4.6 Billion Year Symphony of Evolution

Book 3: Chapter 9 “The Train Through The Desert”

Last Chapter recap: Lin gets swallowed by a worm that is travelling into the desert.

The hot sunlight shone on the desert, the high temperature seeming to twist the surrounding air. Lin thought there wouldnt be any organisms in this environment but these giant worms did not stop for a moment.

Lins flyer followed them for a long way. From here, it wasnt possible to see the spiked pillars. There was only endless desert in all directions. There was almost no water in the air. And on the ground, except for some strangely shaped rocks, there was nothing else.

The worm had not secreted a large amount of dissolving fluid to try to dissolve Leviathan. Lin thought this was because they were trying to conserve water for the long journey.

The desert was very hot. Lin tried to have the flyers touch the desert ground. The temperature was enough to kill the cells. They could feel the heat dozens of meters from the ground.

But the three worms continued to advance. They used their heads to cut through the sand, and moved like a large fish with its head out of the water. Lin did not know why their heads were exposed. Moving under the sands should be cooler.

Where were they going? The center of the desert? They also seemed to be familiar with the path. This was the first time Lin was going so deep into the desert.

Inside the worm, Leviathan did not feel hot. They may have a special ability to resist heat.

While the worms could resist, Lins flyers struggled against the heat waves. Lin had to quickly repair and change their cells. Fortunately, the air was relatively cool, so Lin had enough time to evolve heat resistance before they were killed by heat.

But this was temporary. The flyers did not have much nutrients in them. Constant repair and evolution expended a lot of nutrients. If a cold place could not be found soon.

The strong heat caused Lins thoughts to feel dizzy. Some of the flyers were unable to withstand this and fell down. Lin immediately had the other flyers go and deconstruct them so the nutrients would not be wasted.

Luckily, most flyers were fine. While Lin had made them of the same cells, there would always be some differences. Some would be stronger and others weaker. Lin did not know why.

Right now, the heat waves all came from the daylight. Maybe it would be better at night.

Lin started to notice that the three worms had slowed. Were they also affected by the heat?

After flying behind them for awhile, Lin found the worms were much slower. In the end, they stopped, and all burrowed into the sand before becoming still.

What were they doing? Resting?

Lin was puzzled but then a black shadow suddenly entered its sight.

The flyers were copied from the meganeura so there was a wide field of sight. They saw something enormous flying towards them.

Meganeura?

An enormous meganeura was flying hurriedly towards them. At the start, they were hundreds of meters away, and in the next moment, they seemed to reach the flyers. One of the flyers was caught and then the meganeura flew away.

Lin could sense the flyer seemed to be bitten by countless sharp blades. It was quickly torn apart.

The meganeura was not content after eating one and charged back. Lin saw this and immediately had the flyers spread apart. The meganeura successfully grabbed a flyer and quickly ate it.

Then, after the meganeura finished the flyer, it was still unsatisfied and wanted to grab more flyers.

Then it discovered the surrounding flyers had disappeared.

The scattered flyers were on the sandy ground. They had the ability to change color. If they changed to the same color as the desert, the meganeura could not see them.

But there was also a problem. The surface of the desert was too hot. Lins flyers could not stay on the surface long. After standing for awhile on the sand, Lin sensed some cells dying.

The meganeura hovered in the air. So troublesomeLin could not last. If some were eaten, maybe the losses would be fewer

Suddenly, the meganeura seemed to sense something and instantly flew away.

Lin had the flyers leave the sand to avoid being baked. But Lin was confused at the departure of the meganeura. They did not seem to have given up because they could not find their prey, but like they were hiding from something

Boom

An enormous sound from afar confirmed Lins worry. The flyers flew high into the sky. Lin could see the desert in the north. A yellow mist covered the entire desert. It was dozens of meters tall, and hundreds of kilometers wide. It rumbled as it moved over this way.

This way no ordinary mist, but made from countless sand grainsa sand storm!

This term suddenly appeared in Lins thoughts. It now knew why the worms had burrowed into the sand.

What to do? The Leviathan should be safe inside the worm but the flyers might all be killed.

Only this. Lin had the flyers fly as fast as they could in the opposite direction. The sand storm was not very fast and Lin thought they could escape.

But not long after the flyers flew away, Lin found the sand storm suddenly stopped like all energy had been used up. The gathered yellow sand scattered and disappeared quickly and though it had never appeared.

The endurance was too weak? Much less than the tsunami.

After the sand storm stopped, the worms once again dug up out of the sand and continued to advance.

The journey of the desert was continuing. The flyers moved with the worms in the desert. Nothing special happened during this time until daytime slowly faded.

The flyers did not have much nutrients left. Lin was considering whether or not to deconstruct some flyers. It didnt know how far the worms would travel.

The night of the desert was the extreme opposite of daytime. The night temperature was so low the water almost turned to ice. In the cool temperature the worms moved much faster but Lin still didnt know where they were going.

Lin could have the flyers stop on the heads of the worms to rest. Because they were so small, the worms would not care. This would save a lot the energy.

But night was soon to be over and day was coming. The worms still hadnt stopped moving. They had great endurance even though their speed was the opposite of their attack speed, very slow.

However, they did not stop.

The flyers could not stay on top of the worms in daytime. The shells would become extremely hot, even hotter than the sand. But their insides seemed to be unaffected.

Relying on their special heat resistance, the worms moved through the desert. But this journey was so long, another night passed and Lin had to deconstruct many of the flyers. There were only five left.

Another night passed. Lin only had three flyers left. They were badly worn. The worms were not much better. Other than the one that ate the Leviathan, the other two had disappeared. They had hid into the sand. Lin did not know if they had died or went somewhere else.

Now, there was only one moving forward.

Leviathan had enough nutrients for a long time. But even though the two fellows of the worm were dead, Lin could not kill this worm and dig back out. Otherwise, facing the desert, Lin did not know where to go.

This worm also became weak. It slowed down. Lin suspected it would die here.

If so, then Leviathan would be trapped in the desert.

But, after another night, the worm had unexpected endurance and was still going. Lin only had one flyer left but something other than desert appeared in its sight.

In the desert hundreds of meters away, a patch of green appeared.

Was that.water?

Lin could clearly smell water coming from that direction