Chapter 561: Poor People Have Their Own Way of Living (Two-in-One)

A gentle breeze swept through, filling the air with the scent of flowers. Xu Zhi left Carolyn and stepped straight into the spatial-temporal tunnel, controlling his ancient deity clone as he walked across the mountains and rivers of the Ancient Wood Planet. The ground was lush and green. Looking up, he saw eleven Eternal Star Trees. Their rustling, tender green leaves overlapped, allowing dappled sunlight to filter through, forming a magnificent canopy of green. It was a dreamlike world of birdsong and floral fragrances.

"I actually made it here," Xu Zhi thought, filled with pleasant surprise and an urge to laugh out loud. This meant that the biggest challenge he had faced recently was now easily solvable. If he could descend upon the Ancient Wood Planet at any time, many previously impossible things would become reality. Most directly, it meant he could venture into outer space as a weak Heavenly Emperor, developing cosmic vacuum cell civilization and deploying the previously mentioned air elementals without needing to reach the eighth tier.

"It had been two months since Emperor Qi was released—six thousand years in his world... The eleven Eternal Elf Trees from back then had all become gods," Xu Zhi mused, looking up at the sky. He felt the delicate astral energy permeating the air, which had already formed a world with a high concentration of spiritual energy. The eleven divine ancient trees had become the fundamental laws of the Ancient Wood Planet, transforming into World Trees. Previously, Xu Zhi had only experienced all this through the bug nest's sub-brain; he couldn't intervene personally. Being here in person felt truly wondrous.

Xu Zhi looked around. "Perhaps, for Emperor Qi at this moment... these eleven deified elf trees are like the ancient Great Luo Heaven, and he secretly rules over eleven other Ancestral Witches." Emperor Qi remained as cautious as ever, just as in countless ancient eras, no one had been able to discover him as the mastermind. Although he seemed to be the third to break through to a high-tier god, after Phoenix and Carolyn, his Moon God Ru Yun had also achieved godhood and awakened from slumber. Over the years, Emperor Elf Yumia and A Chou had also successively become gods, developing steadily and without incident, as if everything had simply fallen into place. "Six thousand years, or two months since he left me—this achievement is quite decent."

Xu Zhi naturally strolled around, observing the exotic sights in various elf cities and carefully contemplating the Ancient Wood Planet's ecology. "From today, this planet will once again be under my control," he thought. He currently had no strong desire to interfere much. This was a free-range, drifting cosmic sandbox, secretly controlled by Emperor Qi. Xu Zhi's purpose in opening up this world was merely to collect taxes covertly and reabsorb biological energy from the great extinction. After all, paying taxes was the fundamental duty of the Insect Race's subjects.

"This time, the enormous amount of energy accumulated for who knows how long, once channeled back to my main body, should quickly allow me to break through to the mid-Heavenly Emperor stage," Xu Zhi marveled. The more he thought about it, the more excited he became, feeling that this was a huge gain, even though from another perspective, Carolyn had suffered immense losses in cultivation, and from an energy standpoint, it might even seem like a net loss.

"Let's go up and see!" With a gentle upward surge, Xu Zhi silently soared above the clouds, breaking through the verdant leafy atmosphere. The sky abruptly turned pitch black, as if a bright lamp had been instantly extinguished, and the surroundings transformed into a dazzling, beautiful world of starry galaxies. In the distance, an interstellar exploration team was rooted on a gray-black planet with a faint, thin atmosphere. The entire celestial body consisted of a murky mix of metal and soil, with undulating mountains, where they were exploring and excavating. Yet, the elf exploration team could not sense Xu Zhi's presence at all. "Currently, we are in... the Andromeda Galaxy," Xu Zhi murmured, observing the unfamiliar starry environment around him. Emperor Qi's constant jumps over the past six thousand years had covered a considerable distance. Further out, massive dark-red planets appeared. Even further, gloomy and oppressive nebulae were scattered, emitting faint, multicolored light. Some larger, hazy nebulae formed mysterious elliptical light patches, inspiring an indescribable sense of awe. These sights and landscapes were breathtakingly beautiful, majestic, and spectacular.

"The world is truly beautiful; it holds endless wonders and unimaginable possibilities," Xu Zhi mused. He looked up, marveling at the vast, star-filled world that made any living being feel minuscule. Then he looked down, and beneath him, it was also boundless, stretching into pure blackness. "All directions are the cosmos; past, present, and future are the universe." His heart surged with a thrilling sense of exhilaration. This... this was the true starry sky! This... this was where fish leapt in the boundless sea and birds soared freely in the vast sky! He wore a brilliant smile, finally feeling a sense of release and freedom in his heart. Though he was merely a low-tier Heavenly Emperor, he had at last attained the true liberty of a god, transforming into a bird gazing down upon heaven and earth! He was no longer a creature trapped in a cage. Others lamented their weakness, Carolyn lamented her confinement, and wasn't Xu Zhi the same?

