Jie Ming returned to his private laboratory in the “Golden Garden.”
The air, laced with the faint scent of metal and potions, instantly relaxed him.
He strolled past rows of humming, automated precision instruments.
After meticulously checking the operational status of every core device in the lab and confirming all was in order, he threw himself back into the decades-long research on the racial transformation of the “Lava Giants.”
Time, indeed, was the best medicine for healing all wounds.
The two-year-long pursuit mission, like a forced vacation, had yanked him out of the emotional quagmire of his friends’ passing.
Now, the passage of time had allowed Jie Ming to no longer dwell excessively on the deaths of Victor and Amy.
He could calmly tuck those memories into a quiet corner of his heart.
His research state had thus returned to its peak.
Moreover, perhaps because of the change of pace from that journey, Jie Ming found his research efficiency had surged dramatically compared to before.Many technical bottlenecks that once plagued him now seemed to unravel with newfound clarity.
Time flew by in this immersive research.
A few months later, just as Jie Ming successfully resolved a stability issue with an elemental sequence and prepared to take a brief rest, he received a “delivery” sent directly via spatial transmission.
It was a shimmering silver box, roughly the size of a briefcase, crafted from a special alloy.
Jie Ming raised an eyebrow and approached it.
After passing the authorization check, the box clicked open with a soft snap.
Inside, nestled in a soft energy field, lay an ornate crystal vial sealed with intricate layers of enchantments.
Beside it was a note formed from condensed mental energy.
Within the vial, a vibrant, aurora-like fluid glowed, shifting and flowing as if alive, constantly morphing within its confined space.
Jie Ming picked up the note, probing it with his mental energy.
The sender was none other than the seventh-level Grand Wizard, Dean Avery Knight
.In the message, he explained that the vial contained a freshly extracted strand of the “Water Element” rule origin.
This was an advance payment, a “deposit” of sorts.
The reason for this was that, over the past few months, the academy had worked tirelessly to reverse-engineer the coordinates of the plane where the “Destroyer Demon God” resided.
Considering the strength of that civilization, which likely included multiple eighth-level beings, the primary focus of Elosia’s Noren Academy for the next few decades—or even centuries—would be conquering that formidable plane.
Dean Avery Knight noted that during this period, he likely wouldn’t have spare time to continue extracting “plane origins” for Jie Ming and the others.
Thus, he sent this first reward ahead of schedule and asked Jie Ming to be patient.
After reading, Jie Ming promptly sent a reply to Dean Avery Knight, expressing his gratitude in the most sincere terms.
He also assured the dean there was no rush, as his reward paled in importance compared to the grand undertaking of a planar war.
Then, his gaze returned to the crystal vial on the table, radiating a dreamy glow.
As he stared at the pure strand of the “Water Element” rule origin flowing within, Jie Ming’s eyes blazed with a startling intensity!
This item, the most widely circulated “hard currency” in the wizarding world, commanded an exorbitant price.
Jie Ming had seen it listed on the Noren Workshop’s internal resource trading platform.
Because the Noren Workshop controlled enough planes to provide a steady stream of various resources, the price of “plane origins” was relatively stable.
Each strand cost a staggering one hundred million internal credits.
Prices among other wizarding factions were similarly steep.
In terms of the wizarding civilization’s universal merit system, it roughly equated to ten million low-tier merits.
To put that in perspective, the entire net worth of an average second-level wizard typically amounted to just a few tens of thousands to a hundred thousand merits.
In other words, a single strand of “plane origin” was worth hundreds of times the total wealth of most second-level wizards!
Under normal circumstances, a second-level wizard seeking to use a “plane origin” to aid their advancement had only two paths.
The first was to participate in brutal planar battlefields, hoping for enough luck to find naturally formed treasures imbued with partial “plane origin” information due to the convergence of planar rules.
The second, more direct method was to take out a loan.
They could apply for a massive loan from their wizarding faction to purchase an origin.
The cost? Centuries, even millennia, of running dangerous missions to repay the debt.
Of course, there were also unconventional wizards.
Take Senior Sister Viola, for example.
With her prodigious talent, breaking through to the third level in the “Life” rule would have been effortless, a mere matter of time, even without external aids.
Yet, on the eve of her advancement, Viola made a jaw-dropping decision—she abandoned the smooth, near-at-hand path of the “Life” rule and chose instead the far more rugged, eerie, and fitting “Pain” rule as her future core focus.
Her method of obtaining the extremely rare “Pain” rule origin? She relied on her equally monstrous ability to amass wealth, accumulating a fortune in the second-level wizard stage that would make many fourth-level wizards blush with shame!
Then, she emptied her entire fortune to purchase a single strand directly through Mentor Clark!
Of course, wizards like Viola, who could amass such terrifying wealth at the second level, were exceedingly rare.
Moreover, geniuses of her caliber typically didn’t need to spend money on origins to advance.
Thus, Viola’s actions at the time earned her quite the reputation…
Though not exactly the positive kind.
In short, no matter how it was obtained, a single strand of “origin” in the hands of any low-level wizard was a precious resource capable of altering their destiny!
Jie Ming reached out, gently picking up the cool crystal vial.
He briefly examined the vibrant, almost living glow within.
Then, in the next second, without hesitation, he tightened his grip and crushed the priceless vial!
Crack!
The sharp sound echoed starkly in the silent laboratory.
Freed from its seals, the radiant light seemed to find its home, seeping into Jie Ming’s body like quicksilver the moment it touched him!
The strand of the Water Element rule swiftly coursed through his flesh, transcending the boundaries of mind and matter, and began to permeate his soul!
Buzz!
Jie Ming’s consciousness blurred, instantly pulled into a vast, boundless world composed entirely of pure blue!
A torrent of knowledge about “Water” and “Time” flooded his mind like a breached dam!
He saw the birth of the first water element in the chaotic void.
He felt how water nurtured life, yet also, with gentle yet relentless force, eroded all things as an agent of time.
He understood the fundamental changes of the Water Element rule, grasping the basic principles of the river of time!
His soul seemed to become a droplet, merging into the cycle of the entire world.
He experienced melting from snow-capped peaks, converging into streams, rushing into rivers, and finally joining the endless ocean.
Under the blazing sun, he evaporated into clouds, drifted with the wind, and eventually fell as rain or snow, returning to the earth.
This process seemed eternal, yet in the outside world, it lasted only an instant!
When Jie Ming regained clarity, he slowly opened his eyes, a flash of deep blue divine light glinting in the depths of his pupils.
At that moment, he had thoroughly mastered a portion of the “Water Element” rule!
Now, he didn’t even need to cast spells deliberately; with a mere thought, the ambient water vapor in the air could condense into any form he desired!
Moreover, his grasp of time became far more precise, as if a chronometer had been installed within his soul.
Of course, Jie Ming had no intention of relying on the “Water Element” rule for advancement.
When the time came to formally ascend to the third level, he could freely choose any rule he had mastered as his core focus.
Thus, absorbing this origin posed no harm to his future path.
What he truly needed was the foundational logic and knowledge of the Water Element gained through this passive infusion of information!
Jie Ming’s transformation plan for the Lava Giants had long been designed, yet various obstacles had prevented it from reaching his intended goal.
The final transformation plan for the “Lava Giants” was just one step away from completion!
And now, the knowledge of “restraint,” “inclusion,” and “circulation” provided by the “Water Element” rule served as the final key to unlock the door of truth.
It completed that last step for him!