My Pet Beast is Super Fearsome
Chapter 386 - Chapter 386 Chapter 385 First Polar Scientific Expedition (Two

Chapter 386: Chapter 385: First Polar Scientific Expedition (Two in One) Chapter 386: Chapter 385: First Polar Scientific Expedition (Two in One) “Stop the car ahead.”

While on the move, Chen Yixin’s voice suddenly came through the headset.

Over a dozen all-terrain snow vehicles subsequently stopped behind the leeward side of several snowy mountains.

Today marked the third day of the research team’s traverse across Antarctica. The initial excitement of racing across the polar region slowly cooled down, and today, aside from Yixin’s brief commands, everyone lacked even the interest to chat.

“Crack!”

At that moment, a Fire Phoenix Pheasant, its body covered in crimson feathers and exuding an elegant demeanor, spiraled down.

After their combat with the Holy Origin Society, the military’s seven Fire Phoenix Pheasants had taken turns conducting reconnaissance missions.

Although prolonged flight reconnaissance in such Antarctic weather was a great burden for them, for the sake of everyone’s safety, they had to make do for now.

Watching Zhao Li feeding the Fire Phoenix Pheasant, Shao Zifeng wondered if he should release a few of the little fellows; after all, he felt quite uncomfortable without them around.

But after some thought, he decided against it, as those little fellows had just gone through a major battle. It was best to let them relax properly in their pet space.

“Continue.”

Then, Cang Haiyuan’s voice transmitted through the headset, and Shao Zifeng subconsciously caught what he tossed over.

“Thanks.”

Shao Zifeng lifted the military-green package in his hand and did not bother with formalities.

“Seeing you eat compressed biscuits every day, those things hardly have any nutrition. You’re not trying to lose weight, are you?”

Haiyuan, holding military rations, walked over to Zifeng, plopped down on the snowy ground, opened the package, and scooped up handfuls of snow into it.

After doing all this, Haiyuan lazily lay on the ground, opened his helmet visor, shivered all over, and muttered, “This damn weather is really cold.”

“Mainly because it’s too troublesome,” Zifeng said as he sat beside him, “Besides, I’m not too picky about food.”

“Yeah, right.”

Haiyuan cocked his head, looked at him, and smirked, “It’s just that it’s your first time in such a place, you’re nervous. Compressed biscuits take up less space so you can carry more, I get it.”

Zifeng felt no embarrassment having his thoughts exposed by Haiyuan; indeed, he had that concern.

Because of the need for a long trek, aside from essentials like tents, the amount of food each person could carry was strictly calculated.

Fearing starvation in the polar region on his first visit, Zifeng had chosen compressed biscuits for their smaller size and convenience during the food selection.

“Help me with this.”

Seeing that Zifeng had fallen silent, Haiyuan, clad in a thick protective suit, pulled open his bag with one hand while propping himself up with the other, grunting as he turned toward Zifeng.

Zifeng glanced at it, took out a tin box from his pocket, and handed it to Haiyuan, “What’s so good about this stuff.”

Haiyuan took the tin box, carefully knocked the snow off his gloves, took out a cigarette, deeply inhaled under his nose, and closed his eyes in contentment.

“You don’t understand, this is my life.”

“Too bad I bought too few on Xilan Island, now only these are left.”

Zifeng shook his head, remembering when Qiuqiu was injured and had taken a puff, which nearly choked him to death.

After sniffing the cigarette for a while, Haiyuan reluctantly put it back into the metal box and stowed it away in his pocket like a cherished item.

Picking up the military ration package now swollen from the heat, Haiyuan removed his gloves and took out the foil-wrapped food.

“By the way, we’re going mountain climbing together later… ha, this mixed fried rice still smells so good.”

“Climbing mountains?”

“Not continuing the journey?”

“You see how desolate this place is…”

Haiyuan said, breathing out hot air and mumbling unclearly.

Zifeng surveyed the surroundings.

Where exactly?

The poles.

Although, the terrain here is somewhat different compared to other places; it’s not the usual continuous undulating mountain ranges of Antarctica, but a series of individual snow peaks.

Perhaps because it’s the Antarctic summer, most of these snow peaks are only covered with a thin layer of snow, and you can even see the dark brown mountain rocks beneath.

Noticing the confusion in Shao Zifeng’s eyes, Cang Haiyuan opened another pack of stewed pork with preserved vegetables.

“Aren’t we just too silly rushing and have forgotten what we came here for?”

“Scientific expedition, right.”

“Exactly, we’re not here for sightseeing. Professor Chen said the terrain here was unique, and we might find something.” Speaking, Cang Haiyuan patted Shao Zifeng’s shoulder and proudly said, “Young man, just knowing how to fight won’t do; you need to learn more from your elders.”

