On this day, Jie Ming concluded his routine meditation.
After examining the increasingly intricate Ring of Truth within his mental sea, he exited the meditative state with satisfaction.
Rising, he habitually checked the two crystal cores slowly fusing at the center of the energy field.
Streams of precise data flowed back from the instruments, displaying their energy states.
Confirming that the energy fluctuations within the two cores were normal and stable, Jie Ming nodded with contentment.
These two energy cores were not like the low-grade second- or first-level ones he had used for practice before.
The core before him nowâone radiating the suffocating heat of a miniature sun, the other releasing the soul-freezing chill of a millennia-old glacierâwas far superior.
The Lava Giantâs core was the complete core of a fourth-level Lava Giant he had âpicked upâ in the Frostflame Plane.
The other was a third-level Snow Beast core, acquired at great cost from the academyâs trophy vault.
Jie Ming swiped across the screen, meticulously checking their fusion progress, which was so slow it seemed almost stagnant, and shook his head helplessly.
âAs expected, I canât rush thisâŠâ
The energy intensity of these two cores was simply too high.
To perfectly fuse such opposing origin energies, haste was out of the question.
Even with Jie Mingâs now-refined modification techniques, fully integrating these two behemoths into a new whole would take at least another decade, according to his calculations.
Moreover, cultivating the modified Black Giant afterward would be no small feat.
Given the energy levels available in the Infernal Sulfur Plane, each Black Giantâs cultivation would take years.
Fortunately, time was not an immediate concern for him.
Compared to this steadily progressing, centuries-long grand plan, Jie Ming currently faced two real troubles.
The first was his cultivation progressâhe was stuck at a bottleneck!
After checking the experimentâs status and recording the data, Jie Ming entered the quiet room of his laboratory, sat cross-legged, and entered a state of introspection.
His consciousness delved inward, clearly observing the golden true essence in his dantianâs qi sea, now fully liquefied and brimming to the extreme.
His current cultivation had solidly reached the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm.
Logically, at this level, taking the next stepâcondensing liquid into a pill to achieve the
âOne Golden Pill swallowed, my fate is mine, not heavenâsâ
âshould have been a natural progression.
Yet, no matter how he cultivated or studied the subsequent techniques in the
Qi Refinement Method
, Jie Ming always felt a thin, invisible barrier separating him from the Golden Core realm.
It was as if he lacked a critical
âsparkâ
to break through.
Initially, Jie Ming thought that with his wizard mindset, he could simply
âforce it with overwhelming powerâ
âaccumulating energy far beyond his peers to smash through the barrier to the next realm.
But reality left him helpless.
Despite decades of steady cultivation, his energy continued to grow, its purity and quantity even surpassing some early Golden Core cultivators.
Yet, he still felt no sign of advancing to the Golden Core stage.
In recent years, by carefully studying the vast information stored in the
Great Dao Book Pavilion
within his consciousness, Jie Ming gained a deeper understanding of the cultivation system.
He finally realized where the problem lay.
His approach wasnât wrong in the wizard system, but the cultivation systemâs âbottlenecksâ couldnât always be overcome by
âbrute forceâ
.
In the earliest days of the cultivation world, during the primordial era when heaven and earth were newly formed, cultivation was simply
Qi Refinement
âor rather, the more ancient
Refining Essence into Qi
.
But achieving immortality by cultivating a pure and pristine
âInnate Qiâ
was incredibly talent-dependent.
The difficulty was so great that many couldnât even cross the threshold of entry.
Thus, later cultivators, through continuous evolution and exploration, subdivided the cultivation process, creating stages like
Qi Condensation
,
Foundation Establishment
,
Golden Core
, and
Nascent Soul
.
This resulted in the clear hierarchy of realms we know today.
Theoretically, each major realm in the cultivation system could be cultivated indefinitely.
Each realm embodied a cultivation philosophy, allowing one to continuously refine energy and enhance strength.
One could, in theory, cultivate a single realm to achieve immortality!
This was entirely different from the wizard system, where reaching the peak of a level meant hitting a ceiling on power unless one advanced.
The problem was, while Jie Ming believed his talent was decent, he wasnât arrogant enough to think he could cultivate
Foundation Establishment
alone to immortality!
Even more troubling, he didnât even know why he couldnât advance.
Until he found that critical
âsparkâ
, he could only continue his monotonous accumulation day after day.
As for the second problemâŠ
Jie Ming glanced at his personal account on the terminal, now deep in the red, and pressed his temples with a headache.
Yes, he was broke
again
!
âWait, wasnât I supposed to be rich? How did I become a pauper after advancing?â Jie Ming muttered, scratching his head in frustration.
He knew full well that his high-intensity cross-species genetic modification and elemental core fusion research consumed resources and points at a terrifying rate!
Chapters first released on nováŽlfire.net
To acquire rare materials, expensive knowledge, and data models, even his steady income from refined gold had run dry.
Add to that the fact that all profits from
Mortal Dust Potions
were currently tied up in a seventh-level elemental pool, meaning his finances were severely in the red!
âWays to make money? Funny you ask, Iâd love to know myself!â
On the other end of the communication screen, Viola listened to Jie Mingâs complaints about his
âfinancial strugglesâ
, then spread her hands with a look that screamed
âI canât help youâ
.
Jie Ming shook his head helplessly.
He mustâve been out of his mind to discuss this with a senior sister who was also on the verge of bankruptcy under Mentor Clarkâs exploitation.
âWhy donât you come with me to that plane?â
âNo thanks, Iâve got too many experiments here I canât leaveâŠâ
Sighing, Jie Ming packaged the last batch of
Mortal Dust Potions
heâd refined recently and sent them through the designated teleportation array.
Afterward, staring at his completely zeroed-out account, he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.
Just as he was about to end the fruitless call, Violaâs next words stopped him in his tracks: âActually, Iâve always thought itâd be easy for a guy like you to make money.â
âWhy do you say that?â Jie Ming looked at her, puzzled.
Viola leaned back comfortably in her lab chair, giving him a look of
âyouâre wasting your potentialâ
.
âIâm saying, youâre too
stingy
! Youâve got so many techniques even Iâm jealous of, yet youâve never considered selling any of them!â
âSure, wizards guard their core techniques closely, but Iâve never seen a freak like you who wonât even sell a scrap of outdated tech!â
âTechnology iterates! Researching new tech costs a fortune. Selling off âold techâ thatâs no longer cutting-edge is the most common and practical way to fund it!â
âBesides,â Violaâs voice took on a
tempting lilt
, â
âknowledgeâ
is the ultimate currency in our wizarding civilization! If youâve got something good enough, forget points or low-level meritsâyou could rake in
advanced merits
issued by the
Star Orbit Tribunal
until your hands cramp!â
Her words struck Jie Ming like a bolt of lightning, shattering his mental deadlock over his
âpovertyâ
!
His eyes
lit up
!
She was right!
Why hadnât he thought of this?!
Heâd always instinctively treated all his research as core secrets, never considering them as
âproductsâ
to sell!
As Viola said, clinging to outdated tech only drove up his research costs.
âThanks, Senior! I get it now!â
Realizing this, Jie Ming excitedly thanked her and abruptly ended the call!
He completely ignored Violaâs waving arms and her shouting,
âHey! If youâve got any good tech, sell it to me first! I can take out another loan!â
as the screen went dark.
Staring at the now-closed communication, Viola gnashed her teeth in frustration. âUgh⊠that ungrateful brat!â
But Jie Ming couldnât hear her complaints. He was already eagerly opening his experimental records, carefully selecting technologies to sell.