Chapter 363

The elemental dust within the stasis experimental chamber slowly settled, marking the conclusion of this multi-year joint experiment.

Jie Ming assisted Mentor Clark in recording the final batch of data streams, and after politely taking his leave, he activated his plane transfer authorization.

A familiar scent of sulfur mixed with an indescribable sense of order rushed toward him; Jie Ming had returned to his Purgatory Sulfur Plane.

The moment his feet touched the ground, he did not rush to check on the expansion of the Black Giant legion; instead, he immediately sank his consciousness into the land beneath his feet, carefully sensing the vast system covering the plane—the Incense Divine Dao.

"Operation—everything is normal."

A moment later, Jie Ming opened his eyes, his tone carrying a trace of relief.

He had not been away for long this time, a mere dozen years or so.

For plane management, which often spans centuries, this was but a fleeting moment.

The plane itself had not changed much; the Black Giant community was still relying on the incubation pools to reproduce and grow, their numbers increasing steadily, but they had not yet achieved a qualitative leap.

The Incense Divine Dao had only completed its most basic main framework at this moment, with energy circulating within it in a stable and orderly fashion; there was no collapse and no conflict, which in itself had already met Jie Ming's minimum expectations.

As for the rest—facing such a rudimentary main framework, Jie Ming had not expected any extra gains within this short amount of time anyway.

However, just as he was preparing to withdraw his consciousness, a faint yet unusually clear sensation made him freeze abruptly.

Concentrating his mind and sensing carefully, Jie Ming suddenly opened his eyes.

That was—the Qi of the Red Dust?

Although the quantity was not large, it was indeed authentic Qi of the Red Dust!

A flash of brilliance shone in Jie Ming's eyes, and he understood instantly.

That was it; the successful construction of the Incense Divine Dao framework was equivalent to "registering" his status as a "Civilization Deity" within the concept of this region.

Although the main body of this "civilization" consisted of Black Giants with limited intelligence and a nearly blank cultural system, the way he connected with them had changed.

It had shifted from a potential "feeding and being fed" relationship to one closer to "protection and faith."

It was precisely the initial establishment of this relationship that broke the invisible barrier that had previously hindered the production of the Qi of the Red Dust.

"Although the number of Black Giants is not yet large enough, and there is no culture to speak of, resulting in a limited total amount of Qi of the Red Dust produced—but this is a breakthrough from zero to one!" The corners of Jie Ming's mouth rose uncontrollably.

This was definitely an unexpected joy, meaning that his first step in constructing the Incense Divine Dao was not only correct but had already begun to yield substantial returns.

Even if the quantity of this Qi of the Red Dust was temporarily small, it proved that this path had infinite potential.

He carefully collected this newly born Qi of the Red Dust and stored it in his internal space for safekeeping.

After finishing all this, Jie Ming took a deep breath, sat down on the laboratory chair, and began to calmly plan his next actions.

The primary task was naturally to continue perfecting the Incense Divine Dao.

The current framework only ensured energy circulation; the real heavy lifting—the system for producing and storing the power of incense—still urgently needed to be built.

He roughly estimated that with his current technical reserves and energy, it would take about two to three more rounds of such mandatory rest periods to initially complete it.

"However, since it has now begun to stably produce the Qi of the Red Dust, at the very least there is a guaranteed return, so it is not a loss in any way." Jie Ming's mindset was very stable.

Other wizards might still have to worry about the issue of lifespan before reaching the sixth tier, but Jie Ming did not care.

With his Nascent Soul Stage cultivation, as long as he did not court death, he could live on forever.

But another imminent problem also surfaced in his mind.

He was probably about to advance to a fourth-tier wizard.

Ever since he successfully constructed the Incense Divine Dao framework, his mastery of the "laws of spiritual energy" had soared, long ago exceeding the threshold of "one percent law mastery" required to advance to a fourth-tier wizard.

And having been "justly" erased in that plane previously, although he had luckily escaped death by relying on a substitute doll, that incredibly vivid experience of death brought not only fear that went deep into his marrow but also triggered a violent shock in his spiritual sea.

