novelraw Chapter 623: Mutation
Chapter 623: Mutation
Chapter 623: Mutation
Just as he was about to shrink his form, a violent tremor suddenly erupted from within his body.
The Internal Circulation had mutated.
Jie Ming’s expression turned solemn as he immediately directed his attention inward.
The originally stable Internal Circulation system was undergoing some kind of chain reaction.
The endlessly cycling, ever-regenerating power suddenly accelerated, as if pushed by some external force, its speed surging dramatically.
At the same time, the grotto-heaven within his body began to expand wildly.
It was a space that existed inside him yet remained independent of reality. It had previously stabilized at a relatively mature scale.
But now, the boundaries of this space were expanding outward at a visible rate, like a balloon being inflated, its edges continuously pushing further.
The speed of expansion was too fast. Jie Ming could feel the boundaries of the grotto-heaven frantically devouring the surrounding endless chaotic void, converting the chaotic and disordered elements into part of the grotto-heaven.
The spiritual power consumed by this process was astronomical. His internal spiritual power reserves were nearly depleted in just a few breaths.
“Good thing… the spiritual qi issue was solved long ago.”
With a thought, the cross-spatial energy transmission system of the Incense Fire Divine Dao responded immediately.
Vast amounts of spiritual power stored in the Infernal Sulfur Plane were transmitted over, like an invisible energy pipeline continuously pouring into his body. The consumption and replenishment of spiritual power reached balance in an instant.
Jie Ming breathed a sigh of relief and began focusing on maintaining the stable operation of the Internal Circulation.
The expansion of the grotto-heaven was not something that could be completed in one go. The process would take quite some time.
He had to ensure that the energy supply within his body would not be interrupted while constantly monitoring the stability of the grotto-heaven’s boundaries to prevent spatial collapse during expansion.
“It’s fine. It’s just the normal expansion after the life form advancement. There’s no danger.”
Jie Ming silently calculated his current state, then fully sank into a cultivation trance.
Time flowed silently inside the chamber.
Jie Ming maintained his cross-legged sitting posture. The thousand-meter-tall dark golden body remained completely still, with only occasional flashes of energy light across its surface proving he was still alive.
The energy transmission from the Incense Fire Divine Dao never stopped. Massive amounts of spiritual power continuously poured into his body, supporting the ongoing expansion of the grotto-heaven.
On the first day, the grotto-heaven’s area doubled.
On the third day, the boundaries had advanced to three times their original size.
On the seventh day, the expansion speed began to slow, but the boundaries continued to push outward steadily.
On the fifteenth day, after one final violent tremor, the grotto-heaven within his body finally stabilized.
Jie Ming opened his eyes. His divine sense swept across this brand-new grotto-heaven. Even though he had mentally prepared himself, he was still shocked by the data he calculated.
The area of the grotto-heaven had expanded by at least ten times.
If calculated by volume, the multiplier was even greater.
This grotto-heaven had truly grown from the scale of a “small world” into the level of a “plane.”
Moreover, the grotto-heaven’s self-evolution had not completely stopped.
Even after the expansion ended, the boundaries continued to advance outward at an extremely slow speed. The rate was almost negligible, but Jie Ming’s spiritual power was sharp enough to still detect the change.
He thought for a moment and immediately understood the reason: the evolution of his true body had increased his carrying capacity, giving the grotto-heaven within him even greater room for growth.
But this was not what excited him the most.
Jie Ming shifted his attention to the spiritual qi that was continuously appearing out of thin air inside the grotto-heaven.
Before the advancement, the spiritual qi “created from nothing” by the grotto-heaven had been barely better than nothing.
It was barely enough to sustain the grotto-heaven’s own operation, let alone provide combat replenishment for him.
But now…
Jie Ming calculated carefully, and his pupils contracted slightly.
The amount of spiritual qi generated by the grotto-heaven every moment was actually enough to completely refill all the spiritual power he had exhausted within a quarter of an hour!
A quarter of an hour.
Jie Ming confirmed the number three times before finally believing he had not miscalculated.
Although he had the Incense Fire Divine Dao and a seventh-rank large elemental pool and did not need to worry about spiritual power consumption, this meant the grotto-heaven’s spiritual qi generation efficiency had reached an exaggerated level.
After all, this was not converted energy—it was genuine additional power created from nothing!
More importantly… this fully demonstrated the future potential of the grotto-heaven within him.
Jie Ming took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down from the excitement before continuing to examine the other changes.
After the dharma body became the true body, the techniques that had accompanied him for many years had also undergone essential changes.
First was the 《Internal Circulation》.
Originally, for the grotto-heaven within him to actively grow, he needed to deliberately operate this body-refining method to guide spiritual power in endless cycles within his body. At the same time, it would temper his flesh and accumulate power during the process.
But now, this technique had completely merged into his instincts, as natural as breathing or a heartbeat.
It required no conscious intervention. It simply operated there, ceaselessly.
