novelnext Chapter 736: Income Gap and Visit
Chapter 736: Income Gap and Visit
Chapter 736: Income Gap and Visit
The construction site of the Creation System was located on a vast wasteland in the southeastern part of the main continent of the Infernal Sulfur Plane.
When Jie Ming stepped out of the teleportation array, he saw countless black giants shuttling back and forth through the clouds in the sky, carrying batches of construction materials across the horizon.
Those massive black figures moved freely at high altitudes. Every time they crossed over the wasteland, they stirred up a heavy gust of wind pressure that made the gravel on the ground tremble slightly.
On the ground, an exaggeratedly massive circular magic array had already laid its foundation.
It was a giant ring array with a diameter of over several thousand kilometers. The array’s grooves extended hundreds of meters deep underground, densely embedded with countless preset runes.
Viewed from high above, the entire foundation resembled an enormously magnified alchemy circle. Distributed across the ring body were clearly functional sub-modules: spirit material maturation zones, refinement amplification zones, energy conversion hubs, data loading interfaces…
These sub-modules operated independently yet were connected by thick energy conduits.
Within the conduits flowed high-purity elemental energy drawn directly from seventh-tier large element pools. Simply standing nearby allowed one to feel the majestic pulsation that had nearly condensed into substance.
Over a million black giants were working simultaneously under the command of a group of black giant priests. Some carried fire-patterned stone slabs larger than themselves, flying in from the direction of the teleportation arrays. Upon landing, they carefully embedded the slabs deep into the grooves. Others hovered in mid-air, using low-frequency vibration waves emitted from the vertical slits on their chests to calibrate rune precision. Still others performed welding at the energy conduit junctions, sending elemental sparks that bloomed into brief, blazing flowers of light across the wasteland.
Several sixth-tier black giants served as construction team leaders, each overseeing one sub-module.
The vertical slits on their chests opened and closed continuously, issuing strings of short commands to direct the surrounding fifth-tier black giants in adjusting installation angles, reinforcing weld points, and recalibrating rune positions.
The black giant race had already accumulated rich construction experience prior to this. All the black giants present could be considered veteran builders. The entire worksite was busy but orderly, vast yet exceptionally disciplined.
Jie Ming floated in the air directly above the center of the circular array, taking in the whole construction site at a glance.
A black giant priest responsible for the Creation System construction project flew up from below and stopped beside him.
The dark golden patterns on this priest’s body were distributed with extreme uniformity. A newly engraved mark on his left shoulder blade served as the identity imprint of the project supervisor priest.
“Master, the main framework of the Creation System is currently about forty percent complete,” the black giant priest opened the data pad in his hand. His voice, produced by the opening and closing of the vertical slit on his chest, remained clearly audible against the roaring background of the worksite.
“The rune arrays for the spirit material maturation zones have all been calibrated. The energy pipelines for the refinement amplification zones are currently being laid. The main structure of the energy conversion hub has been capped, and the preset runes for the data loading interfaces have also been embedded into the foundation. Of the seven core sub-modules, four have entered the fine-calibration phase, two are in the laying stage, and one has not yet begun construction.”
He flipped to the next page of the data.
“The primary bottleneck currently affecting project progress is raw material supply. Our stockpiles of fire-patterned stone slabs and star-core refined gold have been exhausted, and the latest batch of void crystals we purchased is nearly depleted. If the raw material issue cannot be resolved, the subsequent construction speed will drop significantly. At the current supply rate, it is estimated that nearly two hundred years will still be needed to complete the entire construction.”
Two hundred years…
“I understand…”
Jie Ming rubbed his temples, silently running the number together with the various accumulated project timelines in his mind.
Because of the recent start of construction, the military merits he owed Clark had yet to be repaid. Just the debt to his own mentor, at the current income rate, would take about a hundred years to save up.
Moreover, the current consumption was only for the Creation System’s construction. The refinement of the array eyes for the All-Heavens Star Grand Array was still far off in the distance.
“What a headache…” Jie Ming sighed helplessly in his heart.
His expression remained unchanged. He simply nodded, indicating for the other party to continue.
The black giant priest reported the specific progress of several more sub-modules, then closed the data pad and respectfully withdrew to the side.
