Above the mage!

Chapter 468 Fourth-Order Mandora's Eye

The Ice Jade Fruit will still be some time before it is fully ripe.

But Phoenix's ice marrow this year is already "mature".

Ice Marrow is the best treasure for upgrading Mandora's Eye in Gaode.

When he was hailed as the new king last year, not much of Phoenix's Ice Marrow had been allocated and used at the beginning of the year, so he was left with very little.

Under normal circumstances, the speed at which an Iceborn mage condenses Ice Marrow depends on their own mage level.

That is, a mage in the early stage of the first ring needs a year to condense a drop of first-level ice marrow, a mage in the middle stage of the first ring needs half a year, and a mage in the late stage of the first ring only needs four months.

The same principle applies to other levels.

In this situation, the Zhenbing tribe only submits the ice marrow they condensed that year once a year.

Of course, not all of it is handed over.

For example, an Iceborn mage in the early stages of the first ring only needs to submit one drop of Tier 1 Ice Marrow every two years.

Iceborn mages at the mid-stage and late-stage of the first ring are required to submit one drop of first-tier ice marrow per year, keeping the rest for themselves.

The same submission method applies to other ranks of Iceborn mages.

This is essentially the same as paying taxes, although the tax rate is a bit high.

However, this is a tribal tradition, and it has been like this for many years. All the Iceborn mages are used to it and do not feel that there is anything wrong with it.

Moreover, the ice marrow handed over did not end up in the hands of the War Mother.

The War Mother will redistribute these Ice Marrows to the tribe members based on their contributions and the tribe's actual situation, helping them strengthen their bloodline and break through their mage level.

One point is that any clansman who has missed the delivery of Ice Marrow and has not made up for it in time will permanently lose the right to receive Ice Marrow, along with his or her children.

Out of self-interest, the tribespeople would also hand over the ice marrow on time.

Of course, even so, due to the scarcity of resources, only a small number of people have the opportunity to obtain the tribe's allocated ice marrow to improve their bloodline level.

This is also why the promotion of the "Green Wood Longevity Scripture" was so smooth and rapid.

Compared to the unattainable "Ice Marrow," cultivating the "Green Wood Longevity Scripture" and relying on one's own efforts to break through to the level of a mage seems much more practical.

Furthermore, bloodline talent and mage talent are not shared. It is not that a low bloodline strength means a poor mage talent; the two are not strongly correlated.

Phoenix has been expanding this year, with new tribes constantly joining and new Iceborn mages joining the fray.

We can't expect these new members to hand over their ice marrow as soon as they join Phoenix, can we?

The public sentiment plummeted instantly.

Therefore, at the beginning of the year, Sunafa made a decision to postpone the date for handing over the ice marrow by six months, from the beginning of the year to the end of June.

This serves both as giving the new members of Phoenix time to adapt and as a benefit for the Zhenbing tribe.

After all, in the North, ice marrow is the most readily available currency. Reducing the amount of ice marrow production by half a year is equivalent to giving them a six-month "tax exemption".

After the ice marrow was collected this year, the specific allocation list had already been prepared by Sunefa, and it was just waiting for Gaode to review and sign it.

In addition, knowing that Gaode needed ice marrow, Sunafa specially reserved seventy-two drops of third-tier ice marrow for Gaode when distributing ice marrow that year.

As for Tier 4 Ice Marrow, Phoenix currently only produces 7 drops per year.

Even if you add Quentin's output, it's only 10 drops.

Based on the remittance ratio, a total of 4 drops of fourth-order ice marrow can be collected per year.

It would take at least 18 years to gather 72 drops of fourth-order ice marrow.

Unless the number of fourth-circle mages in Phoenix can be significantly increased in a short period of time, this timeframe is fixed.

Although it was far from enough, Sunefa still kept all the fourth-tier ice marrow she had collected this year to accumulate for Gaode.

Gaode was naturally overjoyed to receive this news.

With all seventy-two drops of Tier 3 Ice Marrow gathered, his Mandora's Eye can advance to the next level!
Gao De first checked the list of ice marrow allocations drafted by Sunefa without even looking at it—given his complete trust in Sunefa, there was absolutely no need to waste time on such matters.

He then eagerly took the seventy-two drops of third-tier ice marrow from the ice crystal bottle, left the city hall, and returned to his "palace" to begin his secluded cultivation and breakthrough.

The so-called seclusion actually involves dripping these third-tier ice marrows into the left eye one by one, allowing the Mandora Demon Eye to absorb the pure ice elemental power contained within.

Based on past experience, it takes about two minutes to absorb a drop of second-tier ice marrow.

