Chapter 323

I don't know how much time passed, but Gao Jie Ming woke up naturally from a deep sleep.

He opened his eyes, and the familiar rune lines on the laboratory dome came into view; a long-lost feeling of refreshment flowed through his whole body.

The fatigue accumulated over fifty years and the numbness brought by slaughter seemed to have been washed clean by this thorough deep sleep.

He got up and stretched his somewhat stiff bones.

He didn't immediately dive into research, but first dealt with the backlog of affairs.

Through the magic network terminal, he quickly browsed and replied to the communication requests missed over these years, mostly invitations for academic exchanges or routine notifications from Plane Nuolun Academy in the Plane Plane Nuolun.

Afterward, he carefully checked the operation of various facilities in the Plane Plane Nuolun laboratory, and confirmed through a remote link that the development of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane was all normal, only then did his heart, which had been hanging, finally settle down.

After all the trivial matters were dealt with, he brewed a cup of refreshing spirit leaf tea.

Sitting in front of the laboratory bench, he began to systematically summarize the gains of this fifty-year expedition.

First, take stock of the physical gains—Gao Jie Ming shook his head helplessly.

Originally, on the Giant Spirit Realm battlefield, he had a bountiful harvest thanks to the outstanding performance of the 【Great Light Phase】 and the Black Giant, as well as the discovery of that treasury.

Energy crystals, soul crystals, and rare materials were piled up like mountains.

However, the Fungus Lord's eerie conceptual pollution turned all of this into a bubble.

In order to survive, all physical war trophies were forced to be discarded.

When subsequently executing the "Purification Protocol," they strictly followed the principle of "only destroy, do not acquire."

This resulted in him having almost a net input and no output in terms of resources and experimental samples.

Coupled with the massive energy reserves consumed and the cannon fodder units lost during the Giant Spirit Realm war...

"Looking purely at resource and military merit gains, this expedition was a bloody loss." Gao Jie Ming took a sip of tea and muttered to himself.

Although he said so, the smile on his face couldn't be suppressed no matter what.

A wizard's value has never relied solely on material accumulation.

His true gain lies in knowledge.

His thoughts sank into his internal space, where massive information packets confirmed safe after being personally "disinfected" by Wizard Plane Nuolun were stored.

These were various types of knowledge copied when they were cleaning up those destroyed civilizations—not containing sensitive coordinates—from the Giant Spirit Realm's metal smelting and symbiont technology, to the Mind Realm's mental network construction and illusion principles, to the biological structures and energy usage of the cleared golden baboon civilization and its associated civilizations, and even the unique technologies of some special civilizations...

This knowledge was all-encompassing, messy but precious.

When executing the "Purification Protocol," they were regarded as useless byproducts.

But for the current Gao Jie Ming, this is the most precious wealth of this expedition, an inexhaustible source of inspiration for future research.

Besides knowledge, there is military merit.

Fifty years of information processing and cleanup tasks brought him about 500,000 low-tier military merits.

This number can be called a huge sum even for an ordinary Tier 3 wizard, but for Gao Jie Ming, who owns the 【Self-Stabilizing Field Regulation Protocol】 patent and can stably obtain huge dividends every year, it can only be considered icing on the cake.

The real surprise lies in high-tier military merits.

Because this mission involved conceptual pollution and the risk was extremely high, the Star Ring Alliance specially allocated a batch of high-tier military merits as a special reward.

Under normal circumstances, this batch of military merits would only be distributed by the three Tier 7 wizards including Di Ke Xun and Wizard Plane Nuolun.

However, during the battle in the Giant Spirit Realm, although Gao Jie Ming did not directly discover the Fungus Lord pollution, his abnormal state attracted Di Ke Xun's attention, indirectly contributing to the early warning.

He was considered to have "contributed to the civilization," and thus received an exceptional reward of 100,000 high-tier military merits!

100,000 high-tier military merits, if calculated purely by the official exchange rate into various general resources, is only equivalent to about 1,000,000 low-tier military merits.

This number is nothing to Gao Jie Ming's annual patent income.

But the true value of high-tier military merits is far from this.

