Chapter 2131 - 1692: Incremental Feedback Increasing

Chapter 2131: Chapter 1692: Incremental Feedback Increasing

Negris hadn’t entered the Space-Time Domain for a very long time. If it came in now and saw what the domain looked like, its eyeballs would probably fall out.

In the past, the Space-Time Domain held only the Space-Time Chessboard, drifting alone in pitch-black emptiness, surrounded by boundless void—void so pure it did not even contain space.

But now the Space-Time Domain had become a cubic structure centered on the Space-Time Chessboard: nine squares per row, nine rows per layer, nine layers stacked vertically—a nine by nine by nine cube. Subtract the one square occupied by the Chessboard, and there were in total seven hundred and twenty-eight squares, each square a separate world.

Inside these worlds lay every type of terrain Ange had ever seen: mountains carved into terraced fields, deserts covered with mats of grass, even Voids completely paved over with Planting Balls. Every terrain had been planted by Ange with suitable crops.

Even the empty, objectless Void could grow things. At this point the only environment that could still stump Ange was the God Star—of course not the shell-covered or extinguished kind, but those blazing, incandescent God Stars of searing high temperature.

Each square was an independent world, and also a complete world. The crops within could be harvested and eaten, and there were animals and intelligent beings as well.

Different worlds suited different creatures. In the Prime Material Plane, where all Elements were present, lived humans, Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Giant Dragons...

In Abyss Dimensions where the Elements were incomplete, different Abyssal Creatures lived according to the specific traits of each Abyss.

Beyond those Abysses, there were Pure Element Planes with a single Element: water-worlds where the entire Plane was Water Element; Fire Element Planes where the whole world was molten magma; or Earth Element Planes that were nothing but a single colossal lump of earth.

In the Water Element Plane, Ange planted seaweed; in the Fire Element Plane, he planted various Fire Element Magic Plants such as Fire Dragon Fruit, Fire Berries, Fire Flame Grass, and the like.

In the Earth Element Plane, he planted all manner of Earth Element Magic Moss—things that grew just by eating soil, needing neither air nor water. The Magic Moss that sprouted were pure Earth Element crystals, and could be used by Earth Mages directly as Demon Crystals.

No matter how harsh the environment, Ange always had a way to grow something. Once he could grow something, he could raise animals; once he could raise animals, he could sustain intelligent beings.

Whether Element Creatures, Demon Creatures, or even, if nothing else worked, Ancient Gods such as Nightmare Saya—Ange could even support Star Descendants. There was nothing he couldn’t keep alive.

Among the Square Worlds of the Space-Time Domain, there were also environments of pure God Stars: on a burning God Star, shell-fragments floated, each fragment like a piece of Land, with innumerable Star Descendants living upon them in a state of exuberant vitality, all things thriving and bursting forth.

Yet all of that was only an illusion, because Star Descendants didn’t need food; they only needed to bask in the Sun to grow continuously.

Large Star Descendants and small Star Descendants had no fundamental conflict, so aside from lying flat to sunbathe or diving into the Star Flame for a swim or two, Star Descendants had no other entertainment.

Previously, Ange hadn’t thought this was a problem, since you could plant the Tree of Ten Thousand Realms on God Stars, and Ancient Vines as well, and even plant Deceit Trees on the floating shells. Although none of these counted as "crops" proper.

Deceit Trees and Parasitic Vines could be grafted with many other plants, and the leaves of the Tree of Ten Thousand Realms could host numerous beings. With a God Star present, the flora and fauna that could be raised here were far richer and more vibrant than on any Plane; the only thing lacking vitality was the Star Descendants themselves.

Star Descendants were entirely optional. Lania’s body carried almost no Star Descendants—only a very small number on occasion.

Many God Stars had no Star Descendants at all, because they considered Star Descendants worthless: noisy little things that just clamored and made a fuss on their surface.

Of course, that had been Ange’s view before today. After the matter of the Star Forger, if memory-information could be used to inflate Demon Crystals and generate extra feedback out of nothing, then the value of Star Descendants might surpass that of all other beings.

Now all that was needed was a series of controlled experiments to verify whether Durken’s hypothesis held.

