novelGlobal Chapter 728: Debt and Misunderstanding
Chapter 728: Debt and Misunderstanding
**Chapter 728: Debt and Misunderstanding**
Jie Ming had just fully awakened from that profound state of law resonance. His mind was still somewhat dazed when Clark’s familiar voice reached his ears.
“You now owe me three hundred billion low-level military merits.”
Jie Ming blinked, taking half a beat to regain his senses.
He had just withdrawn his true body. The Ring of Truth in his spiritual sea still carried a lingering scorching heat, with more than a dozen law golden lines slowly circulating along its surface like rings of molten gold that had yet to cool.
Only then did that number echo in his mind.
Three hundred billion… huh?
Seeing Jie Ming’s bewildered expression, Clark’s face remained completely unchanged—still wearing that eternally indifferent look.
“Your actions just now were equivalent to borrowing the overflow from my law structure and obtaining a large amount of knowledge,” he said in a steady tone. “According to the wizards’ principle of equivalent exchange, I calculated your gains… the complete structures of more than a dozen laws, plus the construction of the embryonic form of a law solidification domain. Converted into low-level military merits, it comes to roughly three hundred billion. I’ve wiped off the fractional amount for you.”
Jie Ming opened his mouth, then closed it again. He couldn’t deny it.
In those few minutes, he had indeed passively absorbed a large amount of law knowledge overflowing from Clark. The circles of law golden lines wrapped around his Ring of Truth could not be faked, and the fact that the Ring of Truth had been forcibly turned golden was right before his eyes.
More importantly, he knew full well that the number Clark quoted was already calculated on the low side.
For a Fifth-Ring Wizard to directly fill more than a dozen laws at once, reaching a point where they could advance to Sixth-Ring at any time, such an opportunity—if taken outside for auction—would easily start at a higher price.
Of course, Jie Ming also knew this situation had occurred because of his own special state, but the fact that he had gained a large amount of knowledge from Mentor Clark remained true.
After a moment of silence, Jie Ming honestly took out his magic network terminal and opened his military merit account.
Seventy billion low-level military merits.
He still had three hundred billion in high-level military merits, but their value was too high—he had no intention of spending them here.
As for these seventy billion low-level military merits, they were what he had saved up over the years by focusing on researching the Reflection Dimension and handling plane fusion projects, without making large-scale purchases of research materials.
In recent years, buying world fragments, ordering artificial humans for governance, and expanding the black giant incubation pools—every single one had cost money like flowing water.
With a sigh at how he had woken up only to shoulder another pile of debt, Jie Ming neatly transferred all seventy billion to Clark.
A cold prompt popped up on the magic network terminal.
Outstanding balance: two hundred and thirty billion low-level military merits.
Jie Ming looked at the number and quickly estimated his income sources in his mind.
The technical patent for the stable field regulation agreement brought a steady stream of low-level military merits every year. There was also a decent annual share from fluid mithril, and Spiritual Qi, as a special material, continued to produce steadily.
After deducting fixed expenses like plane maintenance, legion supplies, and research materials, he could probably save around two hundred million per year if he didn’t spend recklessly. In about a hundred years, he could pay it off.
He closed the terminal and looked up, only to meet Viola’s gaze.
He was slightly startled by that look.
Viola stood at the doorway. The look in her eyes was no longer mere envy.
If he had to describe it with one word, it would probably be… resentment.
She gave Jie Ming a deep, meaningful look, then turned the same gaze toward Clark. Her lips moved, but she ultimately said nothing.
Yet the aura of grievance radiating from her could practically overflow from her spiritual field.
Jie Ming wisely pretended not to notice.
After this unexpected event ended, he and Viola stepped forward together and stood before Clark.
Both simultaneously raised their hands, lightly touching their hearts in an extremely formal wizard salute.
This was a formal etiquette used only during a mentor’s advancement, apprenticeship ceremonies, or to congratulate major breakthroughs.
“Congratulations, Mentor, on advancing to Seventh-Ring.”
Clark nodded slightly and accepted the salute.
His gaze landed on Jie Ming. Although there was no emotional fluctuation, Jie Ming could still sense the scrutiny within it.
