Chapter 456

That day, in the laboratory's meditation chamber.

Gao Jie Ming had just completed "ingesting" a strand of dimensional essence imbued with the trait "compulsory absorption."

His consciousness slowly detached from the overwhelming flood of cold formulas and complex models concerning energy siphoning, forced extraction, and unidirectional flow, returning to reality.

He rubbed his slightly swollen temples, preparing to adjust his breath, when he suddenly froze.

A strange sensation rose in his heart.

The Ring of Truth trembled faintly in his spiritual world, denser and more stable than ever before, its resonance with external elements far clearer.

His total spiritual force had not surged, but it now flowed with greater fluidity and ease.

"Is this… a Fifth-Degree Wizard?"

Gao Jie Ming sensed his transformation—surprised, yet somehow inevitable.

The requirements for advancing to Fifth-Degree Wizard were clear: mastery of at least one Law must exceed 10%, and spiritual force intensity must meet the threshold.

His mastery of the spiritual energy Law had long surpassed 20%, and with his body strengthened by Time Afterimage training, the mutual influence of Essence, Qi, and Spirit naturally brought his spiritual force to the required level.

"Fifth-Degree, huh…" Gao Jie Ming murmured softly, his tone calm.

For him, this advancement brought negligible improvement in actual combat power.

After all, the reason remained the same: a Wizard's power stems from "knowledge."

Level advancement merely upgrades your "hardware"—spiritual capacity, energy control ceiling, Law bearing capacity—like swapping an old computer for the latest supercomputer.

What truly determines how complex and powerful the "programs" (spells) your "computer" can run is the quantity and quality of "knowledge" stored in your consciousness.

Gao Jie Ming's current state: his hardware had just reached "Fifth-Degree standard," but the "Fifth-Degree knowledge programs" of the orthodox Wizard system stored in his hard drive were pitifully scarce.

Without exaggeration, in terms of orthodox Wizard knowledge accumulation and corresponding combat techniques, he might now be inferior to some seasoned Third-Degree Wizards.

At Third-Degree, he had threatened weak Fifth-Degree Wizards using Black Giants and composite methods; at Fourth-Degree, he had faced Fifth-Degree Wizards with even greater composure.

Now that he was Fifth-Degree, he could still only maintain threat against peers, yet remained powerless against Sixth-Degree Wizards.

Moreover, throughout this process, his ability to keep pace in combat relied entirely on knowledge from another system.

His combat superiority came from "cross-system knowledge dividends" and "composite technique advantages," not from his Wizard level itself.

Now, advancing to Fifth-Degree meant the "gap in orthodox Wizard knowledge" he needed to fill had grown even larger.

Which Fifth-Degree Wizard hadn't spent millennia honing their craft in their chosen fields, accumulating vast knowledge and countless trump cards?

Compared to them, Gao Jie Ming's "thinness" in Wizard knowledge stood out starkly.

"There's more to learn, study, and accumulate…" Gao Jie Ming sighed softly. Far from relaxing after his advancement, he felt the weight on his shoulders grow heavier.

He subtly shifted his focus, instinctively probing the state of his cultivation base in the immortal cultivation system.

The flow of Essence, Qi, and Spirit had become far smoother; the "dissonance" caused by his overpowered physique had noticeably diminished.

The gap between the three was rapidly narrowing; at this rate, within just a few years, he could restore the ideal state of perfect harmony and mutual balance.

This was good news.

But another discovery made Gao Jie Ming frown.

The bad news: the growth rate of his spiritual force and spiritual energy showed no sign of slowing, even as balance neared.

They continued climbing at their previous, far-above-normal pace.

On the surface, this seemed a tremendous blessing—power growing ceaselessly.

But combined with his current realm and perception, it pointed to an unsettling truth: he still had a vast, almost absurd gap between his current state and the theoretical threshold of Void Refinement.

"Huh…" Gao Jie Ming involuntarily drew in a sharp breath, his eyes filled with doubt, "Do the gaps between these major immortal realms really stretch this far?"

His spiritual force and spiritual energy were increasing in tandem, their strength roughly corresponding to his Wizard level.

Now that he was a Fifth-Degree Wizard, his spiritual force intensity had met the threshold.

