Chapter 104: The Theory of Evolution

The heavy snowfall made Jinzi believe that it would freeze to death most life on this world. After all, the temperature had plummeted to extreme lows, and even a brief glance outside the cave's entrance revealed nothing but a blinding expanse of white.

Every other day, they ventured out to search for food and collect wood, only to find the ground littered with frozen corpses, without a single living creature in sight.

Yet, the strength of life is tenacious. After the wind ceased and the snow stopped, the roars that filled the world from various beasts made it clear that the survivors were undoubtedly stronger, more eager to devour and kill.

"Slurp, slurp."

Let's eat something quickly; what we may face next could be endless battles.

"Squeak, squeak?" The blizzard is over, isn't it? Even if we must fight, it surely won't be constant.

"Whine." Smack. Lezi slapped Huozi with a paw.

"Roar!" Why are you hitting me again! I'm going to lose it!

"Shut it, slurp!"

Jinzi, frustrated, kicked again: "Haven't you noticed, slurp? The only responses to our roars are from beasts; there are no other sounds!"

"Slurp, slurp, slurp! To the forest!"

Let's first check the forest to see if any of the smaller animals have revived.

Instantly, Huozi stopped howling, realizing the gravity of the situation. He rushed to the forefront with his body that had shrunk by half but became more sturdy and agile.

After all, the snow in the forest was still thick, making it easy to conceal dangers, and his large, sturdy body feared none.

Unfortunately, Huozi's caution was mostly in vain—or rather, largely wasted. Even though the blizzard had ceased and the temperature had risen significantly, the forest remained eerily silent and lifeless on the first day after the storm.

Not a single small animal dared to peek out, nor were there any medium-sized creatures to be seen.

Jinzi thought for a moment and then led Huozi and Lezi to a gathering place of a large troop of apes he knew of.

Logically, that troop of apes, previously adept at using tools, draping themselves in leaves, and using reeds as breathing tubes, should have been able to survive the snowstorm, right?

However, the tragic scene at the monkey gathering place left even the usually jovial Lezi unable to smile—

Inside the large tree hollow padded with layers of dry grass and leaves, big apes hugging smaller ones, and old apes snuggling against the larger ones, dozens, if not hundreds of apes huddled together, all frozen solid. Not one survived.

No, it wasn't correct to say not one survived.

As Jinzi noticed bones near the cave, Huozi, too, sniffed the faint scent of blood.

Suddenly, Lezi spun around, tail whipping, pulling Jinzi close to his side, and with a fierce roar and a swipe of his paw, blocked the dark claw of the huge shadow that attacked.

"Trash! Tui!"

"What a low move, ambushing us. You're asking for it!"

"Squeak, squeak, roar—roar, roar, die, die!!"

The creature making these cries was not Huozi, but the giant shadow that had attempted the ambush.

Jinzi snapped back to reality, saw its form clearly, and then felt a shock, followed by a somewhat indescribable sigh after the surprise—

This must be the only evolution success story among the ape troop.

Its fur was exceptionally dense and lush, capable of withstanding severe cold, and it was draped in the skins of its kind.

Its eyes were blood-red, its teeth sharp enough to break through its lips, and its claws were thick and even sharper, suggesting that the bones at the cave's edge were its meal.

It was the last of its tribe.

Yet, this survivor seemed to have lost the calm and rationality it once had leading its tribe through disasters.

Now, it was merely a creature driven mad in its fight for survival.

"Slurp... let's not fight, let's go."

He just wanted to see the outcome for the monkey troop, not interested in fighting or killing this giant ape.

"Whine. Going soft again. Pfft."

Lezi was reluctant, but ultimately showed mercy, swatting the crazed giant ape away with a powerful slap of his paw without delivering a fatal blow.

After being slapped into a tree, the giant ape didn't get up for a while, perhaps knowing the danger and choosing not to provoke further. However, after Jinzi and his companions left, they heard frantic roars and wails from the massive tree hollow behind them, a sound of desolation and pain unique to a sole survivor in the world.

The trio fell into silence.

Instinctively, Huozi moved closer to Jinzi, whom he regarded as the leader, nearly causing Jinzi to stumble into Lezi.

But this time, neither Lezi nor Jinzi minded Huozi's closeness.

While going solo has its charms, in the vast, cold world, having one or two companions to rely on makes survival much easier.

An hour later, at the edge of the forest, Jinzi, Lezi, and Huozi saw the giant black ape again.

However, this time, they found its body riddled with bites, a messy, pitiful corpse.

Jinzi immediately shouted a warning: "Watch out! Slurp!"

Lezi and Huozi's reactions were just as quick, each fending off two massive beasts that lunged at them from different directions.

These two beasts were significantly larger than the giant ape, each measuring about six meters in length, dwarfing the now four-meter-tall Lezi and Huozi.