However, in such a leisurely, idle state, there was no way to obtain meaningful control data. Ange couldn’t possibly infuse every individual Star Descendant with memory one by one—that would be an immense project with heavy consumption.

When Ange had personally tried it before, he’d needed to use time reversal several times, and such expenditure wouldn’t be compensated even if the feedback were increased tenfold.

Ange needed a method that was simpler, more efficient, and more automatic.

He first created some Flame Grass, Star Descendants condensed from the surface of the Star Flame, like Little Grass. Inside every Rock Grass sprout was a tiny grain of White Crystal.

These tiny White Crystals originally did not exist. Whether Void-level or the lowest rank, all their White Crystals were identical in size, which was why no Flame Grass-sized objects could be found on God Stars.

But Ange arrived, and tiny White Crystals appeared; he simply Manifested them directly.

The consumption required to Manifest a normal-sized White Crystal was enough to Manifest tens of thousands of these tiny White Crystals.

He polluted them once with information about Flame Grass, then scattered them across the God Star; they naturally grew into the form of Flame Grass.

Next came a larger, herbivorous class of Star Descendant, with correspondingly larger tiny White Crystals, polluted with Imprints of different grazing "animal" types, and set to graze upon the Flame Grass.

Previously such grazing behavior didn’t make sense, because Star Descendants didn’t need to eat grass; eating grass brought no benefit, and Advanced Star Descendants couldn’t grow stronger by devouring low-level Star Descendants.

So unless there was deep-seated hatred, Star Descendants wouldn’t actively attack their own kind.

But with Ange’s intervention, there was now profit to be had.

Each Rock Grass sprout held a tiny White Crystal inscribed with massive amounts of information. The herbivorous Star Descendants, by eating this Flame Grass, absorbed the embedded memories and swelled their own memory volume to a critical threshold.

Once the opportunity arrived, they could undergo metamorphosis, expanding their originally one-size-larger tiny White Crystal to two sizes larger; their strength would grow as the White Crystal increased.

In this way, herbivorous Star Descendants gained motivation to graze on Flame Grass.

With herbivorous Star Descendants established, carnivorous Star Descendants naturally followed; Ange created another batch of two-sizes-larger tiny White Crystals and set them to hunt those herbivorous Star Descendants.

Once carnivorous Star Descendants existed, there ought to be intelligent Star Descendants as well, so Ange created a third batch of three-sizes-larger tiny White Crystals.

By using White Crystals of different specifications, Ange established a complete ecological chain on the surface of the God Star, and then, drawing on various biological traits, arranged natural enemies.

To evade predators and avoid being eaten, even Flame Grass began to learn how to survive, and soon differentiated into multiple forms.

There were grasses, mosses, vines, and trees, and some even shed Ange’s created Imprints, instead seeking suitable forms from the Consciousness Fragments within the Star Flame.

Ange tossed in several hundred million tiny White Crystals, and in short order, bizarre and diverse Flame Grass sprouted everywhere.

Recognizing this, Ange stopped inscribing Imprints and simply threw blank tiny White Crystals into the God Star. They quickly grew into different shapes on their own.

Ange inscribed a single Law into all the White Crystals: White Crystals cannot be eaten. Bite them and you spit them out; swallow them and you die.

With this Law in place, neither herbivorous nor carnivorous Star Descendants would damage the White Crystals. They would only devour the consciousness and memory within, while the expelled White Crystals drifted in the heart-eye for a time, then gave birth to new Flame Grass—thus forming a cycle, endless and self-sustaining.

For survival and for the hunt, the subjective initiative of every Star Descendant in the ecological chain was driven to the extreme.

If they failed to grow stronger, they would be absorbed by others. Even the lowest-level Flame Grass strained every nerve to absorb Consciousness Fragments from the Star Flame; if they could awaken the memories inside those fragments, they too could enlarge their smallest White Crystals.

Once everything was arranged, Ange realized he no longer needed to intervene. The Star Descendants could continue to grow by themselves, each finding its own path.

As this growth proceeded, the incremental feedback the entire God Star could provide kept increasing without end.