Chapter Summaries

Wizard Noren discovered that the Fungus Lord’s true essence had survived its physical destruction and could spread conceptual contamination, so he cleansed the Expeditionary Force and ordered the Triangle Plane Cluster and every potentially contaminated world destroyed. Fifty years of purification ended, and Benjamin returned to his laboratory on the Eloria Plane and collapsed into bed.

• Melister reported the crisis to Wizard Noren, who appeared beside Dickson and Oboloth and examined the Fungus Lord’s remains.
• Wizard Noren explained that the Fungus Lord’s essence was fused with planar laws and warned that bringing contaminated spoils home could have caused the civilization to erase the army.
• Wizard Noren purified the Expeditionary Force and ordered the complete destruction of all spoils, the Triangle Plane Cluster, and every potentially contaminated plane.
• Over the next fifty years, the Expeditionary Force destroyed the Triangle Plane Cluster and traced and eradicated worlds linked to the Golden Baboon Civilization.
• After the final coordinate was cleared, Benjamin returned to his laboratory on the Eloria Plane and collapsed onto his bed from exhaustion.

After waking from a fifty-year sleep, Benjamin assessed the losses and discoveries of his expedition and used his Advanced Military Merit to obtain research materials for the Divine Power Faith Network. He ended with new references in hand and resolved to study them alongside the knowledge he had brought back.

• Benjamin woke refreshed, reviewed the messages he had missed, and confirmed that the laboratories on the Eloria Plane and development on the Purgatory Sulfur Plane were operating normally.
• Benjamin judged the expedition a material loss but recognized the stored knowledge from several civilizations as its greatest reward.
• Benjamin reviewed his Military Merit and learned he had received one hundred thousand Advanced Military Merit for indirectly helping Dickson detect the Fungus Lord's contamination.
• Benjamin searched the Advanced Military Merit exchange, rejected the unaffordable Time Law Chamber, and bought five sets of Divine Power Faith Network research from different Level 6 Wizards.
• Benjamin closed the marketplace and decided to focus on digesting his expedition knowledge and the new research materials.

Benjamin and Viola attended a major meeting at Noren Academy No. 13, where Wizard Noren announced the Star Ring Federation’s Elite Development Program. The selected core members would form Elite Combat Units and be sent to the second-line battlefield, leaving Benjamin to consider the assignment and plan his research around it.

• Benjamin met Viola at Noren Academy No. 13 after Mentor Clark summoned them both to an unexplained meeting.
• Benjamin told Viola he had encountered Wizard Noren in the Giant Spirit Realm, and she hurried him to the conference room in hopes of seeing the legendary wizard.
• Benjamin and Viola greeted Mentor Clark, then took seats arranged according to wizard rank while Oswaldo praised them to Clark.
• Wizard Noren appeared as a projection and announced that the Star Ring Federation had launched the Elite Development Program.
• Wizard Noren said selected core members would form Elite Combat Units and be deployed to the second-line battlefield, while Benjamin weighed the risks and began planning his research schedule.

Benjamin learned that the Elite Combat Unit would face dangerous second-line battlefield missions and received Mentor Clark’s warnings to prepare carefully. At Noren Plane 147, Dean Avery Knight announced that selected wizards would leave their Academy duties and that Eloria Plane had been renamed; Benjamin then encountered David.

• Mentor Clark explained the dangers of the second-line battlefields and urged Benjamin to strengthen his survival abilities before deployment.
• Viola tried to leave with Benjamin, but Clark confronted her about calling him an old man and challenged her mastery of the laws of pain.
• Benjamin returned to his laboratory on Eloria Plane, received a message from Dean Avery Knight, and hurried to Noren Academy No. 147.
• Dean Avery announced that Elite Combat Unit members would be relieved of regular Academy duties while retaining mentor benefits, and that Eloria Plane had officially become Noren Plane 147.
• David called out to Benjamin as Benjamin was leaving the meeting.

Benjamin reunited with David, Seraphina, Kaelen, Anya, and Rex at a conference and astonished them by still being a Level 2 Wizard after a thousand years. As they prepared for the Elite Combat Unit’s deployment, the old friends laughed about Benjamin’s reckless tactics during their past Elite Trial.

• Benjamin recognized David, Seraphina, Kaelen, Anya, and Rex, who had all become Level 3 Wizards since their last meeting.
• Seraphina and the others were astonished and envious when they realized Benjamin had remained at Level 2 for a thousand years.
• Benjamin explained that he had no rush to advance because he still had many things to learn, and David welcomed him back.
• David said they might serve on the same or neighboring secondary frontlines and asked Benjamin to guide them, but Rex warned against cooperating with him.
• Seraphina recalled Benjamin’s past stunt of stuffing something into gods’ mouths, and the group laughed together.

