Saving the Insect Ape Tribe

Early the next morning.

Xu Zhi got out of bed and looked outside. Within the hundred-acre sand table in the yard lay miniature mountains and rivers, the land lush and green.

Even if others came to visit the yard, they would not see this miraculous miniature land in the orchard behind it. The Zerg Nest was skilled at psychic manipulation and could naturally interfere with people's minds. It formed a "psychic energy barrier" that affected other creatures, plants, and bacteria, preventing them from entering the sand table and creating absolute isolation between the two plots of land.

After several days, Xu Zhi no longer seemed so listless.

The hair that had fallen out from chemotherapy was gradually growing back, and his deathly pale skin had become healthy again.

In the mirror, the young man looked handsome and upright, with sharply defined features and well-toned muscles.

"I stopped chemotherapy more than half a month ago. The side effects have finally faded, and my body has returned to how it was before. My build and face are even more perfect than before. This is the nourishment my body has gradually received from the deaths of so many Zerg."

Before the mirror, he silently sensed everything.

When the Zerg he raised in the sand table died, their life and soul energy nourished Xu Zhi in return. The more advanced the species, the stronger its soul and the greater the effect.

His current condition was due to the first mass extinction of the Dark Martial Era and the second mass extinction of the Light Martial Era a few days ago.

Although both mass extinctions involved only the lowest primitive organisms, the sheer number of deaths had still produced a considerable effect. He had not fully absorbed it until last night.

"Most importantly, my hair has grown back!"

"Now that the side effects of chemotherapy have been resolved, my terrible health has improved somewhat. But no matter how healthy my body becomes, it cannot kill the Cancer Cells. In fact, the healthier my body is, the stronger the Cancer Cells become."

Still, his mood had become exceptionally good.

Leaving the sand table in the yard, he rode his bicycle to the distant town and had breakfast again.

For once, he strolled around the village, intending to show off his newly grown thick black hair and see who would still look at his head with a sorrowful expression.

Fields lined both sides of the dirt road, and there were occasional cow pats on the path, carrying the nostalgic scent of the countryside.

Xu Zhi was suddenly stopped by a short, stout, dark-skinned aunt carrying a vegetable basket. "Oh, isn't this Little Zhi? That girl Chen Xi said you were back. I didn't believe her at first. I heard you were sick. Cancer?" "Yes." Xu Zhi nodded.

"Oh dear, that won't do." The aunt hurriedly said excitedly, "You have a terminal illness. Our old Xu family has no descendants. What are we supposed to do? My daughter is actually quite good, you see—"

???? As soon as she learned I had a terminal illness, she immediately wanted to introduce her daughter as my girlfriend.

Heh.

She probably knew I had made some money in the city and that my parents had left behind a large orchard. She wanted her daughter to inherit my estate after I died, didn't she?

My hair may have grown back, but that doesn't mean I've gotten weaker.

Xu Zhi had just been about to refuse.

"Hey, don't listen to her!"

Chen Xi, the round-faced girl beside him, charged over with several aunties in tow, all full of bluster.

"I heard from my mom that Zhu Po had cornered Xu Zhi, and I knew Zhu Po was trying to marry off her daughter! Your daughter is ugly as hell, has a horrible temper, beats her husband, and even drove her husband away with beatings. And you still want Brother Xu Zhi to take her off your hands?"

"You little brat again! Let's see if I don't teach you a lesson." The short, stout aunt named Zhu Po was furious, but when she saw the even more aggressive group of aunties around her, she was startled and turned to leave.

Xu Zhi froze for a moment.

"Xu Zhi, let me tell you, Zhu Po is the only bad one in our village. Every village has some unreasonable, vicious shrews and thugs. Wow!"

Chen Xi casually glanced at Xu Zhi, then froze. "How did you become like this!? You weren't like this two days ago. You were bald, incredibly bald—"

Li Shen, Chen Xi's mother, glared at her and said with a smile, "Girl! Hasn't Little Zhi always looked like this? He's changed a little after coming back these past few years, and he's gotten much more handsome! Come on! Sit down at Auntie Li's house."

"That's right, come to Auntie Li's house!"

The several enthusiastic aunties carrying baskets happily called out beside him.

"No, Mom! He wasn't like this two days ago! He was bald, with a receding hairline, and his back was hunched!" Chen Xi was left behind by the crowd, her mouth hanging open.

