transportation ship’s supplies? Or something else…”

Just as Jiang Chen was internalizing this thought, the train had arrived.

Putting this problem aside, under the escort of soldiers, Jiang Chen walked out and headed to the Space Department.

…

In the conference room of the Space Command Center, the relevant members of Project 071 were already sitting around the table.

Everyone had a serious look on their face.

Once any problem had the label of “extraterrestrial civilization”, it would automatically escalate to Class A in the confidentiality ranking of Celestial Trade. However, at the establishment of Project 071, it was already classified as Class S confidential, which demonstrated the importance Celestial Trade placed on this project.

The door opened, and when Jiang Chen appeared at the door, all the top experts and researchers sat straight and stopped whispering.

Jiang Chen sat down at the head of the table, cleared his throat, and concisely said.

“Sorry, the elevator encountered a strong airflow in the troposphere and it was ten minutes late. Your time is precious, so let’s get started.”

Then, Jiang Chen looked at Kelvin.

Kelvin nodded and announced the beginning of the meeting.

The lights in the conference room dimmed, and it was absolutely silent.

“It was decided by the project team that the frontline staff will deploy drones into the hollow layer below Mine 071. According to the data from the bottom… it’s better for me to give you the diagram.” Kelvin pressed the control and then looked at people around the table. “By the way, this newly released 3D image is also classified as Class S.”

The three-dimensional graphics emerged.

The pale blue light particles appeared out of thin air. It formed countless straight lines, reciprocated in the air, and illustrated the Martian landscape map layer by layer. Immediately afterward, the light particles filled under the Martian geomorphic network map, all the way down, and finally twisted into a spiral image.

Everyone looked shocked.

“What is this?”

“An inconceivable shape.”

“The veins of a certain natural mineral? It’s not quite like…”

“Could it be an alkaline albite vein? Mars has experienced large-scale volcanic activity, as evidenced by rock specimens shipped back from the colony. Considering the acidic environment of Mars, it is likely to be alkali. The traces left by the erosion of the igneous rock veins…”

“It’s possible, but it doesn’t explain why we have anomalies in our seismic data…”

“Could it be a rare mineral residue?”

Kelvin looked at the scholars whispering amongst each other before he gently coughed to get everyone’s attention. He pressed his hands against the table before he said. “You can freely express your opinion. However, the first question to be discussed at this meeting is whether the discovery at Mine 071 is naturally formed, or the remains of extraterrestrial civilization… or something similar.”

The meeting room was silent.

It took a while for the whispers to continue.

“If it is artificially formed, what is the significance of making a building spiral? In terms of space utilization, this construction is completely meaningless…”

At this moment, Dr. Amos, who had been sitting at the corner of the conference table without any presence from beginning to end, suddenly spoke up.

“I remember when I was 7 years old, my grandfather in Bavaria once took me to do an experiment,” He said, then paused and looked at the all the eyes that were now on him before he continued, “He poured heated liquid aluminum into an ant nest, and then after the aluminum cooled, we could get an aluminum model of an ant nest…”

“I’m sorry to interrupt you, Dr. Amos, but we are discussing Mine 071,” A professor interrupted him with a mocking tone, “Besides, there are no ants on Mars.”

“I know,” Amos shrugged. “But who knows, maybe Mars, three billion years ago, was full of some kind of arthropods. You don’t think this spiral structure looks like the internal structure of an ant nest?”

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