Translator: AnubisTL
Only a month had passed since the three had returned to the main camp with their crucial discovery.
Jieming stood on the core observation platform of the wizard legion, sighing helplessly as he watched the black tide begin to surge and gather once more on the distant horizon.
This time, the Scythe-Skull Race's reaction speed far exceeded any previous records.
The sixth reincarnation had only just begun, yet they were already unable to restrain themselves. They had assembled an unimaginably vast military force, preparing for a full-scale decisive battle.
They seemed no longer content with passive, trial-and-error learning, but had instead grown incredibly impatient.
Frost's figure appeared at the edge of the platform, his gaze also fixed grimly on the distance.
"Advisor Jieming, what is the progress of each research project? Have there been any substantive breakthroughs regarding the verification of the 'Paradox' or the detection of those potentially existing 'Higher Wills'?"
Jieming withdrew his gaze and turned to the commander, a bitter smile on his face. "Most of the research has just used the data obtained from the previous round to establish theoretical models and experimental plans. We are now entering the stage of in-depth deduction and verification design. Many key conjectures—such as the activation mechanism of the 'Paradox' and whether individuals above the eighth tier possess 'Correction Resistance'—require more precise experiments and longer observation periods to confirm. Our manpower and time... are still too strained."
"In other words, while knowledge is passed down through recording crystals, the process of wizards digesting, understanding, and innovating upon it cannot be accelerated."
Frost's brow furrowed.
He understood the need for scientific rigor, but the battlefield waited for no one.
"I see. I will do my utmost to draw this battle into a war of attrition and buy you time. But the enemy's resolve is different this time. The time I can stall... I'm afraid it won't be for long."
"That will be enough, Commander." Jieming nodded, then made a request. "Additionally, during the battle, I hope all combat units can capture and transmit real-time visual data of every Scythe-Skull Race individual they encounter—especially the details of the Honor Shells on their chests and any unique markings on their bodies."
"To further verify your hypothesis? To confirm whether those 'partially collected' individuals have truly 'perfectly recovered,' and whether those 'completely erased' have vanished entirely?" Frost immediately grasped the intent.
"Yes. While the verification at the outpost camp supported our hypothesis, the sample size and environment were limited," Jieming explained. "I need a massive amount of data from a large-scale, high-intensity frontal battlefield for cross-verification and statistical analysis. This will help us assess the coverage, precision, and potential blind spots of the 'Behind-the-Scenes Will's' editing abilities."
"Understood. I will issue this as a tactical order," Frost replied. He turned away and began transmitting detailed defense and delay instructions through the magic network.
Before long, four terrifying pressures that could alter the very heavens and earth rolled in from the horizon, like four mobile mountains of Law.
The eighth-tier Scythe-Skull Race chiefs had arrived on the battlefield again, much earlier than any previous general offensive.
Jieming looked up at the four colossal, dark-gold figures, yet his heart remained calm. A faint, mocking smile even touched his lips.
He thought of the corpse of the eighth-tier chief from the previous round, stored within his internal grotto-heaven.
He recalled the scene upon his return to the camp: the moment he retrieved the body, it was instantly erased by the paradox.
This proved that even an eighth-tier existence—at least an eighth-tier Scythe-Skull Race chief—could not escape this thorough deletion based on spacetime continuity.
The fact that one of the eighth-tier chiefs was now missing served as confirmation of his theory.
Storing them directly into a grotto-heaven would be the cleanest and most efficient solution... The thought flashed through Jieming's mind, but he immediately suppressed it.
For a wizard, killing was never the ultimate goal. Understanding and mastering the mysteries behind it was.
These eighth-tier chiefs were, in themselves, the most precious living specimens for studying reincarnation and that "Behind-the-Scenes Will."
The reason Jieming had immediately released the bodies of the eighth-tier chiefs upon returning to camp was precisely because he wanted to see if they would recover in the next round.
The peak-stage duel in the sky played out once more.
Frost fought four enemies single-handedly, his silver-gray figure weaving through the raging law turbulence, drawing the battlefield high into the air.
Meanwhile, the battle on the ground and at low altitudes strictly followed the "delay and attrition" script.
The wizards did not commit their main force, relying instead on the updated and iterated biochemical beast swarm to withstand the onslaught.
These silver-gray killing machines, like a living tide, repeatedly clashed with, devoured, and split from the black insect tide, holding the front line firmly without rushing to advance.
Meanwhile, Jieming and several specially drafted wizards, all experts in high-speed information processing, set up a makeshift "image processing hub" in a corner of the observation platform.
A massive torrent of real-time footage from every corner of the frontline poured into the rune arrays before them like a waterfall of light.
Each frame was rapidly analyzed, its key features extracted.
The color distribution of the Honor Shell, the unique patterns on the carapace, the old scars on the limbs...