"Girl, how can you curse your Brother Xu Zhi like that! And call him bald!" Li Shen was furious.

Xu Zhi raised an eyebrow, feeling instantly delighted inside.

He felt that he had regained his dignity. Hair was a man's pride, wasn't it? Unable to refuse the enthusiasm of his neighbors, he sat for a while in the courtyard house next door. The warm-hearted aunties chatted about household matters. They knew Xu Zhi had a terminal illness and felt deeply sorry for him, fussing over him endlessly.

Most rural neighbors were simple and honest people.

He had rarely returned after leaving to work, but now many childhood memories of this place came flooding back. He felt a little warmth as he chatted with the aunties who had watched him grow up, finding it peaceful and comforting.

Before he left, the aunties stuffed vegetables and homemade food into his hands, saying, "Just recuperate here in peace. Don't work so hard. Maybe your illness will get better!"

"Yes." Xu Zhi answered with a warm smile.

"It's definitely a stand-in! He secretly edited his photos. Fine, his hair grew back, but even his looks and temperament have changed so much. There's definitely something wrong!" Chen Xi lay across a wooden chair, still muttering to herself.

Xu Zhi pretended not to hear her, appearing calm and steady.

He had been moved by the warmth of these neighbors, and his heart felt warm. It was rather nice.

After chatting with his neighbors for quite a while and becoming familiar with them again, he said that he would recuperate at his old rural home and that they would see each other often in the future. Then he rode his bicycle back to the yard.

As soon as he entered the house, he hurried straight to the sand table to observe how that batch of ape-men had progressed in their civilization.

The evolutionary speed was much slower now. Onefold speed meant one year, while at one hundredfold speed, one day still meant one hundred years.

"More than half a day has passed. In their Sandbox World, that should mean more than eighty years have gone by."

Xu Zhi thought for a moment, picked up his binoculars, stood on a chair by the door, and observed the Insect Apes in the distant sand table.

He did not want to enter casually, because every time he entered, it caused massive destruction to the ecosystem.

After all, for those animals generally the size of ants, that hundred-acre sand table was already as large as a small province on Earth.

"This is..." Xu Zhi discovered that in just one night, these Insect Apes had developed a crude tribal structure. They lived in groups, had even developed a rudimentary language and culture, and wore animal hides.

According to evolutionary theory, a species that resisted reproduction like this should have been eliminated by nature. But intelligence was unpredictable. Once intelligence emerged, many things appeared that did not conform to evolutionary theory, just as with humanity.

"The fact that they have shame means they possess intelligence. I succeeded."

He smiled with immense satisfaction. "Back then, those Insect Apes who only knew how to shout 'Bald! Bald!' have finally developed their own crude civilization. They're no longer so irritating. This is not bad at all."

But they were on the verge of extinction.

They were too weak.

Although Xu Zhi had already chosen the best primitive template for them, during the two days they had been cultivated as experimental subjects into Insect Apes, the sand table continent had continued evolving at ten thousand times speed. Two days had already become twenty thousand years. By the time they returned, they had fallen behind the era.

Their ancient genes from twenty thousand years ago were simply insufficient to withstand attacks from the giant beasts of twenty thousand years later, such as Tyrannosaurus.

"They definitely can't go extinct like this."

At that thought, Xu Zhi's expression shifted slightly. He returned to the house, got on his laptop, opened the wireless network, and ordered several custom-made items from Taobao. "Looks like I need to find a way to give them the spark of civilization!"

After placing the order, he shut down the computer.

The next morning, Xu Zhi returned from his run, lightly sweating.

He looked at the two online shopping packages on the table. They had already arrived that morning, thanks to expedited air shipping. It had only taken a little over a day.

One package contained a miniature potted plant: a Welcoming Pine.

The other package held an exquisite, luxurious alloy greatsword custom-made by a Taobao seller, only slightly thicker than a needle tip and engraved with fine patterns.

At this moment, the Insect Ape race had endured for a day and a half, or one hundred and fifty years. Their numbers were dwindling, and they were barely hanging on, almost at the point of extinction.

"They lasted one hundred and fifty years without going extinct. They have some potential. It's time to take a look."

Xu Zhi rose to his feet and walked toward the yard. "Restore their cell division rate to normal. One to one."

The southern part of Mesopotamia was a vast valley where humans survived. The valley contained large forests full of fruit and edible plants.

