Ten years passed in the blink of an eye.
On this day, having calculated the time, Jie Ming ended his current experiment early.
He stood at the workstation, entered the last set of experimental data into the terminal, confirmed that all research had entered automatic operation, and then slowly sat back down in the metal chair at the center of the lab.
He was silent for a moment.
"...After all, it was a meeting personally presided over by the dean."
Jie Ming tapped the armrest lightly and laughed.
"I'll go with my true body. It's a bit more formal."
With those words, the lab fell silent again.
The "Jie Ming" sitting in the chair suddenly stopped all movement.
His eyes gradually lost focus, his arms drooped, and his breathing ceased.
The whole person seemed to instantly lose life, like an exquisite doll sitting quietly there, motionless.
At the same time.
In the Infernal Sulfur Plane, in near-Earth orbit outside the continent, a "satellite" that had been floating for over a hundred years slowly moved.
Of course, it was no satellite; it was Jie Ming's real body.
The five-hundred-kilometer-tall dark gold true body had been sitting cross-legged in the cosmic space outside the continent ever since the complete transformation of his second Dharma Aspect, like an eternal sleeping ancient deity.
His body was too enormous.
Looking up at the sky from the continent, one could only see a dark gold silhouette covering the sky, like a second continent floating in the heavens. Ordinary life forms could not see its full form at all; they could only watch during the alternation of day and night as that massive figure slowly swept across the star's light, casting a moving shadow over the continent.
After learning about the difficulty of cultivating the Mustard Seed Contains the Dao True Body Art, Jie Ming simply refined a high-level alchemical puppet first, projecting his consciousness into it long-term, continuing experiments and research within the continent.
As for the true main body, it always remained in the void to cultivate.
This way, he would neither stress the relatively fragile spatial structure of the Infernal Sulfur Continent nor could he use the more abundant elemental tides in the cosmos to continuously temper his true body.
Now.
The giant god, silent for a hundred years, finally slowly stretched its body.
The knee joints that had been crossed for so long gradually extended. Just this most ordinary of actions caused the space within tens of thousands of kilometers around to ripple with layers of visible transparent ripples, as if the entire void had been gently pressed by an invisible hand.
Then, the dark gold giant arms braced against the void, and the five-hundred-kilometer-tall body slowly stood up.
Boom...
Sound does not exist in a vacuum, but all living beings on the Infernal Sulfur Continent seemed to hear a extremely muffled roar. As the giant rose, the shadow he cast slowly swept across the Infernal Sulfur Continent.
Large areas of the continent's sunlight instantly dimmed.
In a city specially set up for families of Tentacle Tree researchers, countless Tentacle Tree residents raised their canopies, their crystalline compound eyes reflecting the slowly rising dark gold deity in the sky.
At the construction site, the Black Giant Priests also stopped their work.
The vertical openings in their chests opened simultaneously, emitting low, rhythmic resonances.
'Our great Lord is moving his true body.'
'Please continue to maintain operations in all areas. Do not panic.'
Some of the priests skillfully issued notices to the surroundings.
Clearly, this was not the first time they had seen such a scene.
Jie Ming stood in the void, his two faces simultaneously scanning the entire continent.
In his three golden vertical eyes, the True Illusion Void-Breaking Eye and the All-Purpose Eye operated together.
After confirming that the shadow did not cover the main residential areas, did not affect the stellar farms, and did not block the energy collection of the Creation System, he nodded slightly.
'Very good.'
The next moment.
The enormous true body began to contract.
The five-hundred-kilometer-tall dark gold giant continuously collapsed inward from the edges of its body.
Finally, a human youth in a black wizard's robe stood quietly in the void.
Jie Ming looked down at his own hands and let out a light breath.
Although this was only the most ordinary illusionary body, which couldn't truly solve the problem of the true body being too large, it was enough for a short time.
He stepped onto the teleportation array of the Infernal Sulfur Plane, and a silver-white spatial pillar shot up into the sky.
Nolen Plane 147.
Academy Central Teleportation Plaza.
Woom!!!
A silver-white light pillar slowly descended.
Jie Ming stepped out of the teleportation array.
However, before his second foot had fully landed.
Bang!
The teleportation array suddenly emitted a crisp explosion.
The sound was not loud, but it was especially piercing.
Dozens of rings of spatial runes on the entire array flickered violently, pulsing more than ten times, then rapidly dimmed as if all energy had been drained.
Crack...
As fine cracks appeared on several spatial crystals at the edge of the array, a thin wisp of green smoke slowly rose.
The whole plaza instantly fell silent.
Dozens of wizards who had just teleported in to attend the meeting, standing near another teleportation array, turned their heads in unison.
They looked at the smoking array, then at Jie Ming who had just stepped out, then at the array under his feet still operating firmly, their gazes moving back and forth. The air became eerily quiet for a moment.
Jie Ming lowered his head to glance at the smoking teleportation array, then looked up to meet the gazes around him. The corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily. His expression was somewhat embarrassed.
'...It's not my fault, right?'
Even he lacked confidence in his own words.
Jie Ming also knew that he had apparently caused trouble as soon as he arrived.
He quickly realized that in the Infernal Sulfur Plane, the teleportation arrays he had set up were all engineering-grade arrays, designed to transport various materials, with strong load-bearing capacity.
Therefore, over the years, even when using a teleportation array with his true body, he didn't feel much strain.
And obviously, the college here used only standard sixth-level teleportation arrays.
Although they had extra load margin reserved for transporting large puppets, war beasts, and even plane legions for some war wizards, that was only a margin.
And his situation... clearly exceeded the standard.
The fact that it had managed to transport him intact already spoke to its sturdy quality.
Thinking of this, Jie Ming felt somewhat embarrassed.
But the surrounding wizards were completely stunned.
Some had their mouths twitching, some silently stepped back half a step, and a few young wizards couldn't help but start sizing up Jie Ming anew. Just by himself, crushing Nolen College's teleportation array to overload...
This was something they had never even heard of before.
Just then, a vast and majestic consciousness slowly descended from the high altitudes of the entire plane.
Although there was no coercive pressure, it was like a boundless sea gently covering from the sky.
Almost all the wizards on the plaza looked up simultaneously, immediately recognizing that the source of this will was none other than Dean Avery Knight of Nolen Plane 147 College.
For others, the seventh-level wizard's consciousness scan was merely a vast and gentle mental force, gently enveloping the entire college like an ocean. But in Jie Ming's vision, it was completely different.
Under the combined effect of the Law-Crystallization Domain and the True Illusion Void-Breaking Eye, he clearly saw an eye slowly opening in the sky above... An eye so large it could cover the entire sky.
Deep within the eye, countless law runes slowly flowed, layered upon layer, as if all the rules of the plane converged there.
It calmly looked down at the teleportation plaza, and finally, its gaze settled on Jie Ming.
At first, there was an inspection-like scrutiny in the eyes, then gradually a hint of helplessness emerged.
It felt like a laboratory researcher looking down at his own incubator.
Only to find that the experimental subject inside had cracked a culture dish.
Facing that huge eye that covered the sky, Jie Ming's smile instantly turned awkward.
He raised his hand and waved at the sky.
After two seconds of silence, he coughed dryly.
'Cough! Uh... I'll pay for it.'
The huge law eye in the sky quietly looked at him for a while.
Then, it slowly closed.
That majestic will that covered heaven and earth receded like a tide, and sunlight once again fell upon the plaza.
Only at this moment did everyone around simultaneously let out a sigh of relief.
However, when they looked at Jie Ming again, there was an indescribable complexity in their eyes.