Huo Antu felt strange: "There used to be fish in here."
He looked at the vast field of purple flowers next to him: "But there is no way that a mutant fish can cross this field of purple flowers."
The effect of purple flowers on mutant fish is very significant, and they have practical proof.
It is not a mutant fish, but it cannot be a normal fish either, otherwise it would not have only scales but no bones.
Shen Xingtang walked over and stood at the bottom of the pit, frowning and muttering, "It doesn't look like..."
Qiao Xuejun followed her and asked, "What's not like?"
Shen Xingtang looked up at her and said firmly, "The depth is not similar."
"In my memory, this pool is bottomless. And..." She hesitated, "I also remember that this pool has some blue stones."
Now when you walk in, you will see that the pit is only one person high, far from being bottomless.
There are no blue stones. At first glance, they look like ordinary rocks with some dark and light yellow and green spots.
Qiao Xuejun looked around and suddenly saw a strange white speck at the edge of the pool. It seemed to be the remains of some aquatic creature, but it was different from the other yellow-green spots.
She walked over carefully with a flashlight.
There is only a small piece, hidden in the crevice of the rock, about the size of a palm.
She squatted down and took a closer look.
That was definitely not the original color of the stone. What you could see was a layer of moss-like substance attached to the stone, but it was already dry.
Qiao Xuejun took out the bone knife from his backpack and scraped the white layer. Sure enough, it scraped off, revealing the original color underneath - it was blue.
She called out to Shen Xingtang, "Come and see, is this the blue color?"
She also called Huo Antu: "Professor Huo, come and take a look too."
Shen Xingtang immediately walked quickly to Qiao Xuejun's side, looked at the stone where her light was pointing, and exclaimed, "Yes, it's this blue!"
Huo Antu also came down again and walked over: "What is it?"
He also saw it, and his expression became serious: "This white attachment looks like a fungal mat."
It looked dried out and calcified, like a dead biofilm.
"Teacher Qiao Xingtang, please move aside and let me collect them." Huo Antu said, and took out two glass containers and an inoculation loop from his backpack.
The two of them gave up their place.
Huo Antu quickly collected most of the white attachments into a petri dish.
The blue stone underneath is revealed.
Huo Antu changed the tweezers again and wanted to collect the blue stone.
Qiao Xuejun: "Can't knock it? I'll do it."
She stepped forward and tapped it gently with the handle of the bone knife. Huo Antu caught it in a petri dish and soon collected a large piece.
The blue stone looked like crystal, a translucent cluster, and there seemed to be some bubbles in the crystals.
But crystals are not minerals in water bodies, they are formed in the rock layers below the surface. This doesn't look like crystal.
Qiao Xuejun put away the bone knife: "Professor Huo, what are these?"
Huo Antu put the petri dish into his backpack and shook his head: "I haven't seen it before. I have to go back and test it."
After taking a closer look nearby, I found several more places similar to this one, also with white attachments. Once scraped away, there were water-blue crystal clusters underneath.
These things were scattered on the walls of the pit, but not at the bottom.
Qiao Xuejun asked the system: "Do you have any clues?"
System: "I believe this place originally had a direct connection to the bottom. It could have connected to the seabed. It was the book's consciousness that changed the topography here, and it moved this pool of water away."
Qiao Xuejun thought of something: "Speaking of which, when it asked Shen Xingtang to block this cave, it probably didn't just want to prevent us from discovering the purple flowers, but also fundamentally didn't want us to discover this pool."
"After we discovered the cave, it moved the pool away?"
System: "High probability."
Everyone checked the cave for a while and didn't find too many other abnormalities.
Huo Antu said: "Lord, I think we can return to the base. The two things we have collected now should allow us to make a breakthrough in our research."
His tone was slightly anxious. "I can't draw any conclusions right now, but the structure of this crystal is consistent with our initial speculation about the origin of the bacteria."
Huo Antu said this, and since there were no further discoveries at the scene, the group went back.
The research laboratory conducted research overnight and reported to Zhao Xian on the third day.
Elder An handed Zhao Xian a document. "This blue crystal-like mineral is most likely the habitat of this ancient symbiotic bacteria. It has excellent ion exchange and catalytic properties, and can absorb and catalyze phosphorus in seawater, providing a large amount of nutrients for the symbiotic bacteria."
He handed over another document. "This white attachment is a pale fungal mat, the cornerstone of symbiotic bacteria reproduction. It attracts fish and releases spores containing symbiotic bacteria, thus achieving infection."
Zhao Xian looked at the two documents and reports. "So, the necessary conditions for infection are this blue ore and white fungal mat?"
An Lao: "Yes, the symbiotic bacteria need to reproduce on this white fungal mat, which is responsible for releasing infectious spores to nearby fish."
Zhao Xian: "Okay. Then I'll take people to search for water bodies that meet these conditions."
An Lao: "You can also prioritize the pools of water in the caves. Such conditions are relatively closed and stable. Lord, have you discovered such water environments recently?"
Zhao Xian recalled: "Nothing was found."
He frowned again: "I only found some big holes."
Qiao Xuejun heard this and asked the system, "The book consciousness can move the pool of water from Jianding Mountain. So when Zhao Xian and the others find the pool in another place, can it also move it in advance to prevent them from finding it?"
System: "Indeed. My system is modeled after it. Transfer is its main function."
Qiao Xuejun: "If it keeps moving around, won't it be impossible to find it in your lifetime?"
System: "Host, you are feeding more and more people. I am now very powerful and can limit its functions. As long as I get closer to it, as soon as it emerges and uses energy, I can devour it directly."
Elder An added, "We are now planning to study the characteristics of this fungal blanket and create a drug that targets its activity. Once we inject this drug into the fungal source, we will be able to directly cut off the bacteria's ability to reproduce."
Zhao Xian: "What resources does the potion require?"
An Lao: "Same as before, you need the purple flower and the sea monster's information gland."
Zhao Xian affirmed their research results again, assured the base's strong support, and then left the scientific research office with Qiao Xuejun.
As soon as they came out of the research lab, Qiao Xuejun explained to Zhao Xian what the system had instructed them to do, and finally requested, "I'll go with you to prevent the book consciousness from causing trouble."
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