He calmed his mind and slowly began to leave the Ancient Wood Planet, flying in the opposite direction. "It's time to leave the Ancient Wood Planet and part ways for now... After all, attending to urgent matters is paramount. The teleportation array is already set up on the Ancient Wood Planet, so I can return anytime." He continued, "Carolyn helped me reach this point and paid a terrifying price, practically giving up half her life, just to let me skip ranks... allowing me, a Heavenly Emperor, to barely arrive here and attempt to establish a cosmic vacuum civilization sandbox. This is forbidden and far beyond my current abilities. But I must fulfill my promise to Carolyn and let her help with its development. I myself don't possess enough strength to lead the development of a vacuum cosmic civilization... because what needs to be done isn't just molding clay, as before; it's a terrifyingly massive project—terraforming mountains and rivers, even an entire planet's ecosystem... even if I choose a small area, it will still be incredibly difficult for me."

Just me, a mere Heavenly Emperor? I can't even fly out of a planet, and I can't stay in a vacuum for long. What can I possibly do? Even if I can control the flow rate of living beings and activate Creator mode, what good would that do? Against the limitations of my main body's meager strength, even the most powerful racial talents are practically useless.

At this moment, he was not unprepared. He had dismantled parts of the cycle to create an ultra-small mechanical battlesuit, just large enough to house his ant clone, allowing it to withstand the vacuum for a period while searching for new land. "I've already instructed the bug nest's sub-brain to filter the planetary data recorded along Emperor Qi's travel route to find a few suitable environments," he thought. "With the primordial qi and radiation light source system, I should be able to find an excellent place in this world to cultivate vacuum civilization... As for the cultivation system, it doesn't need to follow the players' evolution; their Six Paths of Reincarnation are not truly in a vacuum, so the environment is different..."

He continued flying outwards, deep in thought. He wasn't worried about being unable to return after leaving the teleportation array Carolyn had set up on the Ancient Wood Planet, as he now carried new teleportation arrays with him. The most difficult part was creating the very first array; subsequent ones were simple. It was like his experience on Mercury: back then, he had to fly slowly to Mercury, but once he arrived, he could place a teleportation array and travel back and forth freely. In fact, at the realm of a mid-tier god, the use of teleportation arrays was already relatively widespread, not as costly as for low-tier gods. Even for individuals like Ermin, the high-ranking deities in the major cities across the Three Realms had established teleportation arrays for powerful individuals to facilitate communication and trade, though each teleportation incurred a certain cost. On the contrary, gods were quite keen on building such teleportation arrays; construction was a temporary loss, but the returns were endless. "I've acquired quite a few sets of these paired teleportation arrays from Ermin... After all, the era isn't as tight on resources as before; everything is developing."

Xu Zhi continued flying. A day, two days passed... Time steadily advanced. Behind him, the Ancient Wood Planet gradually transformed into a beautiful, emerald fantasy world. After several more days, the entire Ancient Wood Planet suddenly tore open a black hole-like spatial fold, gently plunged into it, and warped away. "As expected, Emperor Qi has started jumping again..." Xu Zhi turned his head to watch. Every now and then, Emperor Qi would make an ultra-long-distance jump, then slowly recover his stamina, repeating the cycle. Of course, each jump's distance wasn't particularly long. "Since he's gone, I can search this area more freely, without fearing that he's secretly observing or learning," Xu Zhi thought, still unconcerned, and continued his journey.

Finding a suitable small planet wouldn't be too difficult. Since he didn't need an atmosphere or the living beings' most precious oxygen and carbon dioxide, only solid water, there were quite a few planets exposed to the vacuum of space and radiation that fit the criteria. "Retrieving data," a mechanical voice suddenly came. Xu Zhi looked down at the star map data provided by the sub-brain. A detached, light blue virtual star map appeared before his eyes. Over thirty points marked on it represented data secretly collected by the sub-brain as the Explorer spacecraft travelled along Emperor Qi's route. "More than thirty suitable ones..." As Xu Zhi reviewed them, he saw over thirty perfectly suitable star systems, similar to the Sun's environment, with planets possessing solid ice that would allow the air elementals to cycle carbon dioxide and oxygen. After all, these two gases weren't directly needed; as long as the planet contained carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, they would find a way to synthesize and self-cycle them. The actual demand for 'gas' in this regard was very low. The most crucial requirement, however, was liquid water. In space, without sufficient atmospheric protection, liquid water would have long escaped from planets. Thus, water on such planets was primarily in the form of solid ice. Furthermore, without an atmosphere, the planets were naturally cold, with sub-zero temperatures causing everything to freeze... Perhaps, a small amount of liquid water might exist beneath deep layers of solid ice, but it wasn't worth considering as it couldn't sustain an entire world. "Solid ice is my only option; I can just melt it. It's better than stealing water from Earth," Xu Zhi thought as he scrolled through the information of each planet.

