When he reached the area where the garden was, Xander channeled his abilities and immediately transformed the area of the garden.
The garden now existed in a pocket space with its own semi-independent ordered system, with a balanced amount of types of elements existing, as well as the time flow being 1 second: 180 days by default or 42,608 years per day.
The area where the garden was at previously was now barren, with the ground concaved smoothly, as if something was purposely removed from the ground perfectly. With his current abilities he could maintain the pocket space for nearly 2 centuries before reinforcing it again.
At the same time, the size of the pocket space expanded to up to 10,000,000 square kilometers. The two sprites he first contracted, Sam and Pan, were also transported to this space along with the other sprites and magic beasts seamlessly.
With the same sealing process, only Xander could enter and exit the pocket space. At the same time, it was now something that Xander can bring around conveniently like his spatial storage.
When he entered the garden, he caught the attention of the magic beasts and the sprites living there. For the past 10 days, there were more and more sprites appearing, as ranging from wood, earth/metal, air, and even water sprites appeared, making it look quite crowded.
The sudden expansion surprised and overjoyed the sprites and magic beasts alike, because there were more and more beasts appearing as well. Xander, when he did a brief scan, noticed something weird.
There was a faint concentration of elements appearing above the center of the garden, and when he probed it a bit more, he realized that there was a higher amount of time elements present in this area, making Xander worry a bit.
After all, the phenomenon of concentrating elements with one dominant element meant that a sprite was being developed. He could disturb the growth of the sprite, stop it from forming, to avoid another variable from appearing in the universe, which may hinder his plans.
Xander was conflicted. Although he believed there were time sprites in the wide universe, he didn't expect that he would develop one. He decided to think on the matter of necessity: Does he need a Time sprite? The simple answer is no, because one of him is enough. But a complicated answer would be yes, due to the possible benefits the sprite might bring about in terms of cultivation and whatnot.
After a few seconds of time-accelerated thinking, he decided to destroy it, scattering the concentrating elements.
He sighed at his own cold-heartedness. But it must be done, as it was possible that the sprite he creates will cause problems for him, and even betray him, with the system's calculated chance of 3%.
He didn't even know when the time sprite would be born, which made it a variable. He greeted the sprites and magic beasts that approached him, rubbing their heads and even playing around with them for several days.
A few of the magic beast species that were from bees even gave him sweet, pure honey, which Xander greatly enjoyed eating. He then called for Sam and Pan who were just relaxing tens of meters away, chatting with other sprites.
The two of them were 200,000 year old sprites now, easily achieving Mythic-2 class. The other sprites and magic beasts ranged from those newly born to that of Mythic-1 class, reaching 110,000 years of age. A lot of the magic beasts have reproduced with other magic beasts, creating new species and hybrids.
For the first 2 weeks, he basically instructed them to expand as the area was now roughly 10,000,000 square kilometers. He also instructed them to continue teaching the newborns books relating to maths, business, physics, biology, and chemistry, as well as philosophy, architecture, and agriculture.
He also created a 4-story library where he had placed a total of 20,000 Books related to these topics, where everyone is free to enter and read the books, but aren't allowed to bring them out.
He made it completely out of the Adamantium-Pazril-Carlite Alloy, one of the strongest alloys developed in the Galactic Council. It was easy to get a sample as most fortress planets in the outskirts of the empire had this material already tempered and transformed into a large battle fortress.
He simply scooped out some using space magic, temporally replicated, then reversed time to the pure alloy without modifications, and then placed the untouched copy back without disturbance to the battle fortress, all within a few seconds.
He had to be fast given that there were weird runic mechanisms in place, allowing the commanding center to identify foreign attacks toward the battle fortress' structure.
Touching it with his hand, he surrounded it with multiple restrictions and defense mechanisms, acting as a fortress if ever an invader manages to enter the pocket space and at the same time, a simple library for people to relax and read. The purpose of the library being created is to ensure that newborn sprites, as well as magic beasts, would be learned and smart, not simply hunted for their resources.
However, it wasn't that he wanted them to create their own civilization in this pocket space.
He could actually foresee it: In 4 days time outside, if he doesn't stop them, they would begin to construct natural houses and even create shops, bars, and the like, centering around the "Great Library". After 8 more days, they would have their own currency.
