Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The trilobites, the Nautilus, and the Armored Fish were all out-and-out dominators of the

ocean.

The trilobites and the Nautilus both boasted hard shells and were relatively ‘huge’. They were the most terrifying killing machines in an era when most of the ancient ocean creatures were no larger than plankton.

There was no need to mention the Armored Fish. Other than its hard shell, it also possessed a swift movement ability, allowing it to charge and sweep away all prey. But Li Yao eliminated the three seemingly tempting evolution options without any hesitation.

Because he was very clear that no matter how powerful the trilobites, the Nautilus, and the Armored Fish appeared to be, in the end, they were eliminated in the long river of time.

Their enormous size meant that they had to consume more energy in order to survive. Most of their time was spent on hunting and absorbing.

Their overly hard shells, on the one hand, hindered their ability to mutate further, and on the other hand, they indulged in the illusionary sense of security and lost the need for evolution.

A life without a sense of crisis and ambition was destined to be a life without a future. It was impossible to ignite the fire of evolution. It would only become a fossil billions of years later.

Therefore, Li Yao eliminated all the top predators and chose an inconspicuous fish as the carrier of his consciousness.

Although they were little silver fish, their average size was no more than half a centimeter. They were like glittering silver bugs.

The small silver fish barely had any hunting ability. On the contrary, they were the best food for the top predators such as the Nautilus, trilobites, and Armored Fish. When the top predators were wandering around them, they had no ability to resist and could only wait to be slaughtered.

But their biggest advantage was their unparalleled reproductive and survival ability.

Their life cycles were extremely short, and they had been mating and reproducing almost every second of their short lives. They had already evolved into the primary sexes. The female fish could shoot out thousands of life seeds that looked like dust after each spurt. As long as they absorbed the heat near the surface of the ocean, they would have a chance to survive. Their unique digestive system could transform almost all food into energy. From the plankton on the surface of the ocean to the carrion of the top predators, from the primitive fungi in the bottom of the ocean to the seaweed and the sea anemones, they could even attach themselves to the ancient jellyfish and form a harmonious symbiotic body with them, surviving on the residues of the food that the jellyfish digested.

At the beginning of life, quantity was far more important than quality.

Li Yao’s consciousness was devoted to the silver fish. He was also trying his best to select the mutations that could increase the number of his species.

He refused to expand the size of the small silver fish and ruled out the possibility of covering the surface of the small silver fish with a solid shell. Of course, he did not hesitate to wipe out the seemingly aggressive mutations such as the growing of sharper teeth, which were in fact self-destruction. In the end, he gave the small silver fish a stronger digestive and reproductive ability. Of course, there was also the subtle ability to perceive the magnetic field of a planet as well as a stronger ability to travel

Just like that, after billions of years of evolution, the little silver fish and their different mutations gradually spread to the entire ocean. From the cold, dark North Pole to the sunny equator, the shadows of the little silver fish were everywhere.

In the meantime, the trilobites were covered by the mud on the bottom of the ocean, and the Nautilus became empty. The Armored Fish, which used to be the best fish in the world, were gradually burdened by their heavy ‘armor, shields, and blades’ after they evolved into sturdier shells, sharper teeth, and larger and larger bodies. They could not keep up with the agility and speed of the new generation of ocean creatures and were eventually devoured by their insatiable appetite, turning into the losers of evolution.

A new dominator of the ocean had appeared.

They were either streamlined, fast, or agile sharks.

Some of them were octopuses that could freely change the color and size of their skin, grow eight tentacles that were both hard and soft, and could even increase their speed by spraying water.

There were even jellyfish that had evolved into venomous ones.

Most of the dominators of the ocean considered the silver fish as one of the main dishes on their menu.

There was a kind of whale with star spots all over its body that could swallow several tons of silver fish in one breath. For this, it had evolved a set of organs that could filter seawater and absorb the silver fish.

However, no matter how much they slaughtered, they could not reduce the overall number of the little silver fish. Instead, the little silver fish became the foundation of the entire food chain, the key to the survival of countless species.

Li Yao vaguely felt that the time was right.

March! March! He had to march to the land without caring about anything!

Although the ocean was vast, except for the places near the continental shelf and undersea volcanoes, the resources were not as abundant as one might expect. On the contrary, they were as barren as a desert filled with distilled water.

