Chapter 152: The Sun Set in the Sky, Adorning Thousands of Stars

The "Excavating Phoenix" has been activated.

Xu Zhi sat on a mound of earth at the tunnel entrance, like a foreman. He wore black, anti-glare welding goggles to protect his eyes from the blinding light, quietly looking down at everything. "To dig out this entire world, to carve out a vast expanse of space and a boundless future—it all depends on you."

The spatial environment resembled an open-top container. The Phoenix was at the top of the sandbox, able to dig only downwards. Meanwhile, Xu Zhi sat outside the sandbox area, at the edge of the tunnel entrance, observing everything below.

Moreover, the Phoenix's range of activity was limited to one hundred mu of land, just like previous sandbox life forms; it could not move beyond this boundary.

"Once it melts to the border, it can no longer melt further in that direction; it must continue melting the earth in another direction." Xu Zhi mused that the walls of a space forged at such high temperatures would certainly be very strong. This hundred-mu area of land had a vertical dimension of twelve meters, mirroring the Witch World's six meters above and six meters below, totaling twelve meters high. Its underground shape resembled a massive flat disk.

For a fist-sized Phoenix, melting one hundred mu was destined to be a lengthy task, but with a rapid pace, where one day equaled a hundred years, it would still advance quickly.

"Carve out a new realm!"

At this moment, the Phoenix continued to incinerate the surrounding space, which gradually melted. Although a full twelve meters of height had been set, providing ample space, reality was stark. As the soil on both upper and lower sides continuously melted, becoming firmer and denser, expanding beyond a height of about three meters became difficult. This height was equivalent to that of two colossal giants.

The Phoenix took a deep breath, its voice clear and sharp. "Too short! Is it really this hard to simply expand the height of heaven and earth during creation?" For a short while, it abandoned attempts to expand vertically and began melting outwards in all directions.

Soon, just one hour passed, which for the Phoenix's world was four years. It had already melted a mu of land, after which its pace gradually slowed, and it began to rest.

Seeing this, Xu Zhi, sitting high above, put down his phone on which he had been browsing forums, and frowned. "The Phoenix is exhausted. Even as a demigod, the workload is still too great. To melt this earth, it needs to maintain a temperature of at least 1200 degrees Celsius constantly."

"It needs food to replenish its energy." Xu Zhi stood at the entrance of the underground tunnel, picked up a bag of rice, and scattered it onto the ground. The grains of rice fell onto the ground. The area of ground closest to the entrance had gradually solidified after an hour, but it still easily cooked the rice grains, releasing a fragrant aroma.

"God-given food...." The Phoenix instantly smelled it and rushed over.

Xu Zhi considered that rice alone wouldn't be enough; the nutrition wouldn't suffice. So he threw down a large pile of dog food he had prepared for the Rubik's Cube. It was immediately cooked by the residual heat, emitting a strong, savory dog food aroma.

After the Phoenix finished eating, Xu Zhi picked up a long-prepared hose, turned on the tap, and sprayed water onto that one mu of land. A massive cascade of white spray slowly covered the entire underground space. The ground, solidified after being scorched, made it almost watertight. After a moment, an underground pond formed.

Xu Zhi was much more skilled this time. He directly took out the purchased "sea salt mix" and threw it down. Then he turned on the tap again to dissolve it, transforming the water into an ocean. He then commanded the swarm's sub-brain: "Introduce spores and accelerate their reproduction by ten thousand times."

The Phoenix watched the overwhelming gush of water, witnessing an unforgettable scene. "This is...." In an instant, the Phoenix melted a nesting perch into the stone wall, standing on it and gazing at the overwhelming flow of water. "A great flood from the sky, the formation of ocean topography, all happening in a flash! And now, within this seawater, it's as if primordial life forms are rapidly incubating...."

"Genesis...." The Phoenix murmured, looking towards the sky, as if trying to pierce through the stone wall to see the Creator existing in the unseen. "Is this creation? I have witnessed the true essence of the world with my own eyes—dimensions of space-time, the heavens, oceans, life, and land of countless worlds, all forming in an instant!"

Xu Zhi stood up, looking down. "They've already been introduced. Now we just wait for the ocean to slowly incubate life. Once animals and plants unique to this underground world appear, the Phoenix, as the Sun God, will gradually expand the land in the remaining space."

Although it was only one mu at present, the Phoenix would expand it. Xu Zhi watched the Phoenix perched on the wall, slowly illuminating the ocean, and said calmly: "With the Phoenix providing light and heat, it will take at least several more days for marine animals and various life forms to appear.... Once everything grows and land animals emerge, then we will introduce the intelligent species of this world, the New Humans."

After completing all this, Xu Zhi put the matter aside, letting the Phoenix develop on its own. After all, this was a rough world embryo.

