As the strange sound from outside rang out, Yang's father and mother, who had been looking relaxed, suddenly changed color.
Yang Lin also felt this.
However, after being deceived twice, he had learned his lesson this time.
"You're trying to trick me again, aren't you? I won't fall for it this time."
But as soon as he finished speaking, Yang's father's large hand covered his mouth, and the flashlight in his hand was snatched away.
"Don't make a sound, there's something outside!"
Upon hearing Yang's father's hushed voice, Yang Lin's expression changed, and the little arctic fox in his arms also became restless.
It took more than ten minutes for the strange crawling sound outside to gradually disappear.
After the sound vanished, Yang's father finally released Yang Lin.
If he had looked closely, he would have noticed that Yang Lin's face was already showing signs of turning purple.
"Phew... Dad, your grip is still as strong as it was when I was a child."
Taking a deep breath, Yang Lin looked at his father behind him with lingering fear.
"Heh heh, sorry, I was afraid you'd shout and attract the monster outside." Yang's father said, scratching his head sheepishly.
Hearing this, Yang Lin immediately rolled his eyes.
"Come on, I'm almost thirty, what are you afraid I'll shout about."
"It's common for fathers and sons not to get along, but it's rare for fathers and sons to be so unfamiliar."
After saying this, Yang Lin changed the subject.
"By the way, if I heard correctly, that sound was from some kind of reptile, right? How could reptiles live in an environment like this?"
To Yang Lin's question, Yang's father and mother did not answer immediately, but carefully led him into a large space.
Based on the structure of the cavity, Yang Lin could roughly determine that this was the brain cavity of the giant whale.
After confirming that the current environment was completely safe, Yang's father and mother signaled Yang Lin to sit down.
"We don't know how you found this place, but since you could find it, you must have come into contact with those Inuit people."
"So you must have heard their legend."
Hearing this, Yang Lin nodded.
"Are those mysterious crawling creatures outside related to the Inuit legend?"
"No relation."
...
"If there's no relation, why are you mentioning it? Get to the point." Yang Lin said speechlessly.
"Alright, I'll get to the point. The point is that this place is likely a remnant landscape from tens of millions of years ago. Because of tectonic movements over twenty million years ago, this area transformed from the surface world into an inner world."
"Because of this change, creatures that should have gone extinct or further evolved were stopped in their evolution here. That's right, I'm talking about the monsters outside."
Hearing this, Yang Lin more or less understood.
It was clear that the unknown mysterious creatures wandering outside were likely relict species from Shennongjia, but even more ancient than them, so ancient that human ancestors had not yet appeared.
"So, did you get a clear look at what that thing looked like before?"
Yang Lin asked again, frowning.
As soon as he asked this question, Yang's mother handed him a notebook.
On the latest page of the notebook, a deformed creature sketched in pencil was clearly visible.
Fangs, short claws, webbed feet, a tail, long fur, fins.
These seemingly unrelated biological features were all concentrated on this creature, as if it had been pieced together.
It had the appearance of a reptile, as well as the characteristics of a fish.
After studying it carefully for a long time, Yang Lin finally shook his head.
"What is this garbage? Why does it look so ugly?"
Seeing that Yang Lin couldn't figure it out, Yang's mother took back the notebook.
"If I'm not mistaken, this creature should be a Basilosaurus, the oldest species of whale, the ancestor of modern whales, and the intermediate form of whales evolving from terrestrial to marine creatures."
"But you say it's ugly, theoretically it's still our distant cousin."
"Basilosaurus? Isn't that a species from over 40 million years ago? How could it still be alive?"
After knowing the truth, Yang Lin was greatly astonished.
"What's so unbelievable about this? Isn't the most unbelievable thing the fossil we're seeing now?"
Yang's mother said calmly.
Hearing her say this, Yang Lin thought about it carefully and it seemed true. Regardless of how many tens of millions of years ago the creatures were, they seemed much more normal compared to the giant skeleton in front of him.
Just as Yang Lin was thinking this, a system notification suddenly sounded in his mind.
"Ding! Discovered a new species - Basilosaurus, rewarded with 100,000 achievement points."
Before he could react, a second system notification sounded again.
"Ding! Detected a special energy reaction, temporary mission issued."
"Temporary Mission: Host, please find the source of the energy reaction."
"Mission Reward: Unknown."
Hearing the series of notifications in his mind, Yang Lin couldn't help but show a complex expression.
It took him more than a minute to finally recover.
Fortunately, due to the dim light, Yang's father and mother did not notice his expression change.
"Another energy reaction, could it be that there's a radiation source here, like on Dolphin Island before?"
Muttering to himself, Yang Lin scanned the huge chamber with his eyes.
From his current angle, the cavity used to hold the brain was almost as large as a basketball arena.
In addition to the space they were currently in, there were some small connected cavities.
After observing for a while, two symmetrically distributed cavities caught his attention.
If he wasn't mistaken, these two cavities should be the beast's two eyes.
"Let's go check there first, maybe the energy reaction is coming from there."
With a thought, he made up an excuse and climbed towards the two suspected eye sockets alone.
Five minutes later, he arrived at the left eye socket.
As he entered it through a gap, an enormous gray-white sphere appeared before his eyes.
Looking at the sphere, which was larger than a house, Yang Lin took a deep breath.
Without a doubt, it was spherical and appeared in such a location; there was no need to guess the identity of this sphere.
It was an unprecedentedly large eyeball.
After the shock, with a nervous heart, Yang Lin tentatively extended his left hand slowly towards the giant eyeball.
The moment his palm touched the eyeball, an electric shock ran through his body.
The next second, his vision went black.
As he closed his eyes, scenes like a magic lantern began to appear before his eyes.
In just over ten seconds, he experienced the entire process of life's evolution; the mystery of evolution was revealed to him without reservation.