Li Qing's pieces had already been placed, while the gods' pieces were developing on the ground. The gods had even fallen into a half-sleep atop the World Tree to extend their lifespans.
The humans on the ground had entered an era of explosive advancement.
The ten human kings now possessed divine authority. They transformed the various god-created creatures on the ground, allowing them to enter that terrifying flow of time as well.
But humanity soon discovered a problem.
Their computing power was insufficient. With only ten godheads, they could not create and compile complex lifeforms; they could only modify simple structures. Thus, they found another path and developed a system of Martial Arts.
The Ten Kings began to speak:
"I will write bloodlines such as 'Swift,' 'Great Strength,' 'Eagle Eye,' and 'Berserk' into the bodies of humans. Through the corresponding training, you will be able to awaken these powers."
"This is Bloodline Talent—Martial Arts!"
"Unlike divine arts, this requires you to train your bodies, continuously grow stronger, and awaken your potential." This genetic-modification project was not complicated, yet it was highly practical. Humanity's flexible thinking was clearly on display.
Humanity began practicing martial arts.
Cans became mountains of treasure. Metal shields and metal weapons appeared, and humans began learning to use tools.
From then on, humanity's strength soared, thriving with each passing day. They even developed ambitions, unwilling to remain beneath others.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye, already equivalent to a month.
They began trying to provoke the Elven Race.
As for the gods in the sky, they remained half-asleep, occasionally looking down upon the wars on the ground.
In the shadows, Ilis followed the Outer God's instructions, secretly laying out plans and nurturing new undercurrents.
"The gods have actually begun herding humans and stopped caring about the ground. Perfect." It gathered a group of Magic Beasts that had been hunted by humans, modified their bodies, and increased their reaction speed tenfold.
"Ah! Great Abyss Evil God, please grant us power!"
"Please descend!"
A crowd of strange Magic Beasts worshiped.
Under the guidance of the Outer God, they had already found the most suitable place to build an altar.
Once Ilis began the summoning ritual, someone would drill a finger-sized hole through the wall of the room and break through into the next room.
"In this world, the gods are lying flat on the tree, herding all living beings. That won't do. I have to find them something to do." Through the laboratory's cameras, Li Qing watched the scene inside and frowned slightly.
He had lain flat and made the gods work; the gods had lain flat and made humanity work. If humanity lay flat too, wouldn't that mean the pigs in the pigsty would have to drive the evolution of life? This was outsourced labor, with corruption and deductions at every level. How could that be tolerated?
His task was to wield the whip and drive this old ox of civilization onward, never allowing it to slack off.
The adjacent room was an as-yet unopened Abyss map:
The room had already been excavated into a super-deep, vertical square shaft twenty meters deep.
"It's time to have Ilis prepare the altar. In three days, she'll summon the ancient god, open the World Tunnel, and bring about the descent of another world. Then it should be about time to open the new map—Abyss World."
"And Ilis will also reveal her true strength: the Power of Thunder. She'll protect the ritual, repel the attacking enemies, and buy time to open the world passage."
Li Qing began cracking the whip at the gods.
At last, he was about to create a world of his own, a map extended according to his own design.
Naturally,
there was a limit to the number of familiars he could control. During the evolution of creation, the more Single Cells awakened, the easier it was for things to spiral out of control, just like Ning Guochang and the others before them.
"I estimate another batch of rebels will appear, shouting all day about killing the gods."
Li Qing stroked his chin. "But this time, will the god they seek to overthrow be me? No, it'll be the gods in the tree. When the sky falls, the short one bears the weight first. This time, it's their turn."
In truth, modifying the walls of Three Rooms and One Hall naturally did not require a full two months.
He had mainly spent the time digging the pit in the second room: twenty meters deep, reinforced with multiple layers of steel plates.
This place was in the suburbs, and nobody cared.
He could remodel his own house however he wanted. Many local residents had a habit of digging basements.