However, Xu Zhi had not anticipated that the Phoenix's provision of sunlight would lead to an extremely rapid evolutionary process. In just one day, plankton and rudimentary marine plants appeared. Because this area of land had no distinction between day and night, only the constant warm sunlight from the sky nourishing all things, the Phoenix's maternal instincts instantly surged. It guarded the ocean with constant curiosity, as if nurturing a clutch of tiny babies. The Phoenix experienced time at the normal Witch World sandbox rate of "the first day of a hundred years," while the spore evolution proceeded at a terrifying rate of "ten thousand years per day."

The Phoenix's nature had always been gentle and non-confrontational. Even in the Witch World, it never sought to destroy anything, preferring to simply wait quietly. But at this moment, it wished intensely for someone to talk to. It had been excited at first, but a hundred years had already passed in this monotonous life as the sun.

"Is this the loneliness of the Sun God?"

In the eternal dark sky, the dead silent seawater, and the empty, black world. Each day, after patrolling the ocean once, the Phoenix would embed itself in the stone wall of the sky, serving as the sun, quietly observing the land. Over countless years, it frequently expanded the land, having already reached twenty mu. Each time it expanded to a certain extent, a great flood would emerge from the sky, completing and enlarging the entire ocean. And when it moved to expand the world nearby, a faint light still illuminated the ocean. After all, this was an almost completely enclosed space, and light and heat would slowly reflect back from the walls.

"The structure of this world truly differs from ours. There are strange hard substances? Somewhat similar to the material of legendary holy swords!" Gradually, it discovered that after melting the earth, small, translucent, hard particles appeared. These hard particles shimmered with metallic luster and were exceptionally beautiful. Ten meters below ground was already quite deep. Although not a mineral vein, melting would still yield some metal fragments, especially given such a large-scale, indiscriminate melting process. Soon, these particles were melted and purified by the bored Phoenix, transforming into beautiful metal beads that dotted the sky above.

"How beautiful." The Phoenix gazed at the brilliant, colorful beads in the sky, adorning the firmament and emitting a beautiful radiance. It was instantly filled with immense satisfaction. "This is our world's unique starry sky!"

"I am the sun!!" It laughed like a joyful little girl, soaring into the air and embedding itself into the sky-wall, becoming the sun at the center of these tiny, exquisite stars.

Meanwhile, in the world where spores were evolving furiously, one hundred years for the Phoenix translated to ten thousand years for them. On this very day, the entire ocean, previously murky with plankton, suddenly became vibrant, undergoing a qualitative transformation as colorful marine plants began to emerge, turning it into an ocean teeming with life. Above, a golden sun shone, surrounded by iridescent, rainbow-colored stars. Below, golden light fell upon the seawater, and on the surface, extremely lush plants slowly floated.

"What a beautiful world!" As the Phoenix rose as the sun—a fiery red orb with a faint golden divine bird shimmering within it—it began to arc across the vast ocean, its golden tail like a comet, and endless dust of flame sparkling across the sky.

"At last, life has emerged." It watched as swathes of plants slowly rose, reproduced, and died in the ocean—the ultimate beauty of life. "Are these the myriad beings I have nourished? My children...." The Phoenix marveled from the sky, unable to resist slowly descending to caress these adorable little lives, its eyes brimming with boundless love, as if completely enchanted.

It was non-confrontational, and perhaps this was the life it truly desired. The Creator had given it everything it had dreamed of. It began to feel that its century-long wait in a monotonous life had paid off, and it was captivated by such brilliant and beautiful life. As the sun, how wonderful it was to have endless life on earth to love.

"Little darlings, let me see you." It had been lonely for a hundred years, and as the sun in the sky, it could no longer resist approaching that ocean of life, wanting to observe the tiny creatures within it closely.

The moment it descended, the fiery red sun seemed to plunge into the depths of the ocean! Due to the intense heat, the seawater instantly rippled, rapidly boiled, and evaporated. Vast amounts of life withered, turned to ash and black, and were ultimately incinerated, leading the entire ocean to extinction. Due to its error and urgency, the world's first mass extinction was born.

"I destroyed them."

"Wuwuwu...." The Phoenix unexpectedly burst into tears, sobbing. It quickly flapped its wings and ascended. "I gave them life, yet I cannot be close to them. My flames will destroy the world."

"I also cannot extinguish my flames, but if I do, the world will face darkness and destruction." Loneliness and solitude flashed through its heart.

"Has some life survived?" It suddenly sensed a ripple, revealing a hint of joy, and looked towards the burned, desolate ocean. As countless lives perished, a single green lotus endured the incineration of this biological extinction event. It displayed astonishing fire resistance, slowly taking root in the scorched, hot earth and blooming with a faint glow.