Based on past experience, Wizard and immortal combat power were largely aligned; logically, the total quantity and qualitative transformation of Essence, Qi, and Spirit should have already reached the Void Refinement threshold.

But reality proved otherwise.

He felt no clear path forward toward the next realm.

This feeling was utterly unlike the "natural progression" he'd experienced when breaking through minor realms.

"Something's wrong."

Gao Jie Ming decisively set aside all his research, even pausing absorption of dimensional essence.

He walked to the center of the meditation chamber, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and sank all his attention into the deepest recesses of his consciousness.

The ethereal shadow of the Jade Tower of the Dao stood silently.

Gao Jie Ming's consciousness stood before its gates, thoughts racing: "Query texts on the key to ascending from Soul Transformation to Void Refinement, essential differences between realms, and comparisons of ancient and modern methods!"

Immediately, several ancient-looking jade slips and scrolls floated out from the depths of the tower, hovering before him.

Gao Jie Ming's consciousness plunged into them, beginning rapid reading.

Time flowed swiftly within his accelerated mind.

He absorbed vast quantities of profound, obscure information concerning ancient secrets and the essence of cultivation.

After a long while, Gao Jie Ming's consciousness slowly lifted its head, eyes gleaming with sudden understanding—and complexity.

"So that's how it is…"

The good news: the absolute power gap between Soul Transformation and Void Refinement immortals was not as absurdly vast as he'd imagined.

Some ancient monsters who had dwelled in Soul Transformation for tens of thousands of years could challenge or even suppress ordinary Void Refinement immortals.

But the bad news: ascending from Soul Transformation to Void Refinement would be far harder than breaking through previous realms.

Because from Soul Transformation onward, the major realms gradually escaped the realm of "artificial bottlenecks," becoming… more "primitive" and "difficult."

"Bottleneck…" Gao Jie Ming chewed the word, recalling the key insight from the texts.

For countless low-level immortals, "bottlenecks" were loathed obstacles—barriers halting progress, sources of despair after years of arduous cultivation.

But at higher levels, Gao Jie Ming now understood from these ancient records: "bottlenecks" were deliberately created and solidified by brilliant predecessors to reduce advancement difficulty and lay broader paths of cultivation!

They were, in fact, artificial "stairs" enabling later immortals to climb higher.

Their existence did limit the maximum potential attainable within a single realm.

But conversely, they provided a clear, traceable "breakthrough point."

As long as one accumulated steadily and successfully shattered this relatively "weak" barrier, one could leap to a higher life tier.

"Break the bottleneck, and you ascend"—for a path shrouded in mystery and uncertainty, this was practically a "cheat," drastically reducing randomness and unpredictability.

The state Gao Jie Ming now felt was the true hardship faced by the earliest cultivators before any predecessors paved the way: with sufficient resources and talent, inner power could accumulate nearly without limit—but ahead lay only chaos, with no clear "bottleneck" or "gate" to break through.

No matter how much you accumulated, you had no idea where to direct your effort to pry open the door to the next level.

Breaking an artificially set "bottleneck" was already incredibly difficult for many cultivators.

But to higher-level cultivators, if one couldn't even overcome such a deliberately weakened and clearly marked "bottleneck," then facing Gao Jie Ming's current state—no clear bottleneck, only a vague abyss—would leave them utterly helpless, forever barred from further progress.

The texts also mentioned how later cultivators refined lower realms to further reduce advancement difficulty.

The most classic example was Qi Refining.

As the mandatory path for every immortal, Qi Refining had been modified most frequently and thoroughly.

It had long surpassed the simple four-stage division of Early, Mid, Late, and Perfect, and was now subdivided into nine distinct levels: Qi Refining One through Nine, each commonly split into Early, Mid, and Late sub-stages.

In total, just within Qi Refining, over twenty-six "minor bottlenecks" had been artificially created!

Each minor bottleneck reduced the overall difficulty of the final "transition from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment."

It was like turning a steep, treacherous cliff into a series of relatively gentle steps with resting places.

Though more steps meant more effort, it was far easier and safer than direct rock climbing.

At Jin Dan and Nascent Soul, the number of cultivators plummeted, so the "staircase" modifications were less refined and thorough than for Foundation Establishment.

