Chapter 240: Two Troubles

This day, Gao Jie Ming ended his daily meditation.

He examined the Truth Ring in his spiritual sea that had become increasingly complex, and only then did he exit the meditation state with satisfaction.

After getting up, he habitually checked the two crystal nuclei suspended in the center of the energy force field that were merging slowly.

Streams of precise data were fed back from the instruments, showing their energy status.

Confirming that the energy fluctuations inside these two crystal nuclei were normal and stable, Gao Jie Ming nodded with satisfaction.

These two energy cores were not like the low-end goods of Tier 2 and Tier 1 he had used for practice before.

At this moment, the two energy cores before his eyes, one was like a miniature sun emanating suffocating heat, and the other was like the essence of a ten-thousand-year glacier releasing extreme cold that could freeze the soul.

Among them, the Lava Giant's core was exactly the complete core of that Tier 4 Lava Giant Gao Jie Ming had "picked up" in the Yan-Shuang Plane.

The other was a Tier 3 Yeti core he had later purchased from the academy's war trophy warehouse at a huge price.

Gao Jie Ming swiped his finger across the light screen, carefully checked their fusion progress, which was slow to the point of almost stopping, and finally shook his head helplessly.

"Sure enough, it can't be rushed..."

Because the energy intensity of these two cores was simply too high.

Wanting to merge these two levels of diametrically opposite origin energies together perfectly, one absolutely must not be impatient.

Even though Gao Jie Ming's transformation technology was becoming increasingly perfect, wanting to merge these two big guys into a brand-new whole perfectly, according to current calculations, would take at least another ten years.

And after that, it would still be necessary to cultivate the transformed Black Giant into shape.

Judging from the existing energy level of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, this was an exceptionally difficult thing, and the time required for the cultivation of each Black Giant had to be calculated in units of ten years.

Fortunately, he was temporarily not lacking this bit of time.

Compared to this grand plan that was advancing steadily and would take hundreds of years, the troubles Gao Jie Ming was truly facing now were mainly two.

First, his cultivation of immortality was stuck in a bottleneck!

After checking the implementation situation and recording the experimental data, Gao Jie Ming came to the quiet room of the laboratory, sat cross-legged, focused, and entered a state of introspection.

Consciousness sank into his body, and he clearly observed the golden true essence in his dantian qi sea that had turned into liquid and was filled to the extreme.

His cultivation level now had steadily reached the perfection of the "Foundation Establishment" realm.

Logically speaking, at this level, going one step further, condensing liquid into a pill.

Achieving the Jin Dan Great Dao of "swallowing a Jin Dan into the abdomen, my life is decided by me, not by heaven," should also be a matter of course.

But the fact was, no matter how he cultivated and comprehended the subsequent techniques in the "Qi Refining Method," Gao Jie Ming always felt that he was always separated from that Jin Dan realm by a thin film that could not be seen or touched.

He felt that he was missing a key "opportunity" to break through to the Jin Dan realm.

Originally, Gao Jie Ming felt that for a situation like this, with his wizard thinking mode, he could completely "force his way through"—by continuously accumulating energy far exceeding that of cultivators of the same level to forcibly break through this barrier to the next realm.

But the actual situation made him feel very helpless.

Although in these decades of continuous cultivation, the energy in his body was still increasing steadily, and its purity and total amount had even surpassed some cultivators who had just entered the Jin Dan realm.

He still didn't have any feeling of being about to advance to the Jin Dan stage.

In recent years, by carefully consulting the massive information in the "Great Dao Book Pavilion" in the depths of his consciousness, Gao Jie Ming finally had a deeper understanding of the "cultivation of immortality" system.

And he finally understood where the problem lay.

His idea wasn't wrong if placed in the wizard system, but the bottom-layer logic of the "cultivation of immortality" system's realms really couldn't be broken through just by "forcing one's way through."

This was because the bottom-layer logic of the "cultivation of immortality" system's realms was completely different from the "wizard" system.

In the earliest times of the immortal cultivation world, which could be called the ancient era of heaven and earth first opening, so-called "immortal cultivation" actually only had "Qi Refining"—or rather, the more ancient "Refining Qi"—as this one realm.

But wanting to achieve the Dao and longevity just by cultivating a mouthful of the purest and cleanest "Innate Qi" was simply too dependent on talent.

The difficulty was so high that

Therefore, later cultivators continuously evolved and explored, gradually subdividing the entire cultivation process and creating "Qi Refining," "Foundation Establishment," "Jin Dan," "Nascent Soul," and so on.

Eventually, they delineated the many clear realms that exist today.

So theoretically speaking, every major realm of the "Cultivation" system can actually be cultivated infinitely.

