Translator: AnubisTL
A colossal rift, stretching across the sky like a wound from the abyss, slowly widened.
The once azure sky was now stained by the rift's eerie nothingness, as if it were a deathly void devouring all light.
"Is... is the sky collapsing?!"
The void-like fissure, spanning the heavens like a primordial wound, devoured light and hope.
Jieming's mind froze for an instant, his pupils contracting to pinpricks as every hair on his body stood on end.
He had witnessed high-tier power before, but never anything so colossal—a force capable of tearing apart entire planes with ease.
Even when he witnessed a seventh-tier wizard forcibly breach the planar barrier during the Elosia Plane trial, it paled in comparison to the overwhelming dread and despair he felt now.
Yet Jieming quickly snapped out of his shock.
He noticed that at the center of the sky-rending rift, a strikingly familiar "sphere" had appeared.
It was the ship plane—the very place he had once inhabited, now utterly familiar to him.
"So that's it," Jieming realized instantly.
The celestial commotion wasn't the sky collapsing, but rather the ship plane and the Flamefrost Plane colliding under Master Augustine's manipulation in a cataclysmic "mutual contact and collision"!
This spectacle was ten thousand times more terrifying than anything Jieming had witnessed in the Elosia Plane.
He had once seen a seventh-tier wizard forcibly tear open the sky of a plane, and he had thought that was already astonishing enough.
But witnessing planes colliding in such a savage and direct manner, the resulting chaos was even more terrifying, leaving an indelible mark on his soul.
No wonder Mentor Clark said some Planar Wizards find the indigenous populations surrendering the moment they invade. With an invasion like this... only a few would have the courage to resist, right?
As this thought flashed through his mind, Jieming immediately realized another crucial implication:
Wait... does this mean Master Augustine has brought the ship plane back?
This realization flooded Jieming's mind with questions.
But the most pressing—the first one that came to him—was also the most lethal:
"Wait! Here's the real question: how did Augustine return so quickly?!"
Jieming's mind raced.
He recalled the intelligence he had gathered about the Flamefrost Plane:
As everyone knew, the Flamefrost Plane's outer regions experienced an extremely accelerated flow of time due to the constant illumination from the Water Elemental Plane Projection.
This temporal distortion posed a massive challenge for wizards in the chaotic void seeking to travel to and from the Flamefrost Plane. Even a brief departure could mean years, or even decades, had passed within the plane!
Yet Augustine had managed to pilot the ship plane back to the junction point, summon reinforcements from the main plane, and return through a planar collision—all in a matter of months!
From the perspective of the wizard world, this was undoubtedly lightning-fast.
But given the Flamefrost Plane's accelerated time flow, it should have been utterly impossible!
"Wait... accelerated time flow?" Jieming froze as the term flashed through his mind.
His gaze instantly locked onto the lava giants still surging forward relentlessly, only to be blocked by the node's barrier.
More precisely, it was the energy fields enveloping the lava giants—the fields capable of generating a "time stop domain"!
Jieming felt certain truths crystallize in his mind, as if layers of fog were being peeled away.
The lava giants and snow monsters, two mortal enemies, had each set out from opposite ends of the Flamefrost Plane, converging toward its center.
The crucial point was that both carried energy fields capable of freezing time.
When they converged in this manner, it meant the entire Flamefrost Plane had been instantly enveloped by a strategic-level "time stop domain"!
Although the wizards, having prepared in advance and protected by "temporal stability anchors," were temporarily unaffected by the time freeze and could continue operating normally, the Flamefrost Plane itself had indeed been frozen in time!
The chaotic void sea's temporal currents were inherently unstable, with each plane's time flow relatively independent.
While time had stopped in the Flamefrost Plane, time in other planes continued to flow normally.
According to the time standard of the ship plane, Augustine could pilot the ship plane from the Flamefrost Plane back to the junction point to retrieve reinforcements and return in less than an hour.
However!
From the Flamefrost Plane's perspective, this brief external time frame often corresponded to at least ten years, or even longer!
But when the entire Flamefrost Plane was completely enveloped by the strategic-level time stop domain, the situation reversed.
Regardless of how much time passed in the outside world—that is, in the other planes of the chaotic void sea—here, everything remained frozen in the moment the time stop was activated.
