This was a creature in the process of evolution.
Lin's Sounders dragged a reptilian-like creature out of the water and carefully observed it.
The creature was about 2 meters long and could easily kill a Sounder in the water earlier. However, as Lin ordered more Sounders to dive into the water, they easily killed the creature.
Although the creature looked like a reptile, its neck was relatively long and the bones on its hands and feet were beginning to merge. This structure seemed to be very suitable for living in the water. Lin believed that it originally lived on land and decided to return to the water.
In fact, this type of evolving creature was quite common. However, Lin discovered something even more interesting in this lake.
When the Sounders were attacked by the reptiles, they used their sound to detect some unique traces carved into the rocks at the bottom of the lake. Lin knew that the Inca insects liked to make these things, so it should be some sort of tunnel.
The Sounders jumped into the water again. This time, Lin's eyes lit up. She discovered that the traces were actually circular marks about 2 meters in diameter carved into the bottom of the lake.
The sound explorers reached their claws into the crevice and pulled hard. As expected, a series of rumbling noises were heard. The circular crevice slowly moved to the side, revealing a spacious tunnel behind it.
After entering this tunnel, Lin discovered that the water here had become much cleaner. Only the lake from before was still a bit murky. Furthermore, there were some ancient marine creatures living here, such as trilobites and flatfish. Apparently, due to the lack of light for a long time, their eyes had degenerated. However, their other senses, such as smell, were still very developed. As soon as Lin approached, they would immediately flee.
Other creatures liked this. They would degenerate their useless organs. Lin had never done this kind of thing before. Who knew if it would be useful in the future even if it was useless now?
After swimming for about 100 meters in the tunnel, the Sounders discovered that the tunnel was beginning to curve upwards. After going through this curve, Lin once again arrived at a spacious space.
Why did the Inca insects like to create spacious spaces every once in a while? Why didn't they just gather together?
However, this space … was very special.
The space was square in shape, about 50 meters wide and about the same height, and it was filled with seawater. There were also many strange-looking objects placed in this space.
The Sounders used sound to detect the shapes of these objects. They came in all shapes and sizes, some big and some small. This was something that the Inca insects were very good at creating — — statues.
Were they also preserving their cells here? However, Lin thought that the seawater was not a very good environment. They might corrode the statues.
These statues were placed neatly in rows, unlike the Hometree where they were all piled up together. It was as if they had been specially arranged.
Lin's Sound Seeker approached the statue closest to the entrance. It was in the shape of a worm about a meter long. The whole statue was filled with cracks and signs of decay. There were also a few snail creatures crawling on it, as if they had been there for a long time.
Lin noticed. This worm seemed … rather primitive.
Although worms were very common, they were actually a very special kind of creature. They were almost the evolutionary predecessor of all arthropods and vertebrates. The common ancestor of arthropods and reptiles, multicellular organisms, was usually in the form of worms, and then slowly developed into other forms.
This worm statue looked like a worm from before it evolved, primitive and ancient. It only had a long body and fed on fungi. Could it be that the Inca bugs had cells from this type of worm?
Lin made a small hole on the statue and looked inside. However, she didn't find any cells inside, it was just a statue.
Lin then looked at the second statue next to the worm statue. What was this thing? Lin saw that it was in the shape of a '>'. It had been purposely erected on the ground, and the tip of the '>' pointed at the next statue.
The next statue was still a worm, but this time, it had a circle of sharp teeth around its mouth. Its body also had hardened structures, making it look like a predator.
The next statue was also in the shape of a '>'.
What were they doing in such a strange way? What were the Inca bugs trying to say by making these statues?
Lin then looked down and saw another worm statue, but this one was larger than the previous one. The structure on its body had also changed.
Could it be …
Lin suddenly thought of a possibility. Were the Inca bugs using these statues to explain the evolutionary path of these worms?
This was indeed possible. The Inca bugs had also used fossils like this before. They might have recorded the evolution of these worms, but how did they record the evolution of a species? That would take a very long time.
Lin didn't know how long the history of the Inca bugs was, but judging from the structure of their organs and the decomposition of their cells, it shouldn't be more than a few ten thousand years old.
Of course, this didn't mean that they stopped existing a few ten thousand years ago, but rather that it was a matter of intelligence.