After decades of research, Benjamin reached the limits of his Golden Core Realm and prepared to advance. He successfully formed a Nascent Soul, expanded his Internal Space, and entered the Nascent Soul Realm.

• Benjamin continued analyzing the mysterious white mist and Mutated Snake-Spiders, but both lines of research remained beyond his current abilities.
• Benjamin recognized that he had reached the knowledge barrier of his level and began preparing for advancement while studying the Level 7 Large Elemental Pool.
• After ten more years of cultivation, Benjamin realized he was ready to advance and entered a prepared chamber in the Purgatory Sulfur Plane.
• Benjamin converted elemental energy into Spirit Energy and smoothly formed a Nascent Soul that fused with his Golden Core, creating a more efficient dual cultivation path.
• The breakthrough greatly expanded Benjamin's Internal Space, whose new natural light suggested it was becoming an embryonic plane.
• Benjamin confirmed that his Spiritual Power had increased more than tenfold and that he had officially entered the Nascent Soul Realm.

After reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, Benjamin chose the Spirit Energy Law as the foundation for advancing to Level 3 Wizard and planned to turn the Purgatory Sulfur Plane into a world-scale laboratory by building an Incense Divinity Path. More than a decade later, he had completed the preliminary blueprint and hired a construction team, while beginning the difficult work of mastering the Level 7 Large Elemental Pool installation technology.

• Benjamin decided to study the Spirit Energy Law and use it as the foundation of his Ring of Truth.
• He planned to convert the Purgatory Sulfur Plane's fire elements into Spirit Energy by establishing an Incense Divinity Path, with a Level 7 Large Elemental Pool supplying its initial power.
• Benjamin spent more than a decade designing the plane-wide network of nodes, energy channels, conversion pools, and faith anchors.
• He hired a Noren Workshop plane construction team to begin the non-core renovations and monitored the project's progress.
• Benjamin returned to studying the Level 7 Large Elemental Pool manual and considered how the completed divine path could provide Power of Incense and transmit plane-scale energy across space.

Benjamin completed an experiment that raised a Wizard Apprentice’s elemental affinity by ten levels, though he considered the technology impractical for most Wizards because it relied on rare spirits of nature. He planned to use his research to make the Black Giants a self-sustaining society on the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, the foundation for his Incense Divinity Path.

• Benjamin told Viola that the aptitude enhancement experiment had succeeded and could increase elemental affinity by ten levels.
• Benjamin explained that the technology was of limited practical value because advanced Wizards gained aptitude through advancement and its key materials were scarce spirits of nature.
• Benjamin completed the enhancement, and Viola paid him two hundred million Military Merit before taking the delighted apprentice away.
• Benjamin reflected that Viola’s apprentice might owe her for centuries and could die before repaying the debt on the Plane Battlefield.
• Benjamin planned to settle the Black Giants on the Purgatory Sulfur Plane as believers and residents for his Incense Divinity Path.
• Benjamin turned to the Incubation Pool’s reproductive technology, intending to create a new system that would let the Black Giants reproduce naturally.

Benjamin completed the transformed Incubation Pool and inspected the construction work needed for the Incense Divinity Path, though he still lacked the funds for the full project. His old classmate William Blake contacted him and asked him to take a commission to manufacture a Wizard Artifact.

• Benjamin finished modifying the Incubation Pool so it could produce stronger Black Giants and replicate subsidiary pools.
• Benjamin inspected the newly built facilities across the Purgatory Sulfur Plane and paid the construction team.
• Benjamin estimated that completing the Incense Divinity Path would cost tens of billions of Military Merit and considered how to raise more funds.
• Benjamin recognized William Blake after his Body Tempering Method overcame the memory interference Blake had placed on himself.
• William Blake, impressed by Benjamin's ability to identify him, asked whether Benjamin would accept a commission to manufacture a Wizard Artifact.

Blake commissioned Benjamin to make a Wizard Artifact that could protect against hallucinations and mental interference during a dangerous plane mission. Benjamin chose an isolation-based design and began planning the artifact, while Blake considered seeking a second version as insurance.

• Blake told Benjamin that his unit was going to a strange plane where illusion and reality blurred, and asked him to make a protective Wizard Artifact.
• Benjamin agreed to the commission in exchange for a discount and detailed performance data from the plane war; Blake accepted and set a deadline of one year.
• After the call, Blake recalled that Oswaldo had suggested Benjamin and decided to consider commissioning another artifact as backup.
• Benjamin compared reinforcement, awakening, and isolation approaches, then judged isolation the safest option for the plane’s unpredictable interference.
• Benjamin decided to build an isolation-type artifact and began designing it in his laboratory.

Benjamin created a Mind Barrier Bracer that resisted mental attacks by consuming Liquid Adamantine, then sold one to Blake at a discount. A year later, Blake wore the bracer as he boarded the Ship Plane after failing to commission another custom artifact in time.