This intense spiritual fluctuation acted like a special catalyst, greatly stimulating the growth of his spiritual power.

Even while staying in Mentor Clark's laboratory before, Jie Ming could clearly feel that the upper limit of his spiritual power was rising rapidly.

At this rate, he had a high probability of advancing to a fourth-tier wizard before the end of this four-hundred-year rest period.

The problem was—how long had it been since he advanced to a third-tier wizard?

To put it bluntly, he hadn't even warmed his seat at the third-tier wizard level yet!

Let alone a fourth-tier wizard, he hadn't even had time to systematically learn and accumulate much knowledge at the third-tier wizard level.

"Knowledge is power"—in the Wizarding World, this was not an empty phrase, but an iron law.

Insufficient knowledge accumulation meant the most direct manifestation was that combat power could not match the level; he had the realm but lacked the corresponding means.

Just like Senior Sister Wei Aola, who was originally a leader among third-tier wizards, but after leaping to become a sixth-tier wizard, even now, she was probably among the most mediocre of the sixth-tier wizards.

"So, this means—" Jie Ming rubbed his brow, concluding with some helplessness, "The rest period I finally looked forward to, the main task is not to relax or deepen research, but to—cram like crazy?"

No, saying cramming might not be entirely accurate.

For many fields that needed to be learned from scratch, this was simply previewing!

Having figured this out, Jie Ming sighed and resignedly opened the portable magic network terminal he carried with him.

The deep blue light screen unfolded before his eyes, reflecting his slightly solemn face.

"One only regrets having too little knowledge when it's time to use it." He muttered a complaint to himself, then began to browse the list of knowledge shared within the Plane Nuolun workshop and the Xinghuanlian Alliance.

This time, he was no longer calculating as carefully as before; he was prepared to spend big.

Not only did he have to use the more than one billion low-tier military merits in his account, but he was also prepared to invest heavily in the one million high-tier military merits he had just obtained from the last plane expedition.

After all, some core knowledge often represented the cutting-edge achievements or unique techniques of a certain field and was hard currency that could not be exchanged with ordinary resources.

However, Jie Ming was not blinded by urgency to buy blindly: "First, use low-tier military merits to purchase basic and general knowledge modules to build a complete knowledge framework. After accumulating enough foundation and clarifying my specific shortcomings and research directions, then use high-tier military merits to purchase those core key technologies or theories as needed."

After formulating the procurement strategy, Jie Ming spent some time organizing and archiving the knowledge fragments he had scattered and obtained through "wool-gathering" during the conquest of the previous plane.

Come to think of it, in this plane war, besides the one million high-tier military merits he harvested, his only other gains were these pieces of knowledge.

"Unfortunately, the time was too short, and the knowledge I could collect was limited—"

During the process of Jie Ming's organization, the other knowledge he had purchased had also arrived one after another.

After thinking for a while, Jie Ming's gaze fell on the "Space Knowledge" category.

Whether it was traveling between planes, building more complex rune wizarding tool arrays in the future, or even deeply understanding the ultra-long-distance energy transmission of the Incense Divine Dao, space knowledge was an indispensable cornerstone.

"It seems I still have to start by chewing on the space system."

Jie Ming made his decision, his fingers tapped lightly on the light screen, and the first batch of knowledge packages regarding "Basic Theory of Space Folds,"

and "Introduction to Dimensional Anchor Positioning" were input by Jie Ming into his portable terminal.

Afterward, Jie Ming found a comfortable position, opened the terminal, and immersed himself in the knowledge before him.

In the blink of an eye, fifty years passed.

——

Jie Ming spent these fifty years in a kind of ascetic learning.

The massive amount of knowledge purchased from the magic network terminal, from basic space to deep elemental applications, and then to various obscure law derivation theories, was crazily absorbed by him as if he were being force-fed.

This intensity of learning even squeezed out his time for perfecting the Incense Divine Dao to a certain extent.

Making the progress of the later construction of the Incense Divine Dao slightly slower than expected, but Jie Ming felt this was a necessary investment.