Ahead lay the Tigris River, its waters filled with countless plump fish. The rich resources allowed the Insect Apes living here to barely survive, but now they had reached their final moment.

Broken walls and ruins lay everywhere, with corpses strewn across the ground.

The Thatched Cottages had been destroyed, and the ground was covered in Insect Ape corpses.

"Run! We can't hide here either! Ala is coming!"

Several black-furred creatures with thick hair and armor around their joints, like armored chimpanzees walking upright, used immature tonal language to roar at the women and children behind them to retreat. They themselves swung massive horn clubs made from unknown beasts and charged at several black, shriveled, sneaky giant beasts like raptors ahead.

"We have to survive!"

The women and children fled desperately, their faces full of despair. They seemed accustomed to running away. Several male Insect Apes rushed forward to resist, but soon blood flowed everywhere. They were chewed up and turned into food.

Fear spread.

Seeing this scene, Xu Zhi sighed. He could not bear to watch. The primitive tribe's casualties were too severe.

The Zerg Nest Brain said beside him, "The Zerg are a species with extremely powerful reproductive capacity. They are meaningless mass-produced evolutionary spores, lives as brief as plankton. Unless they can achieve Transcendence."

"Transcendence? How can they achieve Transcendence?" Xu Zhi asked.

The Zerg Nest Brain explained, "It means leaving the ranks of Cannon Fodder and entering the category of Zerg Heroes. They must awaken, break free of passive evolution, gain control over their own Gene Locks, and adjust their own genetic evolution. Among the billions of species bred from spores deployed on every planet, there will always be a few who achieve Transcendence, become leaders, open their Gene Locks, become Zerg Heroes, and enter the upper ranks."

Xu Zhi understood.

After all, a vast race could not be controlled solely by the Mother Nest. It needed all kinds of powerful upper ranks—Zerg Heroes.

The Zerg evolved passively through survival of the fittest. For example, in the Dark Martial Era, among plants that absorbed moonlight, billions of Blue Moon Grass plants had died before a single plant evolved the ability to photosynthesize moonlight.

That was passive evolution. The sacrifice was immense, built upon a massive number of deaths.

Those Zerg Heroes, however, were powerful individual lifeforms. They could actually control their own genetic chains and achieve active evolution, regulating their own genetic sequences. The difference was like heaven and earth.

"Do you think the Insect Apes I created could give birth to heroes who break their genetic shackles?" Xu Zhi smiled. "Could heroes of their race emerge?"

"If their potential is sufficient, it is possible."

The Zerg Nest Brain thought for a moment, then added, "The species on this land have very unique and distinctive genes. For example, after absorbing chimpanzee genes, these Insect Apes have become somewhat unusual. They have great potential. It is not impossible."

"So Insect Apes have a chance? That makes me quite happy." Xu Zhi chatted as he strode forward.

Boom, boom, boom! The ground shook.

Within the ancient forest steeped in primal savagery, countless beasts startled into flight, and great numbers of species fled outward.

Mountains were flattened underfoot, rivers ceased to flow, and some powerful species did not even have time to react before they were crushed by a foot descending from the sky, becoming slabs of flesh.

"If they were accidentally stepped on by me, then they were simply unlucky. That's survival of the fittest."

One step.

A vast stretch of forest collapsed.

Hiss, hiss, hiss!! The terrifying beasts called Ala, which had been crouched in the forest feeding on the corpses of recently slain Insect Apes, were also crushed under one foot. They did not even have time to shriek.

Xu Zhi took large strides and caught up to the fleeing Insect Ape survivors ahead.

"Heavens! What is that?"

"How can there be such a huge creature!"

"He's ten thousand times larger than Fenba, the largest hundred-meter giant beast! He crushed the terrifying Ala with one foot!"

"We can't even see his top! He must be a super giant beast over a thousand meters tall!"

The Insect Apes turned to look. At the sight of the vast creature towering into the clouds, like an ancient giant piercing the white clouds of the sky, they screamed and instantly collapsed to the ground.

Through the Zerg Nest, Xu Zhi understood the meaning of their crude language, but he did not care.

What did an ant feel when it looked at a human?

An ant could not even reach one centimeter up a shoe. When it looked up and saw a Ten Thousand Feet Giant so towering and Heaven-Supporting Earth-Trampling, the shock was unimaginable.

To them, he was a god.