The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

The global academic community is in an uproar.

Two weeks after Professor Li's paper was published, subsequent research results emerged at a rate of more than a dozen per day.

It's not just history and archaeology... physics, biology, anthropology, linguistics, all disciplines are digging into it.

The most explosive paper comes from the joint laboratory of the Department of Biology and Paleoanthropology at Peking University.

Title: "A Modified Model of Homo Species Evolutionary Path Based on Heritage Island Literature".

The core conclusion can be summarized in one sentence: the linear evolutionary model of modern humans is flawed.

Around 15,000 years ago, at least three species of the genus Homo existed on Earth at the same time, possessing advanced cognitive abilities... one of which had the physiological basis to manipulate natural energy.

In other words, the ancient cultivators were not ordinary people who "cultivated" themselves; they were a different species in themselves.

Or to be more precise—human beings once had that potential, but at some point in time, that ability was taken away.

This paper caused an even greater stir in academic circles than Professor Li's paper.

Chen Siyao discussed it with Professor Li during the video conference.

"Professor Li, is this conclusion reliable?"

Professor Li rubbed his temples. He had been working for more than forty hours straight, and his eyes were dark-rimmed.

"The data supports this. The skeletal samples unearthed from the 25th island—we performed gene sequencing—did indeed show a 3.7 percent difference from modern humans. This difference is not in appearance, but in the gene expression regulatory region."

"What do you mean?"

"Simply put—the hardware is the same, but the software is different. The physical structure of those ancient cultivators is the same as ours, but their genes contain a set of regulatory sequences that we have lost. Once this sequence is activated, the human body can resonate with external energy."

Chen Siyao tapped the table. "Now, the mysterious resurgence—"

"Yes, it's about reactivating this sequence." Professor Li stared at the screen. "So why was the body-refining training at the Special Affairs Bureau effective?"

"It's not that the cultivation technique creates anything new, but that it 'awakens' the abilities we already possessed but were locked away."

"Who locked it?"

Professor Li shook his head. "I don't know. There's currently no literature that can answer this question."

After the video call ended, Chen Siyao wrote down the key points of the conversation. She hesitated for a moment, then went to find Chen Hao.

The sound of spatulas clattering came from the kitchen. Chen Hao was cooking. Yang Wanqing squatted beside him, peeling garlic, muttering to herself.

"Master, you've overcooked it! It's going to burn!"

"Shut up, peel your garlic."

Chen Siyao stood at the kitchen door and repeated Professor Li's words.

Chen Hao didn't stop working; the smoke from the green peppers hitting the pan rose up, and he sidestepped to avoid it.

"The idea of ​​gene inactivation is interesting," he said, flipping the pan over. "But it's not entirely accurate."

"What's wrong?"

"It's not that it's 'locked up.' It's a natural degeneration that occurs after it's been completely depleted."

Chen Siyao nodded. Her brother had survived since ancient times and was probably the one who understood her best.

Chen Hao turned off the fire and served the dishes.

During the meal, Yang Wanqing was scrolling through her phone again.

"Wow, MIT has also published a paper—'A Comparative Linguistic Analysis of Norse Rune and Chinese Heritage Island Inscriptions.' They say that the two symbolic systems share 23% common structure."

"As expected." Chen Siyao picked up a piece of pork rib. "The ancient civilizations of the world all originated from the same system. This view used to be only proposed by amateur scientists, but now there is solid evidence."

"Doesn't that mean—" Yang Wanqing put down her phone, pointing her chopsticks at the ceiling, "that everyone in the world used to be cultivating immortality?"

"Not everyone," Chen Siyao said. "There exists a class within a cultivation civilization. Ordinary people will still farm."

"What's the difference between that and now... Rich people cultivate themselves, while poor people do manual labor."

Chen Hao took a sip of soup and didn't say anything.

After the meal, Qin Xiaoyu sent a message: Ye Chendong made a breakthrough in training, and his energy output level has reached the standard of the late stage of the Meridian Opening Realm.

Chen Siyao replied with "Received".

Yang Wanqing leaned over for a glance and pursed her lips. "Just late-stage Meridian Opening? Master's sneeze alone would cost more than that."

"Shut up," Chen Siyao slapped her. "Wait until you've reached the later stages of cultivation before you start talking big."

At 11 p.m., Chen Siyao received an encrypted email. The sender was the head of the intelligence analysis department of the Special Affairs Bureau.

The email was very short, consisting of only two lines:

"Intelligence agencies from multiple countries have begun independently searching for 'heritage sites' within their respective regions. To date, the number of confirmed sites worldwide is 47."

Forty-seven.

The thirty-six islands of China are only a part of it.

The remains of that ancient civilization are being discovered one by one around the world.

Chen Siyao closed the email and walked to the window. The city skyline stretched out in the night, and the lights of thousands of homes shone peacefully and calmly.

One week later.

Yang Wanqing's scream shook the entire floor.

"Master!!! Sister Yao Yao!!! Come quick!!!"

Chen Hao was practicing his martial arts on the balcony when Yang Wanqing rushed in barefoot from the living room, holding her phone in her hand, and almost crashed into the French windows.

"What's wrong?" Chen Siyao came out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee.

"Something big has happened in the United States!"

Yang Wanqing shoved his phone in front of Chen Siyao. On the screen was an English paper with the title translated as "Energy Absorption Enhancement Training System Based on the Human Meridian System: Ultimate Arcane Arts".

Author: Vernon Chase, affiliated with the Advanced Energy Institute in Massachusetts, USA.

"Put your shoes on first." Chen Siyao pushed her phone away.

"The shoes don't matter! Look at this first!" Yang Wanqing stamped her foot anxiously. "This researcher named Cai Si has developed a set of training exercises to be used with the Flame Spirit Stones! There are twelve sets in total! They can increase the absorption speed of the Flame Spirit Stones by nearly twenty times!"

"Twenty times?"

Chen Siyao put down her coffee cup.

Twenty times is an incredible number.

She took Yang Wanqing's phone and started reading it from the beginning.

The paper was written in a very formal and standardized manner; it wasn't something that was written on a whim.

Vernon Chase, 27, graduated with a PhD in Biomechanics from MIT and later joined the Institute for Advanced Energy Studies in Massachusetts, specializing in the energy interaction between the human body and the Flame Spirit Stone.

This person described in detail the design principles of the twelve sets of movements in his paper.

Each set of movements targets different meridian nodes in the human body, opening up the body's channels for receiving the energy of the Flame Spirit Stone through specific body postures, breathing frequencies, and muscle exertion methods.

"Wait a minute—" Chen Siyao flipped to the diagram of the seventh set of movements, "This pose..."

"Right, right!" Yang Wanqing leaned closer. "I think so too! The seventh set of movements is very similar to our Chinese stance training! It's a variation of the horse stance!"

Chen Siyao didn't say anything and continued scrolling down.