Chapter 13 The Mayan Stone City

The rulers of Stone City believed that this vortex was a passage to escape this confined space, so they sent people to explore it. However, these explorations were a one-way trip; no one who entered the vortex ever returned.

The people of Stone City overlooked another effect of the meteorite: it greatly accelerated the evolution and mutation speed of humans.

The high-intensity burden of reproduction led to changes in people's rhythms. The human reproductive cycle was greatly shortened, and multiple births became more common. Generally, pregnancy could be completed in two to three months, producing two to three babies at a time. Infant development was also very rapid, generally taking only two to three years from birth to adulthood. At the same time, their lifespan was also shortened, with a person's lifespan often only five to eight years.

Although this mutation somewhat met the needs of feeding the giant python, in five to eight years, a person could not inherit and pass on the accumulated knowledge. Therefore, the intelligence and cultural level of the people of Stone City suffered a serious decline. Before their demise, their people were completely unable to write or communicate normally.

The cultural heritage of Stone City gradually headed towards irreversible extinction.

…

People who fished in the water for a long time slowly evolved gills, allowing them to breathe underwater, and their skin became harder and harder, and their internal organs became denser, allowing them to adapt to the pressure of deep water.

The fish and all the food in the confined space were exhausted.

Those lower-class people who had grown gills did not hesitate. Waiting on the island was also death, and going to the vortex might also be death, but there might be a glimmer of hope, so they chose to venture into the vortex.

Those who remained in the city eventually died out completely due to complete starvation, and Stone City was annihilated.

The giant python, after the supply of living people stopped, relied on its huge size to enter an extremely long period of hibernation, and the small pythons all starved to death.

Zoe and Luther used the content of the leather scroll and their own reasoning to restore the entire history of Stone City.

"In other words, those ugly merfolk we saw in the ocean may have evolved from the ancestors of these ancient Mayans," Zoe boldly hypothesized.

The restored history of Stone City by the two indirectly confirmed Hans's conjecture.

Hans wrote down his thoughts on paper and showed them to Zoe.

On the paper, Hans neatly listed many lines of formulas. Zoe did not understand these formulas, but she understood a schematic diagram drawn by Hans.

The schematic diagram was an inverted cone, with a small black dot at the tip of the cone.

Hans pointed to the small black dot and said, "This is the bubble space we are in now."

She drew a vertical line from the small black dot to the bottom of the cone with the tip of her pen, and said, "This line is the route we took from the sea to the bubble space."

Hans then drew an identical cone with the black dot as the vertex, on the symmetrical side of the cone, with the two cones sharing the vertex: "Do you remember that the vortex we encountered when we came in here was a reverse vortex?"

"Yes, I've seen vortices that suck inward, but this was the first time I saw one that pushed outward," Zoe said.

"The key is here. What we see is the cone above the bubble space, but there is actually a cone below it, but the force of this cone is completely opposite. These are two antagonistic forces."

Zoe scratched her head, indicating that she didn't understand.

Hans thought for a moment and changed his way of speaking: "Forces are mutual. If I push you, you will be pushed, and I will also be pushed back. So, if an island in the sea is to sink into the sea, what are the necessary conditions? First, the sea level rises and floods the island, then the island sinks relative to the ocean; second, the part below the island disappears."

"Oh! You mean the disappearance of the lower half of the island is related to the outward-pushing vortex," Zoe suddenly realized.

"Yes, that's right!" Hans immediately explained, "The soil and rocks below our space are sucked in and compressed by an invisible vortex. At the same time, in order to prevent our current space from spinning endlessly, we need to counteract the rotating force of the vortex, thus forming another vortex, which is the vortex we experienced when we came here."

"If the vortex still exists, does that mean...we are still sinking?" Zoe asked in horror.

Hans nodded: "Yes, now the height of these two cones is getting longer and longer, and we are still sinking."

"By the way, I have another question!" Zoe asked, "According to you, we are still on Earth now! Right?"

"Yes," Hans answered decisively.

"But where did those strange creatures in the sea come from?" Zoe asked again.

"The vortex is generated by the energy of the meteorite. This energy is very special. People in Stone City mutated and evolved because of the meteorite. I guess this energy also affected the creatures in the vortex. You can imagine the point where we are as a flashlight, and the vortex as the light emitted by the flashlight. Everything that is illuminated by the light will be affected. The energy that creates the vortex completely isolates the ocean in the vortex from the ocean in reality through some means. The ocean in the vortex formed its own ecosystem, and some creatures slowly mutated and evolved. The energy emitted by this meteorite should be emitted through radiation... but I don't know the specific principle. Moreover, what impact radiation has on us, and whether the current radiation level has decreased, I have no idea about these questions..."

After Hans finished explaining her understanding, she asked Zoe: "Don't you feel that the origin and effects of this meteorite are somewhat familiar..."

Zoe searched her mind for memories related to meteorites. Suddenly, as if struck by electricity, she seemed to have thought of something, and she stammered, "Is it the... meteorite from the Gakye Divine Kingdom?"

"Yes!", Hans sighed and said, "Judging from the current situation, there may have been more than one meteorite flying towards Earth at that time."

"In other words, these two meteorites either split from one meteorite during the descent, or the two meteorites are related and flew from the same place, entering the Earth at the same time... Based on the information we have now, I cannot judge where these two meteorites came from or what their purpose is," Hans said calmly, "Moreover, I feel that these two meteorites we encountered have not exerted their true effect..."

Zoe felt a chill down her spine, and a sense of fear arose spontaneously.

After thinking for a while, she said, "Is it possible that what Young Master came here to find is this meteorite..."

Hans nodded: "It is very likely."

While the two were talking, Zoe saw a figure outside the submarine, staggering from Stone City towards them. Only when it got closer did they realize that this person was Jennifer.