novelraw Chapter 395: Waiting
Chapter 395: Waiting
At those words, Jie Ming’s pupils abruptly contracted. “Animate… an entire plane?!”
“Exactly!” Wizard Starfall swung her arms wildly in excitement. “Not the crude sorcery of merely creating a plane consciousness, but truly bestowing spirituality upon this material world—making it a living super-lifeform with growth potential and the capacity for self-evolution! A living plane forged by our own hands! Just imagine how magnificent that would be! What a perfect research platform… and, well, home?”
Seeing the unmasked madness and longing in the eyes of this peak researcher, Jie Ming couldn’t help but wipe away cold sweat that wasn’t actually there.
Animate a plane?
That was literally creating a living plane!
“Hiss…” Jie Ming involuntarily sucked in a sharp breath.
Only someone like Starfall, standing at the forefront of Spirituality research, and backed by Viola—who had personally witnessed a true living plane and provided critical data—would dare to conceive and attempt such a thing.
Yet this was also part of the wizard path’s allure: even miracles like living planes, deemed impossible across the multiverse, could be artificially created given sufficient knowledge.
“I will do my utmost to raise my cultivation and production capacity,” Jie Ming promised solemnly, while still leaving himself some room. “However… for something like animating a plane, I implore Your Excellency to proceed with the utmost caution and complete preparation.”
He genuinely feared this research maniac might one day impulsively experiment on her own plane and accidentally blow everything up. The consequences would be hilarious—in the worst possible way. “Don’t worry, don’t worry! I know what I’m doing!” Starfall waved dismissively, then immediately pressed, “So hurry back and advance! Fifth-ring, sixth-ring—the faster, the better! I need more, higher-quality Imaginary Element!”
“Yes, yes, of course, I’ll do my best.” Jie Ming hastily agreed, afraid to linger any longer lest this great wizard come up with an even more shocking idea.
He turned, stepped onto the teleportation array, and activated the coordinates.
Light flared; space shifted.
In the final moment before his figure fully blurred, what he saw was Starfall waving vigorously and those eyes still burning with boundless thirst for knowledge.
These past ten-plus years had yielded far too much—and been far too mentally taxing.
Sitting within the teleportation tunnel returning to the Infernal Sulfur plane, Jie Ming closed his eyes and reflected.
Over the years, he had absorbed an ocean of advanced knowledge concerning the essence of spirituality, soul structures, life creation, and collective consciousness linkage.
Much of it he could only forcibly memorize at his current realm, swallowing whole without full digestion.
Yet his greatest harvest was undoubtedly the leap in understanding and application of his core law—Spiritual Qi.
Through in-depth discussions with Starfall about the precise mechanisms and manifestations of Imaginary Element (Spiritual Qi) in igniting intelligence, immersing laws, and catalyzing leaps in life essence,
and combining that with the macroscopic data Viola provided on world-class energy-matter-consciousness cycles,
Jie Ming had achieved an unprecedented depth of insight into the Spiritual Qi law he wielded.
His law mastery had skyrocketed from roughly 5% to an astonishing 12%!
This was a colossal leap.
True, such exaggerated gains owed much to the high starting point of the Great Dao Book Pavilion and the unique nature of Spiritual Qi itself, but Starfall’s research—reaching straight to the source of “spirituality” and “creation”—had undeniably served as the critical catalyst.
Of course, a significant portion of that 12% remained at the stage of “theoretical understanding” and “stored memory,” not yet fully transformed into instinct and authority.
It was like memorizing a supreme technique manual without yet cultivating it to the corresponding realm—he could not yet unleash its full might.
He needed time. He needed practice.
He needed to return to his Infernal Sulfur plane, where he held absolute control, abundant energy, and layers of protection, and through continuously perfecting and deepening the Incense Fire Divine Dao—this super-project that already spanned the entire plane—gradually put all those profound spiritual theories into practice.
Only then could he truly digest and absorb the knowledge, while pushing his law mastery to yet another level.
And it wasn’t just Jie Ming who had reaped enormous benefits.
Starfall went without saying—her breakthrough in Spirituality had brought her to the very threshold of seventh-ring; the insane notion of “igniting an entire plane” was proof enough.
Viola, through deep involvement in this high-intensity joint research, had gained new enlightenment regarding the connections between life, soul, consciousness, and the material world, greatly benefiting her own path.
Even Anya, by observing and assisting over the long term, had deepened her understanding of the essence of life force to another level.
Her life-draining technique had probably become even more impossible to defend against.
Had Starfall not needed time to consolidate and prepare for the long, meticulous breakthrough to seventh-ring,
and had Jie Ming himself not felt clear signs of his own bottleneck loosening, this bountiful technical exchange might have lasted even longer.
“Bottleneck…” Jie Ming silently sensed the power surging within him, eager to burst free.
Thanks to the connection of essence, qi, and spirit, and nourished by the immense spiritual force of a fourth-ring wizard, his Nascent Soul cultivation had long since reached flawless completion.
Within his dantian, the tiny Nascent Soul that looked identical to him now sat in solemn majesty, radiating spiritual light, resonating wondrously with the Ring of Truth in his sea of consciousness.
The premonition of breaking the cocoon and ascending to a higher tier of life grew ever clearer.
Spirit Transformation was within arm’s reach.
Jie Ming knew that what he needed most now was to return to his home field—the Infernal Sulfur plane he fully controlled, rich in energy and layered with defenses—to welcome this pivotal ascension.
The teleportation light faded. Familiar heat waves and the scent of sulfur washed over him.
Stepping onto his own territory, Jie Ming’s mind instantly calmed.
Over the past decade-plus, though he had spent most of his time in Starfall’s plane, he had never been completely cut off from his own.
Through remote control, periodic returns, and the efficient management of the Black Giant Priests, the Infernal Sulfur plane had developed steadily and methodically.
The main framework of the Incense Fire Divine Dao was long stable, and the global energy network grew ever more perfect.
The Black Giant population and overall strength had risen steadily as planned, supplying ever-purer and more massive streams of incense power and mortal dust qi.
The various experimental projects and infrastructure teams managed by the Black Giant Priests had also operated at full capacity, continually adding bricks and tiles to the construction of his Infernal Sulfur plane.
After briefly receiving reports from the stationed priests and handling a few matters that required his personal decision, Jie Ming arrived at the plane’s core region—the central array of the Incense Fire Divine Dao, where the plane’s energy converged most densely.
With a wave of his hand, he drew upon the vast yet docile energy of the seventh-grade grand elemental pool, layering multiple tiers of protection and spirit-gathering barriers around himself.
The fifth-grade elemental pool within his inner world resonated in harmony, providing pure backup energy.
Seated cross-legged at the heart of the array, Jie Ming slowly closed his eyes.
One part of his mind continued deducing and constructing the next phase of the Incense Fire Divine Dao, attempting to integrate the newly acquired theoretical knowledge while organizing everything he had learned.
His primary consciousness, however, sank into his dantian, carefully examining his condition and harmonizing essence, qi, and spirit.
Quietly waiting… for that moment when everything would fall perfectly into place.