“Your research into that special state is quite good,” he said calmly. “With the assistance of this state, your efficiency in knowledge acquisition has reached a rather considerable level. Just in this aspect alone, you can be considered a genius.”
Faced with such rare praise from Mentor Clark, Jie Ming could only respond with a polite smile.
He had no intention of refuting Clark’s evaluation that he “could be considered a genius,” because he truly felt the gap between them. In the Dao Integration state, his perception had been amplified to the extreme.
In those few minutes, he had not only passively absorbed Clark’s law knowledge but had also passively sensed the structure of Clark’s spiritual sea. The complexity of that structure, the precision of how the laws interlocked, and the depth of understanding of each law… the difference between them was like an entire universe.
And all of this was what Clark had achieved purely through his own talent and effort, without the support of a Dao Integration state.
The Dao Integration state was his cheat, a product of the Great Dao Book Pavilion, and the crystallized accumulation of another world’s cultivation system.
But Clark’s talent… that was genuine, pure talent.
Jie Ming knew he couldn’t explain this state of mind at his current stage, so he simply held the wizard salute a little more perfectly.
Viola stood to the side, her eyes darting back and forth between Jie Ming and Clark several times. Her lips moved as if she wanted to ask something. She was clearly very interested in the special state Jie Ming had entered earlier.
The ability to passively absorb the complete structures of more than a dozen laws in just a few minutes—this kind of efficiency would make any Sixth-Ring Wizard green with envy. Yet in the end, she didn’t speak.
The rules among wizards regarding core knowledge were etched into their bones.
Casually inquiring about another’s core knowledge was equivalent to coveting their foundation.
This was a major taboo in any wizard organization, and doing so carelessly could lead to a trial by the Star Orbit Tribunal.
Even though she was Jie Ming’s senior sister and their relationship was far closer than that of ordinary fellow disciples, this line could not be casually crossed.
Jie Ming keenly caught the change in his senior sister’s gaze.
He quickly calculated in his mind.
The Dao Integration state was essentially the product of the entire cultivation system’s continuous development.
From Qi Refinement to Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation, Void Refinement, and finally Dao Integration—each major realm was an extension and qualitative evolution of the previous one, yet each realm could also be extracted as an individual “technique” or “state.”
However, he had not yet fully researched all the mechanisms of the Dao Integration state, nor had he localized it into a technical module of wizard civilization. Jie Ming truly didn’t dare to sell it to Viola yet.
Thus, he gave Viola a slight shake of his head.
The movement was small, but the meaning was clear.
Viola withdrew her gaze and returned to a normal expression, though a trace of lingering envy still remained at the corner of her mouth.
At that moment, light footsteps sounded outside the laboratory door.
The shadow girl who had led the way re-condensed her form and bowed to Clark.
“Master, Wizard Starfall and Wizard Anya have arrived.”
Clark nodded.
The shadow girl quietly withdrew.
A moment later, the laboratory door slid open again, and two people walked in from outside.
The one leading was a tall, slender female wizard.
Her deep purple robe was embroidered with Starfall’s signature patterns, and her law solidification domain emitted a faint silver-blue glow at the edges of her robe.
Her features were delicate and aloof, yet the corner of her mouth carried a perfectly measured smile.
Compared to the rather slovenly appearance Jie Ming had seen back on the Starfall plane, the current Wizard Starfall looked much neater and far more elegant.
Wizard Starfall, holder of a First-Ring Cultivation Protocol, Viola’s close friend, and someone who had deeply collaborated with Clark on the living plane project.
The young witch following behind her looked much more inexperienced.
She wore a light gray robe, her short hair slightly curled at the sides of her ears, and her face still carried the fresh excitement and restrained enthusiasm typical of someone who had just stepped into a high-rank wizard’s laboratory.
“Wizard Clark, congratulations.”
Wizard Starfall walked up to Clark and raised her hand in a concise congratulatory salute.
“When news of your advancement to Seventh-Ring came out, I was just wrapping up work with the living plane project team and couldn’t come immediately. Fortunately, it’s not too late now.”
Viola came over from the side, arms crossed over her chest, the usual smile hanging on her lips.