Susannie had even said that her father's main villa had an Underground Shelter, stocked with emergency food and supposedly even containing an armory. This was practically standard equipment for many wealthy people with money and leisure.
There was a television program called Doomsday Ragtag Army that introduced the shelters of various tycoons, opening your eyes to the possibilities. They would buy hundreds of mu of wasteland, fence it off to keep others from discovering the large Underground Shelter they were building in the center.
Some people even bought abandoned nuclear missile silos and renovated them. Others bought decommissioned military armored vehicles and modified them into vehicles for traveling during the apocalypse.
It was incredibly free.
Once he had money, he could buy hundreds of mu of wasteland and build a Civilization Sandbox. That would not be a problem. This country had vast land and few people; with enough money, anything could be done.
This twenty-meter-deep vertical steel shaft was divided into layers.
Five meters of mud and sand.
Five meters of stone.
Five meters of seawater.
Five meters of sky.
It was like a filtration layer.
Various nutrients were also thrown inside in massive quantities, as though they cost nothing.
After several days of fermentation, the shaft was already teeming with microbes, just like a septic tank.
Because it was deep water, a large Tempered Glass window had been installed in the ceiling to ensure illumination. There was also a huge Tempered Glass window in front. Sunlight shone into the vertical shaft each day, being diluted layer by layer until it resembled the deep sea.
As for imitating Emperor of Atabia and smashing the glass window?
The entire uppermost layer was water, with nothing to provide leverage. Was someone supposed to smash it while swimming?
"Now it's time to give this [Abyss World] some intelligent life: the three Abyss Sovereigns."
Li Qing took out three brains.
These were Integrated Consciousnesses he had awakened again over the past few days. He stuffed the three brains into a planarian, an Ironclad Beetle, and a Mantis Shrimp respectively.
Gurgle!!
"Wuu wuu~~"
"Where am I?"
Li Qing's expression remained calm as he watched the three lifeforms and began the final stage of brainwashing.
"The Abyss World where you reside was once invaded by an Outer God. The earth was destroyed, and living beings suffered terribly."
"The Outer God killed the Demon Lord. The consciousness within its remains split into three parts—that is, the three of you. You have only just gained consciousness, and now you have been reborn in the Abyss World as its newly born rulers."
He turned to the first planarian. "Slime Lord, you are a lump of flesh left behind by the Demon Lord, inheriting the god's immortal and indestructible nature."
A planarian.
A long, gelatinous worm, widely recognized as a creature with powerful regenerative abilities and a frequent guest in scientists' laboratories.
If a planarian was cut into 279 pieces, it could regenerate into 279 new planarians.
"Ah."
The Slime transmitted a simple Consciousness Wave: "I am the Demon Lord's... immortality."
Li Qing nodded.
He turned to the Ironclad Beetle. "Skeleton Lord, you are a piece of black bone left behind by the Demon Lord, inheriting the god's hardness."
The Ironclad Beetle had an incredibly tough biological shell structure. Though it was not solid inside, it could withstand 39,000 times its own body weight. Even when a car drove over it, leaving white marks on the tires, it remained unharmed.
"Ah, I am the god's bone." It spoke.
Li Qing said gently, "That's right. You have only one bone left. Become a new humanoid skeleton."
With that rough black shell so hard that even a blunt steel knife would strike sparks from it if used against a skeletal frame, it truly had the feel of a Western-fantasy skeleton.
Slime, skeleton—what was the third Abyss Sovereign still missing?
Naturally, a dragon.
Li Qing had wanted to make a dragon for quite some time.
Unfortunately, that Fat Dragon never evolved itself. All it knew was eating and sleeping, leaving Li Qing utterly exasperated. As a god, he could not break character and kick its increasingly fat backside.
Li Qing turned to the third creature, the Mantis Shrimp. "Brilliant Demon Dragon, you are the core left behind by the Demon Lord, inheriting the god's unparalleled strength."
The Mantis Shrimp was Earth's strongest boxer.
