19. The Origin of Life

[Survival of the Fittest: Your life essence reigns supreme over all, capable of devouring the life essence of other beings to promote your own evolution]

The moment Lin Zichen saw this text, the first thought that surfaced in his mind was: ——There are ranks and grades within life itself.

It felt like a return to the primitive natural world.

Survival of the fittest, only the adapted survive.

However, he didn't dwell on this thought for long and quickly focused his mind on the words "life essence".

Life essence?

What did it refer to?

Suddenly, Lin Zichen remembered the animal teeth that the white-haired girl had given to him and Shen Qinghan. He recalled that when he had studied the teeth before, he had found they contained a vibrant life force.

So, he turned to Shen Qinghan, who was walking beside him humming a tune, and asked,

"Han Han, can you take down your beast tooth and let me take a look?"

"Why do you suddenly want to see the beast tooth?"

Shen Qinghan obediently took off the beast tooth and handed it to him, asking with some confusion.

Lin Zichen made up a reason on the spot, "I feel the material of this beast tooth is quite good, I was wondering if it could be made into jewelry for you."

"Ah?" Shen Qinghan was a bit stunned by the comment and then said with a troubled face, "Zi Chen, this is a gift from Bai Xue to us, isn't it inappropriate to just turn it into something else without permission?"

"That's true, we won't modify it then," Lin Zichen said nonchalantly, his attention fully on the beast tooth in his hand, feeling for the vibrant life force within it.

The moment he felt the life force, the palm of his hand holding the beast tooth suddenly warmed, and in the next moment, the vitality of the beast tooth surged into him through his palm.

At the same time, several lines of text appeared in the void.

[You have devoured a strand of the "Abyssal Giant Butterfly's" life essence]

[Abyssal Giant Butterfly Album: 1%]

[When the album progress bar reaches 100%, you can evolve certain attributes or skills of the corresponding exotic beast]

Could this be a butterfly's tooth?

Lin Zichen finished reading the text and looked down at the beast tooth in his hand as thick as his little finger, feeling quite amazed and incredulous.

It could only be said that the exotic beasts on this mutated Earth were all strange creatures that couldn't be understood with past knowledge.

Soon, Lin Zichen's thoughts returned to [Survival of the Fittest].

In plain terms, this trait meant that he now had the ability to devour other living beings to become stronger.

This gave him a lot of ideas.

For animals like ants, mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches, which are omnipresent, could he also devour their life essence and thereby acquire their attributes or skills?

For instance...the cockroach's tenacity for life?

He would need to find some small animals to test the [Survival of the Fittest] trait after getting back home.

"Xiao Chen, you see this beast tooth every day, don't you? Why are you so engrossed in it all of a sudden?"

Seeing Lin Zichen standing still, staring at the beast tooth in his hand without moving for a long time, Shen Qinghan was puzzled.

Lin Zichen, hearing this, pulled his mind back from the void but didn't elaborate much. He casually brushed off her inquiry and returned the beast tooth to Shen Qinghan before going back to the classroom with her.

Though all the vitality in the beast tooth had been drained, it was different from flesh and blood; it wouldn't decay and could still be preserved for a long time.

...

It wasn't long before they got back to the classroom.

As soon as he entered, Lin Zichen was shocked by the state of his drawer.

The previously rather empty drawer was now filled to the brim with love letters, so full that not a sliver of space could be seen.

Without having to think about it, it must have been from a girl who has a secret crush on him. Too shy to give him the love letters in person, she took the opportunity when he wasn't in the classroom to stuff a pile of love letters she had accumulated over time into his drawer.

After all, this wasn't the first time he had encountered such a situation.

"So many love letters, how should I deal with these?"

Looking at the love letters in the drawer, Lin Zichen felt quite troubled.

At that moment, Shen Qinghan handed him another love letter, almost taking pleasure in his misfortune, "Earlier on the sports field, the study monitor from the class next door asked me to give this to you. She was too embarrassed to find you."

Another one... Lin Zichen took the love letter from Shen Qinghan and felt even more troubled.

He sighed to himself and began to clear out all the love letters from the drawer.

During the process, he glanced at the handwriting on the covers and was somewhat surprised to find that it wasn't just love letters from one person, but as many as over a dozen people mixed together.