Thus, within the "same frozen moment" across the entire Flamefrost Plane, Master Augustine calmly returned with a massive wave of reinforcements aboard the ship plane.
This realization struck not only Jieming but also the other wizards after a moment's reflection.
But this understanding led to an even deeper, more unsettling conclusion.
"This... does this mean?!" A second-tier wizard at the same node as Jieming's eyes widened in shock. "Augustine... he's been allied with the monsters of the Flamefrost Plane all along?!"
"Damn it! That old fox!!"
The surrounding wizards immediately realized the truth.
After all, wizards weren't fools; on the contrary, they were exceptionally intelligent.
The perfunctory performances of both sides during the battle, combined with Master Augustine's precise return with the ship plane and reinforcements, made it glaringly obvious that the two factions had already formed an alliance.
While the wizards were furious at being manipulated like monkeys, they quickly shifted their focus to a new question:
If Augustine and the monsters had already allied, then... who was their true enemy?!
Undoubtedly, if two mortal enemy races could set aside their hatred—even betraying their own planes to "cooperate" with the wizard civilization—and act with such meticulous caution...
It was clear they were facing an enemy far more terrifying and powerful than the wizards themselves!
Yet to this day, the wizards had scoured nearly every corner of the Flamefrost Plane without finding any trace of other intelligent life.
This eerie and unknown phenomenon cast a heavy shadow over the hearts of all the wizards.
Compared to the others, Jieming was pondering even deeper.
At that moment, he immediately understood why the lava giants and snow monsters couldn't produce Mortal Dust Qi.
"Truly... the most troublesome scenario..." Jieming murmured, unable to suppress a sigh.
Earlier, when he discovered that neither of these monster races could generate Mortal Dust Qi, Jieming had already considered numerous possibilities.
After all, the Great Dao Library Pavilion contained extensive information on this subject. With a little research, he could easily imagine various explanations.
For Jieming, the best-case scenario would have been that these two races were actually one or two "shared consciousness" entities.
Each individual lava giant or snow monster would merely be a cell within this vast organism.
A single cell, naturally, couldn't form the concept of "society," and therefore couldn't produce Mortal Dust Qi.
If that were the case, finding the "main body" would solve everything.
But the worst-case scenario had now come to pass: the monster populations of the Flamefrost Plane were "owned"!
This could be seen in the other conquered or enslaved races living under the wizard civilization.
These races, too, were unable to provide Jieming with Mortal Dust Qi.
This was because, conceptually, they didn't form a "true society" but existed in a state of "captivity," "colonization," or, more accurately, "cultivation."
Now, Wizard Augustine's alliance with the two monster races and the monsters' abnormal behavior clearly indicated that behind these two monster groups lay an even more powerful "overlord"!
Thus, Jieming had taken his understanding one step further than the surrounding wizards.
However, this realization only deepened his anxiety.
For any entity capable of enslaving two such powerful and numerous monster races—whether a civilization or a collection of independent individuals—their strength would undoubtedly be immense.
At the same time, Jieming was deeply curious about where this mysterious enemy was hiding.
So many wizards had scoured nearly every corner of the Flamefrost Plane, yet they had found no trace of any other civilization or its overlord!
This was the truly terrifying part!
However, Jieming didn't have time to dwell on it further.
Buzz... buzz... buzz...
From the magic net terminals and communication devices at each node, the unified command of three fifth-tier wizards suddenly rang out, their voices carrying unprecedented gravity and urgency:
"Everyone! Face the camp! Prepare for impact!"
Though the order came abruptly, the wizards reacted without hesitation.
As battle-hardened veterans, they understood their commanders' intentions implicitly.
Moreover, since Augustine had openly revealed his collaboration with the two monster races, complying with this order was no longer a question.
Almost simultaneously, every node instantly retracted the energy that had been dispersed across the surrounding area.
Then, facing the camp, they deployed an immensely thick energy shield!
Layer upon layer of glowing rune barriers stacked upon each other, forming a colossal elemental steel city wall!
Meanwhile, the wizards not operating the nodes swiftly withdrew their offensive power and activated their most potent defensive measures.
Magic shields, force field barriers, spatial distortions... a dazzling array of protective spells instantly illuminated the battlefield.
(End of the Chapter)
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