Chapter 636: True Ninth Rank and Rebirth (Two-in-One)

This small young bird lay affectionately on Xu Zhi's hand, radiating happiness as if she had returned to the warm embrace of her birth.

"It's so difficult," the phoenix exclaimed. "The Ninth-tier is truly too difficult..."

The phoenix couldn't help but prostrate herself on Xu Zhi's palm, excitedly revealing her deepest thoughts, which she had never shared with anyone before. "I've glimpsed that realm... but it's just too hard. Truly, among ten thousand, a hundred thousand, no, even a million gods, perhaps not one can reach that terrifying realm!"

Before her death, the phoenix had already achieved significant gains and breakthroughs.

Xu Zhi sighed inwardly but said nothing, merely listening in silence and gently stroking her adorable little head.

She let out satisfied whimpers like a puppy, continuing to rub against Xu Zhi's palm and displaying a soft, affectionate expression. "The Ninth-tier is already terrifying. Is there a realm beyond the Ninth-tier? Tenth-tier? I can't even imagine it now. Can I truly pursue truth to its very end?"

Xu Zhi continued to gently stroke the bird's back.

The phoenix, full of longing, nestled in the embrace of Xu Zhi's palm, looked up and spoke with deep yearning, "Eighth-tier? Ninth-tier? Tenth-tier? What is the true end? When can I truly reach the destination where you reside, and genuinely be with you?"

"You can do it," Xu Zhi said with a smile.

The phoenix remained silent, her face full of affection, as she lay in Xu Zhi's hand. Xu Zhi, too, didn't rush to say anything.

Neither the phoenix nor Medusa loved him for himself. Instead, they loved the "Dao" and pursued "Truth." As the Creation God, the embodiment of Truth and the Great Dao, he himself was the ultimate goal pursued by countless powerful beings.

Meng Mei, however, was quite unique and different... She didn't follow the conventional path at all. She didn't covet the Great Dao or Truth; she actually just craved him as a person!

But if he were to say who he most favored and admired in his entire sandbox, it was undoubtedly the phoenix. Throughout her life, the phoenix singularly pursued the Dao, dedicating herself wholeheartedly without distractions. She was also easy to manage, never causing him trouble. Her cultivation realm advanced incredibly fast, constantly going into seclusion to deduce higher realms for him. She was simply the most ideal Zerg hero.

Furthermore, on the path to the Ninth-tier, she had delved the deepest.

What is the Ninth-tier?

Xu Zhi had already received the answer from the phoenix, because the path the phoenix was currently exploring in the Ninth-tier had completely revealed the mysteries of this realm to him.

The core characteristic of the Ninth-tier is the unity of soul and body. One's spiritual soul perfectly controls and integrates into one's 100 trillion cells. There is no longer any separation of soul and body; soul and flesh become one. The immortality of this realm is terrifying. Even if only a single cell remains, one can regenerate from a drop of blood, restoring both soul and body.

It is that kind of eternal, ancient existence, "transcending cosmic galaxies," "whose lifespans are measured in tens of thousands of years," and "where even countless Eighth-tier gods are like a nest of ants."

To kill such an "indestructible existence," besides complete annihilation into dust, perhaps only special soul-impacting methods can be used to erase the soul within every single cell.

The breakthrough to the Ninth-tier can truly be likened to a path of completely mastering all the cells in one's body. It's like a great general whose soul splits, needing to fully command a hundred trillion cell-soldiers throughout their body.

Don't think it's simple. One hundred trillion — what kind of concept is that? This number is too immense. For ordinary people, it's truly just a string of digits, feeling not much different from a hundred million.

Let's make a comparison first: Earth only has seven billion people. For example, if you had to completely control the movements of every single one of the seven billion people, treating them as puppets, making them eat, drink, and relieve themselves — what, is that difficult? And that's just seven billion on one Earth. What about a hundred trillion? That's roughly the population of 15,000 parallel universe Earths!

Okay, the difficulty of controlling cells naturally cannot be compared to the difficulty of 'mind controlling' humans or other sentient beings; one's own cells do not resist, so they are naturally very easy to control. But this immense quantity already demonstrates a terrifying level of difficulty. The number of humans on 15,000 Earths represents an unimaginably precise and vast amount of soul control.

This is a spiritual realm of "deification" and "forging the spirit." Therefore, the higher one goes, the less possible it is to fight across cultivation tiers.

Just like Medusa, no matter how strong she was in the Heavenly Emperor realm, she still needed parts of her body to break through to the Eighth-tier God realm to fight against Eighth-tier beings. At that point, she was already an unconventional but powerful Eighth-tier God.

