chsdbacks Chapter 727 A Truly Unexpected Gain
Chapter 727 A Truly Unexpected Gain
The light from the teleportation array slowly faded beneath their feet, and Jemin and Viola stepped into Clark's dimension.
This wasn't Jemin's first time here, but it was the first time he had truly seen the external view of the plane.
Previously, when he came here, his mentor Clark would send him straight into the laboratory, and he didn't even have a chance to see what the corridor outside looked like.
The only time it wasn't sent to the lab was because it died and came back to life, resurrected in the storage room through a substitute doll.
As soon as his foot landed, he subconsciously glanced around, then paused slightly.
Unlike the style of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, Clark's Plane... is too lively.
Amidst the hustle and bustle, there was an almost natural harmony, as if this place had been operating smoothly for a long time, and all civilizations had perfectly merged. The teleportation array was built in the center of a plaza.
The buildings surrounding the square are of different styles, even distinct, yet they coexist in a strange and harmonious way.
On the left is a row of low-lying silicon-based biological dwellings, with their outer walls made of layers of translucent crystals that refract a colorful spectrum of light when sunlight shines on them.
Several silicon-based creatures, each the size of a small hill, were basking in the sun in front of the house, their massive bodies as still as a pile of glowing ore. To the right was an area shrouded in shadow, where the light seemed to be cut off by an invisible curtain at the edge.
Several shadowy creatures darted about in the shadows, their outlines like flowing ink stains, sometimes solid, sometimes scattered.
Above, several tiny sprites, no bigger than the palm of a hand, fluttered their translucent wings and flew by, scattering tiny specks of fluorescent light along their edges.
They paid no attention to the shadowy area below; one of them even stopped on the boundary line, chattering with a shadow creature that had half its body peeking out from the shadows.
Silicon-based, shadow-state, and carbon-based flying organisms.
These three types of life forms may not even have the same basic form of "breathing air", yet they happen to live together in the same square and have obviously been living together for a long time.
Jemin silently swept his mental energy across the area, sensing that the number of intelligent races he encountered was far greater than the three types before him.
Further afield on the continent, there are even more regions separated by conflicts over survival environments, with the number of races reaching double digits.
Just as he was about to continue his investigation, a shadowy creature emerged from the shadowy area.
As she stepped out of the shadows, her previously irregular, ink-like outline rapidly contracted and solidified, eventually transforming into the appearance of a young girl. Her features were so exquisitely detailed they seemed unreal; her skin had a translucent, dark gray texture, somewhere between mist and liquid; and her long hair cascaded down her shoulders like flowing water, dissipating as tiny particles of shadow at her ankles.
If you disregard the fact that she is essentially a self-aware shadow, judging solely by her appearance, she is more beautiful than most humanoid beings. "Please follow me, both of you. Your master is waiting for you in the laboratory."
When she spoke, her voice carried the unique resonance of a shadow creature, making it sound very gentle and polite.
Jemin and Viola followed her across the plaza, along a stone path lined with glowing plants, deeper into the plane.
Along the way, creatures of other races passed by from time to time. Some nodded to the girl in shadow, while others curiously sized up the two outsiders, Jemin and Viola.
Jemin noticed something else: these creatures, besides being clearly highly cultured, were also quite powerful.
Throughout the entire street, Jemin had never seen a creature below level five.
However, considering the exaggerated level of Clark's cannon fodder army, it seems quite normal for a race of this caliber to exist in his plane. A short while later, the two arrived at the laboratory, and the door slid open silently.
Clark stood in front of the experiment, his back to the door, looking down at a stack of experimental records spread out on his face.
He looked exactly the same as he had hundreds of years ago, with relaxed shoulders, a straight back, his left hand hanging casually at his side, and a rune pen that was automatically recording data held between the fingertips of his right hand.
From behind, he looks like an ordinary wizard handling his daily work in a laboratory.
But the instant he turned around, Jemin felt his vision suddenly explode.
Standing before me was indeed still the same indifferent-looking mentor, Clark.
But what he "saw" was something completely different.
Clark's humanoid silhouette is merely an illusion.
It was like a hand puppet placed quietly before the experiment, while the real Clark was an unknown entity that stretched out endless tentacles.
Those tentacles were neither flesh and blood nor energy, nor were they anything strange or eerie. If you had to describe them... they were the manifestation of knowledge. Each tentacle represented a law.
The luster flowing on each tentacle is the light of knowledge emanating from the mastery of that law.
Flame, matter, energy, space, time, pain, the law of life, gravity...
There were also tens of millions of laws that Jemin couldn't even name, all extending out from behind that figure.
