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Translator: AnubisTL
As the battle subsided, Jieming quickly turned his consciousness inward to assess his condition.
The energy reserves of the [Great Light Phase] array were more than half depleted, and his rune-imbued magical artifacts had also suffered significant drain. Fortunately, the Internal Factory within him could soon replenish them.
The black giant core was being nourished inside the nest, awaiting reshaping.
Meanwhile, the nest's incubation area was running at full capacity to replace the lost Shuttle Hunters...
Overall, his core strength remained intact, but his conventional cannon fodder had been decimated.
He exhaled slowly, then finally turned his attention to his comrades—or rather, the surviving members of his legion.
Even with Jieming's legendary composure, the sight left him inwardly shaken.
The once-vast wizard legion of ten thousand, which had marched through the void with such might, now appeared drastically thinned.
The once-brilliant, multicolored lights of their spells had dimmed, replaced by a heavy, oppressive atmosphere.
The losses of cannon fodder units—stone golems, crystal cluster creatures, and the Ghost Legion—were catastrophic. Their wreckage floated in the void, forming desolate graveyards. This much had been expected.
But the casualties among the wizards themselves were staggering.
With a rough sense of the surroundings, Jieming realized that at least one-tenth of the mental fluctuations had vanished!
This meant that at least one thousand formal wizards had perished in the brutal battle to breach the planar barrier!
The number weighed heavily on Jieming's heart.
He had read the Star Ring Federation's archives on planar wars and knew all too well the cruelty of a wizard's first such campaign—the overall survival rate was less than five percent, a statistic built upon the corpses of countless geniuses.
However, that figure usually covered the entire, protracted expedition cycle.
Furthermore, after the first planar war, wizards' survival rates soared as they gained sufficient resources and combat experience.
For an expedition of this scale, like the one into the Giant Spirit Realm—a full-scale campaign that could last decades—the total casualty rate was typically kept around one-tenth.
Yet now, in just the initial landing, in the very first battle to tear through the enemy's outermost defenses, a ten-thousand-man legion had already suffered one-tenth casualties!
And the legion Jieming belonged to was merely a flanking force within the million-strong expeditionary army. The main force, led by a seventh-tier wizard, was still locked in a fierce struggle with the enemy.
"A civilization that warrants the vigilance of high-rank wizards... It truly lives up to its reputation," Jieming thought grimly.
This expedition was far more difficult than usual.
No wonder they had mobilized such a massive force and issued the order for "complete destruction."
"However, 'complete destruction' also means that high-rank wizards will no longer hold back for the sake of spoils of war. Their frequency and intensity of attacks will increase," Jieming analyzed calmly. "As long as we can stabilize the planar barrier's passage in the early stages, the subsequent battles might actually become... relatively 'easier' due to the direct intervention of high-tier powers."
In the chaotic void, high-rank wizards had to dedicate most of their strength to maintaining their law-solidified domains, leaving little power to spare.
Once they penetrated the plane's interior, the high-rank wizards would be able to free up their hands, significantly reducing the pressure on the expeditionary force.
He cast his gaze into the distance, toward the massive rift forcibly torn open by Balthasar, the "Star-Splitter."
Balthasar's figure had already vanished from its original position, having clearly followed the rift into the Giant Spirit Realm.
However, judging by the energy fluctuations emanating from within, his situation seemed far from optimistic.
Jieming focused his gaze, peering through the distorted energy turbulence and the yet-unsettled spatial ripples. He could faintly discern Balthasar's figure.
After breaking into the Giant Spirit Realm, Balthasar had not unleashed the slaughter in the enemy ranks as expected. Instead, he had adopted a defensive posture.
Inside the Giant Spirit Realm, freed from the interference of the Chaotic Void, the enemy's numerical advantage was fully unleashed.
As far as the eye could see, it was a truly "sky-covering and earth-shaking" torrent of steel!
Warships of various shapes, metal giant beasts that seemed alive, and some indescribable giant constructs surged toward Balthasar like a boiling ocean of metal.
Energy beams, solid shells, strange force fields...
Various attacks poured down like a torrential rain upon the position of the sixth-tier wizard.
Even more terrifying was that amidst the dense enemy swarm, there were several powerful auras that were in no way inferior to Balthasar's—those were the sixth-tier existences of the Giant Spirit Realm.
Even in the distant sky, an even more terrifying and vast pressure, as if the entire heaven and earth were resonating with it, was approaching this place at an alarming speed!
That was a Level 7 Being!
Even the top combatants of the Giant Spirit Realm had been roused by the commotion the wizards were stirring up!
Balthasar found himself in an utterly awkward predicament.
To prevent the breach in the planar barrier from rapidly sealing shut, he had no choice but to use his own body as a core, forcibly "wedging" himself into the thousands-of-li-long rift.
To a normal observer, Balthasar's burly form seemed insignificant compared to the rift that spanned hundreds of li.
But in Jieming's perception, though Balthasar's humanoid body appeared small, the presence he radiated was like a colossal pillar supporting the heavens. It was as if an invisible giant stood behind him, physically propping open the ever-shrinking, healing barrier channel.
The problem was that this posture left him as if bound by invisible shackles, unable to move freely. He could only passively endure the frenzied assaults raining down from all directions.
With a casual wave of his hand, he could unleash a surge of power that easily wiped out swaths of enemies, clearing a vast area in an instant.
But in the next moment, even more foes would relentlessly fill the void, utterly fearless in their advance.
Some even launched suicide attacks, desperate to land a single blow on him.
Even a swarm of ants could bring down an elephant—and these "ants" included creatures capable of actually harming the "elephant."
"What a damn nuisance!"
Balthasar's protective force field rippled violently. He let out a furious roar, the sound waves shattering the low-level units nearby, yet it still couldn't mask his passive and suffocating predicament.
He was holding his ground with great difficulty, but his steps never wavered. He did his best to block all attacks outside the rift, buying time for the rear.
Just then, another sixth-tier wizard finally completed the arrangement of his Law Solidification Domain and appeared before the rift in the planar barrier as if by teleportation.
The planar barrier was not a thin membrane but a boundary layer between the Plane Element Circle and the chaotic void. Its depth could stretch for tens of thousands of kilometers, more like a special "elemental atmosphere."
Therefore, tearing the planar barrier was actually opening a temporary passage through this thick "atmosphere."
And this passage would constantly be tried to be repaired and healed by the plane itself.
This also explained why Balthasar was so distressed.
In just this short time, the edges of the once-thousand-li-long giant rift had already begun to blur and shrink at a visible rate.
If Balthasar hadn't forced it open with his own great power, the passage would have already closed.
(End of the Chapter)
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