Now, it's probably clear that the Eighth-tier and Ninth-tier are two different species. This is what a true cosmic Ninth-tier life form is.

On this path to the Ninth-tier, the "length of the path" differs for each species. For normal transcendent humans, the path length is 100 trillion cells. For the phoenix, the path length is 130 trillion cells. And on this path, before her death, she had already completed 30%. As a "general" controlling over 40 trillion cells, this alone proves her level of genius.

"Still, she died..."

Xu Zhi frowned, and while marveling at the phoenix's immense effort, he also kept pondering. "From another perspective," he mused, "it's enough to prove the terrifying difficulty of the Ninth-tier. If we don't consider the phoenix's rebirth, it's equivalent to a god with extremely high talent, who seeks the Dao wholeheartedly without external distractions, cultivating in seclusion. After a lifespan of 8,000 years, she only completed 30% of the Ninth-tier transformation and then simply died of old age!"

For an Eighth-tier god, this is almost an impossible goal!

The further one goes in cultivation, the more terrifying it becomes... Even Xu Zhi couldn't help but feel utterly astounded. Is this truly a realm that Eighth-tier gods can break through to?

"I fear that conventional methods simply cannot achieve a breakthrough..." Xu Zhi mused. "This is too terrifying; the difficulty is incredibly high! Even someone as strong as the phoenix, devoted solely to the Dao, could only complete 30%. An ordinary god would essentially 'cool off' after reaching 10-20% on this path."

Xu Zhi frowned. Only at this moment did he fully realize the implications of the situation. "Perhaps the Ninth-tier beings in the universe, the previous generation of Zerg Matriarchs, and other civilizations, did not forcibly break through using such a hardcore method. Is there some special alternative shortcut or technique?"

"Ninth-tier..." Xu Zhi closed his eyes. After a while, he couldn't figure it out and could only shake his head. After all, Caroline, the phoenix, and even Emperor Qi, had all independently deduced this path. This meant that, besides this path, they had no other choice. If they couldn't find a new path, was he superior to them in knowledge and talent? Not at all.

"If the Eighth-tier gods were still somewhat normal," he pondered, "the Ninth-tier, for my path of evolving the sandbox, is a somewhat fantastical realm, beyond natural dimensions. No wonder it can utilize phenomena of laws and other rules beyond nature."

"Anyway," he thought, "the phoenix has an infinite lifespan and another life. She will definitely break through if she keeps walking this path. When she controls all her cells, she will be a 'weak Ninth-tier.' Theoretically, this isn't yet a true Ninth-tier because it's merely a dual qualitative transformation and remodeling of one's own body and spirit, a 'closed-door creation,' not yet absorbing external energy. Only when she absorbs a huge amount of energy like a sponge can she truly become a complete Ninth-tier being."

Every realm involves a qualitative change in energy, and a huge amount of energy is a necessary condition for breaking through to a new realm. Just like many previous Seventh-tier Heavenly Emperors—Armin, Dao Changsheng, and Emperor Qi—who could already break through to the Eighth-tier God realm, but were stuck due to insufficient energy absorption, needing to slaughter living beings to accumulate it. The energy required for breaking through to the Ninth-tier is naturally even more immense, and it also presents problems in this regard.

"However," Xu Zhi thought, "the Ninth-tier isn't as simple as killing and acquiring enough energy to break through. One must first become a 'weak Ninth-tier,' completely transforming into that kind of life form, before collecting it."

Xu Zhi's expression was calm as he gently stroked the young bird in his hand. The phoenix contentedly enjoyed the Creator God's caress, suddenly wishing she could stay like that forever.

However, after a while.

"All things in the world have their own balance..." Xu Zhi suddenly spoke. "Phoenix, you descended to the Primeval World by command, opening up heaven and earth. Your destiny for this life is complete. The Great Dao of Heaven and Earth will naturally bestow grace."

The phoenix's clear eyes widened, her face full of anticipation. "Oh, great God of Truth..."

Xu Zhi extended a hand and pointed. "Time possesses the power to change everything... Go!"

*Woosh.* The phoenix only felt her time accelerating, rapidly heading towards adulthood, boarding a train named Time. Everything around her turned into a blur of illusion, rushing past and slipping away.

"Me?" She widened her eyes, feeling an inexplicable transformation occurring in her body. A sudden feeling of overwhelming happiness surged within her; she knew this was a tremendous opportunity from the world's great power.

"Everything must be earned by yourself."

