These mountain giants are sparsely distributed, often appearing only once every several thousand miles, and they vary in strength. However, they all lack intelligence, acting solely on instinct. They will attack any life form that comes near them.
However, these special life forms often carry treasures, such as sacred stones that help with cultivation or materials useful for refining tools. As long as these special life forms are killed, the treasures can be obtained.
The avatar then set new rules: each time one of these life forms dies, a new one will randomly be reborn somewhere in the Divine Realm. This way, these life forms will never be completely exterminated, nor will their numbers increase, thus preventing overpopulation.
To truly resolve the issue of these powerful life forms, the only solution is to suppress them and prevent them from dying; only then will they not be reborn.
Suppression is far more difficult than killing, requiring truly formidable power.
Next, the avatar created a new type of genderless creature. Their reproduction relies on infection. If one of these creatures kills a life form with poison, that life form will give birth to a new creature of the same type within its body. The process happens quickly, making these creatures a disaster.
This way, those in the Divine Realm who might be inclined to slack off would find it much harder.
...
The main body of Fang Yuan and Wang Yuanyuan went to watch a movie, went shopping, visited an amusement park, and traveled to many places.
Wang Yuanyuan had a great time. Fang Yuan, perhaps due to his "mature" mindset, did enjoy himself but didn't find it particularly fun. However, it was a good way to relax.
By evening, they parted ways, and Wang Yuanyuan reluctantly returned to school.
Back at the shop, Fang Yuan immersed himself in the steel ball world. He needed to further improve it.
Since its creation, the steel ball world had given rise to many ghost-like beings. These beings, no matter how powerful a mortal's destructive force, could not be killed.
Fang Yuan was surprised to find that in the places where these ghost-like beings resided, their mental energy seemed to create an illusory space, like another world.
This space could pull a person's consciousness into it. If a person's mind was killed within that space, the person would die without leaving any physical wounds.
These creatures had now spread throughout the steel ball world, the vast majority of them born from the life forms that perished in the previous "calamity of literature."
Some still retained memories from their past lives, while others were driven purely by a thirst for slaughter, feeding on human minds, absorbing Yang energy, or absorbing negative emotions like fear to increase their power.
Fang Yuan spent eight years observing the steel ball world and eventually realized a key characteristic of these special life forms: they seemed to be akin to obsessions, not truly alive. They could be considered products of a certain calamity, related to it, but they were not directly affected by the power of that calamity. They were more like an evolution of world rules.
"These ghostly beings are too numerous, and they will affect the development of the mortal world. It's better to send them to another place!"
Fang Yuan used his mind to cover the entire world and set a rule: whenever two of these ghostly beings came close to each other, their mental spaces would merge.
As more and more of these ghostly beings' spaces merged, they gradually formed a vast, unified mental space.
As that mental space expanded, it began to develop its own rules, and outside that enormous mental space, there was a membrane-like barrier formed by the fusion of the mental energy of all the ghostly beings, preventing them from leaving the space.
As the mental space grew larger, it eventually covered the entire world. This mental space became omnipresent, overlapping with both the mortal and divine realms.
Over time, the rules of this mental space became increasingly refined, beginning to influence both the mortal and divine realms. Consequently, any ghostly beings in either realm would be summoned to this space. Ghosts with intelligence might resist the summon, but those without intelligence would involuntarily enter.
Even the souls of those who died later, once transformed into these immortal obsessions and ghostly beings, would sense the call of this mental space and enter it.
Fang Yuan named this all-encompassing mental space the "Underworld."
The Underworld is an independent realm, separate from both the mortal and divine realms. It is a world for the dead, and only the dead can enter it.
Or rather, only spirits can enter; living people can only enter in spirit form and will be suppressed by the rules inside, their power greatly diminished.
Since the Underworld is a mental space, physical objects are generally hard to bring in, unless one uses special magical items.
Once the Underworld fully integrated with the steel ball world, it stopped expanding. Ghostly beings entering after this only contributed to strengthening the Underworld's rules but did not cause it to expand further.
As the rules of the Underworld grew stronger, the membrane-like barrier became more resilient. It became harder for the special beings of the Underworld to leave.
This special realm was guided into existence by Fang Yuan. It wasn't something he created from scratch, but because it was now part of his world, he could fully control it.
In the Underworld, there are mountains and rivers, lakes and seas—everything the mortal world has. However, everything here is gray. The blood of any "creature" is gray.
The sky is gray, the earth is gray, and only human skin color remains normal.
As the rules of the Underworld developed, Fang Yuan was astonished to find that the ghostly beings, which had no intelligence and were only capable of killing in the mortal and divine realms, gradually began to awaken in the Underworld. They started to recall memories from their previous lives.
They even developed physical bodies here, which appeared similar to flesh and blood. Or perhaps, this was their true physical form in this world.
The beings in the Underworld, compared to those in the mortal and divine realms, are illusory, almost like spiritual entities. But within the Underworld, they have physical forms and can evolve, reproduce, or even consume each other to grow stronger, all in accordance with the unique rules of the Underworld.
In the tenth year after Fang Yuan entered the steel ball world, the Underworld began to grow unique plants that could be used by the Underworld's creatures.
A completely new dimension was born, making the overall power of the steel ball world stronger and its rules more refined. This, in turn, enhanced Fang Yuan's power in the external world, increasing it by more than double.
"Tsk tsk, the power of the world gods can still be improved like this. I really want to create more worlds!"
While Fang Yuan was pleased, he also felt a bit helpless. The mortal, divine, and Underworld realms were all worlds from Earth's folklore. There were existing patterns to follow, allowing them to be created. However, if he wanted to create other worlds, he wasn't sure how to proceed.
Because even if he created another Underworld, it would merge with the existing one, becoming part of the same dimension. It wouldn't enhance the perfection of the steel ball world.
"Forget it. I'll continue creating if I think of something in the future. This time's harvest is still pretty good."
Fang Yuan smiled slightly and left the steel ball world.
It had only been a little over one night in the outside world, and it was now past six in the afternoon. Xu Xiaomeng had just finished work.
Soon after, Wang Yuanyuan arrived again, bringing two meals.
"Yuanyuan, school's over?" Fang Yuan asked.
"Mm. Fang Yuan, you..." Wang Yuanyuan placed the food on the computer desk and looked at Fang Yuan in confusion.
"What's wrong with me?" Fang Yuan smiled. "Did I get more handsome again?"
"Why do I feel like you're a little different from yesterday?" Wang Yuanyuan furrowed her brows slightly.
Fang Yuan realized that after spending ten years in the steel ball world, it was natural that he had changed, even if only in mindset. He had spent over ten years there, while only a little time had passed in the outside world.
Not thinking too much about it, Fang Yuan invited Wang Yuanyuan to sit and have dinner together.