And their speed and strength were surprisingly no less formidable than the two companions.

This battle was a matter of life and death.

They were evenly matched, at least. However, Jinzi faced an animal resembling a hyena with long fur and sharp teeth, twice his size. Lacking its strength, he had to rely on his speed to compete with this giant hyena.

"Woo-woo roar!"

This giant hyena also had blood-red eyes and drooled with hunger as it occasionally growled.

After dodging its attacks for the third time, Jinzi felt uneasy. This creature seemed abnormal, especially hungry.

Yet, with so many frozen sources of food in the forest and the snow just stopped, it shouldn’t be this hungry.

But the giant hyena didn’t think much about it. After several unsuccessful attempts to bite Jinzi, it turned its attention towards Huozi, who was fiercely engaged in battle but unprotected from behind.

Alarmed, Jinzi chased after it with his sharpened bone spear. However, the hyena turned abruptly, opening its gaping maw as if to welcome the seemingly incomplete evolution of this biped into its mouth, disregarding the spear.

The hyena didn’t care about the spear, thinking at most it would suffer a minor scratch. How could such a small wound affect it? It could easily bite off the head of this frail biped!

It managed to break the biped’s weapon, sadly missing the neck by a bit.

But it knocked the biped to the ground. It needed only to bite again, or even swipe with its paw, and the biped would be... “Woo-woo… ow?”

Why did its head feel so dizzy?

Why does it feel so hard to stand?

The last memory of the giant hyena was of the seemingly weak biped drawing another sharp and pointed bone spear and driving it fiercely through its immobilized body into its heart.

As Jinzi secured his victory in battle, Lezi and Huozi also triumphantly howled, having killed the other two giant hyenas.

Then, as Huozi proudly showed off his trophy, he saw the lean Jinzi expressionlessly slicing open the chest of the giant hyena with the sharp bone knife to extract a heart-shaped stone that glowed red, though it was not a heart.

It was a heart-shaped stone but not an actual heart.

The moment Jinzi held the stone, Huozi and Lezi ceased all movement, their eyes fixated on the red stone.

Had it not been for their remaining rationality, and had anyone other than Jinzi held the stone, they might have pounced without hesitation.

Jinzi himself sensed the extraordinariness of the stone—merely holding it in his hand, he felt an immensely tempting power.

Even without knowing what it was, instinct told him that consuming this stone would evolve him further into something more powerful!

"Roar, roar! Squeak, squeak!"

What are you hesitating for, Jinzi? If you won’t eat it, I will!

Huozi was somewhat unable to resist the temptation.

Only then did he remember the giant hyena in his mouth, immediately throwing it to the ground to tear into its body, excitedly discovering that this hyena too contained such a red stone.

Without hesitation, he swallowed it in one gulp.

After swallowing the red stone, Jinzi and Lezi watched as Huozi's body, which had shrunk to four meters, suddenly swelled and grew to about five meters.

However, this wasn't just a simple increase in size. Jinzi and Lezi could clearly feel that Huozi had become stronger, whether in terms of strength, speed, or defense.

Lezi blinked and swiftly sliced open the chest of the giant hyena he had defeated, finding the red stone.

He ate it without hesitation.

The next moment, his form also swelled significantly.

By then, there was no longer any doubt; the red stone was undoubtedly a treasure that could induce evolution.

Jinzi approached the giant ape and found, as expected, a large hole in its chest.

He felt a bit uneasy and pursed his lips.

He didn't want to eat the crimson stone; he disliked its aura.

But it seemed that to leave this world behind, to stand at the apex of it, he must consume it.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!" Jinzi, eat it quickly!

"Whine, whine." Eat it. Why overthink?

In the end, Jinzi gritted his teeth, cleaned the crimson stone with snow, and bit into it.

Then the entire stone transformed into energy that surged into his body, the next instant, the thin layer of scales and feathers on his arms shimmered with iridescent light, becoming much more robust and lightweight.

Jinzi paused, then in the next second, stretched out his arms and ran forward a few steps, not needing any high ground to glide from, he simply took off into flight.

This is the power of devouring evolution.

"Ao, ao, ao!"

"Whine, whine~"

Amidst the joyful cries of Huozi and Lezi, Jinzi too looked at his own wings with surprise and delight.

But soon, his expression darkened.

If the aftermath of the heavy snow, which led to the death of small and medium-sized animals, was a way to reduce the food for the surviving predators, forcing them to kill each other, then each of the surviving predators possessing a red gem was a terrifying trump card.

To evolve quickly and reach the top of the food chain, all life remaining in this world, upon discovering the red stones, would endlessly attack, devour, and evolve.

Until...

"Roar! Squeak, squeak!"

Fight! More creatures are coming!!

Jinzi flew into the sky, seeing beasts of various kinds running from all directions towards them.

And in their eyes, an insatiable greed and excitement shone red.