Chapter Two: The Era of Primordials

Countless spores were released into the fish tank, and under the pull of gravity, they gradually settled to the bottom. These spores were so minuscule that they were utterly invisible to the naked eye. Fortunately, the spores' surfaces were a pure, deep black; individually imperceptible, yet once their numbers accumulated, they formed a pinpoint-sized patch of darkness in the corner of the tank, making them quite conspicuous.

"Every life form requires tremendous energy to emerge. The larger the organism, the more energy must be amassed, and the harder it is to achieve a qualitative change. But that doesn't mean smaller size is always advantageous—take bacteria and viruses, for example. They're tiny, yet lack complete cellular structures, so they can't even meet the prerequisites for a qualitative transformation."

Fang Zhuowei summed up his thoughts.

Though the individual spore cells were minuscule, as their creator, Fang Zhuowei possessed a godlike perspective. He could see every detail within the tank with absolute clarity, easily observing any part of the spore cells, their forms and composition, even the wrinkle-like ridges and grooves on their surfaces.

At a glance, all the spore cells lay sedimented at the bottom, forming a thumb-sized dark patch. With the ebb and flow of water currents, it resembled a beating heart.

On the first day of introducing the spores, the tank remained pristine and unchanged, tranquil as ever, not even a bubble appeared.

The second day passed in the same manner.

The third day…

The fourth day…

It was not until the fifth day that the colony formed by the spores began to change.

First, the tightly clustered black spores suddenly separated, breaking apart into individual entities.

And then, even after leaving the collective, these individual spores continued to change; their bodies grew larger, two or three times their original size. With time, their internal structures became gradually more sophisticated, and their exteriors began to transform.

After fifty thousand years of evolution, the spore cells possessed the basic features of single-celled life. At their tails, they sprouted a slender, whip-like appendage, somewhat reminiscent of tadpoles.

Other than this, there were no particularly remarkable changes. Fifty thousand years may seem like eternity, enough to encompass countless dynasties rising and falling, but in the grand tapestry of life, it is merely a blink—insufficient for the spores to undergo more dramatic transformations.

One day equaled ten thousand years; a single daylight or a single night was five thousand years of vast history. Five thousand years of scorching days, five thousand of freezing nights, combined with Wu City's extreme temperature swings, created a unique phenomenon: intense heat by day, piercing cold by night.

Most species could not survive in such harsh conditions.

Over the course of fifty thousand years, nearly half of the spore creatures perished; before the fifth day's sunset, their corpses became organic matter and nutrients, enriching the sand below.

Yet even so, Fang Zhuowei was thrilled, for some spores had tenaciously endured the violent temperature fluctuations, surviving through cycles of death and rebirth.

Thus was the tenacity of this first generation of spore creatures revealed.

…

Time flowed onward…

By the sixth day, as the sun rose, the tank's timeline reached sixty thousand years.

The seventh day…

The eighth day…

The ninth day…

The tenth day.

It was on the tenth day, through ages long and slow, that the spores, now fused with armored cricket cells, underwent another transformation.

They evolved compound eyes, their pupils pitch-black, bottomless as ancient wells. Additionally, they developed mouths and specialized gills for breathing underwater.

Their bodies grew again, now one-hundredth the size of an ant, feeding on plankton—single-celled algae invisible except under a microscope, far smaller than the spores themselves.

Spore creatures did not always succeed in hunting these algae; though the plankton posed no danger, their swimming speed was far greater. Usually, it took dozens of spore creatures working together to make a catch.

The eleventh day…

The twelfth day…

…

The fifteenth day…

In the world of the tank, as the sun rose and set, the spore creatures underwent a third comprehensive evolution.

This time, they sprouted limbs—two scythe-like forelimbs for swimming, two sturdy hind legs, with a transparent webbing connecting them. Their chests and backs grew pale blue armor plates, and their mouths filled with dense, sharp teeth.

These new adaptations greatly enhanced their ability to hunt plankton. The webbing allowed them to swim faster than the single-celled algae, and their sharp teeth easily pierced the algae’s outer layers. Where once dozens of spores were needed for a successful hunt, now a lone spore could obtain food.

Unable to outrun or outfight their pursuers, these algae—whose only defense had been speed—became easy prey, like fat fish laid out on a butcher’s board.

The spore creatures had enormous appetites, spending every moment either eating or seeking food.

Evolution and mutation require vast reserves of energy, and energy must be conserved!

Luckily, their bodies were so small as to be negligible; otherwise, were they the size of cattle or elephants, they would devour a mountain in minutes.

With the food supply resolved, on the tank’s one hundred sixty-thousandth year—its sixteenth day—the population of spore creatures, which had barely exceeded a hundred, experienced its first explosive growth.

They reproduced asexually; once their internal energy reached a suitable threshold, they began to split—one became two, two became four, four became eight.

In almost a single night, their numbers multiplied by over a hundredfold across the tank.

“These little creatures… have started to reproduce…”

The next day.

Fang Zhuowei went out to buy breakfast. Upon returning, he glanced at the tank and paused in surprise.

After only one night, the spore creatures had visibly crowded together. Now numbering over a hundred thousand, they occupied a palm-sized corner of the tank, like bandits staking their claim to a mountain, their presence overwhelming.