The size of an ordinary mantis shrimp, it could punch at eighty kilometers per hour, delivering a sixty-kilogram blow within two milliseconds. Only a high-speed camera could capture the speed of its punch. Smashing through a fish tank was effortless.
Its acceleration could no longer be called exaggerated. It was terrifying beyond description.
If humans had such swinging speed, they would have more than enough power to fling whatever they held straight off Earth.
These were the three ruler familiars Li Qing planned to throw inside.
All three were close to the pinnacle of nature after more than four billion years of Earth's history.
Planarian: regenerating flesh.
Ironclad Beetle: an unbreakable skeleton.
Mantis Shrimp: explosive power.
Li Qing said gently, "When you three Abyss Sovereigns, the three-in-one, fuse together, your muscles, bones, and strength will cause the Demon Lord to revive once more and rule the entire world again!"
"We will fuse? When we fuse, we will awaken the true god?"
They asked in bewilderment.
"Yes," Li Qing answered.
Once they researched the technology and truly became three-in-one, merging into the Demon Monarch Emperor, Li Qing's consciousness would descend and control this combined super-robot, becoming the true Demon Lord walking among humanity and transforming into a terrestrial catastrophe.
This setup was incredibly cool.
And this creature was the strongest Earth monster Li Qing could currently comprehend, containing all his expectations for the world he had created.
"When you fuse, the entire world will tremble for you."
"The Demon Lord has only just fallen. Aside from the three of you, its cores, there are also twenty trillion remnant souls and consciousnesses. Cells are scattered everywhere, writhing as they build civilization and continuously evolve. Rule over them and prevent them from rebelling."
This was the basic framework of the [Abyss World].
Above were the three familiars he could control.
Below, another twenty trillion cells would awaken as the population. That was slightly more than Ning Guochang's, but if they rebelled, it certainly would not be easy for them.
Li Qing directly tossed their three bodies into the abyss, allowing the Integrated Consciousnesses within them to absorb their bodily structures and evolve on their own.
As for awakening those twenty trillion cells now?
It was not time yet.
There were simply too many of them, and they would not be under his control.
He would awaken them after he drilled through the world wall, opened the tunnel, and emerged.
Li Qing sighed. "What a pity. The Ironclad Beetle isn't ideal. Originally, I wanted to get the legendary hardest organism on Earth: Scutellina."
A normal handgun could not penetrate it.
It survived around volcanic vents more than 2,000 meters beneath the Indian Ocean, where the water temperature reached 400 degrees Celsius and heavy-metal elements were present in excessive concentrations.
Its shell was made of an alloy.
It could even be moved by a magnet.
Normal organisms had little iron in their bodies, but this snail's entire shell was made of massive amounts of iron alloy.
If he used this Life Structure, perhaps he could turn the bones into biological alloy as well. What difference would that make from a humanoid super-robot?
Unfortunately, he could not obtain one in the short term.
That was why an underground network of forces was so important.
"Still, this second new map is missing something."
Li Qing pondered for a moment, feeling that something was off.
He thought carefully, then suddenly sent his consciousness into the neighboring house, watching a single elf. "She's been living a little too leisurely lately."
The elf was currently studying knowledge from Earth.
After all, she possessed an Integrated Consciousness, a multithreaded lifeform built from tens of thousands of intelligent cells. She learned quickly. By watching videos online, she had already learned various chemistry and physics topics from middle school.
"I created her, and she's still studying knowledge. Her combat power is even weaker than a human's, so she isn't strong enough to go out and establish Umbrella Corporation."
"But she can't freeload here either." Seeing her so relaxed, eating KFC while watching television, Li Qing's face darkened slightly.
Why was everyone slacking off? The gods were fishing on the tree, and she was watching television and eating junk food next door? Everyone, get moving and work!
He made a decision on the spot. "I'll give her part of the authority to control familiars and have her reverse-control an ant elf, sending it through to the Abyss World. That should do it. As the righteous Elf Saintess, she'll stop the Abyss Lord from reviving!"
Before you continue