Chapter 401

In the core laboratory of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, Jie Ming looked at the third military message unfolded on the Magic Network Terminal, his brows slightly furrowed.

His gaze did not look at the mission overview or plane data first, but habitually slid to the battle damage statistics column at the very bottom.

This could also be considered a habit he had developed.

Before truly understanding the enemy, looking at how much of a price his own side had to pay often allowed him to judge the "nature" of the battle the fastest.

Then, his movements stopped.

Current number of casualties: 0

Zero.

A glaring zero.

Jie Ming stared at that number for three seconds, suddenly feeling his temples throbbing.

Having experienced various plane wars with extremely high difficulty, he had become almost numb to "high mortality rate" battlefields.

Wars in the Wizarding World were never child's play, and it was not strange for the casualty figures to be followed by several zeros.

But "zero deaths"?

This made his scalp tingle more than a 90% casualty rate.

"Trouble—" Jie Ming muttered to himself, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the obsidian tabletop.

According to his previous experience participating in the "Justice" plane, and more cases he had heard of, planes where "zero deaths" or "extremely low casualties" appeared in wizard wars only had one thing in common:

The enemies simply could not be dealt with by conventional means.

Wizards either "couldn't beat them," or "couldn't kill them," or "it was useless even after beating them."

The worst case was similar to the Justice plane, where there wasn't even a chance for you to fight them—

Jie Ming took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

Zero deaths usually had two possibilities:

The first, one's own side's strength was crushing, and the enemy was so weak that they couldn't even cause casualties.

But in this situation, the military department would never mobilize "Elite Combat Units" to support—any random conventional legion could flatten them, why waste resources?

Then only the second possibility remained.

"The other side—is that kind of 'mechanic monster'." Jie Ming rubbed his brow, some bad memories he had experienced before surging into his mind.

He adjusted his breathing, only then moving his gaze back to the beginning of the message and starting to read carefully.

Plane name: Tentative code 【Reincarnation Plane】

Plane level: Large Civilization type: Insect-type higher intelligent creatures Main hostile target: Sickle-Skull Tribe (tentatively named)

A three-dimensional image was attached below.

It was a creature about three meters tall, covered entirely in dark purple carapace.

The head was a sharp triangle, compound eyes occupied two-thirds of the face, the mouthparts were four saw-toothed jaw pieces that could open and close, and the overall outline was indeed like a mantis.

But the torso part was closer to the flat oval shape of a cockroach, the six limbs were thick and powerful, and there were two pairs of translucent wing membranes folded on the back.

Detailed physiological anatomy data scrolled beside the image:

Basic individual combat power: Stable Tier 1 supernatural.

Social structure: Highly centralized hive mind, individuals possess independent intelligence but obey the collective will.

Technological level: Synchronous development of biotechnology and basic energy application, has mastered cross-plane detection technology.

Special talent: Carapace possesses adaptive elemental resistance, rapidly generating corresponding resistance layers after suffering attacks.

Jie Ming scanned quickly, feeling a bit strange in his heart.

Judging from the paper data, this was not some outrageous monster.

The individual combat power of Tier 1 supernatural was not enough to look at in front of a formal wizard.

He continued to look down at the combat power comparison: "Enemy high-end combat power: five Tier 8 creatures, more than one hundred Tier 7 creatures, countless Tier 6 and below, total troop strength estimated to exceed one trillion."

"Our side has invested: one Tier 8 Great Wizard (Star Caster Artelius), three Tier 7 wizards, about 1.2 million formal wizards of Tier 6 and below, and 300 million auxiliary cannon fodder legions."

A very standard configuration.

A Tier 8 Great Wizard leading the team was enough to suppress all the enemy's high-end combat power.

Three Tier 7 wizards were responsible for clearing the middle layer, and more than one million formal wizards dealt with those supernatural insect seas.

Although the quantity gap was huge, in terms of combat power, the wizard side was actually dominant.

According to the conventional script, this should be a textbook plane conquest war: the Tier 8 wizard would take action to pinpoint and clear the enemy leader, while also guarding against the enemy invoking the plane's origin to initiate self-destruction.

Tier 7 wizards would tear through the defense line, and the formal wizard legion would command the cannon fodder legion to advance steadily; it would take at most three to five years to complete the disintegration of the civilization's main body, and the rest would be long-term cleanup and resource extraction.

But since the military department sent a request for reinforcements—

Jie Ming's fingers slid to the most critical paragraph.

"Battlefield anomaly record (excerpt)"

"First contact battle: Lord Artelius took action directly, killing five Tier 8 Sickle-Skull Tribe leaders within three seconds. The enemy's command system collapsed, and our army advanced comprehensively. After four hours and twelve minutes, the enemy civilization's main defense line disintegrated, and the remaining resistance force was less than 3%."

"Anomaly occurrence moment: When the enemy civilization was on the verge of annihilation (remaining individual count less than one-thousandth of the total population), plane-level space-time fluctuations were detected. The next instant, all participating personnel (except Lord Artelius) returned to the invasion starting time point. Memory checks showed that except for Tier 8 existences, no one retained memory of that timeline."

"Supplementary confirmation: All fallen wizards were resurrected, consumed materials were restored to their original state, and enemy fallen units were also resurrected. Preliminarily judged as a 'civilization-level time reversal' phenomenon."

