Outside the Purgatory Sulfur Continent, in the cold and silent cosmic space, a newborn 'star' floated quietly.
That was, of course, not a real star, but the first array eye of the All-Heavens Star Grand Array.
Dark golden light slowly circulated from the depths of the array eye, and star patterns continuously spread along the sphere's surface. The light and heat it emitted even made the elemental tides within several hundred million kilometers unusually active.
Jie Ming stood in the void, gazing at his first achievement, silent for a long time.
Then he raised his hand.
Inside his spiritual sea, the model of the All-Heavens Star Grand Array, which he had been deducing for over a thousand years, slowly unfolded. Countless points of light formed a vast star chart, and the position of the first array eye suddenly lit up.
'Here it is.'
As his spiritual power locked onto the coordinates, the space around the enormous array eye began to tremble.
Relying on the power of the Incense Fire Divine Dao, in just a moment, the entire space twisted, and the enormous sun vanished into thin air.
The entire array eye was teleported away by the power of the Incense Fire Divine Dao and placed in an empty star field several light-years away from the Purgatory Sulfur Continent. In the pitch-black void of the universe, accompanied by a ripple-like tremor, the enormous sun abruptly appeared.
Hum...
Invisible ripples spread in all directions, and the array eye steadily settled onto the predetermined coordinates.
The stellar force of dozens of light-years around seemed to be drawn by some attraction, beginning to converge toward the array eye extremely slowly.
Jie Ming checked the feedback from the Incense Fire Divine Dao using the Destiny System and nodded in satisfaction:
'Coordinate error: 0.0003. Not small, but by continuously fine-tuning with the power of the Incense Fire Divine Dao, it should enter the planned trajectory in about a hundred years.'
In short, the first array eye was officially in place.
However, for now, there was only one array eye.
Fortunately, even though a complete formation could not be formed, the hard-refined array eye itself possessed various marvels.
Even if not used for anything else, simply using it as a sun had the effect of promoting positive evolution in organisms on surrounding planets. Jie Ming pulled up the star chart again, and soon projections of several planets appeared around the array eye.
Those were planets already fully developed by the Tentacle Tree Civilization.
Originally mere immigrant worlds, they had now been given new tasks by him.
'Notification to the colonial governors of the following coordinate planets.'
Through the Incense Fire Divine Dao, Jie Ming's voice instantly reached the minds of those responsible for those planets.
'Migrate according to the new orbital parameters.'
'Yes, Sovereign.'
Several heads of the Tentacle Tree Civilization immediately responded.
A few days later, several planets of varying sizes were teleported over using the power of the Incense Fire Divine Dao.
These planets, still moving by inertia after teleportation, quickly broke free from their original orbits under the combined effect of numerous orbital propulsion arrays and gravitational adjustment devices, rearranging themselves around the array eye.
From a distance, it looked just like a real star system.
Even the orbital periods of each planet were precisely calculated.
Jie Ming looked at the layout that increasingly resembled a genuine star system, and finally a hint of satisfaction appeared on his lips.
'This looks much more comfortable.'
Beside him, a Black Giant Priest was recording every parameter.
'Lord, should we continue setting up peripheral warning arrays?'
'Not for now.' Jie Ming waved his hand. 'We don't have the money.'
The Black Giant Priest nodded silently.
The entire research team now knew that their sovereign's greatest enemy these days was none other than poverty.
But even though there was no money to refine a second array eye for now, there were still some cheap things that could be set up conveniently.
Jie Ming flew above one of the planets again, gently tapped his right hand, and a large amount of leftover materials flew out from his Inner World.
Various alchemical metals, rune crystals, and energy nodes rained down onto the entire planet like a storm.
At the same time, his five-hundred-kilometer-tall true body slowly unfolded.
Countless threads of spiritual power simultaneously controlled billions of rune nodes, rapidly laying them across the planet's surface.
Over the entire planet's surface, a faint purple-gold pattern rapidly spread.
In less than half a day, a giant array covering the entire planet was completed.
Then the second, the third...
Until all the predetermined planets were fully configured, Jie Ming finally stopped.
The Black Giant Priest looked at the enormous array patterns covering the planets with some confusion.
'Lord, what is the function of an array of this scale?'
Jie Ming answered casually, 'Collecting the Purple Qi of the East.'
The priest paused.
'...Purple Qi of the East?'
'Mm.' Jie Ming nodded.
'When the sun first rises, a very small amount of special spiritual energy is produced. The quality is not bad.'
'But for me now, the effect is too small, so I couldn't be bothered to collect it before.'
Speaking of which, Jie Ming paused, his voice dropping significantly.
'But now I'm poor.'
The Black Giant Priest: '...'
After saying this, Jie Ming looked at the slowly orbiting planets and suddenly felt complicated.
The All-Heavens Star Grand Array... really burned money.
