Chapter 256: Disappearance

A group of wizards was gradually advancing in this inverted sea of clouds world.

During this process, skirmishes would occasionally occur, intense and brief.

Days passed uneventfully like this for more than ten days.

According to Levin Mills's detection, they should have already checked half of the internal space of this twisted area.

Hearing this, the twelve recruited wizards, including Jie Ming, all showed satisfied expressions.

Although the duration of this mission was a bit longer than expected, everyone's gains during this period were beyond imagination.

Just as Jie Ke said at the beginning, the biological density inside this space-twisted area was much higher than outside.

And occasionally, some special, high-value resources would be collected.

Like the kind of magic potion raw material that can permanently improve spatial perception that Jie Ke mentioned before, quite a lot had been collected a few days ago.

Of course, in this process, the reconnaissance mosquito swarms they manipulated also suffered quite a lot of losses.

Although the stout wizard would replenish new mosquitoes in time, the spiritual shock brought about when the deep soul contract modified beasts died was still unavoidable.

Quite a few recruited Level 1 wizards had already become noticeably weaker, their faces pale.

Jie Ming's state was actually quite good.

After all, with the Qi Refining method that can integrate essence, energy, and spirit, his soul strength and physical fitness far surpassed wizards of the same level, and his recovery speed was naturally very fast.

Coupled with the adaptive evolution of the body-refining method, in the past few days, Jie Ming had even developed resistance to this level of spiritual shock.

However, because of the concerns arising from some anomalies discovered during this mission, he also appropriately disguised himself as weak to avoid attracting too much attention.

This day, after Jie Ming finished his search work in the morning, he was preparing to stop and contact others to exchange intelligence.

These mosquitoes, named "Glow Worms," were indeed reconnaissance-specialized biochemical modified beasts.

Besides reconnaissance and searching, they could also communicate with others in real-time through the spiritual connection between the mosquitoes.

The mosquitoes themselves could even act as communication lines; even the wizards furthest apart could contact each other through the communication network built between different people's mosquito swarms.

But just as the contact began, Jie Ming discovered something wrong.

The number was wrong—there was one person missing from the communication network for no reason!

The sudden change made the hair of all the wizards present stand on end.

Although every wizard was separated by tens or even hundreds of kilometers, through the communication network built by the mosquito swarms, they could still "contact" others in the team anytime, anywhere.

But under such circumstances, a wizard had actually disappeared silently!

What difference is this from a group of people walking together and one person suddenly disappearing?!

Through contact and confirmation with each other, it was soon confirmed that the missing wizard was one of the recruited wizards.

What was even more chilling was that the area where the opponent disappeared was not at the edge of the search line, but in a relatively middle position in the search line of a group of wizards.

Asking the wizards on both sides of the missing wizard, they all indicated that they did not sense any overly special energy fluctuations before or after the incident.

The wizards dared not be careless and immediately flew back at high speed to the search position of a day ago.

Only then did they cautiously circle the edge and gather together.

Because Jie Ming was in a relatively far position, he arrived relatively late.

As soon as he arrived, he saw a group of wizards anxiously surrounding the stout wizard.

And the stout wizard's expression was solemn; he kept his eyes closed tightly, seemingly contacting something through the mosquito swarm network.

After a while, until all the wizards had arrived and gathered, the stout wizard then opened his small eyes dejectedly.

He glanced at Levin Mills beside him and shook his head regretfully:

"Couldn't make contact. Those 'Glow Worms' are not dead, but they can't be contacted—"

"Is it because they encountered spatial distortion and were teleported too far away?" Jie Ke asked in a deep voice.

"No, they are still within the communicable range." The stout wizard shook his head, his expression strange, his face full of confusion, "It feels—like the bugs are ignoring my communication."

"What do you mean? Out of control? Or is the communication interrupted?" Levin Mills was stunned upon hearing this.

"No, it's exactly what it sounds like. Although I can contact those 'Glow Worms,' all my communication information is being ignored, including the wizard who has also been ignoring my information—." The stout wizard emphasized again, his tone also full of incomprehension.

The stout wizard's words made everyone unable to help but frown.

This bizarre situation was beyond everyone's cognition.

Although it was unclear what exactly happened, they couldn't just let it go.

A group of people discussed it and decided to go over and investigate the specific situation.

After flying forward for a few hours, Levin Mills suddenly raised a hand: "Stop."

Jie Ming and the other wizards stopped immediately, turned their heads to look over, with inquiring intent.

