Chapter 315

Three years of time passed in a flash.

Outside the world barrier of the Giant Spirit Realm, the energy turbulence of the chaotic void continued to surge endlessly.

Jie Ming hovered in a relatively stable airspace, carefully embedding the last metal substrate engraved with billions of runes into a composite structure large enough to encircle a small planet.

As the mental power flowing from his fingertips completed the final activation and calibration, the lines of the entire massive array lit up one by one.

The dark blue light outlined complex geometric patterns in the void, then quickly faded, leaving only faint spatial ripple fluctuations.

Jie Ming sent a short message through the magic network terminal he carried with him.

Not long after, a Tier 1 wizard wearing a standard grey robe drove an anti-gravity flying vehicle with an exquisite structure and quickly shuttled over.

This Tier 1 wizard stopped in front of Jie Ming and respectfully performed a standard wizard salute: "Jie Ming."

Jie Ming nodded slightly in return, pointing to the void behind him that appeared empty but was actually shrouded by the massive array field: "Section 73, Void Anchoring and Information Shielding Composite Array, installation and debugging complete, requesting inspection."

The Tier 1 wizard didn't dare to be negligent and immediately took out a multi-probe scanner from under the flying vehicle, conducting an all-around detection of the area Jie Ming indicated.

The instrument emitted a faint hum, and data streams scrolled rapidly on its screen.

A moment later, he turned off the instrument, saluted Jie Ming again, and said with certainty: "Confirmed correct, the array is running stably, and the parameters meet the design requirements. Thank you for your hard work, Lord Jie Ming, the mission is complete."

Jie Ming nodded with satisfaction and said no more.

His figure turned into a stream of light and flew toward the wizard fortress floating in the chaotic void like a metal mountain range in the distance.

Over these three years, the annihilation war against the triangular plane cluster had always revolved around the second stage of strategic action.

And the second stage of strategic action had two major cores.

One was the "cleanup" mission that Jie Ming had done before and the vast majority of low-to-mid-tier wizards were executing—systematically cleaning up all cities, strongholds, and industrial facilities of the Giant Spirit Realm, physically destroying the enemy's war potential and living forces.

In addition to the purpose of weakening the enemy, this action had a more important strategic significance in that it firmly attracted the vast majority of the attention of the triangular plane cluster, providing cover for another more secretive action.

The goal of the wizard civilization was to completely annihilate all civilizations in the triangular plane cluster, but the civilizations of the triangular plane cluster already possessed the ability to colonize across planes.

Therefore, the command center deliberately lengthened the timeline of the war, creating an illusion of "pressing step by step, but still needing time to digest."

The purpose was to lure those triangular plane powerhouses and legions scattered in external colonial planes or executing expedition missions back to their homeland, so as to wipe them out in one fell swoop.

At the same time, those professional wizards who were good at stealth, disguise, and information theft had also been active over these three years, silently collecting the coordinates of many external planes conquered or controlled by the triangular planes.

And the second action was the "insurance" made based on these premises:

Led personally by the Tier 7 wizard Obolos, who had been sitting in the void, combined with more than ten Tier 6 wizards and massive resources, they secretly constructed a super-giant composite array in the vast void on the periphery of the triangular plane cluster.

The purpose of this array was only one: to completely blockade this void area where the triangular plane cluster was located.

To cut off all possible stable or temporary world channels to external planes, fundamentally eliminating the possibility of the three world masters seeing that the situation was not good and fleeing with the seeds of civilization or core assets.

What Jie Ming just completed was an insignificant node in this magnificent blockade network.

Through the space teleportation array inside the fortress, Jie Ming returned to the temporary research camp located in the occupied area of the Giant Spirit Realm.

He walked straight to the laboratory assigned to him.

Over the past two years, the wizards had not relaxed their research due to continuous military operations.

In addition to continuously improving targeted means against the Giant Spirit Realm natives, research on the natives of the other two target planes—the "Mind Realm" and the "Reproduction Realm"—had also been fully launched.

Jie Ming first came to the side of the laboratory, where a precision energy restraint field generator stood.

In the center of the restraint field, a humanoid energy body that constantly changed colors and outlines was flickering weakly, appearing to be on the verge of death.