Lin had done quite a bit of research on intelligence. Normally, a creature's intelligence would only allow them to solve their basic needs, such as figuring out how to make a nest out of a rock, how to find food, etc.
At this stage, a creature's mind would only think about things that directly benefited them. For example, if a creature saw a rock, it would only want to make a nest out of it or ignore it. However, as the capacity of the creature's brain increased, it would start to have doubts about the object, which would further accelerate the evolution of the brain.
For example, where did this rock come from? Why was it there? Why was it different from the objects around it? They would start to doubt their surroundings and try to use their brain to understand the existence and origin of the objects around them.
This kind of thinking might seem unnecessary, but it would greatly accelerate the evolution of the brain. So far, Lin had only discovered that this kind of situation only occurred in creatures that had a lot of free time, unlike other creatures that didn't have that much free time.
Lin had placed quite a few eyeballs in the Twisted Jungle to observe and study the situation of the creatures in the environment. She had discovered that this kind of situation occurred with a few creatures.
Lin had studied the brains of the Inca bugs before. Their brain composition was around 1%, so they might have started to evolve over a hundred thousand years ago, but this was only speculation.
Perhaps by observing these statues, she would be able to find out more about the history of the Inca bugs …
Lin continued to observe the statues of the Inca bugs. Sure enough, they were trying to express their evolutionary relationship. Next to each statue was a '>' shape that pointed to the next statue of a more evolved worm.
At the same time, Lin also noticed that while these statues had been placed there for a long time, the '>' shape was brand new, as if they had been placed there as soon as they were created.
According to the order of the statues, the originally empty Fungus Worm slowly grew bigger. Its teeth grew longer, armor appeared, and many spikes grew out of its body. There was even a statue that had been cut in half. The Inca bugs had carved out the internal organs of the half of its body.
It seemed that their research was even as detailed as Lin's.
Lin continued to observe until the 30th statue. She discovered that it was a statue of two worms intertwined together. Lin guessed that the meaning of the Inca bugs was: gender.
At this stage, they had already evolved into gender, but she couldn't tell how long it had taken them to do so.
Lin observed a total of 90 statues, each one slightly larger than the previous and more evolved. However, when she reached the 91st statue, she discovered that the statue was of a different arthropod creature, and the worm was lying on top of that creature's body.
It seemed to be a parasitic relationship. So that's how it is, the worm didn't evolve into a predator, but rather a parasite?
The next statue showed the worm drilling into the creature's body. Due to the detailed internal structure, Lin could see the worm drilling into the creature's brain, then parasitizing and slowly devouring the brain.
The next statues were very strange. They all showed the worm slowly devouring the creature's brain, then using its own body to integrate itself into the brain.
It could be seen that the worm had connected itself to the creature's brain, somewhat similar to Lin's Brain Reader.
However, as the worm slowly drilled into the creature's brain, Lin noticed that the creature's body structure was also changing. It grew even more sharp claws and arthropods, its entire body became extremely strange, or rather, extremely deformed.
In the end, the creature died, but the worm drilled its way out and continued to search for other creatures to parasitize.
The next parasitic creatures didn't die, the limbs they grew weren't as deformed, the parasite seemed to be using them to obtain nutrients for itself.
After that, there were even more statues that appeared at the same location. This was the Inca bugs' way of expressing that all the parasitized creatures had gathered together to form a unique social lifestyle.
Every parasitized creature was different, they were responsible for different tasks, such as fighting, reproducing, and so on. This was the basic model of parasitized creatures.
The reproductive organs of these creatures could still function, but they could only give birth to worms, and the worms would then parasitize more creatures to join the group.
But in the end, these parasitized creatures slowly evolved and mutated, finally becoming completely different creatures from before. The worms that parasitized the creature's brain were no longer worms, they directly turned themselves into a brain, completely replacing the original brain.
At this point, Lin saw a few familiar units of the Inca bugs, such as the Black Bee and Exploding Armor.
Furthermore, they no longer gave birth to parasitic worms, instead giving birth to creatures like the Queen. The Queen came from a species with a high production rate, and it could directly give birth to various units instead of worms. They used their own hosts to combine together, becoming a completely new species …
At first, Lin thought that the Inca bugs were recording the evolution of other creatures, but it turned out that this was the Inca bugs' own evolutionary history? And they were actually parasitized worms? Although the details weren't very clear. (To be continued …)