Myriad Paths

Li Qi looked around this small tribe.

It is said to be a tribe, but in fact it is just a family. This world seems to be far from developing things like cities. All their bonds are based on blood ties.

However, correspondingly, only the eldest male and female will be left among the newborns in the family. The other males will be expelled from the tribe when they reach adulthood and find other families.

Li Qi looked at this tribe. There were seventeen people, several pairs of parents and children. Their relationships were aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, and they all lived together.

But there are no couples. It is a group marriage system. As long as they are not relatives, all men and all women share each other. The children born are also raised by the tribe. Men from outside the tribe will give birth to the women who stay. Qualified next generation basically eliminates inbreeding.

In addition, there was an old grandmother. Li Qi knew that she was already forty years old and could die at any time. However, because her son was the eldest son and the current head of the family, she still Can stay here.

Normally, the elderly at this age would be discarded, so as to save food and eliminate the need to take care of the elderly, but something is obviously wrong with the head of this family.

Not only did he not abandon the old man, but he tried his best to take care of her, allowing her to live to the age of forty.

It was already night now, and except for the youngest children who were still full of energy, everyone's movements were extremely slow. It was obvious that they were exhausted.

They also worked all day today. The women peeled the skins, collected grease, dried the plants, and walked a long way to find a windless area to cook.

The men brought back a prey, a large and fat fish, which was enough for the whole family to eat for two days, which meant that they would not starve or freeze for at least two days.

Grease is a very important material. Whether it is eaten, used to oil clothes to keep warm, or directly lit to keep warm, it is very good. In this land of ice and snow, grease can even be said to be hard currency.

The division of labor in this tribe is very clear. Even the children know what they should do. They are helping out while playing around the fire. While helping, they learn these tasks and do their part.

From time to time, children will also find some plant roots for firewood, or skin some small creatures like mice, through which they can practice their ability to skin large prey.

Day after day, year after year, life has to repeat these boring tasks every day in order to survive longer, even though they don't know why they want to live longer.

But if you can survive, what's wrong with that? No one wants to die, it’s the instinct to survive.

However, it is precisely because of this instinct that they continue to exist.

If humans came to this place, they would probably quickly analyze and determine the shape of these mortals and local animals, then transform the entire planet, build cities here, improve infrastructure, and then kill all the indigenous people after retaining samples.

In the eyes of humanity, there is no difference between these mortals and animals. They are not separated from biological instincts at all. They are not worth wasting time. They can just remove them directly after collecting the samples.

Of course, in fact, this planet has no value. There are no minerals worth mining and no unique local resources. Even the species are mediocre and few are talented.

In other words, if you don't even have any interest in mining, just ignore it.

This situation prevents them from developing a more advanced civilization, but they don't need to worry about erosion from the outside world, just like the giant worms or horseshoe crabs on the bottom of the sea.

There was no meat, so no one ate him.

He himself has no motivation, and lying on the bottom of the sea for hundreds of millions of years will not produce any change.

It's no wonder that humanity looks down on it. Although such a world exists in large numbers, it is indeed meaningless. Technology is almost insulated here due to the climate, and there are almost no means of cultivation.

The fire of civilization cannot be ignited in this area.

It has been 200 million years since humanoid creatures appeared, and another 200 million years have passed since advanced intelligent life evolved, but we are still living as before, without any change.

Similar to the situation of dinosaurs.

It goes on like this until one day a natural disaster occurs and then it becomes extinct.

Countless worlds have this ending, this situation, and... it's getting more and more serious.

Because the structure of the world is gone, the existence of celestial bodies has replaced the world, and the subtle differences in the principles between worlds have become less. Although a large number of unique principles have been produced in each 'single universe', the relative principles Compared to the density of the world, the universe is too sparse.

This directly led to the disappearance of a large number of special products, and the number of special species also decreased.

But there are benefits.

That is at least nine trillion times the density of matter, which can make up for this in quantity, so the total amount of special products is actually a lot more.

But... the probability of occurrence is smaller, but the total amount is larger, which means there are more ‘stepping stones’.

This kind of hopeless world has become more numerous. A large number of mortals are full of emotions, and the number of subjective wills has also increased. Correspondingly...

"The number of demonic thoughts has also increased, and the realm of desire has collapsed. It doesn't seem to have had much impact on the demonic path. Is it because the demon has made up for it?" Li Qi thought.

The collapse of the realm of desire will theoretically have an impact on the demonic path.

However, the expansion of matter in the universe and the increase of intelligent life have made the demonic path more powerful. I think places like the "City of Dreams" have also increased by at least nine trillion times.

This may be enough to make up for the losses caused by the desire world.

Li Qi sighed. Every change in the universe corresponds to the direction that the great leaders hope for. In this case, it is really difficult to make a choice.

While thinking this, Li Qi had also arrived in the tribe, and the residents of the tribe also saw Li Qi.

Li Qi was welcomed immediately. No one cared that he was a stranger. He was accepted almost immediately.

The tribe welcomed him, then took out charcoal and painted on Li Qi's skin. The charcoal drew stripes. This was a welcome ceremony.

It's not brainwashing or anything like that, it's just pure 'tradition'.

Men will leave their families when they reach adulthood and head into the wilderness, where they must survive alone for a long, long time until they are lucky enough to meet a second tribe.

A considerable number of 'weak men' will be eliminated in this process, and men who must be able to survive alone in the snowy wilderness will have a chance to find a second home.

And if they find one, then this new home will be very happy to accept a man who is strong and capable of surviving alone in the snowfield.

