novelraw Chapter 399: A New Line of Thought
Chapter 399: A New Line of Thought
The solution… turned out to be this simple after all.
Jie Ming stood in the center of the laboratory, gazing at the dozens of design drafts and data tablets spread across the workbench. A complicated expression of sudden realization mixed with self-mockery appeared on his face.
Every sheet of paper was densely covered with the various elaborate plans he had devised over the past decade-plus, all attempting to solve the problem of “energy dispersion” – multi-layered energy focusing arrays, dynamic collapse force fields, phase interference models…
Each one had consumed enormous amounts of his effort. Each one had tried to forcibly constrain that overloaded energy using ever more intricate and complex “control structures.”
But now, under the hyper-accelerated thinking state granted by Incense Divine Power, he could clearly see the other side of the problem, or rather, he realized he had been completely trapped in a fixed pattern of thought.
“I’ve always been thinking… about how to use the Immortal Cultivation system’s ability to manipulate external Spiritual Qi to amplify the power of witchcraft.”
The direction itself wasn’t wrong. It was indeed the most intuitive path toward fusing the two power systems.
Simply put, it meant taking advantage of a cultivator’s innate superiority in mobilizing environmental energy to “overcharge” witchcraft models that were originally built around the principle of “leverage multiplication,” forcing them to produce destructive power far exceeding their designed limits.
But this was like forcibly installing an engine capable of five hundred kilometers per hour into a sports car designed for a maximum speed of two hundred.
Yes, the engine was far more powerful – but the car’s suspension, brakes, tires, aerodynamics… none of them could withstand it. Although Jie Ming had used his own knowledge to reinforce every other aspect, when the power output became overwhelmingly excessive, the result was either catastrophic loss of control… or most of that power being squandered on meaningless friction, heat, and structural degradation.
The “carrying capacity” of a witchcraft model depended on Jie Ming’s reserve of relevant knowledge, the precision of his mental control, and the inherent structural stability of the model itself.
When the energy input provided by the cultivation system exceeded this limit, the result was exactly what had appeared in the previous test field: the apparent might was grand, yet it was scattered and inefficient, with massive amounts of energy wasted.
Theoretically, there were only two ways to solve this problem:
Either raise the overall performance of the witchcraft model so it could handle greater power,
Or… change the entire approach.
“It’s completely possible to think in reverse, use the wizard’s method of leveraging elemental multiplication to strengthen a cultivator’s spells instead.”
A bright gleam flashed through Jie Ming’s eyes.
Though the two paths appeared similar on the surface, they were fundamentally different in essence.
The core of the first path was “strengthening the existing structure.”
The core of the second path was “reconstructing the output mode.”
The technical difficulty of the first method was relatively low: one only needed to find rune modules within the cultivation system that conformed to the fundamental energy laws of the wizard world and were used for “absorbing external Spiritual Qi,” then add corresponding “energy intake ports” and “overload reinforcement structures” to the existing witchcraft model.
In essence, this was merely an “expansion” and “optimization” of existing technology—a “simple” operation that even wizard apprentices could achieve through exhaustive trial and error.
The second method, however, demanded far greater technical sophistication.
First, one had to completely “localize” spells that originally depended entirely on Spiritual Qi and followed the energy circulation laws of the cultivation world.
This required analyzing the core logic of their energy operation, then using the rune system and elemental manipulation theories of the wizard world to reconstruct a new spell model with identical function but driven by “elemental power” instead.
Next, one had to take all the knowledge and techniques a wizard possessed for “leveraging elemental power multiplication” – specific rune combinations, resonance arrays, law interference techniques, etc.. and perform customized “enhancement designs” tailored to each newly reconstructed spell model.
This involved deep optimization of energy pathways, extreme improvement of elemental conversion efficiency, and precise adjustment of output structures.
In short, it was almost equivalent to creating, for every cultivator spell that needed enhancement, a brand-new “exclusive witchcraft-enhanced version” that fully incorporated wizard reinforcement techniques.
