After arranging the task of receiving supplies, Jie Ming leaned back gently into his chair.
The money problem was solved, and all materials had been ordered.
All that remained was to wait for the strategic warehouses across the regions to deliver in batches.
For a moment, Jie Ming found himself with rare leisure.
Of course, this so-called "leisure" was only relative to his previous state, where he wished he could stretch each day into forty-eight hours.
After all, his daily fixed study and research continued unabated, the solar true fire body tempering remained as regular as ever, and the third step of the Mustard Seed Contains the Dao True Body Art—Reflection Projection—still consumed a portion of his time each day for deduction.
But compared to those earlier days when he had poured much of his energy into the Blood Sacrifice Method, his current schedule finally freed up a small chunk of time. Staring at his time plan, Jie Ming suddenly fell into thought.
"Since I have time... why not improve my combat power as well?"
Research on the Talisman Imprint Rune Artifact had hit a temporary bottleneck.
To push forward, he first needed to complete the sixth-level alchemy and high-level rune-ology systems, learn enough techniques and knowledge, and only then could he develop spells befitting a sixth-level wizard.
It couldn't be rushed in the short term.
Thus, the only way to quickly boost his strength was to cultivate new spells.
Thinking this, Jie Ming rubbed his chin with a strange expression. "Speaking of which... ever since I broke through to the Dao Integration Realm, aside from the Mustard Seed Contains the Dao True Body Art, I haven't actually properly cultivated a single Dao Integration Realm spell."
And if one insisted on counting, the Mustard Seed Contains the Dao True Body Art was an immortal-level spell, not a proper Dao Integration Realm spell.
Strictly speaking, aside from changes in his true body's size, his current combat power wasn't much different from before his promotion to a sixth-level wizard.
Of course, many sixth-level wizards were in the same boat—after all, at such a high level, relevant knowledge wasn't easy to acquire. What truly supported his combat system now were still those old friends from the Nascent Soul Realm.
Spells like the Return to Ruins Armor or the Trigram Fire Annihilation Divine Light, after being reengineered through the wizard system, still possessed formidable power, but they were ultimately Nascent Soul Realm spells.
If he could master a few more great divine abilities truly belonging to the Dao Integration level, and then strengthen and modify them with the wizard system...
The improvement in his combat power would be far from trivial.
Moreover, his spiritual aptitude had already been elevated to the limit achievable in the Dao Integration Realm.
If he didn't cultivate some spells to experience what it felt like to be a genius, it would be a sheer waste!
With this thought, Jie Ming slowly closed his eyes and sank deep into his consciousness.
When he opened his eyes again, the Great Dao Book Pavilion, as if cast from white jade, stood silently before him.
A warm radiance fell upon his consciousness, making the entire mental world seem exceptionally tranquil.
As his thoughts moved, layer upon layer of bookshelves surrounded his consciousness like a tidal wave.
"Wow! This number... it's probably even more than the spells from the Nascent Soul stage," Jie Ming clicked his tongue at the exaggerated number of shelves before him. Jade slips floated silently, each exuding a completely different aura of the Dao.
Some blazed like the sun, some were heavy as the earth, some sharp as divine swords, some gentle as spring light...
Jie Ming's consciousness swept over them slowly, quickly understanding the situation.
The reason there were so many spells here was that many of them could be considered upgraded versions of Nascent Soul Realm spells. After all, truly peerless geniuses who could ascend directly from the Nascent Soul stage were rare; most had to walk the path of the Dao Integration Realm step by step. Moreover, cultivators entering the Dao Integration state often had the illusion of having comprehended the Dao, leading them to constantly create various spells in experimentation. Realizing this, Jie Ming willed it, and the minor spells created by Dao Integration cultivators as practice vanished, reducing the number by more than half.
But even so, the remaining spells were still extraordinarily numerous.
After a moment of thought, Jie Ming began setting new filtering conditions.
"First of all... attack and defense spells—I don't need them for now!"
Once the sixth-level wizard spells were developed and transformed into Talisman Imprint Rune Artifacts, he wouldn't lack methods for offense and defense.
Furthermore, he still had the immortal-level Mustard Seed Contains the Dao True Body Art awaiting practice—once he truly mastered that spell, his combat power would skyrocket.
So researching attack and defense spells now would be a waste of resources; he could deal with that later.
With this decision, most of the remaining spells were eliminated.
"Next... I don't lack movement or information spells either."
Once the Mustard Seed Contains the Dao True Body Art was mastered, movement itself would be enhanced. Combined with the wizard system's spatial spells, it was more than sufficient for normal situations.
As for information spells, there was no need to mention them—Jie Ming's Law of Fate Extreme Learning Plan was still sealed away.
Thus, Jie Ming realized what he truly lacked was a functional great divine ability that could change the tide of battle at critical moments.
With this thought, the dense bookshelves around him mostly dispersed, but millions of jade slips still floated like stars in his mental space.
Jie Ming nodded in satisfaction, casually strolling through his mind while examining the contents of the surrounding jade slips. Suddenly, he stopped.
Before him, a single jade slip floated silently.
Jie Ming slowly reached out. On the surface of the jade slip, five ancient seal characters emerged.
"Embers of Nihility - Reversal Palm."
He probed his consciousness into it.
In just a moment, the vertical eye on his brow snapped open, its pupil contracting slightly.
"There's... actually such a spell?"
The effect of this spell was simple: it forcibly reversed the target's "state of existence" to a previous form.
To be more specific, when used against demon cultivators, it could forcibly revert them to their non-transformed stage, turning a demon cultivator who had trained for tens of thousands of years back into a beast with unopened intelligence.
When used against an enemy's artifact, it could revert it to an unrefined state, turning a lifebound artifact painstakingly refined over countless years into a freshly forged raw embryo.
Even more astonishingly, it could be used on heavily injured or even deceased individuals, directly reversing their state of existence to before the injury. Of course, the price was that if the subject's time was reversed too much, their cultivation would also regress.
This spell was neither an attack nor a defense spell, nor a healing spell. But a user could rely on it to perform all sorts of flashy operations.
Offense and defense in one, able to advance or retreat.
Of course, this spell wasn't invincible. Its upper limit depended on the user's depth of understanding of the laws and precision of spiritual power manipulation, while the lower limit depended on the target's law comprehension and resistance.
But at certain special moments, this spell could indeed be immensely useful!
Jie Ming grasped the jade slip tightly in his hand, making his choice almost without hesitation.