Levin Mills carefully sensed the direction of the airspace in front of him.

After a long while, he suddenly raised his head and said: "Within about five standard time units, a wizard good at 'energy shaping' fought here."

"Five standard time units?"

The wizard's division of a day is ten standard time units; five standard time units would be exactly half a day ago, which is what happened yesterday.

"At this time point—" a recruited wizard spoke up, attracting everyone's attention.

"I am actually quite clear; he should have encountered a group of creatures from the airspace plane and collected quite a few of them. He even showed off to me after he finished fighting—"

"Oh? And then?" Levin Mills pursued.

The wizard thought for a while, then shook his head: "There was no contact after that."

"In other words, at least before this, that guy was fine." Jie Ming's expression was serious.

Other wizards also became serious; they all understood the logic behind it.

This means that this should be the location where the opponent's last battle took place yesterday.

And after that, he encountered an inexplicable situation and then disappeared.

Everyone immediately braced themselves, advancing with extreme caution.

Various reconnaissance methods, including the glow-worms, were deployed without the slightest hesitation.

They remained vigilant, flying for a long time, yet there was not a single enemy or any unusual aura to be found.

Just as Jie Ming was feeling puzzled, he suddenly felt his "Xuan Gang Hong Chen Barrier" being triggered!

"Enemy attack! Alert!" Jie Ming immediately roared!

However, the reaction of the group of wizards around him made his hair stand on end!

Even though Jie Ming had shouted very loudly, they seemed not to have heard a word he said, continuing to fly forward ignorantly and unaware, as if sleepwalking.

A cold glint flashed in Jie Ming's eyes, and he struck without hesitation.

He controlled his strength, sending a pure energy bolt at each person.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The energy bolts were easily blocked by the autonomous protective shields on everyone's bodies, but the sudden attack startled the group, who had seemed to have lost consciousness, back to their senses.

However, they did not seem to realize they had been targeted; the first thing they did after waking up was to look at Jie Ming with caution.

Since Jie Ming's attack power was not high, they did not take any extreme actions.

Levin Mills was just about to ask Jie Ming why he had done that, when suddenly, his expression changed!

Pfft, pfft, pfft—

A series of "pfft" sounds rang out, and to the shocked eyes of Jie Ming and the other wizards, a group of ghost-like, white mist-like creatures crawled out from the thick clouds below like a tide!

The surfaces of these creatures were covered in fine, dense fluff, looking from afar like clusters of thick clouds.

Jie Ming subconsciously scanned them with his Eye of Investigation, but discovered nothing at all, as if what was before him was merely a patch of moving cloud-covered ground.

His eyes widened instantly, and he activated his Eye of Omnipotence, focusing on the unknown creature closest to him.

A massive stream of information flooded his mind; Jie Ming quickly closed the Eye of Omnipotence and took a step back, frowning.

Only then did he understand why various reconnaissance methods had failed to detect the opponent.

It was because these creatures not only looked like cloud-covered ground, but their own material composition was almost indistinguishable from the surrounding clouds.

That was why they could perfectly evade the wizards' reconnaissance.

"Not right!" After a brief moment of surprise, Jie Ming immediately realized something was wrong.

He could clearly feel his "Xuan Gang Hong Chen Barrier" fluctuating incessantly!

This meant they were still being subjected to constant attacks!

Moreover, he looked around, and the reactions of the wizards nearby were clearly wrong!

They had been startled out of their vigilance and had also seen the enemy.

But their reactions were quite sluggish, and their gazes were even somewhat dull.

Even though they had seen the enemy, they had no major reaction, and one could even say they had no intention of responding at all.

"Be careful, these creatures specialize in 'Soul Curse-type Illusions'!" Levin Mills' voice rang in everyone's ears, carrying a vibration that shook the soul.

Jie Ming also instantly understood the eerie methods of these enemies!

"Soul Curse-type Illusions" are an extremely peculiar category.

Essentially, it is a curse, but the effect after it is applied is similar to an illusion.

It can make the soul of the cursed person become muddled, almost unable to think!

The camouflage methods of these creatures dictate that their individual strength cannot be too high, so the curse applied by a single one does not have much effect.

It is estimated that even an Apprentice-level wizard could easily resist it.

However, the number of these creatures before them was simply too vast!

Tens of thousands?

Hundreds of thousands?

Perhaps even millions!

Such a massive population using the curse together creates a terrifying effect!

Even Levin Mills, a Tier 3 wizard, was affected when caught off guard!