Translator: AnubisTL
A battle between planes should have been a soul-shaking cosmic spectacle.
Yet, deep within the ship plane, as a mere cog in this colossal war machine, Jieming's feelings were complex—thrilling, yet strangely monotonous.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
On the energy screen, beams of energy capable of vaporizing mountain ranges sliced through the void, crashing relentlessly into the Living Flamefrost Plane below.
Each impact reverberated with deafening roars, accompanied by soul fluctuations from the plane itself, like pained howls.
The Living Flamefrost Plane retaliated fiercely. Its massive magma maw spewed flames that incinerated all in their path, while the qi clouds that formed its eyes churned into energy storms capable of distorting the void.
Both sides employed intricate tactical maneuvers and precise calculations in their offensive and defensive strategies.
Through the node's main control screen, Jieming could observe simulated data on energy transfers, rune links, and elemental tides.
Yet from the outside, the two planes appeared to be merely hurling massive energy cannons at each other in a crude, brutal display devoid of any aesthetic appeal.
And Jieming's own mission was utterly tedious.
As a cog in the vast war machine, an insignificant component, Jieming's sole task was to follow instructions from the magic net terminal, precisely manipulating his assigned node.
Increase energy output, adjust rune frequency, stabilize space fluctuations... the cycle repeated endlessly.
It couldn't be said his mission was pointless, as the proper functioning of each node contributed to the ship plane's offensive and defensive efficiency.
Yet he felt utterly disconnected from the action.
More often than not, Jieming felt like an audience member in a control room, watching a grand spectacle unfold on the screen.
"The tension is certainly palpable," he couldn't help but mutter inwardly. "After all, if the ship plane falls, we all die. This is a real planar war, after all..."
This life-or-death pressure paradoxically provided a peculiar thrill, preventing him from dozing off out of sheer boredom.
However, even as the battle raged fiercely, with external energy fluctuations threatening to tear the void apart, Jieming remained idle enough to meticulously observe the unfolding situation.
"Something's wrong..."
Suddenly, Jieming's mind snapped to attention. Amidst the data stream, he had detected an anomaly!
Against all expectations, the ship plane, controlled by Augustine, was holding its own against the fury of the Living Flamefrost Plane!
This far exceeded Jieming's predictions.
He acknowledged that the ship plane itself had been extensively modified by wizards. Its internal structure, from the core energy furnace to the outer armor, was far more robust than that of ordinary planes.
Moreover, the wizards operating this war fortress numbered in the tens of thousands, all elite practitioners.
Previously, the Flamefrost Plane had suffered a severe blow from Augustine's "Earth Vein Core Strike," leaving it heavily damaged and unable to fully unleash its power.
But Jieming wasn't underestimating Master Augustine.
Though the sixth-tier wizard possessed unfathomable power, based on Jieming's knowledge of "living planes," there was no logical reason why the wizards should be able to gain even the slightest advantage in a pure clash of "mass." Maintaining equilibrium alone should have been an immense challenge!
The wizards' strength was undeniable.
Through their profound understanding of various knowledge domains, they could consistently defy the odds, defeating stronger opponents in the endless planes.
Unfortunately, "living planes" were precisely the kind of exception that slipped through the net!
Living planes, unique entities possessing self-awareness, could effortlessly crush wizards of the same tier and even challenge those a tier above.
The fundamental reason for this lay in the sheer scale of these lifeforms, which were born directly from the planes themselves.
According to the wizards' classification of living beings, living planes were immediately categorized as sixth-tier creatures upon their creation.
However, unlike wizards, who even at the sixth-tier typically only mastered one or a few fundamental rules...
Even smaller living planes could fully grasp at least several million complete fundamental rules from the moment of their birth!
For larger living planes, like the Flamefrost Plane, which could nurture extraordinary species like lava giants and snow monsters, the number of fully mastered rules could easily exceed one hundred million!
The wizards' dominant position among the endless planes stemmed primarily from their formidable combat prowess.
This power derived from their ability to leverage elemental principles through knowledge, amplifying their strength exponentially.
Upon reaching the sixth-tier wizard level, one gains not only vast knowledge but also the support of complete rule systems. Amplifying a single unit of power by hundreds of thousands of times becomes commonplace, and exceptional wizards can even achieve millionfold amplification.
However, from its very inception, the living plane possessed rule systems numbering in the millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions!
While the living plane's depth of control over individual rules couldn't match the sixth-tier wizard's extreme "precise mastery," its absolute numerical superiority compensated for this.
Any single wizard's rule-based attack would be diluted and weakened by the living plane's vast network of rules.
This alone was enough for the living plane to suppress an ordinary sixth-tier wizard in a rule-based confrontation.
Moreover, the energy and matter contained within the living plane dwarfed that of a sixth-tier wizard by countless orders of magnitude!
Even with the ship plane providing reinforcement and replenishment, theoretical calculations suggested that defeating the living plane through conventional wizardry was an almost impossible task.
Yet, in reality, Master Augustine was engaged in a fierce back-and-forth battle with the living plane, showing no signs of being overwhelmed.
Each attack from the ship plane elicited furious roars from the living plane.
The living plane's counterattacks were perfectly blocked by the ship plane's sturdy defensive barrier.
Jieming carefully observed the data feedback from the ship plane and the intensely discordant energy fluctuations emanating from the living plane's activity below. He couldn't help but speculate inwardly:
"The damage from the Earth Vein Core Strike... seems far greater than anticipated?"
He noticed that each of the living plane's counterattacks was accompanied by a faint but undeniable tremor originating from within. Its core energy flow also appeared to have a massive disruption.
The living plane was enduring immense pain every moment!
Because of this agony, it couldn't fully concentrate its power. Many of its potential abilities remained suppressed.
"Wait... pain?!"
Jieming's heart jolted. He recalled Viola's earlier expression of morbid delight and her words.
Almost instinctively, he whipped his head around to look at Viola, who was standing beside him, watching the luminous display outside the porthole with rapturous fascination.
Viola's face was twisted with feverish excitement, her lips curving into a sinister smile. As if she had anticipated Jieming's discovery, the cunning and bloodlust in her eyes could no longer be concealed the moment he turned to look at her.
"Oh? You figured it out?"
(End of the Chapter)