My brother is so cunning

Chapter 972 The Revival of the Four Continents
The stream meanders like a silver ribbon among the pebbles, and the transparent figures of shrimp hide in the crevices of the rocks at the bottom of the water.

A few maple leaves twirled and drifted across the deep pool, startling the lurking mandarin fish. With a flick of its tail fin, it shattered the cloud reflections on the water's surface.

In the reeds on the shore, egrets were bending their long legs to preen their wings, the sound of their sharp beaks pecking at their feathers creating a wonderful harmony with the roar of the waterfall crashing into the deep pool in the distance.

The midday sun shines through the canopy of the rainforest, casting shimmering spots of light on the humus.

Giant vines coiled around the trunk of the Hopea tree like writhing dragons, while epiphytic orchids bloomed in clusters of purple and white flowers among the branches. Water droplets rolling on the petals fell precisely into the nectar sacs of pitcher plants beneath the tree.

A blue morpho butterfly fluttered its wings from the rotten wood, its wingtips brushing against the orange-red cap of a poisonous mushroom, startling the woodlice hiding in the gills.

Dusk bathed the grassland in an amber hue. A giraffe chewed on tender leaves from the top of an acacia tree, its long tail occasionally flicking.

They chased away the oxpeckers that tried to land on their manes. In the distance, a pride of lions dozed off on the red clay slope, cubs playing on their mothers' tails, the dust they kicked up tracing golden arcs in the slanting sunlight.

The once desolate mortal realm has finally regained its natural beauty, even more vibrant and teeming with life than before the Great Cataclysm.

The only difference from before the catastrophe is that there is no trace of humans. The magnificent cities and villages that humans once built have long since turned into ruins and are now covered by lush green grass and trees.

Thirty years have passed since Wenrui began its ecosystem restoration project.

Microorganisms reproduce and iterate much faster than higher organisms. It took only three years to basically restore the size of the microbial community. It took another seven years to regulate the proportion of microbial communities in different regions, so that the number of microbial populations reached a delicate balance.

The time required for regulation is much longer than the time it takes for the organisms to reproduce unchecked.

During this period, a large number of plant seeds and seedlings also germinated and grew. In the twentieth year, Wenrui began to slowly release animal populations, first releasing omnivores at the bottom of the food chain, and then gradually releasing predators. By the thirtieth year, the populations of various animals had been effectively restored through continuous reproduction. Although they could not reach the total number before the catastrophe, they were able to continue to reproduce and thrive.

Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible to restore the ecosystem of an extremely arid planet in just thirty years; it would take at least a hundred years.

However, the primordial world is not a purely scientific world. The water from all the lakes and seas, carried by the Bodhisattva's jade bottle, contains wood-type life energy, which has a magical effect on promoting plant growth.

Even without deliberately using the willow branches to release the supernatural power to revive crops, the accompanying wood-elemental spiritual energy alone greatly accelerated the growth of surface plants.

The saplings grew into dense rainforests in just over a decade, and the grass sprouts quickly grew into lush grasslands. Even the original desert before the disaster shrank considerably in size.

The recovery of the microbial community and plants was rapid, greatly reducing the overall time needed to restore the ecosystem. The various animals released were also in good health and reproduced well. After all, Wenrui had deliberately eliminated some pathogenic bacteria, viruses and parasites, which significantly reduced the mortality rate of the animals. In addition, with abundant food, their reproduction rate was far greater than before.

However, among the four great continents of the primordial world, only Jambudvipa, Julu, and Victory Continent possessed such a magnificent scene.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Xiniu Hezhou only benefited from the rainfall recovery; not a single Ultron robot carrying microorganisms and seeds came to Xiniu Hezhou to restore its ecology.

The drought, which has lasted for nearly a century, has already ravaged the already barren and fragile ecosystem of Xiniuhe Prefecture. Fortunately, Xiniuhe Prefecture is adjacent to the continuous snow-capped mountains to the north. Even when rainfall is cut off during the severe drought, a small amount of glacial meltwater flows down from the snow-capped mountains, barely maintaining the operation of the ecosystem.

Jambudvipa (Southern Continent) also has significantly more drought-resistant organisms and plants than other continents, which prevented a mass extinction. In fact, during severe droughts, the situation was better than in other continents. However, without comparison, there is no harm. Jambudvipa only slightly surpassed the other three continents in terms of natural conditions during the disaster period. In less than thirty years, it returned to last place, and its environment was even worse than before the disaster.

Without Wenrui's crucial step of restoring the bacterial population, the beneficial bacteria that originally existed in the soil and water of Xiniu Hezhou were almost wiped out, and the natural regulation and carbon cycle capabilities could not be restored.

Many harmful microorganisms are actually very resilient. For example, the buds of anthrax bacteria can remain dormant in the soil for more than a hundred years.

To make matters worse, although the natural environment of the other three continents has recovered and the populations of various animals have surged, the demonic insects have turned a blind eye and only operate within the territory of Xiniuhezhou.

However, unlike before when they hunted humans, at some point, the demonic mosquitoes began to hunt only the livestock of herders and stopped hunting humans.

Many pastoral tribes were attacked by mosquitoes, and all the cattle, sheep and horses in the tribes were captured, but no one in the tribe, young or old, was lost.

Meanwhile, the major temples and holy sites of the Western religion were constantly attacked by demonic mosquitoes. The demonic mosquitoes that broke through the protective array would only kill the monks in the temples and would not harm the ordinary believers who were hiding in the temples.

Over time, the Western Christian believers who had gathered in various temples for refuge began to leave and return to their original settlements, attempting to coexist with the mosquitoes.

Since the mosquitoes hunt livestock, they stopped raising cattle and sheep and instead learned farming techniques to grow barley and barley.

They then discovered that the mosquitoes, perhaps finding it troublesome, rarely hunted small animals, so they began to try raising chickens, ducks, and marmots to obtain meat.

In this way, the human race in Xiniu Hezhou gradually regained its vitality, and the continuously declining population actually began to slowly increase.

The only religion whose situation is worsening is Western Christianity. Believers who no longer raise livestock can no longer offer ghee and leather to temples, and many temples have had to extinguish their ever-burning lamps.

In recent years, the fall of many Western temples and holy sites has greatly damaged the faith of believers. Many people have begun to doubt how the omnipotent Buddha and the unparalleled wise master could be helpless against a group of insects.

Initially, some high-ranking monks claimed that these demonic insects were the manifestation of the sins of the believers, and that they were being punished by Heaven for their lack of piety.

However, this claim fell apart when the demonic insects stopped attacking humans and only targeted temples and monks. Believers began to suspect that the demonic insects were not targeting them at all, and that the temples and monks had failed to provide them with the protection they deserved.

On the contrary, by staying away from the temple, they could generally make a living.

In fact, many of the lowest-ranking herders and serfs are doing much better than before the calamity struck.

The demonic insects would occasionally attack tribal nobles, selecting some of them to eat. These were often the most cruel chieftains who abused the serfs.

The temple's gurus don't care how much blood these chieftains have on their hands; as long as they offer enough treasures, all sins can be absolved.

(End of this chapter)