Chapter 425: The Star Forger

The fifteenth reincarnation, the core laboratory of the wizard camp.

Outside, the roar of battle and energetic fluctuations were sealed off by thick protective arrays, leaving only a low hum as background noise.

Inside the laboratory, the light was constant and soft, the air pristine, with only the faint hiss of runes turning and the silent glide of data streams across light screens.

Gao Jie Ming did not focus on any specific experiment or data analysis, unlike the other wizards.

He sat alone at a circular workbench in one corner of the lab, before him not a research report, but a macroscopic research network and war progress overview he had personally compiled across fifteen reincarnations.

When all wizards had gained the "Time Anchor" ability, and the vast research system could sustain itself without relying on him as the sole information hub, Gao Jie Ming was finally freed from that fireman's state.

He had the leisure to truly calm his mind and, like a true observer, sort through everything across these long reincarnations.

The more he sorted, the clearer that uneasy feeling became in his heart.

From the very beginning, I was never unique.

After organizing all clues, this first thought emerged like a cold needle piercing his mind.

Everything he had done—using his inner dantian to store information, employing Body Strengthening Art to evolve resistance against memory reset, pushing wizards to reverse-engineer the Scythe Skulls' memory mechanism—were these things truly only he could accomplish?

No.

Gao Jie Ming knew very well that at least one person could certainly do it.

And do it better than he could.

That person was the eighth-rank wizard, the Star Forger Altrius, who had cast them into this reincarnation battlefield and stood guard beyond the plane.

Leaving aside the fact that an eighth-rank wizard's mastery of law solidification granted immunity to time reversal effects.

With an eighth-rank wizard's understanding and control of law, was it difficult to create an "information storage point" independent of the plane's time flow?

With an eighth-rank wizard's unfathomable soul strength and knowledge reserves, was it difficult to directly analyze, replicate, or even improve the Scythe Skulls' memory mechanism?

Probably not.

But Altrius did not do it.

He chose a completely different approach: throwing Frost's Vanguard Corps into the reincarnation to be consumed, then only symbolically deploying a batch of "elite support units" like Gao Jie Ming every three reincarnations.

Why?

As his thoughts deepened, the macroscopic chart before Gao Jie Ming seemed to come alive, data lines intertwining to reveal a depressing truth.

Over these fifteen reincarnations, they had fully analyzed the Scythe Skulls' physiology, society, and energy systems; mapped the triggers, scope, and partial internal rules of time reversal; even developed wizardry to counter memory reset.

It seemed impressive, yet all this research was like sketching a beautiful, complex shell.

They studied "how the Scythe Skulls responded to reincarnation" and "what phenomena reincarnation manifested on the Scythe Skulls."

They had not, and could not, truly touch the core of "reincarnation itself."

The mechanism or will that drove everything, existing like the underlying code of the plane, remained hidden in absolute, profound darkness.

The Scythe Skulls and time reversal were like two concentric circles—seemingly close, yet separated by an uncrossable gap.

No matter how many Scythe Skulls the wizards eliminated or how thoroughly they studied their traits, they were merely cleaning the outer circle, leaving the inner core untouched.

"So…" Gao Jie Ming sighed long and deep, leaning back in his chair, gazing at the energy runes on the lab ceiling simulating the starry sky, "Master Altrius must have seen through this long ago."

"He long understood that merely 'studying the Scythe Skulls' and 'accumulating experience within reincarnation' was like seeking fish in a tree—utterly incapable of reaching the core. So he had no interest in doing what I did: these actions that seemed effective but merely scratched the surface."

Then what was the purpose of all this arranged by the Star Forger?

Gao Jie Ming recalled the support operation procedures.

Elite combat units like theirs were typically dispatched only after a theater commander assessed the situation and requested reinforcements from the Star Ring Federation headquarters.

Their total of thirty thousand were precisely sent in response to Master Altrius's request.

Yet thirty thousand… for a war spanning an entire plane, this reinforcement was negligible.

Even if every one was elite, what could they change against trillions of insect hordes and the bizarre time reincarnation?

And that strange support method—deploying them in multiple squads, sending one squad every three reincarnations, at fixed intervals, like drip irrigation.

"Just this many people… won't do much good, will it?" Gao Jie Ming murmured, his fingertip unconsciously tapping the sparse light dots on the chart representing the support units. "And that support method… what exactly is the Star Forger planning…?"

"Of course, to increase variables."

A calm, gentle male voice, as if resonating directly within his soul, answered Gao Jie Ming without warning.

Gao Jie Ming froze, his heart skipping a beat.

He spun his head with lightning speed.

Less than a meter beside him, a man had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

He appeared to be around thirty, his face ordinary, dressed in a plain, almost crude gray wizard robe.

No trace of energy or law fluctuation clung to him—he looked like an ordinary man who had wandered into the lab.

He was intently studying the macroscopic chart before Gao Jie Ming, his face wearing a nearly kind smile.

The Star Forger, Altrius.

Gao Jie Ming instantly recognized him—not just by appearance, but by that aura, even fully suppressed, which still made the soul instinctively feel "insignificant" and "profound"—it could belong to no one but that eighth-rank entity.

How could he be here?

When had he entered?

Why had no other wizards reacted?

Gao Jie Ming's gaze swept rapidly across the lab.

Allison was adjusting a high-precision soul resonance device nearby, frowning slightly; Master Moreias was quietly debating a gene-coding optimization with his assistant.

All other wizards remained absorbed in their work, not glancing this way at all—as if Altrius's presence was invisible to them.

No… not invisible.

Gao Jie Ming quickly calmed, observing closely.

He noticed the dust on the floor beneath Altrius's feet had not shifted at all.

This was not a physical form.

A guess surfaced.

"…Mass projection?" Gao Jie Ming asked tentatively, surprised his voice sounded steadier than expected.

Altrius turned his face, his gaze settling on Gao Jie Ming. A flicker of clear surprise crossed his eyes, then softened into an approving smile.

"Oh? You know 'mass projection'? Your knowledge base is remarkably solid." He did not deny it.

Mass projection: a top-tier technique that projects a portion of one's mass, energy, and even consciousness information to a distant location via instantaneous action.

The projection possesses sensory and limited interactive capabilities nearly identical to the original, but is not true physical matter, and relies on a stable channel to persist.

This explained how he could appear silently and why no other wizards noticed—the projection's "presence" could be precisely controlled to manifest only to specific targets.

(End of Chapter)