Chapter 2: Return Part 2
Soon, one after another, intelligent lifeforms were shaped.
On the lava island, pure elemental beings composed entirely of elements appeared, accompanied by scorching hot winds and light. Countless forms without any fixed shape, only similar to floating shadows of firelight, shuttled between the lava. Their forms were not uniform, nor were they the same species, but their extremely similar habits made them look completely identical from afar. At the same time, at the volcanic vents, there appeared giant lizard-dragon beasts with thick, heavy carapaces, as well as serpentine beings whose scales bore runes.
Unlike the beasts before, the eyes of these beings shimmered with the light of intelligence. But now, they all fell into a brief period of confusion without exception. What Joshua had reshaped was not an individual from an original civilization, but rather something akin to a "Heroic Spirit" manifested from all the memories of an entire civilization. They possessed no individual memories, no individual emotions, but were closer to an inferior version of a collective consciousness, yet more like real life.
At the moment they were just shaped, countless memories of lives over millennia continuously surfaced in their minds. Their hearts surged with violent waves, their mouths parched with thirst, yet they did not know the source of this inexplicable surging fervor, nor could they find the reason.
One could see beams of light shooting out from the silver star, plunging into each obelisk. One after another, phantoms materialized from the void, thereby gestating the heroic souls of a civilization.
But just when the situation seemed promising, suddenly, Joshua, located at the center of the world, let out a muffled groan.
Accompanied by a buzzing sound that seemed to reach its limit, a large number of thinking organs attached to the world turned red and melted from overheating, with silver mist swirling around them, forming pillars of smoke. Besides this, the relay servers fixed inside the silver star also emitted sounds akin to wailing, and even the entire silver star experienced flashes and stutters similar to poor contact.
"...It seems my strength is not yet sufficient to manifest so many intelligent lifeform archetypes."
Feeling his thinking organs breaking down one after another, Joshua couldn't help but frown. He knew this was probably his limit.
If it were just ordinary intelligent lifeforms, Joshua could create a nation's worth of people in an instant. Creating an entire race by himself was not an exaggeration for him. And if it were ordinary beasts and plants without intelligence and with less stringent requirements for detail, Joshua could even manage to project and fill multiple different worlds across the void, just as he had done before.
But this time, what he was recreating from the world's memories were not ordinary intelligent lifeform individuals, but heroic souls condensed from countless memories and knowledge. These individuals might not be able to fully utilize the knowledge and valor in their memories, but they all had infinite potential, and they themselves represented the worlds they came from; they were the archetypes of intelligent life.
In future plans, once the heroic souls' strength had taken shape, Joshua would throw these intelligent lifeform archetypes out of his world, letting them seek suitable worlds in the void. Then, they could act on their own to recreate the Adam and Eve of their civilizations and lead them back to the grand stage of the starry river.
They had this potential and knew every mistake that had occurred in their civilizations. A pastor on Earth named Nad Lansem once said well: if people in the world could live again, half of them would become great men. Sometimes, it is precisely because of failure that one gains awareness.
In short, manifesting these beings for Joshua was like manifesting small worlds one by one. Even with his strength, it was impossible to succeed in one go and turn all his vassals into entities.
"...That's probably enough. If I revive too many at once, my world might fall into internal chaos and energy cycle collapse..."
Taking a deep breath, Joshua restored his thinking organs and relay servers to their original state. He shook his head and then looked down at the land and floating islands around him.
From just now, the process of manifesting intelligent lifeform archetypes had been halted. The warrior decided to wait until his world was larger before reviving more races. Since he had decided to awaken them all, Joshua had to be responsible for them. At the very least, he couldn't let multiple races with the same living environment crowd together, could he? There was no need; he could do better.
It could be seen that among the nine great floating islands and the silver continent at the bottom, most of the species on the first layer, the lava floating island, had already been manifested. The species on the subsequent floating islands and the continent were relatively sparse. Especially the silver continent, specifically used to house some species with special conditions, only had a floating jellyfish that needed to live in thunderclouds drifting above it.