Until this day, a communication request from the magic network terminal, flickering with an uncommon priority, woke Jie Ming from a pile of spatial dimension calculation formulas.

He rubbed his slightly dry eyes and glanced at the source of the communication—Junior Brother Ending Age.

"Ending Age?" Jie Ming was slightly surprised.

As fellow students under Mentor Clark, this junior brother who entered the sect later did not have much interaction with Jie Ming, and they had met only a handful of times; it could be said that the two were at most nodding acquaintances.

However, he had previously promised Sister Wei Aola to take care of Ending Age.

Considering this fellow-disciple relationship, Jie Ming did not hesitate, replied directly to the message, and authorized the teleportation access to his Golden Garden laboratory located in Plane Nuolun 147.

The light of the teleportation array in the corner of the laboratory flowed, space twisted slightly, and Ending Age's figure appeared.

Compared to the slightly green young apprentice in Jie Ming's memory, the Ending Age before him had a much more mature face, and there seemed to be a trace of lingering fatigue between his brows.

However, although he looked a bit tired, his momentum was quite flamboyant; it seemed that the other party had completely transformed after experiencing several plane wars.

And when Ending Age saw Jie Ming, he couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.

The Senior Brother Jie Ming before him had messy hair piled on his head, and although his eyes were still sharp, they were bloodshot from long-term lack of rest.

The standard alchemist robe he wore was also stained with traces of unknown potions, and the whole person exuded an "do not disturb" aura of a research fanatic.

"Jie—Senior Brother Jie Ming." Ending Age came back to his senses and greeted him hurriedly.

"Ending Age, long time no see."

Jie Ming also realized his image problem, smiled indifferently, and reached out to wipe his head.

A faint light of alchemy flashed, and the messy hair instantly became neat and smooth, and the stains on the robe also quietly dissipated.

"Have you eaten? If not, let's eat together." He said in a casual tone, as if the unkempt person just now was not him.

Almost at the same time his voice fell, two exquisitely designed silver mechanical dolls slid in silently.

The two dolls pushed a dining cart, on which were placed steaming, fragrant delicacies.

Among them were many delicacies cooked with high-energy magical beast meat and rare magical plants; just by being placed there, a continuous stream of life energy diffused out.

Ending Age smelled the fragrance, couldn't help but swallow his saliva quietly.

He had attended this senior brother's banquet when he followed Sister Wei Aola here before, but he had little experience at that time, and he thought this senior brother was just spending money to entertain them.

But seeing it today, he didn't expect this Senior Brother Jie Ming to be so—luxurious—even in his daily diet.

The two sat down in the small restaurant partitioned off in the laboratory.

Jie Ming picked up a fruit that was glowing with a faint green light and rich in life energy, took a bite, and asked straight to the point: "Junior Brother Ending Age, what is the matter with you coming to find me this time?"

Ending Age heard this, and an embarrassed and coy expression instantly appeared on his face, his hands clenching unconsciously.

He hesitated for a long while before seeming to make up his mind, and said in a low voice: "Senior Brother, I—I heard from Sister Wei Aola that you have technology that can strengthen the aptitude of biological wizards—so, I would like to ask presumptuously, can you—help improve someone's aptitude?"

Jie Ming blinked, indeed a bit surprised.

He didn't expect Ending Age to come for this; to be honest, if Ending Age hadn't mentioned it, he would have almost forgotten that he still had this technology.

"Aptitude improvement? It is possible. However, I need to know the specific situation of the target object, such as age, current aptitude level, physical condition, etc." He maintained a rigorous attitude.

Ending Age's face turned even redder, and his voice was even lower: "It—it is an infant still in the womb—"

Jie Ming raised his head from the food upon hearing this, and this time he reacted quickly, his tone carrying a trace of understanding: "Is it your child?"

Ending Age nodded heavily, his face showing both the shyness of being a new father and a trace of pleading.

Jie Ming was slightly surprised in his heart, not expecting this quiet little junior brother to have silently walked ahead of him and Wei Aola, these "old" apprentices, and even have offspring.

