For a while, the two of them stared blankly at the empty night sky. Finally, Elena said, "I really wish tomorrow would come quickly so we can unravel these mysteries. You know, the moon has always been an enigma. Even in our time when we could reach it, our research on it was far from complete. For example, we know the oldest rocks on Earth are 3.7 billion years old, but dating the lunar rocks shows the Moon is at least 5.3 billion years old. This means the Moon formed in interstellar space long before the Earth even coalesced. So, where is it today? It's strange. Then there are the mysteries of the crater formation, the puzzle of why the lunar soil is older than the rocks, the puzzle of the loud impact sound on the Moon—countless such mysteries."

I said, "But no matter how many mysteries there are, we can't find it today. Let's not say anything more; let's get some rest."

Elena rubbed her forehead and said, "If we never see the Moon, I can only assume it hasn't been captured by the Earth yet. What do you think?"

I replied, "My view is that the Moon hasn't been manufactured yet today, or perhaps it has been manufactured but hasn't been placed into orbit."

Elena laughed, "Only a few people agree with your view. Creating a moon would be an astronomical undertaking. I doubt even the abilities of the prehistoric super-civilization humans could manage it so easily. I don't support that idea."

I knew my physical strength was recovering day by day, and eventually, I would explore every corner of today's Earth. If the Moon were truly still under construction in some shipyard, as we hypothesize, I would surely discover it. "It doesn't matter if you don't support it; I will eventually investigate this matter clearly. You go to sleep now; you still have a fever."

Elena whined slightly, "Then when you finish twisting the rope, remember to come back and hold me. I still feel so cold."

"Look at you, look at you. I certainly will hold you. I wish I could do such an honored thing every day."

Elena burrowed into the pile of grass and said, "Am I not asking you to hold me every day now? On your back during the day, in your arms at night. If I hadn't let my research delay my prime years, you wouldn't be getting such a bargain now."

While twisting the rope, I asked, "How old are you?"

Elena responded, "It’s impolite to ask a girl her age, but I forgive you because I am very young—22 this year. And you?"

I said, "You’re only 22 and you say research delayed your prime years? I’m already 24, which makes me an old man, doesn't it?"

Elena replied, "We are close, but I prefer mature men, ideally around 30. Enough said, enough said. My head hurts. I’m sleeping now."

Those were the last words Elena spoke to me before she fell into a deep coma. Afterward, no matter how much I called her name, she only managed a few groans, her face flushed crimson, her eyes too hazy to open properly. I was terribly frightened for her. By this time, I had successfully finished twisting the rope. I decided to venture into the Serpent Tribe territory ahead of schedule, as placing my hope for saving Elena now rested entirely on them.

After much effort, I managed to securely bind the feverish, comatose Elena to my back. At this moment, I couldn't afford to dwell on how alluring her body was. Even if it weren't for the hundred billion, rescuing a beauty was in my nature. Isn't that how I've made my fortune? So, this time I must save Elena; I must display my international spirit!

Everything was not yet fully prepared when suddenly, several brilliant flashes of intense light erupted from the direction of the Serpent Tribe territory, followed by booming explosions. Something was happening over there! I rushed to the stone tablet, carrying Elena, jumped onto it, and gazed into the distance.

Because the distance was too great, I could see nothing besides the firelight over there. I quickly jumped off the tablet, turned back, and hung the husk-like brassiere over my shoulder. This thing couldn't be discarded; otherwise, what would I use to drink milk next time?

A distance of over ten kilometers was instantaneous travel at my current speed. When I crossed the boundary of the stone tablet and entered the blast zone, I encountered no resistance from any serpent groups. It seemed they were likely fighting amongst themselves and had no mind to pay attention here. This was the perfect opportunity to sneak in and gain an advantage—ideally, finding some medicine to treat a cold.

The explosions continued. From the raised structure, which looked like a massive tomb mound, intermittent dull thuds could be heard. Where the blasts were fiercest, the top shell of the 'tomb' was blown open. I hid to the side, observing the situation secretly, when suddenly a serpent creature crawled out of a fire-lit blast hole.

In truth, it could no longer truly be called a serpent. Perhaps calling it a human would be more appropriate! Because it possessed human hands and feet, even though it still dragged a long serpentine tail and was covered in rough serpent skin, it had already attained a preliminary human form.

What were the prehistoric people doing? How could they create such monsters? I really should show this to everyone who supports human-beast hybridization. If humanity doesn't control this reality, the appearance of such monsters on Earth six thousand years later is inevitable.

