Chapter 539: The Earth's Past Magnetic Pole Reversal, the End of the World

Ning Fei walked through the open doors in the middle of the pyramid.

The surrounding temperature dropped significantly.

He remained slightly cautious.

Zheng was one of the five great fierce beasts recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, inherently possessing a heavy, violent aura.

In mythology, it once brought chaos to the mortal realm. Later, it was subdued by Zhulong and followed him to live in Zhong Mountain, where its violent aura gradually dissipated.

After Zhulong disappeared, Zheng also left Zhong Mountain. By that time, whenever Zheng saw an evil spirit in someone's home, it would take the initiative to help them dispel the demonic energy.

It had transformed into an auspicious beast that warded off evil and kept people safe.

However, there was no doubt that Zheng's true form was a leopard, so it naturally retained some characteristics of a ferocious beast.

It didn't take long for Ning Fei to find the divine beast.

A touch of helplessness surfaced on his face.

Inside the highest room within the pyramid stood a pedestal, upon which rested a pale red egg.

This egg looked almost exactly like the Fuzhu Egg.

"Another egg?"

"Before this, I thought Fuzhu was just unique and hatched from an egg."

"But now the fierce beast Zheng is also an egg, which proves that hatching from eggs isn't the natural birth method of these divine beasts."

"Moreover, the fact that these divine beast eggs haven't died after all these years indicates that this egg form exists specifically to protect them."

"Just what exactly happened in that era?"

Ning Fei muttered to himself.

"System, can I ask a question? What turned all these divine beasts into eggs?"

The System did not answer.

This mystery had always troubled Ning Fei.

The System's appearance was a mystery in itself, and the deeper his understanding of this world became, the more he felt there were too many unknowns.

However, Ning Fei didn't want to overthink it.

He felt a fated connection with this divine beast egg, so he stored Zheng into the Divine Beast Space.

"I'll have to hatch it and see what Zheng actually looks like."

"If I can come up with a reasonable explanation for it, I'll keep it in the Deer Sanctuary."

Ning Fei said to himself with a smile.

Fuzhu was a deer, so it was easy to explain keeping it in the Deer Sanctuary.

Zheng's true form was a leopard, and keeping a pet leopard was illegal in Huaxia. Besides, a crimson leopard really wasn't easy to explain away.

Afterward, once Ning Fei had collected Zheng's Divine Beast Egg, he ran back outside the pyramid and turned his live stream back on.

"It's back, it's back, we have a signal."

"Finally, a signal."

Netizens all over the world breathed a sigh of relief. After all, they had been watching the broadcast at the height of their excitement, and the sudden loss of signal was truly frustrating.

Everything on the stream seemed a little surreal.

Many people still couldn't believe that a pyramid existed in this subterranean world.

"Next, I'm going to take a look inside the pyramid."

"This pyramid is quite different from the ones in Egypt."

"The pyramids of Egypt were used as tombs for the pharaohs."

"But the pyramids of the Maya were places of worship and sacrifice."

Ning Fei explained at an unhurried pace.

At this moment, the eyes of the entire world were focused on him.

After all, Ning Fei's discovery could be called the greatest archaeological find of the 21st century.

Ning Fei stepped into the pyramid once again.

Earlier, he had rushed straight for the divine beast egg and hadn't taken the time to observe the pyramid's internal structure.

But now, things were different.

The pyramid was pitch black.

Ning Fei used his flashlight to illuminate his surroundings brightly.

There were many Mayan glyphs carved into the walls of the pyramid. Like a quiet spectator, Ning Fei took in all the text.

"Demons turn the world upside down, and the sun god sends down punishment."

"This is the final sanctuary."

"Flames spew forth, and the sun god's light is obscured."

"Everything on the surface will ultimately be destroyed."

Ning Fei did not translate any of these words out loud.

However, he completely understood what the Maya meant.

'This phrase likely refers to volcanic eruptions, with the volcanic ash blotting out the sky and covering the sun.'

'Demons turning the world upside down sounds like the Maya foresaw a magnetic pole reversal.'

'So that's how it is. The Maya predicted the magnetic pole reversal and, fearing the arrival of doomsday, began searching all over the world to build sanctuaries.'

'This must be one of those sanctuaries.'

'But what they didn't anticipate was that the meteorite carried massive radiation, which would cause rapid organ failure.'

