'I immediately thought of two planes that allow me to quickly plunder soul knowledge. The Marvel Cinematic Universe with Soul Stone, and the Bleach world with the Spiritual Pressure system.'
Either of these two worlds will bring great benefits, so Ian decided that the destination of his next cross-border expedition must be one of them. However, now is not the time to deal with this problem, because he still has a crucial task at hand that needs to be completed.
With a wave of his hand, a grand holographic blueprint about "Floating City" unfolded in mid-air. He called up the 3.0 version upgrade sketch that he had already conceived.
'With the new high-dimensional knowledge I now have, I should be able to incorporate more incredible details into this version.'
Ian needs to use the vast power of Floating City to build a super barrier that can shield "Universal Web". However, Floating City's current energy level may not be enough to support such a grand project, and it must undergo a complete upgrade.
"This is definitely a big project that will take a long time, so... let's take a shortcut using the old method," Ian murmured in a low voice, then slowly closed his eyes and once again threw his consciousness into the vast river of time, trying to cross the obstacles of dimensions and connect to the "future" self that had completed the upgrade.
However, the legal resistance he encountered this time was much more terrifying than the last time. Ian did not give up easily. He gritted his teeth and pushed his magic power to the limit, trying to forcefully break the situation. At this moment, his "Cosmic Perception" alarm suddenly sounded, and an extremely terrifying sense of fatal crisis suddenly descended.
Out of fighting instinct, he instantly cut off the spellcasting and exited the river of time extremely decisively.
'Where did that murderous intent come from? Is there some kind of space-time monster lurking in this universe that specializes in hunting down those who tamper with the timeline?'
He shook his head and decided to completely give up the idea of taking shortcuts. Since he could not rely on the power of the future, he could only rely on himself to design and deduce Floating City's blueprint. He immediately ordered Morgana to bring up a top-secret research list that might be helpful for this upgrade.
"Narcissa and Sorell have completely perfected the 'spiritual energy' system?" Ian looked at their research results with a trace of surprise in his eyes.
After conducting in-depth anatomy and research on the Novad alien brought back by Ian, the two tower masters made a major breakthrough in academics. They successfully created a new Arcanist sub-professional branch - "Psychic Energy Arcanist". These spellcasters rely entirely on spiritual energy as their core source of power.
Not only that, they even invented a heaven-defying method that allows humans to forcibly condense "Psychic Core" in their brains and continuously increase their mental energy reserves. Although unfortunately, the current upper limit of this sub-professional can only stop at Sixth Tier, it still opens up a new way to the sky for countless civilians in the Empire.
"It is a pity that this sub-profession will not be able to spread to all mankind like the 'Battle Aura' system," Ian commented with a hint of regret.
To become a psyker, you not only need to possess extremely specific innate mental power, but also need to have an extremely specific mutation in your brain. However, with the empire's current genetic engineering technology, it is still unable to perfectly replicate this uncontrollable brain mutation.
"Despite the limitations, their research is still extremely valuable."
Narcissa and Sorell followed Ian's original suggestion and lit up an entire independent technology tree based entirely on spiritual energy in addition to magic. They even successfully forged the terrifying Psychic Energy weapon of Eighth Tier.
One of their most proud masterpieces is a conversion device that can perfectly convert conventional magic into spiritual energy. According to their latest research application submission, they firmly believe that as long as they are allowed to use Floating City, they are absolutely sure to create the Ninth Tier-Psychic Energy ultimate weapon that can shock the gods.
"Master, you have been worried that Floating City's power system is too simple and relies only on magic power to operate. Now, you can finally completely solve this hidden danger," Morgana reminded him timely.
"Indeed."
Ian has always been an extremely cautious person who always prepares for the worst in everything. Therefore, he often has a deep anxiety: if one day in the future, he unfortunately falls into an unknown universe with "absolutely no magic" and the laws of magic are completely invalid, the Floating City that loses power will become a huge piece of steel scrap, and he will also fall with it.
But now, in this epic upgrade, he is determined to integrate all known power systems and energy forms from other dimensions into the core matrix of Floating City.
"Boss, this research report may also provide you with inspiration."
Ian glanced at the data, which was the latest research result submitted by the brothers George and Fred·Weasley. The fatal task they received was to develop a "Energy Conversion device" that could perfectly convert different energies and magic powers in the multiverse.
In order to complete this heaven-defying project, they had to work together with many top Arcanists in the Empire: including Narcissa who is responsible for spiritual energy, Alti who is responsible for Divine Power, and Aivoro tower master who is responsible for analyzing Lumalia Civilization elemental energy.
"These two boys did a great job," Ian nodded approvingly, although he knew very well that Royal Guards had used weapons countless times to force these two little guys who just wanted to be lazy and play pranks to go back to the laboratory to work.
At present, most of the difficulties in their research have been overcome. This means that various energy forms, whether it is electrical energy, nuclear energy, antimatter energy, solar energy, geological energy generated by the tectonic movement of the earth's crust, or ethereal spiritual energy, can now be perfectly converted into magic power, and can be reversely converted at will.
The only problem they face now is how to transform those high-dimensional powers that are above the ordinary: such as Cosmic Energy, the power of gods and the power of the soul. Although the brothers have achieved some results in the transformation of Divine Power and Cosmic Energy, they still have no achievements in the analysis of soul power.