A drop of Tier 3 Ice Marrow contains five to six times the ice element power of Tier 2 Ice Marrow, and it would take at most ten minutes to fully absorb it.

The total absorption time for all seventy-two drops of ice marrow will not exceed twelve hours.

Therefore, Gao De was not worried about missing the Anguish auction and confidently began his great undertaking of upgrading Mandora's Eye.

He opened the ice crystal bottle, and the moment he tilted his head back, the cool, icy liquid slid into his left eye.

A surge of powerful ice elemental energy erupted instantly in his left eye, transforming into a cascade of dark blue light, like a burst of cold flame within his eye.

Then, strange gold and blue intertwined runes representing Mandora's Eye suddenly appeared, "gulping down" the rich ice elemental energy released by the ice marrow.

Although he couldn't see it, Gao De could clearly feel that the rune became brighter with each wisp of ice elemental power it absorbed.

The skin around his eyes also began to turn a faint icy blue.

Soon, the ice element energy of a drop of third-tier ice marrow was completely absorbed by Mandora's Demon Eye.

Just as Gao De predicted, it took ten minutes to absorb a drop of third-tier ice marrow.

Feeling the power of Mandora's Eye, he patiently and tirelessly dripped drop after drop of Tier 3 Ice Marrow into his left eye.

As this process continued, fine ice patterns began to appear at the edge of his field of vision, somewhat resembling the special effects of releasing skills in some FPS games from his previous life.

Half a day passed quickly.

Gaode's Mandora's Eye has reached 71/72 in terms of advancement progress, and is only one step away from advancement.

Without hesitation, he took out the last drop of third-tier ice marrow and dripped it into his left eye.

As the rich ice elemental energy seeped into Mandora's Eye, God shuddered.

Quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes.

This is the moment of qualitative change.

A blue light began to rise from his entire left eye, the color of which was exactly the same as the blue flame in the center of the gas stove.

The blue flames spread out slowly like clear seawater, creating faint ripples.

Within his pupils, the runes formed by interwoven gold and blue lines began to spin rapidly.

The runes' rotation speed continued to increase, soon exceeding its limit.

As it spun rapidly, the interwoven gold and blue lines twisted and reformed like liquid metal. It gradually blurred, its specific patterns becoming indistinct, and transformed into a sphere of light.

This sphere of light was slowly shrinking, yet its radiance grew ever brighter.

Finally, the sphere of light collapsed into a singularity the size of a pinhead, disappearing completely into the deepest part of his pupil.

The further enhancement of Mandora's Eyes was actually aimed at returning to simplicity.

The once mysterious runes have instead been transformed into inconspicuous little singularities.

Looking at it now, even if Gao De fully activates the Mandora's Eye, his left eye will show almost no change compared to its normal state.

Only by getting extremely close can one notice a very fine, icy blue line at the location of the singularity in the pupil, so deep it seems as if a spatial rift leading to the Black Abyss has been opened deep within the pupil.

Even if one notices it, they wouldn't think it's caused by the development of extraordinary abilities; they would more likely see it as normal pupil markings.

The appearance and "special effects" have become simpler, but the upgrade is real.

His Mandora's Eye has successfully advanced to the fourth level.

just
Gao De carefully sensed the changes produced by the fourth-order Mandora's Eye.

At the third level, Mandora's Eye has three abilities: farsight/microscopic vision, insight, and deception.

Among them, Far Vision/Microscopic Vision and Insight are used the most. Microscopic Vision is mainly applicable to runic literature, while Far Vision and Insight are applicable to all aspects, including combat and various missions. They are all extremely useful auxiliary abilities.

However, I haven't really used the Insightful Eye I obtained when advancing Mandora's Eye to the third tier.

Because of its function of dispelling illusions, it is limited to certain special cases.

Rarely used does not mean useless.

Just like the automatic power-off function of some machines designed for safety, you may never need to use it once in your life, but can you say that this function is useless?

However, this time, after advancing to the fourth tier, Mandora's Eye did not gain new abilities as it had in the past. Instead, it expanded upon its existing second-tier ability, [Insight].

【Insight & Derivation】

The original insightful ability of Mandora's Eye is the sum of observation, disassembly, analysis, and deduction.

That is, to obtain relevant information by observing the target object from all angles.

The obtained information is then broken down into corresponding data, and this information is used to build a corresponding model in Gaode's mind.

Then, through this model, we can analyze and deduce a great deal of information about the target object, including its own level, energy level, and weaknesses.

The current insight capability is an extension of the deduction capability into a calculation capability.

