Chapter 417

The sixth time passing through the space rift.

But this time, the feeling was completely different.

The dizziness that came every time disappeared, and the déjà vu in the previous round strengthened again; it was no longer just a familiar "déjà vu," but some more solid memory echo flickering like fragments.

The moment Jie Ming steadied his figure, several clear picture fragments automatically emerged in his mind: himself collecting crystals rapidly on the observation platform; the side profile of Frost landing with a Tier 8 Sickle-Skull tribe corpse; and the various instruments rapidly ingested into his internal cave heaven before the last time reversal—

These memories were not complete, fragmented, and could not be connected into a coherent narrative.

In front of the massive number of recording crystals, these fragmented memories seemed useless.

But the significance of their existence far exceeded their content.

This meant that the "adaptive evolution" of his Body Refining Art against time reset was moving from a blurred "déjà vu" toward a more solid "memory anchor point."

"Captain?" the team member behind asked.

"It's fine." Jie Ming replied exceptionally calmly, his gaze sweeping over the two thousand wizards behind him, then looking at the vigilant friendly guard troops in front and Frost who was flying over.

He knew what had happened.

This was the greatest use of these memories, allowing Jie Ming not to guess, but to "know."

"Know" that this was the sixth Samsara.

The process was already quite proficient.

Show Altherius's order, obtain passage permission.

Before Frost could speak, Jie Ming took the initiative to step forward and hand over the data summary that had been prepared in advance, encapsulating the key research results of the previous round and the current battlefield.

"Lord Frost, this is the summary of research progress and tactical analysis from the previous Samsara. Including the actual combat data of the new biochemical beasts, and—preliminary findings regarding 'paradox experiments'." His tone was calm.

Frost looked at him deeply, didn't ask more, took the crystal, and read it quickly.

A moment later, the order was issued, and the wizard legion deployed with the highest efficiency to intercept the Sickle-Skull tribe ambush force that appeared as expected.

The landing battle with complete intelligence advantage ended in a complete victory for the wizards within half an hour, faster than any previous time.

It wasn't until the battlefield was initially cleared that Jie Ming was able to turn his full attention back to himself.

He first checked his internal cave heaven.

The mountain of recording crystals was classified and safe.

Those monitoring instruments brought back from the previous Samsara, Sickle-Skull tribe samples of various tiers, and the most important one—that complete Tier 8 corpse and two Glory Armor fragments—all lay quietly in the designated areas without abnormal changes.

But this was not the focus of his attention.

With Frost's special permission, Jie Ming and core research wizards like Allison entered the central dispatch warehouse and database of the legion's logistics materials for the first time.

Their goal was clear: check the material list and look for traces left by the "paradox."

The inventory work was quickly completed with the assistance of a highly automated rune array.

When the final report was presented to everyone, a low, excited discussion erupted in the laboratory.

"Confirmed!" Allison pointed to the red-marked data column on the holographic projection. "Basic elemental materials, high-purity energy crystals, specific models of rune substrates—a total of seventeen categories of materials have gaps that cannot be explained by conventional consumption. The total amount of the gap—"

She pulled up another list, which was the detailed material list provided by Jie Ming for manufacturing that batch of "new" observation instruments in the previous round.

"—is twice the total amount of materials required for this list, with an error within five ten-thousandths." The voice of another wizard responsible for data comparison trembled slightly.

Everyone understood what this meant.

Jie Ming brought back a set of "new" instruments from the previous Samsara, and they were now in the camp.

And the gap in the warehouse corresponded to the materials for two sets of instruments.

The only explanation was: that set of "old" instruments manufactured in the fourth round and continued to be used in the fifth round, in the process between the end of the fifth Samsara and the beginning of the sixth Samsara, because they were already "foreign objects," ultimately did not escape.

Like those black giants, they were erased in the conflict of space-time continuity.

"Not bad, this result meets expectations." Jie Ming summarized in a low voice, without much fluctuation in his heart.

This result verified their conjecture about "foreign object paradox stability" and also explained part of the reason for the previous disappearance of the black giants.

Next was the main event.

Jie Ming distributed the environmental basic data recorded in the previous round—including elemental concentrations in various parts of space, baseline values of energy tides,

inherent fluctuation frequencies of plane laws, and other "constant" data packets—to each research group.

The wizards used the repaired "new" instruments (the batch brought back from the previous round) to start synchronous measurements of the current Samsara's plane environment, intending to establish a new baseline and compare it with the recorded data.

At first, everything was normal.

The instruments operated stably, and data flowed on the light screen like a waterfall.

The wizards each handled the modules they were responsible for, checking, calibrating, and calculating.

However, only half a day later, a young wizard specializing in elemental energy spectrum analysis stopped his rune pen with a deep frown.

He repeatedly compared the real-time monitoring data stream with the "previous round baseline data" provided by Jie Ming, his face becoming increasingly confused.

"Consultant Jie Ming," he looked up, his voice carrying uncertainty, "please confirm again, is this 'elemental abundance baseline spectrum' you provided the measurement value during the stable stage before the full-scale attack battle of the previous Samsara? Was it not processed by any post-correction or filtering?"

"Yes, raw data, directly from the recording crystal." Jie Ming affirmed. "What's wrong?"

"This is strange—" the young wizard pointed to the two sets of curves in front of him. "Look, real-time monitoring shows that in the current plane atmosphere, the average concentration of seven stable inert elements is about 0.3% lower than the baseline data you provided. The error range far exceeds the instrument accuracy and the upper limit of natural fluctuations."

0.3%.

This number was like a stone thrown into a calm lake, stirring up violent ripples in Jie Ming's heart.

Soon, more anomalies were reported.

"Report! The average intensity of background void energy fluctuations has decreased by about 0.28%!"

"Space stability coefficient has slightly decreased, and the trend is consistent with the decrease in elemental concentration!"

"Basic life field activity threshold shows signs of a weak upward shift—"

Small percentage deviations were summarized one by one. They were consistent in direction, similar in magnitude, and all affected the most basic and stable "constants" of the plane!

Jie Ming looked at these data differences, his eyes narrowed slightly, and the conjectures in his heart gradually became clear.