Chapter 397

Inside a high-intensity test laboratory of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, Jie Ming was frowning, remotely manipulating a newly made rune witchcraft tool for power testing.

His mind moved slightly, controlling the disc-shaped witchcraft tool with a diameter of about thirty centimeters floating in mid-air.

The surface of the witchcraft tool was densely engraved with brand-new composite patterns that fused cultivation talismans and wizard runes, and there was an energy focusing crystal the size of a fist in the center.

Hum...

Following a mental command, the focusing crystal in the center of the disc suddenly lit up with dazzling white light.

An energy bomb purely composed of elements was excited, dragging a long tail, and shot toward the "target area" where the space folding technology was expanded at the far end of the test field.

The entire test field had undergone special space folding treatment, looking from the outside like a room of a hundred square meters, but the actual depth inside reached an amazing five hundred kilometers.

The light bomb flew in the air for about three seconds, this speed was not fast in real combat, but enough in the test environment.

Immediately following, in the direction of the target area in the distance, a huge bright light rose that was so dazzling that even through the protective screen, people had to squint.

There was no explosion sound, and no sound could spread under the isolation of the energy shield.

Replaced by a more essential shock: the multiple energy protective shields arranged in the test field, like a water curtain hit by an invisible giant hammer, fluctuated and deformed violently, emitting unbearable humming.

Even with the "distance buffer" brought by space folding, the strong shock wave still echoed and superimposed in the test field, making the fluctuation of the protective shield more and more violent, seemingly about to collapse at any time.

Jie Ming didn't care about the crumbling protective shield, after all, it was originally designed to withstand extreme tests, and it was just the innermost protective measure of the entire test field anyway, if it really collapsed, just repair it.

His attention was entirely focused on the data stream scrolling in real time on a row of precision instruments beside him.

Energy peak reading, destruction range simulation, elemental reaction intensity, spatial disturbance coefficient...

A few seconds later, the preliminary analysis results came out.

Jie Ming looked at the data on the screen, but his face didn't look good.

"Strictly speaking, the absolute power of this blow is indeed good..." Jie Ming's fingers slid across several key parameters on the screen, sighing secretly in his heart.

"The 'prying multiplier' of Tier 4 wizards on elemental power, superimposed with the 'mobilization multiplier' of Soul Transformation stage cultivators on environmental energy. The two multiplied, indeed made this energy bomb, which is theoretically only Tier 4, soar in total energy and influence range..."

The data clearly showed: the total energy output and influence range of this blow had crossed the conventional level of Tier 5 wizards, and even touched the bottom line of Tier 6—that is, theoretically enough to cause "destructive strikes" to the ecosystem of a medium-sized continent.

"But... the power is too scattered!" Jie Ming's frown deepened, "A lot of energy is wasted on creating 'range', the real 'fatal kill radius' is much smaller."

He pulled up a detailed energy distribution map.

It was a three-dimensional heat map showing the energy density decay curve radiating from the explosion center outward.

Unlike witchcraft or cultivation spells that usually pursue "striving for relatively uniform killing effects at every point within the attack range" in group attacks, the energy distribution of this light bomb presented an extremely steep decay curve.

With the explosion center as the origin, for every kilometer moved outward, the energy density dropped sharply by an order of magnitude.

In the edge areas of the attack range, the residual energy intensity was not even one ten-millionth of the central area.

"This is simply... exactly the same as the energy distribution mode of the nuclear bombs in my previous life." Jie Ming couldn't help frowning, "Although the attack range is wide, claiming to be 'nation-destroying' or even 'continent-destroying', in reality, the killing power of the core area and the edge area are not the same concept at all."

This problem had actually begun to show signs since he advanced to a Tier 2 wizard.

At that time, he was cultivating both power systems simultaneously, and the two power systems began to produce subtle conflicts and redundancies in the way of mobilizing "environmental energy".

When advancing to a Tier 3 wizard, he originally planned to solve this problem.

But because of the accident in the "Justice" plane, his advancement speed far exceeded expectations, and later he was busy with Incense God Dao construction, participating in Wizard Star Fall's research and other affairs, so this problem had been shelved.

