Upon hearing Lü Yongchang's shout, Mao Zhengzhi's expression changed slightly. He immediately stopped what he was doing and turned his gaze back to the computer screen.

"Look!"

Lu Yongchang reached out and tapped on a few of the larger cells: "Look closely, their volume is slowly increasing!"

Mao Zhengzhi quickly focused his attention on these cells.

Time passed little by little.

The cell size also gradually increases.

The most significant change was in one cell, which even doubled in size, reaching one-fifth the size of the cell wall space.

"This fungus is still alive..." Mao Zhengzhi swallowed hard. "Unbelievable..."

That's Mars!

These fungi were able to remain active even in such harsh conditions!

Lu Yongchang's eyes flickered slightly, and he turned to the researcher beside him: "Could you please help me test the age of these fungal samples?"

Mao Zhengzhi was stunned for a moment when he heard this, but he quickly realized what was going on.

He raised an eyebrow and said in a low voice, "You suspect these fungi have been alive for a long time?"

Lu Yongchang nodded slightly: "That's right, I suspect... these cells were starved to the point of being in this state."

“To be starved like this…” Mao Zhengzhi looked thoughtfully at the cells “expanding” under the microscope. “That is indeed a possibility.”

"However, those smallest cells seem to have lost their activity."

Lü Yongchang shrugged: "They probably starved to death."

"In short, let's wait for the test results from over there first."

...

While waiting, Lü Yongchang silently watched the fungal cells on the screen.

At this point, some cells have expanded to half the size of the cell wall space, while those cells that are too small have not changed at all.

“It seems to have reached its limit.” Lu Yongchang’s eyes flickered slightly. “These cells are recovering at a slower and slower rate.”

"Next... let's use an electron microscope to examine these cells!"

As Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi retrieved and pre-processed the samples, the doors of the isolation laboratory reopened.

"Professor Lü!"

"The test results are in!"

The researcher's voice reached Lü Yongchang's ears.

After finishing his work, Lü Yongchang reached out and took the documents from the researcher's hand.

Upon seeing the contents of the document, even he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "What?!"

"Ten thousand years ago?!"

Lu Yongchang's exclamation also drew the attention of Mao Zhengzhi, who was standing nearby.

"Ten thousand years?" Mao Zhengzhi leaned over to look at the report with a strange expression, then frowned and asked the researcher, "How many times have you tested it? Are you sure there are no mistakes?"

Faced with the questions from the two experts, the researcher showed some trepidation.

He nodded slightly and said in a low voice, "A total of three tests were conducted. The shortest time for the three sets of samples was 10,000 years ago, and the longest... was about 20,000 years ago."

Lu Yongchang took a deep breath, his eyes filled with shock.

A fungus that has survived underground on Mars for 10,000 years!

It's important to know that fungi on Earth, even under suitable conditions, only have a lifespan of a few months. In harsh environments, they'd be considered resilient if they could survive for even a few minutes!

"Brother Mao, hurry up! I think these fungal organelles will definitely surprise us!"

...

After a lot of work, the observations from the electron microscope were displayed on the computer screen.

Looking at the bizarre organelles in the fungal cells, Lü Yongchang was stunned.

“Hiss…” Mao Zhengzhi clicked his tongue and said with a troubled expression, “Only now do I truly realize that this is an alien life form.”

Lu Yongchang frowned and nodded: "The shape is a bit strange, but you can still make out some things."

"Look, this middle part should resemble the cell nucleus."

Mao Zhengzhi nodded, agreeing with this viewpoint.

"Huh?"

Just as Mao Zhengzhi was about to express his opinion, Lü Yongchang suddenly let out a soft "Eh," interrupting Mao Zhengzhi's thoughts.

"Something's not right!" Lu Yongchang's expression suddenly turned serious.

As he spoke, he reached out and adjusted the electron microscope.

Then, he reached out and gently tapped the computer screen.

"These are cells that can absorb water and swell, while those are dead cells that do not react to water at all."

"Take a closer look, what's the difference between these two?"

Upon hearing Lü Yongchang's words, Mao Zhengzhi quickly began to examine the object carefully.

After a careful comparison, a look of surprise flashed in Mao Zhengzhi's eyes.

"Why...why are so many organelles missing from this cell?!"

Lü Yongchang slowly shook his head: "That's not right."

"It's not that there are few; a more accurate description would be that they are incomplete."

"You can see the difference by comparing the organelles inside the two cells."

"Doesn't this organelle look like it's missing half?"

"And these organelles are mostly missing a small part of their structure."

"It's like..."

At this point, Lü Yongchang frowned slightly, seemingly struggling to find the right words to describe it.

"It's like being bitten!" Mao Zhengzhi's voice was full of excitement. "That's right! It's like being eaten!"

Upon hearing Mao Zhengzhi's description, Lü Yongchang's eyebrows shot up sharply!

"That's right! That's exactly what I meant!"

"If I'm not mistaken, this fungus was able to survive on Mars precisely because of this ability!"

Upon hearing Lü Yongchang's words, Mao Zhengzhi trembled slightly, a strange glint in his eyes.

Honestly, if this scene happened to a person...

If I don't eat today, I'll "digest" a section of my intestines; if I don't eat tomorrow, I'll "digest" another part of my liver...

Mao Zhengzhi felt a chill run down his spine.

In his excitement, Lü Yongchang recalled the system notification he had received some time ago.

"No! That should only be part of the reason!"

His eyes grew increasingly excited!

"To survive for tens of thousands of years in an environment like Mars, this skill alone is not enough!"

"Hibernation! It must be an extremely deep level of hibernation ability!"

Looking at Lü Yongchang, who was standing there muttering to himself like a madman, Mao Zhengzhi couldn't help but swallow hard.

For some reason, he suddenly felt like he couldn't get a word in edgewise...

Suddenly, Lü Yongchang, who had been muttering to himself with his head down, raised his head abruptly, his eyes flashing with a strange light, staring intently at Mao Zhengzhi.

"Yong... Yongchang?" Mao Zhengzhi swallowed again and asked cautiously, "Wh... what's wrong?"

"Brother Mao, have someone send over some lab mice. I need to do some tests!"

As he spoke, Lü Yongchang excitedly patted Mao Zhengzhi on the shoulder: "If nothing unexpected happens, there must be a substance in these fungi that can induce a deep state of hibernation in organisms!"