He did not know if he was still Li Yao or not. He did not even know if he was "him" or "it". He seemed to have lost the logical thinking abilities that an intelligent life should have, but he also had something else that could not be described in words.
He seemed to be an egg, but at the same time, he seemed to be the amalgamation of thousands of eggs. He could sense the temperature and humidity of the soil around the countless eggs at the same time, as well as the trembling of the eggs themselves. He could even communicate with the adult worms on the ground through some sort of telepathy or pheromone exchange, sharing the vision of the adult worms and seeing everything.
He saw that this was a vast, boundless, and scorching planet. It was covered with incessantly erupting volcanoes and lead clouds filled with lightning and thunder. The stars seemed to be very close to this planet. When the sun shone down, it was like pouring lava, bringing destruction far more than life.
Few lives could adapt to such a harsh environment, much less evolve into intelligent lives.
However, his race was an extremely rare exception.
He "saw" that countless black meteorites or starships several kilometers long were burning furiously, tearing apart the clouds and diving into the atmosphere of the planet with gray exhaust flames behind them.
However, they did not slow down and land. Instead, they exploded into countless helical pieces in midair.
Those pieces shrieked and revolved at a high speed the moment they hit the ground, before they drilled into the ground.
A word popped up in Li Yao's primitive and chaotic mind: "Explode".
He immediately understood the meaning of the picture. It was like a blind man seeing the brilliant world for the first time and receiving infinite information.
Those black warships that looked like meteorites were not cold vehicles but the Houyi Clan themselves.
Billions of bugs of the Houyi Clan were gathered like billions of cells into an enormous starship that could cross the sea of stars. With the mission of exploring space and looking for a new habitat, they came to the newborn, primitive planet.
The dark and cold universe was corrupting the black beetles that made up the starship all the time, gradually pushing those beetles to the end of their lives.
The high temperature caused by the high-speed friction with the atmosphere also extinguished the last vitality of the "living starships".
Therefore, after successfully bringing the seeds that stored the genetic information to the atmosphere of the new habitable planet, the "starships" completed their mission and blew themselves up with the last bit of strength.
Billions of old beetles died instantly, but billions of seeds were also spread to every part of the planet under the encouragement of the blast.
Li Yao quietly appreciates the fireworks that represent destruction and rebirth blooming brightly above the lead clouds. In the depths of his sea of consciousness, there is neither sadness nor joy.
All the beetles were one. Countless beetles made the creature named "Hou Yi" together. The sacrifice of thousands of living starships created the hope of hatching for a new life. It was a very common metabolic process that was neither tragic nor worth joy. Besides, they were still in a perilous situation. They should not waste any energy on joy or feelings.
He, it, and they were only faithfully carrying out the mission that had long been engraved in the depths of their genetic strands. They tried their best to absorb the heat of the sun and the nutrients in the soil, constantly breeding and growing.
Not all the seeds were lucky.
A lot of eggs were scattered to the shallow soil that was too close to the ground, and they were scorched by the scorching sun like magma. Even the black shells of the Houyi Clan could not resist such heat and were all burnt into ashes.
A lot of eggs dug too deep into the ground that was too dark and cold, where they could not get enough heat and nutrients and would be frozen there forever.
It was needless to mention the natives of this planet. While there were no high-level creatures of enormous sizes, fungi that fed on sunlight existed in the soil too. Those fungi caused quite a lot of trouble for Li Yao's "people". The flashing pheromones brought the news of his "people" far away. It was said that the fungi had turned into enormous nets and blankets in a certain place and swallowed countless eggs of the Houyi Clan. They had to adjust their genes in time to develop the ability to resist the infection of the fungi, which significantly delayed the time for them to break out and occupy the entire planet.
Thankfully, the place where Li Yao was buried was neither too deep nor too shallow, neither too high nor too low, neither too wet nor too dry. The sunlight was enough to provide him with abundant energy without burning his tender shell. No annoying fungi disturbed his growth. Volcanoes and earthquakes were far away from him, too. He could focus on unlocking the secrets deep inside his gene strands and arm himself with brand-new weapons from the 'arsenal'.
He had molted seven times in total. After each molting, his body would expand, and the newly grown shell would be branded with brand-new patterns according to the radiations, wavelengths, and spiritual waves of the star.
Those patterns made him even more powerful. His efficiency in absorbing and utilizing solar energy was improved to a new level. Countless mottled pictures flashed in his mind, making him feel that he saw thousands of "biochemical starships" of the Houyi Clan passing through the sea of stars and the highly-developed mother planet of the Houyi Clan. The skyscrapers that rose into the sky were all made of tiny beetles, and billions of beetles were even gathered into something that looked like a "biochemical superbrain".