"Second to seventeenth contact battles: Tried various tactics, including low-speed erosion, rapid occupation of core areas after decapitation, inducing internal division, etc. Confirmed that the time reversal trigger condition is 'Sickle-Skull Tribe civilization main body on the verge of extinction (remaining individuals less than one-thousandth)'. After each reversal, the enemy's tactics evolved significantly, and targeted anti-wizard tactics have appeared."

"Current inference: This time reversal ability is the Sickle-Skull Tribe civilization's 'near-death protection mechanism,' which may randomly awaken among the remaining individuals after conditions are met. No cost for ability use discovered (or the cost was also reset by the time reversal)."

"Core problem: The ability's scope of influence is limited to within this plane. Observers outside the plane are unaffected, but any existence inside (including matter, energy, memory) is reset. Lord Artelius retains memory due to the 'Tier 8 law solidification' characteristic, but cannot prevent the phenomenon from occurring."

"Reinforcement demand: Need wizards with experience in space-time mechanism research, or wizards with 'cross-timeline interference' capabilities, to assist in cracking this civilization's time loop, or capture the individual holding this time loop ability."

Jie Ming closed the light screen, leaning back into the chair.

Only the low humming of the elemental pool remained in the laboratory, along with the light sound of his fingertips tapping the tabletop unconsciously.

"Time reversal—civilization-level protection mechanism—" he muttered to himself, the relevant records in the "Great Dao Book Pavilion" flashing through his mind at high speed.

The Cultivation Realm also had similar means—the "Sect Restart Array" left by some ancient great powers, which would forcibly reverse time when the orthodoxy was on the verge of extinction, the cost usually being the consumption of a world's origin, or sacrificing billions of living beings.

But those were "one-time" and the cost was heavy.

Like the Sickle-Skull Tribe, which seemed to be able to loop infinitely, and the ability where no cost could be seen—

"Either the cost is so hidden that even a Tier 8 wizard can't perceive it, or—" Jie Ming's eyes narrowed slightly.

"This is simply not 'their' ability."

He thought of another possibility.

Some super-standard ancient relics, some dormant space-time concept entity, or even the "self-protection will" born from the plane itself—treating the Sickle-Skull Tribe civilization as "immune cells," and once a "pathogen" (wizard invasion) was detected, the reset program was initiated.

If it was the latter, then the problem was even more troublesome.

You are not fighting a civilization, but the underlying rules of a plane.

But judging from the current situation, the latter possibility was high.

Because the scope of influence of this time reversal was too limited, limited to within one plane.

Although this plane itself counted as a large plane, it was not worth mentioning compared to the entire endless chaotic void.

"And the most troublesome thing is—" Jie Ming couldn't help but pinch the bridge of his nose. "Wizards don't want destruction, they want conquest and plunder."

If it was just to destroy the Sickle-Skull Tribe, there were actually many ways.

Even finding a Tier 7 wizard to take action directly outside the plane could destroy the entire plane.

But doing so was meaningless.

The wizard civilization fought in endless planes for resources, knowledge, and new understanding of laws.

A plane capable of infinite time reversal was itself a huge treasure.

If its mechanism could be cracked, or even utilized—

That value would far exceed one hundred ordinary planes.

"That's why the military department is so cautious, and that's why there are zero casualties." Jie Ming rubbed his temples. "It's not that there are no casualties, but that before cracking this ability, any damage, whether to the enemy or ourselves, is meaningless."

He reopened the light screen, called up the detailed data of the Reincarnation Plane, and began to analyze it item by item.

Judging from the existing seventeen loop records, the Sickle-Skull Tribe's evolution speed was very fast.

During the first loop, they didn't even understand the basic wizardry structure of wizards and were crushed by Artelius at will.

But by the seventeenth loop, the other side had already appeared with "anti-magic field" technology that could briefly interfere with Tier 7 wizard spellcasting, as well as specialized resistance variants against elemental wizardry.

"They are learning." Jie Ming stared at the data. "Each loop retains a portion of experience," possibly through some pheromone transmission, or possibly guided in secret by the individual who awakened the time ability.

"In that case, the longer it drags on, the harder the enemy will be to deal with."

"But the key to cracking the time loop requires enough experimental samples—"

A typical paradox.

Jie Ming closed his eyes, his spiritual sense sinking into his consciousness to start taking stock of his various trump cards.

Qi Refining Method, Body Tempering Method, Runic Wizard Tools, Black Giants—

But facing time reversal—

The only thing that might work should be his internal cave heaven; after all, it was another plane, and it was highly likely that it would not be affected.

But—

"Not much use." Jie Ming sighed.

After thinking about it, he found that what he could do now was actually very limited.

Crack the time loop?

That was a problem that Tier 8 Great Wizard Artelius hadn't figured out after studying dozens of loops; as a Tier 4 wizard, even with the knowledge of the "Great Dao Book Pavilion," it was impossible to have any breakthrough ideas in a short time.

Change tactics?

The military department must have already tried all conventional plans, otherwise, they wouldn't have issued this "Special Talent Recruitment" directive.

Then the remaining choice was actually only one.

"On the premise that it is uncertain whether the internal cave heaven is effective, let's improve my combat power as much as possible. In any case, enhancing combat power will not be wrong."