— That dreamlike planet, beckons the destined ones to come forth and meet.

"In my opinion, humans were either created by extraterrestrials or by God," Captain Yang Zhiyuan's words caused a stir.
Dong Yifeng, who was sipping tea, almost spat it out upon hearing Yang's words: "Captain Yang, I strongly disagree with your view. Darwin's theory of evolution has been proven multiple times, humans evolved from ancient apes."
"What Professor Dong said is right, the theory of evolution has long been a universal consensus in the scientific community," Zheng Ya disdained Yang Zhiyuan's argument.
Yang Zhiyuan, as a crew member, was initially reluctant to join such a professional discussion. However, seeing these experts and scholars flaunting their knowledge with an air of superiority, he couldn't help but feel annoyed: "Respected Professor Zheng Ya and Professor Dong Yifeng, all ancient civilizations on Earth have tales of a creator making humans and a great flood destroying the world."
"These major civilizations are far apart from each other. In ancient times when transportation was undeveloped, why would they have such similar ancient legends?"
"Fossils of apes and humans have indeed been found in various places, but has any fossil from the intermediate stage of ape evolving into human has been discovered?"
Faced with a series of questions from Captain Yang, Dong Yifeng was momentarily at a loss for words: "Well, just because it hasn't been discovered doesn't mean it doesn't exist."
"That's sophistry. Scientific research needs evidence; theories without proof are just hypotheses. I don't completely disagree with Darwin's theory of evolution. It has some scientific basis, with survival of the fittest being a universal rule."
Yang Zhiyuan paused, then continued, "However, the claim that humans completely evolved from ancient apes has not yet been substantiated by fossil evidence. Personally, I believe that without external stimuli and help, it would be difficult for ancient apes to evolve into humans. Perhaps there was the help of extraterrestrials involved."

Yang's pseudoscientific discourse, full of oddities, left the experts and professors present speechless. It's no wonder, even in the fifties and sixties of the 21st century, the origin of humans has not been completely clarified. Some so-called pseudoscientific theories can still be widely propagated, in a certain market.

Bao Mingkai, seeing the great debate sparked by his casual remark, then elaborated from a genetic perspective: "Ladies and gentlemen, breeders have proven that the range of variation for any species is limited. It cannot exceed the elasticity limit set by the genetic blueprint of a species, otherwise, the bred variety will surely be sterile or revert to its original parent. Therefore, cross-species evolution does not exist."

"Changes determine genes, and genes are usually very stable, able to faithfully replicate themselves to maintain the basic features of organisms."

"Those ancient creatures now known as living fossils have lived through tens of millions, even billions of years, unchanging, never evolving."

Upon hearing this, Dong Yifeng sneered, shouting loudly: "Bao, what are you trying to say? Are you, a professor of genetics, also questioning the theory of evolution? That's ridiculous! As far as I know, genes are not completely incapable of mutation; genetic mutations can lead to species better adapted to their environment to continue to reproduce and survive."

Bao Mingkai was unfazed by Dong's sarcasm, maintaining a calm tone: "Dong, don't rush, let me finish. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, whereas chimpanzees, which have the highest DNA similarity to humans, have 24 pairs; the gibbon has 22 pairs, and ancient apes have 24 pairs. The reduction in human chromosomes is explained by the theory of evolution as a result of genetic mutation."

"But Dong, you have to understand that genes are very stable under normal conditions and can indeed mutate under special circumstances. However, most of these mutations only lead to physical deformities, diseases, or death, with only a very small portion of mutations not being disease-related."

Bao Mingkai took out his pipe, lit it leisurely, took a puff, and continued at his own pace: "The theory of evolution suggests that you can rely on the so-called minuscule genetic mutations that confer advantages to win the struggle for survival."

"Unfortunately, probability calculations show that if evolution relies on this method, the likelihood of species evolution can be reduced to negligible."

"The scientific community currently believes the universe is around 20 billion years old, while the time required to evolve a new species is ten times the age of the universe."