It seems a bit too low-end, since the second-tier [Insight] already has four minor abilities, so how come the fourth-tier Mandora's Eye only adds one more minor ability, "Calculation"?

That's not the case at all.

Because the complexity of this "calculation" ability far exceeds the sum of the previous four minor abilities.

Gaode's acquisition of new capabilities is like receiving a long-desired new toy; it's an immediate and eager attempt to try it out.

With a slight thought, a lot of data about himself flashed through his mind.

These data were transformed into lines in Gaode's mind, constantly intertwining and combining, and soon sketched out a 3D model of a seated human body.

This 3D model is not a simple copy of the shape, but is composed of countless floating numbers and lines.

The magical veins shimmered with blue energy streams representing magical power, while the vascular network glowed with red light representing blood flow speed, and various specific numerical information was marked on the side.
Although the overall appearance of the model looks somewhat rough, it is still easy to recognize that it looks very similar to Gaode Maps.

It was his data model.

But that's not the point.

A thought flashed through Gao De's mind, and he focused his thoughts on the cultivation method "Azure Wood Longevity Scripture," while adding some limitations related to the operation of the cultivation method:

"Cultivation environment: Standard Tier 3 cultivation room; magic power concentration greater than 1000 and less than 1200; mental strength 233."

After all the information was "input", the next moment, one after another, points of light representing magic appeared around his model and surged into the model.

Immediately afterwards, the model representing the mana crystal in the 3D model's mana pool suddenly lit up, attracting the magical light spots that entered the model to transform into a stream of light, which began to operate according to the cultivation method of the "Green Wood Longevity Scripture".

After this cycle, a stream of emerald-green information appeared above Gaode's 3D model:

The Green Wood Longevity Scripture - Magic Crystal - Sixty-Second Pattern

Current progress: 12.3% (12.3457%, rounded to the nearest whole number)
Base growth rate: +0.3421%/day (affected by magic concentration fluctuations of ±0.02%)

Standard breakthrough time: 258.36 days (expected to be completed at dusk on the 258th day).
This is the essence of "Insight & Derivative Analysis"!
But that's not all. Gao De's mind raced again: "Drink the third-grade spiritual tea, Jade Pool Cloud Mist."

As soon as the thought flashed through his mind, the number of magical light spots pouring into the model increased dramatically, and the light stream expanded rapidly.

Then, the information stream about cultivation methods that appeared above the model instantly began to flash and change:

Implanted variable: Jade Pool Cloud Mist (Tier 3 Spirit Tea)

Increase: +0.5479%/day (fluctuation ±0.1%)

The Green Wood Longevity Scripture - Magic Crystal - Sixty-Second Pattern

Current progress: 12.3% (12.3457%, rounded to the nearest whole number)
Base growth rate: +0.3421%/day (affected by fluctuations in mental strength of ±0.02%)

Revised growth rate: +0.8902%/day

The breakthrough time has been compressed to 99.12 days (with an error of ±1.5 days).
This is where the most powerful aspect of its computational ability lies: it can perform new computations in real time according to changes in his ideas.

If he adjusts his cultivation environment again, changing it to a fourth-tier spiritual land where he currently resides, then this information flow will generate new "accurate" information based on the change in conditions.

This computational ability is not limited to cultivation methods; it can be applied to various aspects.

From the success rate of various skills in the extraordinary realm and the determination of a mage's level, to the survival rate of poultry in the daily life realm and the time to market, nothing is beyond calculation.

Of course, this calculation is not a panacea.

Because the basis of the calculation comes from Gaode's own cognition, experience and knowledge.

If Gaode itself lacks knowledge and understanding in the relevant field, then the calculation will not yield a result; if Gaode's understanding and knowledge are incorrect, then the calculated result will be incorrect.

Therefore, "accuracy" is also relative.

For example, if Gaode has a wrong understanding of Bi Tan Yunwu, mistakenly taking it as a higher-level spiritual tea, or overestimating its auxiliary cultivation effect, then the increase given by the calculation will be an erroneous data that does not match the actual situation.

Or perhaps Gao De is not knowledgeable in alchemy and would find no results if he tried to use his calculation abilities to determine the final purity of a material being refined.

Alternatively, Gao De may understand rune literature, but his level is only that of a second-tier rune master. If he were to calculate the relevant information of third-tier or even fourth-tier rune arrays, he would obtain data with a huge fluctuation range.

By gaining clear insights and manually inputting parameters, performing calculations based on fixed logic, and generating deterministic results, we can achieve rule-driven, data-processing-constrained, and result-deterministic outcomes.

Gao De went through the process in his mind and suddenly realized:

This is just a built-in algorithm based on user cognition!
(End of this chapter)