This human-serpent was clearly severely injured. It staggered out of the blast hole and collapsed nearby. Out of curiosity, I couldn't help but approach for a closer look. This human-serpent was far more advanced than the one from last night. While it lacked wings, at least it possessed a reproductive system. Despite its ugly appearance, having this meant it could propagate and survive—terrifying! If they started breeding actively, this vast grassland would soon be overrun with 'Serpent Keikos.'

Boom! Suddenly, a much more violent explosion occurred. The shockwave threw me back dozens of steps. Half of that large mound structure, spanning several square kilometers, was blown off. Before the reverberations of the blast had even dissipated, streams of human-serpents swarmed out from the shattered mound!

Their numbers were huge, perhaps hundreds. Some of the more advanced human-serpents were wearing human clothes; if not for the tails behind them, they would have been indistinguishable from humans. Others wore white garments resembling the attire of doctors from our era. Could this have been a biological research facility?

I hid in the shadows, contemplating whether to rush into the burning structure to search for useful items. Just then, from the other side of the mound-like building, where the architecture was still intact and untouched by the explosions, a disc-shaped flying craft shot out and rapidly ascended into the upper atmosphere!

In the firelight, I saw a group of human-serpents dressed like soldiers escorting a beautiful female human-serpent out of the building. I watched the female human-serpent wave her hand. Three human-serpents, presumably soldiers, mounted an unknown weapon. A puff of white smoke erupted, and an object shot heavenward, pursuing the flying disc that had just departed.

After firing one shot, as if worried it might miss, three more objects resembling modern missiles soared into the sky, pouncing on the craft, which hadn't gone far. The flying vehicle fought back and maneuvered desperately, but ultimately, it was struck—exploding with a boom in mid-air.

The crowd of human-serpents watched from the roof of the building for a while. Soon after, several more disc-shaped flying objects emerged from the structure. The soldiers boarded the aircraft in sequence. Then, the beautiful female human-serpent glanced in my direction as if by accident, turned, boarded a flying craft, and flew away.

I recognized that female human-serpent! It was the one carved on the stone tablet—the human-serpent with the face of Gu Tian'er! From what just happened, they are definitely prehistoric humans, no, prehistoric serpents, possessing a civilization far ahead of ours. But why would they attack their own kind? It seems that, just as He Yuqing analyzed, internal conflicts have erupted among the prehistoric people. If everything is correct, what should follow is an even larger nuclear war, and then the Moon spaceship will separate from the Earth.

Time is pressing. I must leave before the Moon spaceship detaches from the Earth and triggers the great flood—and sooner is better. Getting involved in a prehistoric nuclear war would be no good. However, analyzing what Gu Tian'er said, perhaps I truly was involved in their conflict—otherwise, how could I have incurred the enmity of the men in black? But in my current wretched state, I can't even handle a minor cold, so how can I stand against the men in black? Besides, I don't even know where he is.

While thinking, I watched the human-serpents continuously evacuating the building. I didn't see any large flying vehicles, only several small disc-shaped ones. After several rounds of activity, the entire tomb-like structure, save for the firelight and the occasional explosion, showed no more sign of human-serpents coming or going.

I decided to venture inside. Even if there were serpent soldiers or generals, judging by the weapons they used to shoot down the discs, they shouldn't be too advanced. With my skills, I couldn't risk a direct confrontation with laser weapons, but I wasn't afraid of ordinary bullets.

When I entered the section of the building still intact, despite being mentally prepared, I was stunned by what I saw inside. It was completely different from the Stone Age outside! Beautiful, sturdy doors shining with metallic luster; advanced, bizarre-shaped instruments for various research endeavors; including equipment resembling modern computer screens. I couldn't find the main unit or the keyboard, suggesting their technology differed from ours.

After some effort, encountering several dead human-serpents along the way, I finally found a room resembling a biology lab. If my guess was correct, I should be able to find some medication here. But ultimately, I was disappointed.

There were plenty of bottles and jars, but I couldn't decipher a single symbol on them. They were winding, like crude drawings. Who knew which bottle contained poison and which could cure illness? Helplessly, I turned back to look elsewhere, still carrying Elena.

Just as I rounded a corner, three monstrous human-serpents wearing clothes suddenly ran toward me. Upon seeing me and Elena, the three monsters let out clear, pleasant chirps. Of course, I didn't understand what they were saying, but I saw them pull weapons from their waists—they didn't look like projectile pistols.

The three serpents raised their weapons and fired at me simultaneously. Three beams of white light rushed toward me. Fortunately, I was already on guard. I leaped up and dodged their first volley, then landed behind the three of them, kicking out three sharp blows. The three human-serpents slammed into the solid wall, spitting blood before dying.

