Chapter 542: Adjustments and the First Modification Target

The sky of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane was, as always, tinged with a deep crimson.

Jie Ming hovered ten thousand meters in the air, looking down at the land he had personally modified countless times.

Around him, dozens of Black Giant priests were also suspended in the air, each with a massive runic light array floating before them, emitting various colors of light.

"West District energy node, lower it by another three-thousandths."

Jie Ming's voice spread throughout the area via his spiritual sense.

A Black Giant priest immediately adjusted the light array before him, his fingers tapping rapidly in the void, causing the complex runic sequence to shift accordingly.

A moment later, a faint glimmer flashed somewhere on the ground below—the signal that the energy node adjustment was complete.

"North District Array Eye No. 7, the output waveform is off; correct it to the standard value."

Another priest began the operation.

This was their fiftieth consecutive day of work.

The Incense God Dao, including the cross-space energy transmission system and all its subsystems—even the main system—required a comprehensive optimization. The minor issues left behind during the design phase several hundred years ago now had to be resolved one by one.

Jie Ming was responsible for overall coordination and command, while the Black Giant priests manipulated the super-large magic arrays spread across the entire plane, fine-tuning every detail. Looking down from ten thousand meters, the entire Purgatory Sulfur Plane resembled a massive circuit board.

Countless energy nodes flickered with faint light, and complex lines traced profound patterns across the earth.

And they were currently performing a precision calibration on this circuit board.

"Southeast District feedback delay, there is still a problem," one priest reported.

Jie Ming frowned slightly, his figure flickering as he instantly appeared above the Southeast District.

He closed his eyes to perceive for a moment, then said, "Reset all phase synchronization protocols for the seventh, eighth, and ninth nodes, and re-match the fluctuation frequency of the main array."

Another round of adjustments began.

Time slipped away quietly amidst the focused work.

When the data for the final node finally reached the ideal value, Jie Ming opened his eyes and let out a soft breath.

"All in position. Initiate the test."

At his command, all the priests simultaneously activated the runic light arrays before them.

The next moment, the entire energy network of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane lit up.

Viewed from high altitude, the scene was indescribably magnificent.

Countless light patterns flowed across the land like blood surging through veins, eventually converging toward the massive energy tower at the center of the plane. The tip of the tower flared with intense light, and a pillar of energy, nearly solidified, shot into the sky, piercing deep into the void.

That was the sign that the cross-space transmission channel had opened.

Jie Ming stared at that light, his spiritual sense tightly following the energy flow, perceiving every loss and every fluctuation during the transmission process. The test lasted for a full three minutes.

When the light faded, he looked down at the recording crystal in his hand, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

Transmission efficiency increased by 12%.

Energy stability increased by 15%.

Response speed increased by 9%.

"Not bad," Jie Ming nodded. "Dismiss the team."

Upon returning to the core laboratory, various insights from the recent adjustments still lingered in Jie Ming's mind.

He walked into the cultivation room, sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, closed his eyes, and looked inward at his spiritual sea.

Deep within the spiritual sea, the Ring of Truth floated quietly, rotating slowly; it was the core of his existence as a Level 5 Wizard.

And beside the Ring of Truth, a golden thread circled it, like a satellite orbiting a planet.

That was the manifestation of the Law of Spiritual Energy.

Jie Ming focused his attention, his gaze narrowing slightly.

That golden thread was a circle thicker than before.

He carefully perceived it; his mastery of the Law of Spiritual Energy had risen from 20% to nearly 30%.

"This is an unexpected joy."

Jie Ming opened his eyes, lost in thought.

Thinking about it carefully, this was not strange.

The adjustment of the Incense God Dao was essentially him combing through the relevant knowledge once more; in this process, his understanding of the Law of Spiritual Energy naturally deepened.

It was equivalent to reviewing the original knowledge, while also gaining new insights along the way.

He looked at the Ring of Truth in his spiritual sea, silently calculating his gains and the growth ratio of his mastery of the Law of Spiritual Energy.

