Thanks to the ability of eternal life, Li Yao's people occupied the planet almost overnight.
As far as one's eyes could see, weirdly-shaped black creatures were everywhere on volcanoes, swamps, valleys, and oceans. They assembled and disassembled themselves into new shapes as if they were toys.
They ran, they roared, they wandered, and they flew. They built themselves into enormous drills to explore the essence of the sun below the ground or the precious minerals. They heated the minerals to fortify each other's bodies.
Even those annoying fungi were conquered and domesticated into some sort of crops. They were grown to help the beetles improve the environment of this terrible planet.
Li Yao melted and swallowed more and more beetles. He grew larger and larger, and the glittering patterns on his surface were even more splendid, allowing him to send more information to his companions and develop more self-awareness.