More importantly, the pressure of the seawater made it difficult for natural catalysts such as ‘fire’ to exist, not to mention the refinement of metals and the development of civilization. Most of the ancestors of the intelligent carbon-based creatures were born in the ocean, but they had to experience the ‘dangerous jump’ from the ocean to the land. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to develop a mature and efficient civilization.

Although the universe was vast and full of wonders, and there were many intelligent creatures such as the ‘Gonggong Clan’ that were born in rivers, lakes, and oceans like jellyfish, they were still the minority in the end. Even the Gonggong Clan did not really evolve into the space era until they received the help of the Pangu Clan and other primeval species. Under Li Yao’s command, a magnificent, soul-stirring ‘landing battle’ from the ocean to the land began.

This was not a war that could be fought overnight, nor was it a war for the gains and losses of a city. It was a war across billions of years for the rise or death of a civilization.

The little silver fish that was washed to the beach by the tides accidentally or jumped to the beach in a panic to avoid the top predators failed as expected.

But Li Yao had enough patience and a clear direction of evolution. He grasped the most useful possibilities of billions of mutations and granted part of the silver fish the ability to breathe in the air as well as the ability to jump and dig on the beach with their thick and powerful fins.

The silver fish had even learned the ability to dig holes on the beach with their fins, crawl into the holes, and keep themselves wet while they waited for the next tide so that they could move freely in the ocean and on land. They were like some kind of ancient creature that could play with mud.

The road of evolution was destined to be lonely and dangerous.

The little silver fish that were jumping on land encountered hundreds of times more difficulties and dangers than they did in their warm and comfortable hometown, the ocean. However, in order to resolve the dangers, or rather, in the cruel competition for survival, more genes that were not adapted to the changes were eliminated, which endowed generations of little silver fish with a stronger survival ability.

The scales and fins were gone, replaced by stronger limbs and tails. Their skin was covered in air-proof mucus. The first row of sharp teeth grew out of their mouths, indicating that they had evolved from fish into amphibians.

For the first time, the little silver fish breathed in the dry air, saw the volcanic eruptions, the rolling mountains and rivers, and saw the lush primitive forest.

The path of evolution after that was like walking on the fast track. Everything was a hundred times faster than before.

Times were changing. The environment was changing. All the creatures were changing crazily like clockwork.

Li Yao refused to let the species under his control move toward the giant crustaceans, because he knew that, although giant insects and arthropods were the dominators of the land in ancient times, as the plants mutated and the oxygen content in the air plummeted, the size of the giant insects and the arthropods would be reduced, and they would be eliminated from the competition of the top predators.

He also rejected the idea of turning into a ‘civilization of insects’ that resembled bees. Although it was possible that a strong civilization could be born out of the collective wisdom, it did not fit Li Yao’s ideology after all.

Similarly, he rejected the path of the giant reptiles without even thinking. When dinosaurs were stomping on the ground, slaughtering, and roaring, he would rather shrink the size of the creatures under his command and flee among the bushes and caves.

Mammals were the only right path of evolution. Li Yao believed in that and bore the price that he had to pay.

As it turned out, the meteoroid shower that he had been expecting came one after another. The mountains and the rivers lost their color, the sun and the moon lost their brightness, and countless plants withered and perished. More and more new plants changed the environment in a completely different way. The ‘king of the land’ dinosaurs who used to flaunt their strength were either killed by the raging flames raised by the meteoroid shower, or by the drastic changes in the composition of the air, or the plants that could not digest the new plants. They could only watch the lush green plants starve to death.

This was a new era, a stage for mammals!

At this moment, Li Yao’s cautious choices in the beginning and his determination to hold on to his life were both greatly rewarded. The seemingly useless genes were all displaying colorful mutations, allowing him to dominate the brand-new biological explosion. He was the first to successfully evolve into a large enough brain with enough synapses as well as a body of flesh and blood that had a perfect balance in terms of strength, agility, and energy consumption. He also unlocked the abilities of “walking upright, freeing hands”, “using flames, creating tools”, and so on. It could be said to be an “epoch-making” ability.

Mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and all kinds of seemingly powerful wolves, tigers, and leopards fell to the attacks of stone axes and spears one after another. Li Yao’s tribe wreaked havoc on the land and expanded to even farther places. When the tribe first learned how to set fire to mountains, drive out and burn down ferocious beasts, the raging fire represented the birth of the real dominator, the spirit of all creatures who would eventually rule the universe!