85: Chapter 85: A Superfire Lasting Millions of Years

Jiang Zhe looked at Xiaoyu, his tone calm: "The second mass extinction, 360 million years ago, in the late Devonian period."

"This time, marine life suffered another heavy blow, but land plants, especially the tall fern forests, reached an unprecedented level of lushness."

"Then, due to geological changes and rising sea levels, vast swathes of forests were buried underground."

After saying this, he picked up his tablet and found a picture of black minerals.

"What is this?"

Xiaoyu's beautiful eyes widened: "Coal!"

"Yes, these forests buried by the Earth, after hundreds of millions of years of high pressure and high temperature, turned into the coal mines we are familiar with."

"This was the first large-scale fossil energy reserve!"

Having explained this, he put down the tablet and fixed his gaze on Xiaoyu.

"Suppose modern humans collectively traveled back to the time when these forests were still growing on the ground and hadn't been buried yet."

"Could we ignite the Industrial Revolution?"

Xiaoyu's eyes darted as she thought rapidly: "No, because there would be no coal. We would have to wait for the Earth to bury the forests underground and then wait another few hundred million years for them to turn into coal..."

"In that case, the time is too long, we simply couldn't afford to wait!"

"Correct!" Jiang Zhe nodded slightly. "That is why the Earth chose this point in time to begin burying the forests."

"It did not leave this coal for any of the creatures at that time; the creatures back then had no use for it."

"So it sealed them away, transforming them into another form, to be left for a civilization in the future that would need chemical energy."

"The result of the second mass extinction was: on one hand, clearing out the oceans, urging them to hurry onto land, and on the other hand, beginning to stockpile the first pot of gold to kickstart a civilization!"

"Hiss~~"

Xiaoyu felt a chill run down her spine.

A picture emerged in her little head—the Earth was like a shrewd planner, in an empty warehouse, first storing up building materials, then storing up fuel, and then waiting silently.

As for who could use these gifts... just as Brother said, it's a matter of opinion; it could be humans, or it could be some other intelligent civilization!

At this moment, in the live stream, the direction of the comments became increasingly eerie.

"Shivering, so coal mines weren't found by us, but buried by the Earth in advance, waiting for us to dig them up?"

"Two mass extinctions, both were just stocking up on goods? This is way too coincidental, isn't it?"

"Our Brother is right—if all eight billion people on Earth went back to that time, even if we could survive, we definitely wouldn't be able to ignite the tech tree. We'd become a wood-based civilization and would definitely face the situation of having knowledge but no energy."

"Unbelievable, is it possible that the time of our emergence was calculated?"

"..."

Inside Qingfeng Temple, Celestial Master Zhang looked at Zheng Ming, who wanted to retort, and quickly spoke: "The Earth: first prepares the foundation of flesh and blood, second stores the source of fuel."

"Heaven and Earth do not speak, yet all things have order; this order is the Tao."

Zheng Ming wanted to argue but was rendered speechless by Celestial Master Zhang's few lines of ancient text.

He realized that everything Jiang Zhe said was objective fact! He had merely laid out the chronological order and considered it from a different angle.

On screen, Jiang Zhe raised a finger: "Remember, I have now talked about the preparation and storage stages."

"But having these is not enough; we also need brand new, more potential-filled life, and a special environment capable of incubating intelligent life!"

"The next, third mass extinction is what was prepared for this!"

At this moment, in the live stream.

"Is the new life path our mammalian ancestors?"

"What could the special environment be?"

"..."

Xiaoyu sat on the sofa and began to think.

Preparation, storage, waiting!

Could it be that humans are the ones being waited for?

Jiang Zhe looked at Xiaoyu, whose dark eyebrows were knitted together, and changed his angle: "Xiaoyu, Brother has a question for you. If you were playing a raising game—but as you were raising them, you discovered: the growth direction of this batch of pets is all wrong, completely not what you wanted, what would you do?"

Xiaoyu's eyes moved: "Start over?"

"Exactly. Well said."

Jiang Zhe nodded with satisfaction, "The next, third mass extinction, at the end of the Permian, 250 million years ago, was the Earth's [Restart]."

His tone became calm.

"This time! 96% of marine species and 70% of land vertebrates disappeared."

"Life on Earth, it's no exaggeration to say, [pretty much all disappeared]."

Xiaoyu suddenly gasped: "All gone?"

"Mm, almost all gone."

Jiang Zhe continued: "Current research has found—the most direct cause was the Siberia super volcano erupting for millions of years."

