Translator: AnubisTL
"A Priest?"
Jieming's first reaction to the Black Giant Commander's report was astonishment.
The Black Giants were biological weapons he had designed and modified himself. Their core requirements were stability and controllability. Although he had granted them exceptional intelligence, combat prowess, and growth potential, everything was supposed to remain within his predefined framework.
The spontaneous emergence of a "Priest"—a role so clearly social and cultural in nature—was a mutation that, theoretically, should have been impossible.
But his shock lasted only a fleeting moment. Jieming's gaze instinctively drifted to the window of his laboratory. Though invisible to the eye, his senses clearly captured the Incense Divine Path Network, which spanned the entire Purgatory Sulfur Plane, operating slowly yet steadily.
"Of course... the Incense Divine Path," he murmured, a flash of realization crossing his eyes.
The core of the Incense Divine Path was to guide faith, condense the power of civilization, and transform the mortal into the divine. It influenced not just energy, but also subtly shaped the very intelligent beings who dwelt within its reach.
As the only "Core Residents" currently recognized by the Incense Divine Path in the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, the Black Giant Tribe was bound to be shaped and influenced by the very power they nourished with their faith and Mortal Dust Qi.
The emergence of Priests was the result of this feedback accumulating to a critical mass, triggering a qualitative leap for the entire tribe. They were evolving from mere biological weapons into a complete civilization capable of constructing a social structure and fostering culture and faith.
"Let's go see," Jieming said to the Black Giant Commander, suppressing the surge of emotion in his heart.
He was genuinely intrigued. He needed to witness this historic moment with his own eyes.
Following the Commander, Jieming arrived at a massive hatchery deep within the plane.
A large number of Black Giants had already gathered here. They stood silently around the pool, their grotesque and terrifying appearances belying a sense of solemn anticipation.
Another fifth-tier Black Giant leader stood guard here like a black mountain.
"How long have you... been waiting here?" Jieming asked casually.
Seeing Jieming descend, the guard chief bowed and reported, "Sovereign, we have been waiting for one day."
"One day?" Jieming raised an eyebrow slightly.
He knew the efficiency of the hatchery; mass-producing a standard Black Giant Warrior took only one minute.
Yet this special individual had consumed the energy and time of an entire hatchery for a full day?
This was enough to demonstrate its terrifying potential.
Jieming said no more, simply waiting quietly.
As time passed, the energy fluctuations within the hatchery grew more violent, as if a vortex were frantically drawing power from the bottom of the pool.
With a thought, Jieming connected to the Upper-plane Control Formation via his magic net terminal and carefully channeled one-millionth of the energy from the seventh-tier large elemental pool.
In an instant, a torrential flood of pure elemental energy was guided here and injected into the hatchery, causing the halo of energy within the pool to almost solidify into substance.
Just as the energy reached its peak, Jieming keenly sensed a faint but pure, special power beginning to emanate from the surrounding Black Giant settlements.
Having deeply researched the Divine Power Faith Network, Jieming recognized it immediately: it was faith power!
These scattered threads of faith were captured, purified, and twisted by the omnipresent Incense Divine Path Network. Finally, they were transformed into a new form of energy—one that shimmered with a faint golden glow, radiating a newfound sense of order and power. This was the Incense Divine Power in its nascent form.
As if finding its true destination, this newly born Incense Divine Power poured without hesitation into the developing embryo at the center of the hatchery.
BOOM!
A thunderous roar echoed, not from the physical world, but from the depths of the soul. Above the hatchery, light and shadow distorted as a figure slowly coalesced and materialized.
It was indeed a Black Giant.
His entire body was as black as ink, his surface covered in a layer of flowing liquid metal. Yet, compared to his kin, who stood dozens of meters tall, his stature was remarkably "slight." He stood just over two meters, his torso more slender and lean, his silhouette hinting at a harmony almost human in its proportions. He lacked the monstrous brutality of his colossal brethren, possessing instead a strange, refined potency.
He hovered in mid-air, slowly opening his eyes.
Those eyes no longer burned with the energy flames or the pitch-black void of a common Black Giant. Instead, they were like the purest obsidian—deep, calm, and glowing with a rational brilliance that far surpassed his own kind.
His gaze locked onto Jieming instantly. Without a moment's hesitation, he descended to the ground and, with a solemn gesture, knelt on one knee and bowed his head toward Jieming.
The movement was fluid and natural, brimming with awe and submission, demonstrating both profound intelligence and a clear understanding of his own status.
"Sovereign." His voice, unlike the thunderous rumblings of other Black Giants, was clear and steady.
Jieming stepped forward, activating the Universal Eye. Combining its power with the nearby magical formation, he began an intrigued examination.
Basic physical strength, energy absorption and transformation efficiency, time manipulation talent... The results showed that this Priest was nearly identical to an ordinary Black Giant Warrior in these aspects; his change in form had not weakened him at all.
His uniqueness lay in two main points:
First, this Priest seemed to have been born with a complete mastery of the "Energy" Law.
According to the classifications of the wizard world, the moment he was born, he was a genuine sixth-tier creature! This was not achieved through devouring and evolving, but was an innate talent.
Second was his transcendent intelligence.
Jieming conducted a few simple logical reasoning and complex information processing tests, and the results astonished him.
Even the Black Giant leader, the most intelligent subordinate under his command, seemed like an ignorant child compared to this Priest. The Priest's processing speed, depth of understanding, and the integrity of his logical chains had reached a whole new level.
However, perhaps because the Black Giants' underlying code was ultimately that of a "biological weapon," the newborn Priest seemed to have failed to awaken the supernatural abilities typical of traditional priests, such as healing, prophecy, large-scale blessings, or curses.
Jieming stroked his chin, sizing up the "scrawny" Black Giant kneeling reverently before him, his mind racing with calculations.
Such high intelligence, such strong affinity for laws, yet lacking the complementary "divine arts" or special abilities... Doesn't this mean...?
Suddenly, Jieming's eyes lit up.
"Isn't this just a natural-born laboratory assistant?!"
Without another moment's hesitation, he addressed the Priest directly: "Follow me."
Jieming brought the newly appointed Priest back to his main laboratory. From a mountain of documents, he casually drew a stack of Knowledge Crystals covering high-energy physics and fundamental laws of nature and handed them over.
"Study these, understand them, and then tell me your thoughts," Jieming commanded. He wanted to see firsthand just how efficient the Priest's learning process truly was.
The Black Giant Priest respectfully took the Knowledge Crystals. The moment his obsidian-like eyes swept over them, countless streams of data seemed to flicker within.
Without a moment's hesitation, he found a corner and immersed himself in the ocean of knowledge like the most devout scholar. He began reading and comprehending at an astonishing speed, his focus so intense it was as if he were born for this very purpose.
Watching the new Priest's back as he buried himself in his studies, Jieming nodded in satisfaction.
"If this works... I'll finally have an assistant who can keep up with my train of thought..." He turned away in a good mood, refocusing his attention on the glistening fragments of spider-snake carapace on the workbench.
(End of the Chapter)
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