Chapter 618: The Torrent of the Ages

to 300 million years ago, through the myriad functions created by the cooperation of vast numbers of cells, multicellular organisms came to dominate Earth. The very first Spiritual Qi Super Life form, the ’Thunder Marsh Jellyfish,’ was the overlord of the ecosystem. It flourished for 200 million years, ultimately perishing due to ocean acidification and an abrupt shift in Spiritual Qi caused by massive volcanic eruptions. However, research has shown that even as the overlord of the ecosystem, the Thunder Jellyfish still adapted to its environment through natural succession. The latest Thunder Jellyfish fossils discovered indicate they had actually adapted to the acidified oceans, but became extinct because the polluted, superheated seawater prevented them from generating highly charged Spiritual Qi Flows within their bodies.

million years ago, the Dragon Race became the overlords of the land. Numerous powerful Spiritual Qi Super Life forms battled and slaughtered one another, with competition catalyzing their mutual evolution. This became the first unnatural driver of evolution, distinct from natural factors such as the environment or the evolution of natural lifespans.

The age of the Dragon Race ended with a massive geological upheaval and a continuous barrage of meteor showers, but evidence also suggests that the first placental mammals had already appeared by that era.

Approximately 40 million years ago, a certain branch of mammals evolved more developed brains. Intelligence had not yet been born, but the first sprouts of it had appeared.

million years ago, upright-walking apes left the trees and descended to the ground. Their brains did not yet comprehend what freeing their hands truly meant, and the evolutionary pressures of the natural environment and death continued to act upon them.

million years ago, the use of stone tools and Flame marked the advent of intelligence. The descendants of these apes were no longer considered mere beasts; they were the ancestors of modern humanity.

The Earth of this era was filled with all manner of dangerous Extraordinary beasts—remnant species of the Dragon Race that had existed for 200 million years, various powerful forms of Super Life that could wield Spiritual Qi, and even the forests themselves were as perilous as Hell. The ability to use stone tools only proved that humans were a difficult meal, nothing more. In the face of such crises, humanity could only rely on the one thing they possessed besides their hands and feet: intelligence. They had to use it to fight for their very survival.

The natural environment accelerated the development of intelligence.

million years ago, by imitating the methods other Spiritual Power life forms used to wield Spiritual Qi, humanity gave birth to the original source of the Mimic Dao. Simultaneously, ’Ability Users,’ born of natural mutation, also began to appear.

million years ago, a branch of humanity known as Homo sapiens developed a technique called ’Cultivation’ from the Mimic Dao. It was a method of utilizing Spiritual Qi that was based entirely on the human body, and a way to sublimate one’s form of life. This was one of the ultimate applications of intelligence.

However, the end of a lifespan still stripped away memories. Due to death, humanity’s most precious wisdom was often lost, resulting in a long period of regression and redevelopment.

million years ago, Homo sapiens had eliminated or assimilated the vast majority of their kindred species and began an exceptionally long war, lasting for hundreds of thousands of years, against clusters of Junior Level Spirit Beasts that had formed by imitating human social structures. This war engraved the instinct to ’fear humanity’ into the very bloodlines of most Spirit Beasts.

The nascent Immortal God Civilization began to explore the many preexisting Space-Time Passages on Earth.

500,000 years ago, the war ended. Through Cultivation, individuals capable of living forever appeared among humanity.

From this point onward, the evolution of life completely diverged from natural mechanisms like natural selection, lifespan limits, and the cycle of procreation and extinction. The speed of evolution driven by these natural forces was far slower, lagging far behind the self-modification that life could now achieve through intelligence.

In the grand scheme of evolution, lifespan thus lost its Supreme, paramount status, becoming merely an accessory to intelligence.

But it still existed.

Furthermore, the very existence of the Immortal Gods greatly slowed the pace of civilization’s development. With the disappearance of external threats, technological advancement nearly ground to a halt.

50,000 years ago, the Spiritual Qi-Immortal God Civilization, which had developed to its zenith and even begun to stagnate, encountered the greatest environmental shift in the history of Earth, and indeed the entire Solar System: the Spiritual Qi Cutoff. Over the subsequent tens of thousands of years, the concentration of Spiritual Qi continuously declined. Although it occasionally recovered, the fluctuations were extreme, and the overall trend was a precipitous drop.

With the exception of a few Celestial Immortals and those at the Celestial Venerable Level, the vast majority of Immortal Gods were once again shrouded by the prospect of a finite lifespan.

10,000 years ago, the vast majority of the Immortal Gods decided to leave Earth. The Immortal God Civilization collapsed.

5,000 years ago, the Immortal Gods left Earth for good. Having lost Spiritual Qi and the vast majority of advanced Spiritual Qi-based technologies, human civilization regressed to a primitive state.

3,000 years ago, Spiritual Qi entered a phase of stabilized decline. Not only Immortality, but Longevity itself became unattainable for humanity. Humans reverted to being a fragile, natural race with lifespans under eighty years.

However, the most important thing—intelligence—did not disappear. In fact, the return of natural death, brought about by finite lifespans, actually accelerated the evolution of human civilization.

1,000 years ago, Spiritual Qi was completely severed, and Earth entered a period of its decline. Human civilization underwent massive development, and various technologies that did not require Spiritual Qi were already in their nascent stages.

years ago, gunpowder weapons and cannons were invented.

years ago, the steam engine was invented.

years ago, the primitive form of a computing device appeared, but there was no fertile ground for its development.

years ago, the flying machine was invented.

years ago, the prototype for the modern computer was invented, and nuclear weapons were invented.

years ago, humanity landed on the Moon, and nuclear power plants came into use.

years ago, humanity landed on Mars.