“You big busybody actually managed to make time? Isn’t the living plane wizard legion project side extremely busy right now?”
“The first batch of living planes has already entered the sentience gestation stage. What follows is a long observation period.” Wizard Starfall spread her hands, her tone carrying a rare sense of relaxation. “I’ve actually become idle. If you think I came too late, I can leave right now.”
“Don’t.” Viola grabbed her sleeve. “I was just lacking someone to talk to. You came at the perfect time.”
Jie Ming and Anya, as juniors, sensibly stepped aside and left space for the three seniors who were exchanging greetings.
Anya looked Jie Ming up and down several times, a complicated emotion flashing in her eyes.
“Your aura has grown much stronger since we last met,” she said. “Peak Fifth-Ring, right?”
“More or less.” Jie Ming glanced at her and casually replied, “You’re not slow either. You’ve already reached Fifth-Ring.”
Anya rolled her eyes. “Thanks for the compliment, Your Excellency, but I always feel like you’re mocking me.”
“Don’t you know your own reputation among Fifth-Ring Wizards?” She pointed at him. “Want me to list your glorious battle records from back then? Even now, plenty of wizards still talk about them with great interest. In Fifth-Ring circles, I hear your name more often than my grandmother’s.”
Jie Ming blinked, gave a dry cough, and decisively changed the subject.
“…How has David been lately? I haven’t heard from him much recently.”
Anya’s expression shifted slightly before returning to normal.
“He advanced to Sixth-Ring two years ago.”
Jie Ming was stunned.
“So fast?”
“It wasn’t a normal advancement.” Anya shook her head, a faint trace of gloom in her voice. “He met with me once before and talked for a long time. He said he had already confirmed that his talent had reached its limit at Fifth-Ring. He had hit a ceiling in research and learning. The law mastery required to go from Fifth- to Sixth-Ring was a path he couldn’t walk.”
She sighed and looked out the window.
“David felt that if he continued staying in the elite combat units as a Fifth-Ring Wizard, he would probably only slowly sink in endless wars. If he was unlucky, he’d just become a name in some future mission briefing.”
Jie Ming fell silent, unsure what to say.
Anya’s voice grew softer.
“So he used the reward from discovering that parallel plane earlier. That military merit, plus the resources from selling the plane, directly pushed him to Sixth-Ring.”
“I see…” Jie Ming scratched his head.
Seeing his reaction, Anya smiled and comforted him instead. “You don’t need to feel bad for him. Although a Sixth-Ring Wizard stacked this way definitely won’t match one who advanced normally in combat power, at least Sixth-Ring Wizards aren’t subject to mandatory war conscription. He can step back from the battlefield and accumulate more foundation for his family.”
Jie Ming remained silent.
He and David were on fairly good terms as acquaintances, and their previous collaborations had always left positive impressions.
Thinking back, David had once been a high-spirited top genius, one of the top few among the younger generation in Noren Workshop. After entering the elite combat units, he had achieved several impressive battle records in a row.
Yet upon reaching Fifth-Ring, he had gradually faded into the crowd.
Anya spoke again, her voice even softer than before.
“Actually, I myself… after advancing to Fifth-Ring, I also felt it.”
She lowered her head and looked at her own hands, as if speaking of something she was reluctant to admit.
“Back in Second- and Third-Ring, I could understand law models after looking at them a few times and replicate experiments after doing them once. But now, even reading a paper written by a Sixth-Ring Wizard takes me several days of repeated study, and I still might not fully grasp it.”
As she spoke, she couldn’t help but glance at Jie Ming, her eyes filled with unconcealable envy.
“At this rate, I probably won’t be able to break through to Sixth-Ring on my own ability. You probably can’t understand this feeling, right? All things considered, you should be the one with the best talent among our batch. After all, your reputation is much bigger than mine now—even my grandmother took the initiative to come along wanting to meet you.”
Jie Ming opened his mouth, momentarily at a loss for how to respond.
He couldn’t very well say that without the passive boost from the Dao Integration state of the cultivation system, he might have hit a bottleneck even earlier than David and Anya. Even before Third-Ring, his wizard talent hadn’t been particularly outstanding.