Jie Ming shook his head with a sigh: "The growth rate is dropping very quickly."

Advancing from a Level 5 Wizard to Level 6 required increasing one's mastery of the Law from 10% to 100%.

He was only approaching 30% now; there was still two-thirds of the road left to go.

And this was just the basic threshold.

After reaching 100%, one still had to understand Law Solidification to truly step into Level 6.

It sounded simple, but doing it...

Jie Ming couldn't help but sigh.

Law mastery was something that looked like it could grow continuously, but in reality, the higher one went, the harder it became.

The more profound the knowledge studied, the greater the difficulty of learning, and the thicker the accumulation required.

In terms of difficulty alone, the step from Level 5 to Level 6 exceeded the sum of everything from Wizard Apprentice all the way to Level 5.

"Take it slow."

Putting aside his emotions, Jie Ming completed his daily cultivation.

After finishing his cultivation and confirming everything was normal, he stood up, left the cultivation room, and walked toward the biological laboratory on the other side.

The door to the biological laboratory opened automatically, and a scent mixed with nutrient solution and antiseptic agents rushed toward him.

The laboratory was a scene of busy activity.

Dozens of Black Giant priests were busy at their respective workbenches, some dissecting biological tissues, some recording data, and others calibrating various instruments.

The walls were covered with massive display screens, scrolling with vast amounts of analysis results.

And on the right side of the laboratory, a row of transparent culture tanks, over ten meters high and several meters wide, were neatly arranged.

The culture tanks were filled with light green nutrient solution. Suspended in the solution were organisms of various forms—if those things could still be called "organisms."

Jie Ming walked over and stood before the culture tanks to observe.

These organisms looked like super-sized insects.

Some had sickle-shaped forelimbs, some were covered in thick carapaces, and some had multiple pairs of compound eyes.

They were suspended in the nutrient solution, with fine probes inserted into various parts of their bodies, connected to data interfaces on the outer walls of the culture tanks.

"Master."

A Black Giant priest approached him.

It was shorter than the other priests, but the light of wisdom in its eyes was brighter.

Jie Ming remembered it was called "Strategist," the one with the strongest thinking ability among this batch of priests.

"Report the progress," Jie Ming said.

Strategist handed over a recording crystal: "We have re-analyzed all the variants of the Sickle-Skull race from the Reincarnation Plane. Combined with the research materials you left behind back then, we have basically organized all the necessary underlying data."

Jie Ming took the crystal, and his spiritual sense probed inside.

The crystal stored massive amounts of dissection data, gene sequences, and energy reaction test results.

Every variant of the Sickle-Skull race—worker, warrior, commander, brood mother—had detailed records.

He had gained a great deal back then in the Reincarnation Plane, bringing back almost all the research materials regarding the Sickle-Skull race.

Now, after re-analysis by the Black Giant priests, the data was more detailed and the logic clearer.

Jie Ming nodded as he browsed.

He prepared to modify the "Nest" first.

The Nest was a biological warship unit he had designed in his early years, but it hadn't been of much use over these many years.

The Prowlers had at least contributed, but the Nest had absolutely no presence.

As a biological warship, the Sickle-Skull race—a species naturally bred as biological weapons—was naturally the most suitable simulation sample. The brood mother unit of the Sickle-Skull race was itself a type of biological warship.

They could produce soldiers, store resources, and integrating these characteristics of the Sickle-Skull race into the design of the Nest was naturally the most suitable path.

Jie Ming was thinking this when he suddenly sighed.

What a pity.

If only that Fungus Lord from back then could have been used for research.

The Fungus Lord of the Triangle Plane was the most ideal simulation sample.

Its adaptability, evolutionary ability, and resource conversion efficiency were far superior to the Sickle-Skull race.

Unfortunately, that thing was too dangerous and was eventually completely wiped out, not even leaving behind a complete sample.

Jie Ming shook his head and withdrew his thoughts.

Without the Fungus Lord, the Sickle-Skull race, while slightly inferior, was still enough.

He took the recording crystal and walked toward his workbench. ===== CHAPTER 543 =====