A panel materialized in his mind's eye. Xing Diameter: 0.81 km Deduction Route: None Every newly awakened Xing Lord received a data panel like this. The difference, for Lu Chen, was the line item reading “Deduction Route.” It was a unique feature, undoubtedly a product of his System. Lu Chen studied it for a moment. “System,” he projected mentally, “do I determine the deduction route?” The System offered no reply. Its silence was a tacit agreement. “System, deduce the path to creating life on this planet,” Lu Chen commanded after a moment’s thought. A moment later, new text scrolled across the panel. Path of Deduction: Birth of Life on the Xing Below it, three distinct routes appeared. The first two options were bleak. One involved converting his planet’s origin energy into Extraordinary Energy, but the probability of life emerging was a mere 0.01%. The second, converting it to Ordinary Energy, offered virtually no chance at all. Lu Chen wasn't surprised. He knew the odds were astronomical. But the third route offered a 99% chance of success. It was a near certainty. The method was as mysterious as it was simple: perfect the planetary environment and allow life to arise on its own. Lu Chen’s eyebrows shot up. Perfect the environment and let life be born on its own? he thought. Just like Xuanhuang Star in my previous life! A newly awakened planet was a lifeless rock, much like Huo Xing or Tu Xing. The difference in this world was origin energy, a force that could be converted into spiritual energy or other forms of extraordinary power to directly catalyze the creation of life. For a world like Huo Xing to spontaneously generate life on its own, however, was thought to be impossible. He couldn't help but think of the original Xuanhuang Star, the only living planet humanity had ever discovered in his previous universe. Even there, the birth of life was the result of a billion-to-one cosmic coincidence. Xuanhuang Star had a 4.6-billion-year history, yet life had only truly taken hold in the last five hundred million years or so. The birth of life, he knew, was nothing short of a miracle. “The third route given by the System is an echo of Xuanhuang Star’s own story.” Lu Chen’s mind raced. To follow that process, I would need water, suitable sunlight, the right temperature, an atmosphere… all the essential building blocks. But… “These conditions are not so easy to satisfy.” Water, sunlight, temperature, atmosphere… It was like trying to terraform Huo Xing in his previous life and then just hoping something would crawl out of the dust. Without the deduction system to guide him on the precise parameters, the task would be impossible. In the thousands of years since humanity began awakening planets, only a few proven methods for creating life existed. The most common, and most effective, was to convert the planet’s origin energy into extraordinary energy. Under such a catalyst, a planet could easily give birth to life, with a decent probability of producing an Extraordinary being from the very start. The more advanced the initial life, the stronger the planet’s vitality, and the greater its future potential. A planet that began with ordinary life forms simply couldn't compare to one that started with supernatural beings. “If I use the third route, the life that emerges will almost certainly be ordinary,” Lu Chen mused. He felt no disappointment at the thought. Instead, a spark of excitement ignited within him. This would be life born naturally, with minimal external interference. The old ways were like flash-growing life on Huo Xing with a jolt of spiritual energy—crude, simple, and fast. But that created a fragile, artificial ecosystem that required constant maintenance. One misstep and the entire system could collapse. Natural genesis, however, was like the Xuanhuang Star of his past. Once started, life would flourish and evolve on its own, growing ever more complex without him needing to micromanage it. An artificial ecosystem versus a natural one. The difference was night and day. “Although the life born from this route would be ordinary, its development potential would be no weaker than those planets catalyzed by extraordinary energy,” he reasoned. “It could even be stronger!” Ordinary life couldn’t produce an Extraordinary civilization, but it could produce something else: a technological one. Lu Chen's mind raced with memories of science fiction from his past life, of the shocking heights technology could reach. He remembered tales of a god-class civilization where a single drop of water could annihilate an entire starfleet. A two-way foil that could collapse the whole Tianyu Star System into a flat sheet of paper—and that foil was considered a simple cleaning tool. Above the god-class technology civilization, there were even more powerful existences. The development of science, he realized, truly had no end. Thinking of this, Lu Chen made his decision. Then again, with a 99% success rate staring him in the face, was there ever really a choice? “System,” Lu Chen commanded, his voice firm in his mind, “use the third deduction route. Show me the exact conditions required for the birth of life.”

Chapter 3: Deduce a New World