Chapter 836: How Are You Still Alive! |
What appeared before Xiao Yu was a vast expanse of white glacier. This had originally been a great mountain, but now it was completely covered in snow. A few scattered animals were shivering under the endless cold. Xiao Yu measured the current temperature. It was more than twenty degrees below zero.
Some species that had existed only in Xiao Yu’s database now appeared before him. Xiao Yu saw a ferocious saber-toothed tiger quietly lurking not far in front of this landing robot. Its shriveled belly showed that it was already very hungry. Xiao Yu knew that a hungry saber-toothed tiger would probably not easily let this large silver-glinting thing in front of it go.
Sure enough, not long afterward, the saber-toothed tiger pounced fiercely toward the landing robot. The landing robot ignored it and merely stood there quietly. The saber-toothed tiger clearly intended to knock the landing robot over, but it did not expect that this pounce would not only fail to topple the landing robot, but would instead send itself tumbling backward.
Apparently realizing that this silver-glinting thing was not easy to deal with, the saber-toothed tiger let out a howl, left the place, and ran into the distance. But Xiao Yu’s heart suddenly stirred. “It is now the Ice Age. Even if primitive apemen do exist, their numbers must be very small, and they must all be hiding in concealed corners. Even for me, it would not be easy to find them. I may as well follow this saber-toothed tiger. Perhaps it will lead me to traces of primitive apemen.”
This landing robot immediately activated its light-bending armor system, causing its entire body to disappear from the visible light spectrum. Then it rose into the air and followed the saber-toothed tiger from afar through the sky.
At the same time, in geostationary orbit, several hundred precision satellites were also monitoring the entire Earth at all times. The greatest difference between primitive apemen and wild beasts was that the former had already mastered fire, so as long as fires on the ground and the smoke they produced were analyzed, they could be found. But Xiao Yu ruled out several hundred targets and still did not find the primitive apemen. Those fires were either uncontrolled forest fires or smoke from matter ignited by volcanic activity.
Xiao Yu’s main body was still thousands of light years away in the distance. The one that had come here to the Solar System was merely one of Xiao Yu’s exploration fleets. The strength of this exploration fleet was limited, and this was already the greatest search effort Xiao Yu could deploy.
This landing robot kept following behind that saber-toothed tiger, watching it finally rejoin the tiger pack, then, as if having received some kind of mission, separate from the pack once again. And in the direction that the saber-toothed tiger was advancing, Xiao Yu once again discovered firelight ahead.
A wisp of smoke was drifting gently with the wind, all the way up into the sky. At the sight of this, Xiao Yu could not help but tremble inwardly. This fire was different from the uncontrolled blazes he had observed before. It was clearly being controlled. And in this era, what species other than primitive apemen could deliberately control the size of a fire?
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Xiao Yu guided the landing robot to this cliff. Beneath the cliff was a canyon, and at the bottom of the canyon, some ape-like creatures were gathered around a bonfire. They were holding crude stone tools, walking upright, and covered in hair. A huge animal of unknown species had already been killed and dismembered, and its limbs were being roasted over the fire by these primitive savages.
The moment he saw these ancient savages, the joy in Xiao Yu’s heart was beyond description. Since he had found ancient apemen, all he needed to do was verify their genetic sequences. As long as their genetic sequences matched human genes to a certain degree, that would prove that he had truly been born on Earth, and that the stories he had experienced, whether magnificent or vast, were not false memories woven by some existence, but had truly existed.
Xiao Yu sent out this landing robot and flew through the air toward this group of savages. There were not many of them, only about a dozen. Several of them were obviously savage children. This should be a family-based savage gathering, Xiao Yu thought.
The landing robot was still maintaining its invisible state, so neither the saber-toothed tigers nor the apemen noticed its presence. It thus came silently behind one of the savages, grabbed it around the waist with a powerful mechanical arm, and pulled it upward into the sky. Xiao Yu needed to bring it back into his spaceship and carry out further examination on it.
This action by Xiao Yu immediately triggered a strong reaction. The savage who had been seized immediately let out terrified howls. In the sound of its howling, several different syllabic changes had already appeared. This was clearly the rudiment of language. Those different syllables represented different meanings. Xiao Yu did not know what it was saying, nor did he intend to pay attention.
It struggled desperately, but still could not free itself from the robot’s grasp. It floated uncontrollably up into the sky. And at that moment, the other dozen or so apemen all prostrated themselves on the ground and bowed before the rising apeman.