"This one is good," he thought. He spotted a huge, perfect planet, three times the size of Earth, with solid ice, a vacuum environment, and abundant radiation. "It's too big, though," Xu Zhi sighed with a hint of regret. "Carolyn and I definitely couldn't handle it. In the initial stage of breeding species, melting solid ice would necessitate creating underground rivers to nourish everything for development... Later, once they've developed, the underground rivers won't matter as much. Once they have powerful beings, they can melt ice themselves, become self-sufficient, or even directly terraform the environment. As for a planet three times larger than Earth, unless Carolyn breaks through to the ninth-tier world... only then could she single-handedly wield the terrifying power to terraform a planet. Moreover, Carolyn's cultivation has dropped so much now; she's only a low-tier god. We can't be greedy."

Xu Zhi looked at the next one, which was roughly the size of Earth. He was silent for a moment, then rejected it too. "Carolyn and I still can't handle it!" he thought, his heart aching slightly, but he continuously comforted himself,

"A large plate is good; it allows for more, but a small plate is easier to develop," he reasoned. "If we manage it well, in the future, as the civilization produces more powerful individuals, we can reconsider relocating. After all, they are a vacuum cosmic race, capable of interstellar migration." He scrolled through the planets with his hand. One by one, more perfect and larger planets were filtered out, causing Xu Zhi considerable pain.

Soon, Xu Zhi quickly pinpointed an environment similar to the solar system, specifically on one of its gas giants. It slowly orbited, a spherical body composed mostly of gas, resembling a deep red swirling orb. It was largely made of hydrogen, containing helium, various other gaseous components, and a considerable amount of solid ice. This gas planet had only seven satellites orbiting it. One of them, an ultra-small moon, had solid ice and a thin, surrounding atmosphere with the necessary gases. "A moon... I'm so poor I can only choose the smallest moon," Xu Zhi muttered, his eyelid twitched; he felt a significant loss. "This moon, even smaller than Earth's, truly meets the conditions. We should still be able to terraform it." He looked towards a giant golden fireball in the distance, but then hesitated. "However, this small moon orbits that gas giant, and that gas giant also orbits a Sun-like star. It's a bit far from its 'sun,' so the radiation is scarce, which is a major drawback... But it doesn't matter! Where can I find something perfectly ideal? It's not like they're my power plant anyway; whether they have enough energy is not my concern..." In reality, it was a difficult choice to have both. Close to a sun meant high temperatures and high radiation, definitely no water. Far from a sun meant water, even frozen, but insufficient radiation. "This is the place... solid water, gases—all can be self-obtained, self-sufficient." Xu Zhi took a slight deep breath. "Time to mark out the territory!"

After some time, Xu Zhi gently descended. He looked around at the craters, desolate valleys, soil, and deep-seated ice sheets. This small moon, though smaller than Earth's moon, was still larger than China's landmass. "This sandbox is ridiculously large," he thought. "It's even bigger than China's vast territory, at 13 million square kilometers. For these small creatures, it's already an incredibly vast and boundless land—truly endless!" Xu Zhi took a deep breath. "I need to terraform and green this planet!"

He dropped a teleportation array, then turned and left. A moment later, Xu Zhi returned, bringing large quantities of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Although the air contained oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and even methane, these were not elements that the creatures could currently absorb, decompose, or synthesize. Xu Zhi had no time to create artificial underground rivers, so he simply brought a pile of iron pipes, buried them beneath the surface, and connected one end to the deep-lying solid ice. With a gurgle, Xu Zhi gently cast a spell, and the ice began to melt, flowing into the pipes as an underground current. "Intelligent sub-brain, access the gene bank and propagate vacuum plants!" A mechanical voice responded, "Propagating now." Soon, vacuum plants appeared. They absorbed oxygen and carbon dioxide, rooted themselves in the water, created their own cycle, and demonstrated extremely strong vitality. They quickly spread sparsely across the barren small moon, resembling cacti in a desert.