• Benjamin completed the Mind Barrier Bracer, whose defenses used Liquid Adamantine to resist mental interference and warn its wearer of powerful attacks.
• Benjamin offered Blake the bracer for five hundred thousand Military Merit, and Blake accepted despite doubts about its unusually fast production.
• Blake received the bracer and decided to wait for the results of consultations with other Alchemy masters before relying on it.
• One year later, Blake failed to commission a custom Wizard Artifact because the available Alchemy masters were booked or unable to meet his deadline.
• Blake hastily bought several finished mind-protection Wizard Artifacts and boarded the Ship Plane wearing Benjamin's bracer.

Blake joined the expedition through a spatial rift, only to discover that he and the other wizards had been swallowed by a giant beast. His Mind Barrier Bracer kept a powerful mass hallucination and thought interference from reaching his mind, revealing the beast’s horrifying interior as the likely reality of the plane.

• Blake prepared his defensive Wizard Artifacts and activated the Gazer's Emblem and Presence Fading before entering the spatial rift with the expedition.
• The rift passage violently disoriented Blake, and he heard what seemed to be his mental barrier cracking.
• Blake found himself inside a giant creature, where tentacles carried other wizards away as they smiled in an enchanted stupor.
• Blake realized the creature was assaulting the expedition with mass hallucinations and thought interference.
• Blake saw the Mind Barrier Bracer glowing as its Liquid Adamantine rapidly depleted, confirming that it was shielding him from the creature’s influence.

Blake survived the colossal beast’s Soul Roar and discovered that its Illusion field could make imagined injuries real. He traced the beast’s energy veins to the purple creature controlling the illusions, then realized his bracer had silently absorbed attacks powerful enough to overwhelm Level 6 wizards.

• Blake used a bone pendant to form a second mental barrier, but the beast’s Soul Roar shattered it and threw the conscious wizards into chaos.
• The wizards’ defenses failed or their perceptions warped, causing tentacles to seize some while others attacked companions or injured themselves through illusions.
• Blake confirmed his awareness with Soul School techniques and calculated that his bracer’s Liquid Adamantine would last no more than five days.
• Blake concealed his presence and followed the beast’s energy veins to a chamber containing a purple, tentacled creature that generated the Illusion field.
• Blake seized the Level 4 creature’s soul and learned that it had layered deadly illusions and thought-guidance along the route, including a near-Level 7 attack it had just unleashed.
• Blake saw that the bracer had consumed more than half its Liquid Adamantine to absorb the attack, leaving him stunned by its defensive power.

Blake used intelligence extracted from a purple symbiote to help the wizards defeat the plane's beasts and end the war in less than ten years. After verifying that he was not still trapped in an illusion, he realized the value of Benjamin's Mind Barrier Bracer and rushed to buy more Liquid Adamantine.

• Blake learned the beasts' weaknesses and the locations of powerful beasts and symbiotes, then sent the Level 8 beast's coordinates to the Level 8 Wizard commander.
• The commander captured the Level 8 beast and its symbiote, allowing the Wizard Legion to destroy the remaining beasts and subdue the plane in less than ten years.
• At the victory ceremony, Blake wondered whether he was still inside an illusion, and the commander taught him a dangerous test involving secret information about Level 9 Wizards.
• Blake recited a Level 9 Wizard's law codename in a secret chamber and felt no ill effects, confirming to himself that the world was real.
• Blake recognized that Benjamin's Mind Barrier Bracer had helped save him and turn the war, then rushed to find Benjamin and buy all the Liquid Adamantine he could.

Benjamin installed a Level 7 Large Elemental Pool on the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, triggering a massive surge in the plane’s energy. The Black Giant Incubation Pool began producing Level 3 Black Giants in minutes, and Benjamin prepared to continue his long-planned project.

• Benjamin received Blake’s combat data and a giant beast tissue sample, then added both to his research projects.
• Blake built a successful business selling Mind Barrier Bracers and Liquid Adamantine, providing Benjamin with more than ten billion Military Merit for his plans.
• Benjamin began constructing the Incense Divinity Path on the Purgatory Sulfur Plane by installing the Level 7 Large Elemental Pool.
• After ten years of work, Benjamin activated the Elemental Pool, causing the plane’s Fire Element activity to rise dramatically and dormant volcanoes to erupt.
• The Black Giant Incubation Pool produced a Level 3 Black Giant in one minute, and the creature prostrated itself before Benjamin.

Benjamin continued transforming the Purgatory Sulfur Plane into a foundation for his Black Giant legion, completing the Level 7 Large Elemental Pool’s integration and beginning construction of a customized Incense Divinity Path. After fifty years, he upgraded the Mystic Gang Mortal Dust Barrier to defend against mental attacks, but considered it unfinished until he could incorporate Power of Incense.

