Chapter 398 Celebration and the Divine Power of Incense
The Purgatory Sulfur Plane, the Central Control Room of the Incense and Divine Path.
As the last crystal plate inlaid with intricate runes was inserted into the groove of the main control array, Jemin carefully completed the calibration of the final energy circuit.
He took two steps back and initiated a full testing procedure.
Buzz...
The entire central control room was illuminated by a soft, milky-white light, and countless fine energy patterns on the walls, floor, and ceiling seemed to come alive and flow.
Dozens of light screens suspended in mid-air lit up simultaneously, rapidly updating massive data streams—faith power collection efficiency, spiritual energy conversion rate, energy network node stability, real-time status of the Black Giant race…
Three minutes later, all the light screens simultaneously turned a pleasing green, and a soft synthesized voice announced: "The 'Mind Resonance Array' module for collecting incense power has been installed successfully. The entire system has passed its self-test, and the estimated operating efficiency has increased by 37.2%."
Jemin let out a long sigh and rubbed his slightly sore temples.
This final part of the installation process was much more complicated than expected.
Originally planned to be completed within six months, it ended up taking almost two years.
Too much time was spent dealing with the compatibility issues between the two subsystems of "mental resonance" and "belief purification".
However, I made it in time.
The reason for the rush to finish is that in two days, it will be the Black Giants' once-a-decade "Molten Fire Festival".
As a special elemental life form created by Jemin himself and improved through multiple rounds of modifications, the Black Giant's physiological characteristics are completely different from those of ordinary organisms.
They do not need to eat or sleep, have extremely low metabolic rates, and live long lives.
Even the most ordinary black giants can live for thousands of years without any problem, as long as they don't die in battle or run out of energy.
Those individuals that evolve to level four or five through devouring have lifespans measured in tens of thousands of years.
Their long lifespan makes their perception of "time" quite different from that of shorter-lived races.
For them, a once-a-decade celebration is already considered a fairly "frequent" gathering.
As for the grander "Centennial Ceremony" and the "Millennium Sacred Ceremony" that have not yet been held, they are milestone events in the civilization memory of the entire ethnic group.
“Master.” A deep, thunderous voice rang out from outside the control room.
Jemin turned his head and looked towards the door.
There stood a head that could only reveal one eye—one of the two remaining leaders of the Black Giant Legion, a sixth-tier Black Giant named "Molten Mountain" by Jemin.
Unlike other black giant priests who undergo special mutations, are slender, and focus on research and spellcasting, Lava Mountain follows the most traditional "elemental colossus" evolutionary path.
After advancing to level six, his already enormous size of over fifty meters grew even larger, reaching a height of nearly one hundred meters in his normal posture.
The entire body is covered with a layer of flowing black molten metal, which gleams like cooled lava under the light of the control room.
The enormous hand, when spread out, could almost cover half the room. At the edge of the iconic vertical rift in the chest cavity, one could vaguely see the obsidian structure burning like a furnace inside.
He was one of only two of the five elite black giants that Jemin initially trained, who survived countless interdimensional wars.
His pure strength, unwavering will, and absolute loyalty to Jemin made him the undisputed symbol of power for the Black Giants Legion.
"How are the preparations for the celebration going?" Jemin walked to the control panel and brought up the real-time monitoring footage of the celebration venues in various parts of the plane.
Lava Mountain bowed his massive head respectfully—a gesture that brought him almost to the laboratory: “The framework is 87% complete, the ‘Eternal Furnace’ at the main ceremony site is lit, and the energy supply is stable. Chief Rockhammer has gone to the eastern gathering area to gather the tribesmen. It is expected that more than 98% of the tribesmen will arrive at the main venue before the celebration begins.”
In the scene, the main venue for the celebration, located on the central plain of the plane, is under construction.
Tens of thousands of black giants were busy there: they pulled molten rock from the ground with their bare hands and sculpted it into magnificent arches, platforms and statues in mid-air; they guided pure energy flows from the elemental pools and wove them into protective and reinforcing magic circles that covered the entire venue; and a dedicated team of priests maintained a giant energy vortex with a diameter of more than 500 meters at the core of the venue—that was the "Eternal Forge," the center where the will and energy of the race converged during the celebration.
"Very good." Jemin nodded in satisfaction. "What's the specific start time?"
