Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

He did not know whether or not he was Li Yao, or if he was a human or an insect. He lost the ability of logical thinking that every intelligent creature had, but he was given certain other abilities that were beyond description.

He was an egg, but he also seemed to be the collection of millions of eggs. He could sense the temperature and humidity around the eggs as well as the quakes of the eggs themselves. He could also share the vision of the adults on the ground through some sort of telepathy or pheromone exchange.

He saw that it was a vast and hot planet, brimming with volcanoes that were continuously erupting and thunderous clouds. The sun seemed to be too close to this planet, and its burning light brought more destruction than hope.

Few creatures could adapt to such a terrible environment, let alone evolving into a civilization.

However, Li Yao’s species was a rare exception.

He ”saw” that several starships that were a few meters long tore apart the dark clouds and dived into the atmosphere of this planet while they were on fire..

However, those starships did not decelerate and land. Instead, they exploded into countless spiral pieces in midair.

Shrieking, the species revolved crazily the moment they hit the ground and dug deep into the soil.

A word appeared in Li Yao’s primitive and chaotic consciousness: Burst.

He immediately understood the significance of the picture, like a blind person seeing the splendid world and receiving infinite information for the first time.

Those starships that looked like black meteorites were not vehicles but exactly the Houyi Clan themselves.

Billions of bugs of the Houyi Clan gathered like cells into an enormous life in the shape of a starship that was enough to sail across the universe. With their desire for a new habitat, they came to this new, primitive planet.

The black beetles were constantly corroded by the darkness and coldness of the universe. They were reaching the end of their lives.

The high temperature caused by the friction with the atmosphere was another death sentence for the living starships.

So, after carrying their eggs that stored genetic information into the atmosphere of this new habitable planet, the starships had fulfilled their duty and detonated themselves with their last power.

Billions of beetles died, but under the blast, their billions of eggs were sprayed to every inch of the land on the whole planet.

Li Yao appreciated the fireworks that represented destruction and rebirth glittering above the clouds, utterly tranquil.

All the beetles were part of the creature named Houyi. The sacrifice of thousands of living starships created hope for the hatching of new lives. It was a very common metabolism and did not deserve joy or celebration. Besides, their situation was still too perilous for them to waste their time on other activities.

He, it, and they only dutifully carried out their duty that was deeply etched into their gene strands, trying their best to absorb heat and nutrition to grow up.

Not all the eggs were so lucky.

Some eggs were sprayed to the shallow soil that was too close to the surface of the ground, where they were scorched by the sun. Even the black shells of the Houyi Clan could not resist the heat. They were burnt into ashes.

Some other eggs dug so deep into the ground that they could not get enough heat or nutrition. They were forever frozen down there.

There were also the natives of this planet. While no advanced creatures that were large in size actually resided here, there were fungi that fed on sunlight in the soil. Those fungi created minor problems for Li Yao’s ”people”. According to the pheromone from his people far away, fungi turned into webs and carpets in some places and swallowed the eggs of the Houyi Clan. As a result, they had to adjust their genes to develop the ability to resist the corruption of the fungi, which delayed them from occupying the whole planet.

Thankfully, Li Yao was buried neither too shallowly nor too deeply. The sunlight provided him sufficient energy without burning his fresh shells. No annoying fungi interrupted his growth. Volcanoes and earthquakes were far away too. So, he was able to be focused on unlocking the secrets in his gene strands and arm himself with weapons from that arsenal.

He had molted seven times. After each molting, his body would expand in size, and his new shell would be decorated with new patterns pertinent to the characteristics of the gun.

Those patterns allowed him to absorb solar energy at an unprecedented efficiency. Also, too many mottled pictures flashed in his head, making him see the living starships of the Houyi Clan passing through the universe, the advanced mother planet of the Houyi Clan where the skyscrapers were all made of tiny bugs, and even the super processors gathered by billions of bugs.

Li Yao had a new understanding. He realized the mission of this expedition.

They had to live and reproduce on this new planet until there were millions of times more of them. Only when the population of beetles surpassed the tipping point could they establish complicated structures like warships, buildings, or processors and send a message to their mother planet, announcing the victory of the expedition.

Li Yao broke out of the soil together with hundreds of thousands of companions.

He could barely tell whether he was this tiny beetle or the amalgamation of pheromones among the countless beetles nearby.

The poisonous air and the intense sunlight did not discomfort him at all. During his growth below the ground, his genes had been perfectly adapted to this planet. The Houyi Clan had conquered many similar planets, and this wasn’t the worst of them. They had plenty of weapons in their genes to deal with the tricky situation.

Even so, countless of his people still died the moment they left the soil.

They died of poisoning, of sunlight, of coldness, of hunger, and of all kinds of strange or unsurprising reasons. Death did not need a reason; living did.

Li Yao did not hesitate. At this moment, his instincts were still much more powerful than his thinking abilities. He wriggled clumsily and swallowed the bodies of his dead companions.

It was a crucial moment. The wilderness was awash with the black tides that were cracking nonstop as the beetles were taking their dead companions as nutrition to resist the sunlight, the wind, and the storm, striving for a chance of survival.

In the wilderness, Li Yao had a few more molting. His body became bigger and more beautiful.

He had developed a pair of sharp and hard pincers, which allowed him to fashion the rocks on this planet. His shell was brighter and clearer and could reflect rays of sunlight to deliver information. There were also two rows of parallel holes on his abdomen whose purposes he did not know yet.

Suddenly, as if lightning struck on his head, both Li Yao and his people nearby realized that it was the season of gathering!

Li Yao’s shell glittered, sending the patterns imprinted on his back to all directions and searching for his match.

All his people were doing the same thing.

Very soon, Li Yao found his target and crawled to the beetle, and the beetle vehemently responded to his calling too.

Li Yao fixated his legs to the holes on the beetle’s waist, and the beetle extended its antennae into the holes on Li Yao’s chest. It was perfect.

For a moment, Li Yao shivered and felt that he was more complete. He shared his brain with the beetle. The genes that couldn’t be unlocked were activated, unleashing even more information like a surging tide.

But he—they were still unsatisfied. They attracted more beetles to join this group with the patterns on the shell. Gradually, twelve beetles accepted their invitation and became part of him. Some of the beetles became legs, some became battle units, and some became digestive and storage units, transforming Li Yao from a beetle into a creature similar to a crab.

He was not the biggest winner in this gathering season. Many beetles had gathered into big groups that were in the most bizarre shapes, as if they were trying to find out what form was most suitable for survival on this planet.

The experiments for survival were cruel.

The forms that once succeeded in other places proved unsuitable for this planet. Those ferocious-looking groups collapsed, and most beetles died. The remaining beetles, with their experience and lessons, joined the smaller groups like Li Yao’s.

However, some of the forms were quite successful, and the big groups that made up those forms would disintegrate in order and bring the successful forms to smaller groups.

Even Li Yao had died twice.

He was not sure if he should describe his collapse as ”death”. All in all, the form that he finally gathered into proved unsuitable for survival or the fashioning work. 90% of the beetles that made up his body died, but the remaining 10% joined new groups with the crucial genetic information on his failure.

Perhaps, for the individuals of a collective civilization, death was a meaningless concept. They lived as long as their civilization lived.