Chapter 336

Recalling the face of Bu Laike on the communication screen—distorted by excessive excitement and then hurriedly disconnected—Gao Jie Ming clicked his tongue in amusement.

"This guy... what on earth did he experience in that plane? He looks like he's struck gold." He muttered to himself.

Bu Laike's frantic purchasing spree after his return was indeed eye-catching.

He had come knocking without a moment's delay, exhausting almost all his resources to sweep up Gao Jie Ming's entire stock of liquid essence gold, followed by orders for over a dozen more "Heart Barrier Bracers."

Judging by his demeanor, it was as if he had liquidated his entire net worth.

When it came time to pay, he found he was still short, so he simply traded over rare biological samples and unknown materials he had looted during that plane war to Gao Jie Ming.

"Could he be trying to act as a middleman?" Gao Jie Ming stroked his chin, guessing Bu Laike's motives, then shrugged indifferently. "Whatever, let him be. I've made enough."

Having mastered the core "Elemental-Spirit Energy Conversion Technology," Gao Jie Ming had finally broken free from the constraints of manual labor, relying on various cultivation-world arrays to automate the refining process.

With an automated refining workflow, the cost of liquid essence gold became ridiculously low.

Its primary raw material was ordinary gold, which underwent conceptual purification and morphological transformation through complex arrays; the only hard cost was the small amount of military merit spent purchasing the gold.

Even accounting for the massive quality loss during the refining process, the comprehensive cost to produce a standard "one-year supply" of liquid essence gold for a bracer was less than five military merits!

And what was the price he sold to Bu Laike?

One hundred thousand military merits for a one-year supply!

The profit margin here could no longer be described as exorbitant; it was simply turning stones into gold!

Therefore, Gao Jie Ming didn't care at all what price Bu Laike resold them for.

In fact, if Bu Laike truly had the ability to promote these "Heart Barrier Bracers" and establish a stable sales channel, Gao Jie Ming felt he would likely give his full support.

After all, that would save him the trouble of opening up the market himself.

Setting these matters aside, his attention was soon captured by two things Bu Laike had provided: a detailed record of combat data and a giant beast tissue sample, sealed with spatial compression technology, emitting eerie spiritual fluctuations.

"Illusions capable of affecting reality... involves phenomena of the law of virtual-to-real conversion... Interesting, a truly excellent research specimen." Gao Jie Ming looked at the massive sample, his eyes gleaming with keen interest.

Thus, over the next few decades, Gao Jie Ming's research schedule became even more packed.

In addition to delving into the Incense Divine Dao, analyzing the Divine Power Faith Network, and gnawing through that pile of "Level 7 Large-Scale Elemental Pool Operation Manuals," his to-do list grew by two more items: analyzing the combat data provided by Bu Laike and deeply researching the unique illusion laws contained within the giant beast sample.

Research progressed steadily, and another surprise came from Bu Laike.

Over the decades, using who knows what methods, he had actually managed to promote the "Heart Barrier Bracer" and its consumables, liquid essence gold.

And the business was booming, growing larger by the day.

He not only came for large-scale purchases regularly but, relying on his astonishing commercial acumen, had helped Gao Jie Ming accumulate the billions of military merits needed for materials—which had previously seemed tight—in just a few decades!

This "windfall" greatly accelerated Gao Jie Ming's plans.

Seeing that his knowledge reserves, technical verification, and resource conditions were all basically mature, and with less than two hundred years left on the mandatory rest period displayed on his magic network terminal, time was becoming pressing.

Gao Jie Ming hesitated no longer and decided to officially launch the grand plan he had been plotting for so long—to construct the Incense Divine Dao in the Purgatory Sulfur Plane!

The first and most critical step of the entire project was installing the Level 7 Large-Scale Elemental Pool.

This was an extremely massive and precise engineering project, especially for Gao Jie Ming at his current stage.

Fortunately, he had spent hundreds of years studying the manual without interruption, and he knew every technical detail, energy conduction scheme, and safety protocol involved by heart.

Moreover, the construction team he had hired earlier had already reserved all the interfaces and bases according to his blueprints during the fourth phase of basic infrastructure modification.

Even so, it took Gao Jie Ming ten full years to carefully complete the docking of the elemental pool's main body, the initial connection of the energy circuits, and the engraving and activation of the core control runes.

As the final interface was perfectly sealed, Gao Jie Ming stood in the control hub located at the plane's core energy node, took a deep breath, and initiated the activation sequence.

Hum!!!

As if a heart had begun to beat again after billions of years of dormancy, a vast energy fluctuation, indescribable in its magnitude, swept across the entire Purgatory Sulfur Plane in an instant!

Even with the massive energy diversion network constructed during the previous phases to buffer and distribute the flow, the entire plane still experienced a visible, violent tremor.

The earth roared, and the sulfur clouds in the sky were stirred by invisible forces, forming massive vortices.

The most direct changes occurred on the surface.

Countless volcanoes that had been dormant seemed to have been injected with adrenaline, suddenly waking up and erupting with pillars of smoke and scorching lava reaching the heavens.

Many black grounds that had already cooled and solidified were rapidly covered by molten lava surging from below, turning into churning lava lakes.

Even more previously stable areas cracked open with massive fissures, spewing forth subterranean fire!

The concentration and activity of fire elements in the entire plane increased by several orders of magnitude in an instant!

The air was filled with heat and the scent of sulfur, as if the plane itself were trembling with excitement due to the massive influx of energy.

Fire-attribute magical beasts everywhere let out successive roars and hisses, a mixture of terror and exhilaration.

However, the most deeply affected was the Black Giant Incubation Pool, which Gao Jie Ming valued most!

Before this, even with the third phase of the plane's infrastructure project gathering free energy from across the plane, the incubation pool's operational efficiency remained low, requiring a full year to gestate one Black Giant.

Especially after Gao Jie Ming performed a bottom-layer modification on the incubation pool, enhancing the Black Giants' potential and granting them reproductive capabilities, the incubation speed had slowed even further.

But when Gao Jie Ming arrived before the incubation pool, he witnessed a truly exaggerated scene:

In the center of the incubation pool, the Black Giant life core, which had previously required slow energy absorption to condense its form, seemed to be injected with surging vitality the moment the Level 7 Elemental Pool's energy connected!

It expanded rapidly to the naked eye, its internal structure reconfiguring and forming at high speed.

Dark metallic liquid skin covered it, and its massive body quickly outlined a ferocious and robust silhouette...

Just one minute later, a complete Black Giant emitting Level 3 energy fluctuations suddenly opened its eyes, which were burning with dim flames.

It let out a low roar and nimbly crawled out of the energy-churning incubation pool, prostrating itself respectfully before Gao Jie Ming!

One minute, one Level 3 Black Giant!

Compared to the previous one-year incubation cycle, the efficiency had increased by over 520,000 times!

Gao Jie Ming looked at the powerful newborn Black Giant before him, then felt the pulse of the plane beneath his feet, which seemed to possess infinite power, and finally, a smile he could no longer suppress appeared on his face.

The energy core was now in place!

(End of Chapter)