"Standard plane time, noon two days from now. When the two suns reach their zenith, the Furnace Resonance Ceremony will officially begin." A rare hint of anticipation flickered in Lava Mountain's voice.
Even for the long-lived Black Giants, the once-a-decade clan celebration is an important moment that cannot be missed.
"I understand. Go ahead and get busy, make sure everything goes smoothly."
"I obey the Lord's command." Lava Mountain bowed again, but its massive body turned and left with astonishing agility, without touching any equipment outside the control room.
Jemin watched him leave, then turned his gaze back to the surveillance footage.
Two days later, at noon.
In the sky above the Sulfur Plane of Purgatory, two dark red "suns" of different sizes slowly rose to the zenith.
The intense sunlight shone on the central plain, illuminating the completed celebration venue in a magnificent glow.
More than three billion black giants have gathered here.
The number sounds terrifying, but when they are arranged in neat squares on the vast Obsidian Plain, they appear orderly.
From above, the black ocean of giants is dotted with countless sculptures made of lava, energy towers shimmering with runes, and slowly rotating energy vortexes.
In the center of the venue, the "Eternal Furnace" with a diameter of 500 meters had burned to its limit, and golden-red energy pillars shot into the sky, echoing the two suns in the sky.
There were no lengthy speeches, no complicated procedures.
The instant the rays of the twin suns and the furnace's beam of light completely overlapped...
"roar!!!"
Three billion black giants roared to the sky at the same time!
That was not a sound, but the spiritual resonance, energy vibration, and surging will of three billion elemental beings!
The entire plain trembled, and the air was instantly heated to a temperature sufficient to melt steel, only to be rapidly cooled by the black giants' innate "heat absorption" ability.
Visible energy ripples spread from each of the black giants, intertwining, colliding, and merging in the air above the venue before finally flowing into the central eternal furnace.
The furnace's beam of light surged once more, its color gradually changing from golden-red to pure gold, like a bridge of light connecting heaven and earth.
The celebration officially entered its climax.
The Black Giants began performing war dances in square formations.
Their movements were perfectly synchronized; every step, every punch, every burst of energy precisely matched a rhythm that originated from the depths of their blood.
Furthermore, squads of elite black giants conducted combat drills around the furnace, showcasing their various talents and abilities under their control, eliciting cheers from the onlookers.
As all this was happening, the newly completed "thought resonance array" nodes of the incense and deity paths around the venue and throughout the entire plane began to glow faintly.
Inside the central control room.
Jemin didn't attend the celebration; he knew his presence might make the Black Giants feel uncomfortable.
Standing in front of the main control panel, Jieming stared intently at the data that was rapidly refreshing on dozens of light screens.
The light screen on the left shows that the energy intensity of the Eternal Furnace has exceeded the upper limit of conventional measurements.
The light screen on the right displays various data related to faith and thought fluctuations.
On the largest light screen in the center, a curve is soaring at an almost vertical angle.
That represents the real-time reserve of "incense and divine power".
The essence of the divine power of incense is the special conceptual power formed by the unused "fragments of thought" and "inspirations" of intelligent beings during their "walking, sitting, lying down" and "thinking and perceiving" processes, after being collected, purified, and integrated by a specific system.
It differs from direct emotional energy or the power of faith; it is closer to a "latent afterglow of wisdom" or a "condensation nucleus of thought."
Normally, the Black Giants are scattered throughout different dimensions for work and training, and their efficiency in collecting scattered fragments of thought is limited.
But at this moment, three billion individuals are highly concentrated, spiritually resonant, and emotionally charged, and their "mental activity" has reached an unprecedented peak.
And those newly optimized "mind resonance arrays" are now working at maximum efficiency.
"Mind fragment capture rate: 89.7%...91.2%...93.5%..."
“Purity of Spiritual Energy: Transcendent Level... Still rising…”
"The rate at which incense and divine power are synthesized is currently equivalent to 132 years' worth of production under normal conditions..."
The numbers are still jumping wildly.
As the celebration reached its most fervent stage—the spiritual fluctuations of three billion black giants chanting some ancient war song in unison, perfectly synchronized with the energy torrent of the Eternal Forge—the curve on the central light screen suddenly broke through a "theoretical peak threshold" preset by Jemin and rushed into a red area representing "unknown high values".
"Warning: Reserve rate exceeds safe buffer capacity. Initiate emergency diversion?"
A synthesized voice prompt sounded.
