"Plankton has appeared in the sea. Mother Nest, set up genetic locks to limit the size of the spore creatures."
Xu Zhi frowned and silently issued the command.
The orchard was only so big—it was impossible to let the creatures grow too large. In the memories of the previous Hive Mother, he had also seen that evolving toward massive size was a mistake.
There was no need to make the Zerg enormous. Keeping them small was the true path of evolution. The smaller the body, the easier it was to produce qualitative energy changes.
From that point onward, the sandbox's species would remain miniature. Most would be smaller than ants—the true Zerg form. Even the largest beings, those that evolved to the level of dinosaurs, would never grow larger than a cat.
A cat-sized insect was already terrifying enough.
For creatures smaller than ants, this hundred-acre sandbox was the equivalent of a small province—vast and boundless.
By the afternoon of the sixth day, after the Paleozoic ocean of single-celled life had persisted for five days, drastic changes finally began. Multicellular organisms appeared in the sea.
In just minutes, Xu Zhi felt as if he were watching an accelerated nature documentary. Within the artificial pond, new species of plankton appeared and vanished every few seconds, each generation giving birth to the next.
Soon, strange aquatic plants began to float across the pond's surface.
Xu Zhi had only planned to introduce single cells and see if life would evolve. He hadn't expected such rapid development.
"Accelerating ten thousand years into a single day... it's only been six days, so sixty thousand years of evolution have already passed. Single-celled organisms have become plankton—forming a super–Paleozoic ocean similar to Earth's Phanerozoic era, the Cambrian explosion five hundred million years ago. These Zerg spores are incredible."
He didn't know much about Earth's evolutionary history, but he quickly went back to his room, turned on his laptop, and began cramming everything he could find about it—the Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian...
After all, Earth was the best reference he had.
"But it's getting dark... and what I'm most worried about is about to begin. The sandbox world is heading toward destruction."
He looked at the artificial ocean in the courtyard. The last light of dusk stretched across the walls as night approached.
With evolution sped up ten thousandfold, one day equaled ten thousand years—five thousand years of daylight, and five thousand of night.
As darkness fell, it was equivalent to an endless night spanning five millennia.
Sunlight was the source of all life. Without it, the aquatic plants that had just evolved would lose photosynthesis and wither.
Sure enough, once the sun disappeared, drastic changes shook the sea.
Masses of aquatic plants withered and sank, lifeless, transforming the pond into a dead, silent sea.
"The first mass extinction of my sandbox world... I didn't expect it to come so quickly."
Xu Zhi took a deep breath.
From his research, he knew that in Earth's long evolutionary history, there had been five great mass extinctions—from the rise of single-celled life to the fall of dinosaurs.
The most famous was the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction, sixty-five million years ago, when the dinosaurs vanished and eighty percent of all species died.
But the very first had occurred more than four hundred million years ago—the end-Ordovician extinction—caused by a sharp drop in temperature and sea levels that wiped out eighty-five percent of marine life.
Now, his sandbox was experiencing its own version—an endless night lasting five thousand years. The sudden disappearance of sunlight triggered a catastrophic collapse of life.
Earth had survived its extinctions through sheer scale and diversity. Xu Zhi's world, by contrast, was tiny—fragile.
Even if his pond held millions of organisms, that was far too few to guarantee survival according to Darwin's principles of evolution.
"But these are Zerg spores," he reminded himself. "They can survive on barren planets. There's no reason they can't endure this."
He waited, anxious yet hopeful.
Moonlight spilled over the courtyard. The ocean was filled with dead plants—until, half an hour later, a faint blue glow shimmered on the surface.
It was a plant, no larger than an ant, with delicately shaped leaves.
Denied sunlight, it had turned toward the moon, using its faint glow as a new source of energy.
It had survived.
The plant grew, aged, and died within seconds—each generation faster than the last. Evolution ran like a film in fast-forward.
Adapting to the endless night, it changed rapidly. Its leaves spread wide like lotus petals, optimizing every angle to capture the pale light of the moon.
After an hour, this lone survivor had evolved through tens of thousands of generations. Xu Zhi named it Blue Moon Grass.
Some strains evolved to absorb moonlight more efficiently. Others became predatory, preying on their own kind—using faint luminescence to lure nearby Blue Moon Grass before devouring them whole.
Xu Zhi couldn't help but marvel at the tenacity of life. "After surviving the first mass extinction, this single aquatic plant managed to build its own dark ecosystem."
He grabbed a black notebook, opened to the first page, and began to record.
"Maybe I should document every era of this sandbox—like Earth's evolutionary timeline."
He smiled faintly. "Earth had its Cambrian explosion—the origin of all life. Then came the dinosaurs, humans, and beasts. But here, the explosion of life has faced its first five thousand years of darkness. Let's call it... the Dark Martial Era."
On the first page of his black notebook, he wrote:
[Dark Martial Era]The sun sets and the moon rises. The world falls into five thousand years of endless night.Ninety-nine percent of marine life goes extinct.Only Blue Moon Grass survives, thriving by absorbing moonlight and becoming the overlord of the dark ocean.
He closed the notebook and looked toward the pond—the Ocean of Life—his eyes full of expectation.
"According to Earth's evolution, life begins in the sea. Plants come first, then animals. I wonder... what kind of marine creatures will these spores evolve into?"
He stayed awake through the night, waiting for dawn.
The seventh day finally arrived.
But contrary to his expectations, no animals appeared. Instead, another disaster struck.
The sun rose.
With its harsh light came death. The Blue Moon Grass, which had flourished under moonlight, now faced scorching sunlight—and began to burn.
Within minutes, they withered and sank, dying in droves.
"The second mass extinction already? They just survived the first..." Xu Zhi sighed. "It's so cruel."
This was the fall of life.
Species were born and destroyed in moments, their rise and decline condensed into hours. The endless cycle of creation and extinction played out before his eyes, leaving him stunned.
By afternoon, faint traces of blue reappeared among the dead plants.
A mutation had occurred—a new variation, with leaves shaped like a five-pointed star. This new strain had adapted, surviving the intense sunlight.
In just a few minutes—countless generations—it evolved from pale blue to deep violet, becoming Purple Radiance Grass.
Its leaves were delicate yet resilient, shaped like perfect stars.
At night, it spread its five points wide to drink in moonlight. During the day, it curled inward like a flower bud to shield itself from the sun.
It was a plant that bent with both extremes—light and dark—thriving where others perished.
Mass extinction brought destruction, but also opportunity.
With no rivals left, Purple Radiance Grass spread wildly, filling the ocean with new life.
"Five thousand years of scorching sun and five thousand of darkness," Xu Zhi murmured, smiling faintly. "To survive both... you are the true heir of this world. I'll name you the Purple Radiance Grass."
He picked up his pen again and recorded the new chapter of his creation.
[Radiant Martial Era]The moon sets and the sun rises. A scorching sun hangs over the world for five thousand years.The Blue Moon Grass of the Dark Martial Era perishes in a second mass extinction.From its weakest lineage, a new species—the Purple Radiance Grass—emerges as the ruler of this era.