486 Chapter: Trajectory (Added for everyone's monthly ticket)_1

The underground part of the yellow plants, due to their sufficient self-weight, did not grow a main root but had only a network of very fine mycelium-like or root-hair-like roots.

This made it look like a rock sprouting tiny root threads.

The probe also discovered a large number of microbes around these root threads.

These microbes were multicellular, very small in size, consisting of no more than eight or nine cells at most.

According to the probe's observations, the yellow plants funneled the energy produced by photosynthesis into the root networks, then used this energy as bait to attract the microbes.

The microbes needed to nibble at the roots of the yellow plants, while the yellow plants needed the water from the microbes. They engaged in "equivalent exchange" at the root networks, each obtaining what it needed.

According to the analysis of Galaxy III, the microbes must have brought sufficient water from deep underground to trade with the yellow plants.

Although there was groundwater on the planet, it was likely tens of meters or even kilometers below the surface.

Since the probe lacked specialized drilling tools, it could only infer that these microbes could travel to and from depths of tens of meters, forming a symbiotic relationship with the yellow plants.

Ricks, the head of the expert group, couldn't help but exclaim, "Who would have thought that such a desolate planet could still harbor life, their vitality is incredibly tenacious."

Thinking about multicellular microbes traveling tens of meters, or even kilometers, in such harsh conditions for survival made his scalp tingle.

Jiang Yu finally showed a hint of a smile on his face, "That's right! That's exactly what the gyros came here to find!"

Many experts, however, were even more puzzled. "What do the gyros want with such primitive life forms?"

Jiang Yu asked earnestly, "Primitive? According to gyro theory, these microbes are very advanced!"

Ricks and the other experts looked perplexed, failing to grasp the Wallfacer's meaning.

Jiang Yu continued to explain, "Think about the evolutionary history of the universe, the evolutionary history of life on Earth, think about us, humanity.

"Atoms have existed for hundreds of billions of years; they don't need any external forces to 'survive,' and they make up everything.

"Single-celled organisms have existed on Earth for 3.8 billion years; they just need photosynthesis to survive, and in these 3.8 billion years, they have never become extinct.

"From multicellular organisms, to fish, to reptiles, and finally to us, humanity.

"During this time, various kinds of organisms have gone extinct several times over, but single-celled organisms and atoms still exist and will continue to exist for a very long time.

"They are the ones who are advanced because their requirements for survival are very low.

"We, with great effort, have traveled dozens of light-years away from our home to a foreign domain. We create huge interstellar warships, we establish complex societies, all our actions are just to compensate for our shortcomings in survival abilities.

"Just like primitive people who could live well with their brains, our brains are only slightly better than those of primitive people, and the purpose of all our actions is just to live well.

"Only now, the problems we think about, the difficulties we encounter, are countless times more complicated than those of primitive people!"

Ricks did not quite agree with Jiang Yu's remarks, "Commander, we can easily kill a single-celled organism, we can manipulate atoms to serve us."

Jiang Yu crossed his arms and chuckled, "Yes, that's what I used to think too.

"Ever since encountering the civilization of the gyros, I suddenly had a question: Why is the universe so quiet?

"Is it just because of the Dark Forest?

"Our birthplace, the Solar System, formed five billion years ago, and thirty billion years before the formation of the Solar System, the universe already had stars and planetary systems."

"There should be a batch of intelligent beings who evolved thirty billion years before us. Where are they now?"

"Even if the Dark Forest silenced them, the first law of the Dark Forest Law is: survival is the first need of civilization."

"Tell me, can the population of a civilization that has been around for thirty billion years be contained by a single planetary system?"

"In other words, can the resources of a planetary system sustain a civilization's expenditure for thirty billion years?"

These questions left the attending experts deep in thought.

Jiang Yu continued, "The second law of the Dark Forest Law is: civilizations continue to grow and expand, but the total amount of material in the universe remains constant."

"With so many civilizations forming over thirty billion years, if they kept expanding, would there still be so many empty planetary systems?"

"Thirty billion years, ladies and gentlemen! How many civilizations would form?"

"Even a challenging environment like the Trisolaris Star System gave birth to civilization?"

"There are one hundred and twenty billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy alone, and the number of Earth-like planets must be tripled."

"Even if only one thousandth of these planetary systems develop civilizations, that's already hundreds of millions of civilizations! Are you saying all of them were wiped out by Dark Forest Strikes?"

He paused, then asked again, "Why is the universe so silent?"

Ricks was stunned for a couple of seconds before responding, "This..."

Jiang Yu clapped his hands in his usual manner, "This is exactly the 'trajectory' that the Gyro described!"

"We used to think the downfall of a civilization was due to war, mismanagement, or a loss of vitality."

"The Gyro wanted to tell me that the decline of civilization is determined by the biological nature."

"This nature determines the trajectory of civilizations, and the universe constantly stages the process from the rise to the prosperity and then the decline of civilizations!"

"Various intelligent beings keep repeating this trajectory, just like single-celled organisms constantly photosynthesize and divide!"

"I do not know the current state of the Gyro civilization, but the Gyro satellites and the Gyro guard that we discovered—their creators have not maintained them for who knows how many years."

"Although it is possible that these Gyros were abandoned, it is more likely that the Gyro civilization began to decline long ago, which is why they searched the world for methods to counter the weakening of their civilization."

"And the development trajectory of civilizations means that the higher the intelligence acquired, the easier it is to face extinction."

Ricks and Galaxy III remained silent.

Jiang Yu lit a cigarette for himself; this was the result of his pondering last night, "Yes! The development trajectory of civilization, the more intelligent, the closer to extinction!"

"That's why the Gyro civilization began studying primitive lifeforms because only they are capable of long-term survival!"

"And only through them, can we possibly find a way to break free from this trajectory!"

After a long silence in the conference room, an expert finally said, "Commander, this contradicts common knowledge of modern people!"

Jiang Yu rubbed his temples, "Isn't common knowledge meant to be contradicted? How many pieces of common knowledge have we overturned? From geocentrism to heliocentrism, and then to the cosmology of relativity."

"We can only get closer to the truth by constantly overturning, and yet, getting closer to the truth turns out to be synonymous to approaching extinction!"

At this point, Jiang Yu laughed self-deprecatingly, unsure whether he was mocking his own bizarre ideas, or the trajectory of intelligent life.