However, he was not a gossipy person; the surprise was only a flash, and his attention immediately returned to the technical problem.

He pondered for a moment, his brain rapidly calculating various parameters and costs, and then said: "If it is still in the embryonic stage in the womb, the life form is not yet fully fixed, and the plasticity is strong, the technical difficulty and consumption of aptitude improvement will be greatly reduced."

He glanced at the nervous Ending Age and added: "As for the cost, I can give you a discount."

Ending Age's eyes lit up, and he asked eagerly: "How much is needed?"

"Removing the fraction—ten million low-tier military merits." Jie Ming reported a number, "At this price, I can guarantee to raise the embryo's elemental affinity aptitude to the tenth-tier standard. As for other aspects of aptitude, such as spiritual power growth or soul purity, limited by the embryo's own carrying capacity and technical boundaries, the improvement effect will not be very significant, and it can probably only be maintained at the average level of the fourth or fifth tier."

Ten million low-tier military merits were undoubtedly an astronomical figure for ordinary low-tier wizards.

But for those who could reach Jie Ming's level, especially for aptitude investment for offspring, this price could indeed be called a "friendship price."

Ending Age paused significantly after hearing the number, and a struggle and weighing flashed across his face.

Ten million low-tier military merits were almost all his savings over the years.

But thinking that this was for the child's future starting point—he gritted his teeth, raised his head, his eyes firm: "Okay! Senior Brother, I'll place the order! I'll leave it to you!"

A gentle smile appeared on Jie Ming's face: "No problem. After you confirm the time, just contact me; the operation process requires a precise time window."

After sending away Ending Age, who was relieved and full of anticipation, Jie Ming was in a pretty good mood.

Strictly speaking, his fee was indeed extremely low, almost at cost.

The main reason was that the dosage of certain inducing factors and energy substrates required to improve the aptitude of an embryo in the womb was extremely small; he estimated that the leftovers from his previous research on aptitude improvement technology would be enough.

"Just in time to clear out the inventory, and I can earn a favor and some pocket money, not bad." Jie Ming thought comfortably.

However, he hadn't been quiet for long when the magic network terminal rang urgently again, and the name "Wei Aola" jumped on the screen.

As soon as Jie Ming clicked to connect, Wei Aola's face, full of excitement and gossip, almost filled the entire screen.

"Jie Ming! Jie Ming! Did you see Ending Age?! Did he come to find you? Do you know yet?

He actually has a child! My god! Who is it? Do we know her? Tell me the details quickly!" Wei Aola asked like a machine gun, the curiosity in her tone almost overflowing.

Jie Ming sighed helplessly, looking at this senior sister who seemed to be forever full of energy, knowing that she must have come for this matter.

"Senior Sister, Junior Brother Ending Age did come to find me, it was to consult on some technical issues. As for other things—" He spread his hands, "I didn't ask about the specific situation."

"What?! You didn't ask?!" Wei Aola's willow eyebrows stood up instantly, with an indignant expression of "you are too incompetent," "Such a big thing happened right in front of you, and you actually—"

Before she finished speaking, only the steady and unquestionable voice of Mentor Clark was heard from outside the screen: "Wei Aola, have you finished running your data model? Do you still have free time to chat here?"

Then, the screen shook, and an invisible big hand grabbed Wei Aola's back collar, and she was dragged out of the communication range amidst her exclamation of "Oops, Mentor, I was wrong, I'll go right now!"

The communication screen went dark.

Jie Ming looked at the terminal that had returned to silence, blinked, and couldn't help but laugh.

Carefully recalling Junior Brother Ending Age's request just now, as well as Wei Aola's curiosity that was still as vigorous as a young girl's, and comparing it with his own "vicissitudes" of burying his head in old papers for fifty years, he couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

Unknowingly, even that little junior brother had already started a family and was about to welcome the next generation.

And he himself, on this long road of life and seeking knowledge, seemed—to really be considered an older generation.

(This chapter is a two-in-one.)