One year later.
The protective barrier of the ti afterimage training ground slowly descended amid a low, resonant hum.
Jie Ming walked out from within, bare-chested. Sweat traced the sharply defined contours of his muscles, evaporating into faint wisps of white mist upon touching the floor beneath his feet.
His breathing was steady and deep; each inhalation and exhalation caused the elental energy in the laboratory to faintly resonate in response.
“Hu…”
Exhaling a long breath of turbid air, Jie Ming sensed the surging power within his body and let out a satisfied sigh.
Faint golden patterns could be vaguely seen flowing beneath his skin — the external manifestation of his body forging thod breaking through to a new level.
He casually clenched his fist. The air in his palm imdiately emitted a series of crisp, explosive crackles, and even space itself rippled with delicate waves.
He didn’t bother testing specific strength values.
There was no need.
Every single cell in his body was clearly conveying the sa ssage: powerful, resilient, brimming with vitality.
Compared to a year ago, Jie Ming’s physical qualities had undergone a qualitative leap.
He walked to the dedicated bathroom beside the training ground. A dicinal bath barrel, carved entirely from obsidian, was already prepared and waiting.
The liquid inside glowed with a strange dark-gold hue. Tiny specks of spiritual light floated on the surface, releasing a complex fragrance that blended the fresh scent of dicinal herbs with the familiar tang of sulfur.
This was the formula Jie Ming had refined repeatedly, combining the nourishing bath recipes recorded in the Great Dao Book Pavilion with his understanding of wizard-world potion studies.
Stepping into the barrel, the warm dicinal liquid enveloped his entire body.
In an instant, a slight pricking sensation spread across his skin, quickly transforming into a gentle, nourishing warmth.
The dicinal power seeped through his pores, resonating with his body that had already been tempered by the forging thod, further stimulating the activity of his cells.
Jie Ming leaned against the barrel wall, closed his eyes, and allowed the dicinal energy to fully perate.
On a per-unit-material basis, the cost of this bath formula wasn’t particularly extravagant.
The problem was — it was ant for soaking.
A single imrsion required enough dicinal liquid to completely fill the entire barrel.
Converted to monetary terms, each bath cost nearly ten million low-level military rit.
Almost equivalent to the majority of the war spoils a fifth-rank wizard might gain from participating in a single plane war.
Such extravagant expenditure naturally brought forth equally extravagant returns.
From outside the bathroom ca the sound of light footsteps, followed by a respectful knock.
“Enter.”
A Black Giant priest more than two ters tall, its pitch-black body gleaming with the sheen of liquid tal, pushed the door open and entered.
In its hands, it carried a recording crystal, and its movents carried a surprising trace of elegance.
“Master, these are the latest asurent statistics taken from you.”
The Black Giant priest suspended the recording crystal beside the barrel and activated the projection.
A dense stream of data began scrolling across the light screen:
【Basic physical strength amplification: 52.7 tis】
【Average elental resistance increase: 43.9 tis】
【Physical impact resistance increase: 61.2 tis】
【Neural reaction speed increase: 38.4 tis】
【Cellular regeneration efficiency increase: 57.6 tis】
【Energy storage capacity increase: 48.3 tis】
【Injury tolerance limit increase: 35.1 tis】
……
Each data point was accompanied by detailed asurent thodology and comparison benchmarks.
Jie Ming watched quietly, expression calm.
A comprehensive fifty-two-fold increase.
This ant that, in terms of pure physical strength, he had already completely surpassed the standard line of a fourth-rank wizard or Spirit Transformation Stage cultivator, reaching the average level of a fifth-rank wizard or Void Refinent Realm cultivator.
The extre training of ti afterimages combined with these dicinal baths had produced results that were frankly staggering.
But…
Jie Ming suddenly frowned, suppressing the urge to burst into triumphant song.
As his physical strength surged to this new level, he keenly detected a trace of disharmony.
The balance between essence, qi, and spirit, the three treasures, had been disrupted.
His body had grown too powerful, his blood and qi surging almost to the point of boiling, causing a noticeable decline in his emotional control.
He had beco more susceptible to the influence of hormones secreted by his body, prone to states of impulsiveness, exhilaration, and excessive battle intent.
In daily life, this might not be a significant issue.
But for a wizard who required precise manipulation of laws and calm analysis of battle situations, this was a latent risk.
“My body has advanced too quickly.”
Jie Ming sighed softly and made his decision.
For the ti being, he had to suspend further reinforcent of his physical body and redirect his focus toward polishing his ntal power and refining his spiritual force.
