Chapter 407

On the battlefield intertwined with artillery fire and energy beams, the command platform area where Jie Ming was located fell into a strange "silence."

0

This silence did not mean there was absolutely no sound.

On the contrary, this area was filled with the muffled sounds of energy shields being hit, the low roars of Black Giants, and the click sounds of Sickle-Skull Tribe carapaces rubbing.

All these mixed together, forming the background sound of death.

In Jie Ming's perception, this area was like being precisely cut out.

No matter how fiercely other battlefields around were fighting, this place was always a 15-to-1 siege pattern.

"Damn it!" Jie Ming gritted his teeth, activating the runic wizard tool behind him again.

The "Great Light Phase" composed of tens of thousands of runic seals unfolded behind him, the ring array rotated rapidly, and the three metal discs at the core shone brightly.

The next second, tens of thousands of energy bullets poured out like a rainstorm, each one enough to flatten a small hill.

However, the Sickle-Skull Tribe on the opposite side had long been prepared.

Among the fifteen figures, three raised their forelimbs simultaneously.

No, that was not a limb, but some kind of precision metal device.

Runes flickered on the surface of the device, opening a translucent force field.

The moment the energy bullets hit the force field, it was like water droplets falling into a sponge, the energy being rapidly dispersed, absorbed, and neutralized.

Anti-energy absorption disruptor.

And it was a model specifically targeted at the type of attack like light bullets released by runic wizard tools.

"They know what I have." This thought was like ice water pouring down.

Sure enough, almost the moment Jie Ming's first round of attacks stopped, four of the fifteen Sickle-Skull Tribe individuals moved.

The patterns on their carapaces lit up, and four invisible fluctuations instantly shrouded this area.

Space blockade.

The other side had already released a round of space interference when approaching Jie Ming before, and now, it was clearly to expand the previous field advantage.

It was a "solidified space" in the true sense; Jie Ming could even feel the "viscosity" of the surrounding space, as if he had fallen into gel.

He only had time to throw out a space distortion the instant before the blockade was completed.

The invisible distortion bloomed in the air, the violent space power tearing everything around it.

If it were an ordinary Tier 5 creature, this blow would be enough to tear it into pieces.

But the Sickle-Skull Tribe that took this blow head-on only had its black armor slightly deformed, making a harsh metal friction sound.

Then—that was it.

Anti-space stabilization armor.

Specialized equipment targeted at space-type wizardry.

"Even this has a contingency plan?" Jie Ming felt an even greater chill in his heart.

The situation on the Black Giant side was even worse.

The Black Giants originally at the front of the battle line tried to support, but were split and surrounded by the remaining Sickle-Skull Tribe with exquisite coordination.

They used time-slow field generators to interfere with the Black Giants' time acceleration, and used energy extraction force fields to weaken the absorption ability of the black metal layer.

The Tier 6 Black Giant leader Rushan roared, trying to break through, but was entangled by two Sickle-Skull Tribe individuals.

The equipment of those two Sickle-Skull Tribe individuals was clearly different.

One held a high-frequency oscillating blade, each strike leaving deep marks on the Black Giant's hard body surface; the other constantly released eerie energy ripples, interfering with Rushan's time manipulation talent.

"Two people dragged down a Tier 6—" Jie Ming forced himself to calm down.

Handing a portion of the runic wizard tools to the Five-Cloud Rainbow Mirror to manipulate, Jie Ming changed his hand gestures constantly, constructing and releasing small wizardry models in an instant: fireballs, ice cones, lightning chains, acid sprays—all were basic wizardry, but combined in a tricky way.

But even under such strikes, the Sickle-Skull Tribe's response was still precise. They didn't even resist hard, but avoided the attack trajectory with the smallest movement range, while always maintaining the integrity of the encirclement.

This felt like—playing chess against himself, the other side knowing all his possible moves.

"Last cycle, what on earth did I do to make these guys target me so much!" Jie Ming thought rapidly while fighting. "Did I use Li Huo Mie Jue Divine Light to clear the field? Or was the Black Giant suicide tactic too conspicuous? Or—did I expose the special nature of the internal cave heaven?"

He needed a breakthrough.

At this instant, Jie Ming made a decision.

His left hand gripped the void, and the channel of the internal cave heaven opened in his palm.

A dark golden staff was pulled out.

Li Huo Mie Jue Divine Light staff, charging progress: 63%.

Although the charging was not completed, almost the moment the staff appeared, the movements of the fifteen Sickle-Skull Tribe individuals paused in unison.

The three Sickle-Skull Tribe individuals on the outermost periphery raised new devices simultaneously.

This time, there was no obvious light effect when the device started, but Jie Ming keenly perceived that the high-energy particles in the surrounding space suddenly became "sluggish."

Like water turning into glue.

"Particle stagnation field—" Jie Ming's pupils shrank.

A defensive means specifically targeted at high-energy beam attacks.

Although it could only last for an instant, theoretically, if he released Li Huo Mie Jue Divine Light at this moment, that attack that should have reached the speed of light could indeed be delayed.

"Even this is known." Jie Ming felt certain in his heart.

The intelligence was confirmed: in the previous cycle, he must have used this staff, and achieved significant battle results.

Otherwise, the other side would not have specifically prepared such highly targeted equipment.

