Chapter 20: Chapter 20
The water continued to mercilessly sweep across the entire rock, but this time, it was much fiercer than before.
Every single cell here had been cleanly washed away, disappearing into the deep blue water. However, Lin's giant tentacle still stood tall at the center of the rock.
Every time the water hit it, the tentacle would bend and tear apart the cells inside.
But Lin had no intention of backing down. Every time, it would rely on continuous repair and division to prop up the entire tentacle and face the next wave of water.
Lin understood that its cells would rapidly evolve in the face of adversity, and every time it was injured, they would become stronger!
Continuous repair also consumed a lot of food, so Lin had connected all of its fat cells to the tentacle, allowing it to transfer energy to them as quickly as possible.
As for the rest of the free cells, they were constantly moving back and forth from the cave below to feed the fat cells with new food.
The water continued to sweep across the rock, and the interval between each wave was getting shorter and shorter. Not too long later, the next wave of water hit again, and Lin's tentacle was once again knocked askew, but this time, it was much smaller than the previous waves.
The number of muscle cells that were broken had obviously decreased, and most of their bodies had become much more flexible after just a few short waves of water, allowing them to withstand a greater pulling force.
Lin was overjoyed to see this evolution.
But the water didn't give Lin any time to be happy, as it continued to hit it again and again, the interval between each wave becoming shorter and shorter.
However, Lin didn't fall. Every time, it was able to repair its tentacle at an even faster rate.
In the end, the water even flowed continuously without any interval between each wave. But at this point, Lin no longer needed to repair its tentacle.
Its tentacle was so resilient that it wasn't damaged at all even in the middle of such a torrent.
Lin had succeeded. Lin had taken another huge step forward on the path of evolution.
Was it happy? Indeed, Lin had just realized that it had gained a new word.
With this, Lin had one less threat. Right now, the only threat left in Lin's memory was the ice that had suddenly spread throughout the entire area.
Lin believed that it would once again face the fear of extreme cold and triumph over it!
The water flow continued for a while, then slowly slowed down before slowly calming down. The entire area had returned to normal.
Lin opened the opening at the top of its tentacle, allowing a large number of cells to swim out. Lin had now taken complete control of this area.
Thanks to the flow of water that washed away all the cells on the rocks, Lin did not even need to fight and was able to easily take over 100% of the rocky area.
Lin began to plan to create more tentacles on the rock so that it could control the entire rock more easily.
Not only could the tentacle be used to defend against water currents, it could also be used for hunting. As long as she could suck in other cells and dissolve them, it would be very easy and convenient. Lin also planned to put the stinging cells on the outer skin of the tentacle and let them grow. That way, it would become a terrifying tentacle full of deadly spikes.
… That's not right.
Lin suddenly thought of a better way.
Well …
That's right, directly surrounding the entire rock would be much more useful than creating a bunch of tentacles on the rock. There would also be more space for Lin's cells to swim inside.
Do as you think.
Lin ordered a large number of basic cells to swim to the edge of the rock and began to stack layer by layer around the edge of the rock. After they were done, Lin had them evolve to become as flexible as the tentacle's outer layer, ensuring that they were both sturdy and flexible enough to move around.
However, it seemed that this kind of flat and wide structure was useless even if it could move. It could not move like the tentacles.
Let's leave it like this for now. Lin felt that being able to move was always a good thing.
As for the base, it was made up of a large number of fat cells to hold on to the rock below.
Lin also discovered something interesting. Even though the cells could not dig through the rock, if some of the cells were allowed to drill into the cracks of the rock and continuously divide, they might be able to crack the rock.
Using this method, they would be able to hold on to the rock more stably.
While Lin's observer was observing the cells, it also began to pay attention to the edge of the rock.
The edge of the rock was very smooth, but there were many cracks and protrusions on it, allowing Lin's cells to hold on to them and form a 'wall'.
If one were to look down from the edge, they would only see a rocky cliff that led to deep water. Lin could not see what was down there. Perhaps Lin would go down to explore at some point, but not now.
Next, it would eat and grow …
The number of Lin's cells increased rapidly. They quickly devoured all of the white paste on the rock. Lin's cell wall that surrounded the rock was also rapidly forming. During this time, Lin did not encounter any water currents, nor did she encounter any powerful cell groups that came to harass her. There were only a few small groups of cells that occasionally appeared, and without exception, they all became Lin's food.
It was worth mentioning that the light fungi in the caves were no longer afraid of Lin's cells and had begun to mix in with Lin's cells to eat. However, Lin would chase them away. In this period of time where they were in urgent need of food, Lin would only give them what they needed. As for eating more to divide, that was impossible.
Just like that, the cells slowly grew … After several nights, the wall was finally completed.
During this time, Lin felt that one layer of cells was not thick enough, so she added a few more layers, which took a little longer.
The cells surrounded the rock to form a large semicircular cover, covering the entire surface of the rock. There was a large hole in the middle for Lin's tentacles to extend out.
Lin also opened many small holes on the surface that could be closed, allowing the cells to enter and exit. There were also many such holes in the multi-layered structure, which allowed the cells to quickly enter and repair the damage.
However, it was also possible to repair the damage by dividing the cells around the damaged area.
With such a safe protection, Lin no longer needed to be afraid of water currents. However, building such a large protective cover required a huge amount of cells, and maintaining them required a huge amount of food.
That was why Lin would normally keep them in a motionless state. Lin discovered that as long as the cells were not moving, they would not require any food.
Even so, although the white paste in the caves and the outer layer of the rock was enough to maintain the entire community, and there were still some excess, it was no longer enough for Lin to continue expanding the community.
Lin came up with a new solution. It would allow some cells to stop their life activities and allow other cells to digest them. This way, they would be able to obtain a large amount of energy at a critical moment.
This method was also used on cells that had lived for a long time. Their death would allow new cells to divide. Lin knew that the speed of a cell's self-evolution was far slower than allowing it to divide into new cells.
It was faster, and the longer a cell lived, the more damage it would receive from its daily activities, such as abrasion on rocks and so on. In the end, it would become even weaker than normal cells.
However, the newly divided cells would inherit all the advantages of the old cells, and would usually be stronger, without inheriting any of the old cells' shortcomings.
Thus, this method of eliminating cells could replace some of the 'old' cells, allowing Lin to continuously evolve without increasing the community's population or food consumption.
What was this method called? A new word appeared in Lin's mind.
"Lifespan."
That's right. To put it simply, it was an excellent plan to eliminate old cells and make room for new, more vigorous and powerful cells.
If the old cells were not eliminated and only continued to divide, no matter how much food there was, it would eventually run out. Of course, if there was enough food, Lin would not use this' lifespan 'method.
However, Lin still wanted to increase the community. She had indeed realized that the white paste that emerged from the rock was not enough.
However, there would often be groups of cells of various sizes approaching the rock, so Lin decided to start capturing them.
However, these cells were not easy to capture, because they would swim to the outer layer of Lin's protective cover and leave when they realized that they could not enter. Lin did not know where they came from.
However, it would be fine as long as one thing was taken care of. What attracted these cells?
That's right, it was the white paste. If that was the case, why would Lin not use the white paste as a trap to lure them over?
Hmm … a trap?
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone