Chapter 67

The next chapter in ten minutes~

………………………………

Lin didn’t take long to decide and let Leviathan follow the helmet fish into the river’s entrance.

Leviathan, of course, didn’t need to worry about salt or anything like that. Other organisms, while swimming, would continuously exchange various elements and nutrients with the surrounding water, so any strange changes in the water would make them uncomfortable.

However, Leviathan didn’t have a direct system for exchanging substances and nutrients with the water. Although it had the ability to absorb and expel water, this water wouldn’t pass through its own blood or other circulatory systems. Leviathan relied on a small species to collect nutrients and food from the water for it. These collectors were an evolved form capable of separating various harmful and harmless substances in the water and determining how much of each substance Leviathan needed at the moment.

In other words... when entering the river, the collectors could simply collect more salt and less water.

Leviathan followed the helmet fish deeper into the river. There were few creatures in the river, only some small organisms on the bottom of the river. At this point, there were no predators that could threaten the helmet fish.

Except for Lin...

Not knowing how long the helmet fish would swim, Lin created an eyeball on Leviathan’s back, making it float to the surface to observe the changes on land.

During its life, Leviathan had never created an eyeball, seemingly relying purely on its sense of smell and touch. Lin found this truly incredible.

The originally scorching ultraviolet rays now seemed to have no lethal power. Even though the daylight was still bright, Leviathan felt nothing when it floated near the surface.

The land on both sides of the river appeared to be large square rocks, blocking Lin’s view. However, some green things stood on those rocks, looking like hard, thin tentacles with forked ends.

They seemed to have officially climbed onto the land, like algae. These were evolved forms of phototrophic cells, taking a completely different evolutionary path from common organisms. Although they had a system similar to blood vessels, they never evolved hearts, muscles, or brains. Without muscles, they couldn’t move and could only spread reproductive cells through water currents. Their reaction to the environment was very slow, but they lived just as well as other brainy organisms.

They were almost responsible for producing oxygen. Despite their slow reactions, they could develop various strategies to counter the fast and predatory brainy organisms, which was quite remarkable. Climbing onto the land was probably one of the strategies to avoid predators.

These organisms could now be described with another term... 'plants,' which were quite different from the fast-moving 'animals.'

However, Lin itself possessed both plant and animal characteristics, which was quite interesting.

Leviathan had been following the helmet fish and had reached a special area.

The waterway ahead was blocked by a wall of huge rocks, but this was not the end of the river. The gaps between the rocks indicated that the river continued upstream, but these rocks had somehow fallen into the center of the river, interrupting its flow.

The destination of the helmet fish was clearly not here, but their bodies couldn’t fit through the gaps between the rocks. So, they swam to the surface and leaped onto the exposed tops of the rocks.

The helmet fish flapped their fins and heavy heads, trying to climb over the rocks that interrupted the river.

Why didn’t they just lay eggs here? Why did they have to climb over?

Watching the helmet fish continuously jumping onto the rocks, Lin felt somewhat puzzled, but this also proved that the ultraviolet rays indeed had no lethal power.

What about Lin? Should it also jump up? Lin checked Leviathan’s life records and found that it didn’t seem to have any land capabilities. In the 100 million years of its life, it had never approached land.

However, Leviathan had occasionally landed on land and managed to crawl back to the sea. Perhaps it could try, as even the helmet fish with only fins could climb over, so Leviathan had no reason not to.

Thinking this, Lin made Leviathan float to the surface and then suddenly opened the water jet to leap out, landing on the rocks.

Although Leviathan now had only two tentacles, the suction cups on them provided great strength, allowing it to move on land even with its three-meter-long body.

Around Leviathan were helmet fish struggling to climb. There were still ten meters to the point where they could enter the water. Despite its large size, Leviathan, with the help of the suction cups, climbed faster than the helmet fish. However, halfway through, some monsters appeared in front of Lin...

