After the battle ended, Jie Ming did not immediately throw himself into new research.
Returning to the laboratory in the Brimstone Plane of Hell, he sat quietly by the window for a moment. Then he closed his eyes, sinking his consciousness back into his spiritual sea. Every detail of his clash with Augusta was fully replayed by the True Illusion Void-Breaking Eye, transforming into slow-moving streams of light within his spiritual sea.
From the first collision of fists, to the Embers of Nihility - Reversal Palm reversing their state of existence, to the final reliance on "reversing the meter" to forcibly reverse his own state—everything was dissected with meticulous clarity.
After a long while, Jie Ming slowly opened his eyes and murmured to himself: "...As expected, it's still not enough."
The combat performance of the Embers of Nihility - Reversal Palm was even better than he had originally estimated.
Not only could it revert an enemy's attack back to a state of "not yet happened," but when used on himself, it could directly reverse his own temporal node, restoring spiritual power, mental strength, and even injuries to their peak state.
Yet precisely because of this, he became more acutely aware that this spell was far from reaching its limit.
During the fight with Augusta, he had several instances where, facing the opponent's continuous combined assaults, his Embers of Nihility - Reversal Palm was half a beat too slow. It wasn't due to insufficient spiritual power or a lack of computing capacity, but rather because his level of understanding of the Time Law was too low, leaving the Embers of Nihility - Reversal Palm at the stage of "able to cast."
When the spell responded, every reversal of existence state required him to actively parse the target's temporal anchor point and then overwrite its existence information. This process could be faster.
Even... fast enough that the enemy wouldn't even realize they had been hit.
"My grasp of the Law is still lacking."
Jie Ming let out a soft breath.
With that thought, he raised his hand and opened the Magic Net terminal. The pale blue Federation interface instantly spread out before him.
Without any hesitation, he directly opened the Star Ring Federation's strategic resource marketplace and scanned a batch of Time Plane Origins related to the Time Law. He confirmed the order, and military merits were transferred.
As his identity permissions were verified, the terminal gently vibrated.
[Purchase successful.] [Estimated delivery time: four hours.]
Seeing the prompt, Jie Ming casually closed the light screen.
In the past, such a purchase would have pained him for a long time.
But now, the annual trillion-level low-level military merits steadily provided by the Blood Sacrifice Method were enough to turn most of his training problems into mere financial issues.
Problems that could be solved with money were never problems at all.
Two hours later, the first batch of Time Plane Origins arrived.
In the meditation chamber.
Streams of Plane Origins floated around Jie Ming, each like a frozen river of time, with countless fine temporal patterns flowing slowly within.
Jie Ming sat cross-legged, his consciousness slowly probing into them.
In an instant, countless pieces of knowledge about time flooded into his spiritual sea like a torrent.
At the same time, his Entropy Brain Talent began operating at high speed.
Massive amounts of knowledge were automatically categorized and interwoven with the knowledge systems Jie Ming already possessed—Spatial Law, Water Element Law, Life Law, and so on. At the center of his spiritual sea, the Golden Law Thread symbolizing the Time Law began to extend continuously, eventually settling at the level of roughly a thousand units of Law mastery.
Jie Ming did not immediately exit his meditation. Instead, he quietly sensed the changes within his spiritual sea.
After a moment, he gently shook his head.
"As expected, the previous upgrade had already sorted out my existing knowledge. This time's enhancement isn't as significant."
The direct growth from the Plane Origins still amounted to only a fixed one hundred percentage points.
Adding the seventy percent Law mastery he had gained over the past hundred years from pondering the Embers of Nihility - Reversal Palm, this meant the new knowledge had only increased his Law mastery by about one hundred and thirty percentage points.
Compared to the explosive growth of the previous absorption of Time Law Origins, the rate of increase had clearly slowed considerably.
This indicated that Jie Ming's knowledge in other Laws had not grown much.
He had anticipated this.
At the current level of Time Law mastery, it was already sufficient for the Embers of Nihility - Reversal Palm at its present stage.
In fact, one could even say that Jie Ming's insights into the Embers of Nihility - Reversal Palm spell might not even require such a high degree of Law mastery.
Jie Ming slowly raised his hand.
Hum...
A faint gray light once again appeared in his palm.
But compared to before, this time, several barely visible golden threads had appeared within the gray.
It was not spiritual power, but the Time Law in its true sense.
It was a natural phenomenon arising from the resonance of the Laws.
Gray and gold slowly interwove, making his entire hand seem to drift outside of time.
He casually tapped the experimental table. A half-used vial of medicine on the desk was enveloped in a faint gray glow.
The liquid inside began to flow in reverse. The surface slowly rose, and in the blink of an eye, it had returned to its full state as if just unsealed.
The entire process was fluid and natural. The change was no longer abrupt; even the mana fluctuations were much weaker than before.
Jie Ming nodded in satisfaction.
Now, the Embers of Nihility - Reversal Palm truly qualified for high-level combat.
He waved his hand, dispersing the gray-gold light in his palm, picked up a book on the sixth-level rune system lying nearby, and resumed his studies.
A few more years passed. While studying, Jie Ming suddenly looked up. He sensed a faint ripple from the Incense Fire Divine Dao within his spiritual sea. A communication request surfaced. From the soul signature, it came from the research team he had established.
