Translator: AnubisTL
Jieming coldly observed the two wizard corpses gradually losing their life force at his feet.
He felt nothing. In the wizarding world, only the survivors had the right to claim the spoils of war.
With a swift motion, he grabbed the corpses by their icy ankles. A slight flex of his muscles sent the bodies hurtling mercilessly into the eerie, crimson "hatchery."
Splash!
Two soft splashes echoed, quickly drowned out by a chilling, sizzling sound.
The blood-red liquid within the hatchery possessed an extraordinary ability to decompose and absorb all matter.
The wizards' flesh and blood were as fragile as paper in this corrosive substance. In the blink of an eye, the mangled corpses were completely devoured, melted away without leaving even a trace of bone fragments.
The surface of the pool returned to its eerie stillness, its crimson hue the only sign that anything had occurred.
Jieming watched calmly.
He could sense the magic-nullifying field rapidly dissipating as the energy crystal's power waned.
This was a common flaw in magic-nullifying artifacts: though powerful, their effects were often short-lived.
"Judging by the time, reinforcements should be arriving soon. I need to hurry and deal with this thing."
With a thought, Jieming reestablished his mental connection with the rune-imbued magical artifacts scattered across the floor.
The deactivated rune-imbued magical artifacts and Floating Cannon Array flickered back to life, trembling as they levitated into formation behind Jieming, assuming their familiar "Great Light Phase" configuration.
Jieming wasted no time searching for fallen spoils; those items were far less valuable than the "hatchery" before him.
He immediately channeled the power of alchemy and the rune-imbued magical artifacts, precisely and brutally severing the entire chamber occupied by the "hatchery"—including the crimson pool, the intricate energy circuits extending beneath it, and the massive rock slab nearly the size of a small house—in a single, decisive strike!
The colossal rock slab, bearing the crimson pool, was truly enormous!
Jieming measured it with a glance, confirming with regret that it couldn't fit into his internal space.
Fortunately, he had other options.
Jieming retrieved a space expansion pouch from his internal space. With a mental command, he stuffed the massive boulder, along with its crimson hatchery and the surrounding earth, into the pouch.
"Thank goodness for this space expansion pouch... and that my allocation was just enough," Jieming thought, feeling a surge of relief.
Such spatial equipment was considered special military supplies within the wizard legion, a kind of benefit.
Only after wizards had thoroughly analyzed the spatial rules of a particular otherworld could they create corresponding space expansion pouches tailored to its properties.
These pouches were issued as standard equipment to every wizard, with the size typically determined by the wizard's contribution points earned during planar conquest missions.
As a Logistics Department wizard, Jieming received double the allocation of space expansion pouches compared to combat wizards of the same rank.
This allowed him to carry the massive boulder and hatchery, which were nearly the size of a small house, in a single pouch.
If an ordinary first-tier combat wizard had tried to cut the boulder free, they wouldn't have been able to fit it into their pouch, even if they managed to detach it.
Having dealt with these "personal" matters and ensured no traces remained, Jieming adjusted his posture, preparing to patiently await the arrival of reinforcements from the outside world.
Suddenly, the entire underground cavern beneath his feet began to tremble violently!
This was no ordinary tremor; it felt more like some terrifying, colossal force tearing the earth apart!
Then, the cavern's ceiling, previously dark and oppressive with the lingering scent of fire element qi, abruptly lit up, flooded with a blinding light!
Jieming's heart leaped as he snapped his head upward.
The sight that greeted him left him in a dazed stupor.
Above him, the hundreds of meters thick, several-kilometer-wide layer of rock and earth was being... "lifted" away!
It wasn't collapsing or shattering, but rather being forcibly extracted from the ground as if by an invisible, colossal hand.
Then, manipulated with slow, unwavering precision, the massive slab floated upward into the sky!
Jieming felt like an ant whose nest had been unearthed, suddenly exposed to the light of day.
The scorching, blinding rays, carrying the Blazing Sun Realm's characteristic sulfurous stench and the acrid scent of scorched earth, instantly illuminated the entire subterranean space previously sealed by stone.
As the familiar, scorching sunlight streamed down from the cracked ceiling, illuminating the space, Jieming's gaze was drawn to the spatial rift embedded in the sky, still resembling a bizarre, unblinking eye.
A profound shock reverberated through his mind.
This power... this mastery over power...
Snapping out of his daze, Jieming finally recognized the towering figure suspended in mid-air, orchestrating this spectacle—Viola!
