Chapter 691: Four Elemental Planes!

Outside, the sky gradually turned into night, with stars twinkling through the window. The countryside sky was much clearer than that of a city filled with exhaust fumes, and many bright stars were still visible.

"It's dark now, time to sleep," Xu Zhi murmured.

He withdrew his gaze from the window. As night fell, he placed the phoenix egg on the bed and sat down beside it, intently staring at the egg for a while. Time was indeed running short. Once he recovered from the effects of the multiverse project in the study, he would soon fall into a deep slumber.

"A way to settle the phoenix..." He closed his eyes, a solution already forming in his mind. He then reached for the special material of the Alchemist Emperor, which he had prepared in the lab specifically to prevent the dissolution of mass worms.

He suddenly issued an order to the intelligent sub-brain: "Reproduce mass worms."

*Accessing gene bank...**Reproducing. This will consume a significant amount of energy...*

Xu Zhi was not surprised by this. He watched as the stored energy resources of his Mercury power plant rapidly depleted. Knowing that only a tiny amount of mass could be generated by a single life form, it was clear just how much colossal energy a complete mass worm required.

Suddenly, over five thousand mass worms appeared in the glass petri dish. To put this into perspective, Hermes had previously 'acquired' a batch of just over eight hundred mass worms, which was already equivalent to the energy needed for a deity to achieve godhood. The sight of over five thousand mass worms was absolutely terrifying!

Although Xu Zhi, since breaking through to the Heavenly Emperor, had been naturally receiving the equivalent of eight or nine gods' death energy daily from his countless world sandboxes, and this amount could significantly double if wars broke out, yet, even with such reserves, the current consumption was still extremely painful for him.

Xu Zhi took a deep breath. "I've suffered too many losses recently," he muttered. "First, excessively consuming resources to cultivate the body refinement lineage, and now generating a huge amount of mass. I'm truly breaking my heart over my little phoenix."

Xu Zhi had created such a vast amount of mass for a specific purpose: to use the forbidden alchemical technique of Soul Granting. This technique allowed him to bestow souls upon inanimate objects.

"Logically," Xu Zhi mused, staring at the five thousand mass worms in the petri dish, "the less likely an inanimate object is to naturally generate life, become a demon, or gain sentience, the more mass it requires. For example, water or fire..." He paused. "I wonder if this will be enough."

He intended to create a terrifying super-life form, one that could become a demon, immeasurably more powerful than elemental spirits of fire or water.

"According to the theories proposed by those players," Xu Zhi took a deep breath, his eyes burning with anticipation, "if the Gate of Alchemy, the very essence of truth in the legends of alchemists, is mass... then the Gate of Buddhism and Taoism, the essence of truth in the legends of Buddhist and Daoist cultivators, the primordial ancient god of all, that would be you..."

Xu Zhi extended his palm. Above it, a highly condensed, smooth, and incredibly high-density sarira, smaller than an ant, slowly began to float.

"If you can awaken intelligence... you will be resurrected from ancient mythology..."

Endless radiance emanated from it, iridescent and dazzling, like the most stunning and vibrant crystal.

"The Huaxia pantheon." Xu Zhi gazed at the sarira, which emitted boundless radiant light. "The spirit of all radiation, the root of all things..."

"Buddha... the Ancestor."

One by one, mass worms, transparent as water, slowly merged into the sarira. They dissolved silently, nourishing the sarira without a trace, like a bottomless pit. A vast amount of mass disappeared into it.

One thousand...Two thousand...Three thousand...Four thousand...

Finally, after over four thousand three hundred units of mass had dissolved into it, a hazy, indistinct consciousness began to emerge from the sarira.

Xu Zhi immediately breathed a sigh of relief. "The ancient source of Buddha... has it finally appeared?"

It was slightly less than he had anticipated. While still a significant loss, it wasn't utterly ruinous. He paused, looking at the remaining mass. Gritting his teeth, he decided, "Forget it, I can't waste the rest. I might as well use a few hundred more to create another fire elemental spirit."

He ordered the Zerg sub-brain to reproduce several hundred more units of mass, using the same method to create a ball of flame that manifested a faint, rudimentary consciousness.

