"Do you know who these Alien Divine Spirits are, and what their purpose is?"
Su Ze’s question plunged the Mother Tree into a long silence.
As soone from Blue Star, Su Ze knew next to nothing about the universe, and the Mother Tree had no idea where to even begin.
After a long while, she finally spoke, but instead of answering Su Ze’s question directly, she asked one in return:
"In your Blue Star’s evolutionary studies, do you know what the biggest difference is between humans and the Spiritual Plants and Exotic Beasts?"
Although Su Ze had failed his evolution class, he answered this simple question without a second thought. "Spiritual Plants and Exotic Beasts can evolve on their own, while humans must absorb extracts to evolve."
"Correct. Across the universe, the human thod of evolution is called ’Pillage Evolution,’ while the thod used by Exotic Beasts and Spiritual Plants is called ’Growth Evolution.’ Pillage Evolution is faster and more adaptable, whereas Growth Evolution is relatively rigid, singular, and far more ti-consuming.
"Throughout the universe, countless species live on various life-bearing planets, and humans are not the only ones capable of Pillage Evolution."
Hearing the Mother Tree’s words, Su Ze imdiately made the connection. "Like the beings who built the Divine Dice? Do they use Pillage Evolution too?"
The Mother Tree agreed. "Exactly. While I don’t know what race they are, they can create Bloodline Crystals. That is an ability possessed only by races that undergo Pillage Evolution.
"Across the universe, all races capable of Pillage Evolution share one common trait: they are born with extrely high intelligence. Take you humans, for example. Even an ordinary person who has never evolved is far smarter than animals or plants. Exotic Beasts and Spiritual Plants, on the other hand, must complete their fourth evolution to possess intelligence comparable to a human’s. You could say their intelligence is acquired through evolution, while human intelligence is innate.
"Races like humans, born with such high intelligence, are called ’Intelligent Races.’ Only Intelligent Races are capable of Pillage Evolution. All Spiritual Plants, Exotic Beasts, and the other strange and wondrous races of the universe—so long as they are not Intelligent Races—have only one evolutionary path: Growth Evolution."
Su Ze understood. Only life forms from Intelligent Races like humans could evolve by absorbing extracts. Other life forms could only rely on the accumulation of ti, year after year, slowly absorbing external energy to evolve.
"Between these two evolutionary paths, which one is superior? In other words, across the universe, do the Intelligent Races hold a dominant position, or are the non-Intelligent Races more powerful?" Su Ze asked.
’Logically, intelligent life should have greater potential than non-intelligent life, but right now on Blue Star, humans are the ones at a disadvantage.’
"The Intelligent Races, of course. They rule the universe. No matter how powerful a non-Intelligent Race becos, it is seen only as prey by the Intelligent Races—as a tonic to strengthen them. Across the universe, non-Intelligent Races have a low status. They are treated as beasts in the mountains, herbs in the forest, or ore in the ground. They are nothing more than a resource pool to be plundered at will, a gene bank to supplent their own."
"In the eyes of many Intelligent Races, non-Intelligent Races are born simply for their use. The entire purpose of existence for all Spiritual Plants and Exotic Beasts is to help them evolve."
At this... Su Ze didn’t know what to say. Even on Earth, or on Blue Star before the Era of Evolution, humanity had done the exact sa thing.
It was rely the predatory instinct of life itself. If non-Intelligent Races were the ones in charge of the universe, Su Ze was certain all Intelligent Races would suffer an equally miserable fate.
He only had to look at Blue Star for proof. When humanity’s power lagged, countless people were reduced to food for Exotic Beasts and nutrients for Spiritual Plants in the war for evolution.
However, at this rate, as long as humanity could continue to develop steadily and suppress the Exotic Beasts and Spiritual Plants, it was only a matter of ti before they beca the masters of Blue Star once more.
The Mother Tree continued, "Fortunately, the various Intelligent Races are in constant conflict with one another. Otherwise, the plight of non-Intelligent Races would be even more dire. It’s possible they would have been completely dosticated by now."
"So, are there many Intelligent Races in the universe?" Su Ze asked.
The Mother Tree fell silent for a mont before replying, "I am only a fragnted consciousness with incomplete mories. From what I can piece together from my shattered recollections, the variety of Intelligent Races in the universe is small, but their population is imnse!"
’Few in kind, but vast in number... so not many different species, but huge populations.’
But Su Ze still had no real concept of these scales. What qualified as "imnse"? And what qualified as "small"?
After all, this was in the context of the entire, boundless universe!
Su Ze voiced his confusion.
The Mother Tree answered, "I don’t know the exact number of Intelligent Races, but it’s likely around one or two hundred, and no more than four hundred at most. And that number includes so races that are already extinct... So Intelligent Races vanished into the river of ti long ago, not having shown a trace of themselves in the universe for countless ages.
"As for the total population of all Intelligent Races, that’s impossible to calculate. No one knows the answer. A single planet occupied by an Intelligent Race has, at a minimum, several hundred million inhabitants, and can have as many as tens or even hundreds of billions... and there are countless life-bearing planets in the universe."
A preliminary picture of the vast universe began to form in Su Ze’s mind. Even though he had lived two lives, he couldn’t help but feel his own insignificance. The two planets he had lived on were nothing but two specks of dust in the boundless cosmos.
After digesting all this information, Su Ze asked with a surge of excitent, "Have you ever heard of humans out there, in the universe? Besides Blue Star, are there other humans in existence?"
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