Biological Mass Extinction, Again?! (Seeking Collections and Recommendations)

"Why has everything died out?!" The moment Jiang Ping woke up, he heard the terrible news: 99% of the life in the Primordial World had died.

Just yesterday, fish had evolved into amphibians. Jiang Ping had thought that today he would see animals marching across the land everywhere, but even the ocean, their main base, was nearly devoid of life!

Plants across the land were dying in swaths, without a hint of green. Even the Giant Tree at the center of the world had become a bare trunk, without a single green bud. He did not even know whether it was dead.

As Jiang Ping pondered this, disaster struck without warning. In the blink of an eye, dark clouds drifted over the Primordial World, and a massive bolt of lightning struck the Giant Tree, as if Heaven itself were punishing it.

"Rumble!" With a loud noise, the tree Jiang Ping had placed such high hopes on, the one that had seemed destined to become the World Tree, collapsed. Well, it was probably really dead now.

Jiang Ping was somewhat dumbfounded. Hadn't things been developing quite well yesterday? How had the entire world changed after one sleep? Moreover, Jiang Ping keenly noticed that the rain falling from the sky was actually black. It hissed as it fell onto the ground, and even the ocean had been stained into patches of black water.

Jiang Ping quickly took out the Creation Diary to check the logs. Opening to the second page, he found the history of the Primordial World recorded there.

Primordial Calendar, Ancient Era. Primeval Era.

Archaic Era: Amphibians appeared, and animals gradually began appearing on the continent. In the sky, insects also emerged. The Giant Tree at the center of the world stopped growing, yet it continued absorbing the scarce spiritual energy, causing all life to vanish the closer it was to the Central Great Tree. However, living creatures reproduced madly and showed no restraint, continually destroying the environment.

This led to the frenzied depletion of oxygen and spiritual energy. The world finally reached its limit. Marine life died in swaths, while plants and animals on the continent began to wither and go extinct. Eventually, acid rain began falling continuously from the sky, killing 99% of all life.

The Central Great Tree was also subjected to Heaven's Punishment and destroyed by lightning sent down from Heaven! Only a spark of life remained in the depths of the ocean.

After seeing the changes that had occurred in the Primordial World while he slept, Jiang Ping wore a complicated expression. He had thought some unforeseen event had happened, but it turned out to be the creatures' own doing.

The Central Great Tree had been the first living being, and its location had been the center of the world. It had originally been Heaven's child, yet in the end, it was destroyed by a heavenly tribulation personally sent down by Heaven!

"Living creatures only know how to take, not how to give. Even the Central Great Tree was madly absorbing spiritual energy, leaving no life within a thousand miles. No wonder it met such an end." Jiang Ping sighed. Fortunately, not everything had died out. A spark of life still remained in the depths of the ocean.

With a glance, Jiang Ping saw the remnants of devastation across the land. Acid rain flowed from the sky and merged into the ocean, causing white bubbles to rise constantly from the sea. When the bubbles burst, thick swamp gas escaped!

Jiang Ping shook his head. An environment like this would not recover in less than a million years. "Adjust Time Flow Rate!" Jiang Ping sped things up.

The scenes of the Primordial World fast-forwarded at extreme speed. Once the acid rain in the sky had all fallen and the environment could not possibly get any worse, things finally began to turn around. Once conditions reached their deepest low, they could only improve.

The ocean gradually became clear again. A group of fragile Little Fellows emerged from the deep sea and swam about in every direction. Beneath the black ashes on land, sprouts struggled to emerge, releasing oxygen and absorbing spiritual energy before feeding tiny traces of it back into the earth!

"It seems the first mass extinction was not entirely without benefits. Living creatures learned that they could not recklessly pollute the environment and began giving back to heaven and earth. With countless plants and animals dead, the land also became more fertile. Hm?" Jiang Ping suddenly stared in surprise at the center of the Primordial World.

