Adaptation and Degeneration (2)

Chapter 19 Adaptation and Degeneration (2)

"I don't know how others do it, but for Earth scientists, if a hypothesis were brought up with convincing arguments, as long as it could not be proven otherwise, it would continue to be accepted as a plausible hypothesis."

"And when others who tried to debunk it over time failed to do it, it became a theory! Technically, it is still an unproven hypothesis, but relatively and practically, they were accepted as true," Lu Yang explained.

"Just because after numerous efforts to refute and debunk it, you still could not?" asked Xian Xui, Lu Yang's partner.

"Yes," Lu Yang helplessly nodded as he poured another glass of drink.

"Of course, if it can be conclusively proven, then it would not be called a theory anymore but would be called a Law. Like the Law of Gravitation, Newton's Laws of Motion, etcetera."

"What? Was that how your world science works? Ridiculous!"

"Well, I don't know whether it was true or not. But the fact was his proposition was indeed accepted as a theory by almost everyone on Earth," said another guy with cheek red.

"So it's not my fault I have ape as an ancestor," Lu Yang thus concludes his defense.

"Haha...that's true. But having an ape as your ancestor, I'm sure those tribes and races from Annasi would be furious."

"And the best part, if what you say was true, that guy didn't seem to spend anything. It was others who spent money in their research and effort trying to debunk but ended up failing."

"Now that you say that, wouldn't that mean it was the greatest scam in your history? Lu Yang, you guys were duped so hard that you lost all your money! Hahahaha..."

When Lu Yang heard that, he was stunned!

Yeah, if this rumor was true, they were all scammed by the clown big time. The guy didn't need to do anything or spend so much researching it. He had already presented his 'finding' as a plausible theory with 'logical and reliable' evidence supporting it.

If anyone wants to say his hypothesis was false, it was those people who needed to spend time and resources to research it.

But then, they could never conclusively do it. What else can this be called besides the biggest scam in history?!

"Boy, that was hilarious. Hahaha. I bet you never thought your whole race was scammed by a clown and had taken ape as your ancestor."

While drunk, Lu Yang had asked, "But then again, was there no way to debunk his hypothesis? People from all over the world have used the theory as the basis for many experiments over the centuries. They never discovered any problem."

Hearing this, all the comrades look to their captain. If anyone was more experienced and knowledgeable here, it was their captain, Luankin.

Seeing everyone looking at him, Luankin pondered a moment before answering, "It is not like there was no way to refute and debunk the theory. But maybe for you humans, it will be hard."

Lu Yang waited for his following words.

The others were also waiting for him to continue.

As someone who had become part of cosmic civilization, they knew the universal truth. But that was the logic of those like them.

So they wanted to hear their captain's judgment on how humans, with their limited capability, could deny this scam.

After trying to arrange his words for some time, Luankin asked, "Do you know why we ridiculed the guy as a clown? Do you think we laugh at him because he thought a species like an ape, as a species, did not qualify?"

Lu Yang first shook his head, paused, and nodded. To be honest, he was confused. Why did the captain ask him this? Wouldn't having the ape as an ancestor be a ridiculous thing and funny?

Seeing his confused eyes, Luankin continued, "We did not laugh because we thought having a creature like an ape as an ancestor was funny. But it was because the guy thought an ape, a degenerate beast, a human ancestor."

Seeing his still confused eyes, Luankin couldn't help but scold him, saying, "It is a degenerate beast, for Creator's sake! This is not a derogatory word or curse word. But an ape was one of the many possibilities for Annasi Species to degenerate into."

Lu Yang was still blurry, appearing to understand but not understand.

Looking at his foolish appearance, Luankin hated iron for not becoming steel. He helplessly asked again, "Okay, let's take another perspective. You are already a venerable practitioner and will soon become exalted venerable, right?"

Lu Yang nodded.

"And your lifespan would increase, right?"

Lu Yang nodded. As he mastered the basic knowledge of cosmic civilization and began his cultivation path, he also knew about this. It was the anticipated result.

"A Senior-level lifespan was two cosmic cycles, and a Venerable lifespan was four cycles while an Exalted Venerable eight cycles, and so on. This benefit was not because we became a superior species nor because we are more powerful."

"Strength, power, and adaptability to the extreme environment had no relation to having a longer lifespan. It was the level of life."

"Since you were to be promoted to Exalted Venerable soon, I suppose you would notice this later. It was not a secret anyway. It was just that most people here probably never thought they needed to tell you about it."

"It was something everyone here knows about. By everyone, I mean including those bear kids that don't like studying."

Luankin said, "For us, the way we classify the level of life is by what we call the Level of Degeneration."

"C-level Magical Race like us, while we didn't have cultivation when we were born, our physiques were already capable of sensing aura. It was such a common knowledge. As soon as we were born, each breath we inhaled would contain an aura. Each cell of our body could absorb aura that flows through our blood veins naturally."

"That's why, to put it in perspective, a C-level Magical Race was said to be born as Junior level powerhouse and grew into Senor level when reaching adulthood."

"Unlike you humans, we can cultivate smoothly until Venerable without any bottleneck. We reach our first bottleneck when we want to promote from Venerable to Exalted Venerable. And our life level limit was Profound Venerable."

"But for races that had just contacted cosmic civilization, mostly were D-level Ordinary Race," Luankin explained in length.

He continued, "The animals and beasts that were normally hunted were respectively classified as F-level and E-level degenerate. They had around 3.75 years to 15 years of lifespan at least. Most E-level beasts could live until 60 years old optimally. The ape species you called an ancestor was an E-level degenerate beast."

"Humanity was also a D-level Ordinary Race with two cosmic cycles of optimal lifespan. You were born incapable of sensing aura. You would grow up into an adult without cultivation and die after a cosmic cycle on average."