They warmly welcomed Li Qi, and as soon as he arrived, the women couldn't wait to mate with this strange man. This was a rare opportunity to add a newborn of different bloodlines to the family.

As we all know, the more mixed the bloodlines, the healthier the clan. This is tradition.

Li Qi was of course very grateful for this, and he refused the invitation, which aroused confusion among the ethnic group.

Li Qi did not explain, because his parents would help him block all this.

As expected, the parent came out and muttered something, probably saying that Li Qi was very hungry and had no energy left, so he had to eat first and talk about other things tomorrow and so on.

Others also understood very well, and they immediately took out their own food and gave it to Li Qi.

The simple primitive tribes do not have so many intrigues. Although they are rough and brutal, without any public order and good customs, they often abandon the elderly because they have no food and rob other tribes, but they also reveal a kind of innocence in the barbarism.

Brutal, stupid, but not cunning, and occasionally even a little bit of innocent cuteness can be seen, although this cuteness is probably seen from the bloody corpses of prey.

But none of this caused any disturbance to Li Qi. He just went through these procedures and then found a place to sit down alone with the parents of this place.

Others have already started to rest, and the women who failed to find Li Qi before have also found other male partners and started daily breeding activities.

Their living place is not fixed. If there is a cave, they will live in a cave. If there is no cave, they will build an igloo. Everyone lives in the igloo, and they naturally do not shy away from other people when they reproduce.

There is no need to avoid taboos. We are all family members, and there is no need for any privacy between family members.

Moreover, in cold weather, the most convenient way to keep warm is actually the skin of the same race. This is even warmer than fire. Everyone's body temperature is always similar, which can keep both parties warm for a night.

For these natives, the warmest way is to huddle together under a blanket made of many furs, just like penguins squeezing in a snowstorm.

Penguins can thrive in storms of minus 70 degrees Celsius by relying on the body temperature of their companions, and the indigenous people here can naturally do the same, not to mention that they can even use the fat of their prey to light fires, which can even raise the temperature in the igloo to minus 2 degrees Celsius. Ten degrees.

This is so warm.

However, Li Qi and his parents did not stay in the warm igloo. They sat outside the igloo, enduring the silent cold of this planet. Fortunately, there was no wind tonight, so they did not look embarrassed.

Without wind, the wasteland looks particularly silent. Although there is ice and snow everywhere, it is neither humid nor plants bloom. This is a frozen wasteland. Except for the simplest plants and the most adaptable animals, there are no other animals. It is uninhabitable for living things.

Since crops could not be grown, livestock could not be raised in this area, so most settlements on the frosty ice caps subsisted by hunting and gathering, using other animals and the simplest plants and seaweed to sustain their lives. .

However, under the ice sheet is the warm ocean, which is a paradise for creatures.

The temperature of the ice sheet is minus 70 degrees Celsius, but the ocean can reach about minus 2 degrees Celsius. It can be said to be extremely warm. Therefore, fishing and catching sea animals are also essential skills. Most of the oils they use are made from the fat of sea animals.

Both of them were wearing furs, no different from the natives. However, Li Qi's was an illusion, and the other was really dressed like this. He was really dressed in the furs of local animals.

The parent is a man who looks to be in his twenties, but from the appearance, he is already a middle-aged man in the world. He has sharp teeth, a thick body, and is nearly three meters tall. He is a typical polar monster and the top predator in this area. By.

Of course, even in the entire universe, the other party is one of the top predators. I don’t know why it was reduced to this place.

Then, Li Qi said: "No matter which country, region or community there are, there are always people who are excluded. The reasons are all kinds of strange. So, what is your reason?"

What Li used was not an indigenous language, but a typical elegant language from all over the world.

This may sound a bit strange at first, because it is obvious that this parent has not been ostracized. On the contrary, he is a person that the indigenous people trust very much. He can even provide for the elderly grandmother who is incapable of working because of their orders. people.

You know, in this world of ice and snow, it is very troublesome for the old people who have no ability to work and can only eat white rice.

However, the other party obviously knew what Li Qi meant.

He just said: "This is home. Is there anything wrong with me staying here?"

Li Qi shook his head: "This is not your home."

"I'm afraid it doesn't count if you say this." The other party smiled.

Li Qize sighed and said: "To be honest, it is really hard for a third-grade person to stay in a place with nothing special and talk about his family."

"Is it difficult? Being accepted by others is a very happy thing. Is this reason enough? Rather than running around in a daze between heaven and earth, I think this is better." The parent said.

"Running between heaven and earth... That's true. Judging from your race, running around may be unavoidable." Li Qi nodded.

He knew that the parent in front of him was a medium-sized bird, an ultimate observer who could stand at the end of time, that is, a third-grade person at the same level as Li Qi.

However, the characteristics of mesozoans mean that they are almost unable to communicate with normal creatures. If they maintain their 'ontology', they will be insulated from all basic interactions other than gravity.

In other words, it is an invisible and intangible ghost, almost completely cut off from all civilizations, and only one civilization can echo alone in the universe.

Before they master the art of change, they will always be lonely travelers in the universe, because when they are in the ninth level, they may travel through the universe at a speed close to the speed of light.

But the problem is that the shuttle is a shuttle, and they can't find anything except the gravity well.

To them, there are no celestial bodies in this universe, but only gravity wells, and there is nothing in the gravity wells.

The tiny birds are doomed to be lonely.

"But... can such loneliness actually make you feel unhappy?" Li Qi asked.