This was a native sample from the Mind Realm—an energy life form condensed from pure mental power.

Mind Realm creatures were naturally good at thought interference and illusion construction, and their civilization was built on complex mental networks and mind control.

Jie Ming called up the experimental record log and browsed through it quickly with an expressionless face.

He was trying to develop a mind virus that could erode and disrupt this pure mental structure.

However, calculating the various data fluctuations and sample reactions recorded in the log, Jie Ming shook his head helplessly.

"Still not working—" he whispered to himself.

Although he had invested a lot of energy, his accumulation in the field of mind sorcery was indeed lacking.

This disease, which he named "Thought Disintegration," still had minimal effects after continuously infecting the sample for ten days, far from the standard of being able to be put into actual combat.

It could basically be judged that his research project on the Mind Realm had failed this time.

However, Jie Ming didn't feel too much loss.

After all, research was a process of continuous trial and error, not to mention that there were many other wizards in the camp who were good at this.

They had already submitted several effective sorceries or weapons against the Mind Realm, and the gears of war would not stagnate because of his failure alone.

More importantly, even failed research, the large amount of observational data generated in the process was itself a valuable wealth of knowledge.

After setting the experimental area of the Mind Realm sample to long-term observation mode, Jie Ming seemed to remember something, his brows furrowed slightly, and he turned to another partition of the laboratory.

The scene here was completely different from just now.

Independent transparent energy cages were neatly arranged, inside which were imprisoned creatures of various forms, or even completely unrelated.

There were giant beasts covered in heavy chitinous shells, resembling insects; soft-bodied creatures with smooth skin and multiple sensory tentacles; birds with gorgeous feathers but capable of spraying high-pressure energy beams; and even some strange existences that were half-plant and half-animal...

Their only commonality was that they all came from the most mysterious plane in the triangular plane cluster—the Reproduction Realm.

According to intelligence returned by undercover spies and frontline reconnaissance units, the Reproduction Realm was an extremely special place.

It seemed that no "civilization" in the usual sense had developed there; looking around, it was completely a primitive world with the law of the jungle and numerous species.

However, every "wild animal" there had strength that was outrageously strong.

Even more eerie was that both the Giant Spirit Realm and the Mind Realm had records of wars against the Reproduction Realm.

Once invaded, these creatures that were originally predators of each other would immediately abandon their nature, unify and assemble into an army, and fight in coordination.

What made the wizards most vigilant was that no matter what technology or power the invaders used, as long as they had experienced one battle in the Reproduction Realm, the creatures there would seem to evolve collectively the next time they invaded, autonomously deriving targeted organs, abilities, or resistances!

After analysis by many senior wizards, a shocking speculation was put forward: the entire Reproduction Realm might simply be a whole!

Of course, it was not something as precious as a living plane, but it was very likely that the life on the entire plane itself only had "one."

The so-called "Fungus Master" was not an independent individual, but the body of that world master.

Or rather, all living beings in the entire Reproduction Realm were part of the "Fungus Master"!

This "Fungus Master" was very likely an ultimate biological collection that continuously devoured, fused, and evolved its own components.

It itself was a biological disaster that swept across the entire plane.

Jie Ming had an extremely strong interest in the Reproduction Realm.

This characteristic made him involuntarily think of the "Zerg" or "Gene Devourers" in some fantasy works from his previous life.

If he could crack its internal evolution and unified coordination mechanism, perhaps he could greatly optimize his "Nest," allowing it to get rid of its current awkward positioning and limited potential.

However, the ideal was plump, but the reality was skinny.

Jie Ming looked at the biological samples in the cages that were strong but seemed to have no essential difference from ordinary supernatural magical beasts after research, and sighed helplessly.

"Where exactly is the problem?" he pondered.

"Is it that the number of captured samples is too small to trigger its collective evolution mechanism? Or is it—that this magical evolution and coordination ability must rely on the unique environment of the Reproduction Realm itself—or rather, must be within the direct consciousness network coverage of the 'Fungus Master' body to take effect?"