From the middle of the remains of the Central Great Tree, a small sapling was slowly emerging from the lightning-struck wood.

"Did the heavenly punishment from before fail to extinguish its life force? That shouldn't be possible." Jiang Ping opened the Creation Diary in surprise and began reviewing the earlier history.

Under Heaven's punishment, the colossal being, nine thousand meters tall, had possessed no ability to resist. The Central Great Tree should have been destroyed just like that, yet at the very last moment, it released the spiritual energy it had accumulated over tens of millions of years and returned it all to the land!

It was precisely because of this act that the land preserved its final shred of life force!

"It seems that, at the final moment, it finally understood that survival is not about plundering, but about a cycle of giving back." Jiang Ping finally understood the whole story. If one only plundered endlessly, one would ultimately cut off one's own path beneath Heaven. Only through mutual return could the world advance and grant oneself a larger world in which to develop!

After death came rebirth. All things revived, and after undergoing one evolution, the life forms this time were clearly developing much faster, becoming richer and more powerful as well!

A colossal creature fifty meters long and weighing three hundred tons appeared in the ocean. Jiang Ping named it the Azure Dragon. It was unquestionably the ruler of the seas! Others evolved to generate electricity, wield deadly poison, or specialize in attacks, but none could shake its position. Big was strong! Brawny was fierce!

However, among them was a type of shellfish that caught Jiang Ping's attention. It had existed in the Previous Epoch, and he had not expected it to survive the biological mass extinction while all the other dominant creatures died. This creature could be summed up in one word.

Survive!

It had carried the essence of that word to the extreme, with every evolutionary direction focused on survival. Other creatures kept growing larger to hunt more effectively, but to survive better, it had gone in the opposite direction. The more it evolved, the smaller it became. Now, it could survive just by eating mud, curling up in its shell and sleeping for a hundred years at a time!

Recently, this species had even begun moving toward the coastline. It was probably trying to evolve into amphibians so it could survive even better. Jiang Ping named it: the Ancestor Shell Beast!

Creatures in the ocean gradually began crawling ashore again. Continental plants no longer grew wildly as they had in the Previous Epoch. Instead, they paid greater attention to themselves and their surrounding environment, no longer blindly fighting over sunlight and water.

A million years passed, and the Central Great Tree had grown to a thousand meters tall again. This time, it grew very slowly, but steadily. Beneath it, life was no longer completely absent. Instead, many parasitic plants clung to it, relying on the great tree for shade as they evolved fragrant forms that preyed upon animals, similar to pitcher plants on Earth.

However, good times did not last. Perhaps due to consequences left behind by the Previous Epoch, the mountains and rivers on the continent shook. Volcanoes erupted continuously, and rolling lava swept across the world while forest fires chased fleeing animals.

When a supervolcano five thousand meters high erupted, heaven and earth changed color. Creatures died in swaths once more. Nine out of ten living things on the continent perished, and only some underground creatures capable of burrowing barely survived. At this time, the larger one's body, the faster one died.

Sure enough, the Azure Dragon, the first generation's supreme ocean overlord, was the first to fall. Watching its fifty-meter corpse float to the ocean's surface, Jiang Ping shook his head.

The ash after the volcanic eruption covered the sky and sun, drifting throughout the entire world. The ocean was polluted, and creatures constantly floated to the surface. As far as the eye could see, there were nothing but carcasses.

Words began to appear on the second page of the Creation Diary:

Primordial Calendar, Desolate Era. The world gradually recovered, and all things began to revive, displaying an even more prosperous age than the Archaic Era. However, good times did not last. As volcanoes across the land continued erupting, the environment deteriorated at extremely fast speed, and 85% of all living beings died.

The Central Great Tree resurrected again, only to be burned by raging flames. Still, it ultimately retained a tiny shred of life force at its very center.

PS: The special New Year period is over. Updates will return to normal. Newbie seeks collections and recommendation votes!

Newbie seeks collections and recommendation votes!