Free Web Novel**Chapter 747: Decision**
More than ten years passed quietly.
Once the funds were secured, the construction of the Creation System shot forward as if pushed onto an acceleration track by an invisible hand.
The black giant priests led millions of black giants in nonstop labor across the wasteland. Massive engineering machinery operated in tandem with rune arrays. The spiritual material maturation zone was the first to be calibrated, followed closely by the completion of the energy conduits for the spiritual power regulation system.
The moment the final submodule’s energy conduit successfully connected with the seventh-tier large-scale elemental pool, the entire ring-shaped grand array trembled violently. In the next instant, soft dark-golden light simultaneously lit up along the intricate rune circuits, spreading across the entire engineering area like rings of calm tides.
The fourth official subsystem of the Incense Fire Divine Dao was officially online.
Jie Ming hovered in the air directly above the center of the ring-shaped array. His black robe fluttered gently in the flow of energy currents, yet his gaze remained fixed on the gradually stabilizing array radiance below.
He could clearly sense that after the Creation System activated, the originally somewhat stiff barrier between Incense Divine Power and Spiritual Qi was being harmonized in an entirely new way.
In the spiritual material maturation zone, the first batch of test samples had already begun to grow slowly.
The originally thin and weak seedlings gradually unfurled their branches and leaves under the nourishment of the array’s glow.
The speed could not be considered fast, yet it lacked the unnatural feeling of conventional acceleration methods. It felt as if these plants were simply meant to grow at this pace.
Furthermore, beyond the plants, the mineral deposits buried deep underground were also undergoing constant changes. A brand-new order was quietly taking shape across this land.
Jie Ming closed his eyes and turned his vision inward to his spiritual sea.
Within the Ring of Truth, the golden line symbolizing his mastery over the Spiritual Qi Law had firmly settled at the 100% mark.
The embryonic form of the Law Solidification Domain rotated slowly inside the Ring of Truth, like a door that needed only one final push to open.
He could break through at any moment.
Yet it was precisely at this time that Jie Ming stopped.
He opened his eyes, his expression calm, but his mind had already begun weighing the options at high speed.
After the sixth ring, the conscription rules for wizards underwent a fundamental change.
Fifth-ring wizards were subject to mandatory conscription for planar war missions on a fixed cycle, required to participate in planar wars every eight hundred years.
Conversely, as long as the wizard was willing, they could continuously fight one war after another.
Sixth-ring wizards were different. After completing each war mission, they were forced into a two-thousand-year rest period.
For elite combat units like him, military headquarters protocol allowed the mandatory rest period to be halved—to one thousand years.
A thousand years during which he could not actively accept war missions meant he would be unable to rapidly acquire military merits and spoils through planar wars. This was no small loss.
He still owed Clark’s mentor more than twenty billion low-level military merits.
The first wave of income from the embryo aptitude enhancement technique had all been poured into the early construction of the Creation System. Although subsequent revenues were stable, they were a slow trickle—enough to cover long-term shortfalls but insufficient to plug the immediate hole.
Moreover, the three hundred and sixty-five main array eyes of the All-Heavens Star Grand Array were themselves a bottomless money-devouring pit. Relying solely on selling current techniques would never be enough to fill it.
If he could take advantage of the time before breaking through to the sixth ring and accept one or two more planar war missions as a fifth-ring wizard, using war spoils and military merit rewards to build up another reserve, then the subsequent thousand-year rest period would be far more comfortable.
On the other hand, breaking through to the sixth ring earlier also had its advantages.
Once the Law Solidification Domain took shape, he could personally verify many of his deductions regarding the Spiritual Qi Law much sooner.
His theoretical deductions at the fifth ring had nearly reached a bottleneck. Many ideas could only enter actual testing after the Law Solidification Domain was truly established.
Once the tests succeeded, Jie Ming would be able to refine several carefully selected techniques.
At that point, selling the new technologies would solve the resource issues that had plagued him for so long—not merely alleviate them with patchwork fixes, but resolve them at the root.
Both choices were good. For a moment, Jie Ming found himself somewhat hesitant. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
At that moment, the magic network terminal suddenly lit up with a communication alert.
He glanced down and casually accepted the call.
The instant the light screen expanded, a familiar face appeared before him.
It was Berta Vera Augusta.
She still wore her usual nearly expressionless look, with cool, indifferent features and a calm demeanor, as if few things in the world could truly move her. Yet her black eyes revealed a rare, sharp glint of eagerness—like fire suppressed beneath ice.
“Jie Ming.” She spoke directly, her voice clean and crisp, with no pleasantries. “I’m heading out for a while. Just letting you know in advance.”
Jie Ming raised an eyebrow. “Heading out? Where are you going?”