No matter which situation it was, it meant that his current research conditions could not meet the needs, and the research on the biological evolution mechanism of the Reproduction Realm had temporarily fallen into a stalemate.

After processing the backlog of data in the laboratory and sorting out the future research plan, Jie Ming began to think about the next step.

According to the strategic blueprint initially formulated by the wizard command center, the core goal of the third stage was to quickly defeat the organized resistance remaining in the Giant Spirit Realm, and finally suppress or even capture its world master—Koge.

The key to this step was "fast"!

It must be before the other two world masters of the triangular plane cluster—Hila of the "Mind Realm" and the Fungus Master of the "Reproduction Realm"—fully realized that the Giant Spirit Realm was on the verge of destruction, or before they could make a synchronized reaction, forcibly control the plane origin of the Giant Spirit Realm!

This involved a special property of the plane cluster.

Because the three planes were closely connected, forming a unique triangular structure, there were also deep-level mutual influences and checks and balances between their plane origins.

Simply put, if one of the world masters tried to invoke their own plane origin and launch an ultimate means of mutual destruction similar to "plane self-detonation."

As long as one of the other two world masters disagreed or interfered, the self-detonation could not be completed immediately, and there would be a process of being delayed and hindered.

This gave the wizard civilization a crucial operational window.

Once the Giant Spirit Realm was quickly taken down and its origin controlled, the wizards could use this as a fulcrum to calmly mobilize forces to suppress the remaining two worlds.

After all, the main purpose of launching an annihilation war was to eliminate potential threats, not purely for destruction.

The knowledge, technology, and unique resources accumulated by the triangular plane cluster over countless years were also war trophies that the wizard civilization longed to obtain.

Completely annihilating the entire plane was always the last resort.

"Now, the peripheral void blockade should have been basically completed, and most of the Giant Spirit Realm's external forces and colonial legions have been lured back, and the coordinates of those conquered planes must have been collected almost enough..." Jie Ming calculated in his heart.

"Then, the day the command center makes a decision to launch the final battle of the third stage should be in the near future."

He planned to himself: "After the main battle of the third stage ends, when high-end combat power goes to deal with the other two world masters, perhaps I can apply to participate in the final cleanup mission for those colonial planes controlled by the Giant Spirit Realm and the Mind Realm."

"Not only can I earn military merit, but I can also take the opportunity to collect unique biological samples and resources from those planes to enrich my database and material reserves—"

Just as his thoughts were wandering in future plans, the magic network terminal placed next to the experimental bench suddenly emitted a sharp and urgent buzzing sound!

A blood-red highest-priority alarm sign popped up on the screen instantly!

"Emergency assembly order! All combat units, immediately assemble at the designated coordinates!"

Jie Ming's pupils shrank, and he almost sprang up from his chair!

Without any hesitation, he grabbed the terminal and rushed out of the laboratory like an arrow off a bowstring.

Outside the door, the corridor was noisy.

Many logistics-tier wizards who were also conducting research also rushed out with shocked faces, seeing the confusion in each other's eyes when they looked at each other.

But no one asked more, all running wildly toward the nearest assembly point outside the camp according to the route indicated on the terminal.

Through the short-range teleportation array urgently opened in the camp, Jie Ming only felt a blur before his eyes, and he had arrived at a frontline outpost with a murderous atmosphere.

Just as he stabilized his figure and cast his gaze toward the front outside the outpost, he was deeply shocked by the scene before him.

Above the horizon in the distance, the sky and the earth seemed to be covered by a boundless dark cloud!

But that was not a natural cloud layer, but a massive army composed of countless Giant Spirit Realm warships, war beasts, and servant armies of various forms!

They were dense, like a torrent of metal and flesh, slowly unfolding their formation on an unprecedented scale.

The murderous aura emitted made people feel suffocated even from such a long distance.

"What's going on?!" Jie Ming blurted out subconsciously, asking a management wizard who was quickly distributing combat orders next to him.

The wizard looked up at Jie Ming and replied at a fast speed:

"I don't know the specific reason, but the command center just received the highest alert. I don't know what kind of madness Koge has gone into, anyway, the decisive battle—has started early!"

(There are always a bunch of things to do in the first two days of the week, so just this chapter today.)