Chapter 424: Incense Divine Power
Translator: AnubisTL
The Black Giants began to perform war dances in phalanxes. Their movements were perfectly synchronized, every stomp, every punch, and every burst of energy precisely attuned to a rhythm drawn from the depths of their bloodline.
Meanwhile, squads of elite Black Giants conducted actual combat drills around the Crucible, unleashing their various innate talents under controlled mastery, drawing waves of spiritual cheers from the watching clansmen.
While all this was happening, the nodes of the newly completed “Thought Resonance Array” of the Incense Divine Path began to glow faintly, not only around the venue but across the entire plane.
Inside the Central Control Room.
Jieming had not attended the celebration. He knew his presence might instead make the Black Giants feel constrained.
Standing before the main control console, Jieming stared intently at the data refreshing frantically on dozens of light screens.
The screen on the left showed that the energy intensity of the Eternal Crucible had already broken through the conventional measurement limit.
The screen on the right displayed various data on faith and thought fluctuations.
And on the largest screen in the center, a curve was soaring at a nearly vertical angle.
That represented the real-time reserve of “Incense Divine Power.”
The essence of Incense Divine Power was a special conceptual power formed when the scattered “thought fragments” and “spiritual opportunities”—those that went unused during the “walking, sitting, lying, and thinking” of intelligent beings—were collected, purified, and integrated through a specific system.
It was different from direct emotional energy or faith power; it was closer to a “latent afterglow of intelligence,” a “condensation nucleus of thought.”
Normally, the Black Giants were scattered across various planes, working and training. The collection efficiency of their dissipated thought fragments was limited.
But now, with three billion individuals highly concentrated, their spirits resonating intensely and their emotions soaring, their “thought activity” had reached an unprecedented peak.
And the newly optimized “Thought Resonance Arrays” were operating at maximum efficiency.
“Thought fragment capture rate: 89.7%… 91.2%… 93.5%…”
“Spiritual Opportunity purity: Transcendent-grade… still rising…”
“Incense Divine Power synthesis rate: Current per-second output is equivalent to 132 years of production under normal conditions…”
The numbers continued to skyrocket.
At the climax of the celebration—the exact moment the spiritual surge of three billion Black Giants chanting an ancient war song synchronized perfectly with the Eternal Crucible’s energy torrent—the curve on the central light screen violently broke through the “theoretical peak threshold” Jieming had preset, plunging into a red zone representing “unknown high values.”
“Warning: Accumulation rate exceeds safe buffer capacity. Initiate emergency diversion?”
The synthetic voice’s prompt sounded.
“No, maintain the current state. Prioritize data collection integrity,” Jieming ordered decisively, his eyes fixed on the still-rising curve without blinking.
A smile involuntarily spread across his lips.
More than an hour later, the first wave of the celebration’s climax gradually subsided.
The Black Giants began to disperse for free-form communication and displays.
The energy intensity of the Eternal Crucible slowly receded, and the peak period of thought resonance passed.
The Incense Divine Power reserve curve finally leveled off at a height that satisfied Jieming.
Jieming glanced at the final total data and took a deep breath.
The Incense Divine Power collected during this celebration was enough for him to complete all planned modules of the Incense Divine Path.
More importantly, the “purity” and “activity” of this batch of divine power had reached their theoretical optimal values—it was truly top-tier quality.
“Extract one standard unit and send it to Analysis Room No. 1,” he commanded.
A few minutes later, Jieming returned to his Core Laboratory.
On the workbench, suspended within a transparent crystal container, was a fist-sized energy body radiating a warm golden light.
It did not flicker like a flame, nor did it glare like a ball of light. Instead, it was a slowly flowing “Mist of Light,” existing in a state between liquid and gas.
Upon closer inspection, countless tiny golden runes seemed to emerge and vanish within the mist, their constant flow accompanied by a faint resonance that sounded like the whispers of a billion living beings.
Incense Divine Power.
In the records of the Great Dao Library Pavilion, this was listed as a top-tier, universal resource, ranked alongside Mortal Dust Qi.
Whether used to aid in breakthroughs past cultivation bottlenecks, refine magic treasures and medicinal pills, quench the fleshly body and divine soul, construct magical formations and talismans, or heal Dao injuries and soul damage, it possessed nearly unparalleled versatility and efficiency.
Its range of applications even exceeded that of Mortal Dust Qi, for it could be shaped into almost any form of power based on the user’s needs.
But what Jieming wanted to attempt now was an extremely specialized, even extravagant, application of Incense Divine Power—a method he had firmly memorized the moment he first read about it in the Great Dao Library Pavilion.
The Divine Thought Communion Art.
The principle of this cultivation method was to utilize the “afterglow of sentient beings’ thoughts” contained within the Incense Divine Power, transforming it into a “specific cognitive ability” that the user urgently required for a short period.
Simply put, it could temporarily and selectively enhance the user’s “comprehension,” “inspiration,” “deduction speed,” or “intuitive acuity.”
It was like injecting a potent “spiritual light catalyst” directly into the brain.
Jieming carefully enveloped the wisp of Incense Divine Power with his mental power. Following the complex energy circulation route described in the Divine Thought Communion Art, he began to guide its power.
There was no surge of energy as he had imagined, no grand, awe-inspiring phenomenon.
The golden mist, as if possessed of its own life, flowed along the guidance of his mental power and slowly merged into the center of his forehead.
A warm, clear sensation, like a divine revelation, instantly spread from the depths of his mind.
Jieming closed his eyes.
The world… had changed.
It wasn’t a change in his senses, but a leap in his level of thinking.
He felt as if he had stepped out of a narrow tunnel and suddenly found himself beneath an infinitely vast starry sky.
The countless problems he had encountered in his previous research, the dead ends in his reasoning, the vague conjectures—all of them now appeared as clear as a freshly wiped mirror.
His brain’s “processing speed” seemed to have increased a hundredfold, a thousandfold.
Countless thoughts, inspirations, and solutions erupted like a fountain, only to be instantly evaluated, screened, combined, and optimized.
Complex theoretical problems that would have taken months of agonizing thought to even make a dent in now yielded several viable solutions in just a few breaths.
Almost instinctively, he focused this “overclocked” mental capacity on the puzzle that had plagued him for so long:
How to solve the problem of excessive energy dispersion and low lethality when combining two different power systems?
The moment the question surfaced, the answer appeared in his mind—clear, concise, and complete—as if it had been waiting for him all along.
It wasn’t just a couple of scattered ideas, but a comprehensive theoretical framework and implementation plan. From the most fundamental principles of energy interaction to the specific design of the rune arrays… every detail fell into place with seamless precision.
Jieming froze.
Not because the answer was too complex, but because… it was too simple.
So simple, it was like a thin sheet of paper he had just failed to poke through from the right angle.
“So that’s how it is…” He slowly opened his eyes. The golden light faded, replaced by the brilliant clarity of sudden enlightenment. A smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “It’s so simple. How did I never think of this?”
TL/N: Damn
(End of the Chapter)