"These girls have quite good qualities, not throwing away their competitors' love letters."

Lin Zichen laughed wryly through his frustration.

He then neatly stacked all the love letters in his hand, intending to find a secluded spot to dispose of them.

Seeing the situation, Shen Qinghan immediately intervened, "Xiao Chen, don't throw those love letters away. If the girls who wrote them found out, how heartbroken would they be? If you don't want them, I can keep them for you. Whenever you want to take a look, you can always come and get them from me."

After saying that, she took all the love letters from Lin Zichen's hands and stuffed them into her little backpack.

Lin Zichen was happy to let her do so, since it saved him the trouble.

Just at that moment, he suddenly remembered that he had a beast tooth given to him by a girl with white hair in his backpack and casually swallowed it.

[You have consumed a strand of the "Abyssal Giant Butterfly's" life essence]

[Abyssal Giant Butterfly Collection: 2%]

Now that he knew the name of this Exotic Beast, he wondered whether he could find any information related to it online?

Well, let's have a look.

Thinking this, Lin Zichen immediately took out his phone and searched for the words "Abyssal Giant Butterfly."

Back in elementary school, he had once taken a photo of the tooth of an Abyssal Giant Butterfly and uploaded it to the big data image recognition online, but it was to no avail.

Now, knowing the specific name, he should have a good chance to find related information.

However, the subsequent results disappointed Lin Zichen.

There was no information about the "Abyssal Giant Butterfly" online, confirming that it was an unknown Exotic Beast not yet discovered and recorded by humans.

So much for that, the Abyssal Giant Butterfly collection could be sentenced to death. With no related information available, there was no way to fill up its progress bar.

Unless he could meet the mother of the white-haired girl and get information about the Abyssal Giant Butterfly from her.

…

After leaving the classroom.

Lin Zichen and Shen Qinghan went together to the school's bike shed and pushed out a brand-new bicycle.

This bike had been purchased half a year ago, but it still looked as new.

That's mainly because Qinghan cherished it, cleaning it every other day.

Soon, both of them were pushing the bike toward the school's gate.

While passing by the school's snack bar, Shen Qinghan suddenly said she wanted a lollipop, so Lin Zichen bought one for her.

"Here, eat it. You're already so grown up and still want someone to feed you."

Lin Zichen unwrapped the lollipop and held it up to Shen Qinghan's mouth.

Shen Qinghan, who was already used to such closeness, took the lollipop in her mouth. After tasting the sweetness, she smiled with her beautiful eyes curving and said:

"I can't help it, just that it feels sweeter when you feed it to me."

"It's all psychological."

While saying so, Lin Zichen saw Shen Qinghan's cheeks bulging with the lollipop, and he couldn't resist poking her cheek.

Shen Qinghan took out the lollipop and pouted her glossy lips in discontent, "Don't poke my face."

"But your face is so soft, it feels good to poke," Lin Zichen said with a smile.

"If it feels good, then you can pinch or rub it, just don't poke. Poking doesn't feel good."

"Okay, I'll pinch from now on."

"No, better to rub, that's comfy."

"…"

The two of them teased each other a bit more and continued pushing the bike towards the school entrance.

When they passed the school path by the playground.

Lin Zichen saw members of the school's Martial Arts Team exercising on the field and noticed a familiar face among them.

It was none other than the unlucky guy who had tearfully won three silver medals following him during the school's sports meet.

At the moment, this unfortunate soul was sprinting desperately on the grass field with a strip of cloth tied around his waist, which was connected to a tire lying flat on the ground by a rope to increase friction.

This was a common training method used to enhance the explosive power of leg muscles.

"Xiao Chen, that boy on the grass is training so hard. Has he been motivated by you from the sports meet?" Shen Qinghan whispered with the lollipop in her mouth.

Lin Zichen: "Could be."

Just as he spoke, the coach of the Martial Arts Team, who was there encouraging the members to train, turned to look in his direction.

Then, he directly walked over.

Shen Qinghan panicked, speaking nervously, "Oh no, Xiao Chen, were we speaking too loud just now? Did he hear us?"

"It's fine; we didn't say anything bad anyway," Lin Zichen reassured the timid Shen Qinghan.

…

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