Chapter 398: The Festival and Incense Divine Power

The Purgatory Sulfur Plane, the Central Control Room of the Incense Divine Path.

As the last crystal panel inlaid with intricate talismans was inserted into the main control array's slot, Gao Jie Ming carefully completed the final energy circuit calibration.

He stepped back two paces and activated the full diagnostic protocol.

Hum…

The entire central control room glowed with a soft milky-white light; countless fine energy patterns on the walls, floor, and ceiling stirred to life like flowing currents.

Dozens of floating holographic screens lit up simultaneously, rapidly scrolling vast streams of data—faith energy collection efficiency, spiritual energy conversion rate, network node stability, real-time status of the Black Giants…

Three minutes later, all screens switched to a pleasing green, and a soft synthesized voice spoke: "Incense Power Collection Network Module 'Thought Resonance Array' installation complete. Full system self-check passed. Estimated operational efficiency increase: 37.2%."

Gao Jie Ming exhaled slowly, rubbing his slightly aching brow.

This final installation phase was far more complex than anticipated.

Originally planned for completion within six months, it had dragged on for nearly two years.

Most time was consumed resolving compatibility issues between the "Thought Resonance" and "Faith Purification" subsystems.

But it was finally finished.

The urgency stemmed from the fact that in two days, the Black Giants' once-per-decade "Molten Fire Festival" would begin.

As a unique elemental lifeform created and refined by Gao Jie Ming himself, the Black Giants' physiology differed radically from conventional beings.

They required no food or sleep, possessed extremely low metabolic rates, and lived extraordinarily long lives.

Even the most ordinary Black Giant, if not slain in battle or drained of energy, could easily survive for millennia.

Those who evolved through consumption to fourth- or fifth-grade status lived for tens of thousands of years.

Such extended lifespans shaped their perception of time in ways utterly alien to short-lived races.

To them, a festival every ten years was already considered "frequent."

The grander "Century Rite" and the yet-to-be-held "Millennium Sacred Ceremony" were milestones etched into the entire clan's collective memory.

"Lord." A deep voice, like thunder from the earth's core, echoed outside the control room.

Gao Jie Ming turned toward the door.

There stood a head barely visible through a single eye—the six-grade Black Giant, one of the two surviving leaders of the Black Giant Legion, named by Gao Jie Ming "Molten Mountain."

Unlike other Black Giant priests, whose bodies had undergone specialized mutations for research and spellcasting, Molten Mountain followed the most traditional "Elemental Colossus" evolutionary path.

After ascending to sixth grade, his already towering fifty-meter frame grew further, now standing nearly a hundred meters tall in his default posture.

His entire body was sheathed in a flowing layer of black metallic liquid, shimmering with the glow of cooling magma under the control room's light.

His massive palms, when spread, could cover half the room; along the vertical fissure marking his chest, the black obsidian furnace-like structure within glowed faintly.

He was one of only two survivors among the five elite Black Giants originally cultivated by Gao Jie Ming, having endured countless interplanar wars.

His pure strength, unyielding will, and absolute loyalty to Gao Jie Ming made him the undisputed symbol of the Black Giant Legion's martial might.

"How is the festival preparation progressing?" Gao Jie Ming walked to the console and pulled up real-time surveillance feeds from festival sites across the plane.

Molten Mountain bowed his massive head respectfully—the motion brought him nearly to the lab floor: "Framework construction is 87% complete. The main ritual site's 'Eternal Furnace' has been ignited; energy supply is stable. Rock Hammer Commander has departed to the eastern gathering zones to assemble the clan. By the time the festival begins, over 98% of the entire clan will have arrived at the main venue."

On-screen, the central festival grounds on the plane's flatlands were under frantic construction.

Tens of millions of Black Giants labored there: they pulled molten rock from the earth with bare hands and shaped it midair into grand arches, platforms, and statues; they channeled pure energy flows from elemental pools to weave protective and enhancing arrays covering the entire venue; specialized priest teams maintained at the core a massive energy vortex over five hundred meters in diameter—the "Eternal Furnace," the convergence point of the clan's will and energy during the festival.

"Good." Gao Jie Ming nodded in satisfaction. "Exact start time?"