“Conquering a plane.” Berta Vera’s tone remained calm, as if stating the most ordinary thing. “Grandfather gave me a gift—an independent plane. Then he set a test for me: without relying on family forces, I must conquer that plane completely on my own. If I succeed, the plane will be mine from then on.”
Jie Ming’s heart stirred slightly at her words.
Augusta’s generosity was as grand as ever.
An independent plane was already expensive within wizard civilization, let alone one used as a trial for a junior.
With a moment’s thought, he understood her intention.
“So, you plan to use this opportunity to charge toward the sixth ring?” Jie Ming asked.
“Correct.” Berta Vera answered with exceptional directness. “This is also my own judgment. That plane is large enough, and its internal resistance forces are sufficiently complex. It’s suitable as the final practical test before breaking through.”
She paused, her gaze sweeping lightly over Jie Ming as if explaining in passing.
“However, for this reason, I’m afraid I won’t be able to visit you for the time being.”
Jie Ming chuckled. “Weren’t you quite straightforward about agreeing more than ten years ago?”
“That was more than ten years ago.” Berta Vera’s expression showed not the slightest fluctuation. “The situation has changed.”
“Changed quite quickly.”
“Because Grandfather has already granted me the plane’s permissions.” Her tone was calm. “I need to first handle the conquest process there, then complete the subsequent fusion with the plane’s origin. I won’t have any free time in the short term.”
Jie Ming looked at her on the light screen, suddenly curious. “You’re going alone?”
“Mm.”
“Without even an auxiliary legion?”
Berta Vera lifted her eyes slightly, the sharp glint in her black pupils becoming more pronounced. “I would like an auxiliary legion, but what I excel at is individual combat, not biological modification. To truly conquer that plane, I can only rely on myself.”
At this point, a rare trace of self-mockery entered her voice.
“Of course, Grandfather didn’t leave me without any backup. But that’s only the minimum guarantee. To truly suppress the entire plane, I still have to carve out the territory bit by bit with my own strength.”
Jie Ming nodded, his expression growing more serious.
This was indeed consistent with the style of the Wizard Augusta lineage he knew.
They emphasized individual combat power and specialized in high-pressure conquest.
The approach he used—directly flattening battle lines with a hundred-billion black giant legion—was not their path. They were more skilled at crushing every enemy in their way through their own power alone.
In other words, what Berta Vera intended this time was not a “lead troops and roll over them” style of conquest, but a genuine one-person suppression of an entire realm. The difficulty was by no means low.
“That’s no easy task,” Jie Ming said. “If you succeed, your foundation before the sixth ring will be even more solid.”
“That’s why I’m telling you in advance,” Berta Vera said. “So you don’t think I’ll break my promise like you did.”
“I wouldn’t think that,” Jie Ming smiled. “But I have to say, your grandfather’s gift is quite ruthless.”
“He’s always been like that,” Berta Vera said indifferently. “And he believes that wizards either grow in battle or die in battle. There is no third possibility.”
“Are you sure your master said ‘wizards’ and not ‘warriors’?”
“You don’t sound opposed to it.”
“Of course not.” Jie Ming’s tone was frank. “At least it shows you’re truly moving forward, instead of just slowly accumulating seniority under family protection.”
Berta Vera glanced at him, a very faint, unusual look flashing through her eyes.
“Your words sound like you’re praising me.”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing.” Jie Ming laughed. “I finally have a fellow traveler like you on the same path. Naturally, I hope you keep walking forward.”
A brief silence fell on the other side of the light screen.
Then Berta Vera shifted her gaze away. Her tone remained calm but softened slightly compared to before.
“Once I conquer that plane, I’ll come find you.” frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
Jie Ming nodded. “I’ll be waiting.”
“You’d better break through to the sixth ring quickly.”
“That sounds like a challenge.”
“You can take it that way.” She smiled. “Of course, you can also understand it as me not wanting you to be left too far behind the next time we meet.”
Jie Ming couldn’t help laughing as well.
“Rest assured, I won’t be overtaken by you so easily.”
Berta Vera’s gaze narrowed slightly, as if neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the statement.
She said nothing more, simply raising her hand to end the call. “Then that’s it…”
“Wait.” Jie Ming stopped her. “One more thing… Good luck.”
Berta Vera looked at him for a moment, then gave an almost imperceptible nod.
“Mm.”
The next second, the communication cut off.
The light screen quickly dimmed, leaving only the quiet flow of rune glimmer in the laboratory.
Jie Ming stared at the now-empty terminal and thoughtfully rubbed his fingertips.
Augusta had already begun charging toward the sixth ring.
He exhaled softly, yet his heart was stirred by the information she had shared.
“In that case… let’s fight one more time.”
Just as he prepared to open the magic network terminal to check whether the Star Ring Federation had any suitable planar war missions, the terminal rang first.
Jie Ming glanced at the signature on the communication request, and his eyebrows rose slightly.
It was Viola.
