Chapter 682: Double Happiness Arrives

Jie Ming strode swiftly through the corridor outside the laboratory, his footsteps ringing out a rapid rhythm on the floor.

Behind him, the black giant priest pinched the test tube that was still futilely hammering the back of his hand and followed silently.

The test tube tried seven or eight different angles of attack in his grasp before finally seeming to tire, or perhaps realizing it was useless. Its arms drooped, though it still twisted its quartz body from time to time to express its lingering protest.

After passing through the teleportation array, Jie Ming arrived directly at the transfer hub on the plane’s edge.

Because the Infernal Sulfur plane had undergone comprehensive modification, its plane barrier differed from the atmospheric-like structure of other planes. It was an invisible thin membrane.

In Jie Ming’s perception, it resembled an boundless wall of light that enveloped the entire plane.

Although its “thickness” was much thinner, its defensive capability far exceeded that of natural planes by countless levels. Beyond pure protection, various additional effects could also be incorporated.

Jie Ming had chosen the detection module. Any person or object entering or leaving the plane had to pass inspection through this barrier.

However, the modification also brought some issues—for example, certain things could no longer pass directly through the barrier.

World fragments were one such case.

Receiving Station No. 2 floated in the void outside the plane barrier.

It was a hexagonal metal platform roughly twenty kilometers on each side, cast entirely from Star Ring Federation standard military alloys.

Its surface was densely engraved with runes maintaining atmosphere, gravity, and protective arrays.

At each of the platform’s four corners stood a hundred-meter-tall positioning tower. Stable signals emanated from the runes at the tower tops, providing navigation for incoming and outgoing transport vessels.

A pale blue translucent shield covered the platform above, isolating it from the elemental and spatial turbulence of the endless chaotic void.

Through the shield, one could see clusters of planes floating in the distant void.

The hundred-plus planes under the jurisdiction of Noren Academy No. 147 glowed with various colors in the darkness, like a string of beads threaded on a fine line.

The moment Jie Ming stepped onto the receiving platform, the black giant legion stationed here had already formed ranks and was waiting. The black liquid metal on their bodies rippled with a deep blue sheen under the shield’s glow.

“How is the cargo?” Jie Ming asked directly.

The leading black giant stepped aside and pointed toward the center of the platform. “The binding array is ready, and the origin state has stabilized, Master.”

Jie Ming looked up.

A spherical array occupied nearly one-third of the platform’s central area.

The array’s diameter reached several hundred kilometers. Fortunately, Receiving Station No. 2 itself was a spatially folded creation, so the platform’s actual area was far larger than what the eye could see.

The several-hundred-kilometer spherical array was compressed into the center of the twenty-kilometer-radius hexagonal platform. The subtle distortions of spatial folding created a water-ripple refraction effect at the array’s edges.

The array itself consisted of thousands of rune pillars, each ten meters tall, arranged in layered concentric circles.

The patterns between the rune pillars interwove across the ground into a dizzyingly complex web of light. Pale blue energy flowed slowly along the lines, emitting a low, resonant hum.

At the very center of the array, locked jointly by all the rune pillars and the light web, was the world fragment.

It floated in the heart of the array, fixed in place by hundreds of layers of pale golden binding beams crossing over it.

From the outside, it looked like an irregular translucent piece of amber. Its longest dimension was about thirty kilometers, and the shortest was fifteen kilometers. Halos flowed inward across its surface, as if an invisible core deep within the fragment continuously absorbed all surrounding light. Through the translucent seal, one could vaguely glimpse the scene inside the fragment.

There were mountains, rivers, valleys covered in vegetation, and even a small ocean gently undulating.

Clouds churned in the fragment’s internal atmosphere, and a miniature sun hung at the top, emitting soft light.

This was the biggest difference between world fragments and plane remnants.

Plane remnants were the debris left after a plane collapsed. Their internal law structures had completely disintegrated, and the space itself was constantly decaying, naturally dissipating after tens of thousands of years.

Such remnants held almost no strategic value beyond extracting residual energy and rare materials.

World fragments were different.

