"The plankton in the sea has appeared...the mother nest has started setting genetic locks, limiting the size of the spore organisms!" Xu frowned and silently issued the command.

The orchard was only so big; it was impossible to allow them to evolve too large. The memory of the previous queen showed that the evolution of a larger body was a mistake. There was no need to deliberately increase the size of the insect race; maintaining the original small size of the insect was the correct way to evolve. The smaller the body, the easier it was to undergo a qualitative change in energy.

Their size would no longer expand. From then on, the normal species in the sandbox had a body size smaller than an ordinary ant. This was the real insect, the insect race. The largest species, even if it evolved to the level of dinosaurs, would not be larger than a cat.

A worm the size of a cat was already an exaggeration.

And a hundred acres of sandbox was like a small province for these tiny ecological microorganisms of small ant size.

On the sixth afternoon, after experiencing the single-celled ancient ocean for the first five days, the sea began to undergo drastic changes as multicellular organisms appeared.

In a few minutes, the artificially created ocean in the pond was like a sped-up ecological documentary. New plankton species constantly spawned and died within seconds, giving birth to the next generation...

Soon, various strange aquatic plants floated in the orchard's pond.

Xu originally wanted to experiment by introducing single-celled organisms into the ocean to evolve into new species. He did not expect it to be so powerful.

"A ten thousand year acceleration into one day, only six days have passed and the evolution of species that took sixty thousand years has turned single-celled organisms in the ocean into plankton. It has formed an ultra-ancient ocean like the 'Cambrian explosion' on Earth five hundred million years ago. This insect spore is simply incredible..."

Xu did not understand the history of Earth's evolution, but he could naturally return to his room, open his laptop, and search the Internet to furiously catch up on the history of Earth's epochs and the origins of species. After all, Earth could serve as a reference.

"But the sky is darkening, my biggest worry is about to start, the world in the sandbox is about to be destroyed..."

He looked at the artificially created ocean in the yard and looked up at the dark sky. The twilight was casting the last bit of afterglow in the corner.

The division and evolution of cells were accelerated ten thousand times, with ten thousand years condensed into one day, equivalent to five thousand years of daylight and five thousand years of night.

Now that it was dark, it was equivalent to the end of a long five thousand years of daylight, and about to enter an endless five thousand years of night.

Sunlight was the source of all things. These newly born aquatic plants in the ocean would lose their photosynthesis function and directly wither without sunlight.

As expected, just as night fell and the sunlight was lost, there was a drastic change in the sea. Large patches of aquatic plants withered and sank to the bottom of the sea, losing their lives, like the Dead Sea. Under the cover of darkness, there was no sign of life.

"In my era of evolution, the first mass extinction began... I didn't expect it to happen so soon," Xu Zhi took a deep breath.

He had researched online and learned that throughout the long history of evolution on Earth, there had been five catastrophic mass extinctions, starting from the birth of single-celled organisms, the evolution of multicellular organisms, and the proliferation of various ancient species.

The most famous one in history was the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which happened 65.5 million years ago and led to the extinction of 80% of animals on Earth, including the dinosaurs that once dominated the planet.

But the first mass extinction on Earth actually occurred more than 400 million years ago, at the end of the Ordovician period. Due to sudden temperature drops and sea level declines, the marine ecosystem on Earth was destroyed, resulting in the extinction of 85% of marine species at the time.

Now, unlike the Earth era, Xu Zhi's sandbox experienced its first mass extinction due to the sudden arrival of an endless night that lasted for five thousand years, causing the sun to disappear.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Earth is a vast planet with countless species that can adapt and survive through natural selection, even after mass extinctions. But here, the environment is too small. Even if the ponds and oceans were filled, there would only be millions of species, according to Darwin's theory of evolution, a small genetic pool is insufficient to give birth to a new organism that can adapt to the environment.

"But these are the Spore cells, which have strong adaptability and can survive even on barren planets. There is no reason why they can't survive here..." Xu Zhi took a deep breath, feeling both excited and uneasy.

He waited quietly as the moonlight spilled into the yard. Half an hour passed in the dead, plant-filled ocean, and suddenly a faint blue color emerged from the water's surface.

It was a blue plant, the size of an ant, with delicate leaf shapes.

Without direct sunlight from the sun, this plant chose to direct the source of photosynthesis towards the extremely weak moonlight, allowing it to survive.

After successfully surviving the first round of mass extinction, this plant grew, developed, and died again in just a few seconds, like a fast-forwarded movie.