Judging by the color of the blood they coughed up, it was no different from modern humans' blood, nor was it the black blood of Prince Wells. I stripped the clothes off the three human-serpents and took their three miniature weapons as well. I confirmed they were laser pistols. Although their shape differed from those we manufacture, the laser beams they emitted were identical. I tested them by firing a few shots at the solid wall. Analyzing their power, these guns were roughly comparable to ours. Connecting this to the missiles shooting down the aircraft earlier, it was safe to conclude that the degree of this civilization did not exceed modern civilization by much, or perhaps it was on par.

Wandering around, I found no other human-serpents, but I did stumble into the underground level of the building. When I entered a large specimen room, I was terrified by the specimens housed in a collection of transparent bottles.

In the preservative fluid of each bottle was a corpse: some were ordinary primitive humans, but more were ordinary serpents and human-serpents, and even some winged serpents and human-serpents with fully developed limbs and reproductive systems. I gathered my courage and examined these bottles from top to bottom, quickly discerning a pattern and generally understanding what these prehistoric people were doing.

For instance, starting with the ordinary serpent bottles, they branched into two rows beneath. The first row contained serpent corpses that had developed hands, feet, and human faces in evolutionary sequence, but lacked reproductive systems. The second row contained serpent corpses that had developed hands, feet, human faces, and rudimentary male and female reproductive systems in evolutionary sequence.

It seemed these prehistoric people were engaged in genetic combination between humans and beasts. They intended to use serpent genes to evolve new humans. The first type of evolution likely aimed for a winged human-serpent hybrid, but judging by the serpent I encountered last night, this experiment probably failed. Wings must have materialized, but that serpent looked utterly incapable of flight. Some step in the process must have gone wrong.

However, the second type of evolution seemed quite complete. Discarding the useless wings, they incorporated human reproductive capabilities into the human-serpents. Judging by their increasingly short tails, it wouldn't take long before they evolved into human form. It must be said that this research was successful, as I saw many such human-serpents here, many even wearing work uniforms, serving the base's operations.

Another set of specimens involved primitive humans. Judging only by the specimens, I could only guess one purpose: these prehistoric super-civilization humans were researching hermaphrodites. No wonder I found a hermaphrodite in the primitive village below Mount **; it was likely one of their test subjects.

Judging from the specimens, ordinary primitive humans could be modified to possess two independent reproductive systems. If my guess is right, under certain circumstances, these modified primitives could achieve self-propagation. There were no specific diagrams showing how they achieved self-fertilization. Could that thing automatically bend down and insert itself below? If so, these prehistoric people were truly hyper-perverted.

Why would they do this? To breed more primitives? Or did they have some other hidden agenda? All of this remained unknown for the time being.

This place felt too gloomy and terrifying to linger. So, I continued searching the un-blasted underground structures. Finally, in an area resembling a bedroom and kitchen, I found a water source. It seemed the explosion wouldn't reach here, and there was a row of bedrooms. I checked them one by one; the human-serpents residing there had already evacuated.

I decided to stay here for the night. First, to care for Elena’s illness, and second, to see if I could discover anything else. Since the Serpent Tribe was conducting this kind of research, I guessed the Sheep Tribe was likely combining human genes with sheep genes, and the Pig Tribe or Dog Tribe were combining human genes with pig or dog genes, respectively.

How strange. Were the prehistoric super-civilization humans formerly zookeepers? If there were only these twelve animals, was there a connection to the Twelve Zodiac Animals traditionally told in the Great Dragon Kingdom? Perhaps the Great Dragon Kingdom's Twelve Zodiacs evolved from these events?

The bedding, towels, and other items used by these human-serpents were very soft and comfortable, looking distinctly different from our knitted goods—they must be their unique products. I selected some relatively clean items and gathered them into one room, then placed Elena on the bed, covered her with a blanket, and returned with a towel soaked in cold water to apply to her forehead. Her body was burning hot; if I didn't find a way to cool her down, I feared she would be burned out.

This situation was somewhat reminiscent of Zhao Fang's fever back then. It was a pity Director Wu's little medicine box wasn't here; otherwise, I could give Elena an injection, maybe rub some ginger and garlic on her, and she’d be fine by morning. But what could I do now?

Medicine—I needed to find fever-reducing medicine. But after searching for so long, although I found some medicine bottles, who knew which one was poison and which could cure illness? No, I had to find medicine, no matter what. Since I couldn't find it in this base, I would have to look elsewhere.

Elsewhere... Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck me. Curing medicine? I am an expert physician from the Army's 101 Hospital! On what basis did I earn that title? The medicine to cure illnesses—I have it in my own body!