The association's current exploration of the Desert Star is mainly focused on investigating the civilization on the planet. The remaining cooperative trade with the Tuku people is actually a pleasant surprise for the association, and it has now begun to move towards Chen Lin arrived at the scene with the person in charge, he still carried out routine maintenance. He briefly checked the portal here. The problems that had occurred at the beginning had been repaired. The association also installed protective devices around the portal, which can be said to be very thoughtful.
"It's done."
Chen Lin packed up and walked out of the room. While washing his hands, he said to the person in charge outside, "Is the desert portal running well? Has there been any problem in the past few months?"
The person in charge said to him with a smile: "It should be the most stable of the several portals. There has been no problem since it was opened. On the contrary, I heard that the other portals, especially the main portal, often have problems..."
Chen Lin nodded: "The volume of people coming in and out of the main portal every day is not comparable to these small portals, so it is normal for problems and malfunctions to occur."
The two men walked back along the path, and the person in charge mentioned some exchange items from the Tuku people on the Desert Star.
"In addition to mineral materials and some rare metals, the Tuku people also tried to exchange their food and some rare materials for our water and food."
The person in charge showed Chen Lin a picture, "For example, this one."
Chen Lin could see that it was a huge piece of white matter. He looked at the person in charge curiously, and then he heard the person in charge laughing at him and saying, "This is a part of the sandworm's body."
"It can also be called the exoskeleton skin of a sandworm. These Tuku people worship sandworms. After thousands of years of contact with sandworms, they have mastered their weaknesses. Many Tuku people have even learned to control these huge creatures. They call them Sandworm Knights."
The person in charge gestured with his hands and said, "Sandworm Knights use a special hook prop mixed with Homan metal. This thing can directly pierce a hole in the sandworm's scaly skin, allowing them to cling to it."
"At the same time, if used properly, they can also use this grappling tool to get this thing off the sandworm."
"I see!"
Chen Lin couldn't help but exclaimed, "The scales of the sandworm should have many wonderful uses. Have we found anything?"
The person in charge smiled and responded: "Its function is quite unique. It is hard enough, fireproof and high temperature resistant. It can directly withstand high temperature burning of several thousand degrees... In fact, the most important point is that this thing can be used as medicine."
"what?"
Chen Lin looked at the person in charge with a surprised look on his face and asked, "What medicine, Chinese medicine?"
"Both. The scales of the sandworm's exoskeleton skin contain regenerative ingredients, which are very useful as a component of medicine for injuries. However, our current military hemostatic medicine and blood-generating pills are already very good, so we don't need this."
"The association's intention is to take it back and use it as research material. Maybe some unique effects can be discovered in the future."
The person in charge explained, and Chen Lin nodded slightly, saying that it was possible.
"There are also some local dried small animal specimens, small lizards from desert planets, some wonderful plant dust, and wonderful river water that they collected... In short, they took out everything that can be used for exchange, as if they wanted to show off all their wealth."
Chen Lin happily listened to the person in charge's chat and walked all the way to the base hall in front. The people next to him enthusiastically invited Chen Lin to have dinner here.
Originally Chen Lin wanted to refuse, but the person in charge at the side said with a smile that dinner would include specialties from the Desert Planet - it was said to be a kind of desert beast there, with very chewy meat, similar to lamb on Earth, but with a different taste.
When Chen Lin heard this, he immediately became interested and expressed his desire to try it excitedly.
dinner time.
The specialty meat that Chen Lin tasted at the desert base was from a species called "sand sheep" by the locals.
Sand sheep live in the harsh environment of the desert, so their meat is unusually firm and has a unique taste.
There is a faint fragrance in their meat, which is the aroma accumulated by the sand sheep from eating desert-specific plants for a long time, which gives the meat a unique flavor.
Chen Lin ate the sand sheep in big mouthfuls. The meat exuded an intoxicating aroma in his mouth, which made him exclaim: "This tastes really good... Come to think of it, can we raise this kind of sand sheep here? On Earth or on the Origin Star..."
The person in charge shook his head and said, "We have tried it before, but these creatures may belong to that environment. After being transported out, they quickly began to suffer from acclimatization problems. They refused to eat or drink and soon starved to death."
"The Tuku people told us in detail how to raise sand sheep..."
While tasting the food, Chen Lin listened to the person in charge of the base talking about the living habits and breeding methods of sand sheep.
Chen Lin developed a strong interest in this unique meat. This desert creature has adapted to the extreme environment and can survive in the absence of water and high temperatures. The quality of their meat has become special as a result. If this specialty of the desert planet can be introduced to other planets so that more people can taste this delicacy, it would be a blessing.
The ecological environment of the Desert Planet has given rise to unique organisms and ecosystems. Sand sheep are creatures that belong to this unique desert environment. Chen Lin, a foodie, has really thought about related plans for a long time. It's a pity that most of them have already been tried by the staff at the on-site base.
After tasting the delicious sand sheep, Chen Lin was driven by curiosity to see the appearance of this unique creature with his own eyes. He expressed this wish to the person in charge of the base, and the person in charge readily agreed.
"We do have a few that are still alive, but judging by their condition they won't live much longer. But it's still okay to take a look."
Chen Lin nodded, and after finishing his meal, he followed the person in charge and his group to the area where the temporary sand sheep were located.
Chen Lin saw groups of sand sheep in the huge breeding area through the glass.
They are similar in appearance to goats on Earth, but are more stocky and have a distinctive sandy-colored coat.
The horns of the sand sheep are strong and curved, and their eyes are full of alertness, but these little guys look listless at this moment. "Can we go in and take a look?"
"Of course you can, but Mr. Chen needs to be careful not to get pushed by these little guys."
Chen Lin laughed immediately. He would pay close attention to these things.
