Chapter 541: Route Decision

The light of the teleportation array dissipated, and Gao Jie Ming stood firmly on the ground outside the space teleportation array of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane.

He took a deep breath.

The air was filled with the familiar scent of sulfur, mixed with the faint heat of lava.

This smell had once made him very uncomfortable, but now it made him feel a trace of nostalgia.

He hadn't expected this mission to last fifty years.

Gao Jie Ming stood where he was, watching the lava river flowing in the distance, feeling somewhat dazed.

He shook his head, pulled back his thoughts, and walked toward the laboratory.

However, these fifty years could not be considered wasted for him.

Although the handover work of the Aiers Plane was cumbersome, most of the time he only needed to keep an eye on the progress.

He took this opportunity to settle his mind and read through all the knowledge crystals he hadn't had time to study carefully.

His knowledge level should now have reached that of a veteran Level 4 Wizard.

Gao Jie Ming silently evaluated in his heart.

He was still quite a distance away from the average level of a Level 5 Wizard.

After all, the learning time for many Level 5 Wizards was calculated in "millennia."

Even if not all their time was spent on learning, the gap in learning time between Gao Jie Ming and a proper Level 5 Wizard was still significant.

This fifty-year cram session only pulled his shortcomings from "dreadful" to "barely passable."

"The knowledge on the Wizard side is barely enough," Gao Jie Ming planned in his heart. "Next, I can spare some time to specialize in the knowledge of the Cultivation Civilization."

His mastery of the Spiritual Energy Dao had been stuck at over twenty percent for a long time.

To continue improving, he had to invest a large amount of time in research and comprehension.

As he walked, he calculated his next plan in his mind.

There were still many aspects of the Incense Divine Dao construction that could be perfected.

The cross-space energy transmission system had exposed several problems during the previous war, and it was just the right time to make adjustments.

The accumulation of knowledge was sufficient, and it was time to choose a direction within the Level 5 knowledge system for in-depth research.

Before he knew it, he had reached the entrance of the laboratory.

The laboratory door opened automatically, and the sound of rustling footsteps came from inside.

A dozen Black Giant Priests came up to meet him, each holding a stack of recording crystals in their hands, densely marked with various data. "Master, you have returned."

The leading Black Giant Priest bowed in salute.

Gao Jie Ming nodded and sat down in the main seat of the laboratory.

"Speak, what has happened over these years?"

The leading Black Giant Priest stepped forward and began to report.

First was the operation of the Incense Divine Dao.

The number of believers had grown steadily, and the production of Incense Power had increased by 3% compared to fifty years ago.

The Incense Divine Dao was running stably, but a high energy conversion loss problem had been discovered in recent years, and they hoped to allocate resources for an inspection. Next was the reproduction and management of the Black Giant Legion.

The number of Black Giants within the Purgatory Sulfur Plane had exceeded ten billion, with over one hundred thousand individuals above Level 6.

The discipline and combat effectiveness of the legion had improved, but resource consumption had increased synchronously, requiring the master to decide whether to control the scale.

Then there were resource reserves and experimental progress.

The Level 7 large-scale elemental pool was operating normally, with sufficient energy reserves.

Gao Jie Ming listened while quickly processing this information in his mind.

The Incense Divine Dao system indeed needed adjustments.

When he designed it, he was only Level 2, and many details were not perfect.

Now was the perfect time to resolve all those lingering problems at once.

As for the scale of the Black Giant Legion...

"No need to control it for now," Gao Jie Ming said. "Continue to reproduce, but keep up with resource allocation. Screen out those individuals with insufficient combat effectiveness and compile them into the logistics sequence."

The Black Giant Priest nodded and made a note on the recording crystal.

The report lasted for nearly an hour. Just as Gao Jie Ming was about to dismiss them, the Black Giant Priest leader stepped forward again.

"Master, there is one more thing."

"Speak."

Rong Shan handed over a recording crystal: "It is about the secondary analysis data of the biological tissues you requested earlier."

Gao Jie Ming took the crystal, and his spiritual sense probed into it.

The crystal stored massive amounts of dissection records, tissue section images, and energy reaction test data.

These were research materials he had accumulated during his Level 2 and Level 3 Wizard stages.

At that time, in order to increase his knowledge reserves, he had frantically dissected various creatures, almost dissecting all the creatures he had brought back from the Void Plane.

But his level was limited at the time, and many dissection studies were done quite crudely.

Later, after promoting to Level 4 and Level 5, he had been busy, so these materials were shelved.

It wasn't until a few decades ago that he remembered to let the Black Giant Priests study them again, using more mature technology to re-analyze those biological tissues. Gao Jie Ming browsed the data, and his expression suddenly shifted slightly.

His gaze stopped on a piece of analysis results.

That was research data on the "body structure of the Black Giant leader Rong Shan."

Back then, he wanted to study Rong Shan's body structure, but because his knowledge reserves were insufficient, he only did some basic tests and put it aside.

Now, looking at this data, Gao Jie Ming's related thoughts were stirred up again.

"Come to think of it, this is a pretty good direction," Gao Jie Ming muttered.

He continued reading, finding his train of thought becoming clearer the more he read.

Biological modification... it was indeed suitable as a priority research direction for Level 5 knowledge.

The three major cannon fodder units he created—Black Giants, Nests, and Patrollers—up until now, the only ones that had truly come in handy were the Black Giants. Nests and Patrollers were originally designed as naval and aerial combat units.

But after all these years, they had participated in almost no decent battles.

Patrollers had undergone two rounds of modification, but their strength still couldn't keep up with the rhythm of the Black Giants.

Especially after the Black Giants integrated into the Incense Divine Dao system of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, their growth speed increased significantly, leaving the Patrollers far behind.

As for the Nests...

Gao Jie Ming recalled.

Apart from a few tests done right after they were created, they had never been used again.

Later, the technology of the Cave Heaven within the body matured, and the automated factories within the Cave Heaven completely replaced the function of the Nests as biological warships.

Now, the presence of the Nests was almost zero.

Gao Jie Ming put down the recording crystal and fell into deep thought.

Since he was going to study knowledge related to biological modification, he might as well use the Nests and Patrollers for practice.

On one hand, it could improve his knowledge level and prepare for studying the body structure of Rong Shan in the future; on the other hand, these two units indeed needed an upgrade.

"That's decided then. The next research direction will be biological modification."

"Start with the Level 5 Wizard knowledge system and go through all the theories related to biological modification. The upgrade plans for the Nests and Patrollers will begin simultaneously."