4.6 Billion Year Symphony of Evolution

Book 3: Chapter 6 “The Mystery of the Pillar Woods”

Last chapter recap: Lin hunted the ancient ancestor of dragonflies.

Darkness was slowly covering this patch of thicket. The hidden organisms were starting to move. The darkness was their place of activity.

Lin did not know yet how they had evolved to be so dependent on darkness but it was prepared to face the organisms here.

When waiting, Lin sent some chargers to observe the pillar woods and estimate its size. From the rocky ground near the cliffs in the south, to the desert in the north, there was only a short distance. Lin tried to walk east and west. It found the pillar woods was a small place about several tens of kilometers large. Then outside were either desert or dry rocky ground. There were very few organisms and when Lin was present, it only saw some small reptiles.

But peculiarly, all of the pillar woods was surrounded by a row of especially large and tall pillars.

Lin thought of a hundred million years ago and the flat fish who had created enormous rock circles.

Lin was certain that the pillar woods were created by some organism. It could not be the moss, but some kind of megafauna in a pack.

They had built a small world belonging to them on the desolate land. What kind of organisms were they? Maybe they would only appear in the dark.

These organisms may be highly intelligent to have thought of such a plan.

As to whether they were strong, that was uncertain. Intelligence and strength were frequently not correlated. In the darkness, the smartest organism Lin had met wasnt the fishes or the arthropods, but the soft shell-like organisms such as the ammonites and thunderstones.

They were extremely smart and had many unique abilities. Their brain to body ratio was also top. But they were not strong organisms. Many organisms could eat them. It could be that the smarter organisms on land would not be the strongest. Their brains and their cells ability to think was separated. No matter how smart, they could not create combinations of cells like Lin. They could only use cells to provide them with their present abilities.

While Lin thought this, it still had a bad feeling.

No matter what, it had to fight if it wanted to survive here. Lin had already prepared a troop. They surrounded Leviathan, and prepared to face those unknown organisms in the darkness at any moment.

When darkness completely descended, the light of the stars once again enveloped the world. In the pillar woods, strange sounds occurred.

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The organisms of the night were coming out now. Leviathan was now where it had been attacked by the segmented organisms last time. These organisms may be the creators of the pillar woods as they were clearly living in swarms.

Lins lantern could not illuminate them. They deliberately avoided the light so Lin put away the lanterns and waited for them to attack.

Crack

That was the sound of the segmented organisms. Unlike before, these sounds were in distant places, and they did not come circle over here to attack Leviathan.

Strange

Lin was confused when it suddenly received pain signals!

It wasnt Leviathan or the troop around it being attacked, but the green carpet dozens of meters away!

That was the green carpet Lin created using the transporter. They had covered over 90% of a pillar, and almost finished consuming the moss on the surface.

But now, the green carpet was being attacked. Lin could sense something using sharp blades cutting the green carpet.

Lin hadnt made the green carpet casually. It had paid attention to the moss on the pillar and confirmed there were no scars before making the armorless green carpet on the pillar.

But now the green carpet was being cut off in pieces. They were not dead. The pieces were being thrown to the ground.

In other words the attackers goal wasnt to eat the green carpet?

Lin suddenly had an idea

Maybe some organism had deliberately placed the moss there yes, they were the organism to create the pillar woods!

Many organisms and plants in the ocean would form relationships. They would carry the plants on their backs or let them grow underneath the skin. This way, they could obtain nutrients directly. Lin had raised some green cells before, but after it could photosynthesize on its own, it had stopped.

Lin had never expected this relationship to appear on land. The moss may have been planted by some organisms!

The green carpet had no armies protecting it, and because it had no reproduction chambers, it could not create any armies. The threads of the carpet itself, because they were too slow and too fine, were only suitable against immobile organisms like the moss.

Leviathan must hurry back there. Those organisms may scrape off all the green carpet. While the green carpet hadnt yet died after being cut off and could easily be placed back on or recycled, Lin did not want to let the organisms go.

Crack

The cry from the arthropods

Leviathan was just planning to leave when numerous sounds occurred in the surroundings.

They were coming out now? Then they would be dealt with first.

The arthropods, just like last night, charged fearlessly in the lightless environment and surrounded Lins troops.

Lin had prepared special organisms to deal with their habits.

This kind of unit was modified from the hiders. Their thirty centimeter disk-like bodies were covered in armor, and had many small holes. When the arthropods laid on them to bite, the thorns hidden in the holes would suddenly shoot out and spear the arthropods on them!

Lin had named the unit the stabber. When it shot all the barbs out of the body, it would look like a hedgehog, and it could also pull back its barbs, pretending to be harmless and fooling enemies into biting it.

What was a hedgehog?

Never mind. It was probably something with many barbs.

Just like last time, the arthropods quacked in the surroundings for a while before attacking. But this time, they first met the stabbers around the Leviathan.

The arthropods could not bite through the armor of the stabbers. When the stabbers were almost completely covered by enemies, they would suddenly shoot out their barbs. The sharp ends penetrated the unwary arthropods.

While Lin could not see clearly in the dark night, it guessed that more than a hundred had been killed in this moment. Lin could clearly smell the blood flying in the air.

The barbs of the stabbers were not hooked and could be easily retracted. They pulled back their barbs, shook their bodies, and large numbers of arthropods fell off their backs.

Crack. There were some calls nearby. Clearly, not all had been killed. But the organisms were afraid and didnt dare to come encircle and kill.

Was this enough?

Lin only wanted to kill a portion and tell them its power, not kill all of them.

Boom.

A heavy sound occurred like something enormous was moving on the ground.

Lin knew that the arthropods were not the only things in the night. There were larger creatures.

Leviathan lit up the lantern and shone it in the direction of the sound.

Under the light, an enormous arthropod, two meters tall and over four meters long was coming over.

Lin was not shocked at its size but that it had the same body structure as those smaller arthropods who Lin could see climbing on top of the big one.

Were the small ones just the young?

The large arthropod charged over with heavy strides. It used its toothed jaw to crush a stabber with one bite.

Such powerful bite force. But Lin had prepared things to use against megafauna already

Leviathan aimed its head at the target. After modifications, Leviathans water spout system stopped shooting water, but would suck in air, compress it and then shoot. It could be called an air cannon.

As the air was compressed, Lin would open the spout and the air would burst out violently.

It was much more powerful and faster, and even more importantly, it didnt waste water.

With a bang, the bomb rapidly flew towards the targets head.

Pow.

The bomb exploded but did not hit its target. One arthropod suddenly jumped off the larger ones head and blocked the bomb before it hit.

The arthropod was torn apart, but due to it, the big one was almost unharmed.