Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

In addition, there were countless bizarre-shaped, carbon-based, intelligent creatures. Even Li Yao found it hard to tell whether they were carbon-based, silicon-based, or other forms of life. They had all collapsed in different tests.

What left a deep impression on Li Yao was an intelligent life form whose brain had deformed and expanded.

Their body seemed to be only left with an enormous brain, which was much tougher than the brains of the Pangu Clan. But it had been stored in magical equipment that looked like flying saucers and attached to various mechanical arms and plug-in units with the ability to manipulate objects in the air and the spiritual magnetic field. Together, they were a perfect combination of living creatures and machines.

However, such a perfect creation collapsed in front of the black stargate and turned into grey statues.

According to the Observer, there used to be an extremely intelligent species whose level of evolution was among the best of the hundred ancient civilizations. They solved every problem posed by the Forerunners perfectly and passed the ultimate test flawlessly. But in the end, the Forerunners wiped them out mercilessly.

The intelligent species wailed before their extinction, claiming that the Forerunners did not leave any precious legacy and that the place was just a cruel death trap. They also warned the latecomers not to walk into the trap again. It was not hard to guess that the race whose brain had been deformed and whose flesh and blood had completely degenerated was the race that had been replaced by rebar and iron bones. They were the so-called ‘perfect clearers’.

The meaning of the pictures and the information in Li Yao’s head was obvious, too. It was a warning and a threat.

It was as if Teacher Origin was using this method to tell the tester that its secret treasure was not something that could be obtained easily. The price of failure was incomparably miserable. Therefore, it was best for the tester to think clearly in an extremely calm state whether or not it should change its direction and return home.

This was the last chance to give up the test.

Unfortunately, the word ‘give up’ simply did not exist in Li Yao’s dictionary.

Passing through the picture scrolls where countless civilizations had perished, passing through the corpses of civilizations that were smarter, stronger, braver, kinder, or crueler than him, Li Yao was moving faster and faster toward the center of the Dark Abyss. The Giant God Soldier was broken into pieces. The mustard suit and the crystal suit had both been blown to smithereens. The body of flesh and blood had collapsed and vanished. Even the mental devil and Lu Qingchen had been swept away by a tremendous force, making it impossible for Li Yao to reach out to them. It was possible that the ‘ultimate test’ procedure had treated them as independent entities and prepared three tests for Li Yao, the mental devil, and Lu Qingchen.

They had to complete the test alone.

Li Yao was more and more anxious, and his fighting will was firmer, too. The mental devil, Lu Qingchen, the Vanquishing Sect, Long Lianzi, and everybody else could not have been faster than him. He was definitely the first to pass the test!

Finally,

The stars dispersed, and the darkness was shattered. Vague brightness appeared in his vision. Although the brightness was fuzzy and twisted, he could still distinguish the overlapping scenes.

Li Yao was greatly shocked and dumbfounded by what he saw.

Passing through the black stargate, stepping over the corpses of countless civilizations, and returning to the primeval era, he seemed to have fallen into a boiling primitive ocean. The sky was filled with intense dark clouds and irascible lightning. The lightning slashed at the ocean like golden blades, stirring the waves. The plate movement of the undersea was extremely intense. Orange magma and black pillars of smoke were spurting out of the gaps that were torn apart, making the ocean look like a bizarre-shaped ancient creature.

At this moment, the ocean was both quiet and noisy.

The silence was because the first batch of creatures had just been born and had not grasped the ability to swallow and communicate yet.

The noise was because of the undersea volcanic eruptions, the continuous collisions of ocean currents and tides, the never-ending roars of thunder in the sky, and the rise and fall of the continent. All of this had awakened the life force of the ocean in the beginning and presented billions of possibilities for the great explosion of life.

Li Yao found that he had lost his body and turned into an ancient fungus in the ancient ocean.

No. ‘An ancient fungus’ was not a suitable description. In fact, he felt that he had turned into a cluster of ancient fungi of the same nature. A blanket of fungi hundreds of meters in diameter was attached to the undersea volcano and lived on the heat of the magma. But on the other hand, his consciousness was not only concentrated on the creep, but also extended to the bottom of the ocean thousands of kilometers away. He could even cruise in the unpredictable sky with lightning and thunder as if he were watching the evolution of the first living creatures of the world from the perspective of a ‘third party’.

“Seriously? This again?”

Li Yao was about to be dumbfounded. But right now, not only did he not have eyes and a tongue, even his flagella had not evolved yet. He could only wonder in a daze, Is this the ultimate test? It is like a ‘game’ that is played with the consciousness. Then, how can I pass the test? Right now, I am just a slowly wriggling carpet of fungi. I don’t even have anyone to talk to. Where is Master? What are the rules?