Having arranged everything in this star region, Jie Ming did not stay any longer.
With one step, a teleportation array lit up, and his figure vanished.
Soon, Jie Ming returned to the alchemy laboratory of Noren Academy 147.
Rows of cultivation pods stood quietly next to the lab, but now the number of clones inside was several times greater than the initial count.
After checking the data from his absence and confirming no deviations, the experiment began again.
First group: two clones of the same level.
One remained intact, while the other was directly refined into a pool of blood.
Jie Ming activated the Blood Sacrifice Method.
The array was still successfully completed.
Then he activated the True Illusion Void-Breaking Eye, and data slowly appeared.
The improvement in aptitude was exactly the same as with the normal method of sacrifice, no change.
Jie Ming stroked his chin and wrote a line in the experiment log.
[Sacrificial offering quality is unrelated to the integrity of flesh and blood.]
For the second group, Jie Ming did not increase the number of offerings; instead, he continuously accelerated the growth of one clone through life alchemy.
After a moment, inside the cultivation pod, a huge clone, twice the size of an ordinary person, slowly stood up.
More muscular, stronger bones, even its weight was more than twice that of a normal clone.
Then, the blood sacrifice began.
The result quickly came out: the improvement was still only a single portion.
Jie Ming touched his chin and wrote another conclusion.
[The effect of sacrifice is unrelated to body size or total flesh and blood. What determines the effect is the 'number of individuals.']
'That is to say...'
'The Blood Sacrifice Method recognizes an 'individual person,' not how many pounds of meat.'
This result was not surprising.
After all, aptitude enhancement must consume something more essential; flesh and blood, even souls, are merely external.
But what truly made Jie Ming frown was the third group of experiments.
This time, the recipient was not an ordinary clone, but an experimental subject that had been force-grown through resources to reach the Foundation Establishment realm. Shortly after.
Jie Ming looked at the result, his brow slowly furrowing.
'The effect decreased, and very significantly.'
With the same offering, the improvement in aptitude for the Foundation Establishment subject was only a fraction of that for an ordinary mortal.
He repeated the experiment dozens of times and ultimately confirmed this situation.
The higher the cultivation of the recipient, the lower the benefit from using low-cultivation offerings in the blood sacrifice.
Reason... unknown.
The experiment continued for several years.
The clones in the cultivation pods constantly increased and were constantly consumed. Massive amounts of data were fed into the Five Elements Rainbow Mirror.
Finally, a complete model was successfully established.
Jie Ming looked at the final derived result and slowly exhaled.
'Not bad. The outcome is much better than expected.'
From the results, the Blood Sacrifice Method could indeed be repeated infinitely, but aptitude could not increase infinitely.
Or more precisely, each realm had its own aptitude cap.
Once the limit of the current cultivation was reached, continuing the blood sacrifice no longer increased aptitude. The remaining power would automatically convert into life energy to raise cultivation.
'It's quite similar to the Wizard system.'
Jie Ming leaned back in his chair and chuckled softly.
The Wizard aptitude system had the same situation.
Mortals' spiritual talent had a maximum of ten levels because the mortal life level could only bear ten levels.
To go higher, one had to break through to the supernatural.
Every time a Wizard advanced, their body, soul, and spirit underwent a holistic leap, and the talent cap naturally rose accordingly.
The cultivation system was the same in principle, just with a different expression.
Jie Ming flipped through other data and quickly calculated in his mind.
Soon, a number appeared in his mind: 634.
The meaning of this number was that if he used clones all at the same Dao Integration Realm as himself, then by sacrificing 634 clones, his spiritual aptitude could reach the true limit of his current realm.
'That's not difficult.' He quickly completed the assessment.
With the Wizard system's ability to produce cannon fodder, the truly difficult part was never the level, but combat power.
If it was just about force-growing cultivation, he had plenty of ways to quickly manufacture a batch of experimental subjects with only the realm and no combat ability. There was only one problem: to quickly cultivate clones of that level required burning a lot of resources.
Thinking of this, Jie Ming slowly lowered his head, glanced at the experiment budget, then at the incomplete material procurement list for the All-Heavens Star Grand Array. Finally, he looked at his nearly depleted military merit balance.
The air was silent for a few seconds.
A very soft sound suddenly came from the lab: '...Damn it!'
Jie Ming rubbed his forehead and let out a long sigh.
'Time to save up again.'
He was silent for a moment, then quickly pulled himself together.
'No rush. The clones can be cultivated slowly. In a few years, I'll have saved enough resources.'
'For now, I'll dismantle the Blood Sacrifice Method.'
His gaze fell back on the experiment log.
All functions of the Blood Sacrifice Method were now clear. The next goal was to gradually extract the core mechanism that actually worked within the method and reconstruct it using the knowledge of the Wizard Civilization.