Jie Ming tried shifting his attention away from the Internal Circulation and discovered that it continued to run stably, its speed even three-tenths faster than when he actively controlled it.
This was no longer a “technique.”
It was an innate divine ability, a natural instinct.
The same was true for the 《Body Forging Art》.
This body-refining method, which had allowed him to endure countless injuries in battle and gradually evolve various resistances, had also become instinct.
Jie Ming could feel that his body was constantly performing some kind of microscopic self-adjustment. Every parameter of his body was being optimized in real time according to changes in the environment.
Even better, these two techniques that had become instincts seemed to have fused in some way.
Jie Ming carefully sensed it and discovered that the endlessly regenerating power produced by the Internal Circulation was integrating into the Body Forging Art’s adaptive evolution process in an extremely natural manner.
Conversely, the Body Forging Art’s optimization of his body structure had significantly improved the efficiency of the Internal Circulation.
The two techniques supported and complemented each other, forming a perfect positive feedback loop.
After the fusion of the two techniques, the effect on the grotto-heaven within him was not yet apparent, but the impact in another aspect was immediate.
He could feel that the 《Body Forging Art》 seemed to have begun to possess the ability to “create from nothing.”
Just like how the grotto-heaven could generate spiritual qi out of thin air, his body itself seemed to be producing spiritual qi at an extremely slow speed.
Although the speed was indeed very slow.
If the total amount of spiritual power in his body was compared to an ocean, then the spiritual qi produced by the Body Forging Art every moment was roughly equivalent to a single drop of water.
So little that it was almost negligible.
But Jie Ming did not care.
What he cared about was the “possibility.”
The fact that the Body Forging Art could generate spiritual qi from nothing meant this path was correct.
As his strength increased and his true body evolved, this speed would become faster and faster.
Perhaps one day in the future, relying solely on his physical body, he would be able to generate enough spiritual power to support high-intensity combat.
At that time, he would not even need to rely on the external environment or the energy transmission of the Incense Fire Divine Dao. Relying only on himself, he would be a self-sufficient perpetual motion machine.
Jie Ming suppressed the excitement in his heart and decided to first test the power of his true body.
He raised his right arm. The dark golden arm gleamed with a warm luster under the dim light of the chamber.
His five fingers spread open, then slowly clenched into a fist.
It was such a simple action, yet it compressed the air inside the chamber until it produced explosive sounds.
Jie Ming raised his eyebrows slightly and increased the power output.
This time, he clearly felt space concaving under his palm.
Moreover, the distorted space did not collapse immediately but maintained this state.
This showed that although Jie Ming was not deliberately using power, he could still perform extremely precise and restrained spatial manipulation through pure bodily instinct.
His fist was like a miniature gravity source, pulling the surrounding space toward his palm.
Jie Ming loosened his fist, and space returned to normal.
He nodded in satisfaction.
Then, he realized a problem.
He looked down at his body. The dark golden skin shimmered with a metallic luster under the light. The muscle lines were distinct and full of power. As a dharma body, this physique was undoubtedly perfect.
But the problem was…
He seemed to be naked.
The clothing he had worn in his dharma body form had apparently been some kind of energy effect. Once the dharma body became the true body, it had naturally disappeared.
Jie Ming thought about it and felt it was reasonable.
The dharma body had never been true flesh and blood. That clothing had merely been decorative energy condensation.
Now that the dharma body had become the true body, those decorations had naturally vanished.
However, his current state was rather indecent.
With a thought, the true body slowly faded into the void.
The massive dark golden body seemed to be erased from the level of reality, turning transparent bit by bit until it completely disappeared inside the chamber.
Immediately after, specks of starlight gathered in the center of the chamber and rapidly formed a normal human-sized body.
Jie Ming moved his new body, flexing his fingers, rotating his wrists, and shifting his shoulder blades to confirm there were no issues.
He looked down at his hands.
The skin was normal in color, with faint veins and tendons visible beneath. It was no different from true flesh and blood.
He tried circulating the Internal Circulation. The endlessly regenerating power immediately flowed through his body, as smooth as breathing.
Everything was normal.
No—it should be said that everything was better than before.
Although this normal human-sized body had a much lower power ceiling than the thousand-meter true body, it was superior in flexibility and energy utilization efficiency.
It was like taking the energy core of a giant engineering machine and fitting it into a precision instrument.
The total power might have decreased, but the power density per unit and control precision had both undergone a qualitative leap.
Jie Ming stood up from the stone platform, took a few steps, and after confirming there were no problems, he finally revealed a satisfied smile.
He walked to the edge of the chamber, pressed his hand against the wall, and pushed the door open.
The door of the specially enlarged chamber slowly closed behind him with a heavy sound.
Jie Ming stood in the corridor, feeling the familiar energy fluctuations of the Infernal Sulfur Plane, and began planning his next steps.
Void Refinement perfection had been achieved.
The next step was to advance toward the Dao Integration Realm.