Deep within the Golden Garden of the Elosia Plane, outside Jie Ming’s underground laboratory, the air was filled with the faint fragrance of plants.
Jie Ming stood face-to-face with a young wizard, a third-tier apprentice sent by Noren Academy. The apprentice, exuding an aura of inexperience, engaged in a discussion with him.
“Lord Jie Ming, please confirm once more. You intend to sell all your territory on the Elosia Main Plane, except for this core area of the Golden Garden, which spans less than ten kilometers in diameter, to Noren Academy?”
Though the young third-tier apprentice had been briefed on the task beforehand, he couldn’t hide his deep astonishment when he heard this decision directly from the lips of this second-tier wizard, who appeared even younger than himself.
He repeatedly sought confirmation from Jie Ming.
Only after receiving Jie Ming’s firm affirmation did he, with a sense of incredulity, begin processing the complex land ownership transfer procedures on the light screen.
Jie Ming stood calmly to the side, watching the apprentice’s “sluggish” movements in his eyes, quietly pondering to himself.
It seemed the advantages brought by the extreme activation of his soul and body were even greater than he had imagined.
In his current perception, every action of this wizard apprentice seemed to unfold in slow motion.
The raising of his hand, the sliding of his fingertips across the light screen, even the frequency of his blinks—all appeared sluggish and delayed.It wasn’t that the apprentice was truly moving slowly, but that Jie Ming’s “speed” was now extraordinarily fast.
This “speed” wasn’t just about explosive bursts in combat; it encompassed his dynamic vision, neural reflexes, and mental processing efficiency in everyday life.
In Jie Ming’s prior self-tests, he found that one second of his subjective experience was roughly equivalent to one-fifth of a second in normal time.
This meant that for wizard apprentices and first-tier wizards, what they perceived as one second was stretched into a lengthy five seconds in Jie Ming’s perception!
Though, numerically, a second-tier wizard’s biological lifespan was only three to four times that of a first-tier wizard, in terms of subjective time, their lived experience and perception of the world could be considered fifteen to twenty times longer!
This was a fundamental gulf in the level of existence.
Jie Ming patiently waited as what felt like an hour dragged on in his perception, though it was only a few minutes. Finally, the apprentice “leisurely” completed all the procedures.
The wizard apprentice slowly raised his head and said respectfully, “Lord Jie Ming, the redivision of your territory is complete. All points from the sale have been transferred to your personal account.”
“Thank you for your efforts.”
After politely bidding farewell, Jie Ming transformed into a streak of light and returned to his underground laboratory.
He immediately opened the magic network terminal, gazing at the account balance, which had soared back to millions of points, and let out a deep sigh.
Yes, the reason Jie Ming sold his territory was simple—he was broke.
Though he had earned a fortune through military merits and various spoils in the Flamefrost Plane, not to mention the rare Mortal Dust Qi, after subtracting the massive debts he owed to Mentor Clark and the Tower of Annihilation, plus the costs of advancing to second-tier wizard and purchasing various supplies, he was left with very few points to freely spend.
His next plan—to fundamentally transform the Lava Giant race—required an immense amount of high-level biochemical knowledge related to the essence of life.
While Jie Ming had dabbled in similar knowledge before, it was clearly on a different level.
Moreover, after discovering that his Body Forging Technique could continuously enhance his learning ability and talent under intense study pressure, Jie Ming had grown disdainful of simpler, foundational knowledge.
He craved the truly challenging knowledge that touched the core.
Purchasing such core knowledge from Noren Academy’s database, even if it was low-tier or deemed “useless” due to high difficulty or niche applications, still came at a steep price.
After advancing to second-tier wizard, Jie Ming had immediately begun producing Refined Gold, hoping to earn more points by selling this high-value raw material.
But as he had feared, a problem eventually arose as he increased production—the material markets centered around Noren Workshop and nearby wizard factions began to saturate.
It wasn’t that his Refined Gold was unsellable.