And now, as he advanced to the Soul Transformation stage, the cultivation system's ability to mobilize environmental spiritual energy produced a qualitative change, and this problem was finally completely highlighted.

"The absolute power and influence range are comparable to Tier 6 wizards, but the actual killing effect of the core area only reached the medium level of Tier 5 wizards..." Jie Ming looked at the glaring comparison data on the screen.

"And the energy peak duration is extremely short, as long as you carry the initial wave of impact, the subsequent damage will decay significantly. An experienced, well-prepared Tier 4 wizard, if possessing excellent protective means, even has the possibility of taking this move hard without dying."

What does this mean?

It means that more than 90% of the energy was dissipated into the environment in an inefficient way during the expansion of the shock wave after the explosion, and was not completely converted into fatal killing power against the target.

More intuitive data model deduction shows that if this move is used to attack a real continent, the explosion core area might cause a complete destruction zone with a diameter of hundreds of kilometers.

But in the outer areas of the attack range—the edge areas theoretically marked as "affected areas"—the residual energy intensity might not even be able to kill a Tier 1 wizard apprentice, at most causing some damage to buildings and casualties of ordinary people.

"The root cause of the problem..." Jie Ming closed his eyes and deduced rapidly in his mind, "Lies in the fact that my current 'control precision' cannot keep up with the growth speed of 'total energy mobilization'."

This is easy to understand.

If you compare an attack to shooting an arrow, the path of the wizard system is "shooting an arrow at a time, and then constantly improving the power of this arrow through various methods". And the path of the cultivation system is more like "shooting more arrows at a time".

Jie Ming's actual "control ability" now supports him in precisely manipulating "three arrows" at the same time at most.

But his Soul Transformation cultivation is equivalent to stacking "dozens of arrows" on the bowstring.

Not only did it not enhance the attack effect, but because the arrows interfered with each other and dispersed the power of the bowstring, the power and precision of each arrow dropped significantly, and the overall effect was not even as good as focusing on shooting three arrows.

Of course, the simplest solution is "selectively reducing output": when launching an attack, deliberately suppress the cultivation system's mobilization intensity of spiritual energy, and only call the part of power that he can precisely control.

This can restore the cohesion and killing efficiency of the attack, and theoretically such an increase is enough for Jie Ming to be a leader among Tier 4 wizards.

But...

"This is too wasteful." Jie Ming opened his eyes, a light of unwillingness flashing in his pupils, "Clearly possessing the possibility of mobilizing more massive power, but because of insufficient control, self-limitation... too wasteful!"

He pursues fusing the advantages of the two paths, creating a one-plus-one-greater-than-two effect, rather than being forced to choose between the two.

"Must find a way to integrate all the power mobilized by the two systems with higher efficiency and focus them..." Jie Ming fell into deep thought.

His fingers tapped on the console unconsciously, and countless formulas, rune structures, and energy flow models flashed and annihilated in his mind.

Just then, the door of the laboratory slid open silently, and a Black Giant priest wearing a simple priest robe walked in.

Its movements were light, forming a sharp contrast with that muscular body, and the voice entered Jie Ming's mind through direct mental fluctuations: "Master, the scheduled time has arrived, need to replenish energy."

Jie Ming returned from his deep thought, looked at the time, and nodded: "Understood."

He temporarily put down the data analysis in his hand, followed the Black Giant priest out of the test field, passed through several bright corridors, and came to a special cultivation room.

This cultivation room was completely different from other places.

The heavy door and walls were mixed with alloy of space-stabilizing metal, and the surface was engraved with complex energy guidance and isolation runes.

The Black Giant priest stopped outside the door, waiting for Jie Ming to enter by himself.

Jie Ming pushed the door open, and a rich spiritual energy that almost turned into substance rushed toward him.

There was no extra furniture in the cultivation room, only a circular platform slightly higher than the ground in the center.

The walls, ceiling, and floor were all paved with alloys capable of efficiently conducting and condensing spiritual energy, and were currently emitting warm milky white halos.

The most eye-catching were the four corners of the room, each with a complex magic array running slowly.