On seeing a prominent genetics professor support his viewpoint, Yang Zhiyuan immediately felt emboldened: "Professor Bao Mingkai's words are extremely valid. Peeling back the thick layers of strata, the fossil records of billions of years seem to be deliberately contradicting Mr. Darwin."
"The Cambrian explosion saw all animals and plants suddenly emerge in the strata, yet no trace of their ancestors could be found. Moreover, once they appeared, they entered a state of stasis, with most species showing no obvious signs of evolution during their lifespan."

"Once these organisms appeared, they basically didn't change, even after millions of years, regardless of how the climate and environment changed. If Darwin's theory was correct, these conditions should have caused massive changes in species."

"After every major catastrophe, various life forms suddenly appeared. If these organisms had evolved, there would have been many fossils left in the strata. However, the reality is that it is hard to find the intermediate evolutionary forms of each species required by the theory of evolution."

Yang Zhiyuan's lengthy discourse sparked a moment of thoughtful silence among the group.
At this point, Zhou Ke, sitting next to Yang Zhiyuan, suddenly spoke: "The question of where life comes from is an eternal scientific and philosophical proposition. We don't need to argue anymore; even if we argue for another day and night, there will be no result."
"However, I do have a question. The spaceship pattern drawn on the golden coffin adheres closely to the principles of aerodynamics, indicating that these mysterious Martians seem to have had interstellar travel capabilities."


"There are clear signs of habitation in the Martian lava caves, and carbon-14 testing reveals that they have a history of at least tens of thousands of years. Mars is not far from Earth, so why wouldn't they, with their interstellar travel abilities, come to the beautiful Earth? Why would they choose to spend their lives hiding in a sealed lava cave on barren Mars?"

The room fell silent at the co-pilot Zhou's question.

Su Ziqi pondered for a moment, then responded, "The last ice age on Earth ended tens of thousands of years ago. Perhaps at that time, Earth's environment was simply not suitable for habitation."

Hua Mei, a bionic robot designed to serve humans, was designed to be reserved and unassuming from the moment of her manufacture. When Dong Yifeng had joked earlier that Su Ziqi was the White Impermanence and he was the Black Impermanence, she merely smiled and did not respond.

For this scientific investigation, Hua Mei specifically sought out Su Ziqi before departure to learn ancient Sumerians from her.

Because of her close relationship with Su Ziqi, Hua Mei spoke up without reservation: "Professor Su Ziqi, your statement is not accurate. Even during Earth's ice age, many animals managed to survive. So while the environment was harsh, it was not uninhabitable."

After saying this, Hua Mei changed the subject, adding, "However, Mars' environment is indeed not suitable for human habitation. The dust particles on the Martian surface contain a large amount of radioactive material."

"Even if humans were to terraform Mars, it would still be a dangerous planet. Humans could only survive there with protective measures, and some tasks could only be accomplished by us bionic robots."

At this point, seeing the topic had shifted back to Mars, Yang Zhiyuan seized the opportunity to continue sharing his unique insights: "I believe that Mars was habitable a long time ago, otherwise it couldn't have given birth to such a highly advanced Martian civilization."

"Why Mars' environment is so harsh now, perhaps something major happened, such as an interstellar nuclear war, that turned Mars into what it is today."

"Captain Yang, your conjectures are getting wilder. So you're saying that there was a highly civilized society armed with nuclear weapons in the prehistoric solar system and that they had a nuclear war among the stars? Let me guess, the original humans on Earth wiped out this Martian civilization?" Dong Yifeng said sarcastically.

Zhou Ke, the co-pilot and a supporter of Yang within the crew, couldn't stand the experts' mockery of Yang. He defended, "What Captain Yang said is not necessarily impossible. The spaceship pattern on the golden coffin is enough proof that the Martian civilization at that time was a highly advanced civilization capable of interstellar travel. It wouldn't be surprising for them to possess the capability to manufacture nuclear weapons."

"Hua Mei, can you tell us about the harmful components in Mars' atmosphere and soil?" Zhou Ke asked.

