As it fed, it ingested some indigestible impurities, and thus, a small pore appeared on its surface, expelling the impurities from the pore. It could excrete.
Having eaten a lot, it began to grow.
Some mitochondria were accidentally expelled from the small pore, along with some unabsorbed nutrients. It added some cells around the small pore. These cells could open and close, acting as "doors" to prevent unwanted items from exiting.
The cells around the pore became elongated, and gaps appeared between the cells, allowing water to pass through while blocking substances.
Jiang Ye looked at the messages on his phone and chuckled.
This thing's evolutionary path was quite peculiar. It made its anus so advanced first?
Its body size began to increase.
Its body size had grown to the size of a millet grain. The surrounding water pressure made it a bit unbearable, feeling like it could burst at any moment. It began to thicken its outer skin, forming a rudimentary skin.
The outer skin had several layers of skin cells. It felt very secure and looked more beautiful.
Jiang Ye was speechless.
These intelligent bacteria reported the situation... why were they anthropomorphizing it?
Then, he suddenly guessed a possibility.
Since the intelligent bacteria could share thoughts, perhaps they had also shared this thing's thoughts?
Jiang Ye typed and asked.
Intelligent Bacteria: It does not have thoughts yet. We just felt that if it had thoughts now, it would think this way, so we sent it to you.
Jiang Ye was amused. These bacteria were so intelligent, yet they did such cute things.
The intelligent bacteria requested a change of the wine pool solution, asking for wine and also a lot of saline solution, with the concentration matching that of the Bi Rong Star's ocean.
Then, they continued their work.
Its body size continued to increase.
The surrounding absorbed nutrients were no longer enough to sustain it. Its entire body felt weak, and the hunger could not be dispelled.
It needed a more efficient way to feed, so it opened another small pore, allowing external nutrients to flow in. It now had a mouth.
It had some trouble distinguishing its mouth from its anus, often mixing them up. So, it allocated some cells to form a pipeline connecting its mouth and anus. It now had a digestive tract.
The pipeline was too short. Nutrients were expelled before they could be fully absorbed. It extended its digestive tract, letting it coil within its body, resembling the shape of intestines.
Now it could ingest and digest a lot of nutrients, and its body size rapidly increased.
It grew its tail, thickening and increasing the number of tail cells, and attempted to swim by gently swaying it.
Swimming failed, and its direction was completely out of control. It changed the shape of its tail to a spiral. This time, it moved forward successfully, but it was strenuous. There must be a better structure, but it would suffice for now.
The intelligent bacteria requested another solution change and then rested for more than half an hour.
It developed a desire to reproduce and attempted to nurture a smaller version of itself within its body.
Nurturing failed. The smaller version of itself drifted around inside it, almost killing it.
It used some cells to create a barrier at its tail and began nurturing offspring within the barrier.
Nurturing was successful. The offspring gained its own consciousness, inherited its genetic material, and was expelled from the anus.
The nearby nutrients were scarce, and the offspring couldn't find food, starving to death quickly.
It was very sad and swam over to eat it.
Jiang Ye was full of questions.
The evolution seemed to be becoming strangely peculiar.
He had originally thought that with the manipulation of the intelligent bacteria, the evolution would proceed smoothly, but he didn't expect it to take detours.
Coincidentally, a pile of documents needing processing arrived. Jiang Ye stopped paying attention to "its" evolution and busied himself at his desk.
After several hours of work, his head felt oxygen-deprived from exhaustion.
Jiang Ye got up to go to the restroom. Sitting on the toilet, he continued to read the evolutionary messages sent by the intelligent bacteria.
In the past few hours, "its" evolution had been quite rapid.
Although it had taken some detours again, it had already transformed into a soybean-sized, dark, tadpole-like creature.
Low-level muscles began to appear. Elongated cells connected tightly, pulling the body, and it moved forward by swinging its tail.
Fins also appeared on the sides of its body. They couldn't flap rapidly yet, only slowly adjusting like wings to help control direction.
It could now eat more types of, and more complex, nutrients. The intelligent bacteria requested some steamed bun crumbs for it to eat.
To eat the steamed bun crumbs, it evolved a stomach, whose wall cells could secrete simple digestive fluids.
Of course, to find the steamed bun crumbs, it also evolved olfactory cells, located at the very front of its head, near its mouth.
Jiang Ye took his phone back to the bedroom.
Cen Yemeng was already asleep, wearing a pink silk nightgown, wrapped in the quilt and lying on the pillow, her profile sweet.
Jiang Ye lay down beside her and continued to read the messages from the intelligent bacteria.
Relying on smell to find food was too inefficient. It wanted to see the world around it.
Some cells on its outer surface underwent breakthroughs, beginning to sense light. It now had light-sensing cells.
It saw more steamed bun crumbs in the environment but couldn't accurately judge directions and swam in circles because all its light-sensing cells were reporting the location of the steamed bun crumbs, causing confusion.
It felt that it needed a specialized organ to analyze the positions seen by all the light-sensing cells.
Some internal cells underwent breakthroughs, connecting with each other to transmit information.
More and more interconnected internal cells formed a mini-brain.
The brain gradually enlarged, and it suddenly understood many things. It discovered that the entire world was different. Recalling its past self, it felt like a complete idiot. It developed simple thoughts.
Jiang Ye was very pleased.
It had been a whole day, and finally, it had a brain.
Cen Yemeng turned over, bumped into her husband, grunted, reached out to hug him, and continued to sleep.
Using its brain to think, it felt that all the light-sensing cells not only couldn't see clearly but also wasted a lot of energy.
It decided to move all the light-sensing cells above its mouth so that it could aim at what it saw and eat it.
The dense light-sensing cells made its vision clearer. It ate all the steamed bun crumbs nearby, and its body size increased again.
It wanted better vision. There seemed to be some food in the distance, but it couldn't see clearly.
The area where the light-sensing cells were dense began to cave inward. The exterior contracted simultaneously, forming a pinhole camera. It now had a rudimentary eye.
It saw food further away and ate it all.
It discovered that having one eye made it difficult to judge subtle directions and distances. So, it began to generate a second eye. The two eyes aimed simultaneously, finally allowing it to lock onto targets accurately. It refined its eyes, increased the number of light-sensing cells, and added tissues to adjust focus. The eyeballs formed.