Jie Ming's expression shifted slightly, and he immediately accepted the connection.
A Black Giant Priest appeared in his mind in a praying posture, and a voice swiftly came through.
"Greetings, my Lord. The Dragonman Bloodline Rune upgrade plan has completed final verification. All test results meet expectations. We humbly invite you to inspect them."
Jie Ming put down his book and slowly rose. "Understood. I'll be there immediately."
A spatial transmission pillar rose from the meditation chamber.
The next moment, Jie Ming appeared in the research park in the southeastern part of the Brimstone Sulfur Continent.
This was the largest comprehensive experimental base in the entire Brimstone Plane of Hell.
Compared to the personal laboratory Jie Ming usually used, this space was several times larger.
The dome soared over a hundred meters high. Countless floating platforms crisscrossed the area, and various large-scale experimental devices hummed continuously. The air was thick with a peculiar scent from the interweaving of spiritual energy and elements.
In one experimental zone, Black Giant Priests were stationed at various workstations, their chest vertical pupils vibrating constantly as they exchanged experimental data through unique low-frequency waves.
On the other side, Tentacle Tree researchers wielded dozens of tentacles simultaneously, operating more than a dozen precision instruments.
Crystal eyeballs flashed rapidly, constantly correcting experimental parameters on the light screens.
In a room adjacent to the lab stood a massive ecological pod.
Through the transparent energy barrier, one could see a dense forest growing inside.
Countless plant people were rooted there, forming an enormous plant network of tens of millions of individuals.
Clearly, after so many years of development, the plant people had also dispatched members of their race to serve as researchers.
When Jie Ming appeared, the entire forest seemed to awaken at once.
Countless branches and leaves swayed gently, rubbing against each other to produce a soft, pleasant rustling sound.
It was the plant people's way of expressing joy and welcome.
"Master."
A Tentacle Tree researcher quickly approached.
More precisely, dozens of tentacles moved swiftly at once.
He bowed respectfully to Jie Ming and rapidly reported the entire experiment's progress:
"After thirty-seven rounds of structural optimization, ninety-four rounds of stability verification, and over seven hundred simulation experiments, we have completed the final version of the Dragonman Bloodline Rune."
As he spoke, he waved his tentacles to control a data panel, expanding a light screen that filled the field of view with dense data.
"The batch of Dragonmen you brought had rather low innate True Dragon bloodline concentrations. Under natural growth, their life level cap would likely stop at the fifth level."
"But things are different now." Hadar's voice carried an excitement he could barely contain.
"The new Bloodline Rune can continuously activate the True Dragon bloodline within them, tracing back to the origin."
"Theoretically, as long as they have sufficient resources and time to grow, each of them has the potential to advance to the eighth level of life."
Jie Ming took the data panel, his gaze quickly sweeping across the experimental results.
From the transformation results, the Dragonmen affected by the Bloodline Rune showed significant improvements in Dragon Blood activity, scale density, and dragon wing carrying capacity.
Almost all indicators had undergone a leap.
"Due to the limited observation period, we have only completed batch verification at the sixth level stage," Hadar continued. "However, based on current observations and model extrapolation, subsequent growth should not have structural defects."
Jie Ming nodded slightly. "Even so, be cautious when rolling it out. Observe for as long as possible to see if there are any unknown side effects... Where are the experimental Dragonmen?"
"They are currently undergoing daily routine tests. This way, please."
Hadar respectfully pointed a tentacle and led Jie Ming to another experimental zone.
Several modified Dragonmen were standing at the center of a detection array.
Compared to the Dragonmen Jie Ming remembered, their changes were extremely pronounced.
Their broad dragon wings had nearly doubled in size. Their scales took on a dark gold hue, with fine patterns flowing at the edges. Deep within their golden vertical pupils, a True Dragon imprint very similar to that of Shuoyuan slowly rotated.
The sixth-level life aura of these Dragonmen was stable and heavy, without any sign of being hastily strengthened.
Jie Ming inspected the three in turn, confirming there were no abnormalities—they were even better than he had expected.
He closed the data panel, a hint of a smile finally appearing on his face.
"You have done very well. I'd even say you have exceeded my expectations."
His voice was not loud, but it instantly silenced the entire experimental hall.
Almost all the researchers stopped their work at the same time.
The Black Giant Priests bowed their heads, the Tentacle Trees slightly lowered their crystal eyes.
Even the rolling forest in the ecological park swayed gently in unison, the leaves rustling in a pleasant sound.
Jie Ming's gaze slowly swept across the crowd. "It may be a bit early, but I think I can declare that this research project is a complete success!"
Hearing this, the researchers present burst into cheers.
It was the first time the research team had truly completed a large-scale scientific project independently, without Jie Ming's direct supervision.
From theoretical derivation to scheme design.
From experimental verification to data analysis.
And finally, to forming a complete technical system stable enough for application.
The successful research of the Bloodline Rune not only meant that Dragonman civilization now had a foundation to truly march toward higher life levels, but also signified that the research team Jie Ming had established had truly taken shape.
They had begun to possess their own research capabilities.
Compared to the Dragonman Bloodline Rune itself, this was the greatest gain of the experiment.