• Benjamin estimated that his ten Incubation Pools could produce one Level 3 Black Giant per minute and set a future population goal of ten billion for the Purgatory Sulfur Plane.
• Benjamin began replacing the plane’s Divine Power Faith Network with a customized Incense Divinity Path system that would produce Power of Incense, support Mortal Aura, transmit energy across space, and convert elemental power.
• Benjamin struggled with conflicts and instability while building the system, using research and the Great Dao Library to refine his understanding of Spirit Energy.
• After fifty years, the Level 7 Large Elemental Pool had merged with the plane’s core, and construction of the Incense Divinity Path was about one-third complete.
• Benjamin reforged the Mystic Gang Mortal Dust Barrier with Liquid Adamantine and other rare materials, greatly improving its resistance to curses, prophecies, illusions, and mental interference.
• Benjamin judged the barrier to be a semi-finished product and planned to complete it with Power of Incense after the Incense Divinity Path was finished.

Benjamin surveyed the thriving Black Giant civilization on his Purgatory Sulfur Plane and prepared to embed the Incense Divinity Path’s core runes. Viola visited him with her junior Angelo and revealed that she had joined the Elite Combat Unit and would soon return to the battlefield.

• Benjamin observed the Black Giants’ growing population and ecosystem, then confirmed that incense collection and the plane’s facilities were functioning properly.
• Viola arrived at Golden Garden with Angelo, and Benjamin recognized his former junior, who had become an official wizard.
• Benjamin and Viola exchanged familiar teasing before she introduced Angelo and suggested he seek Benjamin’s help if he encountered trouble.
• Viola explained that she would report to the secondary battlefield in a little over ten years because her Elite Combat Unit status and military merits let her shorten her rest period.

Benjamin completed the Incense Divinity Path’s main framework on the Purgatory Sulfur Plane and advanced to Level 3 Wizard. With the framework running, he turned his attention to preparing for his next military service by planning new rune artifacts and beginning spatial studies.

• Benjamin finished inscribing the final composite rune array, completing the Incense Divinity Path’s initial framework across the Purgatory Sulfur Plane.
• The completed path triggered a surge of insight, and Benjamin advanced to Level 3 Wizard with Spirit Energy Law mastery exceeding 5%.
• Benjamin found that the framework consumed one-tenth of the Level 7 Large Elemental Pool’s output and estimated that the completed path would use over eighty percent.
• With a little over a decade left before his next mandatory military service, Benjamin decided to focus on creating Level 3 Rune Artifacts and studying spatial knowledge.
• Benjamin began retrieving research materials on elemental structures, energy compression, and introductory spatial theory.

Benjamin tested a devastating Level 3 Rune Artifact, upgraded his Internal Space’s power supply, and developed short-distance matter teleportation to recover Black Giants’ cores. After volunteering for the Plane Battlefield, he learned that more than a million Wizards had vanished there without sending any intelligence, though nearly all remained alive, and prepared to face the unexplained phenomenon himself.

• Benjamin tested a Level 3 Rune Artifact whose blast devastated a vast area, then decided to focus future designs on concentrated ray-type attacks.
• Benjamin installed a Level 5 Large Elemental Pool in his Internal Space and improved its energy supply.
• Benjamin researched spatial techniques and successfully teleported a metal ball across his laboratory, then considered using the method to recover Black Giants’ Life Crystal Cores.
• Benjamin applied early to join the Plane Battlefield and received an encrypted report that the Expeditionary Force and its first reinforcements had disappeared without sending information.
• Benjamin learned that more than a million Wizards in the plane were still alive and apparently uninjured, and resolved to prepare carefully before investigating the mystery.

Benjamin prepared his forces and joined nearly a million elite wizards assembling aboard the ship plane for a second expedition into the mysterious target plane. After hearing that command would intervene in ten years if no useful information emerged, he remained while more than thirty percent of the wizards departed.

• Benjamin strengthened the Mystic Gang Mortal Dust Barrier, inscribed spatial teleportation techniques into more Black Giants, and selected a little over fifty thousand elite Black Giants for the expedition.
• Benjamin arranged for the Purgatory Sulfur Plane and his laboratory to keep operating, then teleported from Noren Academy No. 147 to the assembly point aboard the ship plane.
• Benjamin saw that nearly a million wizards, all at least Level 3, had assembled, including more than a hundred Level 7 Wizards and over ten Level 8 Wizards.
• A Level 8 Wizard told the assembled wizards that command would wait ten years for useful information before intervening by force, and warned that intervention could cause the target plane to resist or collapse.
• More than thirty percent of the wizards chose to leave, while Benjamin and the others who remained watched them depart without protest.