The subsequent materials comprise news and folk legends regarding the Himalayan mountain range from surrounding countries, spanning from 1920 to 2000. These include news reports of mountaineers who went missing deep within the mountains, and tales from villagers at the foot of the mountains who claimed to have witnessed a string of unusual green lights during blizzards, resembling a group of people carrying lanterns on their way... These news reports and legends have not been officially verified and are of questionable credibility, but when analyzed in conjunction with other information, they possess some value.

However, it was the final piece of information in the documents Zoe gave me that truly enlightened me and revealed the real reason for the disappearance of that expedition team.

The information indicated that although Kael Mormont, the organizer of the 1984 Himalayan scientific expedition, was the nominal investor, various signs and evidence suggested that the actual investor was someone else.

After 1940, no country in the world, including the United States, officially organized scientific expeditions or investigations into the Himalayan mountain range. Only a few countries organized mountaineering teams to attempt to climb Mount Everest.

I suspect the main reason for this may have been related to World War II. The war depleted vast amounts of resources from various countries, and the development of many developed nations was also affected. No one cared about a mysterious and unfathomable treasure trove in the world anymore.

The research of the United Kingdom and the United States was never truly integrated. The British research focused on the condition of the two corpses and knew very little about the Himalayan mountain range itself. The United States focused on exploring the Himalayan restricted area (Devil's Pass) but did not pay attention to the mountains' impact on people. The research of each country was conducted in secret, relatively independently, and without private cooperation.

The lack of official cooperation did not mean there was no cooperation in the private sector. After World War II, the global situation tended to stabilize, and private organizations exploring the Himalayan mountain range began to emerge. The members of these organizations were not restricted by nationality; participants came from different countries, contributing money or effort, with few limitations.

One mysterious organization (the name was blacked out in the documents, only referred to by the code name "z") suspected of being the backer of the Mormont expedition had been exploring and investigating the Himalayan mountain range since 1960. The organization's members came from Europe, America, West Asia, and South Asia, mainly consisting of tycoons, scientists, and explorers, with ample funds and technical and human resources. Of course, due to ideological issues, no Chinese people participated.

Z organization conducted many studies on the Himalayan mountain range in secret. The organization forbade countries from participating in the research and prohibited cooperation with governments. Therefore, z organization never showed its true face and never made its research public. However, strangely and bizarrely, through some unknown channels, z organization managed to obtain the United Kingdom's top-secret autopsy report and the US secret department's investigation into the Himalayan mountain range. Not only that, but many other countries' research materials on the Himalayan mountain range were also obtained by the organization, many of which were top-secret. This shows that someone within z organization must have infiltrated the confidential departments of certain countries.

Z organization was not as eager to explore the mountains as the United States, nor did it spend too many resources on the two corpses like the United Kingdom. They were more like an intelligence agency, investing a large amount of manpower and material resources into collecting and verifying information.

This situation continued until 1980 when it changed. That year, my father and second uncle published a paper. During their field investigation in the Himalayan mountain range, my father and second uncle accidentally obtained a stone from the villagers at the foot of the Himalayas. All subsequent research results and discoveries actually originated from this small stone.

The villager was a Sherpa who was familiar with the mountain conditions near the village and often went up and down the mountains, serving as a guide for mountaineering teams. He had brought the stone down from the mountain. The stone had a regular spherical appearance, only the size of a dime. It was jet black when not illuminated by light, but when illuminated, the stone would instantly become transparent. This transparency was not like glass, which is both transparent and reflective, but completely transparent, as if it did not exist. There was no visual presence or sense of boundary with surrounding objects. If you couldn't feel the weight when you held it in your hand, it would truly "disappear upon seeing light."

My father and second uncle believed that the stone had scientific value, so they bargained with the villager and finally exchanged the stone for a strong flashlight, a radio, and $50. Unfortunately, due to language barriers, my father did not ask how the stone was obtained.

After returning to the institute, my father and second uncle devoted themselves to soil sampling and the study of the strange stone in the Himalayan mountain range. After the stone was brought to the research institute, its physical properties slowly changed. The characteristic of becoming transparent upon seeing light did not last long and gradually disappeared, turning into a jet-black stone. My father also used equipment to scan the stone, but the results showed that it was just an ordinary quartzite. httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět

Later, my father and second uncle still wrote the research results and the origin and changes of this special stone in the paper. The paper was intercepted by z organization when it was submitted to international journals and experts were invited to review it. Z organization was still shocked by the discovery of my father and second uncle. The conclusions drawn by z organization from more than 20 years of collecting information and intelligence unexpectedly coincided with the conclusions of the paper written by my father and second uncle because of a stone.

Therefore, this peculiar stone seemed to have become a key to solving the mystery, but when z organization managed to get the stone, it gained nothing—because it was just an ordinary stone.

At the same time, z organization began to plan a scientific expedition to explore the secrets of the stone. Therefore, the first people the expedition invited were the Zhao brothers (that is, my father and second uncle), followed by stakeholders in Himalayan mountain range research. The two British members of the Mormont expedition were members of the laboratory that studied the bodies of the Senna brothers. Although there was no detailed information about them in the materials, I guessed that these two were very likely the leakers of the Senna brothers' autopsy report.

Z organization did not obtain information about the five Chinese members of the expedition.

The expedition was not originally intended for "scientific investigation." The expedition's ultimate goal was to find a way to penetrate deep into Devil's Pass, and then try to bring out samples and find evidence of the connection between those bizarre events and the Himalayan mountain range. Kael Mormont was unaware of the full purpose of the operation. Initially, the instructions he received were only to observe around Devil's Pass and collect data and soil samples.

The materials did not mention what happened later that led to the disappearance of the twenty people.