The Milano had enough supplies stored, so there was no need to worry about Star-Lord and the others running out of food if they waited too long.
Ethan stayed where Ego's core had originally been, quietly collecting the surrounding energy.
This energy carried Ego's mental imprint. To ensure no issues arose, Ethan performed detailed and complex cleaning and filtering on every portion of energy he collected, making sure no fragments of Ego's mind or soul remnants were hidden within it.
Even if it meant losing more energy, it didn't matter. If these things were hidden in the energy, they would still be a huge threat even if not absorbed into his body.
It turned out Ethan's caution wasn't useless. There were indeed fragments of Ego's mind remaining in the energy.
Although these mental fragments were very scattered and almost impossible to restore to their original state, they could potentially become a seed. Even if they couldn't revive Ego, they could grow into a new life form.
This life form couldn't be considered Ego, but it would possess Ego's memories and certainly wouldn't have a good impression of Ethan, who had caused the death of its predecessor.
In other words, if Ethan hadn't been collecting and cleaning here, perhaps after an unknown number of years, a mortal enemy of his would have been born in this place.
Of course, it was also possible that due to the energy dissipating too quickly, these mental fragments wouldn't have enough energy protection and would eventually vanish completely.
Ethan didn't think this world lacked energy, and who knew if these mental fragments might encounter other special circumstances and be reborn faster?
Being able to take this opportunity for a thorough cleanup and avoid future trouble was, all in all, a good thing.
Therefore, in addition to collecting the dissipating energy, Ethan also used some mental fragments to attract other fragments hidden in the surrounding energy, eliminating these Ego remnants as much as possible.
As a result, the time he spent collecting energy was compressed, and he was able to collect less energy.
However, he also gained other benefits. Ego's mental fragments were not useless; they contained some of Ego's memories and some experience in using energy.
Ethan didn't care much about energy application techniques and the like. Having been a mage for so many years, his main practice was controlling energy. While Ego's control over energy wasn't bad, it wasn't necessarily more advanced than the techniques Ethan had mastered.
What truly interested Ethan was Ego's experience and memories as a planet.
Ego had created a real planet almost from nothing, and the specific process was highly instructive.
Not only was Ethan preparing to condense a magic planet in his mental world, but Ego's understanding of planets also allowed Ethan to understand this world more perfectly.
It could even be said that Ethan's greatest gain from this trip was this experience, which was far more useful than the vast amount of energy.
Once he was certain that these memories had been perfectly stripped and extracted by him, free from any of Ego's mental fragments, he began attempting to use this knowledge to adjust his magic world.
The mental land began to converge into a core, and after the boundless sea of magic enveloped the core, its form also began to change.
Over the years, through learning various knowledge and analyzing various energy compositions, Ethan had accumulated a considerable amount, but it had never truly transformed into the magic planet he envisioned. It seemed to be missing something.
Ego's experience became the key to breaking through that final barrier.
Perhaps without Ego's experience, Ethan could have achieved this himself after some more time, but it certainly wouldn't have been as easy as it was now.
Ego's life form became a perfect reference. Ethan now had a clear template in his mind for what needed to be done when condensing a planet, what problems might be encountered, and how to solve them.
More importantly, the key to Ego's planet condensation was also energy, which perfectly matched Ethan's situation. Therefore, the birth of the magic planet was very smooth, and in just one week, Ethan's mental world underwent a tremendous change.
Now Ethan's mental world was like a void, with a brilliant blue planet at the very center of this void, constantly inhaling and exhaling magic fluctuations.
Ethan had originally wanted to condense a magic planet, but due to special circumstances, this magic planet seemed closer to a star.
This had no impact on Ethan. In fact, his original goal was also a star. A planet was merely a transitional option he considered, worried that his magic might not be strong enough.
According to Ethan's previous thoughts, the birth of a magic star meant that the magic universe he had originally conceived had taken shape.
Continuing in this direction, he would first let this magic star steadily increase its energy level. After it became a sufficiently strong star, he would condense new planets around it, forming a galaxy orbiting this star.
