Translator: AnubisTL
After verifying some of their hypotheses, Jieming and the other two quickly departed from the outpost camp.
On the way to their next destination, they continuously exchanged information through their mental link.
"The Scythe-Skull Race, which was stored in its entirety and vanished immediately upon being retrieved, triggered the paradox in a clearly different way than the old instruments that also disappeared," Vivian analyzed calmly. "The instruments were stored in the fourth round, used in the fifth, and only erased after the time reversal began in the sixth round. But from our recent verification, the Scythe-Skull Race's existence was already deleted from the timeline at the very start of this reincarnation."
Roland added, "The difference might lie in two aspects. First, the source of the matter. The instruments were manufactured by us wizards using 'foreign' materials from outside this plane, whereas the Scythe-Skull Race is composed entirely of native elements from this plane. Second, the nature of their existence. The instruments are non-living entities, while the Scythe-Skull Race consists of living beings with souls, memories, and complex karmic ties."
"Even if they're already dead, there might still be other ways to mark them..."
"Or it could be both." Jieming quickly ran through deductions in his mind while flying at high speed. "We need to control the variables to verify this. Fortunately, we stored enough samples in the previous round."
During the previous cycle, with the help of the Logistics Department's research team, Jieming had collected numerous samples of native ores and soil from this plane.
These samples had been stored in the grotto-heaven, their origins clearly marked.
"So, our next destination is... here." Jieming shared a set of coordinates via their spiritual link. It was a valley roughly eight hundred kilometers from their current position, recorded as being rich in a stable-property "Ash Crystal Ore." He had collected over fifty tons of the raw ore there.
Roland and Vivian raised no objections.
However, shortly after they turned toward their new destination, a moving "black cloud" on the horizon ahead caught Vivian's attention.
"A massive legion! Numbers... over a million! Energy signatures are dense—confirming five seventh-tier fluctuations, and over a thousand above the fourth tier!" she warned urgently. "They're moving in our direction. The enemy seems to have spotted us; it must be a military deployment."
"Do we detour, or...?" Roland looked to Jieming, seeking his opinion.
With their strength, they weren't incapable of dealing with them, but it would likely cost them precious time.
Jieming quickly reviewed the recorded information.
Based on the information from the previous records, such a large-scale troop movement shouldn't have occurred in this area at this time.
"Something's wrong," Jieming frowned. "There's no mention of this in the intelligence... Have they changed their perception of the overall battlefield and their response patterns again?"
Given the habits of the Scythe-Skull Race, this wasn't impossible.
"Since they've already spotted us, we can't completely avoid them. Otherwise, they might track us or expose our reconnaissance objectives prematurely." Jieming made his decision. "We'll clear them out quickly. Excellency Vivian, Excellency Roland, please restrain all creatures above tier 5 and don't let them interfere with me. Leave the rest to me."
"Understood." The two sixth-tier wizards wasted no time and instantly entered combat mode.
The battle erupted the moment the black insect tide entered a twenty-kilometer range.
Roland struck first. He raised his staff high, and five "Gravity Chains," condensed into a solid form, crossed space and precisely coiled around the five most prominent seventh-tier Scythe-Skull chiefs within the insect tide.
With their powerful binding and pulling force, the chains forcibly dragged the five furious behemoths out of the legion's formation, pulling them toward the high skies on the flank, far from the main battlefield.
Simultaneously, Vivian raised her palm toward the army ahead. With a twist of space, all creatures with energy levels at or above the fifth tier were teleported into the sky.
Immediately after, layers of defensive and restrictive barriers unfolded around Roland. He was constructing a temporary "arena" to trap those high-tier enemies.
Meanwhile, the main force—a million-strong army of the Scythe-Skull Race—surged forward like a black flood bursting through a dam, swarming toward Jieming, who stood alone in the air!
The roar of flapping wings, the grinding of chitinous shells, and the murderous pheromones almost coalesced into a physical substance.
Jieming's expression remained calm. His right hand clenched, and the light of the Sunfire Extinction Ray already gathered in his palm.
But he did not unleash it immediately.
With a thought, three rifts quietly opened beside him, leading to the entrance of his internal grotto-heaven.
Three identical, fully charged dark-gold staves slowly emerged, hovering by his side.
The tips of the three staves simultaneously lit up with a heart-stopping, dark-gold glow.