They were not debris from a plane’s collapse, but “slices” that had separated from a plane due to certain special reasons.

They retained the complete law system and plane origin of the original plane. Their internal ecosystems operated independently, and their spatial structures were stable and self-sustaining. In essence, they were ultra-small independent planes.

Jie Ming released his perception, letting his spiritual power slowly probe into the fragment along the array’s binding beams.

His spiritual power swiftly swept across the mountains and valleys within the fragment, confirming the stability of the geological structure, the general layout of the ecosystem, and the distribution of mineral veins and energy composition.

Finally, his perception touched the core of this fragment: the plane origin.

Although this origin was small in quantity, it was intact and full of vitality—the very foundation of energy sustaining the entire fragment’s continued operation.

Jie Ming stood at the edge of the array with his arms crossed, silently observing the world fragment.

After a long while, he nodded.

“Not bad.”

Just those two words, yet his tone carried a rare hint of good mood.

The quality of this world fragment far exceeded his expectations.

“All indicators are normal,” Jie Ming withdrew his perception and turned to instruct the black giant priest behind him. “Send people inside for detailed exploration. Topographic mapping, species census, mineral vein distribution, law activity scanning—I want the full set of data.”

“Understood.” The black giant priest carefully placed the now-quiet test tube onto a nearby console, then turned to dispatch the exploration team.

Jie Ming stood in place, his gaze falling once more on the world fragment.

A trace of regret flashed in his eyes.

It was a good item, but too small.

He actually wanted to enter and inspect it personally, but there was no way. With his current true body, he simply could not fit inside.

After all, the body standing here was not his real one.

The “Jie Ming” currently standing on the receiving platform was merely a phantom body simulated using his Dharma Form power.

His true body was that thousand-meter-tall golden Dharma Form.

In most situations, the size of his true body did not affect his daily life or research.

Whether it was the expanded spaces arranged in the laboratory or the various natural sub-spaces within the Infernal Sulfur plane, Jie Ming could enter and exit and perform all kinds of operations without issue.

But if he wanted to enter the world fragment before him, he would need to tear open the plane barrier on its surface wide enough for his true body to pass through. The difference arose because of the hierarchical gap between “sub-spaces” and “worlds.”

It was like a giant over three meters tall living in a large mansion.

The floor inside the rooms was divided into smaller functional zones with thin lines.

Though those zones were small, the giant could enter and exit freely because the room itself had sufficient space.

Those line-divided zones, though theoretically isolated from other spaces, were still essentially part of the house’s space.

Expanded spaces and sub-spaces generally fell into this category.

But if the giant wanted to go to another house (another plane), he would need a door tall and wide enough.

World fragments were high-grade existences that required a “custom door.”

Though small, it was a completely independent world.

Therefore, its spatial structure was not connected to the Infernal Sulfur plane, and its law system was self-contained.

Like a separate neighboring house—even if it was only the size of a storage room—one still needed to open a door to enter.

That door was the temporary passage currently maintained by the binding beams within the array.

But this world fragment was simply too small. Its longest dimension was only thirty kilometers, while his true body stood a thousand meters tall.

Tearing open an opening large enough for a thousand-meter Dharma Form to pass through would deliver an impact to the world fragment’s law structure strong enough to trigger a chain collapse.

Just as a three-meter-tall giant cutting a door into the side wall of a small storage room—even if the door barely accommodated him—might cause the entire wall to collapse due to changes in the load-bearing structure.

Thus, his true body could not enter, and he could not conduct personal research.

He could only stand outside in phantom form and observe.

Regret aside, this world fragment still held major strategic value for him.

World fragments themselves were extremely valuable raw materials. Both wizard civilization and the Great Dao Book Pavilion possessed corresponding methods to utilize them.

For now, however, Jie Ming had only one intended use for this world fragment: as a storage room.

He had purchased the world fragment primarily to store the biological samples and materials he had collected in the Strange plane.

After all, due to the nature of The Strange, these items were absolute high-risk objects no matter where they were placed.

Strange creatures could naturally integrate into world rules. Conventional storage equipment could not contain them at all.