At the same time, condensing new planets could be done using specific attributes, which would help Ethan analyze and master certain energy attributes. He could even create an energy attribute he hadn't mastered into a separate star, slowly understanding its nature within his mental universe.
The next step would be to turn all these planets into stars, and then into new galaxies.
Repeating this process to increase the number of stars would eventually form a vast galaxy of countless stars.
After reaching a certain scale, it could continue to split into more galaxies. At this point, Ethan's dream of a mental universe would truly take shape.
What level his strength would reach then, he didn't know himself. Perhaps a snap of his fingers (why a snap again?) could annihilate a cosmic plane?
"Thinking a bit too far ahead."
Regardless, the first planet of the mental universe was finally born. This sense of joy was second only to the times Ethan finally cast magic with his own power and became a true mage, and when he confirmed he had transmigrated and had a golden finger.
The birth of the magic planet not only meant an increase in strength but also that the improvement in magic level would feed back into his body, further raising his life level.
He had previously raised his life level through potions, barely qualifying as a demigod.
Now, he could be called a true demigod or even a god, and among gods, he was in the stronger tier.
Besides this, there were other scattered benefits.
For example, magic would slowly transform his body, causing it to evolve once again.
Resistances such as cold and heat tolerance increased significantly, reducing environmental requirements. Environments that previously required him to release some magic to protect himself could now no longer cause him any negative effects, the most typical example being his ability to survive in space.
Of course, this referred to the perfect state after the magic's enhancement of Ethan's body was complete. At present, he had just raised his magic level, and the transformation of his body had just begun. He still needed to rely on magic to protect himself to survive in space.
In addition, Ethan's own mental universe would continuously generate vast amounts of magic, not only satisfying his own needs and maintaining his existence but also ensuring prolonged mana output.
This was the biggest advantage of Ethan's training method, his various needs from the external world would become increasingly low.
Opening his eyes again, Ethan let out a long breath. Looking at the collected, purified, and compressed energy in his hand, Ethan stored it in a specialized container.
As Ethan's magic level increased, his speed of collecting energy significantly accelerated in the final stage, and he actually collected more energy than he had planned.
He didn't plan to use this energy to make any magic items. He intended to add it all to his mental universe.
Although there were many impurities in the energy, with the birth of the mental universe, these impurities would no longer have a negative impact on Ethan.
In the past, Ethan's magic was weak, its attributes were singular, and his mental strength wasn't strong enough, so he was easily affected by the nature of energy.
Now it was different. Ethan, who had condensed into a magic star, no longer had to worry about these issues. As long as he didn't foolishly absorb too much energy at once and burst, there would be no more trouble with attribute pollution or similar problems.
In fact, these impurities had become beneficial to Ethan, as they increased the diversity within the mental universe. Those potentially unfavorable negative effects, with the magic star's energy intake and output and the continuous circulation of magic within the mental universe, would also be transformed into part of the universe.
However, now was not the time to do these things. Star-Lord and the others were still waiting for him, and his mental universe had just taken shape and needed time to stabilize. The best time to infuse energy and increase the universe's diversity would be after it had stabilized.
Looking around, Ethan found that the cave he had been in no longer existed. He was standing on a rock about two meters in diameter, surrounded by floating rocks of various sizes and dust. Ego's planet had completely turned into cosmic dust.
After orienting himself, Ethan quickly located Star-Lord. Ethan's mirror clone had long since been dismissed, but he had left magic marks on Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon beforehand.
Ethan didn't cast any teleportation magic this time. He simply took a light step forward. Once the step was firm and his body moved forward, he had already arrived inside the Milano.
"Oh, sh*t! How did you just pop out?"
In the past, when Ethan cast teleportation spells, there would be noticeable signs like a blue light door. This method, however, of seemingly appearing directly from the void, had no sign at all, and he suddenly just appeared in front of them.
"My apologies. Next time, I'll send a signal beforehand."
(To be continued.)
***
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