"So the question arises…"
"What kind of creature would truly meet Chu Hao's standards?!"
Hearing this, all the mentors present froze.
Not because of anything else, but because of fear.
They suddenly felt that this particular mentor might actually be onto something.
Chu Hao had already successfully filled the Endless Abyss with a wide variety of life forms.
The richness of life in the Endless Abyss made all other students' work pale in comparison.
Not only that, the strength of the creatures and the diversity of their abilities left the mentors in awe.
Yet, even after breaking multiple records and taking a clear lead, Chu Hao had not stopped creating more life.
All of this indicated that Chu Hao was not satisfied with the biodiversity of his own divine realm, the Endless Abyss.
He was still pursuing something.
He seemed to be seeking to create a kind of creature that the mentors could not comprehend.
And what kind of abilities would such a creature have? How powerful would it be?
All of this filled the mentors with fear.
---
While the mentors were still discussing Chu Hao's divine realm, Chu Hao himself made a new discovery within his world.
It was a type of insect.
A creature completely unrelated to demons, yet exhibiting traits similar to those unique to demons.
Specifically, this insect, born after encountering other races for the first time in the Endless Abyss, displayed two entirely unique traits.
First, it was cowardly.
Yes, this insect might be the most cowardly creature in the Endless Abyss.
If one were to describe the Endless Abyss in human terms, it could be called a prison.
A prison with no way out, where the inhabitants would be trapped forever.
Within this steel-like prison, tens of thousands of creatures were confined by planar crystal walls, and critically, there was no exit.
Before encountering the outside world, these creatures had no real escape.
They were forced to live forever in this suffocating, low-dimensional world.
Although natural resources were plentiful, the environment was extremely harsh.
No life form could guarantee survival, as the next moment could bring death from environmental shifts or predators.
Thus, tens of thousands of species were forced, by survival pressures, to kill each other.
The Endless Abyss was filled with the bloodshed of its inhabitants.
Only the strongest survived.
Only they could pass their abilities to the next generation.
Yet in this twisted environment, these insects displayed a special trait: non-competition.
They evolved an incredibly strong environmental adaptability—a special ability allowing them to survive in poisonous fog, freezing or scorching heat, or even areas with chaotic gravity and time.
This adaptability was unmatched in the entire Endless Abyss.
Most other creatures could only survive in a few fixed environments.
Even the more adaptable creatures could not survive extreme conditions, such as planes where gravity constantly changed, time flowed irregularly, or matter could not form.
Yet these insects could thrive anywhere.
Moreover, they reproduced rapidly.
Strangely, despite this, they did not evolve any strong offensive capabilities.
They were weak, merely the main food source for most other creatures in the Abyss.
And they were apparently quite tasty.
Though they had teeth capable of breaking rock, their plump bodies and soft skin kept them at the bottom of the Abyss.
Cowardice was ingrained deeply into the soul of this insect.
Of course, if cowardice were all they possessed, Chu Hao would not have spent so much time studying them.
The real reason he focused on these insects was their second unique trait: transformation.
Yes, the descendants of these insects could transform.
And no, this transformation was not magic.
It occurred when the insects lived long enough or had certain encounters, and they could change into life forms completely different from their larval state.
Some larvae, after accidentally consuming a corpse of a powerful creature, would store that creature's genes in their bloodline.
If such larvae survived and accumulated enough energy, they would form a cocoon.
When the cocoon broke, a larva emerged with the traits of the powerful creature.
Though initially weaker than the original creature, its body and abilities were all improved versions of the original.
Not a copy, but an enhancement.
If they continued to grow, they could become stronger than the original creatures and master their abilities more skillfully.
Furthermore, Chu Hao noticed that these fortunate larvae seemed capable of further evolution.
Once strong, they would retaliate by devouring other Abyss creatures that had eaten them—and they would also consume their own kind, other larvae.
Upon consuming these creatures, they would attempt to replicate their abilities, adding them to their genetic library.
But at this point, the most unfortunate event often occurred.
During their second evolution, many seemingly immune larvae would explode and die.
Even if some survived, they became indescribably twisted monsters, worse than death.
Their bodies and genes, for unknown reasons, could not successfully undergo a second evolution, let alone continue evolving.
---
Yet even so, Chu Hao was satisfied.
Because in these insects, he saw the fundamental traits of demons: extreme adaptability and the ability to evolve continuously.
Chu Hao held one of the insects in his hand, his eyes shining.
"Perhaps, these insects are the beginning of demons in the Endless Abyss."