"With this, my Elemental Flame Plane is complete. This might be called 'The Song of Radiation and Fire'..."

Xu Zhi breathed a sigh of relief, gazing at the two hazy little entities. Then, he hesitated for a moment, his compulsive tendencies kicking in. "Forget it. To truly perfect it, I might as well go all out and create a water spirit and an electric spirit as well... a Four Elemental Plane."

Immediately, he once again reproduced mass worms, creating four great elemental spirits. Clearly, this idea of an elemental plane was inspired by Armin and the Alchemist Emperor's efforts to transform the Underworld. Since they were constantly converting the inanimate objects of the Underworld into living beings, why not transform his own created mental soul plane directly into an elemental plane?

Furthermore, the phoenix was different from Medusa. The phoenix didn't possess a Cthulhu Evil God's body capable of self-replication and creating multiple crystal walls, so the mental world he opened for her would be singular. Therefore, he resolved to make it perfect, creating a unique elemental plane. If it couldn't be vast and diverse, then it should be small and exquisite! It was akin to two distinct paths, heading to two extremes: one a vast spiritual universe, the other a miniature one.

A faint smile touched Xu Zhi's lips. "After all, the phoenix herself has always favored plant spirits and beings of nature, disliking conflict and strife... Her previous demon realm was entirely composed of plant spirits, and these elemental spirits are quite similar." This arrangement would also allow her to re-enter seclusion in another place, occasionally emerging to fulfill her duties of managing the world.

"However, these elemental spirits also have significant flaws," Xu Zhi mused, lowering his head to examine the four faint, weak-willed life forms. "Leaving aside their later stages, right now they are incredibly fragile, having just been born... The water elemental must live in water, the fire elemental must live in fire, the electric elemental must live amidst electricity, and the Buddha elemental must reside within a sarira... These are the nourishing cradles for their gestation."

While they might exist in a soul world, they still require a physical medium in reality. It's like logging into an online game: you still need to ensure your physical well-being in the real world. The Buddha elemental was fine, as it already possessed the sarira as a host. The fire elemental also posed no issue, as it could reside on the phoenix's skin.

But what about the remaining two? Electricity and water? He already had a solution for them too.

"First, I'll create a world in a bottle, similar to Medusa's." He suddenly opened his mouth, contorting it at an unusual angle. A blob of sticky white clay slowly formed, eventually solidifying into a shiny, delicate, rounded, transparent, pear-shaped bottle. He then proceeded to engrave the familiar magic core patterns onto the bottle's surface. The ceramic pear-shaped glass bottle had a double-layered wall, into which Xu Zhi slowly poured a thin layer of water.

"With the water settled, there are no more problems." He slowly placed the tiny sarira into the pear-shaped glass bottle, then carefully set the phoenix egg inside as well. The fire elemental parasitically wrapped itself around the phoenix egg's flames.

"With the phoenix as the core, surrounded by three elemental spirits... only the final electric elemental remains," Xu Zhi mused for a few seconds, a faint smile appearing on his face. He picked up the pear-shaped bottle and gently fitted it into the bedside lamp's socket. *Click!* He then pressed the switch on the white ceramic bedside lamp.

The current, channeled through a special transformer, instantly illuminated the entire lamp. The bulb swiftly began to glow. Xu Zhi gazed at the small night light on the bedside table.

Inside the glowing bottle, a platinum-gold phoenix divine bird slowly tore through its eggshell and unfurled its wings, resembling the Golden Crow sun of ancient myths.

"The phoenix has awakened? Perfect timing."

*Click!* Xu Zhi casually took a beautiful photo, finding it quite memorable. He then lay down on the bed, turned onto his side, and slowly drifted off to sleep in the warm glow of the bedside lamp.

At that moment, the phoenix opened its eyes. It gazed at its surroundings in a daze. Electrical currents surged throughout the cramped space inside the bottle, resembling flashes of lightning and rolls of thunder. Water, Buddha, fire, and electricity—the four elements—swirled around its body. "The agreed time has ended. Have I truly left?" it wondered. With an expression of pure curiosity, she looked around, "Where am I? It's so warm here."