novelraw Chapter 454: New Spells
Chapter 454: New Spells
In the core laboratory of the Infernal Sulfur Plane.
After returning from the Junction Point, Jie Ming did not rush to celebrate the initial success of the cross-spatial energy transmission system.
He sat at the control console. Several light screens floated before him, displaying real-time operational data of the Incense Fire Divine Dao, status reports from his inner cave-heaven, and the training progress of the Black Giant legion.
His fingers tapped unconsciously on the metal surface. His gaze was calm, yet his mind raced with calculations.
One of the direct benefits brought by the smooth installation and preliminary verification of the cross-spatial energy transmission system within the Incense Fire Divine Dao was a further step forward in his comprehension of the Spiritual Qi Law.
According to his most recent self-assessment and tests, his mastery of the Spiritual Qi Law had steadily risen from around 14% previously to 20%.
The increase was significant, but not unexpected.
After all, designing and leading the construction of a complex system that covered an entire plane, involving energy conversion, spatial transmission, and interaction with the faith network, was in itself the most direct practice of the Spiritual Qi Law.
Although modifications were needed to adapt it to the element-utilization methods of the wizard side, conversely, every technical difficulty solved and every energy circuit optimized gave him a more concrete understanding of the essence of Spiritual Qi.
Still, Jie Ming was well aware that this 20% mastery was merely the bonus reaped from the “initial version” of this massive system. The cross-spatial energy transmission framework still had considerable room for optimization, and many subsequent subsystems of the Incense Fire Divine Dao awaited research and installation.
But the problem was time.
The research, design, testing, and construction of each subsystem was a long-term project measured in centuries.
Yet from what Mentor Clark had said, only about seventy years remained until the great three-faction wizard war.
More importantly, many of the upcoming subsystems of the Incense Fire Divine Dao leaned more toward “logistics” and “development”—such as increasing Spiritual Qi output or optimizing the plane’s environment.
Even among those that could enhance combat power, many were indirect, such as the God Attendant system.
These were undoubtedly important and could long-term elevate his potential and foundation, but for the direct, frontal war that was approaching, the immediate combat power increase they provided was… not particularly significant.
Even if a certain subsystem could help him raise his Spiritual Qi Law mastery by another 5% or even 10%, when converted into actual combat power growth, in a wizard war filled with countless methods and tricks, it might only allow him to hold out a little longer. It would not produce a decisive qualitative change.
“I need a plan that can significantly boost combat power in the short term.” Jie Ming’s eyes lowered. His gaze swept across the light screens displaying data and plans that represented long-term development, then moved away.
Two directions naturally came to mind.
The first was to continue using time afterimages for extreme body-forging training.
The sensation of the body evolving at high speed under life-and-death pressure was intoxicating, and the massive improvement in physical quality had genuinely translated into combat power.
However…
Turning his inner vision upon himself, Jie Ming could clearly sense that the balance among his essence, qi, and spirit had not yet been fully achieved.
Forcibly continuing to use time afterimages to pressure the body into further evolution might exacerbate this imbalance and even bring risks.
“It will probably take another ten or more years… to slowly ‘nurture’ and ‘adapt’ my mental and spiritual power until they catch up to the level of my physique before I can resume that kind of high-intensity body forging.” Jie Ming estimated.
Ten or more years was not long. It was enough for him to complete a second round of training before the war arrived, but it also could not be completely wasted.
Since the wizard system currently offered no particularly efficient short-term advancement path, his gaze naturally turned toward the other system… immortal cultivation.
“Spirit Transformation Stage…” A glint flashed in Jie Ming’s eyes.
In the immortal cultivation system, this realm was inherently positioned as the stage “dedicated to elevating combat power.”
Spirit Transformation cultivators shed the shackles of lifespan, gaining near-infinite time to polish their divine abilities and delve deeply into killing techniques. The disparity in combat strength at this stage could stretch to absurd degrees.
Moreover, he already held in his hands a proven feasible technique for spell modification!
The successful transformation of the Trigram Fire Annihilation Divine Light was the best example.
Those three dark-gold staffs had now become one of his most intimidating single-target killing tools.
“Continuing to transform more and stronger immortal cultivation spells… this is indeed a viable direction for effectively raising combat power in the short term.” The more Jie Ming thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.
Furthermore, the process of modifying spells was itself a deep study of the mechanisms of Spiritual Qi circulation, as well as the interaction and mapping between different energy systems. It would likewise help increase his mastery of the Spiritual Qi Law.
“Very well, that’s the plan.”
Having made his decision, Jie Ming no longer hesitated.
He rose from the control console and walked to a quiet chamber in the center of the laboratory.
Sitting cross-legged, he sealed off all external perception. His mind slowly sank into the deepest part of his consciousness.
There, a white jade pavilion seemingly constructed from endless knowledge and radiance floated silently—the Great Dao Book Pavilion.
His “consciousness body” stood before the pavilion gates. With a thought, a vast sea of scriptures, jade slips, and inheritance light shadows began to revolve around him.
An astronomical number of spell informations—counted in the billions—flowed through his perception.
“This quantity… is honestly a bit ridiculous.” Jie Ming could not help twitching at the corner of his mouth.
This was already after most spells had been filtered out according to his requirements, leaving only the retained selections.