“Have they already developed a dim religious consciousness?” Xiao Yu thought silently. “In the absence of rigorous, logical scientific tools, turning the unknown into religion is humanity’s first step in trying to understand the natural world it inhabits… These apemen have great potential.”
This apeman was ultimately captured by Xiao Yu and taken into his experimental spaceship. The follow-up genetic testing immediately began. This apeman had already been anesthetized by Xiao Yu so that samples could be collected from its body.
After enough samples had been collected came the testing. The test result made Xiao Yu let out a long sigh of relief. The genetic sequence of this primitive apeman had a similarity of as much as ninety-six percent with the genetic sequence of later humanity. This strongly proved that a close relationship existed between later humanity and this type of apeman.
Xiao Yu’s mood finally relaxed. Although he still had not figured out the true reason behind the time reversal, at least he had ruled out the most terrifying possibility. Xiao Yu confirmed that the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy had merely undergone some strange changes because of some unknown reason. He himself was real, and his memories were real as well.
“Continue developing well on Earth.” Xiao Yu murmured. He gently woke this still-unconscious apeman, then once again guided that landing robot to place it back onto the ground, among its tribe.
Xiao Yu did not carry out any genetic modification on it, nor did he make any change to their living environment. It had only gained one strange journey. Perhaps that strange journey would cause some kind of change in the hearts of the other apemen who had witnessed the scene, perhaps even giving rise to the birth of some primitive religion, but Xiao Yu still did not intend to interfere with them.
Even at this moment, when a group of saber-toothed tigers had already surrounded these apemen and launched a fierce hunting attack, Xiao Yu still did not intend to interfere. The law of the jungle was the most fundamental law of nature. Humanity’s ancestors had precisely endured such hardships to earn the qualification to evolve into humans. These apemen had no reason not to withstand such blows.
“I still do not know what exactly happened in the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way, but one thing is beyond doubt. At present, I have no ability at all to cope with this kind of change. I cannot even begin to investigate it. Leave the Milky Way and continue my journey through the universe. Perhaps in the future, when my technology becomes more advanced, I will understand the truth hidden behind all of these events.” Xiao Yu thought silently as he guided his exploration fleet to begin regrouping with the main fleet.
The same thing was happening simultaneously in many places throughout the Milky Way. Since Xiao Yu had already found what he wanted in the exploration of the Solar System, there was no longer any need to remain here.
But at this moment, an unexpected situation occurred. The fleet Xiao Yu had sent to explore the Solar System had never been very large to begin with, and after dispersing, it became even more inconspicuous. Presumably because of that, Xiao Yu’s exploration fleet had not drawn the attention of that outsider who was approaching. After Xiao Yu discovered them in advance, he immediately hid his fleet even more carefully, observing their every move from the shadows.
It was a ball of light. Gathered together, it was only about the size of a basketball. This basketball seemed to be floating on the surface of water, gently changing its position with the rippling patterns, and between stillness and motion it was filled with an eerie aura.
Xiao Yu was very familiar with this ball of light. When he had tried to destroy the Guardian Civilization, and when he had destroyed the Sweepers Civilization, this fellow had appeared both times. They were the Microscopic Civilization. Xiao Yu was very familiar with them.
The instant he discovered the Microscopic Civilization, Xiao Yu felt both puzzled and relieved. He was puzzled because he did not understand why the Microscopic Civilization would appear here. He was relieved because yet another civilization that existed in his memory had appeared, giving him one more argument to exclude that most terrifying guess.
There was also a feeling of excitement. The appearance of the Microscopic Civilization here at this moment was absolutely abnormal. And as long as he could capture them, it would be possible to obtain much of the intelligence Xiao Yu urgently needed right now.
“The Microscopic Civilization is a non-combat civilization. Although my exploration fleet is weak, it is still anchored by two Province-Class Level 7 Civilization spaceships. Even if I cannot capture all of the Microscopic Civilization, capturing just a part of them will be enough.” Xiao Yu pondered secretly as he began to make arrangements.
“Microscopic Civilization! What are you doing here!” After the arrangements were completed, Xiao Yu suddenly sent out such a message.
The reaction of the Microscopic Civilization was unexpectedly intense. They seemed to recognize at a glance that this was Xiao Yu’s fleet, and so a message full of terror was immediately received by Xiao Yu.
“Xiao Yu! How are you still alive!”