Chapter 987: The Price Of Evolution (2)
This phenomenon sparked Li Xiaofei’s curiosity. Nearly all the structures in both the Near Elemental Clan and the Mountain Clan outposts had remained intact. Even if some bore signs of past battles, none had suffered significant destruction.
So why were the deity statues the only things completely destroyed? Had the clans shattered them on purpose while fleeing, to avoid the desecration of their gods? Or had they been destroyed by the Oblivion monsters?
It was strange. Li Xiaofei acquired several more ancient Reaper texts and maps, along with insights into their evolutionary cultivation methods.
The Mountain Clan had been a clan that focused primarily on cultivating the physical body. They had relied on devouring the local resource known as Flame Rocks as the foundation of their evolution, attempting to absorb the evolutionary energy within the stones to nourish and strengthen their bodies.
This approach was completely different from the cultivation path taken by the Near Elemental Clan. Yet both had ultimately ended in evolutionary failure. The texts here provided more explicit explanations of what it meant to fail in evolution.
Many ancient Reaper King-ranked clans, once they identified what they believed to be the optimal path of evolution, had committed their entire clans to it, sparing no effort or cost in pursuing it to the end.
In the beginning, these evolutionary paths had often progressed smoothly. Many ancient clans experienced rapid growth. But once evolutionary stagnation occurred, the clan’s situation would become dire.
When the speed of evolution reached a certain minimum threshold, Oblivion monsters would appear. These monsters had strength comparable to, or even slightly greater than, the ancient Reapers. They could not be killed off completely.
Once they emerged, their numbers would only increase. They would apply constant survival pressure on the Reaper clans. If the Reapers were unable to achieve a breakthrough in their evolution under such pressure, it would spell the end.
The Oblivion monsters would then erupt in overwhelming numbers, sweeping across the entire clan’s territory in the shortest time possible. In the end, the Reaper clan would be completely annihilated. Then, the Oblivion monsters would vanish as suddenly as they had appeared.
This was the complete process through which the ancient Reaper King-ranked clans pursued evolution within the Evolution Temple. Only those clans that continually evolved could survive under the looming threat of extinction. Otherwise, only eternal death awaited them. This was the price of evolution.
After finishing the ancient texts and documents, a strange thought surfaced in Li Xiaofei’s mind. Why did it feel as though the Reapers’ evolution was being forced upon them? The ancient Reaper clans seemed more like domesticated pets, or experimental test subjects.