But at the same time, this also meant that the other side's understanding of him was still at the level of the "previous cycle."

"Then let's see what's different about me in this cycle."

Jie Ming didn't activate the staff, but instead inserted it back behind him.

This action caused a momentary gap of doubt in the Sickle-Skull Tribe's formation.

And Jie Ming grasped this gap.

He didn't retreat, but instead took a step forward.

The moment this step was taken, the Body Tempering Method operated at full force, concentrating all power in his legs.

The ground exploded.

Jie Ming turned into an afterimage, his speed so fast that he pulled out a sonic boom cloud in the air.

He didn't attack any of the Sickle-Skull Tribe, but crashed directly into the weakest link of the encirclement.

The Sickle-Skull Tribe in that direction reacted extremely quickly, immediately raising the energy blade on its forelimb.

But its movements were—too slow—in Jie Ming's eyes.

With the blessing of the Soul Transformation stage primordial spirit, Jie Ming's thinking speed was several times that of a wizard of the same level.

He could see the order in which the runes lit up when the energy blade started, could see the trajectory of the other side's muscle force, could see the subtle weaknesses between the carapace gaps.

One punch.

It was just a punch swung at more than dozens of times the speed of sound, tempered by the Body Tempering Method.

Bang!

A muffled collision sound rang out, the carapace on the chest of that Sickle-Skull Tribe individual collapsed entirely, and green body fluid sprayed from its mouthparts and carapace gaps.

Its body flew backward, crashing through three pieces of ruins before stopping.

The encirclement was broken.

Other Sickle-Skull Tribe individuals adjusted immediately, but Jie Ming's speed was faster.

He shuttled through the formation like a ghost, each strike precisely hitting carapace connection points, energy device interfaces, and joint weak points.

The Body Tempering Method gave him not only defensive power, but also perfect control over every inch of his muscles.

The battle immediately began to tilt.

But just as Jie Ming's attention was fully focused on the front, a change occurred.

A figure emerged from the shadows of the ruins behind and to the side—it seemed to have been there all along, perfectly blending with the background.

Only at this moment did it seize the instant when Jie Ming's old force was exhausted and new force had not yet been generated, launching a fatal blow.

That was a Sickle-Skull Tribe individual different from the others.

Its body was smaller, its carapace color was nearly pure black, and the most eye-catching thing was one of its forelimbs.

It was a spike covered in heavy black metal, the metal surface not reflecting light at all, as if it could swallow all light.

The moment the spike pierced out, the three layers of energy shields around Jie Ming were pierced like paper.

No obstruction, no delay.

That spike carried some kind of "magic-breaking" attribute, specifically designed to disintegrate energy defenses.

A trace of expectant light flashed in the compound eyes of all the Sickle-Skull Tribe individuals.

Then—

Clang!

Metal collided with flesh, but the sound emitted was that of metal striking metal.

The black spike stopped on Jie Ming's chest, piercing the outer robe, but could not advance any further.

In the shocked eyes of the Sickle-Skull Tribe, cracks began to appear on the surface of the spike, and then—with a "click," it broke into two pieces.

Jie Ming slowly turned his head, looking at the sneak attacker expressionlessly.

That Sickle-Skull Tribe individual seemed to want to retreat, but it was already too late.

Jie Ming just waved his hand casually, and that Sickle-Skull Tribe individual was hit head-on by an invisible giant hammer, the whole body instantly exploding into a cloud of blood mist, mixed with metal fragments and carapace residue.

"Magic-breaking weapon?" Jie Ming looked down at his chest, the outer robe was broken, revealing the skin with metallic luster underneath, not even a white mark left. "Dealing with pure energy defense wizardry is fine. Dealing with this body of mine that has been tempered a thousand times—"

"Still far from it."

But when he said this, there was no trace of relaxation in his heart.

This meant that in the next cycle, the other side would definitely prepare means more targeted at physical defense.

The battle was still continuing, but the balance had completely tilted.

Although the Sickle-Skull Tribe occupied an intelligence advantage, the wizards' hard strength was still better.

When Jie Ming opened the breakthrough, other wizards around also solved their respective opponents one after another, starting to support this side.

The Black Giants, led by Rushan, also finally broke through the containment, black figures surging like a tide.

Ten minutes later, the last Sickle-Skull Tribe individual fell under the siege of four wizards.

Jie Ming stood in place, panting slightly.

He looked around, the battlefield had been basically controlled.

The cannon fodder units suffered heavy losses, the ground was covered with the wreckage of biochemical giant beasts and alchemy constructs, fortunately, the casualties of the wizards themselves were small.

In the distance, Frost was commanding the cleanup of remaining resistance.

This Tier 7 wizard received even more targeting than Jie Ming, but he still crushed all the high-end power of the other side with his own strength.

"Captain Jie Ming." A voice came from the side.

It was the adjutant, who had a deep bone-visible wound on his arm, and was using healing wizardry to repair it: "Statistics are complete. Our squad lost 42% of cannon fodder units, seven wizards were slightly injured, zero fallen."

"Understood." Jie Ming nodded, but his gaze cast toward the distance.

On the horizon, the main force of the Sickle-Skull Tribe was retreating.

They retreated in an orderly manner, without the slightest panic of defeat.

This landing battle was won.

But this was just the beginning.

>