Each realm is essentially a cultivation philosophy, and one can continuously refine their own energy and enhance their own strength.

Until one can attain the Dao and immortality at the current realm!

This is completely different from the situation for wizards, where after reaching perfection at a certain level, if one does not advance, no matter how one cultivates, the upper limit of their power cannot be increased.

The problem is, although Gao Jie Ming feels his talent is good, he would absolutely not be arrogant enough to think that he could rely solely on the "Foundation Establishment Stage" cultivation method to directly defy the heavens all the way to the level of immortality!

More troublesome is that he doesn't even know the reason why he cannot advance.

So before finding that key "opportunity," he can only repeat this boring accumulation day after day for the time being.

As for this second question...

Gao Jie Ming glanced at his personal credit account on the terminal, which had turned red, and pressed his temples with a headache.

Yes, he was broke again!

"That's not right. I remember I was clearly a rich man; why did I suddenly become a pauper after advancing?" Gao Jie Ming scratched his scalp in distress.

Actually, he also knew that his high-intensity cross-species genetic modification and elemental core fusion research consumed credits and resources at a terrifying speed!

In order to purchase various rare research materials, as well as those expensive knowledge and data models, even with the continuous income from refined gold, his savings had already hit rock bottom.

Coupled with the fact that the income from the Red Dust Magic Potion was temporarily all poured into the Tier 7 large-scale elemental pool, this meant Gao Jie Ming's credits were once again severely in the red!

"You're asking for ways to make money? What a coincidence, I've been wanting to know that lately too!"

On the other side of the communication screen, after hearing Gao Jie Ming's complaint about "difficulties in capital turnover," Wei Wei Aola spread her hands at him without any regard for her image, her face written with the words "cannot help."

Gao Jie Ming shook his head helplessly upon hearing this.

He felt he had completely lost his mind; why would he think of discussing this matter with this senior sister who was also being exploited by Mentor Ke La Ke to the point of bankruptcy?

"How about you come with me to that plane?"

"Forget it, I still have a lot of research here that can't do without me..."

Gao Jie Ming sighed while shaking his head, and at the same time, he packed up the last batch of "Red Dust Magic Potion" he had refined during this period and sent it over through the fixed-point teleportation array.

After finishing all this, Gao Jie Ming looked at his completely zeroed-out account and pinched the bridge of his nose in distress.

Just as he was about to close this unnutritious communication, Wei Wei Aola's next words made him stop the movement in his hands:

"Actually, I've always felt that if a guy like you wants to make money, it's quite easy."

"Why do you say that?" Gao Jie Ming looked at her with some confusion.

Wei Wei Aola changed to a comfortable position, leaning on her experimental chair, and looked at him with an expression of "wishing he would live up to expectations":

"I'm saying, you kid are just too 'possessive of your food'! You clearly have so many good technologies on you that even I covet, yet you have absolutely no intention of taking them out to sell!"

"Although we wizards are very strict about guarding our core technologies, I have never seen a freak like you who is so stingy that you don't even intend to sell a little bit of scrap technology!"

"After all, technology iterates! And researching new technology costs a lot of money. In this situation, packaging and selling those 'old technologies' that are already a bit outdated for oneself is naturally the most suitable and common way to obtain funds!"

"What's more," Wei Wei Aola's voice carried a hint of temptation, "'knowledge' is the highest-level hard currency in our Wizarding World! If you really have good enough knowledge, let alone things like credits or low-level military merits, even the 'High-level Military Merits' personally issued by the 'Star Trail Tribunal' could be yours until your hands go soft!"

These words from Wei Wei Aola were like a bolt of lightning that instantly pierced through Gao Jie Ming's thinking, which had reached a stalemate due to "having no money"!

His eyes lit up suddenly!

That's right!

Why hadn't he thought of that?!

He always subconsciously treated all the technologies he researched as his own trump cards and core secrets, never thinking of using them as "commodities" to sell!

Just as Wei Wei Aola said, technology iterates; simply holding onto technology will only make his research costs higher and higher.

"Thank you, Senior Sister! I understand!"

After Gao Jie Ming figured this out, he thanked her excitedly and then hurriedly closed the communication directly!

He completely ignored the sentence Wei Wei Aola was shouting while waving her arms on the other side before the light screen went out: "Hey! Then what good technology do you have, kid? Hurry up and sell me a copy first; I can continue to take out a loan to buy it!"

Looking at the closed communication in front of him, Wei Wei Aola bit her finger in anger: "Ah... this brat, ungrateful!!!"

Unfortunately, Gao Jie Ming could no longer hear her complaints, because at this moment, Gao Jie Ming was opening his experimental records with great interest, carefully selecting technologies that could be sold.

(End of chapter)