"Perfect. Let's test the efficiency of saturated coverage," Jieming muttered to himself.
His mental power, combined with the Five Aggregates Rainbow Transformation Mirror, calculated the optimal attack parameters at a terrifying speed—coverage area, energy density, duration, and the subsequent impact on the environment...
The charge-up took only an instant.
The next moment...
Voom—!!!
Four pillars of dark-gold light, like four colossal swords wielded by gods, erupted from the three staves before and beside Jieming!
Under Jieming's control, the pillars instantly bloomed outward like lotuses the moment they were fired.
The dark-gold light screen swept forward in a fan-shaped wave, originating from Jieming and blanketing the landscape.
Wherever the light screen passed, space groaned under the unbearable strain, light distorted, and temperature soared at a rate that defied the laws of physics.
Jieming precisely controlled the screen's range and intensity.
He did not seek the maximum possible distance, but instead concentrated the main power on a frontal area approximately one hundred kilometers wide and ten kilometers deep—the exact location of the million-strong Scythe-Skull legion's densest core assault formation.
The speed of light was impossible to dodge.
The instant the dark-gold light screen touched the vanguard of the black insect tide, time seemed to freeze for a single frame.
Then came the most absolute annihilation.
Whether it was their impenetrable carapaces, resilient souls, or boiling energy, all were like snow under the sun before the decomposition properties of the Sunfire Extinction Ray.
The Scythe-Skulls touched by the light screen, regardless of their rank, instantly became transparent and blurred, then decomposed into the most basic energy particles and material dust, without even a wisp of smoke rising.
The light screen advanced, and annihilation followed in its wake.
Like an eraser wiping away pencil marks, the black tide rapidly "evaporated" beneath the dark gold flames. Five kilometers, ten kilometers... In the blink of an eye, the dark gold light screen swept across the entire designated area before slowly dissipating.
The sky brightened once more, but the earth below had been transformed into a mirror-smooth, lifeless plain of glass.
The million-strong Scythe-Skull army was annihilated, save for the few "lucky" ones held back by Roland and Vivian.
There were no remains, no bloodstains—only the shimmering distortion of superheated air and the eerie luster of the instantly vitrified ground.
"Impressive power," Jieming remarked with satisfaction, stowing away his three staves.
Though all signs suggested he had unleashed a triple-staff combo before, this felt like the first time he'd truly played with it.
The results were unexpectedly devastating. No wonder the Scythe-Skull Race had kept such a close watch on him later.
On the other side, this strike—a veritable miracle—even caused Roland and the five seventh-tier Scythe-Skull chiefs, who were locked in fierce combat high in the sky on the flank, to involuntarily pause for a moment.
For the first time, an emotion bordering on terror flickered across the compound eyes of the Scythe-Skull chiefs. Roland, meanwhile, was not only shocked but also raised his evaluation of this "Advisor" to an unbelievable level.
Jieming breathed slightly heavily. Controlling four large-scale, high-power attacks simultaneously was a significant burden on both his mental and spiritual power.
But what he cared about more was the data from this actual combat.
"Area-of-effect coverage, purge efficiency against dense low-tier legions... nearly one hundred percent. Energy utilization rate is eight percent higher than expected, possibly related to the concentration of environmental elements. Decomposition effect interference residual time..." He quickly recorded his notes while staring at the scorched earth, his heart remaining largely undisturbed.
Such was the nature of war, especially when the enemy was one that had to be annihilated.
The battle in the sky soon came to an end.
Without the legion's cover and the support of their morale, the high-rank Scythe-Skull Race couldn't hold out for long against the combined efforts of Roland and Vivian, who had now freed herself to join the fight. They were slain one after another.
As the battle concluded, the three of them pressed on without pause, continuing their advance toward the Ash Crystal Ore Valley.
Yet, Jieming harbored some misgivings.
The frequency and scale of the Scythe-Skull Race's tactical adjustments were increasing. They were no longer relying solely on the old path of "reincarnation trial and error," but had begun to engage in more active and daring strategic probes.
Was this because they had sensed the mortal threat posed by the wizards' research, or had the "Manipulator" hidden deep within the reincarnation issued new orders?
With these thoughts, he sealed the information regarding their encounter with this unusually large enemy force—including its coordinates and approximate troop composition—into an Information Crystal and stowed it away.
Then, he transmitted the same set of information back to the Main Camp via the magic net terminal.
(End of the Chapter)
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