Two years later.
Infernal Sulfur Plane.
In a massive circular “incubation pool” over a hundred meters in diameter, specially crafted magma glowed with blood-red light, stirring as if alive.
At its center, a colossal black figure was slowly taking shape.
Jie Ming stood at the edge of the pool, behind a transparent, high-strength energy observation shield, watching the menacing black giant rise from the pool, his eyes gleaming with near-obsessive satisfaction.
The modified Lava Giant was pitch-black, its surface unnaturally smooth, reflecting no light.
It looked as if its entire body was encased in a layer of black metal.
Even its massive eyes were a pure, lightless black.
But upon closer inspection, one would notice that its black surface wasn’t solid.
The “black metal” flowed like a living liquid across its body, constantly shifting in subtle, irregular patterns.Though its form appeared stable, every part of its surface was in constant micro-motion.
Most bizarrely, despite being bathed in molten lava hot enough to melt steel, it radiated a bone-chilling cold!
Jie Ming was immensely pleased with the scene before him.
This transformed Black Giant almost perfectly matched his original design!
However, at that moment, the newly formed, still sluggish Black Giant suddenly began to thrash violently!
Its emotionless, massive eyes slowly turned, locking onto Jie Ming, its “creator,” with a piercing stare!
—It had gone out of control!
Jie Ming merely frowned slightly, showing no fear.
This was within his expectations.
It was only natural for a new, powerful creation to exhibit some primal wildness upon birth.
He casually tapped a few times on a floating terminal screen beside him, noting: [Next time, strengthen soul and mental control measures for newly modified species.]
“Roar!!!”
With a ferocious bellow filled with savage intent, the Black Giant leaped from the scalding incubation pool!
Its massive form carried an overwhelming presence, stirring up blazing magma and icy cold as it launched an attack on Jie Ming!
But Jie Ming, seeing this, only smiled.
“Perfect! This is an excellent chance to test its combat strength and condition firsthand.”
Without hesitation, he deactivated the observation shield.
The Black Giant’s massive, heavy frame belied its astonishing speed!
Even Jie Ming, at his current level, could only barely catch a blurred afterimage of its rapid movements!
Bang—!
Before he could react, the energy shield he’d just conjured was struck by a devastatingly powerful iron fist!
The immense force sent him flying backward!
“Interesting!”
Jie Ming stabilized himself in midair, immediately activating his “Acceleration” artifact.
With his reaction speed enhanced, he could finally track the giant’s ghostly movements.
Hovering in the vast skies of the Infernal Sulfur Plane, watching the Black Giant charge toward him like a black cannonball, Jie Ming even had the leisure to mentally evaluate its performance:
“Not bad… this incredible acceleration perfectly inherits the Snow Beast’s innate time talent.”
With a thought, he dispelled all protective shields, his right arm’s muscles bulging as they wrapped in dense energy.
Boom—!
Two fists, wildly disproportionate in size, collided fiercely!
The Black Giant wasn’t just strong.
At the moment of contact, a piercing, soul-freezing chill surged from the point of impact, spreading through Jie Ming’s entire body!
In that instant, he felt as if his blood would freeze!
The sudden, extreme cold caused his body to stiffen momentarily, severely hindering his movements!
Because of this brief moment of rigidity, he couldn’t mount any effective counterattack!
“Damn!”
Bang!
The next second, the giant’s other iron fist landed squarely on his face!
He was sent flying like a kite with a cut string!
Splash!
This time, Jie Ming crashed into the nearby artificial sea of roiling magma.
Emerging from the scalding lava in a disheveled state, he rubbed his stinging face, grimacing as he muttered, “Strength… not bad. This absurd chill… its heat absorption is even more exaggerated than I expected!”
So far, Jie Ming was extremely satisfied with the Black Giant’s performance.
Why did this Black Giant radiate such bone-chilling cold despite being in a molten lava pool?
And why was it unaffected by the external heat?
Because it wasn’t “emitting” cold—it was voraciously absorbing all surrounding heat!
In the wizarding world, there were two main ways to create “cold.”
One was to actively “release” cold energy using frost or death-related elemental powers.
The other, like in Jie Ming’s previous life, followed the law of energy conservation, creating low temperatures by absorbing external heat.
The Black Giant’s eerie behavior stemmed from its essence as a Lava Giant.
Its internal heat was immense, like a walking miniature sun.
The “hybrid engine” formed from the Snow Beast and Lava Giant cores constantly absorbed all external heat!
The first was the water-based heat extraction and energy cycling technique, derived from Jie Ming’s analysis of the “Water Elemental Origin.”
The second was the fire-based energy conversion technique, developed from his earlier Lava Giant research.
Thus, the Black Giant’s design was insidious.
When facing an enemy unfamiliar with it, they’d see its chilling aura and naturally counter with fire-based attacks.
But any fire attack would only fuel it!
When the enemy realized their mistake and switched to water or frost-based attacks to create low temperatures, the fire-based energy conversion ability allowed the Black Giant to absorb energy from the cold as well!
Even other attacks, like lightning or pure energy blasts, would have most of their energy absorbed by its “black hole”-like surface!
The only effective counters were to compete for environmental energy by absorbing heat or to use pure physical kinetic attacks.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
In the Infernal Sulfur Plane, the fierce battle raged on.
Jie Ming, relying on his agility and combat experience, clashed perilously with the Black Giant while continuing to analyze its performance:
“Immunity to energy attacks is extremely high! Most conventional energy attacks only charge it!”
“The combination of Snow Beast and Lava Giant talents far exceeds my expectations!”
“While its energy reserves are slightly reduced compared to a Lava Giant’s vast ocean-like capacity, its ability to continuously draw power from the environment makes its energy reserves absurdly high!”
This immense energy allowed the Snow Beast’s time talent to shine.
Though not as extreme as the Frostflame Plane’s racial collaboration, which created a “time-stop” domain, the Black Giant could super-accelerate its own time while generating a small field that slowed external time around it!
Thus, despite both being at the second level, Jie Ming, without using his full strength, couldn’t even track its movements clearly!
After considerable effort, Jie Ming finally subdued the Black Giant.
“Though its theoretical weakness is physical attacks, it retains elemental beings’ high resistance to physical damage… My hands are sore from hitting it…”
Looking at the creation still growling unwillingly on the ground, Jie Ming was immensely satisfied.
Its time-domain speed and near-total energy absorption made it capable of an “instant kill” against even a formal wizard of the same level.
“Now, it’s time to name you…”
Jie Ming approached the fallen Black Giant.
Per wizarding civilization’s naming conventions, this new creation would be called: “Energy-Absorbing, Time-Disrupting, Elemental Hybrid Lifeform.”
Jie Ming found that name too cumbersome.
It also risked exposing the Black Giant’s abilities.
After a moment’s thought, he summoned a floating terminal, opened the screen, and entered a new name.
[Codename: Black Giant!]