Shao Zifeng sneered, this man’s heart was really small.

Still bearing grudges after all this time.

Smelling the aroma in the air, Shao Zifeng couldn’t help biting into the braised pork in his hand.

Fatty but not greasy, slightly sweet, and tender enough to melt in your mouth.

Delicious!

…

“Later, you all just need to look through the surface rocks, try not to use tools that may damage the main body of the mountain.”

“Very few people come to this kind of place, so being a bit careful should yield something.”

“Don’t go that way, try to stick to the leeward side.”

Yang Qi, wielding a climbing pick, led the way ahead of the two, huffing and puffing as he climbed up.

Despite being terribly fatigued, he tirelessly and impatiently repeated the precautions to them.

He was a good man in many ways, just had a bit of a nagging personality.

Shao Zifeng looked back and noticed they had reached the middle of the mountainside, and almost everything above was covered in snow.

Not far on another peak, one could vaguely see Chen Yixin and their figures, seven Fire Phoenix soldiers surrounding them as they slowly climbed the not-so-tall peak.

When they split into groups before climbing the mountain, Chen Yixin wanted to pull Shao Zifeng along with her.

But it was precisely because of those seven Fire Phoenix soldiers that he decisively accepted Cang Haiyuan’s invitation.

The peaks they had chosen weren’t very high, and the slopes were relatively gentle, but the stop-and-go progress unavoidably slowed them down a lot.

“Oh.”

At that moment, the incessantly talking Yang Qi suddenly let out a light exclamation, then squatted down and started fiddling with something on the ground using his climbing pick.

Shao Zifeng, curious about these ancient creatures, quickly moved forward, intently watching Yang Qi’s actions.

Yang Qi flipped over a rock and studied it for a while, then with a clink and clank of his pick, cleanly split the rock from the side.

In the smooth cross-section, there was a dark brown spiral object.

“Do you know what this is?”

Yang Qi pointed at the spiral object, looking very much like a teacher.

Hmm.

It kind of looked like “Oli give” from kids’ cartoons.

Shao Zifeng thought about it and decided it was best not to voice his thoughts.

Cang Haiyuan, however, had other concerns; his restless hands hovered between reaching into his pocket or not, unsure where to rest.

Seeing this, Yang Qi didn’t get upset and just continued on his own, “This is an ammonite, a sub-class within the class Cephalopoda of the phylum Mollusca. It’s a type of extinct marine invertebrate that lived from the Middle Ordovician to the Late Cretaceous… Ammonites are generally divided into 9 orders, about 80 super-families, around 280 families, and about 2000 genera, as well as many species and subspecies. It’s closely related to the nautilus…”

Watching Yang Qi prattle on as if reciting a textbook, Shao Zifeng couldn’t help but interrupt, “Can this fossil be revived?”

“Uh…” Caught off guard by Shao Zifeng’s question, Yang Qi then explained, “With our team’s current research progress, we can only revive frozen corpses; it’s quite difficult to do so if the body is poorly preserved.”

“Like the Ice Plateau Saber-Toothed Tiger that had already been successfully resurrected, it was a complete frozen corpse,”

“However, research had already begun on the next steps, but it’s currently on hold due to the Ice Plateau Saber-Toothed Tiger’s inability to grow.”

Zifeng furrowed his brows in confusion.

“That’s not right, I had found a fossilized egg previously, and Professor Chen said it could be revived, right?”

“You’re talking about that.” Yang Qi nodded.

“Theoretically speaking, a well-preserved fossilized egg indeed has a great chance of being revived and hatched, but you must understand the difference between a fossil and a fossilized egg,” he said, pointing to the ammonite in his hand: “For example, this ammonite fossil, even if revitalized using existing technology, would only yield an ammonite shell, but it wouldn’t be alive. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Fossils, being older, generally only preserve bones, shells, and the like.”

“If the technology could breakthrough again, then as long as we have DNA, we could revive it, and maybe then we could even revive fossils.”

Zifeng nodded noncommittally.

Actually, thinking about it carefully, it made sense, especially since ‘unknown revival’ technology had only emerged over the past 20 years or so. Apart from the initial years of chaos and disorder, humanity hadn’t had much time to deeply study mutant creatures, and many technologies were still being explored.

Like the Han River iron ore he had previously discovered–decades or even centuries after he had passed away, when many secrets were no longer confidential, it might be possible that he, someone named Shao, could find himself in the history books.

The father of elemental weapons?

Thinking about it, he felt a slight thrill.

At that moment, he remembered the amber he had given to Chen Yixin and asked, “What about the amber? I remember the organisms trapped in the amber could always be revived, right?”

“Amber.”

