Chapter 335: A Little Trick

Having mastered the precise intelligence extracted from that purple symbiote's soul, the subsequent actions became much simpler.

The information obtained from this creature's soul allowed Blake to quickly sort out the basic situation of this plane.

The overlords of this world are two types of symbiotic organisms: one consists of colossal, variously shaped behemoths that provide nearly infinite energy and physical vessels.

The other is the purple symbiote type he had just eliminated; acting as the behemoths' "external brains," they provide "wisdom," primarily responsible for creating and controlling the ubiquitous terrifying illusions and thought guidance.

Both are indispensable, jointly constituting this plane's unique ecology and defense system.

The behemoths possess distinct levels of power based on their age and size.

As for Blake and his companions, their luck had truly hit rock bottom; when traversing the spatial rift, they happened to wander into the regular hunting range of the strongest behemoth in this region, resulting in them being trapped like turtles in a jar the moment they arrived.

From the memory fragments of the symbiote, Blake not only learned the weaknesses of the current behemoth but also mapped out the approximate activity zones of all level-seven-or-higher behemoths across the entire plane.

And most crucially, he obtained the exact coordinates of this plane's most powerful level-eight behemoth and its symbiote!

With the death of the purple symbiote within the core cavity, the "processor" maintaining the behemoth's illusion field instantly crashed.

In an instant, those wizards who had been immersed in beautiful illusions inside the behemoth woke up as if doused with a basin of ice water, staring in shock at the horrific environment surrounding them and the flesh-and-blood tentacles wrapping around their bodies.

After a brief chaos, their survival instincts and high combat proficiency allowed them to rapidly organize themselves.

They soon established contact with the wizards still fighting bitterly outside the behemoth, attempting a rescue.

With coordinated efforts from inside and out, this behemoth, having lost its "wisdom" and become somewhat sluggish, was quickly torn apart and destroyed from within by the enraged wizards!

After breaking free, Blake immediately exchanged intelligence with the other wizards, piecing together the complete dilemma of this plane's war:

These behemoths themselves are huge targets and not difficult to locate.

The difficulty lies in the powerful illusion fields they emit.

Without high-ranking wizards personally leading and constantly shielding them, ordinary wizard legions and alchemical cannon fodder units would instantly lose combat effectiveness upon entering the influence range, slaughtering each other or suffering severe injuries from illusion feedback.

Even more troublesome is that once a behemoth senses a lethal threat, it chooses to self-destruct, with its symbiote burning everything in the final moment.

It releases illusions capable of transforming into "real" attacks, forming terrifying monster legions in the wizards' eyes to launch assaults, causing massive casualties.

Previously, some wizards had attempted to breakthrough from the inside, but the intensity of the illusions within the behemoths was even higher.

Furthermore, the core symbiotes were hidden extremely deep, protected by layers of illusions and thought misdirection, making precise localization impossible.

This caused the war to fall into a stalemate.

High-ranking wizards could protect themselves but could not look after the entire army; mid-to-low-ranking wizards entering were merely sending themselves to their deaths; without finding the symbiotes, they could not effectively kill the behemoths and might instead force them to self-destruct.

What made everyone hesitate to act decisively was the fact that a level-eight behemoth was still hidden somewhere in this plane!

Once it perceived that the invaders possessed the ability to destroy the entire plane's ecology, it would likely drag the whole plane down with it in death!

After learning all this, Blake hesitated no longer; he immediately used the Magic Net terminal to send all critical intelligence he had acquired, including the precise coordinates of the level-eight behemoth, directly to the level-eight wizard commander stationed at the rear.

The moment the intelligence arrived, in the command center far away in the void, the level-eight wizard who had been resting with closed eyes suddenly opened them, beams of sharp light bursting from his pupils!

"Good! Brilliantly done!"

Without a moment's delay, a terrifying will spanning nearly half the plane locked onto those coordinates.

The next moment, indescribable mighty power descended, forcibly twisting and solidifying the laws.