However, its sales speed had inevitably slowed dramatically, shifting from high demand to languishing on the trading market for long periods before finding buyers.
Thanks to his “Second-Tier Cultivation Agreement,” Jie Ming could list his Refined Gold
on the vast sales network of the Star Ring Federation.But the results were lackluster.
The reason Refined Gold had caused a sales frenzy around Noren Workshop and nearby factions was its partial sixth-tier material properties at a fifth-tier price—a cost-effective gem in those local markets.
But in the vast expanse of the Star Ring Federation, Refined Gold was utterly unremarkable.
It lacked fame or irreplaceable traits.
Jie Ming’s Refined Gold was practically buried among the countless rare materials flooding the market, ignored by all.
With no other choice, Jie Ming resorted to selling his territory.
After all, his future base was set to be the Infernal Sulfur plane, with its purer resources and better suitability for his experiments.
The territory on the Elosia Main Plane wasn’t that important to him.
If not for the need to closely study the unique Divine Faith Network of the Elosia Main Plane, he might have sold even the Golden Garden.
With this massive influx of funds, Jie Ming didn’t hesitate.
He eagerly purchased a large amount of advanced biochemical knowledge from Noren Academy’s online database—knowledge he had long coveted.
Much of it came with tags like “excessive learning difficulty,” “stringent prerequisite conditions,” or “mediocre transformation effects.”
These flaws were precisely why their prices were within Jie Ming’s reach.
But for the current Jie Ming, “excessive learning difficulty” was a boon.
In the days that followed, Jie Ming’s life returned to a simple yet fulfilling rhythm.
On one hand, he used the core of the newly cultivated second-tier Lava Giant as a new “template,” continuously producing more first- and second-tier Lava Giants as research materials.
On the other, he immersed his entire mind in studying the newly acquired, high-difficulty biochemical knowledge.
…
…
Before the grand and ancient Great Dao Book Pavilion in the depths of his consciousness, Jie Ming hovered in midair, his fingertips lightly brushing a book.
As usual, he had just finished reading a tome detailing the origins and traits of the Fire Spirit, a natural-born deity.
Knowledge about the evolution and innate characteristics of elemental beings flashed like lightning through his highly active soul.
Soon, Jie Ming withdrew from his consciousness.
“As expected, performing ‘beneficial’ and ‘positive’ transformations on a biologically complex species like the Lava Giants is still too difficult with my current second-tier wizard knowledge system,” Jie Ming mused as he opened his eyes. “But if I combine it with the profound knowledge of life evolution from the cultivation world, it becomes possible.”
The Great Dao Book Pavilion granted him insight into the essence of various powerful elemental beings, while Noren Workshop’s knowledge provided concrete paths for life transformation.
Together, they opened a new realm for Jie Ming.
Having completed today’s study, Jie Ming, inspired by the vast knowledge systems of both worlds, hurriedly headed to the core area of his laboratory.
There, on an operating table made of runic chains and energy beams, a freshly cultivated first-tier Lava Giant lay dissected and securely restrained.
Its crimson rock-like exterior was temporarily immobilized by the energy beams, revealing the pulsating, molten core within.
Jie Ming first conducted a thorough examination, focusing on the Lava Giant’s unique and highly efficient digestive system, which set it apart from other elemental beings.
The Lava Giants’ digestive system was extraordinary.
It could not only absorb elemental energy from molten lava but also directly digest the vital essence of flesh-and-blood creatures.
This allowed them to accelerate their maturation and even break through bottlenecks, enhancing their advancement speed!
Such a trait was exceedingly rare among pure elemental beings.
After in-depth study, Jie Ming discovered that the Lava Giants’ peculiar digestive system boasted exceptional energy absorption and adaptability.
He believed this could be the key to improving the entire Lava Giant race’s potential and combat strength!
Currently, the progress of this research was highly promising, exceeding his expectations!
At this rate, Jie Ming estimated that significant results were just around the corner!