Yang Qi said uncertainly, “Amber might not be possible either, though its origin is resin, academically, amber is classified as a special fossil…”

“However, that being said, amber operates under the same principle as a fossilized egg… But if it were possible, then why haven’t we touched on it in our research topics…”

Usually talkative, Yang Qi suddenly fell silent, seemingly pondering a difficult problem.

Seeing Yang Qi lost in thought, Zifeng did not say anything further.

The reason he asked was that he had received an energy feedback when he saw the amber.

Though he had not seen a biological frozen corpse, the ones that had been successfully revived must contain some form of energy, he supposed.

This was something fossils did not possess.

Czzt.

At that moment, as an electric sound buzzed, Chen Yixin’s voice came through the headset.

“Why have you stopped, did you find something?”

“Professor.” Yang Qi suddenly snapped back to reality: “We discovered an ammonite fossil, quite well-preserved… pretty good. I was just explaining to junior fellow Zifeng about the formation and categorization of fossils… Professor Chen, don’t worry.”

Hearing Chen Yixin’s question, Yang Qi began his incessant chatter once again.

Chen Yixin, who seemed accustomed to his personality, replied indifferently, “Hmm, it’s windy at the summit, be careful.”

“Professor.”

Just as Chen Yixin was about to cut off the communication, Yang Qi suddenly called out to her.

“What else?”

“Well… I wanted to ask why amber-related research isn’t part of our project topics.”

“Considering that the organisms sealed within amber are more perfectly preserved, I just thought, given our previous technological reserves, the research wouldn’t be too difficult.”

Upon hearing Yang Qi’s question, Chen Yixin did not respond immediately, leaving silence in the headset, which started to make Yang Qi feel anxious.

He regretted asking in front of so many people, concerned that the professor might think he was questioning her.

Just then, he suddenly noticed Zifeng, who seemed to be enjoying the spectacle, and a light bulb turned on in his mind.

“I didn’t mean to question the professor; it’s mostly because junior fellow Zifeng is curious about this area, and since I haven’t been involved in related projects, I thought it best to consult the professor.”

Zifeng: ???

No.

I wasn’t curious.

But soon, I heard Chen Yixin’s explanation through the headset.

“When it comes to amber, it indeed is much easier than directly conquering fossils.”

“But you need to know that amber is formed from resin, which ensures it’s difficult to preserve most organisms other than insects.”

“Put simply, the size is too small. The organisms in it are usually small insects like mosquitoes, and even when there are animal ambers, they’re mostly remains with little research value.”

“Moreover, since our country is not a major source of amber, the quality of the amber that is produced isn’t very good, and it’s hard for us to obtain a large amount of high-quality research material.”

At this point, Chen Yixin paused for a moment and then continued, “However, if Zifeng is interested in this, it just so happens that I still have the amber you gave me, and we can try to initiate some preliminary research when we have the time.”

At this moment, Shao Zifeng was somewhat bewildered.

Although I am interested in ancient creatures, I am not interested in research itself!

But seeing Yang Qi’s expectant look, he felt uncomfortable rejecting it and had no choice but to pinch his nose in agreement.

“Since there’s nothing else, let’s continue the expedition, it’s good to gather more fossil samples as reserves.”

“Okay, Professor,”

Yang Qi, delighted, turned off the communication and packed the ammonite into his backpack.

“Zifeng junior, if you are bored, look around too. Let’s see who can find more fossils,” he said. Then, without lifting his head, he continued digging vigorously with his climbing axe.

Heh.

Childish.

Do you still think I’m a kid?

A competition, huh?

Fossil King, I’m set on it!

“Hey, Haiyuan, are you coming?”

“You go ahead, I need to contemplate life.”

Meanwhile, Haiyuan, who had been offline all this while, finally succumbed to his desires, eagerly pulled out a tin box from his pocket, and sat down on the ground, indulging in the aroma.

Shao Zifeng’s mouth twitched, and he picked up his climbing axe and walked toward the mountain summit.

Three hours later, Shao Zifeng looked at several rocks in front of him with a stony expression.

According to the assessment, they were just ordinary rocks.

Shao Zifeng reluctantly picked up one and held it in his hand.

These rocks, how are they ordinary? Their shapes are clearly very peculiar.

Look at this one, it’s so round and plump.

It looks so much like Qiuqiu curled up in a ball.

Maybe it’s Qiuqiu’s estranged sister from a different father and mother.

And this one; aren’t the patterns on it mysterious?

With wild thoughts, he picked up the rock and threw it to the side.

Just as Shao Zifeng was about to leave, his steps faltered.

He looked down at his feet and his expression gradually turned solemn.

Right next to the imprint of his climbing boots, there were several other footprints.

He recognized these footprints.

Similar to those of birds, but thicker and more robust.

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