I live in the Martian wilderness!

Gu Yu didn't linger in his ecstasy for long. He immediately turned the vehicle around and began the journey back to the landing site of "Candle Dragon One".

It was already afternoon on Mars. The pale sun began to set, casting the Sky Surveyor's shadow longer and longer across the crimson wasteland.

The light turned dim and soft, giving this desolate world an eerie yet magnificent golden hue.

The temperature was dropping at an alarming rate, and the red rocks outside the car window, which had been warm in the midday sun, were now black silhouettes.

The thin atmosphere cannot retain any heat, and once the sunlight is tilted, the bitter cold seeps out from every pore of this planet.

The Xuntian's onboard environmental monitoring system projects real-time changes in external temperature onto Gu Yu's retina: 5℃...-10℃...-30℃...

In the last hour of the return trip, the temperature outside the car had plummeted to minus fifty degrees Celsius.

On the ground, the carbon dioxide molecules that make up the bulk of the atmosphere begin to condense into a layer of white, frosting-like dry ice in the cooler, shadowy areas of the rocks.

In the beams of the Skywatch's headlights, these newly formed ice crystals shimmered with diamond-like sparkle.

At 19:45 in the evening, the massive silhouette of the Sky Surveyor finally reappeared in the shadow of the Candle Dragon 1 landing module.

Gu Yu skillfully maneuvered the Mars rover, slowly tilting it toward the side of the landing module. There, a standardized, circular docking port with a metallic sheen was located.

[Activating docking assistance system.] Xuan's voice rang out, and two green guide lines were instantly projected onto the windows of the Sky Patrol, perfectly aligning with the markings on the landing module interface.

[Distance 3 meters... 1 meter... 0.5 meters...]

"Click—"

A heavy metallic click echoed through the vehicle's structure. The rear of the Skywatch and the side airlock of the Candle Dragon One were connected like two Lego bricks.

The mating ring is locked; the seal self-test has passed.

[Pressure is being applied to the docking channel... Target pressure: 101.3 kPa (1 atmosphere).]

[You are skipping the standard phased stress reduction process.]

For ordinary astronauts, in order to prevent explosive decompression and avoid decompression sickness, they must wait for several minutes in this small airlock.

However, Gu Yu's ability to fix carbon dioxide and breathe effectively eliminates pathogenic inert gases from his blood, allowing him to perfectly avoid decompression sickness.

"laugh--"

A hissing sound rang out, and within a dozen seconds, the narrow passage less than a meter long between the Sky Patrol and the Candle Dragon One was filled with gas.

Xuanjian's clear voice gave a status report: "The channel pressure has reached 101.3 kPa, which is exactly the same as the pressure inside the command module's cockpit. All hatches are unlocked."

As the most advanced deep-space vehicles ever built by humankind, both the Zhulong-1 and Xuntian provide astronauts with a living environment of 1 standard atmosphere.

Without this ingenious airlock design, opening any one of the doors would directly lead to the outside of Mars...

The precious air inside the cabin, at a pressure of up to one atmosphere, will be drawn into a vacuum at the speed of sound within 0.3 seconds, causing an explosive decompression.

Its power is enough to launch an adult like a cannonball!

Once the internal and external pressures were completely equalized, the rear hatch of the Xuntian and the side hatch of the Zhulong-1 silently slid open to the sides.

An "indoor corridor" less than a meter long appeared out of thin air between two separate aerospace devices.

Gu Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief, bringing to an end this extraordinary expedition.

At that moment, Xuanjian's clear, girlish voice rang in his mind: "Captain, you can now safely return to the command center."

He sat in the pilot's seat of the Sky Surveyor and, through the control panel, shut down most of the vehicle's systems, leaving only basic life support and communication functions.

Then he unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up from the driver's seat.

He turned around, took two steps back in the cramped cabin of the Sky Surveyer, and came to the rear hatch that had just been opened at the rear of the vehicle.

At the other end of the hatch passageway were the familiar interior walls and control console of the Candle Dragon One command center.

He only needed to take one step forward to cross the dividing line between the two modules and enter the command module of the Candle Dragon One completely.

Throughout the entire process, he was in a comfortable environment with standard atmospheric pressure, and he was even able to completely remove his helmet.

At 20:00 that evening, the command module of [Candle Dragon One] was activated.

As the hatch behind him slowly closed, Gu Yu pressed the unlock button on the side of his helmet, finally freeing himself from the Xuanjia combat suit that had bound him all day.

A wave of warm, dry air washed over him, instantly making him feel relaxed.

He glanced at the environmental monitor on the wall, which displayed the cabin temperature: 22 degrees Celsius.

This is the landing module's deep sleep mode. The main power system has been shut down, and only a small backup radioisotope thermoelectric cell is maintaining the basic survival temperature of the command module and supply depot.

This battery has very little power and cannot drive any large equipment, but its heat, derived from nuclear decay, is enough to keep the last bit of warmth during the long, cold nights on this planet.

Gu Yu changed into a light cabin suit, walked to the control panel, and brought up the energy management interface.

"Xuan, begin charging the Sky Patrol."

[Command confirmed.] Xuanjian's clear voice responded.

[The external charging port is activated and is supplying power from the lander's backup battery pack to the Skyscanner's Star Sea Battery. It is estimated that the 4% of today's power consumption will be replenished in two hours.]

A powerful current flowed silently through the energy interface of the docking ring to the distinguished vehicle.

After doing all this, Gu Yu walked to the food heating unit and took out a military standard Type VII nutritional paste and a bag of dehydrated beef jerky from the storage cabinet.

He squeezed the nutritional paste into his mouth, and a sweet, creamy substance slid down his throat, injecting his tired body with the most basic energy.

He tore open the beef jerky packaging again and chewed it carefully. This was one of the few luxuries that reminded him of "food" rather than "fuel".

Outside the porthole, it was already an eternal night.

Without that nearby blue planet, the Martian sky appears incredibly empty and desolate.

Gu Yu's gaze pierced through the endless darkness, and almost instinctively found the brightest star.

According to the fundamental laws of astrophysics, a planet surrounded by a thick atmosphere and whose surface is 70% liquid water is an extremely good reflector.

Astronomers use a number called "apparent magnitude" to measure the brightness of stars; the smaller the number, the brighter the star.

On Earth, the faintest star we can see with the naked eye has a brightness of about +6; while the brightest star in the night sky—Sirius—has a brightness of -1.4.

At this moment, the sunlight reflected by Earth gives it a visual magnitude of -2.5, meaning it is nearly three times brighter than Sirius.

That is Earth, a solitary point of light, sixty million kilometers away, that encapsulates all of humanity's history and emotions.

Under the gaze of the distant starlight, Gu Yu chewed on beef jerky while comparing the three-dimensional geological model of the "Land of Adventure" with the structural design drawings of the Candle Dragon No. 1.

"Xuan," Gu Yu's voice was calm and clear, "our Nest Building Project is essentially the implementation of the 'Command Pod Modular Independent Survival Solution,' and this project will officially begin tomorrow."

"Instructions understood," Xuanjian's clear voice responded immediately. "A detailed action plan for tomorrow has been generated for you. Would you like to report it now?"

"report."