Soon, the deduction was complete.
A stream of data flooded Lu Chen’s mind: specifications for water, suitable sunlight, temperature, atmosphere, and more.
At the same time, his consciousness observed the planet he had just awakened.
This ochre-colored world was indistinguishable from most nascent planets.
Its surface was a barren expanse of sand and stone. The temperature hovered below freezing, a biting, inhospitable cold.
There were no traces of water.
The environment was harsh, completely unsuitable for habitation. Naturally, it was impossible for life to arise on its own.
Following the parameters provided by the System, Lu Chen began his modifications.
First came the appropriate temperature and sunlight.
Originally, Xuanhuang Star had possessed these conditions thanks to the sun.
But here in the Awakened Space, there was only a solitary, small planet.
Fortunately, this world had origin energy.
It could be converted into any form of energy he required.
Lu Chen converted a portion of his origin energy directly into light, creating an artificial sun. He set its size, position, and distance according to the System's precise calculations.
In the void of the Genesis Space, beyond the ochre planet, a golden energy ball materialized.
It looked like a miniature, glowing star.
In reality, it was merely an energy construct, converted from origin energy.
With the birth of the artificial sun, Lu Chen noticed that half of his origin energy had been consumed.
He let out a sigh of relief.
A controlled nuclear fusion reaction hummed at the sun's core, producing light—a form of ordinary energy.
Had he attempted to convert it into Extraordinary energy, the cost would have been far greater.
Bathed in the new sunlight, the surface temperature of the ochre planet began to rise, bit by bit.
At this rate, it would soon climb from negative to positive.
With the problem of temperature and sunlight solved, Lu Chen turned his attention to the atmosphere and water.
As the owner of this small planet, Lu Chen possessed supreme authority.
Like a creator god, he could modify his planet at will. However…
Without a divine-level deduction system, a newborn planet was as fragile as a newborn infant.
A single misstep, one poor modification, could cause the entire planet to collapse.
It could even result in his own death.
Creating the atmosphere was a relatively simple task.
Lu Chen configured it quickly.
The water, however, proved slightly more troublesome.
Still, with the help of origin energy, Lu Chen converted it into hydrogen and oxygen, synthesizing water molecule by molecule.
On the terrestrial planet, water gradually spread, and the color of the world’s surface slowly began to change.
In the end, it became a small ocean, with land occupying only a fraction of the globe.
Lu Chen adjusted other aspects as well: gravity, the magnetic field, crustal movement, and so on.
He modeled them after the Xuanhuang Star of his previous life.
The birth of life, however, was a far lengthier process.
After configuring everything according to the System’s deduced data, the planet’s form and environment were perfect.
It was in no way inferior to the Xuanhuang Star he remembered. Still, the emergence of life required time.
The System’s deduction projected a timeframe of about one hundred million years.
According to what he’d been taught, the flow of time inside the Awakened Space was the same as in the real world.
In other words, if he were to simply wait for life to appear, it would take over a hundred million years.
Lu Chen couldn’t afford to wait ten lifetimes.
Fortunately, origin energy could accelerate time.
Lu Chen didn’t hesitate.
He expended the remainder of his origin energy.
He began to accelerate time within the Awakened Space.
He pushed the flow of time until it reached a staggering ratio of one trillion to one.
So long as one had enough origin energy, the acceleration was theoretically infinite.
But very few people would ever dare do such a thing.
Other planets were fragile, artificial ecosystems.
Forget acceleration; they required constant, daily maintenance.
The slightest unforeseen accident could cause the entire ecosystem to collapse.
There was a cautionary tale about one student. After life emerged on his planet, he neglected it for just a few days. The result was a total ecological collapse that wiped out all life.
This caused the planet to degenerate, turning it into a dead star.
The student was stripped of his title as a planet master, reduced to the status of a commoner.
During this period of extreme acceleration, the entire planet underwent a drastic transformation.
Over the course of a hundred million years, the sun shone relentlessly upon the planet’s surface.
The surface temperature slowly rose to incredible highs. The crust began to shift and move.
In the sky, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled.
Thick clouds coalesced, and torrential rains fell. The very shape of the continents changed dramatically.
In the small ocean, the water temperature remained high.
Various gases began to appear.
Reducing gases like carbon monoxide, hydrogen, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide filled the primordial atmosphere.
These gases combined to form organic molecules.
As more time passed, some small organic compounds began to dehydrate.
They gradually synthesized proteins.
Through thermal polymerization, the small molecules formed organic polymers like proteins, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids.
Protein was the primary substance that constituted living organisms.
Polysaccharides and sugars formed the skeletons of many cells and were the main components of the cell wall.
And then there was nucleic acid, the genetic material itself.
These organic macromolecules began to evolve into primitive single cells.
These were the three stages of life’s birth—
First, gases synthesized small organic molecules.
Second, small organic molecules synthesized organic polymers.
Third, organic polymers evolved into primitive, single-celled life.
It sounded simple. But for it to occur naturally was as improbable as the scattered parts in a junkyard spontaneously assembling themselves into a working car.
It could only be described as a miracle of cosmic proportions.
Even with the System’s help, this process still took a hundred million years.
Of course, at a time-flow rate of one trillion to one, less than an hour had passed in the outside world.
In a warm, primeval ocean, the planet’s very first life form stirred.