It began to rapidly evolve from generation to generation, competing for survival and adapting to the dark environment. It developed into diamond shapes, discs, and even resembled lotus leaves spread out on the surface of the ocean, in order to better absorb the moonlight in the yard's sky.

Another hour passed.

As the only aquatic species in the sandbox, the water plant named "Blue Moon Grass" by Xu Zhi, had undergone tens of thousands of generations of evolution and began to form various branches.

Some of the Blue Moon Grass continued to absorb moonlight and enhance the efficiency of its conversion.

Some of the blue moon grass had begun to turn carnivorous, preying on other blue moon grass that still absorbed moonlight, emanating a faint glow to attract others towards them before devouring them.

Xu Zhi admired the tenacity and wonder of life, the survival of the fittest. "They've made it through the first mass extinction, and this single surviving aquatic plant has developed its own diverse civilization in the dark ocean."

He retrieved a black notebook and picked up a pen to record the evolution of this sandbox. "Why not follow the Earth's calendar and record the countless epochs of my sandbox's evolution?

On Earth, the Cambrian period saw the explosion of life, the genesis of all terrestrial creatures, from dinosaurs to humans to all manner of beasts...while here, the explosion of life faced five millennia of darkness...let's call it the Dark Martial Epoch."

He was excited, flipping open the first page of his notebook, writing the first line: "In the Dark Martial Epoch, the world underwent a sudden transformation, sunsets and moonrises brought about a prolonged period of darkness lasting five thousand years. 99% of marine life became extinct, leaving only blue moon grass to absorb moonlight and survive. In this dark ocean, they prospered, becoming the overlords of this epoch."

He gazed upon the pond called the Ocean of Life, silently anticipating, "According to Earth's history of biological evolution, the ocean is the origin of all life. Marine plants appeared first, followed by marine animals. What kind of marine animal will evolve from the protozoan cells?"

He stayed up all night, waiting for dawn.

Finally, on the seventh day, it began!

However, it didn't evolve into animals as Xu Zhi had expected. Instead, he faced another terrifying mass extinction!

Because the sun had risen.

As the sun rose, the various blue moon grasses that had thrived in the night quickly withered away. They had absorbed the weak moonlight during the night, but now they were suddenly exposed to intense sunlight, burning up and sinking to the ocean floor one by one.

In an instant, the blue moon grasses began to die off on a large scale.

"The second mass extinction, and it erupted so quickly. They've only just survived not long ago, and it's absolutely devastating..."

This was the death of life.

Throughout the long epochs of species evolution, measured in billions of years, countless species were born and died. It was a vast cosmic epic.

The process of spore evolution was long and tumultuous, but now, in just a few short hours, the prosperity and decline of countless species were displayed before Xu Zhi's eyes, leaving him with a powerful and inexplicable sense of shock.

By the afternoon, a blue hue gradually began to recover from the dead plants.

It was a five-pointed blue moon grass, and it had also undergone a mutation and evolution, successfully surviving the mass extinction and transforming itself in the scorching sun.

In order to adapt to the intense sunlight environment, it began to reproduce generation after generation.

In just a few minutes, countless generations died, were born, and reproduced, gradually changing from blue to a deep purple-black... Finally, a mysterious black-blue pentagonal seagrass appeared.

It had beautiful and mysterious balanced pentagonal leaves that could expand and contract.

At night, it would spread out its pentagonal leaves flat on the surface of the sea, increasing the area for absorbing moonlight. During the day, in order to prevent strong sunlight, it would shrink by half and become a bud, similar to the behavior of the shy grass.

Mass extinction is a tragedy, but it also presents an opportunity for the rise of weaker species.

In the entire ocean, there was no other species competing for its survival environment. It began to rapidly reproduce, giving rise to various branches and thriving throughout the ocean.

"After enduring five thousand years of intense sunlight and darkness."

"For five thousand years of the sun and moon overhead, as the only survivor of countless species, you have experienced the scorching sun and the darkness. You are the true hero, let's call you Purple Dawn Grass." Xu Zhi smiled and silently picked up his pen, turning to the second page of his black diary.

He continued to record the second mass extinction event in the evolution of his biological era:

"In the era of Light and War, the world changed suddenly. The moon set and the sun rose, and the scorching sun hung in the sky for five thousand years. The dominant Blue Moon Grass, which had survived the Dark War era, began to experience mass extinction on a large scale. However, the weaker branch of Purple Dawn Grass unexpectedly rose to become the protagonist of this era."