"No, maintain the current state and prioritize ensuring the integrity of data collection," Jemin ordered decisively, his eyes fixed on the still-rising curve.
The corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up.
More than an hour later, the first wave of the celebration gradually subsided.
The Black Giants began to engage in free and dispersed communication and display.
The energy intensity of the Eternal Furnace is slowly declining, and the peak of the resonance of thought has passed.
The curve of the incense's divine power reserves finally leveled off at a point that satisfied Jemin.
Jemin glanced at the final total data and took a deep breath.
The incense and divine power collected during this celebration are enough for him to complete the construction of all the planned modules of the incense and divine path.
More importantly, the "purity" and "activity" of this batch of divine power have reached the theoretical optimal value, making it a truly top-quality product.
"Extract one standard unit and send it to Analysis Room No. 1," he instructed.
A few minutes later, Jemin returned to his core laboratory.
On the workbench, a fist-sized energy body radiating a warm golden light floats in a transparent crystal container.
It doesn't leap like flames, nor is it dazzling like a ball of light; instead, it's a slowly flowing "mist of light" that exists between a liquid and a gas.
Upon closer inspection, countless tiny golden runes seemed to appear and disappear within the mist, and one could faintly hear the subtle resonance of whispers from billions of living beings.
The power of incense.
According to the records in "Dao Da Shu Ge", this is a top-level all-purpose resource that is on par with "Red Dust Qi".
Whether used to assist in breaking through cultivation bottlenecks, refining magical treasures and elixirs, tempering the physical body and soul, constructing magic arrays and talismans, or treating injuries to the Dao and soul, it has almost unparalleled universality and efficiency.
Its application scope even exceeds that of the mortal realm, because it can be molded into almost any form of power according to the user's needs.
But what Jemin wanted to try at this moment was a very special, even somewhat luxurious, use of incense and divine power—a method he had memorized immediately when he looked up relevant information in the "Great Dao Book Pavilion".
The Secret of Divine Intercourse.
The principle behind this method is to utilize the "afterglow of sentient beings' thoughts" contained in the divine power of incense, transforming it into the "specific thinking ability" that the user urgently needs in a short period of time.
Simply put, it can temporarily and specifically enhance a user's "comprehension," "inspiration," "deductive reasoning speed," or "intuitive acuity."
It's like injecting a powerful "light catalyst" into the brain.
Jemin carefully enveloped the incense's divine power with his spiritual energy, and began to guide its power according to the complex energy circulation route recorded in the "Divine Intercourse Technique".
There was no energy infusion as imagined, nor any spectacular phenomena.
The golden mist, as if alive, slowly merged into his brow, guided by his spiritual power.
A warm and clear feeling, as if enlightened, instantly spread from the depths of my brain.
Jemin closed his eyes.
The world... is different now.
It's not a change in the senses, but a leap in thinking.
He felt as if he had emerged from a narrow tunnel and suddenly found himself under an infinitely vast starry sky.
The countless problems, stuck ideas, and vague conjectures encountered in previous research are now presented as clearly as a mirror that has been wiped clean.
The brain's "processing speed" seems to have increased a hundredfold or a thousandfold.
Countless ideas, inspirations, and solutions flowed out like a fountain, only to be evaluated, filtered, combined, and optimized in an instant.
Those complex theoretical problems that would have required months of painstaking thought to make any progress now have several feasible solutions that automatically emerge in just a few breaths.
He subconsciously focused this "overclocked" thinking ability on the problem that had been troubling him for a long time:
How can we solve the problem of excessive energy dispersion and low killing efficiency when two power systems are combined?
Almost at the same moment the problem arose.
The answer, as if it had been waiting there all along, was presented clearly, concisely, and completely in his consciousness.
It's not just one or two scattered ideas, but a complete theoretical framework and implementation plan.
From the most basic principles of energy interaction to the specific design of rune arrays... all the details were completed in one go.
Jemin was stunned.
It's not because the answer is too complicated, but because... it's too simple.
It was as simple as a thin sheet of paper; he just hadn't found the right angle to break through it before.
"I see..." He slowly opened his eyes, the golden light in them fading away, replaced by a bright look of sudden realization. A smile involuntarily crept onto his lips. "So simple, how come I didn't think of that?"
(These two chapters today total over 8,000 words, so that counts as an extra update.)
(End of this chapter)
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