In the cosmic space.

Lu Li gazed at the vast and distant stars.

Feeling the "true self flame" within him, seemingly striving to "burn".

But unfortunately, due to the lack of vast energy, it couldn’t grow from a "small flame" into a "sea of fire".

He knew this was due to a lack of energy, which was an easily solvable issue.

By directly absorbing energy from the outside, or having the "Yang God" clones deliver the collected energy.

Lu Li sensed that absorbing an energy amount equivalent to what the Sun releases over twenty billion years would completely ignite the "true self flame".

This required energy amount is double the current energy storage within him.

Yes, although his energy assimilation ratio increased from sixty percent to eighty percent, spending an unknown number of Sun’s worth of energy in the process, all of that energy had been used to enhance his physical body.

In fact, the energy storage increase wasn’t significant, reaching from approximately zero point four of a Sun to about one Sun.

About a 1.5 times increase.

"What will happen if the ’true self flame’ is ignited?"

Lu Li didn’t know for sure at the moment, but he clearly understood one thing: it was a necessary condition for completing the sixth deep evolution, or else he would forever be stuck between the fifth and sixth deep evolution.

According to Xianxia novels.

He is currently at the "half-step" sixth deep evolution.

"Summon the ’Yang God’ clones back to supplement energy and give it a try."

Without hesitation, Lu Li summoned the nearest "Yang God" No. 1 to bring him some energy.

The next moment, a golden light flashed through the boundless universe.

"Yang God" No. 1 had already crossed hundreds of thousands of kilometers to arrive.

Lu Li immediately absorbed "Yang God" No. 1 into his body, without directly absorbing the collected energy.

Because what he could store was just this much, any more would "overflow".

As he continually grew stronger, the "Yang God" clones also grew stronger.

Currently, "Yang God" No. 1 can carry up to the equivalent of zero point two of a Sun’s vast energy at once.

After all, it needs to leave five percent of the total energy he can store to sustain itself.

Hence, Lu Li certainly couldn’t absorb all the energy.

Only absorb fifteen percent.

Which is zero point one five of a Sun’s energy.

He didn’t rush to absorb.

Lu Li concentrated all the energy stored within him onto the "true self flame" as fuel.

With a whoosh!

The "true self flame" suddenly expanded, spreading towards his entire body.

Lu Li hurriedly absorbed the energy from "Yang God" No. 1 during this time, trying to continue the augment.

Hmm, absorbing the energy from the "Yang God" clones takes a few seconds, around four or five seconds to complete.

He soon finished absorbing.

Gathered the newfound power again.

Aiming to help the "true self flame" ignite to its peak.

Something astonishing happened.

He had just gathered the fifteen percent energy delivered by "Yang God" No. 1 when the fast-expanding "true self flame" suddenly shrank back!

The energy that served as "fuel" returned "the same way it came".

Lu Li was dumbfounded, "Huh, what’s going on?"

Could it be that igniting the "true self flame" must be completed within a fixed timeframe?

Lu Li recalled carefully, "Ten seconds, I have only ten seconds. If I can gather an amount of energy double my storage within ten seconds, I can ignite the ’true self flame’; exceeding this time won’t work."

This made him feel troubled.

The energy quantity he can store is approximately equivalent to what the Sun releases over ten billion years.

And a single "Yang God" clone can carry a maximum energy amount equivalent to what the Sun releases over two billion years.

Moreover, he can’t absorb everything, needing to leave "five hundred million years" energy for the "Yang God" to maintain its structure.

If there were no time limit.

He could summon several "Yang God" clones to supplement energy.

Continuing until reaching the energy equivalent to what the Sun releases over twenty billion years.

But the ten-second limit meant he could only absorb the energy of two "Yang God" clones at most in this time.

Even if Lu Li drained the energy of two "Yang God" clones completely.

He could only add the amount equivalent to what the Sun releases over four billion years.

Short by six billion years of energy.

"Unless I find a reliable energy source, completely absorbing it into my body within ten seconds, only then could potentially complete the last step of the sixth deep evolution."

It must be pure energy.

It cannot be absorbed through matter annihilation.

Because matter annihilation is a process and takes some time.

Within ten seconds, it’s impossible to annihilate and obtain an energy amount equivalent to one Sun.

Take "Yang God" clones for example, each of them collecting equivalent to zero point two of a Sun’s energy, taking about half an hour.

Even though I am several times more powerful than the "Sun God" avatar, it still takes six minutes to annihilate a large amount of matter to gather energy as massive as the sun’s.

