With the ocean now populated by microscopic organisms, Zhou Fan could move on to the next step. Before that, there was one more thing to do. Create an atmosphere.
The planet was completely lacking any sort of atmosphere whatsoever. There wasn't even air on the planet. If Zhou Fan wanted to make lifeforms similar to humans, they would need to breathe.
However, Zhou Fan wasn't sure how to create an atmosphere. He had seen earths atmosphere, but he hadn't paid any attention to it. Therefore, he would attempt to make an array that would fulfill that purpose. It would keep space out and keep air in, while still allowing other things to pass through it such as sunlight and humans.
Making it like that would also allow meteors to come through, so Zhou Fan considered making the array automatically defend against world ending catastrophes. Zhou Fan wasn't too sure if he wanted to do that, so he would simply build the array and maybe add a defense function afterwards.
Zhou Fan flew into the air and pointed his finger at the ground. As he did so, a blue light flew out of the tip of his finger. As soon as that light hit the ground, it flew apart like a drop of water and soaked into the ground.
Once the light was completely absorbed, lines of blue light started to cover the ground, forming a pattern only Zhou Fan understood. It first covered a small area before it expanded to a continent and finally the world.
Once the lines of blue light covered the entire ground, Zhou Fan pointed once again, then 5 more times until there were six places he pointed. Those places were the farthest points up, down, north, east, south, and west of the world.
A whirl formed at those points and six lights of blue light shot towards the core of the planet. It took mere seconds to reach the molten core of the world. Unlike earths, there was nothing special about this core. The lines shot into the core, piercing it, before they finally came to a stop, sticking out like a sword.
With that done, the array was finished. An invisible dome started to form on the world's surface before expanding upwards. It went past Zhou Fan and eventually stopped around 100 miles in the air.
As the final act of the first step, Zhou Fan waved his hand and an unimaginable amount of breathable air filled the world. The trees would recycle the oxygen and a cycle of air would keep the planet liveable.
As for what would keep the array powered, Zhou Fan hesitated for a while before he filled his sword with Qi and stabbed it into the planet's core. Although he liked it, he could always make another sword. It wasn't unique or anything.
With the amount of Qi he put in, the atmosphere array would last a hundred thousand years without any interference. The amount of Qi the array used was tiny.
As for after that, if the new species weren't able to maintain their own planet after a hundred thousand years, they could die for all Zhou Fan cared. It would be shameful to Zhou Fans name if a race he created was so weak.
With everything ready, Zhou Fan moved on to step 2. He grabbed out with his hand and lifted up a lake of water out of the ocean. He then made a hole in the center of the land and dropped it there. That area would be where he evolved the microscopic organisms into actual animals.
He started off by filling the entire lake with life Qi. The organisms started to reproduce and evolve at an extreme rate. However, they were taking too long. At the current speed, it would take ten thousand years to even get an insect.
Therefore, Zhou Fan grabbed a handful of water and retracted his powers. Instead of covering a large area, he would concentrate his Qi onto the water in the palm of his hand.
Zhou Fan covered his entire hand with half of all the Qi in his reserve. The amount of life Qi caused the organisms to reproduce at a rate in which a normal person couldn't even comprehend. In just an hour, they had reached an incredible state of evolution. At that point, they couldn't improve any further. Zhou Fan stared as they continued to repeat.
Even with all his Qi, these organisms would still take another year to get other forms such as an insect or a bird. Therefore, Zhou fan stopped supplying Qi and simply sat there, staring at the water in his hand.
After thinking for a while, Zhou Fan got an idea. He made the water float in the air which freed up his hands. He then filled the tip of his left pointer finger with all the life Qi he could muster, and cut it off. The finger, filled with life Qi and Zhou Fan's vitality, dropped into the floating water. Zhou Fan regenerated his finger and held the water once again.
Zhou Fan watched as the previously uncooperating organisms started to devour his finger. He dissolved the finger into the water so that they could do so easier. He then threw the handful of water back into the lake. This action caused his dissolved finger to become a part of the entire lake.
Although small, his finger held enough power to destroy an entire planet. Even the tip of it would be more than enough to fill the lake. The evolved microorganisms started to change rapidly with the addition of his finger.
They grouped up together and started to form other things. In mere minutes, a fish was swimming in the lake. In an hour, an entire ecosystem filled the lake. It was even expanding. Zhou Fan took a fourth of the lake's water and threw it into the ocean. Although the lake would be the main point of life creation, the ocean would now be able to do the same.