Chapter 542

Chapter 542: Not Producing Due to Insufficient Nutrition

"Honestly, you all need so much nutrition…"

"You’re all too fussy!"

"Why won’t any of you reproduce!"

Themis planted her hands on her hips, her pale legs splashing through the waves as she complained to the ancient cup animals.

"Reproduction should be a happy thing—just look at my subjects!"

"Day in and day out…"

As she spoke, Themis’s cheeks flushed slightly.

As the Will of the World and the new consciousness of Far Reaching Star, she naturally possessed the authority to "observe" anywhere.

The Far Reaching Star people had almost no privacy before the World’s Will.

And since they spent their days producing litters of offspring, their favorite pastime was obvious…

"Ahem!"

"Anyway!"

"Why can’t you multiply as fast as they do?"

"It’s driving me mad!"

Of course, this was what Trilobite witnessed through the System.

In reality, the Will of the World wielded her power, churning colossal waves within the Ether Sea behind the dam. The waves crashed "boom after boom" against the muddy shores, attempting to dislodge more sediment.

Though this muddied the Ether Sea, it still provided some nourishment for the Ancient Cup God.

"Uh…"

Trilobite thought it odd that Themis called his microorganisms spawn her subjects.

But he could understand why.

After all, microorganisms formed the bedrock of the biosphere.

"Still, ancient cup animals appear to be stinging creatures. Though they reproduce both by budding and sexually, they still can’t match bacteria’s reproductive speed…"

These words instantly drew Miss Themis’s displeasure.

"Hah!?"

"What nonsense are you spouting?"

"Never mind…"

"But you must deal with these lazy creatures refusing to reproduce!"

Action was indeed necessary.

The ancient cup reef-forming colonies were crucial to Trilobite’s wave-reduction plan; properly arranged, they could even function as a dam.

"Hmm, once the Abyss recedes, we should section off a few lagoons in the shallow sea. Vast ancient cup reefs would create more Ecological Niches and build a richer ecosystem—might even let my Trilobite spawn develop some new tricks."

"But…"

There were also challenges.

Trilobite discovered that this group of ancient cup animals appeared as [special ally] in the System, not "spawn."

This meant that while Trilobite could give them Chaos Energy, he couldn’t control how they used it; after many tests, it was clear that once the ancient cup animals got Chaos Energy…

They mostly just grew where they were.

The waters inside the red tree fern dam used to be quite spacious.

But lately, they had become narrower because the ancient cup animals, after getting Chaos Energy, started stretching their bodies and building more reefs.

In some spots, their cup bodies grew layer upon layer, huge enough to almost reach the water’s surface.

This was good.

However…

They didn’t seem to like expanding.

They did reproduce, but their main way now was budding.

Though budding increased their numbers, ancient cup animals were born quite mature.

Don’t think being mature was good.

Mature ancient cup animals, like mature corals, couldn’t move much; usually, they rooted, grew, and built reefs only near the "mother body," or even right on top of it.

In the end, the ancient cup animal colony in one area piled up, becoming a messy heap.

When they spread out, it was a slow crawl to the sides.

Themis was anxious too; she almost became like an "artificial water pump."

She desperately stirred the seawater, using strong currents to push the ancient cup god larvae—about to pile around the "mother body"—to the emptier parts of the Ether Sea behind the dam, so they could root there.

Thanks to this, the ancient cup gods slowly bred and thrived along the edge of the Ether Sea behind the dam.

But outside the Ether Sea behind the dam, Themis was powerless.

Her powers stopped there.

"Um…"

Trilobite thought over the situation and started to understand.

"The key was that ancient cup animals only liked budding reproduction and didn’t like releasing ‘floating larvae’ at all."

Besides budding, corals reproduce by fertilizing eggs and sperm, which turn into floating larvae.

Every year, in certain seasons, corals would breed in huge numbers, releasing loads of sperm and eggs. They put out so many "things" it could be seen with the naked eye, even coloring whole ocean areas.

Above the water, a thick layer of "greasy" stuff would float.

These coral life essences became tasty treats for small fish and plankton; then they became food for bigger predators.

Even though many got eaten, some lucky fertilized eggs made it.

They quickly grew into floating larvae, drifting like little sea bugs with the currents.

Though many floating larvae were still eaten, a few lucky ones landed on good reefs and began a new life cycle.

But corals didn’t release sperm and eggs all the time; they only did it in big bursts when water temperature and food were right, causing a huge "explosion" of life essence.

"So, what were the conditions for ancient cup animals to release sperm and eggs, and then develop into ‘floating larvae’?"

Trilobite lay by the sea, carefully observing.

Soon, he spotted a few clusters of especially bright ancient cup animals with many "fish" hanging on their tentacles. They hissed and released a puff of "smoke" from their cup openings.

The "smoke" quickly spread and disappeared in the seawater.

"This… should have been considered as releasing essence."

"But it was hard to do it alone."

"If large groups of floating larvae didn’t form organized reef clusters quickly, individual ancient cup animals were easily susceptible to attacks."

"However, I figured it out; the condition for these ancient cup animals to release essence was nutrition!"

"But the nutrition issue…"

"Actually, that was easy to solve!"

"Just wait!"

“Bam… bam… bam…”

Trilobite quickly left the sandbank.

After a while, he came running back with “bam bam bam.”

But this time, he wasn’t empty-handed.

"Uh… uh…"

His mouth was stuffed full of fish!

These were the Canine thick-root fish he had hunted upstream; they had strong conical teeth at their mouths, with only a few tails sticking out.

Trilobite caught so many fish that he nearly caught all the Canine thick-root fish in that habitat in one sweep.

Even worse, he hadn’t finished eating yet.

But the leftovers were just right for the ancient cup animals as an extra meal!

"Splash—!"

He spat all the Canine thick-root fish onto the ground, opened and closed his big mouth, and started to handle these nearly dead big fish.

"Uh…"

"Although ancient cup animals were powerful stinging creatures, their nematocysts might not have been able to pierce the densely packed, thick scales of the Canine thick-root fish."

"So, he decided to take care of this!"

"Ah— ooh—!"

Although the bite force of the Beautiful Nodosaurus wasn’t particularly strong among the theropod dinosaurs, how big were the Canine thick-root fish?

How thick could their scales be?

They could not withstand the conical teeth of the Beautiful Nodosaurus!

Trilobite didn’t even need to use his saber teeth on these small things.

Soon…

"Plop!"

"Boom—!"

The body that was bitten apart, exposing tender "fish meat," splashed into the water.

The fish blood, filled with a strong smell, flowed into the water like a little stream.

Before long, the tentacles floating in the water caught the fish meat chunks again and slowly pulled them back into the cup body, gradually digesting and absorbing them.

Trilobite ran back and forth several times, bringing numerous fish to feed them.

His work was almost immediately effective!

"Hiss—!"

"Bang—!"

Before long, the ancient cup animals began to release "essence," and the water in the sandbank was almost filled with floating "essence!"