301: Chapter 301: The Continent of Mu, the Continent of Lemuria, Could Civilization Really Have Divided?

1:30 AM.

A verified blogger, a retired professor of history and mythology known as "Ancient Cultural Studies," also posted a long article.

This retired professor didn't have many followers and usually only shared professional papers, but tonight he made an exception and posted twice in a row.

The first one was—

"Retired for ten years, I never chase hot topics, but tonight I'm making an exception."

"I spent an hour and a half verifying what Xiaoyu's brother said, and here are my conclusions."

"First: The Byrd diary does indeed exist. There are microfilm archives in the USA Navy Archives. I saw them with my own eyes during a visiting scholarship in the nineties; the contents of the diary are basically consistent with what he described."

"Second: Records of an underground world in global mythology are by no means isolated cases, but a universal phenomenon. From Africa to the Americas, from Asia to Europe, all civilizations have memories of people living underground. I used to explain this with the collective unconscious, but now it seems this might be collective human memory. By the way, I caught up on Xiaoyu's brother's past clips and found that this might be related to the [akashic records]."

"Third: The new interpretation of Nüwa Mending the Heavens is the most self-consistent and reasonable explanation I've ever heard. If the crust is truly the sky of the underground world, then the sky collapsing means the crust cracked, and mending the sky means mending the cracks in the crust. This explanation is more logical than any mythological theory; it has left me shaken and exhilarated."

"Fourth: It is a geological fact that twelve thousand years ago, parts of Antarctica were temperate, with mammoths and forests. If there was a super-civilization in Antarctica back then, their descendants might still be alive. They wouldn't even be 'underground people,' but rather living in cities—perhaps in a lower-lying area just a few hundred meters from the surface. With advanced technology, they could completely hide that area using barrier technology, similar to the [optical cloaking] currently used by several major countries, but theirs would be a large-scale cloaking that completely [reflects light]."

Immediately after was the second post.

"Many people have sent me private messages asking, 'Professor, do you believe it?'"

"My answer: It's not a matter of belief; it's that we should look wherever the evidence points."

"If there were only one clue for tonight's content, it could be called a coincidence. But the Pyramids, records in temples worldwide, local oral traditions, the USA's declassified documents, global myths, and geological evidence—so many independent clues all point in the same direction. There is a high probability that a developed civilization existed before the Great Flood. I don't know the specifics; perhaps he will discuss it in the next program."

"I believe all of this is not a coincidence, but the truth!"

As the powerful conclusion landed, it once again left the fans in shock.

"Even Professor Wang has come out to take a side. Meow, what's going on lately? This guy's claims are making more and more people in professional circles take a stand. Isn't this just a normal urban world? Why are so many strange things popping up?"

"So all of this is true?"

"I won't be able to sleep tonight!"

"When's the next episode? I can't wait!"

"Tomorrow night. Xiao Yu is on winter break recently."

"Wait for me, be there or be square!"

"..."

On the internet, the hype continued to ferment; on the hot search lists, round after round of new topics surged upward.

This time, it was livelier than ever before.

Because these topics were understandable to ordinary people and had almost no barrier to entry, the entire nation could participate.

...

2:00 AM.

A large hotel on the Third Ring Road in Beijing.

In a private room on the third floor, the lights were bright and the air was filled with the clamor of voices.

At this table of twelve, most were flushed red from drinking.

This was a reunion of the Class of '88 History Department from Beijing University. They had been drinking since 6:00 PM, and it was finally nearing its end.

Xu Mu stared at the ceiling in a daze, feeling both dizzy and unwell.

He was the oldest at the table, fifty-three years old, a professor at the Beijing History and Divinity School.

Sitting next to him was his old classmate Zhao Guoli, a researcher at the Institute of History of the Academy of Social Sciences, specializing in ancient history.

"Old Xu, you're not doing so well. You've barely had anything to drink, and you're already like this?" Zhao Guoli laughed as he continued to pour him more wine.

"I can't do it anymore, I'm really getting old. I didn't want to come tonight; I just got back from lecturing out of town and I'm exhausted."

After speaking, he glanced around the table. Seven or eight people were scrolling through their phones, some were chatting, and others were dozing off, but no one wanted to leave. After all, this was a once-in-a-decade reunion; if they didn't stay up all night, how could they do it justice? How many more chances would they have to meet in the future?

Xu Mu thought for a moment and had a sudden idea. "How about we put on a show to watch and sober up a bit?"

"What show?" a female professor opposite him asked.

Xu Mu took out his phone and waved over a waiter to turn on the projector in the room. "There's a very popular live stream online recently by Xiaoyu's brother—that's Little Jiang. My kid follows it every day. I haven't had time to watch it lately, so I'll take a look at what it's about today."

He opened the screen mirroring and projected his phone's display onto the large screen in the private room.

On the screen was a recording of Xiao Yu's live stream.

The others, who were originally uninterested, all looked up upon hearing the word Atlantis.

Atlantis—who didn't know about it? Whether it was real or fake, no one could tell.

As time passed, ten minutes later, the noise in the room subsided.

Another twenty minutes later, those who were dozing off looked up, the drunkenness on their faces fading as they became focused.

Finally, half an hour later.

Xu Mu had completely sobered up, his eyes fixed on the large screen. Beside him, Zhao Guoli also sat up straight, his expression solemn.

On the large screen, Jiang Zhe was explaining the new interpretation of Nüwa Mending the Heavens.

When this segment finished, the room fell into a dead silence.

Then, a plump old classmate wearing glasses suddenly gasped, "Holy sh*t!"

Everyone looked at him. That old classmate's surname was Sun, a professor from Shanghai University of Geosciences who had come to Beijing for the reunion.

He had also drunk quite a bit tonight, but now his eyes were shining. "It's true that Antarctica was temperate twelve thousand years ago. I just saw an Antarctic expedition report last year; there is indeed a permafrost layer under Queen Maud Land, and it contains pollen from temperate plants!"

Another old classmate surnamed Li, a history professor from Chengdu, pointed at the screen and said in disbelief, "Nüwa Mending the Heavens was mending the crust... this explanation, this explanation... why does it make everything feel so clear to me, like a spiritual awakening? Could it be the truth?"

Zhao Guoli looked at Xu Mu. "Old Xu, what do you think?"

Xu Mu looked at the large screen. "Did you notice? The Nüwa Mending the Heavens he talked about actually aligns with many clues regarding the underground world in global myths."

He was about to continue when Professor Sun interrupted, "Mu!"

Everyone present looked at him.

Professor Sun said, "Do you remember? In the 19th century, a scholar named James Churchward proposed that a civilization called Mu once existed in the Pacific Ocean and later sank to the seabed. Everyone treated him like he was talking nonsense back then. But if there really was a super-civilization in Antarctica, could Mu have been a branch of it?"

Professor Li also said with bright eyes, "There's also Lemuria in the Indian Ocean; some people say that was a sunken civilization too."

Zhao Guoli quickly shook his head. "What you're talking about are all hypotheses with no evidence, and geology doesn't recognize them."

Xu Mu spoke thoughtfully, "Hypothesis or not, the key is that myths from all over the world have stories of sunken continents. Atlantis sank, Mu sank, and Lemuria sank. If only one place had sunk, it might be a coincidence. But with so many places having the same legend, it can only mean one thing!"

"Human civilization might have truly had a gap."

The room was quiet for a few seconds, and then the discussion became even more boisterous.

This reunion didn't end until 6:00 AM.

During this time, Xu Mu, who had been a bit sleepy, was firmly requested by Zhao Guoli and the others to continue playing more recordings.

Starting from the tui bei tu clips of Jiang Zhe, then to the akashic records, fate, and the quantum delayed choice...

Though these wonderful clips were short, they left the dozen or so professors astonished.

As a result, everyone present began to thoroughly admire Jiang Zhe.

Before leaving, Zhao Guoli kept looking back at Jiang Zhe's face on the large screen. "Everything he talks about is so wonderful. He can even speak about a cold subject like death with such warmth. If only he were my friend or student!"

"If I were a woman, I would definitely marry him just to have him tell me stories every day."

As he spoke, the air in the room grew a bit colder, and Old Xu and his former classmates cast strange looks at him.

"What are you guys doing? I was just making a comment," he defended himself awkwardly. "Besides, it's not like he would necessarily want me anyway!"

Old Xu's lips couldn't stop twitching. "So after watching dozens of Little Jiang's programs, you've actually become so obsessed that you want to marry him?"

"Uh, no—is that not allowed?"

Another female professor quickly pushed him from behind to leave the room. "We know you're a sapiosexual. Now hurry up and come with me. If you keep talking, watch out for your reputation!"

"..."

By the time they adjourned.

The papers that Old Chen, Old Qian, Old Wang, and Old Liu were rushing to finish were nearing completion.

Finally, at 3:30 AM, Old Chen looked at the dozens of pages of documents on his computer and took a deep breath. "Finished!"