'And so, they all died here.'

Ning Fei guessed at the events that had transpired thousands of years ago.

At this point, he spoke to the viewers in his live stream, "The Maya Civilization was truly incredible. Based on these inscriptions, after they deduced that a magnetic pole reversal would occur, they built this sanctuary to escape the disaster."

"However, perhaps due to the radiation from the meteorite, or possibly other factors, they perished here, leaving behind only this underground city."

Hearing Ning Fei's words, the netizens were exceptionally confused.

Magnetic pole reversal? What was that?

It sounded like the magnetic poles of Antarctica and the Arctic were going to change.

But so what if they changed?

"An Earth magnetic pole reversal has a catastrophic impact on the entire planet."

"Outer space is filled with massive amounts of high-energy radiation, and Earth's magnetic field acts like a protective umbrella, shielding all life on the planet from this radiation. Once a magnetic pole reversal occurs, that protective umbrella opens up and vanishes."

"When that happens, the radiation from outer space, along with the high-energy charged particles emitted by the sun, will strike Earth directly, causing immense harm to all living creatures."

"At that time, all the volcanoes will erupt, and the volcanic ash will be blotting out the sky and covering the sun."

"However, you don't need to be too nervous. The last magnetic pole reversal happened 770,000 years ago. Scientists predict that the next one won't occur for another five thousand years. Who knows what the world will even look like by then."

Ning Fei explained to the netizens.

Hearing Ning Fei's reassurance, the viewers finally relaxed.

Ning Fei didn't want to promote doomsday theories, so he didn't elaborate further, merely observing the structure inside the pyramid.

Aside from Zheng's Divine Beast Egg resting in the highest room, most of the objects elsewhere had already decayed. Only a few carvings and murals remained, to which Ning Fei didn't pay too much attention.

'Could the reason for the existence of these divine beast eggs be related to the shifts in Earth's magnetic poles?'

Ning Fei pondered this question internally.

Regardless, from the Archean Eon 3.3 billion years ago, the Proterozoic Eon 2.5 billion years ago, and the Paleozoic Era 200 million years ago, all the way to the Cenozoic Era 3 million years ago, countless cycles of species extinction and rebirth had taken place.

It really was impossible to say exactly which era these divine beasts came from.

Afterward, Ning Fei strolled over to a neighboring palace. As soon as he entered, he saw a row of white bones lying neatly on the ground.

Such a scene gave the viewers quite a scare.

Ning Fei had already anticipated that the Maya had died in their palaces, so he was mentally prepared and appeared much more composed.

Right at this moment, Ning Fei received a text message.

He took out his mobile phone and saw that it was sent by Lin Tao.

Lin Tao told him that, if it was convenient, he should bring back some Mayan stone carvings, murals, or similar artifacts. The Indian Government likely wouldn't permit any other countries to set foot there again, meaning no other nations would have the chance to intervene in the study of the Maya Civilization.

Obviously, Huaxia also wanted to study the history of this place.

Lin Tao had helped Ning Fei a lot with various international issues, so Ning Fei gladly agreed to do him this favor.

Thus, going forward, Ning Fei would occasionally slip out of the camera's view "by accident" to pocket a few small antiques.

It couldn't be helped; it was for the cause of the nation.

Then, under the watchful eyes of netizens worldwide, Ning Fei completed a full tour of the subterranean world before leaving in style.

Before departing, he turned off the lights in the underground world, and on his way out, he moved the human head sculptures back to their original positions.

It was as if he had never been there at all.

The night was deep, and this expedition had finally come to an end.

He had shown the people of the world a miraculous ancient civilization site, once again becoming a globally viral sensation.

Time was one of the most famous magazines in the world. It regularly published highly authoritative rankings that were widely recognized across all sectors.

And this time, Time magazine listed Ning Fei in its ranks of the "50 People Influencing the World in the 21st Century," placing him on the same tier as those massive business tycoons.

For an outdoor streamer, this was absolutely unprecedented!

Ning Fei didn't give it much thought.

Compared to these hollow titles, he was far more concerned with how to hatch Zheng.

For some unknown reason, he couldn't shake the feeling that these divine beast eggs were somehow connected to him.

It was as if, in some past era when the magnetic pole reversal occurred and destroyed the world, these eggshells had acted as a unique form of technological civilization, protecting the divine beasts within.