Whether it was the trilobite, the nautilus, or the armored fish, they were all the overlords of the ocean.
Trilobites and nautiluses both had hard shells and relatively large bodies. In the era when most of the ancient marine creatures were not much bigger than plankton, they were the most terrifying killing machines.
Not to mention the armored fish. In addition to its hard shell, it also had the ability to move quickly. It could go on a rampage and sweep away all its prey.
However, Li Yao did not hesitate to rule out these three seemingly tempting evolution options.
Because he knew very well that no matter how powerful trilobites, nautiluses, and armored fish looked, they would eventually be eliminated in the long river of time.
Their overly large bodies meant that they needed to consume more energy to survive. They were bound to spend most of their time hunting, digesting, and absorbing food.
On the other hand, their overly hard shells prevented their ability to mutate further. On the other hand, it made them indulge in an illusory sense of security, making them lose the need to evolve.
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 hundreds of millions of years later.
Therefore, Li Yao ruled out all the top predators, but chose an inconspicuous small silver fish as the carrier of his consciousness.
Although they were called small silver fish, their average size was no more than half a centimeter. They were simply like glittering little bugs.
This kind of small silver fish had almost no hunting ability. Instead, it was the best food for top predators such as nautiluses, trilobites, and armored fish. When top predators were circling around them, they had no ability to resist and could only be slaughtered.
However, they had one of their greatest advantages, which was their unparalleled reproductive ability and survival ability.
Their life cycle was extremely short, and in their short lives, they were mating and reproducing almost every second. They had evolved into the preliminary male and female sex. Every time the female fish ejected, it could shoot out thousands of dust-like life seeds. As long as they could absorb the heat near the surface of the sea, they would have a chance to survive.
And their unique digestive system could convert almost all food into energy, from plankton on the surface of the sea to the carrion of the top predators, from the primitive fungus blanket on the bottom of the sea, or seaweed and anemones. They could even attach to the ancient jellyfish and form a harmonious and orderly symbiosis with the jellyfish. They could survive by relying on the residue after the jellyfish digested food.
At the beginning of life, quantity was far more important than quality.
Li Yao's consciousness was devoted to this group of small silver fish, and he racked his brains to choose the direction of mutation that could increase the population of the group.
He refused to expand the size of the little silver fish and ruled out the possibility of covering the surface of the little silver fish with a sturdy shell. Of course, he also did not hesitate to eliminate mutations such as growing sharper teeth that seemed to be very invasive but were actually suicidal. However, he gave the little silver fish more powerful digestive, absorption, and reproduction abilities. Of course, he also gave them the subtle ability to sense the planet's magnetic field, as well as more powerful long-distance sailing abilities.
Just like that, in a short moment or hundreds of millions of years of evolution, the little silver fish and its different variants gradually spread to the entire ocean. From the dark and cold North Pole to the sunny equator, all the sea areas were shining with the light and shadow of the little silver fish.
During this period, the trilobite was covered by the sand at the bottom of the sea, the nautilus became empty, and the armored fish, which had once dominated for a time, was gradually dragged down by its own heavy "armor, shield, and weapon" after evolving to a sturdy shell, sharper teeth, and larger body. It could not keep up with the agility and speed of the new generation of marine life. In the end, it was swallowed by its own insatiable appetite and became a failure in evolution.
A new overlord of the sea appeared.
They were either sharks with streamlined bodies, faster, and more agile.
Or octopuses that could freely change their skin color and body shape, grew eight tentacles that were both hard and soft, and could even increase their speed with the help of water jets.
There were even various kinds of evolved jellyfish that were highly toxic.
Most of the overlords of the sea treated the little silver fish as one of the main dishes on their menu.
There was a kind of whale that was covered in starry spots that could swallow several tons of little silver fish in one breath. For this reason, it had specially evolved a set of organs that were used to filter seawater and absorb the little silver fish.
However, no matter how wantonly they killed, they could not reduce the overall population 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 ripe.
Advance, advance, we must advance to the land at all costs!
Although the ocean was vast, except for places close to the continental shelf and the underwater volcanoes, the resources were not as rich as people imagined. Instead, it was quite barren. It was like a desert full of distilled water.
