Chapter 275

That flash of inspiration was like a slippery fish; just as it leaped in the shallow beach of consciousness, it instantly disappeared into the deep pool of thought. Jie Ming stood still, clearly feeling that he had captured something key, but he couldn't remember what it was no matter what!

This feeling was extremely strange, and could even be said to be ominous.

As a wizard specializing in mental power, having a photographic memory and a clear mind is a basic quality, and as a cultivator, reflecting on one's own thought patterns is even easier.

But at this moment, regarding the content of the realization just now, his memory was a blank, leaving only a strong but rootless intuition of "discovering a problem."

"Something is wrong—" Jie Ming frowned; this feeling of his thinking being invisibly interfered with made his back feel cold.

He did not choose to give up, but quickly released two black giants, guarding his sides left and right.

He himself sat cross-legged in the air on the spot, discarding all distracting thoughts, his consciousness sinking into the bottom layer of his thinking like a probe, starting to trace back and search for the lost inspiration inch by inch.

At first, the search yielded nothing; that memory area was like being erased by an eraser, clean enough to make one despair.

He even began to suspect whether it was a hallucination caused by the mental fatigue brought about by continuous warfare.

However, the body-refining method once again demonstrated its heaven-defying adaptability.

As Jie Ming continued to focus on the act of "finding the lost thought" and clearly perceived the abnormality, the body-refining method began to operate autonomously, and a targeted resistance or "information tracing" ability was quietly triggered.

His thinking seemed to be plated with an invisible filter film, starting to resist that invisible "forgetting" power.

He didn't know how long it had been, perhaps just an instant, or perhaps a long confrontation.

Jie Ming finally captured and magnified a faint, covered "trace" in a corner of his consciousness!

"Filter-feeding. Creatures·Microbial white mist!"

The broken keywords reconnected! He finally found the thought that had flashed by—since there were so many giant beasts in the airspace plane relying on filter-feeding white mist, it meant that this seemingly void white mist must contain a massive number of microorganisms or other tiny living beings available for filter-feeding!

This logic was simple to the point of being straightforward.

But why, including himself, had all the wizards who came to the airspace plane never truly "noticed" this point?

He had even frequently used the "All-Purpose Eye," which could discern the microscopic, to scan the environment, yet he had turned a blind eye to the "mist ecology" that was right in front of him!

"—Wrong!" Jie Ming opened his eyes suddenly, essence light shooting from them, "It's not that I 'didn't discover it,' but that I was 'guided to ignore' it!"

Subconsciously, he activated the "All-Purpose Eye" again.

The moment the runes in his eyes lit up, a change occurred.

The dense white mist around him, as if possessing life, retreated silently in an extremely natural way, close to the laws of physics.

Almost stuck to the edge of the All-Purpose Eye's detection range, it formed a "perfectly clean" spherical spatial area with a diameter of about two meters around his body, completely devoid of mist!

And what his "All-Purpose Eye" observed was exactly this area that had been deliberately cleared, naturally finding nothing!

"So that's how it is!" A look of mixed shock and extreme excitement appeared on Jie Ming's face, "It's not that it doesn't exist, but that it is 'hiding'! It is precisely avoiding all means that might probe it deeply!"

He deactivated the All-Purpose Eye, and the white mist naturally surged back like a tide, filling the void.

All this happened so smoothly, so "reasonably."

Undoubtedly, there was a powerful cognitive interference force in this, making all observers automatically ignore this highly unusual phenomenon, including all other suspicious points that the mist itself might possess.

"There is a force—subtly guiding, even distorting our perception and focus of thought." Jie Ming muttered to himself, his gaze as sharp as a knife.

He reached out and cautiously constructed a simple energy barrier.

During the formation of the barrier, a portion of the white mist was naturally wrapped inside, showing no signs of active escape or being repelled.

"It doesn't show obvious self-consciousness—it's more like an 'invisible' characteristic at the rule level based on instinct." Jie Ming analyzed, "Moreover, if this thing really possessed immediate active malice, Wizard Dionysius Spencer would never dare to bring the entire Expeditionary Force into this place."

At this point, Jie Ming could almost conclude that this white mist, which shrouded two planes and was regarded as a background board by the vast majority of wizards, was the true target Dionysius Spencer was focusing on!

The so-called plane conquest might just be incidental, or even a step that had to be taken for some purpose.

He had a clear understanding of his own strength.

Even with the body-refining method providing adaptive evolution, allowing him to finally perceive the abnormality, it was enough to prove that the level of this cognitive interference force was limited.

He speculated that the upper limit of this force's influence was likely below Tier 5.

And coincidentally, in the entire Expeditionary Force, except for Dionysius Spencer himself, there was no second existence above Tier 5!

Recalling the collective absence of the three major forces that should have sent inspectors—Jie Ming could almost be certain that Dionysius Spencer knew this well, and this might even have been part of the plan from the beginning.

Opening the spatial gate to connect to the Sacred Continent must have its deeper reasons, perhaps related to the characteristics of this white mist, or Dionysius Spencer's fate planning.

"Since there was no obstruction, it means tacit approval, at least within a certain limit—." Jie Ming thought, his gaze sweeping over the seemingly harmless white mist around him.

He did not hesitate anymore and began to try to use various methods to cautiously collect these mysterious white mists.

He was convinced that with the ability of a Fate-system Tier 7 Wizard, the moment he broke through the cognitive barrier and perceived the abnormality of the white mist, he must have been perceived by Dionysius Spencer.

Since the other party had not appeared to stop him until now, his current behavior was within the permitted scope.

Floating City, Core Secret Room.

Dionysius Spencer leaned lazily on his seat, and a light screen in front of him clearly displayed the scene of Jie Ming cautiously collecting white mist.

Watching Jie Ming's excited yet cautious appearance, he couldn't help but curl his lips, his face showing a look mixed with helplessness and heartache.

"Pfft, what a sharp little guy. The backlash of fate comes so fast." He muttered in a low voice, his fingertips tapping the armrest unconsciously, "Just borrowed your fate trajectory to be a 'navigator' once, the ride was a bit comfortable, and I already paid the price, yet I still have to share a part with him? Really bad luck—"

His gaze seemed to pierce through the light screen and fall on the white mist that Jie Ming had worked so hard to collect, his eyes complex.

Inside it, contained things that even he, a Tier 7 Wizard, valued extremely highly.

And at this moment, according to a certain "equivalent exchange" of fate, he had to tacitly approve, or it could be said to be a "passive gift" of a part to this Tier 2 Wizard who had accidentally glimpsed the truth.

"Forget it, forget it," he finally shook his head, revealing a meaningful smile, "This is also part of fate. Little guy, let's see what you can get out of this."

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