They had flat, elongated bodies over a meter long, with large pincers at the ends of their front limbs and a curved tail with a sharp hook at the end. Clearly, they were carnivores. These creatures came from an unremarkable small arthropod, which Lin had seen before, but it never expected them to be able to climb onto land.

They also had their own name: 'Bulongdu Scorpions.'

What a strange name. There were three of them, seemingly prepared to ambush the helmet fish here.

This could be dangerous...

The Bulongdu Scorpions had eight eyes on their heads. Lin didn’t know how well they could see, but they were clearly staring at Leviathan.

It felt like trouble was coming...

Leviathan’s large size made these scorpions somewhat wary, and they didn’t dare to rush forward recklessly. However, they spread out in a coordinated manner, surrounding Leviathan from three directions.

Leviathan didn’t have new land combat units, but Lin could still rely on old methods. Leviathan’s unit launch ports were on both sides of its body and on its head, leaving no blind spots except for its tail.

Launch!

An explosive ball with strong acid hit one of the scorpions in front of Leviathan. In pain, it writhed and retreated, while the other two scorpions directly bypassed Leviathan and went after the nearby helmet fish.

It seemed they weren’t working together to surround, but had split up from the beginning?

Lin didn’t think too much about it and took the opportunity to quickly crawl into the water. Even with the old method of launching explosive balls, dealing with three of them was still troublesome.

This was the helmet fish’s spawning ground, a wide, circular body of water that could be called a 'lake.'

After Leviathan, many helmet fish also jumped into the lake. The few Bulongdu Scorpions could only catch a few of them and couldn’t stop the helmet fish from coming here to spawn.

The helmet fish swam to the sandy bottom of the lake. They first used their head plates to dig small pits, each pair of fish having their own pit. Then they began to release large quantities of cells.

One type was round and large, about one centimeter in size, while the other was extremely small, with a tail-like appendage, only as big as a regular single cell. It seemed there were two words to describe their differences: 'male' and 'female.'

The ones releasing the round cells were female, and the ones releasing the small cells were male. The combination of male and female cells could create offspring with the advantages of both.

After releasing the cells, the helmet fish would die, just like the flat fish. Lin discovered that most organisms had a set lifespan, but unlike Lin, which occasionally decomposed older cells, their entire lifespan would end with the death of all their cells, starting from the brain and then gradually affecting the entire body.

They weren’t attacked or infected by viruses; it was all decided by their own cells. An organism could only live for a certain amount of time, and then they had to die to make room for their offspring.

A flat fish’s lifespan was set to about 10 years. Although they might die earlier due to viruses or parasites, they absolutely wouldn’t live beyond 10 years because their cells were programmed to die at that time. The helmet fish were unique in that they would only die after spawning, not before.

The bodies of the helmet fish wouldn’t be wasted; they would become food for the newly hatched small fish.

Lin didn’t come here just to watch them reproduce. It wanted to set up a base to study the differences between the freshwater and seawater.

The base Lin was now creating was very different from the previous ones. It was mainly a spherical center point with a diameter of 30 centimeters, which would extend and expand a green carpet to cover the entire area.

The structure of the green carpet was also much simpler, mainly consisting of two transparent layers, containing photosynthetic cells and some small defensive units.

The green carpet wouldn’t affect the helmet fish. Lin rarely attacked other organisms now; observing their changes was more valuable than eating them.

When the base seed was placed, Lin suddenly felt a special sensation...

This is...

The base seed had some extremely sensitive tentacles inside, which Lin had specially created to detect changes in the environment. By collecting information such as seabed vibrations and water temperature, it could predict future environmental changes and prepare in advance.

When Lin placed the base seed, it felt something... strange.

……………………………………………………………………

Thank you to ~Da Wo Cheng~ Ye~ Tian~ Soul Seeker~ godmorgan~ Queen S~ M~ for the support~

AD starts on the previous page

AD ends on the previous page