Even the sealing arrays he had personally designed could not guarantee that no accidents would occur during long-term storage.

Before he fully researched The Strange, he needed an absolutely safe location where, in case of any incident, he could immediately sever all connections and contain the impact to the smallest possible scope.

The world fragment perfectly met this requirement.

It was an independent world. As long as the array connection between it and the Infernal Sulfur plane was cut, any danger that might spread from within could be completely isolated.

Moreover, it possessed a complete internal law system, so Strange samples stored inside would not degrade or lose activity due to environmental mismatch.

Once he had thoroughly researched The Strange, this world fragment could be put to other uses.

The Great Dao Book Pavilion recorded more than a dozen methods for using world fragments in cultivation techniques or refining treasures.

Even if not used for cultivation, keeping it as a dedicated storage room for high-risk research materials was still worthwhile.

“The exploration team is in position,” the black giant priest returned to Jie Ming’s side and reported, the slit on his chest opening and closing. “Estimated time required is two hours. All comprehensive data will be synchronously transmitted to your magic network system at that time.”

“Good.” Jie Ming nodded. “After exploration is complete, transfer all the Strange samples I previously marked from the sealing vault into this world fragment. Use dual-person cross-verification for the transfer. Each sample must be confirmed by two priests that the seal is intact before moving. Station black giant guards in rotating shifts at the fragment entrance. Upon discovering any abnormality…”

“Immediately seal the connection channel,” the black giant priest finished the sentence, then paused. “And activate the world fragment self-destruct protocol.”

“You understand well.” The corner of Jie Ming’s mouth lifted slightly.

This was one of the black giant priests he had personally trained. After more than a thousand years of working together, they no longer needed many words to understand his intentions.

“After exploration, synchronously transmit the preliminary plane fusion plan,” Jie Ming began arranging the final follow-up work. “I need to know the maximum number of safe connection channels that can be opened between this world fragment and the Infernal Sulfur plane, the maximum transmission capacity each channel can carry, as well as design proposals for cutting out independent isolation zones from within the fragment…”

Jie Ming’s words were interrupted by a sudden, violent shock.

He raised his head in slight surprise, sensing the entire Incense Fire Divine Dao system trembling.

In the spiritual connection between him and the Infernal Sulfur plane constructed by the Incense Fire Divine Dao, a fierce oscillation was spreading.

It was as if someone had smashed a massive rock into the center of a calm lake.

Ripples spread outward at terrifying speed from the plane’s core. Everywhere they passed, every node of the Incense Fire Divine Dao emitted sharp resonances.

“This is…”

Jie Ming’s pupils contracted. Through the feedback from the Fate Subsystem, he instantly understood what this reaction from the Incense Fire Divine Dao meant.

“…An alert?!”

“Master?”

The black giant priest beside him saw his master suddenly stop and looked up curiously. Then the liquid metal across his entire body trembled violently from excessive agitation.

Because at some point, the color of the entire sky had changed dramatically, accompanied by sharp alarm sounds.

The warning arrays deployed throughout the Infernal Sulfur plane triggered simultaneously. The piercing array chimes transmitted directly into the auditory organs of all creatures present.

The red alert runes, which had never lit up since the plane’s construction, now flashed simultaneously in every corner of the plane.

The black giants on the receiving platform all stopped their work at once.

Their chest slits opened in unison, emitting low warning roars as the black liquid metal on their bodies surged into combat state. Black giant priests flashed in front of Jie Ming, their six fingers tracing defensive rune trajectories in the air, vigilant against possible attackers.

“No need to be nervous. It’s not an enemy inside the plane…”

Jie Ming raised his hand, stopping their further actions.

The golden vertical eye at the center of his brow snapped open.

All his spiritual power spread out fully, tracing backward along the information pathways from the warning arrays.

As the owner of the entire Infernal Sulfur plane, once Jie Ming confirmed it, all the information collected by the plane’s warning arrays was instantly transmitted over.

Then, Jie Ming confirmed an unbelievable fact.

He… or rather, the Infernal Sulfur plane… had been invaded?