Chapter 364

Time flies, and another few decades of winter and summer have alternated.

The sky of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane is still red, and the energy circulation of the Incense Divine Dao is expanding at a leisurely pace.

The matter of helping Ending Age's offspring improve their aptitude went very smoothly, and Jie Ming harvested ten million low-tier military merits without much effort.

After that, most of Jie Ming's energy was completely immersed in the exploration of the mysteries of space.

Inside the laboratory, Jie Ming's eyes were burning, staring fixedly at a strange creature fixed on the rune experimental table—it was a mutated spider-snake whose whole body was carved like colorless crystal.

This was the rare sample he had painstakingly collected from the Empty Island Plane in his early years.

The crazy cramming of space knowledge over the past few decades finally gave him the confidence to safely dissect and study this kind of space creature.

And today, the research seemed to have reached a key breakthrough.

He carefully used a special alchemy engraving knife to remove a small piece of crystal-clear shell fragment.

In his eyes, the brilliance of the "Eye of All-Purpose" wizardry flowed in layers, and countless subtle data and information streams swept across the structure of the fragment like a waterfall.

"I really didn't expect—" Jie Ming muttered to himself, his tone full of excitement, "The core function of this thing is not to strengthen spatial ability, but to—stabilize space!"

This discovery overturned his long-standing conjecture.

He had always thought that the mutated spider-snake could hide in the space interlayer by relying on this crystal shell to cover or refract spatial fluctuations.

However, actual analysis showed that the essential role of this shell was to form an extremely tiny stable spatial anchor point, like a ship-stabilizing stone in a storm, ensuring that the microscopic space where the spider-snake itself was located would not collapse when it traveled through space or hid.

Then, where did the ability to hide come from?

Jie Ming's gaze turned to the internal structure exposed after he removed the shell.

Unlike ordinary crustacean creatures, beneath the crystal shell was not soft muscle tissue, but a layer of extremely complex, translucent, web-like membrane structure like biological fascia.

In his perception, it was precisely these seemingly fragile membranes that were continuously emitting subtle and active spatial fluctuations.

Fortunately, he had already advanced to a third-tier wizard, and coupled with the Eye of All-Purpose's keen perception of spatial fluctuations, he was able to discover these fascia networks that looked like inconspicuous blood vessels.

"The mystery is here—" Jie Ming held his breath and began to try to imitate the unique energy conduction mode of this membrane.

He carefully constructed a fine spiritual power network, simulating the nodes and circuits of the fascia membrane.

Buzz!!

Almost the moment he successfully simulated it, the spatial energy in the laboratory suddenly became manic and chaotic, invisible ripples distorted the light, emitting a low buzzing sound.

Jie Ming, who had been prepared, immediately activated the energy suppression devices around the laboratory, and a powerful force field descended instantly, forcibly smoothing out the spatial chaos that was about to lose control.

"So dangerous, but also—so strong!" Jie Ming had lingering fears, but was also incomparably excited.

Just a preliminary imitation could trigger such a degree of energy chaos, which proved its huge potential.

Next was the boring and precise screening work.

Relying on his solid foundation of space knowledge, he began to analyze and distinguish one by one which specific combinations of energy circuits in that complex membrane structure effectively dominated the spatial interference effect.

Then, he tried to compare, combine, and optimize these naturally formed biological rune circuits with standard spatial runes in the wizard system.

After countless failures, adjustments, and attempts—

A few days later, in the center of the laboratory, Jie Ming's expression was solemn.

He concentrated his attention, carefully guiding his spiritual power toward an alloy target engraved with multiple protective runes.

The moment the spell was completed, an invisible twisting force field suddenly spread out with his fingertip as the center.

The space in the target area seemed to have become a piece of rubber clay kneaded by an invisible big hand, and the light bent and broke within it.

The alloy target underwent a huge change silently, and irregular dents and tear marks instantly appeared on the surface, as if it were being torn by an invisible giant force from different directions at the same time, but it did not make any sound of metal tearing.

"Success—spatial distortion!" A light of ecstasy erupted in Jie Ming's eyes.

Jie Ming tested a few more rounds, and the results were gratifying.

This new wizardry he named "Spatial Distortion" had an unusually exaggerated effect.

If the target did not have specialized spatial resistance protection, its own energy intensity needed to reach at least the sixth-tier level to barely resist this direct tearing from the spatial level.

However, the shortcomings were equally obvious.

This wizardry was extremely unstable, just like throwing a giant stone into a calm lake, and the ripples would spread uncontrollably.

Once the external energy environment was already chaotic, or the spellcasting was strongly interfered with, the range and intensity of the spatial distortion could expand sharply, or even backfire on the caster, which could be called a dangerous double-edged sword.

"Stability—it's still a stability problem." Jie Ming calmed down, and his gaze turned again to the crystal shell fragments that had been removed for research on the experimental table, "So this kind of creature would grow such a shell—"

He immediately devoted himself to the research on the source of the crystal shell's ability to stabilize space, trying to find a way to combine the two seemingly contradictory characteristics of "stability" and "distortion."

As long as the stability problem could be solved, this wizardry would become a new combat means in his hands.

Just as he was fully immersed in the work of perfecting the new wizardry, a faint but impossible-to-ignore palpitation came from the core area of the distant Purgatory Sulfur Plane through the connection of the soul contract.

"Hmm?!" Jie Ming raised his head alertly and sensed carefully.

It was the Black Giants—it seemed that some kind of mutation had occurred?

Jie Ming frowned slightly and temporarily put down the research in his hands.

With a thought, he directly summoned one of the Black Giant commanders through the connection of the soul contract.

Soon, the teleportation array in the corner of the laboratory lit up, and a huge figure that had shrunk in size but was still three meters tall, pitch black, and exuding a contradictory aura of cold and heat appeared.

This Black Giant commander was one of the members who had followed Jie Ming to the "Just" plane before; although it was not used, fortunately, with the internal space, they were not affected when Jie Ming died.

"Dominator." The Black Giant commander bowed and saluted, his voice low and respectful.

Jie Ming directly asked about the abnormal movement of the tribe.

The Black Giant commander seemed to have expected it, and replied steadily: "Reporting to the Dominator, I have already preliminarily investigated this matter. It seems that because the number of the tribe has reached a certain critical point, the gathering of life spiritual energy has produced a qualitative change. According to the feedback of the 'Incense Divine Dao' system you established, and the vague intentions that spontaneously emerged within the tribe—

In our race, it seems that the first batch of 'priests' is about to be born naturally."