Hence, Foundation Establishment had four relatively clear stages—Early, Mid, Late, Perfect—while Jin Dan and Nascent Soul often had only three: Early, Mid, Late.

Therefore, Foundation Establishment has four relatively distinct stages: early, middle, late, and peak, while Jin Dan and Nascent Soul often have only three: early, middle, and late.

Those reaching this realm were already rare as phoenix feathers; research and "modification" of this realm were even scarcer, leaving its state closer to the "primitive"—exactly what Gao Jie Ming now felt.

Power could accumulate, but the "signposts" for advancement were blurred; one had to explore, perceive, even rely on luck or sudden enlightenment to find the way.

"So my current state… is actually the 'normal' one. My smooth progress until now was thanks to predecessors' painstaking reforms of the cultivation system."

Gao Jie Ming withdrew from deep consciousness, slowly opened his eyes, and frowned.

He suddenly recalled the Wizard level system.

Following this logic, from Wizard apprentice to formal Wizard required igniting the Spirit Flame and forming the Ring of Truth.

From First-Degree to Second-Degree required constructing a complete energy circulation system; from Second-Degree to Third-Degree involved deep engagement and initial application of Laws—all had clear, almost "qualitative" markers of transformation.

But advancing from Third-Degree to Fourth-Degree, and Fourth-Degree to Fifth-Degree, felt more like mere "quantitative" accumulation, lacking the profound life-tier leap.

Now he realized: the Wizard level divisions likely underwent similar artificial adjustments.

"Perhaps, from Third-Degree to Sixth-Degree, it's essentially one complete 'Mid-Level Wizard' realm?" Gao Jie Ming speculated.

"And Fourth-Degree and Fifth-Degree were deliberately carved out as 'minor steps' or 'midpoint checkpoints' to reduce the confusion and difficulty of this long accumulation phase."

"This way, Wizards have clear, incremental goals during their prolonged Law accumulation, know their progress, and avoid getting utterly lost in the boundless ocean of Laws."

This theory perfectly explained why he could threaten or even defeat weaker Fifth-Degree Wizards at Third-Degree and Fourth-Degree.

Because they were all within the same "Mid-Level Wizard" realm; the difference lay only in the "numerical" degree of Law mastery, not in absolute qualitative or life-form divergence.

Because they are essentially still within the same "Mid-Grade Wizard" major realm, their differences manifest more in the "numerical" degree of law mastery than in absolute generational gaps in life form or power essence.

That was the next major realm—the beginning of High-Level Wizard!

A being who had completed Law solidification and undergone some qualitative transformation of life form!

Hence, the gap between Fifth-Degree and Sixth-Degree Wizards was incomparably wider than previous minor realm gaps.

Recalling it now, when Sister Wei'ao had jumped directly from Third-Degree to Sixth-Degree Wizard, she'd found breaking through Fourth-Degree and Fifth-Degree remarkably easy—only the final leap to Sixth-Degree had been truly difficult.

Looking back, when Senior Viola chose to leap directly from Third Level to Sixth Level Wizard, breaking through Fourth and Fifth Levels was indeed quite easy; only the final breakthrough to Sixth Level Wizard proved difficult.

It seems that, back then, Senior Viola had already realized this—so for her, skipping three levels was merely a direct breakthrough from one realm to the next major realm.

If that's the case, a Level Six Wizard… is likely even more troublesome than I imagined. Gao Jie Ming's gaze grew grave, and his assessment of the danger posed by Level Six Wizards rose another notch.

After all, he was about to face an actual wizard war, and wizards—intelligent and cunning beings—would never simply engage in a straightforward king-versus-king, general-versus-general clash.

On the contrary, even Gao Jie Ming himself, when contemplating future warfare, would first instinctively seek to eradicate the enemy's low-tier forces to secure an advantage for his own side.

Thus, on the battlefield, his chances of encountering a Gao Gao Jie Wizard were extremely high.

It seems I must work even harder.

Gao Jie Ming reached out, picked up the next vial sealed with the conceptual origin of the "Abyssal Assimilation" plane, pulled out the stopper, and began once more that lavish and arduous "ingestion of knowledge."

(End of Chapter)