More importantly, the heavy pressure of the seawater made it difficult for the "flame", a natural catalyst for civilization, to exist, let alone smelt metal and develop civilization.
Most of the ancestors of carbon-based intelligent life were born in the ocean, but they also had to experience the "thrilling leap" 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 among the billions of creatures, there was no lack of intelligent creatures like the "Gonggong Clan" that were born in the rivers, lakes, and seas, they were the minority of the minority after all. Even the Gonggong Clan themselves had only truly evolved into the star age with the help of the Pangu Clan and other primeval races.
Under the command of Li Yao, from the ocean to the land, a magnificent, soul-stirring "landing battle" began.
This was not a war that happened overnight, nor was it a war that was waged for the gain or loss of a city or a land. It was a war that spanned billions of years for the rise or fall of a civilization.
At first, the little silver fish that were accidentally washed to the beach by the tides or jumped to the beach in a panic to escape from the top predators failed as expected.
However, Li Yao was patient enough and had a clear direction of evolution. He grasped the most useful possibilities among the billions of possibilities of mutation and gave some of the little silver fish the ability to breathe in the air, as well as the ability to move forward, jump, and dig on the beach with their thick and powerful fins.
Those little silver fish even learned to dig holes on the beach with their fins and crawl into them, keeping themselves wet and waiting for the next tide to rise. With the ability to come and go freely in the ocean and on the land, they were like a certain ancient creature, the mudskippers.
The path of evolution was destined to be lonely and dangerous.
The little silver fish that jumped on the land encountered a hundred times more difficulties and dangers than in their warm and comfortable hometown in the ocean.
However, in order to resolve those dangers, or rather, in the cruel competition for survival, more genes that did not adapt to the changes were eliminated, but generation after generation of little silver fish were endowed with stronger survival abilities.
Their scales and fins faded away, and stronger limbs and tails grew. Their skin was covered in mucus that blocked the air. The first row of sharp teeth finally grew out of their mouths, and they evolved from fish to amphibians.
For the first time, the little silver fish breathed dry air, saw volcanic eruptions, smoky mountains and rivers, and saw lush primeval forests.
After that, the path of evolution was like walking on the fast track. The sea turned into mulberry fields, and the stars changed. Everything sped up a hundred times.
Times were changing, the environment was changing, and all creatures were changing crazily like clockwork.
Li Yao refused to let the species under his control change in the direction of giant crustaceans because he knew that although giant insects and arthropods were indeed the overlords of the land at a certain stage in ancient times, as plants mutated and the oxygen content in the air continued to decrease, the giant insects and arthropods were forced to shrink in size and withdraw from the competitive stage of top predators.
He also rejected the direction of becoming a "swarm civilization" similar to bees. Although it was possible for a group of intelligent beings to brew a powerful civilization, it was ultimately inconsistent with Li Yao's philosophy.
Similarly, he rejected the path of giant reptiles without even thinking about it. When the dinosaurs trampled the earth, slaughtering and roaring, he would rather continuously shrink the size of the creatures under his control, scurrying away like a rat between the bushes and caves.
Mammals. Only mammals were the only correct direction of evolution. Li Yao firmly believed that, and he silently accepted the price that he had to pay for the time being.
As it turned out, the expected meteorite shower came one after another. The mountains and rivers changed colors, and the sun and the moon lost their brilliance. Countless plants withered and perished, and even more new plants changed the atmospheric environment in a different way. The dinosaurs, the 'kings of the land' in the past, were either killed by the furious flames raised by the meteorite shower, or died because of the drastic changes in the air composition, or because they could not digest the new plants. They could only watch the thriving plants starve to death while they were starving to death.
This was a new era. This was the stage of mammals!
Until this moment, Li Yao's cautious choices and determination to persevere in the early days had all paid off. The genes that seemed useless showed colorful mutations one after another, making him the leader in the brand-new biological explosion. He was the first to successfully evolve a brain that was large enough, with enough synapses in the brain, and a body of flesh and blood that had achieved a perfect balance in terms of strength, agility, energy consumption, and other aspects. He also unlocked "epoch-making" abilities, including "walking upright, freeing hands" and "using flames to create tools".
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