Jie Ming conducted another inspection of the worksite, confirming the welding quality of the energy conversion hub and checking the calibration precision of several key runes in the spirit material maturation zones. Only then did he turn and step onto the teleportation array back to the laboratory.
Inside the laboratory, the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror was automatically organizing the latest data from Strange research.
Before starting work, Jie Ming sat down. Instead of immediately resuming his previous research, he first pulled up his financial ledger.
The military merit balance on the magic network terminal looked little better than it had fifty years ago.
The continuous sales of liquid refined gold and spiritual qi had indeed brought in stable income.
But when these revenues were placed against the Creation System’s raw material procurement bills and the budget for refining the main array eyes of the All-Heavens Star Grand Array, the number immediately became stretched thin.
He still needed to find ways to make money.
The auxiliary materials required to build a single Creation System had already consumed more than half of the military merits in his account.
The three hundred and sixty-five main array eyes for the All-Heavens Star Grand Array were still queued up waiting for materials, and arranging the array itself would require consuming another batch of materials later.
Not to mention, he also needed to prepare resource gaps in advance for the full law route after advancing to the sixth tier.
Judging from Mentor Clark’s situation, that would be a truly astronomical figure.
Jie Ming had initially planned to sell some technologies, but the returns from ordinary technologies were completely inadequate for a funding gap of this level.
As for some of the more sensitive technologies, there were still parts that Jie Ming had not fully localized.
He decided to wait until after reaching the sixth tier and obtaining enough knowledge before proceeding with complete localization and sale.
However, judging by the current situation, aside from these methods, the best way for Jie Ming to increase his income was still to participate in plane war missions. Even for him at his current consumption level, plane wars remained the most cost-effective source of income.
Conquering a high-civilization plane would bring military merits and resources sufficient to support the Creation System’s raw material procurement for a very long time. Moreover, as long as he had not reached the sixth tier, there was no mandatory rest period.
Missions could be accepted consecutively; the tighter the link, the faster the capital recovery.
Still, he had accumulated some savings over the years and was not in urgent need for the moment.
The most stable approach was to first finalize several technical researches in the laboratory before planning the subsequent mission cycles.
Additionally, continuously participating in war missions while stuck at the fifth tier would instead affect the localization of certain sensitive technologies, so maintaining a balance between the two was also important.
Jie Ming closed the financial ledger, stood up, and stepped onto the teleportation array, directly transmitting himself outside the Infernal Sulfur Plane barrier.
The world fragment storage zone floated in the void beyond the plane barrier.
Several hexagonal metal platforms were linked to one another by energy chains. Each platform housed an independent sealed laboratory.
These laboratories were specially used for storing and researching high-risk materials. At present, they mainly held biological samples from the Reflection Dimension as well as Strange samples. Jie Ming entered the innermost laboratory labeled “Strange—Active Samples.”
The glow of the sealing arrays illuminated the laboratory brightly. Several biological tissue samples collected from the Strange Plane were sealed within high-density restraint fields.
The forms of those samples continuously switched between solid and liquid states. Occasionally, a small portion would suddenly disappear, only to reappear on the other side of the restraint field.
That was the Strange’s ability to integrate into world rules, manifesting naturally on a macroscopic scale.
Jie Ming activated his True-False Void-Piercing Pupil. While applying various stimuli, he meticulously recorded the behavioral data of the samples.
Just as he reached the third group of samples, the magic network terminal suddenly vibrated.
He glanced down. It was a communication request.
The sender’s name made him raise an eyebrow slightly.
He closed the experimental records, replied to the communication, and instructed the nearby black giant priest: “Go welcome the guest. I’ll return shortly.” He hurriedly finished collecting the final set of data, resealed the samples, and stepped onto the teleportation array back to the main laboratory.
Before long, the laboratory door slid open.
Standing at the entrance was a tall, upright young wizard with neatly combed golden hair swept back.
The other party’s law solidification domain appeared to have only recently stabilized.
Although the outline had already taken shape, the edge law patterns were not dense enough, and his overall aura was a notch weaker than that of a normally advanced sixth-tier wizard. Yet his posture remained exactly the same as it had been several hundred years ago.
His back straight, shoulders relaxed, with that easy smile hanging at the corners of his mouth.
“Long time no see,” David said.