After all, some Spirit Transformation stage spells possessed earth-shaking power, yet their cultivation conditions were exceedingly harsh.
For example, they might require a specific spiritual body, profound mastery of a certain rare technique, or dependence on specific heavenly materials, earthly treasures, or particular spiritual lands.
Although he had long known that the Spirit Transformation Stage was the realm dedicated to raising combat power, only after seeing this terrifying number of spells did Jie Ming gain a true, visceral sense of it.
He rapidly browsed through introductions, principle summaries, power descriptions, cultivation requirements…
He was not searching for those spells with the highest “paper” destructive power.
Jie Ming’s screening criteria leaned more toward “mechanisms.”
Because deficiencies in a spell’s “numerical” values could be greatly compensated and enhanced through the wizard system’s characteristic of “element output multiplier” once transformed into element-driven versions.
A basic Trigram Fire Curse, after optimization with a wizard model, might erupt with power capable of burning mountains and boiling seas.
Therefore, what he truly needed to find were spells that possessed unique “mechanisms” or “effects.”
Jie Ming’s goal was clear. He needed spells that could provide critical functions on a complex battlefield: defense, reconnaissance, mobility, control, special strikes…
Moreover, these spells had to complement his existing primary focus on extreme lethality—the Trigram Fire Annihilation Divine Light—and form a comprehensive combat system.
Time passed swiftly amid the rapid retrieval within his consciousness.
Several months elapsed in reality. Within the information flood of the Great Dao Book Pavilion, Jie Ming conducted billions of comparisons, deductions, and simulations.
Finally, the light shadows of three spells were precisely fished out from the vast ocean and hung silently before his consciousness.
[Return to Ruins Armor]
Type: Defense / Counterattack
Effect: Forms a continuously devouring “Return to Ruins Force Field” over the body surface. This force field can actively absorb and decompose most incoming energy-based attacks, temporarily storing the energy.
Characteristic: The absorbed and stored energy is not wasted. The cultivator may choose, at a critical moment, to release it all at once as a powerful directional Spiritual Qi impact, or to feed it back into themselves for rapid recovery of consumption.
Flaws: Relatively weak defense against pure physical attacks (blade chops, axe strikes, massive blunt force); stored energy has an upper limit—overload causes force field collapse and backlash to the user; decomposition and storage require a certain reaction time, and against ultra-high-frequency or extremely high-energy-density saturation bombardment, it may be overwhelmed.
[Causal Trace Shadow Technique]
Type: Reconnaissance / Tracking / Retroactive
Effect: Captures and interprets the invisible “causal traces” and “information echoes” left by a target in the environment. Can “see” the shadowy trajectory of the target’s movements over a past period of time, the “connection” threads left from contact with others or objects, and fragments of “echoes” stirred by intense emotions (such as killing intent,狂喜, fear).
Characteristic: Relies on the tracking and reconnaissance capabilities of the Number Derivation Path. Unaffected by conventional invisibility, illusions, or terrain obstacles. It comes with fixed deduction formulas, so even those not specialized in this path can cultivate it.
Can be used to pursue fleeing enemies, investigate hidden incidents, determine whether powerful beings have recently been active in a location, or whether intense conflicts have occurred there.
Flaws: The older the traces, the fainter they become—beyond forty-nine days they basically dissipate. If the target is proficient in “trace-erasing,” “karmic-severing” divine abilities or possesses corresponding treasures, or is located in a place of obscured heavenly secrets and chaotic causality, the technique becomes difficult to apply. When interpreting strong emotional echoes, the caster’s own mind is easily contaminated.
[Great Void Step]
Type: Movement / Concealment
Effect: Temporarily “virtualizes” the physical body, adjusting mana fluctuations to achieve perfect harmonic resonance with the surrounding heaven-and-earth Spiritual Qi.
In this state, one can move at ultra-high speeds like an invisible wind, far surpassing conventional escape techniques.
When stationary, one can further “merge” into the Spiritual Qi background of the current environment (such as the steadfastness of rock, the vitality of forest, the fluidity of water), achieving extremely high-grade concealment.
Characteristic: Relatively low consumption during movement, suitable for long-distance raids or battlefield maneuvering.
In concealment state, extremely difficult to detect with conventional divine sense or spiritual eyes—ideal for lurking, scouting, and launching surprise attacks.
Flaws: Maintaining the “virtualized” and “same-frequency” state consumes considerable divine sense and cannot be sustained for long periods.
Once an attack or vigorous action is performed, the same-frequency state is broken, producing obvious fluctuations that expose one’s position.
In environments where Spiritual Qi is thin, depleted, or extremely chaotic and violent (such as absolute dead zones or the center of large-scale forbidden curses), the effect is greatly reduced or even nullified.
Looking at the light shadows of these three selected spells, satisfaction appeared in Jie Ming’s eyes.
They might not be the most domineering in raw power or the most famous among Spirit Transformation stage spells, but their “mechanisms” were all highly distinctive.
In their respective domains, their effects stood out prominently and were difficult to replace simply.
More importantly, their core mechanisms largely depended on high-level understanding and manipulation of energy, information, and environment.
And these were precisely the areas that could be analyzed, optimized, and even strengthened through wizard knowledge.