Translator: AnubisTL
With the successive falls of the two third-tier lava giants, the violent energy within the subterranean cavern abruptly diminished.
However, Jieming and the other two wizards had no time to rest.
The battlefield situation didn't calm down immediately after the chiefs' deaths. Instead, it was like a powder keg had been ignited, plunging into an even more frenzied state!
Far from being intimidated by the deaths of their leaders, the surrounding lava giants grew even more berserk!
Their eyes burned with fiercer rage as they unleashed deafening war cries. As if driven mad, they charged relentlessly at the three human wizards, heedless of any consequences.
The sheer number of lava giants in the cavern was beyond imagination.
"Damn it! Have they gone mad?!" The second-tier wizard exclaimed in alarm, his already dwindling mental power rapidly draining away.
Jieming's expression remained unwavering.
The sight of the densely packed lava giants surging toward them was indeed terrifying, but to Jieming, the pressure they exerted still paled in comparison to that of the third-tier lava giant.
Most importantly, his greatest strength lay in commanding large-scale battles against enemies not superior to his own power.
He unleashed the energy bullets of the Great Light Phase, spreading them out like a torrential energy flood that ruthlessly blasted away any lava giants attempting to approach.
Alternating between High-Frequency Sonic Suppression and a downgraded version of Lava Annihilation, each strike instantly disintegrated the second-tier elite units among the lava giants, reducing them to scorched fragments that rained down like ash.
The first-tier wizard hid behind the two, desperately casting healing spells to sustain himself while occasionally supporting them with small-scale destructive spells.
But his meager attacks were like a drop in the bucket against the overwhelming tide of lava giants.
Even Jieming hadn't anticipated such an absurd number of lava giants in this cavern.
From the depths of the cavern, lava giants seemed to emerge endlessly, their fangs bared and claws extended as they lunged at the trio.
The three wizards could only mechanically unleash their attacks, desperately trying to clear as many of the fearless enemies as possible before being overwhelmed by the raging lava giants.
They fought relentlessly for nearly half an hour, until the lava giants' near-suicidal charges gradually subsided within the vast underground cavern.
After confirming that no more lava giants were emerging from the earth meridian's depths or the fissures in the rock walls, even Jieming let out a slight sigh of relief.
Releasing the "acceleration" technique that had been causing his soul excruciating pain, Jieming exhaled deeply, feeling a wave of exhaustion wash over him.
He briefly sensed the reserves within the three metal disc-like energy storage runic artifacts at the center of the Great Light Phase.
The battle against the third-tier lava giant had only consumed half the energy of one rune-imbued magical artifact.
Yet these lower-tier lava giants had drained an entire metal disc's reserves.
What made it worse was that the earlier battle had been so perilous that none of them had dared hold back, forcing them to unleash their full power.
As a result, despite the grueling fight, they had gained little of practical value.
"Let's hope the information we get from the third-tier lava giant makes up for this loss," Jieming sighed, turning toward the fallen giant.
At the same moment, the second-tier wizard, panting heavily, also looked up.
Their eyes met, and they nodded to each other, both understanding the other's thoughts.
With unspoken understanding, the two wizards moved toward the corpses of the third-tier lava giants they had slain. But when Jieming reached the giant's body, his expression darkened.
The soul of the third-tier lava giant he had obliterated had completely dissipated due to the time lost during the intense battle. Not even a fragment remained for soul searching.
"Targeted destruction spells can even obliterate souls... That makes sense..." Jieming realized, his frustration growing. "Damn it, I missed out on extracting information from its soul."
He glanced at the second-tier wizard beside him, who was now cursing vehemently, clearly facing the same predicament.
Jieming felt a pang of regret, but his composure remained largely unshaken. After all, survival had been paramount during that desperate breakout and life-or-death struggle. Moreover, the loss wasn't catastrophic for him.
Thanks to the unique properties of his rune-imbued magical artifact, Jieming had only expended some mental power and energy reserves, both of which could be replenished. At most, he had lost some time and magic potions.
In contrast, the other two wizards had nearly exhausted their resources in the battle, only to gain nothing. It was a devastating loss for them.
Once the second-tier wizard had calmed down, the trio rested briefly to replenish some mental power before resuming their journey.
After expending so much energy in the fight, they were determined to find something within the cavern to compensate for their losses.
