It was unclear how much time had passed when Jeming naturally awoke from a deep sleep.

He opened his eyes, and the familiar rune lines of the laboratory ceiling came into view, a long-lost sense of clarity and vitality spreading throughout his body.

The fatigue accumulated over fifty years and the numbness brought by slaughter seemed to have been completely cleansed by this thorough slumber.

He stood up, stretching his somewhat stiff muscles and bones.

Instead of immediately diving into research, he first attended to the backlog of affairs.

Through the Magic Network Terminal, he quickly browsed and replied to the communication requests he had missed over the years, most of which were invitations for academic exchanges or routine notifications from Nolun Academy on the Elorcia Plane.

Afterwards, he carefully checked the operational status of the facilities in the Elorcia Plane laboratory and confirmed via remote link that the development of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane was normal, finally putting his mind at ease.

Once all the miscellaneous affairs were handled, he brewed a cup of refreshing Spirit Leaf Tea.

Sitting in front of the experiment table, he began systematically summarizing the gains from this fifty-year-long expedition.

First, he took stock of the tangible gains—Jeming shook his head helplessly.

Originally, on the battlefield of the Giant Spirit Realm, relying on the excellent performance of the Great Light Appearance and the Black Giant, along with the discovery of that treasure vault, he had indeed gained quite a lot.

Energy Crystals, Soul Crystals, and rare materials piled up like mountains.

However, the bizarre concept pollution of the Fungus Lord turned all this into nothing.

To survive, all tangible war trophies had to be abandoned.

During the subsequent execution of the "Purification Protocol," the principle of "only destroy, do not acquire" was strictly followed.

This resulted in a complete investment with no output in terms of resources and experimental samples.

Coupled with the massive consumption of energy reserves and losses of disposable units during the war in the Giant Spirit Realm... 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"From a purely resource and military merits perspective, this expedition was a total loss." Jeming murmured to himself, taking a sip of tea.

Despite saying this, he couldn’t hide the smile on his face.

The worth of a wizard is not solely dependent on material accumulation.

His true gain lay in the acquisition of knowledge.

His thoughts delved into his internal space, where vast quantities of information packets, personally "sanitized" and confirmed safe by the Nolun Wizard, were stored.

These were various kinds of knowledge copied while purging those destroyed civilizations—ranging from metal smelting and symbiotic technology in the Giant Spirit Realm, to the construction of the mental network and principles of illusion techniques in the Mind Realm, even to the biological structures, energy applications, and unique technologies of the exiled Golden Baboon Civilization and its associated civilizations...

This knowledge was vast and miscellaneous, yet precious.

During the execution of the "Purification Protocol," they were considered useless by-products.

But for Jeming now, this was the most valuable treasure of the expedition, an inexhaustible source of inspiration for future research.

Apart from knowledge, there were also military merits.

Fifty years of information processing and purging tasks brought him about fifty thousand low-level military merits.

This number would be considered a fortune for an ordinary Third Level Wizard, but for Jeming, who earns a massive revenue share annually from holding the patent of the "Self-Stabilizing Field Regulation Protocol," it was just icing on the cake.

The true surprise, however, lay in the high-level military merits.

Due to the task involving concept pollution and high risk, the Star Ring Federation awarded a batch of high-level military merits as special rewards.

Typically, this batch of military merits would only be allocated among Dixon, the three Seventh Level Wizards, and the Nolun Wizard.

However, during the battle in the Giant Spirit Realm, although Jeming did not directly discover the Fungus Lord’s pollution, his abnormal state caught Dixon’s attention, indirectly contributing to the alert.

Deemed "meritorious to civilization," he was uncharacteristically awarded a hundred thousand points of high-level military merits!

One hundred thousand high-level military merits, when simply converted into various common resources according to the official exchange rate, are equivalent to merely about one million points of low-level military merits.

This number does not amount to much in comparison to Jeming’s annual patent income.

But the real value of high-level military merits goes far beyond this.