These magic arrays were connected to the main network of the Incense God Dao of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, and were extracting massive amounts of purified spiritual energy and transporting it in.

Because the concentration of spiritual energy was too high, it even formed pale white mist visible to the naked eye in the air, flowing and swirling slowly.

Jie Ming walked to the central platform and sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to run the cultivation method.

In an instant, the flow direction of spiritual energy in the whole room changed.

The originally evenly permeated spiritual energy mist, like being drawn by an invisible vortex, rushed toward Jie Ming madly.

His body seemed to have turned into a black hole, greedily devouring all energy around him.

But this devouring was not for his own cultivation.

If there was a high-level perceiver observing carefully at this time, they would find that the vast majority of the spiritual energy pouring into Jie Ming's body was not refined and absorbed by his meridians, but flowed toward a "void" through a deeper connection.

That was an "existence" located deep in his dantian, but transcending the concept of conventional space.

That was his internal space.

No, perhaps it should be called "internal cave" more accurately now.

The change brought by advancing to the Soul Transformation stage was comprehensive, and among them, the most unexpected and pleasant surprise for Jie Ming was precisely the transformation of the space opened up by this "internal circulation" method.

Every promotion in the past, from Foundation Establishment to Jin Dan, from Jin Dan to Nascent Soul, every time the internal space would absorb spiritual energy madly like a thirsty sponge at the moment of breakthrough, and expand its volume rapidly.

But this time, after the promotion to Soul Transformation was completed, the internal space did not show obvious expansion desire at first.

Jie Ming once thought that the growth of this space had reached a certain bottleneck.

However, in the few months after the breakthrough, he gradually noticed abnormalities.

This space was growing "autonomously".

It was not through absorbing the spiritual energy he provided, but as if it had its own "breathing" and "pulse", and began to draw nutrients from a deeper, more vast source.

Finally, Jie Ming confirmed that his internal cave was drawing energy and matter directly from the "endless chaotic void" of the wizard world.

The most conclusive evidence appeared in the third month after the promotion.

That day, Jie Ming was introspecting the cave during cultivation, and was shocked to find that this space, which originally only had constant soft light sources, actually had regular "day and night alternation"!

A warm but not scorching "sun" rose and fell regularly in the sky, and at night, familiar stars appeared—this was not a real star, but a "projection" phenomenon of the fire elemental plane and some stable elemental planes under the rules of the newborn plane.

This is a characteristic that only a "plane" in the true sense will possess!

The internal cave, on the basis of the plane origin he continuously fed, under the catalysis of his promotion to Soul Transformation, had begun to evolve toward a plane capable of self-circulation!

This discovery made Jie Ming both excited and vigilant.

Theoretically, as long as this plane continues to grow, it may even evolve into a complete ecosystem, intelligent races, and even unique law systems in the future.

What is vigilant is that the "independence" of the plane is increasing.

Drawing elemental power directly from the endless void makes the growth speed of the internal cave beyond imagination.

If the "connection" between Jie Ming and this newborn plane is not strong enough, then as the plane's own rules are constantly perfected and its volume continues to increase, one day, it may "close" its channel with the outside world and become a truly independent plane.

Then it will detach from Jie Ming's body and drift toward the endless void.

Therefore, Jie Ming now needs to perform this special "energy infusion" cultivation every day.

The main purpose of his absorbing massive spiritual energy is not to enhance his own cultivation, but to use these pure spiritual energy as "adhesive" and "strengthening agent" to continuously consolidate the origin connection between himself and the internal plane.

He must ensure that he is always the "master" of this plane, its "creator god" and "core law", not just a "landlord" or "channel".

At this moment, as spiritual energy is continuously injected, Jie Ming can clearly perceive the "world" that is growing sturdily inside his body.

Its boundaries are expanding outward extremely slowly but firmly, the internal elemental balance is more stable, and some magic herbs and minerals he transplanted in at the beginning also seem to have begun to adapt to this new environment, showing signs of slight mutation and evolution.

"According to this growth speed, it will take about a few decades to initially form a stable elemental circulation..." Jie Ming evaluated while dividing a wisp of mind during cultivation.

(End of chapter)