After more 12 days, They would institutionalize their first parliamentary government. To avoid this from happening as he wanted these sprites and magic beasts that he had created to live freely and longer, Xander first created a dimensional rule in this pocket space that within 2 kilometers radius of the library, nothing can be built.
When the rule was implemented, the plants and the other the origins of the sprites were moved away, similar to the magic beast dens formed near it.
He then followed up by raising the idea of them leaving this place. After all, his original intention was when they reached Legendary-3. However, seeing that the people outside, specifically the military men, easily slaughtered these beasts even if they were 1 level lower, but they had more people.
He told them that it would be best if they were at least 100,000 years of age before attempting the trial he had placed. A few of the magic beasts and sprites that have reached 100,000 years of age looked pensive for a while before accepting the trial. There were around 32 Mythic magic beasts and sprites, so this was a good situation.
This time, it wasn't as simple as the trial he did for Sam and Pan, where they just had to demonstrate their skills, thinking ability and adaptability.
This time, they had to land an attack against Xander, no matter what tactics they use, and they can only fight in groups of 3 or less. They had to do it within an hour or less.
The cultivation system for Sprites and Magic beasts were very, very different from the way humans function. For instant, Magic beasts already formed their elemental essence stones, aka their magic cores once they reached the status of a magic beast, for 1 or more primary elements. For sprites, in the other hand, had their life essence already physically manifested as their origin, but for 1 primary element only.
At Master Stage, all magic beasts do is bolster the magic cores, making them as big as possible. Every 1000 years worth of cultivation is a rank.
At Legendary Stage, all they do would be continuously compress the magic cores, making them as compressed as possible. Every 10,000 years worth of cultivation is a rank.
At Mythic Stage, if they choose to transfigure into a humanoid shape, they have to cultivate their bodies from Mundane stage to Mythic Stage before progressing again. At the same time, they had to meld and perfect the two domains that they have made before reaching Demigod class, being at least two times stronger than regular magicians. Amplification of power depends on the domains they comprehended in both animal and humanoid forms.
If they decided not to become a humanoid being, they only needed to focus on comprehending, perfecting and strengthening their domain until they began fusing it into the world, entering demigod class through time. Every 100,000 years worth of cultivation is a rank within the Mythic stage, but it is possible for them to easily cross stages.
At Demigod stage, their magic cores become meta-physical objects, as they continued to fuse with the universe. Once at 90%, they can fuse more as long as their bodies can handle it, or proceed to Divine class immediately, by forcing their magic cores to become physical matter once again, but there's a catch: the magic core begins to divide to the primary elements they have. So if they have 2 primary elements, 2 magic cores will be produced, etc. For them, every 1 million years is a stage within the Demigod stage, indicating their combat power and fusion of their magic cores to the universe.
At Divine stage, their primary element magic cores are focused on being perfected, and upon reaching 100% understanding of their primary elements each, they can unite them and enter the Sage class. They, however, can already traverse the wide universe at the speed of 0.5 light-years per minute. Every 10 million years is the standard at this point.
At Sage stage, their magic cores disappear and melt, merging to every cell, tissue, muscle, organ in their bodies, allowing them to have the basic ability to travel through space faster, with the rate of 1 light-year per minute. They could already absorb passively the elements in space, allowing them to survive without any problems. For them, every 100 million years worth of cultivation is a rank.
The thing is, their cultivation can be supplemented like humans. They can take heavenly treasures or medicine to rapidly improve their growth, or devour other magic beasts/humans. At the same time, time is also a method of cultivation; they cannot die naturally of old age and can continue to strengthen over time, an advantage over humanoid creatures with limited lifespans. This is of course, under the premise there were enough elemental and magic energy in the environment.
Sprites, on the other hand, had a different pathway.
From Master to Legendary, all they had to focus was the accumulation of their specific primary element through time.
From Mythic to Demigod, all they were focusing is their domain creation and the fusion of the domain to the ordered system, which is usually seamless since they are formed by the ordered system naturally. Only their age would affect the speed of fusion.
From Divine to Sage, all they had to focus was their age; if Demigods were in 1,000,000 years, at 10,000,000 they would Divine sprites, and simply awaiting to reach 100,000,000 years they would automatically be promoted to Sage sprites. This is because they already had a complete and perfect understanding of their primary element. At this point, their origin merges with their bodies, making it now possible for them to travel far and wide in the universe.