These tentacles pierced through the laboratory walls, penetrated the surface of the plane, and seemed to gently and irresistibly envelop the entire plane. That was... knowledge itself.
This is an existence that has studied almost all the known laws of wizarding civilization to the extreme. After advancing to the seventh level, the knowledge projection formed by the natural overflow of the law structure.
Jemin immediately realized that the reason he could see this scene was not because he had acquired some new eye technique, but because he was in a state of Dao integration.
To be in harmony with the Dao is to be in harmony with the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.
The so-called "Tao" refers to the laws governing the operation of the world.
In the wizarding world, this is simply another way of saying the law.
The structure of laws that Clark is currently displaying is precisely the most direct reflection of the Great Dao of this world.
It was only when two special individuals collided at the same time that he inadvertently glimpsed Clark's true appearance.
His true form unfolded almost instinctively.
Dark golden light surged from within, and the thousand-meter-tall Dharma image rapidly expanded in the laboratory.
However, the laboratory space expanded automatically under Clark's control, preventing his true form from crashing into any wall.
Two faces simultaneously opened three eyes, the golden vertical eye between their brows staring intently at the law tentacles behind Clark, the ever-flowing patterns reflected deep within their pupils.
He felt as if he were looking through an invisible magnifying glass, examining each of those rules one by one.
Every pulse of every tentacle was pouring a massive amount of knowledge into his spiritual sea.
It's like sunlight shining into the soil, water seeping into the cracks, naturally permeating in.
Within the spiritual sea, the four golden lines representing the degree of control over the four elemental laws are growing wildly at a visible speed.
The progress bar, which had been increasing slowly, was now rushing toward 100%, as if it had been injected with a catalyst.
It's not just about the four elements.
Laws of Time, Laws of the Abyss, Laws of Life...
All the rules he had ever explored were growing in tandem.
They had already crossed the 100% limit under the passive amplification of the Dao Integration Realm, but now, they were no longer independent golden threads, but as if they were being pulled by some invisible force, all winding towards the Ring of Truth in the center of the spiritual sea.
Wrapped in dozens of golden threads of law, the Ring of Truth gradually transformed from its original silvery-white color into a pure and radiant gold. With each additional law wrapped around it, the runes on the surface of the Ring of Truth shone brighter.
The nascent form of the solidified realm of laws began to materialize spontaneously within the Ring of Truth.
Jemin suddenly woke up with a start.
In those few seconds...or minutes, he was almost completely immersed in passively learning the laws, and almost directly relied on other laws to cross the threshold of a level six wizard.
He forcibly focused his mind, withdrew his true form, and returned to his normal human form.
Within his spiritual sea, the Ring of Truth had been bound into a brilliant golden circle by the golden threads of law, and the nascent form of the solidified law domain trembled slightly within, awaiting only his initiative to take the final step.
Meanwhile, as Jemin stood there stunned, Clark stopped using the rune pen in his hand.
His face still wore that same indifferent expression he never showed, but deep in his eyes, a faint hint of approval flashed.
Viola stood at the door, her mouth slightly open, her eyes scanning back and forth between her mentor and her junior several times.
His expression shifted from confusion to shock, and finally to undisguised envy.
"I just broke through to level seven, so my condition is rather special. The law structure hasn't fully converged yet." Clark glanced at the shocked Viola, speaking calmly as he explained the current situation to her.
"It just so happens that Jemin is also in a special state. It's probably a learning-specialized state that he autonomously modified before reaching level six. When these two special states come together, they create a resonance effect at the level of laws. He can see my law structure and is also passively learning those laws." Clark's gaze fell on Jemin:
"To be able to autonomously modify oneself and enter a special state before reaching level six... a special state specifically for learning knowledge." Clark nodded slightly, the movement small but unmistakable: "Not bad!"
Viola's eyes were so red with envy that they looked like they were about to bleed.
She bit her lower lip, looked at Clark, then at Jemin, and finally squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth:
"Back then, I risked my life to finally find a living plane so that my Law of Pain could be elevated."
She pointed at Jemin, her tone full of resentment.
"He stood there in a daze for a few minutes, and actually accomplished the same thing?!"
Clark glanced at her, his expression remaining calm.
"You're wrong. It took you thousands of years to learn the Law of Pain, and you only perfected it by relying on the Living Dimension."
"In those few minutes, he passively absorbed the complete structure of at least a dozen laws."
"So even though he accomplished the same thing, he gained ten times more than you..."
Viola's face darkened upon hearing this, her voice filled with gritted teeth: "...Damn it!"