He had only managed to push through by working hard to compensate for his shortcomings and supplementing it with another world’s system.
David and Anya were the true geniuses of wizard civilization.
They had advanced triumphantly all the way to Fifth-Ring, learning at several times his speed.
They were stuck at Fifth-Ring not because they lacked effort, but because the wizard civilization’s knowledge system itself was a steep slope that grew narrower the higher one climbed.
He couldn’t say these words.
In the end, Jie Ming could only give a dry laugh.
“Just lucky, just lucky.”
Anya gave him a look that said “you think I believe that?”
Jie Ming thought for a moment, then asked with some confusion, “By the way, why do you say my reputation has grown again? Did something I don’t know about happen?”
At that moment, Wizard Starfall’s voice came from the side.
“Regarding your matter, there was a not-too-big-not-too-small misunderstanding recently. Don’t tell me you still don’t know?”
Jie Ming and Anya turned their heads at the same time.
“Huh? What misunderstanding? I haven’t been active outside for the past ten-plus years?” Jie Ming looked bewildered.
“This… didn’t you previously cooperate with Wizard Broadleaf and the others?” Starfall asked.
Jie Ming nodded subconsciously. “Yes, that was part of my mandatory conscription mission…”
Wizard Starfall’s lips curved slightly upward.
“Some time ago, Broadleaf specifically went to find Mentor Anton Buchanan.” She spoke slowly. “He wanted to trade for that knowledge of yours that could withstand dimensional differences and even grant immunity to wish-fulfillment-type abilities. He felt such a high-level resistance couldn’t possibly have been researched by you yourself and was most likely core knowledge passed down by your mentor or grandmentor.”
She glanced at Jie Ming, her tone carrying a hint of suppressed laughter.
“As it turned out, your mentor was in seclusion at the time, so he went straight to your grandmentor. Your grandmentor was completely baffled and said he had never passed down any such thing.”
Jie Ming’s mouth twitched.
He really hadn’t expected it to be because of this.
However, the resistance he had displayed in front of Broadleaf had indeed been far too exaggerated.
The ability to withstand dimensional differences without injury and immunity to wish-fulfillment-type abilities—at that level, such resistance would be considered a trump card even for a Seventh-Ring Wizard.
Broadleaf’s assumption that this wasn’t his own knowledge but core knowledge passed down by a higher-rank wizard was not wrong in itself. Although the source wasn’t from the wizard side, the Body Refinement Method could be considered top-tier inheritance even within the cultivation civilization.
“So now the matter has spread,” Wizard Starfall said with unconcealed envy in her tone. “A technique that could move a Seventh-Ring True Name Wizard, even causing a misunderstanding where someone directly approached an Eighth-Ring Great Wizard—something like this is hard to keep quiet in our circles.”
Her gaze toward Jie Ming became noticeably more serious.
“You little guy have now made it onto the after-dinner conversation list of quite a few Seventh-Ring Wizards.”
“If you ever plan to sell this kind of knowledge in the future, be sure to consider me first,” she said directly. “Whether it’s dimensional resistance, wish-fulfillment immunity, or even that special learning state you entered… as long as you’re willing to offer it, I can pay a high price.”
Jie Ming smiled awkwardly, neither nodding nor shaking his head.
He did believe Wizard Starfall’s words. After all, as the holder of a First-Ring Cultivation Protocol, the resources she could mobilize—if she wanted—far exceeded his imagination.
But it wasn’t that Jie Ming didn’t want to trade; it was that these pieces of knowledge simply couldn’t have their origins explained.
Wizards weren’t fools. If he didn’t produce the specific cultivation method, they could still make all sorts of guesses.
But if he really took it out, anyone could tell at a glance that it absolutely did not belong to a low-level civilization.
He could only cup his hands toward Wizard Starfall, his smile carrying a hint of helplessness.
“I am honored by your high regard. If there is a suitable opportunity in the future, I will definitely prioritize you.”
When he said this, his expression was sincere.
Although he truly couldn’t explain the principles to others right now, if one day Jie Ming felt he could fully localize these things, then selling a copy wouldn’t be out of the question.