Countless details were encoded and cross-referenced at high speed against the feature database stored within Jieming's internal grotto-heaven—data gathered from the previous "partial collection" mission.
It was an incredibly mentally taxing task. Jieming's mental power ran at full throttle, simultaneously processing hundreds of comparison threads. The other specially chosen wizards, all data analysis experts, performed their respective roles, continuously filtering and making preliminary judgments.
Amidst the flood of data, a conclusion gradually emerged:
"Area K-7712, image match successful. Target identified as a fourth-tier 'Piercer' variant. The unique bone spike arrangement at the base of the right wing matches the 'partial collection-right wing sample.' The living individual's wings are intact, with no interruptions in the bone spike sequence."
"Swarm S-3098, match found... sixth-tier 'Commander' variant. The depth of the third groove on the left side of the head crest matches the data from 'Partial Collection - Head Crest Fragment.' The living individual's head crest is intact, with continuous grooves."
"No living individuals corresponding to 'Partial Collection' samples show any missing tissue or abnormal healing."
"No visual records have been retrieved of any living individuals corresponding to 'Whole-Collection/Disappeared' samples."
The results once again confirmed the previous findings.
The power of time reversal tended to "repair" or "overwrite" partially "cut" organisms into a complete state.
As for individuals completely removed from the timeline, it simply "deleted" their existence and corrected the relevant logical chains.
Half a month passed in a blur of data streams and flesh-and-blood attrition.
Though the wizards did their utmost to control the pace, the Scythe-Skull Race's assault this time was unprecedented in its madness and disregard for casualties.
The biochemical beast swarm's attrition rate began to outpace its replenishment, and the pressure on the defense lines grew by the day.
When the monitoring data showed the total number of Scythe-Skull Race members approaching the critical threshold for triggering reincarnation once again, Frost knew they had reached the absolute limit of their delay.
"Execute the final cleanup procedure! All research units, seal all data immediately!" His command was decisive and clear.
On the platform, Jieming and the others had already been prepared.
Instruments were shut down, crystals sealed, and notes archived... everything proceeded with methodical precision.
Jieming expanded his mental power, spreading it out like an invisible giant net to sweep all the critical research materials on the platform into his internal grotto-heaven.
The moment the last crystal vanished into the grotto-heaven, that irresistible pull from the world's origin descended once more.
This time, Jieming "felt" it with extraordinary clarity.
He could even "sense" a certain anchoring effect between his consciousness and body as they were swept back through the reverse flow of time—the resistance granted by the evolution of his body tempering method was taking effect.
Darkness swallowed his vision.
But this time, the darkness was not a void.
Countless vivid images, sounds, data, and insights... the complete memories of the sixth reincarnation, preserved like a pristine archive, were seared into the depths of his soul at the final moment before his consciousness sank into oblivion.
Jieming emerged from the spatial rift, his body remaining perfectly still.
There was no dizziness, no disorientation—only the calm of stepping back into a familiar scene.
He opened his eyes. Behind him stood three thousand support wizards, their expressions slightly bewildered. Before him, his own alert units waited in formation. In the distance, the horizon began to writhe.
The seventh reincarnation.
He remembered everything from the sixth reincarnation in full detail: Frost's tactical arrangements, the Scythe-Skull Race's frenzied all-out assault, every single detail from the image comparisons, and his own methodical "data salvage" before the time reversal.
"Captain?" a teammate asked from behind.
Jieming turned, his gaze sweeping over the companions he was about to fight alongside once more. His voice was steady and certain.
"I'm fine. Get ready. We have work to do."
He looked up as Frost flew toward them from the command platform.
After completing the routine opening of each reincarnation, Jieming's immediate focus was not on the battle, but on the "constant" data that required continuous monitoring.
He mobilized the logistics wizards, combined the detailed data from the previous few rounds stored in his grotto-heaven, and performed a high-precision review of the current plane's basic elemental abundance, energy tide baseline, space curvature parameters, and so on.
The results were out quickly: everything was normal.
There was no 0.3% systemic decay, no slight loosening at the law level.
The basic "constants" of the plane were as steady as a rock, completely matching the data baseline of the fourth round.
"As expected..." Jieming stood in front of the runic light screen in the laboratory, looking at the comparison results with a look of understanding in his heart. "The energy decay observed in the last round was not the 'wear and tear' of time reversal itself, but the 'cost' caused by our experiment."
With the data support, the result was obvious:
When time reversal occurred, in order to "repair" the Scythe-Skull Race individuals who had been "partially collected" by him and make them whole again, the plane needed to consume extra energy and "information", extracting data from an earlier timeline or some kind of "backup" to fill in the parts cut out by Jieming.
This "repair" operation was the source of that 0.3% decay.
And those individuals who were stored in the grotto-heaven in their entirety, because their existence was completely "deleted", the repair logic did not apply, and instead, there might not have been such a loss.
(End of the Chapter)
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