She was enveloped in a milky-white radiance, her hair dancing wildly in the invisible elemental currents.
She appeared to be merely extending a hand, lightly grasping at the air above.
Yet this seemingly effortless gesture had forcefully lifted an enormous chunk of the earth's crust—a massive slab of rock and soil—along with the intricate network of lava giant nests, into the sky!
In any other otherworldly plane, such a magnificent sight would undoubtedly be hailed as a divine miracle.
"The power of a third-tier wizard..." Jieming murmured inwardly, his voice filled with genuine awe.
He had once heard about the hierarchical classification of wizard power.
A first-tier wizard could level a street, while a second-tier wizard could casually obliterate an entire town.
By the time a wizard reached the third tier, they could effortlessly destroy a small nation.
Previously, Jieming hadn't fully grasped the concrete implications of this power, as the third-tier wizards he'd witnessed rarely unleashed their full might on the battlefield.
But now, he finally experienced the most direct and awe-inspiring demonstration of their capabilities.
Take Viola, for example. To annihilate a nation, she wouldn't even need combat spells.
With her sheer mental power alone, she could lift a massive mass of earth and stone—covering hundreds of square kilometers and hundreds of meters thick—thousands of meters into the air, then simply drop it. The resulting kinetic and potential energy would be more than enough to obliterate a small nation!
"Well done, Little Jieming," a soft yet clear voice, tinged with admiration, whispered in Jieming's ear.
Viola had materialized beside him in an instant, her figure appearing as if from thin air.
Her gaze seemed to hold a hint of surprise.
Jieming's heart skipped a beat.
He suddenly realized something was off!
"Senior Viola..." Jieming quickly composed himself. "When... when did you arrive here?"
"Hmm... let me think. I arrived shortly after you three cleared the first wave of berserk lava giants in the cave," Viola said casually, a hint of subtle cunning in her tone.
Jieming's heart leaped in alarm!
If Viola had arrived right after they cleared the first wave of crazed lava giants...
That meant she had witnessed everything that followed: the second-tier wizard's ambush, the first-tier wizard's death, his own counterattack that killed the second-tier wizard, and even how he disposed of the two corpses... Viola had seen it all!
He quickly regained his composure. Judging by Viola's attitude, she didn't seem to care about the wizards' deaths.
"You... saw everything?" Jieming asked directly, after a moment's thought.
Viola didn't answer immediately. Instead, with a casual flick of her wrist, she hurled the massive boulder she had been holding into the distance, creating a tsunami-like shockwave.
She waved her hand to deflect the roaring shockwave and nodded at Jieming with satisfaction. "Indeed, I witnessed some... 'minor incidents' that followed."
Her tone was so casual it bordered on nonchalant, as if she were discussing a trivial matter. "Originally, I planned to intervene and save you after the second-tier wizard attacked. It would have taught you a lesson—to be more cautious and not trust everyone so easily."
"But you... Jieming, you handled this perfectly. Even better than I could have imagined." A flicker of undisguised admiration shone in Viola's eyes, a recognition of the cold-bloodedness and decisiveness Jieming had displayed.
After all, Clark had entrusted her with watching over his junior brother.
Upon receiving the distress signal, Viola had flown to the scene at top speed, only to witness this scene.
"I'm very satisfied. You survived and eliminated all traces. No loose ends—this is far better than I expected."
"Mentor Clark praised you before, but I didn't believe him. Now I see it for myself: you really are a genius, kid."
As for the two dead wizards?
Viola didn't even glance at the now-empty blood pool.
"After all, they weren't wizards from our Noren Workshop," Viola said, her tone as indifferent as if discussing two irrelevant passersby, radiating an extreme coldness.
"In these wilderness battles, a wizard's death is perfectly normal. They crushed the beacon, so when we can't find them here, the camp will simply register them as having died in action."
"So don't worry. As long as no one knows what happened here, the camp won't investigate further, and the various factions won't make a fuss about it."
Listening to Viola's "guidance," a warmth spread through Jieming's heart.
Just then, several dazzling streaks of light shot across the distant horizon, rapidly approaching their location. These were the reinforcement wizards dispatched by the Wizard Camp.
They had been drawn here by the magic net terminals that Jieming and the others had crushed.
Meanwhile, Jieming and Viola pretended to "search" the massive, roofless cavern one more time.
After confirming that there were no "important discoveries" left behind—or rather, no suspicious items that "shouldn't be here"—
they finally joined the arriving reinforcement wizards and returned to the camp together.
(End of the Chapter)
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