Jiang Ye and Liu Jizi took a spaceship to Spiral Star, planning to circle the planet a few times for reconnaissance.
Accompanying them on the ship was a special passenger: the Zhijun.
It was a transparent glass tank filled with alcohol, with a cluster of grain-sized Zhijun floating up and down, serving as their representative.
As the spaceship reached Spiral Star's orbit, Jiang Ye looked out the window at a massive, reddish-brown planet.
The planet's surface had some black patches, usually collapsed valleys or raised peaks.
Dust storms, appearing as wisps, could be seen moving across the surface. From space, they looked small, but each wisp could cover the area of an entire city.
There were also white spots at the planet's edge, traces of thin atmospheric clouds, resembling mold spots on a moldy orange, with a fuzzy texture visible upon close inspection.
As for water, it was almost invisible, with only occasional small, glittering spots like fine sand, likely miniature lakes.
"So desolate," Liu Jizi remarked.
"Like a rusty old iron ball," Jiang Ye agreed. "The texture of old red bricks covered in yellow earth."
The spaceship descended, maintaining a distance of a few kilometers from the land.
The mountains, ravines, and plains below became very clear, and even clearer were the raging sandstorms, moving like monsters across the crimson land. Jiang Ye had an illusion that the planet was a red-hot furnace, and the sandstorms were the thick smoke spewing from its cracks.
His phone vibrated with a message from the Zhijun.
Zhijun: "May we uniformly release ten thousand detectors onto this planet?"
Jiang Ye: "What model?"
The Zhijun sent a blueprint, a model they had researched and modified based on market detectors. It was generally spherical with many curled branches, resembling tumbleweeds. Its primary material was an organic carbon, strong yet lightweight, allowing it to move across the planet's surface with the wind and float on water.
The Zhijun even listed factories capable of manufacturing these tumbleweed detectors: one on Birong Star and two on Jiang Ye Star.
Jiang Ye immediately issued the order.
A few hours later, the factories replied, stating that the manufacturing process was slightly difficult but could be overcome by purchasing several batches of equipment.
The price per detector after mass production would be approximately 280,000, making ten thousand detectors cost 2.8 billion.
Jiang Ye promptly transferred the funds, ordering the factories to expedite production.
Just three days later, Jiang Ye Star's fleet arrived above Spiral Star, bringing the first thousand detectors for deployment.
Jiang Ye and Liu Jizi peered out the spaceship windows, observing nearby fleets opening their bomb bays and dropping the spherical tumbleweed detectors.
These tumbleweeds, glinting, fell onto the crimson planet, shrinking smaller and smaller until they became mere pinpricks of reflected light, then vanished.
There were no retro-thrusters or parachutes. The detector material was too light, and even slight air currents on the surface could lift them. Upon landing, the impact was minimal, allowing for direct hard landings.
From Jiang Ye's office, he could view the perspective and data of each detector.
Some detectors descended rapidly, landing and initiating self-checks. Green numbers began to appear on the office's screen wall, each number representing a detector that had started working.
Others seemed to encounter air currents before landing, their speed drastically reduced, even fluctuating up and down. These less fortunate detectors waited for half an hour, then began their self-checks in mid-air, reporting information such as wind direction, air quality, and sand composition.
Jiang Ye watched for a while, then returned to his desk to attend to work. Despite the new planet, the tasks for the old ones still required his attention.
Liu Jizi was also busy, continuously analyzing the detectors' various data and searching for the meaning of each piece of information.
A few hours later, a message arrived from the Zhijun.
Zhijun: "A location suitable for growth has been found. Coordinates 119.96493805, 39.54053116. One kilogram of primitive cells can be deployed."
Jiang Ye was taken aback; the coordinates were precise, down to the centimeter.
He immediately ordered the fleet to prepare the primitive cells for deployment.
Soon, several mechanical soldiers, equipped with rocket backpacks, left the spaceship and flew towards the designated location.
Jiang Ye monitored the situation from his office.
It was a lake.
It was even steaming, with white mist swirling on the water's surface, as if the entire lake were burning.
The lake was surrounded by red and yellow barren land, with some small hills. Dust was rapidly drifting through the air.
The mechanical soldiers, using their rocket backpacks, performed a reverse thrust and landed steadily on the shore.
Then, they took out a metal canister from their backpacks and dropped it into the water with a splash.
The metal canister contained one kilogram of primitive cells and a small amount of Zhijun.
The mechanical soldiers quickly descended to the designated spot at the lakebed. Jiang Ye had expected a flat seabed, like a tranquil ocean floor, but to his surprise, many rock pillars, tens of meters high, stood tall, spewing molten lava and thick smoke. Layers of solidified lava coated the rock pillars, causing them to grow slowly.
The mechanical soldiers planted the metal canister next to a rock pillar and then set up several metal boxes.
The boxes contained communication devices, capable of contacting the Jiang Ye Star fleet in orbit and relaying the signal to Jiang Ye's phone.
Inside the communication devices were ten kilograms of Zhijun, serving as forward command posts. They would analyze various data within the boxes and, when necessary, split off a portion of themselves to guide cell evolution.
The Zhijun inside the metal canister acted as frontline operators, directly controlling and observing the primitive cells, and reporting outwards through the canister's built-in signaling device.
There were many other intricate details in the process, making them seem less like a mass of slimy bacteria and more like a well-organized large corporation.
Soon, messages from the Zhijun began to flood Jiang Ye's office.
[First batch of primitive cells leave the culture tank, contacting external environment]
[Excessively high water temperature killed 80% of the cells; fragmented organic matter dispersed everywhere]
[A small number of cells evolved an insulating layer; cell membranes became thicker and more elastic, capable of resisting external temperature changes. Second-generation cells are born.]
[Surviving second-generation cells began to consume dead primitive cells, obtaining more nutrients, and started to reproduce.]
The information cards stopped updating.
Perhaps cell division required time.
Jiang Ye continued to process his work, burying himself in tasks.
Half an hour later, a notification chimed, and the Zhijun's messages reappeared on the screen.
[Number of second-generation cells increased to 5000]
[A fierce cosmic ray burst occurred; outer cells ruptured and died, allowing internal cells to survive.]
[Surviving cells attempted to evolve a radiation-resistant layer; evolution failed. Nutrient deficiency caused massive cell death, and their numbers sharply decreased to 300.]