As a general equivalent currency released directly by the Star Orbit Court, it is jointly recognized by three top Wizard Influences outside the Star Ring Federation—the Void Architecture Institute, the Anti-Entropy Alliance, and the Deep Red Royal Court!

This means that Jeming can use it to exchange for special resources, materials, and technologies circulating internally within these influences, which are never sold externally.

More importantly, High Tier Wizards must consume high-level military merits if they wish to shorten the mandatory post-war recuperation period.

Due to the scarcity and hard currency attributes of high-level military merits, many High Tier Wizards are willing to offer their secretive core technologies in exchange for them.

In other words, high-level military merits are the key to acquiring core knowledge, unobtainable with merely low-level military merits!

Thinking of this, Jeming immediately recalled the "Divine Power Faith Network Technology" he had been advancing on the Elorcia Plane, yet progressing slowly due to the lack of crucial references.

Even though his mentor, Clark, had provided him with part of the research notes back then, he still felt struggling, as if walking alone in a mist when facing such a rule-level complex system.

"Finally... a glimmer of hope!" Jeming was invigorated, immediately opening the Magic Network Terminal and accessing the exclusive exchange interface for high-level military merits.

First, he searched with anticipation for "Between Time and Law."

That grand structure capable of stabilizing acceleration of the time flow by ten times on the battlefield of the Giant Spirit Realm, and without affecting research results, had always left a significant impression on Jeming.

This thing was produced by the Void Architecture Institute, and he did not even have the qualification to view it before.

The search results popped up, and upon seeing the long string of zeros following it, Jeming’s mouth twitched, and he silently closed the page.

The smallest model of the portable "Between Time and Law," priced at ten million high-level military merits.

And that was just the portable version!

The large fixed version he used at the Expeditionary Army camp was priced at over ten billion!

"I truly did not expect the Wizard Civilization to spare no expense against threatening civilizations..." Jeming clicked his tongue, completely abandoning this thought.

It seems that such a strategic-level facility is not something he can currently afford to hope for.

He calmed his thoughts and began earnestly searching for knowledge related to the "Divine Power Faith Network Core Technology."

This time, the results did not disappoint him; they were even unexpectedly... cheap?

An in-depth explanation of the core principles and construction ideas of this technology, organized by an Eighth Level Wizard, was priced at only ten thousand high-level military merits.

If it were the research results of a Sixth Level Wizard, it even required only ten thousand points to acquire.

"Is it really this cheap?" Jeming was a bit surprised.

Even though the knowledge technically could be resold by sellers to multiple people, the price was still considered low in comparison to the value it might yield.

After careful consideration, he made his decision.

He did not buy the research of the Eighth Level Wizard.

The reason was simple: the "Divine Power Faith Network" is closely related to the plane’s characteristics, native races, and the source of faith, with a very strong uniqueness.

The research of the Eighth Level Wizard, although high-level, might be too "specific," potentially limiting his own innovation.

What he needed was not to copy a template but to reference different ideas, extract the essence, and eventually pave his way.

Thus, he decisively spent fifty thousand high-level military merits, purchasing five core research materials related to the "Divine Power Faith Network" from different Sixth Level Wizards.

These materials, with varying perspectives and focuses, could provide him with more abundant references.

After completing the exchange, the materials were instantly transmitted through encrypted channels.

Suppressing the urge to immediately dive into the research, Jeming curiously browsed other sections of the high-level military merit store.

The listings of various exotic materials, high-tier knowledge, powerful witchcraft artifacts, and strategic buildings, all broadened his horizons and left him itching to delve into them.

But looking at his remaining fifty thousand high-level military merits, he finally, with a hint of reluctance, rationally closed the Magic Network Terminal.

"The path must be walked step by step." Jeming took a deep breath, bringing his focus back to reality.

The immediate priority was to fully digest the gains of this expedition, especially that vast amount of knowledge and the newly acquired research materials on the Divine Power Network.