Chapter 2465: Millennium Serpent Spirit

Chapter 2465: Chapter 2368: Millennium Serpent Spirit

“Wait a moment.”

Huo Sining was listening intently, but at this point, she couldn’t help but interrupt Saiji, looking at her with some confusion, “The Grandfather Jiashu you’re talking about, could it be that gray-looking snake from before?”

Saiji nodded, “Yes, that’s him.”

The corner of Huo Sining’s mouth twitched involuntarily, “You mean, you already knew that snake even before you were captured?”

Saiji looked at Huo Sining with a puzzled expression, “Of course, if I didn’t know him, why would I randomly call him grandfather?”

Huo Sining felt like her brain was a bit overloaded, “So, that snake has lived for over a thousand years?!”

Not only Huo Sining, but even Yue Shuwen and Zhong Xiaoyao beside her couldn’t help but open their mouths wide, looking at Saiji with ORZ-like expressions.

In fact, after they evolved into pure Jiaoren, realizing they might live for four to five hundred years was already a huge shock to Yue Shuwen and Zhong Xiaoyao.

The normal human lifespan is only about eighty to ninety years, and it’s rare to live to a hundred, let alone four or five hundred years?

So, after understanding the normal attributes of the Jiaoren, although they still found it hard to comprehend and accept, deep down inside, they still felt a vague sense of superiority.

After all, in this world, there aren’t many species that can live so long, and they almost tower over all species on Earth. Such a feeling is something ordinary people cannot empathize with.

But now, their sense of superiority was inexplicably slapped in the face—not by a person, but by a snake.

Faced with their proud longevity, this entity that has lived over a thousand years is truly the ancestor, rightfully earning the title of the Old Longevity.

Seemingly sensing Huo Sining and the others’ astonishment, now Saiji probably understood what the trio was perplexed about. Though her emotions were still low, she couldn’t help but explain:

“It seems you don’t recognize him, but that’s not surprising. However, if you go back and check the data, you should find some records about Grandfather Jiashu and his kind.”

“Grandfather Jiashu belongs to a special species among sea snakes, called the Green Feng Line Snake.”

“Ordinary sea snakes generally live only a few years to two or three decades, but the Green Feng Line Snake is different. It’s like tree rings; each year it ages, a ring is added to its tail. So if you observed carefully before, you should have noticed that Grandfather Jiashu has many black rings on his body; those are his age marks.”

Huo Sining nodded, “Yes, I noticed that, but I thought it was just the sea snake’s skin pattern, so I only glanced at it and didn’t count them closely. So, it’s related to his age.”

Saiji nodded, “In fact, by the time I was born, Grandfather Jiashu was already active in the waters of my homeland. He’s much older than my parents. By the time I came of age, he was already eighty to ninety years old. Adding the years I’ve been away, it’s estimated that this Old Longevity is at least over 1,700 years old.”

Huo Sining instinctively swallowed; this isn’t some Cretaceous fossil but a living creature. Being able to live so long simply violates the laws of nature.

“That’s incredible. What is the lifespan limit of this Green Feng Line Snake? What about his kin? Are they all as long-lived as he is? How is it that the world hasn’t been overrun by these snakes?” Yue Shuwen couldn’t help but exclaim.

“With such a long lifespan, even if their reproduction rate is very low, it’s still an enormous threat to other creatures. Their lifespan is their greatest advantage, an advantage gifted by Heaven itself, powerful enough to conquer the scene!” Even Huo Sining couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

Indeed, if such snakes can live so long, even producing offspring every few years would result in a huge number, which is completely unfair to other species.

However, this type of snake hasn’t appeared in large numbers in the Pacific Ocean, indicating that this snake must have other fatal shortcomings; otherwise, they would have already conquered the Earth, leaving no room for humans.

Sure enough, as soon as Huo Sining asked this question, Saiji immediately answered:

“Yes, if it were indeed as you say, the entire ocean would likely be overrun by the Green Feng Line Snake. But there’s an unexplainable phenomenon with the Green Feng Line Snake population, which is the rarity of the female species.”

Huo Sining was taken aback, not quite understanding what this meant, “Rarity of the female species? What do you mean?”

Saiji shrugged, “As it says, the offspring of this population are almost all males, with females being extremely rare, about one in ten thousand. So, for every ten thousand Green Feng Line Snakes, there is only one female, making their mating a battle akin to a Shura field.”

“What’s more critical is that even if mating is successful, it may not result in egg-laying, and even if eggs are laid, the hatchlings are almost always male Green Feng Line Snakes. This illustrates the extraordinary difficulty in their reproduction.”

Huo Sining was completely dumbfounded, feeling like she was listening to an incredible legendary tale. How fantastical these stories about the Green Feng Line Snake sounded!

First, their ability to live for a thousand years was already astonishing, but the construction and reproductive method of this species were also so bizarre. And yet, such a bizarre method of reproduction hasn’t been eliminated by the rule of survival of the fittest but hasn’t evolved into another way to comply with the biological development laws.

This is simply… very strange.

You must know that natural development follows general rules.

Normally, the composition of biological species is often matched with males and females. For instance, in mammals, because females give birth to fewer offspring at a time, to maintain biological balance, there are often more females than males;

But for insects like ants and bees, it’s often the queen that lays eggs, producing hundreds of thousands per year, so a single fertilizable and reproductive female is sufficient in an ant or bee colony, with all others being male worker bees, merely in charge of work.

But for species like the Green Feng Line Snake, with low fertility and few females, no matter how long they live, they are still destined for extinction.

Huo Sining couldn’t help but feel that the saying “survival of the fittest is an unchanged truth” truly holds here. It’s no small feat that the Green Feng Line Snake has persisted to this day; who knows how many of its kind remain?