He needed to allow “spirit” and “qi” to catch up to “essence” and restore the balance of the three treasures.
Conveniently, the massive consumption of low-level military rit required for configuring potions over the past year also needed ti to recover.
However, the benefits brought by such a powerful physique were not limited to combat strength alone.
Through the Qi Refinent thod’s ability to mutually transform and influence the three treasures of essence, qi, and spirit, both Jie Ming’s spiritual force intensity and ntal power intensity had increased at a shocking speed during this period.
The rate of improvent far exceeded any other thod he had previously attempted.
Therefore, Jie Ming wasn’t overly worried about his body becoming excessively powerful.
By his rough estimate, at the current trend, it wouldn’t take even a hundred years for his ntal power intensity to reach the critical threshold for advancing to fifth-rank wizard.
Combined with his Spiritual Qi Law comprehension that had already exceeded 10%…
“At that point, advancing to fifth-rank wizard will be a natural and inevitable step.”
But at this thought, Jie Ming suddenly fell into contemplation.
He realized a problem: in the wizard system, advancent was simple and straightforward.
As long as law comprehension and ntal power t the requirents, promotion followed naturally.
But in the cultivation system, the situation was completely different.
For a Spirit Transformation Stage cultivator to advance to Void Refinent Realm, they needed to “comprehend the path they walk.”
Translated into wizard terms, this ant raising the comprehension of a certain law to 100%.
This fundantal difference arose from the essential disparity between the two systems.
In the wizard world, advancent from third to sixth rank centered on “understanding of laws” and “intensity of ntal power.”
If you understood and accumulated enough, you could advance.
It was like a progressive examination — reach the passing mark and you pass.
But in the cultivation world, once a cultivator reached the Nascent Soul stage, they had already escaped the shackles of lifespan, gaining near-infinite longevity.
This qualitative leap in life form caused cultivators’ modes of thinking to diverge completely from those of short-lived species.
Cultivation realms themselves were artificially created constructs. When modes of thought were fundantally different, the requirents for advancent naturally differed as well.
On the tiscale of endless longevity, spending tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years comprehending a single Great Dao was, to them, the most ordinary thing in the world.
Thus, the disparity in combat power among Spirit Transformation Stage cultivators could reach levels that defied imagination.
After all, the core objective of this realm was “to elevate combat power.”
Certain ancient monsters who had imrsed themselves in the Spirit Transformation Stage for millions of years, through extre specialization in their own path, could even clash head-on with Great Ascension cultivators across realms.
Of course, Spirit Transformation cultivators who had lived even longer than that essentially didn’t exist — because those capable of surviving in the Spirit Transformation Stage for so long without advancing were invariably heaven-defying monsters of talent.
After millions of years of accumulation, they often could ascend directly to immortality, skipping interdiate realms altogether.
Only those with relatively ordinary talent, who felt the pressure of survival, would choose to advance to Void Refinent Realm to continue their path of cultivation.
“Compared to those monsters, I’m definitely not a heaven-defying genius.”
Jie Ming had a clear understanding of himself.
Therefore, he would inevitably need to continue advancing to Void Refinent Realm.
Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait until becoming a sixth-rank wizard to do so.
At the speed he was comprehending the Spiritual Qi Law, he should be able to raise his mastery of the Spiritual Qi Law to 100% before his ntal power reached the threshold for advancing to sixth-rank wizard.
As he pondered, the color of the dicinal liquid in the bath gradually faded — its power had been completely absorbed.
Jie Ming rose from the barrel. Water cascaded down his body.
With a casual wave of his hand, the moisture on his skin twisted and transford into a simple black robe that automatically draped itself neatly over him.
Stepping out of the bathroom, he arrived at the core control console of the laboratory.
Since there would be no further changes to his strength in the short term, it was ti to plan the next step.
What Jie Ming chose was to perfect the Incense Fire Divine Dao.
This had been his predetermined direction from the beginning.
After a mont of thought, he turned his gaze toward the cross-plane transmission technology.
Now that research on cross-plane transmission technology had basically matured, it was ti to formally integrate it into the system.
Once successful, in any future plane battle, he would be able to draw upon the Infernal Sulfur plane’s energy reserves at any ti — equivalent to carrying a mobile mage tower with him wherever he went.
“Let’s get this part done first.”
Jie Ming summoned the holographic structural diagram of the Incense Fire Divine Dao and gently tapped his finger on the “Cross-Plane Energy Transmission Module.”
“Then, we’ll consider the rest.”
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