That level-eight behemoth, hidden in the deepest part of the plane, along with its cunning symbiote, did not even have time to form the thought of self-destruction; under the absolute gap in power, they instantly became a consciousness-less specimen.

With the suppression from the top and the unified threat perception gone, the remaining behemoth packs turned into a scattered sand.

The tide of war reversed instantly.

Led by multiple high-ranking wizards, the wizard legions advanced with irresistible force.

Following the intelligence provided by Blake, they prioritized precisely striking the core symbiotes of those level-seven behemoths, and only then cleaned up the behemoth bodies that had lost their "brains."

Fighting all the way through, the combat efficiency of the wizards increased by more than a hundredfold!

What was originally estimated to consume hundreds of years, possibly at a heavy cost, to gnaw through this hard bone.

Under the advantage of intelligence, it was completely cleared and suppressed in less than ten years!

Things went so smoothly that even Blake himself felt somewhat unreal.

When he, as a hero of the campaign, stood below the stage at the victory ceremony to receive the staggeringly generous military merits and resource rewards personally bestowed by the level-eight wizard commander, an absurd thought even arose again deep in his heart:

'Could it be... that all of this, from beginning to end, is a carefully woven illusion? Have I been within an illusion ever since I entered this plane?'

That level-eight wizard seemed to see through the doubts deep in his eyes; during a private audience, he said with a slightly amused smile, "Little one, still doubting what is real and what is fake? Let me teach you a rather dangerous, but very effective little trick."

Seeing Blake's puzzled expression, he lowered his voice: "The manipulator of an illusion realm will also come into contact with information leaked by the subject."

"Based on this principle, you can try... whispering fragments of the true names of several level-nine lords, or certain law characteristics of theirs that are not widely known."

"If you do not die, it means either you are not in an illusion realm, or the tier of the illusion caster is high enough to resist level-nine wizards—but that possibility is slim to none. If you die... then there is no need to be sad; it simply means you were already trapped in an illusion realm, and in the real world, some level-nine lord has likely already personally acted, blowing up this plane along with the mastermind behind it for daring to pry into the secrets of wizard civilization."

Blake listened until his scalp went numb.

This method was not merely dangerous; it was simply insane!

But... it sounded damnably consistent with the wizards' pursuit of "absolute verification."

After struggling for a long time, the desire for certainty finally overcame the fear of risk.

In an absolutely safe and silent secret room, Blake whispered, in a voice barely audible, a fragment of a law code name widely circulated regarding a certain level-nine wizard of the Star Orbit Arbitration Court.

... Nothing happened.

No judgment descended from the heavens, no soul was torn apart; he could even clearly feel the normal flow of elemental energy around him.

It was not an illusion! All of this was real!

A tremendous sense of relief swept through his entire body; he let out a long breath, as if shedding a thousand-pound burden.

Immediately afterward, Blake's gaze became incredibly fervent.

He suddenly raised his left hand, staring intently at the wristguard on his wrist, which now looked ordinary, with its internal golden liquid reduced to merely a thin final layer.

It was this thing!

This "Mind Barrier Wristguard," crafted by the level-two wizard Gao Jie Ming and sold for five hundred thousand military merits.

It had not only saved his life but had also indirectly dictated the course of an entire plane war!

Having personally experienced the formidable effects of this bracer, Blake knew very well that its value could not be measured by military merit at all!

He subconsciously glanced at the massive military merit reward he had received for providing key intelligence and delivering an outstanding performance; that string of numbers was so long it left him somewhat dazed.

The stupor lasted only a second.

The next moment, Blake jerked as if awakened, sprang up from where he stood, and rushed toward the plane teleportation array at top speed, without even having time to bid proper farewell to familiar wizards.

Only one thought existed in his mind, crystal clear and utterly urgent:

"Find Gao Jie Ming! Must! Immediately! Right now, buy more liquid adamantium from him! However much he has, I want it all!"

(Extra update at the start of the month—please vote!)

(End of chapter)