This general equivalent issued directly by the Star Trail Tribunal is recognized by the other three top wizard factions outside the Star Ring Alliance—the Void Architecture Institute, the Anti-Entropy Alliance, and the Crimson Royal Court!

This means Gao Jie Ming can use it to exchange for special resources, materials, and technologies that circulate within these factions and are never sold to the outside world.

More importantly, if a high-tier wizard wants to shorten the mandatory post-war rest period, they must consume high-tier military merits.

Due to the scarcity and hard-currency attribute of high-tier military merits, many high-tier wizards are willing to take out their core technologies kept at the bottom of the box to exchange for them.

In other words, high-tier military merit is the key to obtaining the true core knowledge that cannot be touched at all with low-tier military merits!

Thinking of this, Gao Jie Ming immediately remembered the 【Divine Power Faith Network Technology】 that he had been pushing forward in the Plane Plane Nuolun but had progressed slowly due to a lack of key references.

Even though his mentor Ke La Ke gave him some research notes back then, facing such a complex system involving the rule layer, he still felt it was difficult, as if walking alone in the fog.

"Finally... I see hope!" Gao Jie Ming was energized and immediately opened the magic network terminal to access the exclusive exchange interface for high-tier military merits.

He first searched for the 【Time Law Chamber】 with anticipation.

That magnificent building that could stably accelerate the time flow rate by ten times on the Giant Spirit Realm battlefield without affecting research results had always left a deep impression on Gao Jie Ming.

This thing was produced by the Void Architecture Institute; he didn't even have the qualifications to look at it before.

The search results popped up; Gao Jie Ming glanced at the long string of zeros following it, his mouth twitched, and he silently closed the page.

The smallest model of the portable Time Law Chamber, price: 10,000,000 high-tier military merits.

And this was just portable!

The large fixed type he used in the expeditionary camp cost even more than 1,000,000,000!

"I really didn't expect the wizard civilization to be so cost-insensitive when dealing with threatening civilizations..." Gao Jie Ming clicked his tongue and completely extinguished this thought.

It seems this kind of strategic facility is not something he can hope for right now.

He collected his thoughts and began to seriously search for knowledge related to 【Divine Power Faith Network Core Technology】.

This time, the results did not disappoint him, and one could even say they were unexpectedly... cheap?

A detailed explanation of the core principles and construction ideas of the technology, compiled by a Tier 8 wizard, was priced at only 100,000 high-tier military merits.

And if it were the research results of a Tier 6 wizard, it would only take 10,000 points to acquire.

"So cheap?" Gao Jie Ming was a bit surprised.

Although this knowledge can theoretically be sold repeatedly to multiple people by the seller, this price is indeed low relative to the value it might bring.

He thought carefully for a moment and made a decision in his heart.

He did not go to buy that Tier 8 wizard's research.

The reason is simple: the Divine Power Faith Network is closely related to plane characteristics, indigenous races, and the source of faith, and has strong uniqueness.

The Tier 8 wizard's research is certainly high-level, but its ideas and solutions might be too "specific," which might instead limit his own innovation.

What he needs is not to copy a template, but to refer to different ideas, absorb the essence, and finally walk his own path.

Thus, he decisively spent 50,000 high-tier military merits to purchase five core research materials on the Divine Power Faith Network from different Tier 6 wizards.

These materials have different perspectives and different focuses, which can just provide him with richer references.

After the exchange was completed, the materials were instantly transmitted to him through an encrypted channel.

Gao Jie Ming suppressed the urge to immediately immerse himself in research and browsed other areas of the high-tier military merit mall with curiosity.

The various strange materials, high-tier knowledge, powerful wizard tools, and strategic buildings listed on it all opened his eyes and made him itch with desire.

But looking at the remaining 50,000 high-tier military merits, he finally closed the magic network terminal rationally with a trace of reluctance.

"The road must be walked one step at a time." Gao Jie Ming took a deep breath and pulled his attention back to reality.

The top priority is to properly digest the gains of this expedition, especially the massive knowledge and the newly acquired Divine Power Network research materials.

(End of chapter)