Li Yao had an unprecedented epiphany. He understood the mission of the expedition.
They were going to reproduce on the brand-new planet and breed millions of their compatriots. Only when the number of beetles surpassed the threshold could they build complicated structures such as warships, skyscrapers, and biochemical superbrains and be qualified to be called a "civilization". Only then could they send a message back to their mother planet and announce the "victory" of the expedition.
Li Yao broke out of the soil together with thousands of his compatriots.
He couldn't even tell whether he was a tiny beetle or a condensation of pheromones among the countless beetles nearby.
The poisonous air and the scorching sunlight did not make him feel uncomfortable at all. During his long growth below the ground, his genes had been adjusted to the environment of the planet. The Houyi Clan had conquered many similar planets, and this one was not the harshest one. There were plenty of weapons in their gene bank to deal with tricky situations.
Even so, countless of his compatriots were killed the moment they broke out of the soil.
Death by poisoning, exposure to the sun, low temperature, starvation, all kinds of strange or ordinary reasons — death doesn't need a reason, survival does.
Li Yao did not hesitate at all. At this moment, his instincts were still far above his thinking ability. He wriggled his round body and clumsily waved his tentacles to devour the bodies of his dead compatriots.
It was a very critical moment. The entire wilderness was drowned by the black tide. The black tide was making cracking noises. Countless beetles were devouring the corpses of the dead to increase their own nutrition. They were struggling to resist the scorching sun, the roaring wind, and the assault of the heavy rain, fighting for the slim chance of survival.
Under the scorching sun and wind, Li Yao shed his shell a few more times. His body size was even larger and more beautiful.
A pair of sharp and tensile pincers grew out of his body, which were enough to refine the rocks on the planet. His shell became even glossier and covered in colorful patterns that could reflect light of different wavelengths and turn them into complicated information. A few pairs of appendages grew out of his abdomen, and there were two rows of parallel holes on his chest. Those organs had their own mysteries too, but he did not know them yet.
Suddenly, as if a bolt of lightning flashed across his head, he and the thousands of compatriots around him all realized that the season of condensation had arrived!
Colorful brilliance beamed out of Li Yao's shell, transmitting the patterns that had been branded on his body to all directions so that he could find a suitable partner for himself.
All his compatriots did the same, as if they had been searching for him thousands of times.
Very soon, two glittering patterns were condensed in midair. Li Yao tried to crawl toward a compatriot, and the compatriot tried to respond to his call.
Li Yao fixed the hoop around the compatriot's waist with the appendages on his abdomen, and the compatriot also inserted the tentacles on his head into the holes on Li Yao's chest. It was a perfect fit.
For a moment, Li Yao felt a tremor from the depths of his genes. He felt that he had become more 'complete'. He shared his head with the compatriot. The gene bank that could not be opened before was all opened. More information poured out like a surging tide.
Not satisfied, they … He was still not satisfied. He still used the patterns on his shell to attract more beetles to join this … 'small group'. After that, twelve beetles accepted his invitation one after another and became part of him. Some of the beetles served as crawling parts, some served as combat and precision processing parts, and some served as digestive and energy storage parts. He completed the leap from a low-level animal to a high-level animal in an instant, turning into a domineering creature that was similar to a giant crab.
However, he was not the biggest winner in this season of condensation. Many beetles successfully condensed hundreds of companions and formed 'large groups'. They shaped themselves into grotesque and bizarre forms that were not restricted by any rules. They just wanted to try which form was the most suitable for survival on this planet.
The process of the survival experiment was cruel.
Countless forms that had been successful in the past proved to be unsuitable for the environment of the planet. The seemingly raging, ferocious "swarm" collapsed one after another. Most of the beetles died, and the remaining beetles joined the "small swarm" like Li Yao's with the lessons of failure.
However, a small part of the condensed forms proved to be quite successful. The 'large groups' that made up these forms would also split up in an orderly manner, bringing the brand-new successful forms to more 'small groups'.
Even Li Yao died twice.
He was not sure if 'death' was the right word to describe his collapse. All in all, the form that he had spent so much effort to condense turned out to be unsuitable for survival on this planet and the precision processing work in the rock stratum. 90% of the beetles that made up his body died, but the remaining 10% of the beetles, with the most critical genetic information, joined the new group and integrated into it perfectly.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