Aside from the already divergent energy operation principles, this process was essentially no different from creating an entirely new spell. The difficulty was undoubtedly astronomical.
Yet after careful evaluation, Jie Ming discovered that with his current technical level, though arduous, this path was “feasible.”
More importantly, this approach fundamentally avoided the fatal problem of “control unable to keep up with energy input.”
Because the entire enhancement process was “endogenous”: the spell model itself would possess the ability to efficiently utilize vast amounts of power. There was no need for Jie Ming to perform ultra-high-precision overload manipulation at the instant of casting.
He only needed to activate it as he would normally cast a spell. All subsequent energy circulation, multiplication, and power focusing would be handled automatically by the model itself.
“Phew…”
Jie Ming let out a long breath and rapidly recorded the flood of inspirations surging through his mind onto the nearby “Netherweb Terminal.”
This terminal was connected to the central database within his Inner Cave Heaven, capable of directly converting complex structural diagrams, rune sequences, and energy formulas from his thoughts into storable, callable data models.
As the last burst of inspiration was recorded, he looked at the densely packed new design proposals on the terminal and felt quite satisfied with the effects of Incense Divine Power.
This “thought hyper-acceleration” state was practically a divine tool for breaking through research bottlenecks and obtaining crucial inspirations.
However, when he habitually glanced at the time display in the corner of the terminal, his brows couldn’t help but furrow.
“It’s already… been a full day?”
From the moment he began using Incense Divine Power to the explosion of inspiration and the completion of recording—it had felt like only a few hours had passed.
Yet the terminal clearly showed that twenty-four standard hours had elapsed in real time.
He immediately pulled up the laboratory’s master control system log.
The log recorded that after the injection of Incense Divine Power, his brainwave activity intensity had skyrocketed more than eight hundred times in an extremely short period, and remained at that peak level for twenty-two full hours before slowly beginning to decline.
Throughout the process, his metabolic rate and energy consumption had also surged to hundreds of times the normal level.
“No wonder…” Jie Ming rubbed his slightly swollen temples. “The mind was too active, inspirations pouring out endlessly. I was completely immersed and didn’t notice the passage of time at all.”
This revealed one glaring drawback of the “Divine Thought Sympathy” state granted by Incense Divine Power: it severely distorted the user’s subjective perception of time.
In that condition where thoughts surged uncontrollably, the user’s awareness of external circumstances became abnormally dulled.
“And…” Jie Ming continued flipping through the logs and carefully examining the “inspirations” he had just recorded, “there’s an even more hidden problem.”
He re-examined the design proposals born during that hyper-accelerated state.
At first he had felt immense satisfaction, but now, calming down and scrutinizing them at normal thinking speed, he quickly discovered numerous obvious logical oversights and insufficient consideration of certain boundary conditions.
“An excessively active mind causes all kinds of ideas to constantly bubble up, thinking at extreme speed… but it also subconsciously ignores many ‘marginal’ minor issues.” Jie Ming corrected a rune arrangement error in one of the energy focusing arrays as he analyzed. “And very often, it is precisely these small details that determine the overall feasibility and stability of a plan.”
He recalled the records in the Great Dao Book Pavilion regarding the auxiliary cultivation effects of Incense Divine Power. One passage clearly stated: “Divine Thought Sympathy may bring sudden flashes of insight, yet when thoughts surge like the tide, errors easily arise. Thus it may serve only as a guide, never to be fully trusted.”
Now he completely understood the true meaning behind those words.
“It can only be used as a tool for generating inspiration. It cannot be relied upon for accelerated thinking during combat or research… But even this single function alone is already powerful enough.” Jie Ming shook his head, yet no trace of disappointment appeared on his face.
Merely breaking through the long-standing fixed pattern of thought that had troubled him and finding an entirely new research direction was already an immense gain.
The oversights in those designs would naturally be corrected and perfected step by step through subsequent experiments.
He stood up and walked toward another area of the laboratory.
Since he now had a new direction, the next step was to verify it through practice.