4.6 Billion Year Symphony of Evolution

Book 2: Chapter 35 “Land of Crystallization”

Last chapter recap: Lin managed to defeat the ice monster.

Joy of victory

Looking at the ice crystal monster sinking into the darkness, Lins thoughts were filled with this wondrous emotion.

Lin finally knew that it would only have this feeling when it won against powerful enemies.

In this battle, the Leviathan had taken significant damages, all of the biting tentacles killed by the ultraviolet light, and even its body had received heavy damage. Only by winning in such a situation would Lin feel joy and happiness.

While Lin felt happy, Lin hoped that this battle was not a waste. It hoped to obtain something interesting from that monster which was like a living crystal.

Leviathan shed the dead tentacles and released gatherers to eat them. It recovered what nutrients it could and Lin grew new tentacles.

After recovering all nutrients, the Leviathan swam down towards the sinking ice crystal monster.

Because this area had a thick ice layer, even in daytime, the deeper reaches of the water with light were about the same as during the night. Lin had to light the lantern in order to see the surrounding environment.

Got it.

A white beach at the bottom of the dark ocean. The ice crystal monster was laid out in a pit of sand, the crystal like scales still flashing, but its life was gone.

The exploding balls which climbed into the wound had most likely damaged the brain so the monster died quickly. Lin had hoped to see it struggling.

The Leviathan swam close to the ice crystal monsters body and released large numbers of miniature exploratory eyeballs. They burrowed in from each crack on the ice crystal monsters body and observed the mysteries of this organism.

During this time, Lin continued to slowly regrow the Leviathans tentacles.

The ice crystal monsters organs were similar to the majority of the segmented limb type organisms but there were many different parts.

For example, its last two segmented limbs could both suck in and expel water. It could move rapidly, and charge. Also, Lin did not find its gills. How did this organism absorb oxygen?

Most importantly, its brain was the largest that Lin had even seen. Even relative to its body, its brain was larger than any other organisms. Not even the flat fish could compare to it.

Lin knew that the main function of brains were to direct ones cells. Other than the part that was needed to direct ones cells, the remaining part was used to think on other matters. The bigger the thinking part, the smarter the organism.

So the ice crystal monster would know such a strange tactic of hitting other organisms onto the ice.

The shell of the ice crystal monster was also unique. Lin found that the shell wasnt made from any chitin substance it knew of but a crystal-like substances. The ice crystal monsters ectoderm contained a great number of small gland cells that were like miniature ice crystals which could secret this substance.

Lin had seen this a long time ago

Yes, those were the crystal bacteria! A long time ago, in the unicellular era, Lin had fought a war against them.

Why would they be mixed inside the ice crystal monsters body? Had the ice crystal monster created them? But then they should be basic cells, and not be placed as gland cells on the ectoderm

Lin also found the brain of the ice crystal monster was not connected to the crystal bacteria. Did the brain not control them? So unique.

Also, the hardness of this crystal shell rivaled the hardest chitin substance Lin could create at the moment. While it was just a tiny bit softer, the crystal shell was extremely light, and was the reason the ice crystal monster had been so much more nimble than Lin.

The ice crystal shell was split into three layers. The outer layer was the thickest and also transparent. The middle layer was middling in thickness but white in color. This layer most likely was used to block ultraviolet light. The innermost layer was thin, almost as though it didnt exist. It had many cracks and small openings where the crystal bacteria was squeezed into.

The organisms segmented limbs were made from this kind of crystal, especially the sharp curved structures of the forelimb that could easily carve out cracks on Leviathans armor.

Lin felt this was an extremely good shell but it had a shortcoming. It did not have any coating to resist corrosion so Lins exploding bombs easily corroded the organism.

In conclusion, this was an extremely intelligent organism able to live on both land and water, and also had this interesting shell.

Lin would start to recycle now. Lin wanted to create a crystal shell. But the ice crystal monster was too large. Lin needed to first increase Leviathans size.

If Lin wanted the Leviathan to grow bigger, it had to dissolve its own outer shell from the inside. Lin found that other organisms first took off their entire shell, abandoned it, and then put on a new layer.

Lin felt that method was both time-consuming and wasteful. Lins method could preserve the chitin substance. While Lin would use dissolving fluid, the shell was much more difficult to obtain compared to dissolving fluid.

But no matter the method, it would take a long time. Lin would slowly proceed.

As Lin dissolved its armor, had the Leviathan gradually grow in size, and modified the structures inside, it also stretched out the tentacles to release gatherer to consume the ice crystal monster.

This was a slowly and meaningless process. But when the gatherers fed on the ice crystal monsters brain, Lin found something interesting.

Most of the ice crystal monsters brain cells had died. But Lin found a small tentacle-like structure near the back of the brain. This structure hadnt died and was still moving slowly.

At the end of this tentacle-shaped structure was a small black stone. Lin initially was only curious and didnt think too much. However, when it had the gatherers drag this structure out, it found the little stones tentacle would point in one direction. Even if Lin twisted it away, it would twist back.

Why would this thing be like this?

Lin did not know but it would definitely explore the direction the structure pointed. Maybe Lin would find the ice crystal monsters nest or something.

Lin had to finish what it was doing now quickly.

Daylight gradually passed and nighttime came. Leviathan finished its transformation. Its appearance hadnt changed. Lin added some biting tentacles to bring their number up to ten, and the body was 200% bigger than before. The Leviathan was about the same size as the ice crystal monster now, though much wider than the ice crystal monster whose corpse had been completely deconstructed and stored.

Lin tried to create the ice crystal monsters shell. It could have the cells swallow and dissolve to create, but Lin had not found a similar substance to this one in its normal food and environment. If Lin wanted to obtain more of the substance, it had to find more organisms with this kind of shell, or to find the land where the crystals formed.

Maybe Lin could turn the crystals it had seen before into a crystal shell, but Lin hadnt thought of this at the time.

Then it would go see which direction was the little stone pointing in?

The Leviathan released some eyeballs and lanterns before swimming towards its goal.

That was

Flashing light appeared in front of the Leviathan.

Crystals?

In the dark ocean, only those things would respond to the lanterns light. However

were there too many of them?

Lin had the lanterns spread apart. Everywhere their light shone was covered in crystal fragments. Occasionally, some larger pieces of crystal would appear as well. These crystals were similar to the shell of the ice crystal monster so this appeared to be the ice crystal monsters nest.

The crystals also had many unicellular organisms on their surfaces. Without exception, they were all crystal bacteria.

Nothing else here looked like food. Did the crystal bacteria eat the crystals?

So unique

Regardless, Lin must put down a base seed here. It would be able to produce glittering and powerful troops after gathering the crystals here.

Lin noticed that the little stone inside the ice crystal monsters brain pointed into the distance

Translator Ramblings: This ice monster is pretty special. Has layers in the ectoderm, a brain structure, endosymbionts, and even a navigation system in its brain.