"Never mind, it's fine if their IQs are a bit low. I created intelligent races primarily to increase the number of souls of sentient beings and to help Gaia's consciousness recover from its injuries, so that it can awaken sooner.
Though these elemental races are a bit lacking in intelligence,
The mere fact that they can absorb energy from outside the universe while alive and channel it back to nourish Gaia's consciousness surpasses all other races.
Theoretically speaking, as long as their numbers are sufficient, even without the replenishment of new intelligent souls, Gaia should be able to recover after a period of time."
Although the newly created elemental races were not perfect, and could even be considered deeply flawed, their immense advantage in aiding Gaia's consciousness was undeniable. Therefore, Ding Yun approved of this creation and began to mass-produce them.
After creation, they were released into the world.
Thus, unbeknownst to humanity, two new species appeared in the space they inhabited.
The mental races were beings that existed between two and three dimensions. They roamed the skies, unable to interfere with humans. At most, they could occasionally enter dreams, potentially influencing humans, but the impact was not significant.
The elemental races, born from elements, preferred to stay in the atmosphere, absorbing external energy to strengthen themselves. Furthermore, their forms were fluid, and even when they coalesced, they were primarily composed of imperceptible hydrogen and oxygen elements. Therefore, they had little impact on humans.
However, this was merely a superficial phenomenon.
It was only because they had recently been born,
And their numbers were not yet large.
As these two species gradually developed and grew, quantitative changes would inevitably lead to qualitative shifts to some extent.
But that was a matter for countless years in the future.
At least for now, Ding Yun was very satisfied with the current situation.
This even gave her an exhilarating feeling of being a creator. Naturally, she was not content with this and began to let her imagination run wild, experimenting boldly and creating new species.
Before long, the inner core of the planet became home to numerous peculiar life forms of all shapes and sizes.
For instance, serpents with nine heads and rainbow-colored feathers.
Golden rock carp that could swim in lava.
Black goats with three heads that specialized in consuming iron ore and excreting square blocks of refined iron.
The "Sanbuxiang" (three-unlike), with a tiger's head, a snake's tail, and a porcupine's body.
Pigeons with six pairs of wings and covered in scales...
These were just the corporeal beings. There were also many strange, incorporeal species, existing between two and three dimensions, akin to ghosts.
For example, the Seven Emotions Demon, which fed on the emotions of living beings.
Radiation monsters, which consumed various forms of radiation.
There were even electronic information spirits capable of freely traversing the network. If Ding Yun hadn't known that their core component was soul elements, she herself would have believed she had created artificial intelligence.
While these creations were brought into existence, Ding Yun did not release them all at once. She believed that ordinary humans needed time to react and adapt. Releasing too many peculiar entities simultaneously might frighten them, even making them feel incapable of living.
So, she held back for a while, creating but not immediately deploying them. She planned to release these strange beings later, once humans had adapted somewhat.
This also provided her with ample time to carefully observe whether the bloodlines of these new species were stable, if they could reproduce normally, and if they could adapt to the environment.
...
With the increasing appearance of mutated species and mutated humans, the world's geopolitical landscape undoubtedly became more volatile, and human forbidden zones gradually multiplied.
For example, the primeval forest where bloodthirsty vines emerged.
After more than a year of development, the animals in that primeval forest had gone extinct, and all the trees had been parasitized by bloodthirsty vines. Now, any living creature
that stepped into that forest would die.
Consequently, it naturally became a human forbidden zone.
Another example was cities overrun with mutated rats, mutated cockroaches, and other mutated creatures. Humans were forced to evacuate, and repeatedly dispatched teams to try and eliminate the mutated creatures within, only to fail each time, even suffering heavy casualties.
Such cities naturally became forbidden zones.
The increase in forbidden zones meant a reduction in human activity, and consequently, a shrinkage in human access to resources, arable land, and other vital aspects.
Famine began to appear in some regions.
Or threats like water scarcity emerged.
Many countries were unable to fend for themselves, international trade gradually ceased, and some countries even lost contact entirely.
The prosperity of the past seemed like a fleeting dream.
It vanished in an instant.
And this... was merely the beginning.
Because when the environment changes, species strive to adapt slowly. And when special environments become numerous on a planet, the planet itself will gradually change and become special.
Ding Yun, on a formerly energy-barren planet with no special energy, had dispersed a sufficient quantity of energy-producing substances from various realms, directly causing this energy-barren planet to transition towards becoming an energy-rich planet.
Simply put, under Ding Yun's operations, this planet began its spiritual energy resurgence.
A true,
Mutating spiritual energy resurgence.
When the mutated areas were limited,
Humans could consider those regions as forbidden zones, avoid them as much as possible to minimize losses.
But when the entire world underwent mutation, humans could no longer avoid involvement, unless they immediately emigrated to other habitable planets. If emigration was not possible, they could only change themselves and adapt to the environment.
Humans might not have realized this at first.
But after a year, when scientists detected the presence of unknown elements in the environment of the entire planet, they had to admit that the spiritual energy resurgence depicted in novels might have become a reality. The additional unknown elements could be similar to spiritual energy and magic.
Consequently, those who were slow to react were still waiting.
The quick responders had already begun in-depth research, studying not only the mutated species and the mutated environment but also whether humans could utilize those unknown elements.
And whether those unknown elements could be used as energy.
As spiritual energy surged globally, the marine races modified by Ding Yun and the special species she released, due to the environment becoming more conducive to their survival and reproduction, entered a period of flourishing development.
And they were successively discovered by humans.
For instance, submarines discovered sea races building cities underwater.
Someone discovered dwarves in underground caves.
Those obsessed with anime could frequently see their favorite anime characters in their dreams, and those with devout faith could see deities entering their dreams.
And those who deeply missed deceased loved ones dreamt of them.
For example, some countries discovered that the atmosphere and the damaged ozone layer were recovering at an extremely rapid pace.
There seemed to be something present in the atmosphere.
It was just that no one knew what it looked like.