"Standard plane time: noon in two days. When the twin suns reach zenith, the Furnace Resonance Ritual will commence." Molten Mountain's voice carried a rare hint of anticipation.

Even for Black Giants with their long lives, the decadal full-clan festival was an unmissable milestone.

"Understood. Go ensure everything proceeds smoothly."

"As the Lord commands." Molten Mountain bowed again, then turned with astonishing agility, his colossal frame avoiding all equipment outside the control room.

Gao Jie Ming watched him depart, then returned his gaze to the surveillance feeds.

Two days hence. Noon.

In the sky of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, two uneven dark-red "suns" slowly rose to zenith.

Scorching light bathed the central plains, illuminating the completed festival grounds in radiant glory.

Over three billion Black Giants had gathered here.

The number sounded terrifying, yet when arranged in orderly ranks across the vast obsidian plain, they appeared disciplined and precise.

From above, the sea of black giants was dotted with countless lava-formed sculptures, energy towers pulsing with runes, and slowly rotating vortices.

At the center, the five-hundred-meter-diameter "Eternal Furnace" burned at its peak, a golden-red energy column shooting skyward, resonating with the twin suns above.

No long speeches. No complex rituals.

At the precise moment the twin suns' light fully aligned with the furnace's column…

"ROOOOAR!!!"

Three billion Black Giants roared in unison!

It was not sound—it was the spiritual resonance of three billion elemental beings, an energy tremor, a torrent of will!

The very ground of the plain shuddered; the air heated instantly to temperatures capable of melting steel, then rapidly cooled by the Black Giants' innate "heat-absorption" trait.

Visible waves of energy radiated from each Black Giant, intertwining, colliding, merging above the venue, and finally converging into the central Eternal Furnace.

The furnace's column surged again, shifting from gold-red to pure gold, like a bridge of light connecting heaven and earth.

The festival entered its climax.

The Black Giants began performing war dances in formation.

Their movements were perfectly synchronized—every step, every punch, every burst of energy precisely matched a rhythm buried deep in their bloodline.

Elite squads performed combat drills around the furnace, showcasing their innate abilities under controlled conditions, drawing waves of spiritual cheers from the watching clansmen.

Meanwhile, across the venue's perimeter and throughout the entire plane, the newly completed "Thought Resonance Array" nodes of the Incense Divine Path began to glow faintly.

Inside the central control room.

Gao Jie Ming did not attend the festival—he knew his presence might make the Black Giants feel constrained.

Standing before the main console, he stared intently at dozens of screens flashing frantic data.

The left screen showed the Eternal Furnace's energy intensity exceeding conventional measurement limits.

The right screen displayed data on faith and thought-wave fluctuations.

The largest central screen showed a curve rising at nearly a vertical angle.

It represented the real-time reserve of Incense Divine Power.

Incense Divine Power is a specialized conceptual force formed by collecting, purifying, and integrating scattered "thought fragments" and "spiritual sparks" emitted unconsciously by sentient beings during daily activities and cognition.

It differs from direct emotional energy or faith power, instead resembling a "latent afterglow of wisdom" or a "nucleus of crystallized thought."

Normally, Black Giants were scattered across the plane working and training, limiting the efficiency of thought fragment collection.

But now, with three billion individuals concentrated, spiritually resonating, and emotionally exalted, their "thought activity" reached an unprecedented peak.

And the newly optimized "Thought Resonance Arrays" were operating at maximum efficiency.

"Thought Fragment Capture Rate: 89.7%… 91.2%… 93.5%…"

"Spiritual Spark Purity: Extraordinary Grade… Still rising…"

"Incense Divine Power Synthesis Rate: Currently equivalent to one hundred thirty-two years' output under normal conditions per second…"

The numbers continued to surge wildly.

As the festival reached its most intense phase—when three billion Black Giants chanted in unison an ancient war song, their spiritual waves synchronizing perfectly with the Eternal Furnace's energy torrent—the central screen's curve abruptly breached Gao Jie Ming's preset "theoretical peak threshold," plunging into a red zone labeled "Unknown High Value."

"Warning: Reserve rate exceeds safe buffer capacity. Initiate emergency diversion?"

The synthesized voice chimed.