"That's millions of years! What kind of disaster could last that long? It's simply too exaggerated and heaven-defying, isn't it?"

"That super toxic gas, super global warming, super ocean acidification, super ultraviolet exposure."

"This was an indiscriminate purge from within the Earth, a total overthrow!"

Jiang Zhe looked at Xiaoyu, whose beautiful eyes were gradually widening, and answered directly: "Want to ask why?"

"Why did the Earth have to use such a tragic method to wipe out all the successful species?"

Xiaoyu nodded and then shook her head; she couldn't figure it out at all.

"Let's not worry for now about whether the Earth is alive, or whether it did this intentionally. Let's just look at the result of this third time."

"After this great purge, the Earth's ecological niches were almost completely empty."

"Then, the appearance of two things changed the birth of the fourth generation of life later on."

"That is: greenhouse gases and volcanic ash."

"These two substances temporarily constructed [fertilizer]."

"Next, the Earth directly placed two new life species on the same starting line!"

"Without this [fertilizer], the next, our mammalian ancestors, the Synapsids—and on the other side, the ancestors of dinosaurs, the Sauropsids."

"Without this fertilizer, neither dinosaurs nor mammalian ancestors would ever have appeared!"

Having explained this, he asked a counter-question: "Do you think this is perfection, coincidence, a chain reaction, or premeditation?"

"Why did the Earth have to wipe out almost all animals globally, only to keep these two largest nutrients?"

Listening to Brother's explanation, Xiaoyu couldn't help but swallow hard.

"That was the Earth fertilizing for the dinosaur ancestors and mammalian ancestors!!!"

As soon as these words were out, the viewers' scalps went numb.

"!!!"

"What the hell, am I listening to a horror story?"

"The more I listen, the more it feels like everything was arranged!"

"Isn't it just a chemical reaction?"

"It's not that simple; it's not just a simple chemical reaction, it's very complex!"

"..."

Inside the Principal's office, Principal Fu felt the air turn cold, "Damn it, a perfectly normal Earth chronicle, in his mouth, it's like listening to a horror story!"

Old Wang had already wrapped himself in a cotton coat and shrunk his neck. The other teachers in the office didn't make a sound, pathetic yet addicted to watching.

On screen. Xiaoyu suddenly realized: "So the third mass extinction was to clear the field, let two new contestants start over, and compete to see who is more suitable for Earth?"

"You're half right, but actually, it's more than that!"

Jiang Zhe's expression became profound, "This extinction had another function: it provided the final process for the Earth's energy upgrade: [Processing]!"

He nodded slightly, "Remember the coal mines Brother mentioned just now?"

"That was the first energy reserve."

"But what is an even more efficient, more portable energy?"

Xiaoyu's beautiful eyes lit up: "It's oil and natural gas!"

"Correct!" Jiang Zhe said with an approving look: "It is exactly oil and natural gas!"

"The super volcanic activity of this third extinction brought high temperature and high pressure, promoting the early buried raw materials—and then they began to transform into oil and gas resources."

"It can be completely said: the third extinction was the Earth conducting an [Energy Upgrade]."

"From solid coal, transforming into liquid oil and natural gas!"

Having said this, Jiang Zhe began to summarize: "The result of the third mass extinction."

"First: completely delete the second generation of life born on Earth, deleting all the life that went off track."

"Second: create the same starting point, letting the two most potential-filled new species compete together!"

"Third: energy upgrade, preparing stronger energy accumulation for future civilization!"

Xiaoyu listened intently.

The line of the Earth's preparatory work in her mind became clearer and clearer!

First mass extinction: phosphate mines, Earth brought bones and fertilizer for the future.

Second mass extinction: Earth brought coal.

Third mass extinction: wiped out the second generation of life, while simultaneously bringing the ancestors of mammals and dinosaurs, and upgrading the energy.

This process, to put it simply, belongs to: accumulation from simple to complex.

To put it complicatedly... this is simply a manual for life evolution!

Thinking of this, Xiaoyu suddenly gasped, feeling like she hadn't worn enough clothes.

As the series of words fell, the live stream fell into a silence. Only scattered comments appeared.

"I increasingly feel this is not a coincidence!"

"Using a super fire lasting millions of years to wipe out all the second generation of life, then introducing new species, and upgrading energy along the way, this, this series of operations is too much like the thought process of an [Intelligent Being], right?"

"Thinking about it is terrifying, why is the Earth's thought process so similar to a human's thought process?"

"If the first three times were like this, then the fourth and fifth times were also like this, I don't even dare to imagine!"

"..."