Since the barrier outside the ice coffin had been removed, there were no longer obstacles or checkpoints hindering the process.

Thus, lifting the coffin out of the ground unexpectedly became the easiest part of the entire excavation project:

Wei Fan carried the ice coffin single-handedly along the excavated passage directly to the surface, without even using any lifting equipment.

As for the skeleton with only half of its lower jaw remaining, it was carefully sealed in another closed box by the staff and transported to the surface together.

After all the members of the expert group left, Zhang Yaqing led a team to conduct a thorough inspection of the secret chamber.

An hour later.

Zhang Yaqing returned to the surface to report to Lin Ziming:

"Colonel Lin, we have conducted a thorough inspection of the secret chamber, using manpower, instruments, and spiritual energy to ensure there are no omissions.

Aside from the spatial bag we previously discovered beside the skeleton, we only found several broken porcelain jars in the chamber.

The jars contained some pills that the skeleton likely took in life. A few pills were relatively well preserved, possibly due to the protective coating or the low oxygen concentration in the chamber preventing oxidation.

We have carefully sorted these jars and placed them together with the skeleton."

Lin Ziming nodded slightly, about to commend the hard work.

But he suddenly noticed Zhang Yaqing's hesitant expression, as if he had more to say, so he proactively asked:

"Comrade Yaqing, did you discover anything else?"

Zhang Yaqing hesitated for a moment and said:

"Colonel Lin, it's like this...

We also found several sunken grooves on the left side of the skeleton, about three to four centimeters in size, which appear to be traces of some tile-like slabs being stacked.

But we didn't find any matching objects around, so we speculate... if it really exists, it was likely placed in the spatial bag."

Upon hearing this, Lin Ziming showed a thoughtful expression and patted Zhang Yaqing on the shoulder a few seconds later:

"I'll pay more attention to this situation, Company Commander Zhang, you all have worked hard, haven't rested much for ten days, right?

Look at those dark circles under your eyes... you could fit a costume and play Genggeng easily, go and catch up on some sleep!"

Hearing this, Zhang Yaqing scratched his head and chuckled, then stood at attention and saluted:

"Yes!"

Watching Zhang Yaqing turn and leave, Lin Ziming shook his head with a smile and instinctively squeezed the spatial bag in his hand.

Zhang Yaqing's intention was quite clear:

If something placed with the suspected Mo Family Third Ancestor's skeleton in the secret chamber wasn't basic living or cultivation supplies, then the possibility could only be twofold:

Either it's high-value known items or unknown objects of mysterious origin.

So if something matching these conditions were found in the spatial bag, it would warrant some attention—Wei Fan had previously probed the spatial bag briefly, noting many fragmented items inside.

Without Zhang Yaqing's reminder, the team might have overlooked the crucial item for some reason.

Half an hour after Zhang Yaqing left, all items in the secret chamber were sealed and classified.

Then Lin Ziming personally led a team to transport them via helicopter back to the Life Experiment Base.

Upon arrival at the base, several items were swiftly categorized for inspection.

The skeleton suspected to be Mo Family's Third Ancestor was sent for analysis to determine its age at death and time of death; the ice coffin was sent to the Plant Biology Laboratory, along with the spatial bag and several jars with fragmented pills.

This time, the inspection was still led by the research team under Wang Qiang.

After the development of the L17 cultivation system and concluding that monster cores are solid-state spiritual energy, Wang Qiang's team's standing in the entire base had climbed into the top ten ranks.

It's common for those meeting them to greet with "Researcher Wang" or "Dr. Wang"—don't think there's no social dynamics in the Fire Camp; where a group of people gathers, such dynamics are inevitable. The camp just lacks the dark sides and the unspoken rules of seniority.

Plus, with Lin Li, a top-three domestic biology expert, always available for technical support, many projects are entrusted to Wang Qiang's team for analysis.

This isn't about Lin Li exploiting power for personal gain; Wang Qiang's team earned organizational trust with their own achievements.

Once the items were sent to the laboratory, the ice coffin was naturally the first subject of analysis.

After all, anyone with a bit of intelligence could see that this thing held big secrets.

"Tsk tsk... Sleeping Beauty..."

During the calibration phase for the analysis equipment, Wang Qiang looked at the unbelievably beautiful girl in the ice coffin and subtly nudged his mentor, Li Yan, with his elbow:

"Sister Yan, look how good this girl's skin is, like she has an inbuilt beauty filter, no eye bags or nasolabial folds, hehe... I really want to touch it."