Hardly had the thought occurred to him when a stream of bright gold information flowed out of his vision like a waterfall, providing countless data and options for him.

Li Yao immediately understood.

This was the ‘first question’ of the ultimate test. The tester would have to manipulate the primitive creepers to repeat the path of evolution and evolve into a carbon-based intelligent life form that could communicate with the Primeval Lord of Heaven in order to receive the legacy of the Primeval Lord of Heaven.

Every ancient fungus inside the blanket was growing, splitting, and dying. In the process of division and death, the odds of mutations were slim. The tester had to choose the ‘right’ mutations and eliminate the ‘failed’ mutations in order to make the entire species stronger and ignite the fire of wisdom.

Of course, different testers must have different understandings about what was ‘correct’ and ‘mistake’.

A tiny error could lead to a huge error. When a life was born in the beginning, every tiny mutation would determine how weird, wise, and tough the intelligent life was.

Li Yao had no time to think. The direction of billions of mutations exploded in his vision.

The ultimate test could condense the river of evolution for billions of years in the blink of an eye. Therefore, countless variations were waiting for Li Yao’s choice every second.

Some mutations could increase the longevity of the ancient fungi, but at the cost of a slower division speed.

Some mutations went in the opposite direction. The longevity of the ancient fungi was shortened by half, but the speed of their division was 50%. Some of the mutations could turn the archaea into spherical, helical, rod-shaped, disc-shaped, and irregular forms. Some other mutations could evolve the archaea into Li Yao’s favorite flagella, thereby increasing their mobility and ability to swallow food.

Some of the mutations could alter the structure of the outer membrane of the cells of the archaea, making them more suitable for the environment near undersea volcanoes. But there were also other changes that could improve the toughness of the flagella and the overall hardness of the creep, so that the creep would be far away from the undersea volcanoes and march toward the vast undersea.

Every second, hundreds of bright gold options were floating in front of Li Yao’s eyes. Most of the time, he did not even have the time to think carefully and could only select and choose based on his intuition.

Li Yao filtered the direction of the mutations that could prolong the life of the ancient fungi out of instinct, but he kept the ability of ‘more splits’.

Only by splitting more times could there be more possibilities for evolution. Now was not the time to talk about longevity and stability.

Then, he ruled out the mutation that could change the structure of the cell membrane and absorb more heat from the magma.

Li Yao was very clear that life was inert. If the archaea evolved into structures that were very suitable for undersea volcanoes, they would stay in this place forever and maintain a simple, low-level structure. It would be impossible for them to march into the vast ocean and evolve into more, more complicated, and more advanced structures.

Born in peace, die in sorrow. It was the same for any life. Too much adaptation to the environment was the ultimate bliss. Only by marching forward, fighting against the environment, fighting against the heaven and the earth, and marching toward the cruel unknown was the true meaning of life!

At this moment, a new direction of mutation flashed before Li Yao’s eyes.

Li Yao’s consciousness shrank to the size of a needle tip. He grasped the option at lightning speed.

This was it!

After prolonged competition and evolution, one of his fungi finally mutated into the ability to carry genetic information with ‘deoxyribonucleic acid’!

Before that, all the ancient fungi stored and transmitted genetic information with ‘ribonucleic acid’. Li Yao was very clear that, although ‘ribonucleic acid’ was a long chain molecule that was very suitable to carry information, the amount of information stored and the stability of it were far less than that of ‘deoxyribonucleic acid’!

Only after the evolution of deoxyribonucleic acid’ could the capacity of the genetic information be exponentially expanded, thereby making a leap from ‘ancient life’ to ‘ancient life!

BOOM!

After he chose ‘deoxyribonucleic acid’ to replace most of the functions of ‘ribonucleic acid’, the entire primeval ocean was swallowed by the golden light ball, as if an earthshaking explosion had taken place.

Then, the environment was completely different. The eruptions of the undersea volcanoes gradually died down, and the crust and weather became relatively stable. More and more ancient creatures of the ocean evolved, too. The high-level, multi-cellular creatures that looked like trilobites, nautilus, and armored fish were swimming among the sea anemones, seaweeds, and colorful jellyfish. Li Yao was faced with a life-and-death choice again.

The golden information stream told him that, according to the mutated genes that he had right now, he could choose to evolve into a trilobite, a nautilus, an armored fish, and other top predators of the ancient ocean. Of course, he could also choose to become a second-level predator and receive compensation in other directions of evolution.