"No. Maintain current state. Prioritize data collection integrity." Gao Jie Ming gave a decisive order, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the still-rising curve.

A faint smile crept onto his lips.

Over an hour later, the first wave of the festival's climax began to subside.

The Black Giants entered a phase of free interaction and display.

The Eternal Furnace's energy intensity slowly receded; the peak of thought resonance passed.

The Incense Divine Power reserve curve finally stabilized at a level Gao Jie Ming found satisfactory.

Gao Jie Ming glanced at the final accumulated total, then drew a deep breath.

The Incense Divine Power collected during this festival was sufficient to complete all planned modules of the Incense Divine Path.

More importantly, the purity and vitality of this batch reached theoretical optimum—true top-tier quality.

"Extract one standard unit. Deliver to Analysis Room One."

Minutes later, Gao Jie Ming returned to his core laboratory.

On the workbench, a transparent crystal container held a fist-sized mass of warm golden energy.

It did not flicker like flame, nor blaze like a light orb—it was a slow, fluid "light mist," suspended between liquid and gas.

Upon closer inspection, countless tiny golden runes flickered and flowed within the mist, faintly echoing the whispers of countless sentient beings.

Incense Divine Power.

According to the records of the Great Dao Library, it was a top-tier universal resource, ranked alongside "Rustling World Qi."

Whether used to aid cultivation breakthroughs, forge magic treasures or elixirs, temper body and spirit, construct arrays or talismans, or heal Dao wounds and soul damage, it possessed near-unparalleled versatility and efficiency.

Its applications surpassed even Rustling World Qi, as it could be shaped—according to the user's need—into nearly any form of power.

But what Gao Jie Ming now intended to try was an extremely rare, almost luxurious use of Incense Divine Power—the very method he had immediately memorized upon first reading about it in the Great Dao Library.

The Divine Thought Resonance Scripture.

This technique's principle was to harness the "afterglow of collective thought" embedded within Incense Divine Power, converting it into a temporary, targeted enhancement of the user's specific cognitive abilities.

In simple terms, it could temporarily boost the user's "comprehension," "inspiration," "deduction speed," or "intuitive acuity."

It was like injecting a potent "spiritual light catalyst" into the brain.

Gao Jie Ming carefully enveloped the incense divine power with his spiritual force, guiding its energy along the complex cultivation route recorded in the Divine Thought Resonance Scripture.

There was no energy surging through his body, no grand spectacle as he had imagined.

The golden mist, as if alive, followed the pull of his spiritual force and slowly merged into his third eye.

A warm, clear sensation—like a sudden enlightenment—spread instantly from the depths of his mind.

Gao Jie Ming closed his eyes.

The world… was different.

Not a change in the senses, but a leap in the level of thought.

He felt as if he had stepped out of a narrow tunnel and suddenly stood beneath an infinite expanse of stars.

Countless problems he had struggled with in his research, blocked thoughts, vague hypotheses—all now appeared as clearly as a cleaned mirror.

His brain's "processing speed" seemed to have increased a hundredfold, a thousandfold.

Countless thoughts, inspirations, and solutions surged forth like a fountain, then instantly evaluated, filtered, combined, and optimized.

Complex theoretical problems that once required months of painstaking thought now yielded multiple viable pathways within just a few breaths.

Unconsciously, he focused this "overclocked" mental ability on the problem that had plagued him for so long:

How to solve the issue of excessive energy dispersion and low combat efficiency when combining two power systems?

Almost at the very instant the question arose.

The answer—clear, concise, complete—appeared in his consciousness, as if it had been waiting there all along.

Not just a few scattered ideas, but an entire coherent theoretical framework and implementation plan.

From the most fundamental principles of energy interaction to the specific design of rune arrays—all details flowed seamlessly together.

Gao Jie Ming froze.

Not because the answer was complex, but because… it was too simple.

So simple it was like a thin sheet of paper—he had simply never found the right angle to pierce through it.

"So that's how it is…" He slowly opened his eyes. The golden glow in his gaze faded, replaced by the bright clarity of sudden understanding; a smile tugged at his lips. "It's so simple—why didn't I think of it before?"

(Today's two chapters total over eight thousand characters—this counts as an extra update.)

(End of Chapter)