Xu Zhi smiled, watching the rapidly advancing phoenix. She was only a Sixth-tier life form. At this moment, without even cultivating, she was rapidly progressing towards adulthood. Her lifespan was merely a few hundred years. Visible changes appeared on her body; she was rapidly aging, about to transform back into an egg.

*Woosh!* A hazy phoenix egg, surrounded by flames, cycled anew, quietly lying in his palm.

Xu Zhi no longer hesitated. He stood up and went to an oven near the refrigerator. The oven was pure white and translucent, possessing the delicate feel of ceramics. Throughout the room, many pieces of furniture had been created and transformed by Xu Zhi into this high-density, "all-racial" material, as ordinary mundane objects were as fragile as paper. As for the oven, it had been fully prepared before the phoenix's arrival.

Xu Zhi picked up a large, white, delicate, smooth, square ceramic basin and placed heavenly treasures from various worlds into it, along with a large amount of water. The vibrant energy from the colorful glow began to transform into clear spiritual fluid. This square ceramic basin fit perfectly into the square oven.

*Woosh!* The oven directly heated up.

"Only he who does not contend is therefore unopposed in the world."

"You do not contend, your nature is serene. In that case, I shall contend for a great opportunity for you."

Xu Zhi looked at the phoenix egg, soaking and floating in the spiritual fluid of various heavenly treasures within the oven, his expression becoming solemn.

"Actually," Xu Zhi said, "my idea of having Medusa return to her origin and reshape her body came from my initial plan for you. My original intention was for you to be born in the oven. Now, returning to it, through hundreds of thousands of evolutions, you should gain a good opportunity again. Although, as a singular life form, your form is essentially fixed, your benefits won't be as immense as Medusa's. However, there should still be good results."

"I've gone to such great lengths to 'bathe' you here; don't let me down."

Xu Zhi stared at the oven for a while, feeling a pang of tenderness at the sight of the spiritual fluid inside.

Within just one hour, the phoenix continuously grew, aged, and transformed back into an egg, only to hatch again, like an adorable young bird breaking free from its shell for the first time, looking out at an entirely new world. She was also extremely excited. She felt like she was swimming in a warm ocean. This was a huge opportunity, adjusting her body structure. This would be a "long" life journey of hundreds of thousands of years.

In this space, the phoenix again felt a familiar scent and saw an identical scene, as if recalling her very first moments.

"Is this truly a mother's embrace?"

"A square space, and it's alive!"

"These white walls are cells..."

"A living being! I'm inside a living being!"

She was full of surprise. Having broken out of her eggshell, she looked at the white square world, feeling it was an even larger eggshell. She found this incredibly perplexing. This was an unimaginable serendipitous encounter. The world was too vast, filled with unknowns and mysteries. Even as she walked the path of the Ninth-tier, she didn't know many mysterious things.

"Wait, no, this is... this actually is! A hard shell wall made of white cells...?!" She was utterly bewildered and stunned. A terrifying thought quickly exploded in her mind: "This is inside an eggshell! A square egg? It's constantly heating up now—is some unknown ancient being incubating this egg from the outside?"

"Could it be the Creator God, outside, doing this for me...?"

"Was this how I was born before?"

"I've returned to the origin."

Her crisp, pure voice suddenly filled with happiness, feeling it was an immense honor.

Xu Zhi watched from outside for a while, feeling very nervous. He had indeed come prepared. This oven was made by observing Caroline's technique of creating all things. Although he couldn't conjure a planet, he could conjure a living oven with a magic core inside, capable of self-regulating temperature and generating heat, much like a high-grade alchemy furnace. Although it was alive and possessed intelligent AI, it couldn't add ingredients itself.

He turned and instructed the Ceramic Maiden, "Every hour, regularly change the water and replace the heavenly treasures that have been fully absorbed. Don't be stingy. This process must continue day and night. Remember to add a large amount of warm maple tea; after all, no matter how strong, it's still a bird's egg incubating, and it needs leaves to feel familiar... This should last for a full three days."

"Master is benevolent," the Ceramic Maiden said, instantly deeply moved. Such an enormous cost was enough to prove the importance and status of this being in his heart. Adding leaves to create an environment was truly thoughtful. And when compared to another being outside, the difference became clear: In the courtyard in the depths of winter, with the cold wind blowing, such an uncaring attitude was like the stark difference between ice and fire.

"Please rest assured, Master, I will monitor it regularly," the Ceramic Maiden said.

Xu Zhi nodded, turned and left the living room, preparing to return to his room. He suddenly walked a few steps, feeling uneasy. He turned back and instructed, "Remember to put the used spiritual fluid into the refrigerator nearby; I have great use for it."