Chen Lin approached the herd of sand sheep cautiously, and those listless-looking sand sheep did not seem to be frightened by his arrival. They just raised their heads and looked over here curiously, not even wanting to move.
Most of them are only slightly larger than ordinary goats, and they have lost a lot of weight after not eating for several days.
"Something seems to be wrong..."
Chen Lin directly touched the back of a sand sheep with his hand. The little creature moved slightly and then stopped moving. It seemed to have a very docile temper.
This was beyond Chen Lin's expectations.
"What kind of survival system is the sandworm?"
He suddenly asked such a question to the person in charge outside. The person in charge thought for a moment and said to Chen Lin: "According to the records and observations of the people in the library, the entire growth process of sandworms is relatively complicated and strange."
"The original form of the sandworm is called a Sand Trout. This thing is not even native to the Desert Planet. It was brought to the Desert Planet by some spacecraft."
"After hatching, sand trout are hydrophilic. They grow by swimming and filtering microorganisms to obtain nutrition. At the same time, they can use the water storage cells in their bodies to absorb a large amount of water during their growth."
"This little thing mixes its metabolic waste with water, and after fermentation in the body, it produces a substance called "early spice", which is excreted through the digestive system, but usually under a very deep layer of sand."
The person in charge spoke, and Chen Lin nodded as he listened, his eyes always on Shayang.
The secret to sand sheep farming actually lies in the growth process of the sandworms.
"Sand trout constantly absorb water, filter microorganisms, and excrete early spices. In the process, they consume a lot of water, causing the environment in which they live to gradually dry up. When the climate dries up to a certain degree and other life forms basically disappear due to lack of water, the sand trout will enter the second step of its life - some sand trout will metamorphose into sandworms. These sandworms will change their habits from being hydrophilic to being hydrophobic, and will even die painfully as soon as they touch water."
"These sandworms then filter microorganisms in the sand and continue to grow until they reach a certain size before they die."
"During the process of death, they will return the water absorbed by their cells to nature. However, the blood flowing out of the sandworms is highly toxic to ordinary creatures. This will wipe out most of the planet's creatures. At the same time, due to the depletion of water sources, vegetation will begin to die on a large scale, and eventually a desert planet will be born."
The person in charge spoke up, "Although the people of Tuku worship this huge creature, they are all very aware of its harmfulness. It is because of the existence of this sandworm that the Desert Planet has become like this... You should know that after we tested the Desert Planet with various instruments and equipment, we confirmed that this planet was once a water planet."
Chen Lin nodded thoughtfully. He walked out of the room and said to the person in charge: "The sandworm's actions are actually very simple. It has transformed the environment of the entire planet. In its lifetime, it has created an ecological environment where other creatures cannot "enter" and only itself and its food can exist."
The person in charge and the staff outside all nodded, what Chen Lin said was absolutely true.
“What do sandworms eat?”
“According to the Tuku people, sandworms eat sand, but in fact they eat microorganisms that exist in the sand.”
The person in charge said to Chen Lin, "They eat in the desert just like blue whales on Earth prey on krill. They swallow a lot of sand and then digest the microorganisms... However, blue whales will excrete seawater, but sandworms don't need to do that. Their powerful digestive tract can even decompose and digest inorganic matter. The hard outer scales on their body are made of inorganic matter."
"This is it."
Chen Lin pointed out the key point to the person in charge: "The entire ecosystem can only survive with sandworms and their food. How do you think the sand sheep survived?"
The person in charge was stunned for a moment, not quite understanding what Chen Lin meant.
"To put it more simply, the reason why sand sheep can survive is because they integrate into the environment. They are not sandworms, but they don't want to become food for sandworms. This forces them to undergo fundamental changes in their entire body system to adapt to the planet's environment."
Chen Lin said to the person in charge: "The ecosystem of the sand sheep is very likely to be the opposite, or even very likely to be bidirectional, divided into primary and secondary."
The person in charge was stunned. He only heard Chen Lin continue to speak: "This is a special survival strategy evolved by the creatures on the desert planet to adapt to the extreme environment."
"In a resource-scarce environment like the desert planet, organisms must find a way to maximize the use of limited resources. Sandworms can survive by absorbing carbon dioxide, so why can't sand sheep? It can breathe carbon dioxide just like sandworms, which not only allows it to obtain the energy it needs to survive, but also helps maintain the carbon-oxygen balance of the desert planet."
"Sand sheep also absorb carbon dioxide!?"
"What's so surprising about this? Didn't any of you ask the Tuku people?"
The person in charge suddenly slapped his forehead. He and a group of people had been working on such an important matter for a long time but still couldn't figure out what was going on. The sand sheep they brought back basically starved to death within three to five days, and they still didn't know what was going on.
Today, Chen Lin explained the whole thing immediately. It turns out to be like this!
The person in charge immediately signaled a staff member to enter the room and drag out a sand sheep. He then performed an on-site dissection on the sand sheep according to what Chen Lin had just said, and looked down along its main organs. In the end, he discovered the sand sheep's unique respiratory system!
He compared the physiological data of sand sheep with those of creatures on Earth and was surprised to find that this respiratory system was unprecedented on Earth!
"What a talent, Mr. Chen!"
The person in charge grabbed Chen Lin's hand and said excitedly, "I was wondering why this thing refused to eat or drink until it starved to death after being brought back. It seems to be because of this reason!"
Chen Lin smiled faintly and explained: "In fact, I also speculated. At that time, some fog creatures were brought back from Anyun Base. They can only survive in the fog. In order to study them, we also set up a fog room for them to simulate. This gave me a similar inspiration."
The person in charge immediately asked people to renovate the breeding room here, with an excited expression on his face.
This way, there will be one more type of food served on the table! (End of this chapter)
