4.6 Billion Year Symphony of Evolution

Last chapter recap: Lin discovers a weird world of shining crystals.

So that was how it was … … the organisms below relied on this to survive.

As Lin thought about this, it had the Leviathan swim down along the crystal pillar. The surrounding light gradually became dim and cold as it went deeper but this enormous crystal was still blindingly bright and warm. The crystal mountain channeled the light of day into the darkness of the ocean.

When Lin returned once again to the crystal forest at the bottom, it saw an incredible scene. Other than the scattered crystal debris, all the whole crystals growing on the floor shone with glittering light. While the light they gave off couldn’t rival the light on land, it could compare to the stars during night.

The crystals warmed this cold region of water.

Many organisms that Lin had never seen during nighttime appeared here. There was a kind of single red cell. They stuck to the flashing crystal barrier. Lin recognized it as another kind of cell that consumed light. The crystal bacteria Lin usually saw during night were much rarer now.

These little organisms that lived here became active at this time. Large numbers of flat fish passed through the crystals, and so did many trilobites, as well as other tentacle-shaped organisms. Lin could occasionally see one or two small ice crystal monsters among them. The ice crystal monsters seemed to feed on the red cells, but Lin didn’t see a large ice crystal monster like the one that attacked Leviathan.

Maybe the little ice crystal monsters would leave here after they grow up?

All the organisms living here had a trait in common. Their shells were made of crystals, but their crystals were unlike other crystals. Their shells did not seem to absorb light nor heat. Maybe, they had been modified specially and this was why the big ice crystal monster had dared to jump onto land and attack Leviathan.

This was a good place to build a base. Using these crystals, Lin could create many special things … …

The Leviathan swam to a shining crystal. It released a special type of cell called the “green algae ball.” In reality, this was just a collection of light-eating cells. Lin had the green algae ball get close to the crystal and immediately felt photosynthesis respond. The chlorophyll started to activate and create nutrients.

As expected, the light of the crystals could be used. All light could be used?

Lin was very satisfied with this. It would start to build the base here.

Lin did not plan to put any base seed into the crystals. Instead, it had the base seed float in the air. Then it made a hole in the crystal and shoved the photosynthetic cell inside.

The photosynthetic cells could create a lot of oxygen in addition to nutrients. This appeared very profitable. Lin also build some “rearing rooms” inside the Leviathan and used the lanterns to shine on its own cells to obtain oxygen and nutrients at the same time.

Because the work on the crystal would be enormous, Lin planned to have the Leviathan stay here for a while.

… … Wait, if that was the case, it would rather … …

Lin planned to change all the bases and connect them together into an enormous system.

Right now, Lin had seven bases, the main base, the sea abyss, the corals, the water surface, the ice pillar … … and this crystal area.

If it used cell tubules and chitin passages to connect all the bases, then Lin would possess an enormous number of cells. Its intelligence would increase another step.

Lin had not increased its intelligence for a long time now. Maybe because it did not have enough cells? When Lin had more than two billion cells, it felt there was nothing to increase.

Its ability to compute seemed to increase but Lin wanted to obtain more new terms and understanding of the surrounding environment.

How about building an enormous base? That would be very complicated … …

Leviathan’s journey would temporarily stop but it would still continue to travel. Right now, Lin would build a base, the biggest base in its history.

Right now, all the existing bases had completely grown. From the outside, they were pyramidal in shape. They would frequently release devourers and other type of cells to gather food. When they grew to a certain point, they stopped growing. Now, Lin had them dissolve the armor around the base, and start to rebuild themselves in a “carpet method.”

What was the “carpet method?” It was to have the photosynthetic cells grow along the sea bed like carpet until they stretched and covered all. Lin planned to connect all the regions together, merging all the bases, and forming an enormous base.

This way, this entire seabed would belong to Lin.

While it would take a long time, Lin prepared to start now. The main plan was for the gland cells to first secret a layer of flat shell. Then the photosynthetic cells would spread evenly on the shell. This structure would continue to grow until it covered the seabed and all areas with light.

This way, Lin would have laid out a green carpet over the entire seabed and possess endless power! Lin could not cover those deep and lightless areas. There was no meaning.

LIn could call this plan the “Greening Seabed.”

As to these crystals, Lin first planned to create some crystal cell types. However, no organisms posed a threat to Lin at this moment, so Lin did not worry too much about the development of its types.

Also, facing abiotic disasters, the strength of cell types were useless.

Other than being soldiers, these crystals could also be used in the “Greening Seabed” plan. Lin could dissolve them and spread them on the sea bed. Then Lin could shove in the photosynthetic cells. This way, under the help of the crystals, their efficiency for absorbing light would be high.

Lin did not know how much crystals there were. But it was fine if Lin used them all up as Lin was not reliant on the crystals.

Other than these glowing crystals, the surroundings were dark due to the ice layer, and could not support photosynthetic cells. So Lin had the Leviathan create transporters to transport the crystals here to other bases.

Lin only took the crystal pieces that did not glow. As to the glowing ones, it would shove the photosynthetic cells in. There was no need to move them away.

Lin did not plan to move this enormous mountain of crystal. It felt that damaging such a beautiful thing would be a pity. Also, it was hot, and troublesome to move.

Then, the “Greening Seabed” started.

This was a long process … … Leviathan could rest for a while after travelling for so long.

Lin’s mental scope was large. It could have all the cells do different things at the same time or look at different areas through all the different eyeballs.

The second layer of the green carpet was white hard shell, and the photosynthetic cells were placed between the first and second layer. Underneath the second layer were all the organs and soldier units who could enter and leave through small openings in the shell.

The greening seabed started in the surroundings of every bases, and then grew slowly. It would take a long time to cover the entire seabed in photosynthetic cells. Lin did not have that much nutrients. It could only slowly build as it obtained nutrients. While it was building, it also had to defend against attacks from other organisms. Lin needed to create large numbers of guards.

Lin did not have that base which had large numbers of green cells do anything. It floated there and continued to observe wild green cells and the movement of the water surface.

As to the main base on the island, Lin first had it create an enormous shield to cover the entire base. Then it filled the base with water. After doing this, Lin would study how to make photosynthetic cells on land.

Lin’s photosynthetic cells would be killed by ultraviolet light. Presently, it had not found any method for photosynthetic cells to absorb light on land or even near the water surface.

No matter what, these would all take a long time.

Leviathan temporarily stayed at the crystal area. When everything was finished, it would travel again.

As night and day passed, Lin’s work slowly advanced.

“Time” was a unit. Right now, Lin could only use day and night to measure how much time passed.

Lin found there should be a new term used to describe “time” because it found a special word in its thoughts: “year.”

Lin had knowledge about year. One year seemed to be 365 days and nights. And this “year” seemed to represent the revolution of the world. For example, near the end of the year, the temperature would turn cold, the water would turn to ice. Yet when the year started again, the temperatures would warm up.

Many of the changes in environment could be predicted by what time of “year” it was.

But this seemed to be false.

Because Lin found that sometimes the water would freeze in the middle of the year, sometimes at the end or the beginning. In conclusion, year was not accurate.

What was going on? Would the terms in Lin’s thoughts contain false information? Did this mean that Lin could not trust these terms?

Lin did not know. But at least “year” could describe 365 days and night. Lin would use it temporarily to describe long period of time.

Lin feared it would take many “years” to complete this entire project.

Translator Ramblings: I couldn’t find a good video or image about stromatolites but microbial mats and biofilms are very cool things.