Chapter 3: Another Round of Mass Extinction!

“How could everything be dead?!” When Jiang Ping woke up, he was greeted by the grim news that 99% of the creatures in the original world had perished.

Just yesterday, fish had evolved into amphibians. Jiang Ping had expected to see animals dashing about everywhere today, but instead, even the ocean—once brimming with life—was on the brink of extinction!

The plants on land were also dying in droves, with not a hint of green left. The colossal tree in the center of the world stood there, stripped bare—no green shoots to be found. One could only wonder if it was dead too.

Just as Jiang Ping pondered these dire circumstances, dark clouds rolled in, and a giant bolt of lightning struck the towering tree, as if the heavens were punishing it.

“Boom!” A colossal crash echoed as the tree, which had once held great promise, collapsed. Great, it must be really dead now.

Jiang Ping was somewhat dazed; everything had seemed to be progressing well yesterday. How could the world change so drastically overnight? He also noticed, with alarm, that the rain falling from the sky was black and sizzling as it hit the ground, even staining the ocean in patches of dark water.

Jiang Ping quickly pulled out Genesis to review the logs, flipping open to the second page that recorded the history of the original world.

In the Original Calendar: At the beginning of antiquity, there came the era of the ancient. Amphibians appeared, with animals gradually starting to populate the land and insects taking to the sky. The central tree stopped growing but continued to absorb the scant spiritual energy, leading to a lack of life near it. Yet creatures proliferated uncontrollably, recklessly destroying their environment.

This caused a frantic depletion of oxygen and spiritual energy. The world finally reached its limit, leading to mass fish die-offs in the ocean and plants on land to wither and face extinction. Acid rain fell continuously from the sky, claiming 99% of all life.

The central tree also faced divine retribution, struck down by thunder! Only in the depths of the ocean did a spark of life remain.

After witnessing the drastic changes in the original world since he had fallen asleep, Jiang Ping felt complex emotions. He had originally thought there had been some unexpected event from beyond, but it turned out to be the creatures’ own recklessness.

The central tree, the first living entity, was in the world’s heart. Initially, it was a child of the heavens, yet ultimately, it faced thunderbolts from above!

“Creatures only know how to take and don’t understand how to contribute. Even the central tree was greedily sucking up spiritual energy, leading to a lifeless expanse around it. No wonder this was the outcome,” Jiang Ping sighed. Fortunately, all life hadn’t been extinguished; there still existed a spark of life deep in the ocean.

Jiang Ping glanced around, seeing a wasteland of devastation. Acid rain cascaded from the sky and merged into the ocean, causing white bubbles to rise and explode, releasing noxious marsh gas!

He shook his head; in such an environment, it would take millions of years for recovery. “Adjust the flow of time!” Jiang Ping said, quickening the pace.

The landscape of the original world sped forward, and as the acid rain finally ceased and things couldn’t get worse, it finally began to turn around. After hitting rock bottom, there was nowhere to go but up.

The ocean slowly began to clear. A batch of fragile little creatures emerged from the deep, wandering about. Under the black ashes on the land, tender sprouts struggled to break through, breathing out oxygen and absorbing a hint of spiritual energy to feed back into the earth!

“It seems the first mass extinction isn’t entirely without merit. The creatures realized they couldn’t continue to pollute the environment and have started to give back to the world. The earth, having absorbed countless lives, is becoming more fertile. Huh?” Suddenly, Jiang Ping’s eyes widened as he noticed something in the remnants of the central tree.

In the center where the central tree’s remains lay, a small sapling was slowly emerging from the charred wood.

“Wasn’t it supposed to be wiped out completely by the heavenly punishment? This doesn’t make sense,” Jiang Ping said, surprised, flipping through Genesis to review the prior history.

Under divine punishment, this colossal tree, standing 9,000 meters high, showed no resistance. Although it should have perished, in its final moments, it released the spiritual energy it had accumulated over millennia, all of which were given back to the earth!

This act preserved what little life remained on the ground! “It appears that, at the last moment, it finally realized that survival isn’t about plundering but about giving back and creating a balance,” Jiang Ping understood the beginning and end of the matter. If one only takes, there ends the relation with heaven. Only mutual feedback can elevate the world and allow for greater development!

After death comes rebirth; everything revived. After this evolution, life rebounded significantly, becoming richer and stronger! A massive creature measuring 50 meters long and weighing 300 tons emerged from the ocean. Jiang Ping named it the Azure Dragon. It was undoubtedly the ruler of the seas! Other creatures that evolved to generate electricity or develop toxic traits could not threaten its status. Grandeur equals strength! Robust equals ferocity!

However, one particular shelled creature caught Jiang Ping’s attention because it had been present in the previous era. To his surprise, after the mass extinction, while other dominant species perished, this one survived. This creature embodied a single principle.

Survive! It thoroughly developed the essence of this principle, evolving in a way that emphasized this idea. While other creatures grew bigger to hunt better, it went against the grain, evolving smaller. Now, it can survive on mud, retreating into its shell to hibernate for a hundred years!

Recently, this species moved toward the coastline, likely aiming to evolve into amphibians to survive better. Jiang Ping named it the Ancestral Shell Beast!

More creatures gradually crawled out of the sea, but the land plants did not grow wildly like the last era. Instead, they focused more on themselves and their surrounding environment, no longer selfishly competing for sunlight and water.

A million years later, the central tree grew to a thousand meters tall again. This time its growth was slow but steady. The ground was no longer barren but rather teeming with numerous plants parasitizing on the tree. These parasitic plants depended on the tree while evolving to capture prey like a pig trap, reminiscent of the Venus flytrap on Earth.

Yet, good times rarely last. It seemed that the consequences of the last era were still lurking. The landscape shook, and volcanic eruptions erupted continuously, with torrents of lava sweeping across the land and wildfires chasing fleeing animals.

With the eruption of a 5,000-meter super volcano, heaven and earth changed colors again, leading to yet another mass extinction. Life on land dwindled to a mere 10%, with only some burrowing creatures barely clinging to survival. At this point, the larger the body, the faster the demise.

As expected, the first-generation marine super dominator, Azure Dragon, was the first to fall. Jiang Ping shook his head as he watched the 50-meter behemoth’s massive corpse float to the surface.

Ashes covered the sky after the volcanic explosions, drifting across the entire world, polluting the ocean. More creatures washed up on the shore; everywhere he looked, there were carcasses.

The second page of Genesis began to reveal its writings: In the Original Calendar, the Primordial Era saw the world gradually recover. Life began to reawaken, showcasing a more prosperous era than in the ancient times. However, the good times were short-lived, as continuous volcanic eruptions led to rapid environmental degradation, wiping out 85% of life.