When Li mentioned that Four Continents had its own consciousness, Zhang Ze wasn't surprised at all.

After all, he had seen the infant-like Four Continents when he was in the sky.

He was just curious about how this consciousness was generated.

"Has this ever happened before?"

Zhang Ze looked towards Li, who theoretically should be knowledgeable."

Li said, "There are quite a few conscious planets, but none quite like Four Continents."

Zhang Ze asked, "How so?"

Li, in its elongated form, shook its body, recalling the ancestors' 40k battle records.

"There once was a group of cosmic bugs, their mother nest almost as big as a small planet. Although highly intelligent, their defense was much inferior to civilizations of the same level. A barrage was enough to penetrate them.

"Then there was a bunch of half-mechanical fools who transformed their planet into a supercomputer, worshipping it as a deity.

"Although this group of lunatics continued to provoke the Empire, our leader never paid attention to them because he thought they were crazy, until..."

"Until your boss finally got annoyed and dismantled their homes?" Zhang Ze interjected.

Li shook its head, "Nope, we didn't even fight them; those machines played themselves to death."

Zhang Ze, "?"

Li didn't look at Zhang Ze's expression, just continued speaking.

"According to the records of the time, that night the leader was stargazing under the moon with his wife, discussing the Empire's future, when he suddenly got a hunch.

"The next day, messages came from an imperial observation outpost that those fools were assembling an apocalyptic cannon to launch a holy war against the Empire's border station.

"Whether it was a barrel burst or overclocking, their mechanical planet exploded from within, and... they all died."

Zhang Ze, "..."

Because Zhang Ze was an only child, he couldn't quite empathize with the passionate cosmic family dynamics, where foolish children abound.

Li rambled on for a while before steering the conversation back to their Newborn plan.

"Whether it's growing a creature to the size of a planet, or transformation or fusion, it usually takes a century-long process, but Four Continents is different; it was a consciousness that manifested instantaneously."

As Zhang Ze and Li continued talking, the world in their dreams began accelerating.

With the accelerated planetary transformation, Four Continents acquired an atmosphere, water, geological stability, and all essentials for the birth of life were prepared.

Meanwhile, starships fused with Amber Dragons began to shrink slowly.

The biomass naturally degraded as it was consumed or directly disposed of in the furnace.

The mutated metal ship hulls and the internal equipment were dismantled, converted into various machinery and dwellings.

With each starship as a center, diverse settlements rooted themselves on Four Continents.

Those Amber Dragons that once traversed the star seas now only had their core parts roaring, providing energy for each settlement.

The exiled species that finally landed began following their initial plans, reconstructing the desolate but hopeful new world.

During this period, Li was very busy, transforming into a square-shaped express freight king, shuttling back and forth between settlements to transport and transfer resources.

Zhang Ze stood at high altitude watching, feeling as if civilization was played out like a game - both illusory and real.

As the range of settlements expanded and facilities improved, creatures from various exiled species donned bizarre protective suits and left the ecological warehouses and shelters.

The second stage of the Newborn Plan began.

The exiled species extracted precious seeds from their homeland, scattering modified ones across this barren land.

Not every seed would grow, but there would always be resilient life breaking through the hard soil, adapting to this new earth.

While enriching Four Continents' ecosystem, they also began making frequent trips between the shelters on the ground and the few starships remaining in the sky. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Each time they returned, some would stay forever on the starship, while few would descend from the starship.

"What's going on?" Zhang Ze asked.

Li said, "Isolation, to prevent newborns from being contaminated."

Zhang Ze asked, "Isolation?"

"Yes." Li nodded.

"Although the universe around Four Continents is relatively stable compared to others, it's still influenced by Earth Sea.

"The layer of atmosphere can't completely ward off fluctuations from Earth Sea.

"So, we set up seven ecological pods underground in seven suitable settlements.

"With some minor genetic engineering assistance, we iterated generations of newborns across species, using accelerated human methods to quickly select the next generation that can adapt to Four Continents' environment."

Li gently said, "Inheritance is the old dying and the new growing."

It carried Zhang Ze as they descended, flying over a settlement.

Zhang Ze looked down, and the scene that once entered Li's eyes began reappearing in front of him.

...

A circular dome building covered with amber crystals.

The hydraulic door of the building slowly opened; as the gas was expelled, a man in tight clothing walked out.

From the looks of it, he was an adult male from East Asia of Blue Star, with no miscellaneous horns or tails.

He instinctively took a deep breath, but probably due to the unusual air, he couldn't help but cough.