Li Yan nodded in agreement, but then suddenly thought of something, moved to the lower half of the ice coffin, and her gaze slowly moved upward from the girl's legs.

After a while, she retracted her gaze somewhat disappointedly and clicked her tongue:

"Tsk, it's clearly a skirt, yet Pang Ci can't be seen. Is the mechanism of this ice coffin so precise?"

Wang Qiang: "....?!"

Then Li Yan decisively brushed back her short hair and pointed to the SIMS instrument beside her, which was emitting a green light, saying:

"Okay, the ion mass spectrometer is ready. Let's get to work."

Seeing this, Wang Qiang had to suppress any complaints in her throat and focused on the final calibration phase of the instrument.

The instrument Wang Qiang's team chose this time was still the SIMS, or secondary ion mass spectrometer.

In theory, Ar+ ions can 'bombard' down any solid surface fragments—the most advanced Ar+ ion beams currently can even affect gases, knocking down a portion of hydrogen gas at a 37.9% concentration.

Previously, when discussing Ar ions, an obscure classmate once raised a question:

Namely, "Ar is a noble gas element, chemically stable, neither gaining nor losing electrons, unable to form ions—this is a direct quote from ninth-grade chemistry."

What to say about this... it's a limitation of middle and high school textbooks, I guess. In middle school, it's enough to know that Ar can't form ions; there's no need to be overly rigorous.

In reality, Ar ions can be prepared.

As long as the potential between the cathode and anode in an electric field reaches the critical ionization voltage, the outermost electrons of gas molecules can be stripped away through ionization.

A portion of these electrons shoots towards the anode, while another portion surrounds the magnetic field lines due to the Lorentz force, being confined near the target.

This portion of orbiting electrons, after gaining significant kinetic energy in accelerated motion, continues to collide with gas molecules, which can knock out more electrons and Ar cations.

In fact, there are many areas in middle and high school textbooks that are not fully explained or are even incorrect. Besides Ar ions, there's also mention in the third chemistry elective textbook on page 46 that "molecules containing only nonpolar bonds must be nonpolar molecules," which isn't true for ozone.

For example, a certain fisherman who wishes to remain anonymous particularly likes to tell non-science friends two things:

1 Angular velocity is not a scalar

2 Angular velocity is not a vector.

Then he watches them look utterly confused (σﾟ∀ﾟ)σ...

Ahem, let's get back on track.

Returning to the laboratory.

Once everything was ready, Wang Qiang activated the ion mass spectrometer, aiming the Ar ion beam at the ice coffin.

However, over forty minutes later.....

Looking at the blank space on the mass spectrometry graph, Wang Qiang shook her head with a frown:

"...Unable to analyze the ice coffin sample; its micro-density exceeds that of a beast crystal, and it may even be the most durable molecular structure known currently."

Honestly, the failure of the mass spectrometer was within the research group's expectations.

After all, the ion beam itself in the field of mass spectrometry is still in the developmental stage, not yet a complete field. The optimal ion beam has been debated for twenty years and changes almost every three to four years.

Even locally, there are many samples that cannot be analyzed by ion beams.

Such as superhard nanocrystalline cubic boron nitride or quark-gluon superfluid substances, which current ion beams basically cannot break through.

So the fact that the ice coffin cannot be analyzed does not mean it is the legendary dark matter.

Dark matter is something you simply can't find, whereas the ice coffin is visible to the naked eye but temporarily unresolvable in its microstructure.

Then Li Yan pondered for a moment and said:

"Shall we try neutrinos...?"

Neutrinos are currently known as the most penetrating particles.

This stuff is actually quite a magical thing, with the specific concept already mentioned in the pod theory of the Light Gate, so I won't elaborate here.

Here's one more fun fact:

As you're reading this sentence, no less than two hundred million neutrinos have passed through your body at nearly the speed of light.

Unlike Ar ions, the capture rate of neutrino beams is only three ten-millionths, so one basically doesn't expect it to return any analyzable information.

The only reason Li Yan suggested trying neutrinos is:

To confirm whether the ice coffin can block neutrinos!

If neutrinos could be blocked by such a 'thin' ice coffin...

Then it could suggest that there are no atomic gaps in the ice coffin, making its nature infinitely akin to a complete 'ultimate particle.'

In some sense, even approaching...

The Light Gate!

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