Hua Mei responded, "The current Martian atmosphere contains a large amount of the isotope xenon-129. Additionally, the surface of the soil contains a large amount of harmful radioactive elements such as uranium, thorium, and radioactive potassium."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke smiled triumphantly: "Hua Mei is correct. Chemistry tells us that natural nuclear reactors only produce more isotopes of xenon-131 to 135, and the increase in xenon-129 can only be caused by intense, instantaneous nuclear fission."

"Also, uranium and thorium are only deposited on the surface of Martian soil, which would only happen if massive nuclear explosions occurred on its surface."

"Perhaps Mars was once teeming with life, but a nuclear war forced the Martian civilization to take refuge in the lava caves, struggling to survive."

At this, Su Ziqi gave a light-hearted smile, "Captain Yang, Co-pilot Zhou, you both have quite the imagination. You could write science fiction novels. However, logically speaking, your theories could make sense."

Zheng Ya, however, was not convinced: "Ziqi, don't pay heed to their nonsense. Just because there's a spaceship-like pattern on the golden coffin, we can't conclude that this Martian civilization had interstellar travel capabilities."

"Similar spaceship patterns have also been found in the Mayan city's unearthed bas-relief murals, but the Mayans hadn't even invented the wheel at the time."

Upon hearing this, Yang Zhiyuan was not particularly pleased: "Professor Zheng, let's refrain from personal attacks. Judging by the level of sophistication in the artifacts left by Martian civilization, they must have reached a high level of development."

Seeing Yang holding firm to his views, Zheng Ya continued to explain: "Captain Yang, these alone cannot be used to infer that Martian civilization had the capability for interstellar travel, let alone the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons."

"Those spacecraft-like patterns, including the mural of the three-eyed giant, could simply be a form of primitive god or deity worship, or even bird worship and fear of natural phenomena, leading to the worship or imagination of something that doesn't exist in reality."

This brainstorming session with everyone expressing their own views was a contest between fringe theories and mainstream science, and it was, of course, difficult to reach a unified consensus.
Yang Zhiyuan glanced at his watch and cleared his throat, defusing the awkwardness of a heated debate that had reached a stalemate, and called an end to the discussion: "Ladies and gentlemen, we will be entering Earth's near orbit soon. Let's pause the discussion here, as Co-pilot Zhou and I need to return to the cockpit."

Through the viewport, a distant blue planet was already faintly visible.

Suddenly, Su Ziqi felt the red phoenix jade pendant that was resting against her chest lift off her skin as if it had sprouted wings, propping up her spacesuit like a tiny umbrella.

At that moment, Yang Zhiyuan, sitting in the pilot's seat, muttered, "Huh, that's strange, where did Earth go?"

Everyone turned to look out the viewport, and the blue planet that had just been hanging outside was gone in an instant!

Zhou Ke looked at the dashboard with a puzzled expression: "Captain, the dashboard indicates that the ship is suddenly accelerating, but our deceleration engine has been on all this while."

No sooner had he spoken, than the red lights on various instruments aboard the ship started flashing incessantly, and an emergency broadcast echoed within the ship: "Emergency! Emergency! ..."

The ship trembled and swayed incessantly as if a kite with a broken string plunged into an endless abyss.

At that moment, Yang Zhiyuan, sitting in the pilot's seat, suddenly found his hand becoming transparent, even the bones in his palm were clearly visible.
After what felt like an eternity, everything around them returned to normal as if they had suddenly awakened from a sleep paralysis nightmare.

Yang Zhiyuan wiped the sweat off his forehead, "Co-pilot Zhou, please check the ship's status."

"Reporting, Captain, the spaceship speed is normal, and all instruments are functioning normally."

"What on earth just happened?" Yang Zhiyuan murmured.

Just then, a deep blue planet popped out of the dark depths like a pinball, floating into view through the viewport.

Zhou Ke pointed out, "Captain Yang, Earth is visible again."

Yang Zhiyuan gathered himself and ordered, "Alright, prepare for the spaceship to enter the atmosphere."