40,000 Years of Cultivation

Li Yao observed carefully for a long time and found that although the "metal snails" were hunted most of the time, they were not powerless to fight back.

When the "metal snails" gather to a certain order of magnitude in panic fleeing, and after breaking through the critical point, they will turn their heads and launch a counterattack against the "metal starfish".

The "metal snails" were originally silver-colored worms, but now they have turned dark black, and their bodies are thinner and longer, as if they are in a "combat state", like a hard nail.

Countless "metal snails" fired themselves like bullets at the "metal starfish", poking the hunters who were chasing them into riddles.

The body of the "metal starfish" is composed of liquid metal, and naturally has the ability to repair itself. When the number of "metal snails" is not enough, the wounds that are shot through will heal in just a few seconds, but instead The "metal snails" will be embedded in its body, and it will be easily swallowed by it.

From this point of view, "Metal Oncomelania" seems to be self-defeating.

Even if a "metal snail" penetrates the body of a "metal starfish" directly, it seems to have exhausted all its vitality and sinks slowly into the depths of the magma.

However, when countless "metal snails" attack the "metal starfish" without fear of death, they will greatly exceed the limit of liquid metal's self-repair. The torn wounds can no longer heal, and the tentacles are broken one after another. The mutilated corpse of "Haixing", accompanied by numerous "metal snails" fragments, slowly sank into the bottom of the magma lake.

What a tragic "suicide attack"!

The huge magma lake is divided into different colorful areas. As Li Yao can see, there are hundreds of "metal starfish" and tens of thousands of "metal snails" chasing and fighting each other. A small war, or the constant game of two survival strategies.

Li Yao was fascinated by it.

He discovered that the relatively weak "metal snails" seem to have two survival logics.

First of all, if survival is the first instinct, they naturally want to preserve themselves to the utmost extent. Then when the "metal starfish" rushes to hunt, they will often choose to rush away and flee in all directions.

However, their average speed is always slightly slower than that of the "Metal Starfish", which means that all the "metal snails" are caught up and swallowed.

If you want to survive for a long time, it seems that you have to restrain the instinct of escape. Instead, hundreds of "metal snails" must be gathered together, and all "people" must not be afraid of sacrifice, and rush forward and die with the "metal starfish". Improve the survival probability of the entire ethnic group.

For "metal starfish", there are also two survival logics.

Li Yao conjectured that in this cruel and weird "ecosystem", "metal snails" are relatively low-level "species", and they directly feed on the light and heat energy of magma.

"Metal starfish" is a relatively advanced "species" located at the top of the "food chain" and feeds on "metal snails".

Then, in order to survive and develop, the "metal starfish" must constantly and endlessly devour the "metal snails". Hunting is the only mission and meaning of their lives.

However, if this swallowing reaches its limit, the "metal snail" is forced to desperate, and the dog jumps the wall in a hurry, and conversely fights it desperately, it also has a considerable chance of death.

Therefore, the "metal starfish" must carefully control the hunting rhythm. On the one hand, the "metal snails" must not be forced too tightly, and on the other hand, they must always pay attention to the phenomenon of the "metal snails" clustering. Once the magnitude of the prey reaches a critical level, it will be its turn. It ran away.

In such a delicate situation, it must also make careful calculations to maximally devour those prey that are alone and can be devoured.

The result of two simple rules colliding with each other is ever-changing survival strategies and hunting scenes. Li Yao observed the hunting of hundreds of "metal starfish" at the same time, but he did not find a single place in common.

"It's incredible!"

Although they were low-level psionic puppets with a very simple structure, Li Yao felt a taste in them... which could not be described with pen and ink, and that he did not feel in high-level combat puppets.

These little metal creatures are not like being manipulated by a certain master crystal brain, but as if they are living and fighting spontaneously and automatically under the guidance of simple survival logic!

Li Yao smelled the scent of the wild in this deep magma lake.

Explore all the way along the lake, pass the steaming heat, and quickly walk to the other end of the magma lake.

The temperature here is obviously lower than the other end. The magma is orange-red, and there is a mess of metal wires entangled by the lake. Numerous metal wires extend into the magma lake at one end, and grow wildly in the form of teeth and claws on the other.

"Are these... plants?"

Somehow, Li Yao came up with such an absurd idea.

Of course, these metal wires are not real plants, but they have certain characteristics of plants. Their "root system" is deeply inserted into the magma lake, sucking the light and heat energy of the magma, while the other end continuously releases weak waves.

Li Yao estimates that these insignificant ripples can drive some ultra-microchips as thin as cicada wings. In other words, this is a wireless power supply system.