So far, the deepest bond between magic power and the soul that Empire can detect is just that: the soul is the absolute prerequisite for controlling magic power. At the same time, magic power can also directly feed back and affect the state of the soul.
"With these studies, I can integrate all related systems into Floating City, ensuring that I will never have to face Extremis with energy depletion again," Ian said with a satisfied smile on his lips.
"It's not over yet," Morgana continued to report, "Arthur·Weasley has also made disruptive breakthroughs in the field of pure technology. He has successfully invented a heaven-defying engine that completely abandons magic and relies solely on pure physical technology to travel across planes in 'Astral Realm'."
Ian carefully flipped through the research information, and the smile on his face grew stronger. He has always been happy to see his close friends and allies achieve outstanding achievements, because their rise is equivalent to the prosperity and strength of himself and the entire Arcane Empire.
"It's perfect," he admired sincerely. If we only talk about the study of physical science and pure technology, Ian knows that he is definitely not an amazing genius - he can't even be ranked in the forefront. Therefore, he has always been very self-aware and entrusted the research and development of technology to others, and he has never been too distracted by it.
Facts have proved that his decision is absolutely wise. With this great discovery of Arthur, he no longer has to worry about one day running into a dead world where the laws of physics are absolutely strict, only pure technology is allowed to exist, and any extraordinary power is completely excluded. At that time, his Floating City only needs to switch to the technology mode developed by Arthur with one click.
"Everything is ready, let's get started," Ian announced in a deep voice, officially kicking off the upgrade.
The first thing he did was to step directly into a "Time Acceleration Chamber of Secrets (Time Acceleration Room)" because he knew very well that this kind of epic replacement would most likely take several years.
He first descended on the core area of Floating City. After analyzing all the existing enchantment matrices, Ian made a decisive decision: completely overthrow it and start over again instead of tinkering with the old framework; this was not only simpler, but also faster.
"Anti-gravity matrix, energy overall distribution network, multi-dimensional Energy Conversion center, environmental ecological control system, system underlying law link..."
Ian kept spitting out obscure and mysterious words one after another. Along with his words, dazzling pure white lights went crazy Blink in every corner of Floating City.
In this bottom-level optimization, he generously used the supreme secret method that he used in the world of <The Mummy> to observe with his own eyes the gods - mainly the god of fire Hephaestus - in forging the god Divine Artifact: [Divine Word Blessing Enchantment].
At the same time, he was extremely crazy and superimposed the "Magic Engraving Enchantment" he learned from Dwarves in the <Black Clover> universe.
He perfectly linked the sacred Divine Words Grace with the extremely precise magic seal carving, forcibly raising the Magitech foundation of Floating City to an incredible new dimension.
"I am truly an unparalleled genius," Ian exclaimed proudly. If he wants to cast these two enchantments at the same time, he must have absolute control over them and ensure that the magic frequency used to build the core reaches an exact and perfect resonance.
Regarding this difficult high-dimensional technology, he firmly believes that looking at the entire universe, there are definitely no more than a dozen people who can achieve this step.
"But I can do better," Ian stared at the core enchantment, Blink's eyes glowed with ambition.
In an independent pocket dimension linked to Floating City, Ian once again carved a set of backup enchantment arrays required by Floating City, and tightly linked them with the two previous sets of enchantments.
"Three enchantments overlap," he looked at his masterpiece and smiled with satisfaction. "Not only can they amplify each other and multiply their power, but more importantly, even if one set of enchantments completely fails, it will not cause any disaster. Ultimate safety and power."
Ian is extremely satisfied with his Divine Grade masterpiece. "But we can still push the limits."
Immediately afterwards, he started the crazy superposition of the fourth set of enchantment arrays. This time, he used "Microscopic Engraving Method".
He spent several months to densely carve every corner of Floating City with microscopic enchantments that were imperceptible to the naked eye, and then completely connected them with the previous triple enchantments.
This process was far more difficult than the previous two superpositions, during which he experienced countless failures. But it was during this constant trial and error that he learned many incredible Truths, and his attainments in alchemical engineering also ushered in an extremely terrifying surge.
"The four layers of enchantment overlap. Yes, I am definitely worthy of the title of 'Divine Grade Grand Master of Alchemy' now. But... can I still attack the fifth layer of enchantment?"
Ian frowned and fell into deep thought. He currently has no other independent enchanting system that he can call. Although Empire masters many enchanting technologies, tracing back to the source, those are just subcategories of these four basic systems.
For example, they obtained "Elven Enchantment" from the ruins of the war in Interstellar Federation through some shady means. In the final analysis, that technology is just combining "Divine Words Grace" and "Magic Seal Engraving" Fusion, and then purely using the Elvish language to perform it.
As for the Dwarves in this universe, they do not have a systematic enchantment inheritance at all, and they purely rely on various extremely rare materials to create magic items.
Ian has long ordered Morgana to absorb part of the knowledge of Dwarvess to coordinate and optimize the materials and structure of the entire Floating City. At this moment, in this huge city, countless Golems are undergoing comprehensive renovations.
"Okay, ready to enter the next stage."