This species, which lived on an ocean planet filled with violent winds and thunderstorms, communicated through electromagnetic signals. The planet's magnetic field and continuous lightning were their source of life and energy. Through these excellent conditions, they had developed an extremely advanced magical civilization.
But as their civilization progressed, these jellyfish planned to inscribe magical runes on the entire planet's atmosphere to permanently maintain a strong electromagnetic environment. This plan to transform the entire world was so massive that the civilization exhausted all its efforts and still failed. No one had expected the construction process to be so arduous, even though it should have been theoretically smooth. The half-completed magic array permanently altered the planet's electromagnetic environment, causing the jellyfish to lose the ecosystem they depended on, leading to their extinction.
Now, these adorably foolish jellyfish were playing with electric arcs in the thunder sea specially shaped for them, frolicking with lightning. They were perhaps the best electromagnetic engineers in this starry river. Even pure elemental lifeforms, in terms of mana manipulation, might not be able to match their specially evolved rune tentacles.
And just as Joshua was examining his inner world, making fine adjustments to the positions of various races within him, a six-colored divine light pierced through layers of abyss, following the power of the Great Magic Tide, and entered this former abyss nirvana ground.
"There."
The violet light was the first to detect the trajectory of the silver world. It pointed in a direction, towards the chaotic zone at the very bottom of the vortex, amidst black and white. Then the six-colored divine light flew straight in that direction.
"A Genesis Maelstrom has already begun to take shape here." Arriving at the chaotic zone, the blue divine light couldn't help but say: "A spacetime pressure similar to the old days has already started to appear. Of course, it's completely incomparable to back then, nor can it compare to when chaos condensed before. But since spacetime pressure has appeared, it means everything is on the right track."
"The recovery of the Genesis Maelstrom is only a matter of time." Regarding this, the iron-gray divine light said calmly: "And the matter of time is our biggest problem."
Through observing the multiverse, the gods had long discovered that in other world starry rivers outside their own, dark devouring trajectories had appeared. These were the paths of destruction gnawed out by multiple evil gods advancing together through the stars. Clearly, the target of these evil gods was the Lost Starry River where Mycroft civilization was located.
It was estimated that within forty to fifty years, an uncountable number of evil gods would arrive one after another. Before that, they needed to make thorough preparations.
"We have revived, and the enemy will also return. This time, the enemy's assault will be fiercer, but at least it won't be as sudden as before."
The pure white divine light said calmly: "If it were just a frontal battle, not a surprise attack, we wouldn't have fallen into such a difficult struggle back then."
"But this time, the enemy is more numerous than last time." The light gold divine light pointed this out: "Although this time the enemy will no longer have the support of countless abyss demons, and there probably won't be evil gods as utterly unreasonable as the Plenty Evil God, this time we also won't have the help of the Sage."
"...So, we placed our hopes and bets on this one."
The light green divine light spiraled downward, forming a regular, orderly spiral line. As it sped towards the direction of the silver world, it said in a low but steady voice: "In forty to fifty years, if Teacher achieves the goal he had when he left, then the evil gods will naturally collapse without a fight. If not, but this one has also reached that level of existence, then at worst, we'll just fight another Final War."
"That's right." The other five gods laughed silently: "At worst, we'll just fight another Final War."
"And this time, if we die, it should be eternal slumber."
Inside the silver world, Joshua sensed familiar divine power approaching.
He heard the message from the God of Protection and Progress.
"Leave quickly, Joshua."
The divine power projection of this dwarf god, with Joshua's permission, appeared near the star. He glanced around the internal situation of the entire world, then said: "The Genesis Maelstrom is gradually taking shape. The spacetime pressure here will become heavier and heavier. Even you will be pushed away... Huh, what are those things, your new vassals?"