As they moved forward, Jieming noticed a dramatic shift in the wizards' attitudes toward him.
The second-tier wizard, in particular, seemed unusually reserved.
After all, the two wizards had witnessed firsthand the astonishing combat prowess Jieming had displayed during the battle.
The second-tier wizard knew all too well that in a direct confrontation, he wouldn't last more than a few rounds against Jieming.
Jieming was aware of this shift, but for now, he focused on another matter.
Earlier, his Fifth-Tier Space Jump Wizard Artifact—a powerful spell artifact capable of piercing spatial barriers—had been completely disrupted by the cavern's internal forces!
This undoubtedly indicated the presence of some extraordinarily unique and mysterious entity hidden within.
If they could find something special here, this trip might even turn a profit.
As they searched, an unsettling feeling lingered in the trio's minds.
After the brutal battle, the cave had become strangely "clean"!
Apart from the scattered remains of lava giants and the destroyed vegetation, there were virtually no surviving lava giants to be found.
Unlike the small-to-medium-sized stronghold Jieming had previously cleared, where even after the main battle, some stragglers remained hidden.
As they ventured deeper, even the corpses of the lava giants vanished completely.
The cave now felt as if all the lava giants had "voluntarily" rushed to their deaths in the previous battle, leaving not a single survivor!
This only deepened Jieming's curiosity.
Though lava giants were elemental creatures, they were still fundamentally living beings.
Possessing self-awareness, social structures, and a natural fear of death, their near-suicidal charge seemed utterly irrational.
Moreover, based on the earlier battle, the proportion of second-tier lava giants within this cave was also highly anomalous.
In typical lava giant strongholds, second-tier lava giants were rare, comprising only a tiny fraction of the population.
Yet during the recent battle, the number of second-tier lava giants had been nearly one-tenth the number of first-tier lava giants!
This proportion far exceeded what was commonly observed in the outside world, even surpassing the elite ratio during the initial landing campaign!
"There's definitely something unusual here..."
All three wizards sensed this unsettling anomaly, prompting them to proceed with even greater caution.
Not far from the plant "plantation" lay another "ranch" where the lava giants kept livestock.
This consisted of several enclosures formed by special rock walls, housing otherworldly beings adapted to extreme heat. These creatures, resembling massive lizards with rock-like carapaces, lay sprawled on the ground, gnawing on crimson leaves.
Clearly, these beings served as the lava giants' primary food source.
Every few steps, Jieming activated his Universal Eye, scanning for any anomalous spatial fluctuations nearby.
Jieming would then advance toward areas with denser and more chaotic spatial fluctuations.
Persistence pays off.
After the trio had traveled over ten kilometers, Jieming finally detected an anomaly deep within a hidden rock wall.
The spatial fluctuations there were extremely faint, yet they carried a distorted gravitational pull.
Following this subtle distortion, they soon arrived at an extremely concealed tunnel that descended deeper into the earth.
The tunnel was so narrow it could barely be called a passage, a stark contrast to the spacious lair of the lava giant they had encountered earlier.
As they ventured further into the tunnel, a vast chamber suddenly opened before them.
In the darkness, a powerful wave of energy surged toward them, carrying the primal essence of life.
When they finally saw what lay within the chamber, even the experienced second-tier wizard and Jieming, the well-informed logistics wizard, couldn't suppress their shock!
It was a man-made lava pool.
Relatively small, only about ten meters in diameter, its perfectly circular shape was bordered by meticulously carved rune-etched stones.
What was most astonishing, however, was the liquid within the lava pool.
Though extremely viscous and steaming with intense heat, its color was an eerie, vivid crimson—resembling not molten rock, but actual blood!
A dense, complex aura of life force, along with some primal energy fluctuations, emanated from the lava pool.
Though Jieming was seeing it for the first time with his own eyes, he instantly recognized its origin: this was one of the lava giants' unique "resources"—a hatching pool!
Fragments of conversations he'd overheard among the biological wizards at the Wizard Camp about the lava giants' reproductive methods immediately surfaced in his mind.
Lava giants have no distinct sexes; their primary mode of reproduction is the more primitive method of "autonomous fission."
The process is remarkably simple: a lava giant merely needs to detach a fragment from its core and toss it into an energy-rich lava pool.
Nourished by the lava's power, the fragment—bearing the giant's life imprint—rapidly grows into a completely new lava giant.
(End of the Chapter)
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