Lu Li couldn’t help but look in the direction of the distant sun.

In the end, he still shook his head, "If I absorb the sun, the solar system will be doomed."

Besides, he understood that the sun didn’t possess such an enormous amount of energy all at once.

It is constantly undergoing nuclear fusion, releasing massive energy.

So, wanting to rely on absorbing the sun to instantly obtain the total energy released by a sun over ten billion years is actually completely unrealistic.

"Currently I have two methods to meet the required conditions."

Lu Li pondered, "First, I can evolve naturally. Presumably, I will become increasingly stronger, eventually reaching the point of storing energy equivalent to two suns, and then I can succeed in one fell swoop."

He didn’t know how long it would take to evolve to such a degree.

So, in the short term, relying on this method to ignite the "Flame of True Self" seems unrealistic.

"The second method is more reliable."

Lu Li’s gaze flickered slightly.

"Find an energy source equivalent to the total energy a sun releases in ten billion years."

Normally, he might need to search in cosmic space for supernova explosions, gamma-ray bursts, and so on.

But now there’s no need for such trouble.

According to his previous "foreknowledge of the future" prediction.

In a few days, a gamma-ray burst will visit the solar system.

And it will continuously irradiate Mercury for ten seconds, or Earth for eight seconds.

The energy released by a gamma-ray burst per second is roughly equivalent to 0.15 of a sun.

0.15 multiplied by eight seconds is 1.2.

That is, the energy released during the gamma-ray burst’s irradiation of Earth is roughly equivalent to the total energy a sun releases in twelve billion years.

With such a calculation, plus he stored approximately the energy of one sun, it not only satisfies the conditions to ignite the "Flame of True Self" but also leaves excess!

Realizing this, Lu Li suddenly felt a mix of crying and laughter.

More than twenty days ago, when he first foresaw a gamma-ray burst visiting the solar system, he thought it was a world-ending disaster, worried about how to save humanity.

But more than twenty days passed, and when he entered "half-step" the sixth deep evolution, he found that the gamma-ray burst was like a "mobile power source," whether he could successfully complete the sixth deep evolution depended on it!

He thought of a solution.

Yet Lu Li found himself in a slightly awkward position.

Not long ago, when leaving Earth, he brazenly declared to eighty billion people worldwide that he would be pleased to see those "low-level beings" perish under the gamma-ray burst’s power and wouldn’t intervene to save them.

But now he had no choice but to save Earth.

Because he needed to absorb the gamma-ray burst’s energy to complete the sixth deep evolution.

Well, it’s not impossible not to save them.

The problem is, if he doesn’t save, who knows how long it would take to find an "energy source" in the cosmic space?

Or how long it would take to be capable of storing the energy of two suns?

Therefore, Lu Li knew that absorbing the gamma-ray burst was the simplest, which indirectly saves the world.

"Would it be too embarrassing to go back on my words now?"

Lu Li felt a bit helpless.

If he had known that the sixth deep evolution required absorbing the gamma-ray burst’s energy, he surely wouldn’t have spoken so resolutely.

Now it’s come to this.

Absorbing it would be embarrassing.

Not absorbing it might mean unable to complete the sixth deep evolution in the short term.

He’s very conflicted.

"No, I must absorb the energy of the gamma-ray burst."

Lu Li’s gaze gradually became firm.

"How could I miss such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?"

This is an opportunity to shorten my evolutionary process.

He’s no fool, why make things difficult for himself?

"As for the embarrassment..."

Lu Li’s lips involuntarily curled into a smile, "As long as they are willing to beg me to save the world, in the end, I could appear ’soft-hearted,’ not only avoiding embarrassment but perhaps also garnering gratitude from all eighty billion people on Earth!"

Yes, he had thought of how to act in a way that would allow him to absorb the gamma-ray burst’s massive energy without embarrassment.

He believed, as long as they are sane, they surely wouldn’t want to perish.

People begging him to save the world should be a matter of course.

The problem was solved.

Lu Li felt extremely relieved, "Although it’s been ten days outside, I’m in no rush to return to Earth; let’s first test out how enormous the enhancement from the ’half-step’ sixth deep evolution is."

He was especially looking forward to it.

After all, his current travel speed is already several times the speed of light.

Then other aspects of enhancement must be even more substantial.

Therefore, Lu Li was determined to know to what terrifying extent his current strength had reached.

Besides, after completing the "half-step" sixth deep evolution, he had sensed that he developed some profoundly mysterious and super powerful "superpowers."

For example...wormhole jumping!