Joshua knew what the other party meant by spacetime pressure. It was simply that when energy condensed to a certain level, the power of the Genesis Maelstrom would push all beings of a certain level out of its domain. It was like how most newly formed worlds were pushed by spacetime pressure to every corner of the world starry river. This was also why even true gods found it difficult to move within it. It was equivalent to an ordinary person walking down a street in a level 17 hurricane, at risk of being blown away at any moment.
"They are also considered my vassals." Joshua didn't say much. He sensed that the six gods were approaching his main body, seemingly wanting to help him leave the Extreme Dark Abyss. But the warrior, who had his own plans, did not intend to leave immediately, so he sent a message to everyone at the same time: "Wait, everyone, I am not in a hurry to leave right now."
"The Genesis Maelstrom has only just taken shape. Even if it forms a domain, it's only been a day. Its repulsive force isn't that great. And as a world, my gains in this domain are very high."
Saying this, Joshua revealed the reason why he had fallen into the depths of the Extreme Dark Abyss. Accompanied by the rising of silver Steel Force, one could see a large number of steel particles, carried by the tide of magic light and chaotic waves, rotating around the silver steel world and being absorbed by it.
Two immensely powerful forces, one black and one white, clashed, forming a clearly visible vortex throughout the Extreme Dark Abyss. And the center of this vortex was the area where Joshua was located.
Just as the Siberia World was the center of the Void Great Maelstrom, Joshua's world was now the center of the Genesis Maelstrom. Of course, the two were different. Although the Void Great Maelstrom was terrifying, it was like a typhoon, not causing damage to the world in the eye of the storm. But the Genesis Maelstrom was like a real whirlpool, with the center being the place with the most turbulent undercurrents.
It was also the place richest in steel particles and various material flows.
One could see the silver metal world constantly rising with fog-like tendrils like a corona, actively drawing in substances and steel particles extremely beneficial to the world from its surroundings, enriching the elements within its own world. Even if the undercurrents were turbulent, it was nothing to Joshua, who had received blessings from multiple gods and was himself extremely solid. Moreover, even as the spacetime pressure continuously increased, Joshua was also constantly growing stronger.
Of course, the growth rate of the Genesis Maelstrom was definitely faster than Joshua's rate of strengthening. But this could also greatly delay the time before the warrior was pushed out, allowing the silver world to gain more and greater benefits in such an environment.
What Joshua said was indeed very reasonable, to the point that the six gods all stopped in their tracks.
They had originally thought that the warrior had fallen into the deepest part of the Extreme Dark Abyss because he was too exhausted after the battle, but they didn't realize it was the result of his own active planning. This made them even happier. Joshua's strength was exactly what they needed. Since he could gain benefits in such an extreme environment, they didn't mind lending a hand.
So, the six-colored divine light began to revolve around the silver world, layering divine power upon it, solidifying it. One could see a massive steel particle capture array taking shape around Joshua's main body.
And just as the six gods were preparing to help Joshua speed up the absorption of steel particles and material flows, the projection of the God of Protection and Progress looked at the interior of the warrior's world with a rather curious gaze.
With the eyes of this being who was an extremely powerful Legendary before becoming a god, He could naturally see that Joshua's inner world had a certain similarity to the Rebirth Plan. Of course, the essence was definitely completely different. After all, the supercontinent world of the Rebirth Plan had a nearly infinite energy source, while the energy source of the silver world was only Joshua himself.
"How do you plan to build this world?"
This dwarf god said, seeming to want to help: "I know some techniques for shaping demiplane cores and building super-massive mass engines... Of course, this is nothing to you now, but it might provide some inspiration."
Joshua naturally wouldn't refuse a god's goodwill. Indeed, as the other said, he did master the techniques of world creation and annihilation engines. But the consumption of those high-end abilities was so great that he would never use them unless it was to deal with an opponent like the Death Evil God. The techniques the other provided happened to make up for his weakness in normal combat.
Moreover, the technique of shaping demiplanes was not simpler than creating a world in essence. After all, creating a world only required massively stacking Steel Force, turning it into Steel Force crystals, and then... blowing it up. Demiplanes were different. They were a more subtle and precise technique, creating an independent space between a world and a spatial bubble, consuming fewer resources and having the potential to evolve into a world.