The metal mass swallows the light and heat of the magma, and emits weak waves of energy to drive nearby ultra-microchips, just like plants perform photosynthesis and release oxygen for animals to breathe.

"This is simply a virgin forest in the form of a metal!"

Li Yao was surprised and amazed again, looking over the "metal forest" to the cooler shore, really surprised.

He saw a..."city".

Although it is very inappropriate to use the word "city" to describe it, he really doesn't know how to describe these large and small buildings that sit together like steamed buns.

The large diameter and height of these "steamed buns" are about half a meter, and the smaller ones are only the size of a fist. All the buns are densely lined with holes, like an upside-down honeycomb.

Countless ant-sized psionic puppets entered and exited between the holes, and moved along the "road" planned between the steamed buns.

Occasionally, there are some slightly larger psionic puppets that have the ability to fly, but they "buzz" between several larger "steamed buns".

The entire building complex is scattered, orderly, and vibrant.

If you ignore the shape of steamed buns and psionic puppets, this is a busy town!

Li Yao noticed that some small psionic puppets still shuttled between the "city" and the "forest", dragging some capsule-like objects under the messy metal thread, and inserting the capsule into the end of the metal thread. Soon, the originally gray-white capsules gleamed like weird fireflies.

The psionic puppet transported these shiny capsules back to his "city".

Therefore, the power of wireless energy is not enough, so do you have to use this method to harvest energy, just like humans go to the forest to chop wood to obtain sufficient heat energy?

If the magma lake is regarded as the ocean of the ancient times, the scenes before you are completely the embryonic form of the "ancestors" fighting against the sky and developing civilization!

Li Yao didn't know whether he should "tsk and marvel" or "creepy".

The entire underground space seemed to be in the shape of a gourd. At the end of the magma lake was a long and narrow crack, which happened to be the waist of the gourd. Li Yao heard a silver bell-like laugh from the side of the crack.

The laughter sounded a little familiar, and it made people love and hate.

Li Yao pondered for a moment, and squeezed through the crack openly.

Sure enough, there is something different over the gap. It is a small underground space. The temperature is much lower than that of the magma lake. The walls of the surrounding caves are inlaid with blue ore, giving off a hint of coolness, which makes Li Yao Refresh!

Looking intently, I saw a high platform formed by stone pillars on the diagonal of the cave, on which two children aged seven, eight, and eight or nine were sitting cross-legged.

The boy on the left has a tiger-headed head and a tiger-headed brain, and his round eyes burst with murderous intent and war intent. At first glance, he is a troublemaker who is fearless and fearless.

The **** the right looks quiet and well-behaved, but her eyes reveal a quirky light from time to time, and the corners of her mouth that are slightly raised are always a bit of a tinge of victory, perhaps even more difficult than the sharp-edged boy.

Among the two children, there are thousands of ultra-miniature psionic puppets, the little ants that Li Yao saw in the "city" just now.

These little ants were shining with red and green lights, and they were controlled by two little guys, attacking and killing each other.

Li Yao quickly discovered the rule-as long as one "ant" is bitten by the opponent's two "ants" at the same time, it will automatically change to the opponent's color and join the opponent's camp.

Naturally, when all the ants have turned into one color, the game will decide the outcome.

When Li Yao arrived, the game had reached the end. The boy’s red ant remnant was heavily besieged by the girl’s green ant army. No matter how he rushed from left to right, he could not rush out. Instead, the girl was patiently weakened layer by layer until the end, Only the last red ant is left.

According to the rules, a red ant cannot transform a green ant.

The boy lost.

"A great civilization will never surrender, rush!"

The boy shouted, manipulating the last red ant to rush up, and was quickly swallowed by the huge wave of green ants.

Li Yao secretly exclaimed, although it is only a game between children, the unpredictable tactics and the subtle grasp of the timing of the attack are no less inferior to the most professional wargames. It is more than a hundred times more complicated than the fierce battle in the magma lake.

Deep underground, beside a magma lake, two children manipulating metal ants for war games-what a weird picture!

And how did Li Yao think about these two bear children so familiar?

"Where is this, who are you?"

Li Yao gave a dry cough, reminding the two little guys of their own existence, and said with all their attention, "What about your grown-ups? Since you have invited me, "Vulture Li Yao" here, why hide my head and show my tail, isn't it shameful?"

"what!"

The two little guys stood up at the same time, with happy smiles on their faces, and stretched out arms like tender lotus root to Li Yao, "Here is Dad, Dad!"