Although the Fairy Empresses hadn't yet elevated their plane into a world, that was only because they lacked some key elements. Once the fairy clan flourished more and produced two or three more Legendaries, the emergence of a 'Fairy World' was only a matter of time.
As for how Joshua planned to build his world.
"To be honest, I learned quite a few useful experiences from the Great Khan of the Star Shepherds and their Void Behemoths."
Joshua looked at the nine great floating islands orbiting the star. Perhaps in the future, they could become nine great planes? Thinking of the future, he couldn't help but smile, then showed his plan to Yi Zhe: "The world is life, and the beings living in the world are individual parts of this giant life, a part of a giant life."
At this moment, one side of the silver star suddenly erupted with intense light. It carried a massive amount of energy, shooting straight towards the lava island.
In less than a second, the lifeforms on the lava island sensed the high-energy reaction. These intelligent beings were still in a confused period of memory disorder, but their bodily instincts made them simultaneously begin to operate the corresponding civilization's transcendent power cultivation methods. Almost all beings living in lava could access transcendent power to deal with this sudden burst of light and heat.
Soon, with the circulation of elements, the fluctuation of Aether, the light of mana and life energy shone together. The massive amount of energy Joshua had deliberately released was thus absorbed by the intelligent lifeforms on the lava island, then differentiated into various different transcendent powers.
"The lava island is the energy conversion zone in my plan. The lifeforms living on this layer possess powerful energy conversion abilities. They can convert my monotonous Steel Force and pure thermal energy into other transcendent powers, ensuring the balance of transcendent power within the world."
Joshua gazed at the lava island, saying in a low voice with a smile: "A world with only Steel Force can't cultivate any powerful beings. Even I had to travel through many worlds to obtain my current strength."
Then, one could see a large amount of excess transcendent power spilling from the lava island, drifting towards the second layer, the tropical rainforest island. Here, a large amount of transcendent power was absorbed by the insects and plant lifeforms living there. Part of it was finely processed, turned into fruits or stored as reserves. The other part, after being purified by the rainforest island, had its scorching heat from the lava island extinguished and continued to drift towards the third layer, the ocean island.
Here, the light and heat from the star, along with the transcendent power from the upper islands, would settle, becoming a large amount of mineral crystals piled up on the seabed, becoming food for giant lifeforms. These minerals would flow out with the tides from the ocean island's bottom abyss, turning into a massive waterfall along with the seawater, irrigating the subsequent continent island, mountain island, and plain island.
On these islands, energy and matter would undergo a series of fine processing through the hands of intelligent lifeforms. Just as mana is subdivided into 'Arcane', 'Mystic Arts', and 'Mana Power', just as psionic energy is subdivided into 'Meditation', 'Passion', and 'Source Power', transcendent power refined to such a degree is itself beneficial to the world. It can greatly enrich the internal transcendent environment of the world, nurturing a more powerful new generation.
The subsequent desert island, glacier island, and underground island were all relatively special islands, each with its own circulatory system. Like the silver continent, they would produce some special resources and transcendent powers, but only indirectly participate in the cycle of the floating islands and the continent. However, currently, none of these three islands had heroic souls residing on them.
And the silver star was at the center of the world, shining upon and watching over all of this.
"The world is a factory, and likewise, this is an examination."
Facing his world, Joshua said calmly: "And the myriad races are the workers, the students taking the exam."
"I am responsible for providing the raw materials; they are responsible for construction. I look forward to the day when the fruit ripens, and I can throw them out of this nursery, letting these heroic souls, who have proven through practice and examination that they can rebuild their civilizations, return to the starry sky once more and become our allies."
Saying this, Joshua lowered his head again, looking at the world of floating islands. The warrior's gaze was full of confidence.
He looked forward to that day; it must exist.
He firmly believed that day would eventually come.