Chapter 430

The moment Artelius's true body stepped into this timeline tributary, the situation turned sharply.

That grand will, which seemed omnipotent in front of Jie Ming, immediately revealed completely different "emotions" when facing this Tier 8 wizard.

A violent shock, even mixed with a trace of panic that could not be concealed, spread without obstruction.

Without the slightest hesitation, that will showed amazing decisiveness.

All its will tentacles scattered in this timeline crack world, like a frightened octopus, shrank crazily at an unprecedented speed!

The force field covering the world collapsed rapidly, converging toward the blue energy ball on the central altar of the temple, obviously intending to cut off the connection with this "temporary cage" and escape back to its true hiding place!

However, Wizard Artelius had gone to great lengths to weave this vast net of "variable overload," how could he allow it to escape easily?

From the very first moment his true body set foot here, countless data torrents that ordinary people could not understand were already reflected in Artelius's eyes, which were as calm as the starry sky.

He was calculating mentally.

With the terrifying thinking speed of a Tier 8 wizard, he was analyzing the structure of this temporary crack world, tracking the source path of the will's contraction, and inversely calculating the "coordinate parameters" of the timeline where its main body was located.

And after having a clear "clue," the exposure of the opponent's hiding place was a foregone conclusion.

All this happened too fast.

Jie Ming only felt that the will that almost erased him retreated like a tide, and the pressure disappeared suddenly.

By the time he subconsciously raised his head, that will had even retracted most of its power.

Just at the last moment when the contracting will was about to completely detach from the energy ball and escape into a deeper timeline...

Artelius hooked the corners of his mouth into a very faint smile.

"Heh... caught you."

Before the words fell, he had already raised his hand again and pulled casually at the void in front of him.

Chirp...

A pitch-black crack, far more stable than when he guided Jie Ming before, with rich starlight flowing on the edges, was torn open by him from the "structure" of this world!

The aura coming from the opposite side of the crack was completely different from this temporary time crack world.

More "heavy," more "real," and also carried a trace of resonance with this tributary world.

Without the slightest hesitation, Artelius stepped into the crack, and his figure was instantly swallowed by the darkness.

Jie Ming reacted very quickly.

He knew very well that if he stayed here, he might survive, but if any accident happened, he would likely be lost along with this time crack world.

By comparison, following the Star-Caster might be a better way to survive, and it was also the only chance to uncover the final mystery.

He followed closely into the starlight crack without hesitation.

After a brief feeling of weightlessness and distortion from crossing different dimension interlayers, his feet were on the ground.

The moment Jie Ming stood firm, he noticed the essential difference.

The surrounding environment was still that temple with a rough style, stone pillars, dome, altar.

But the stone here was not dead and gray, but glowed with a warm and restrained energy luster.

The air was filled with an ancient and solemn aura, and the temple itself seemed to be soaked by time and some kind of lofty "meaning," revealing a truly magnificent and sacred momentum, as different from the "replica" full of artificial coldness before as heaven and earth.

Undoubtedly, this is the genuine article!

It is the core timeline world that the existence behind the scenes truly constructed and has long hidden in!

And the scene in the center of the temple confirmed this point even more.

On the altar, what was suspended was no longer a simple blue energy ball.

But a huge metal sphere with a diameter of more than five meters, full of mechanical beauty!

The surface of the sphere was not smooth, but covered with vertically arranged energy wires that intersected and were precisely arranged.

Highly condensed energy flows in gold and silver colors flowed inside the wires, emitting a low and stable humming sound.

The entire sphere looked like a masterpiece combining the beauty of top-level engineering.

At this moment, the energy wires on its surface were flickering and extinguishing crazily at an unprecedented frequency, obviously operating under overload, processing massive amounts of energy and information, and dealing with the sudden invasion crisis.

Jie Ming's gaze swept quickly, but he did not find the figure of Wizard Artelius who had entered first.

But just the moment he felt doubt, the mental mark that had been branded on the surface of his soul was triggered.

Strands of mental power suddenly precipitated from the surrounding environment.

Jie Ming recognized it immediately; those were exactly the mental power of Wizard Artelius.

After sensing the mark from Wizard Artelius on Jie Ming, these mental powers gathered autonomously and surged toward him.

At the same time, the "things" carried within the mental power were also received by Jie Ming.

That was the information left by Artelius in advance, which was automatically released at this moment:

"There are differences in time flow rates in different timeline worlds, so you are highly likely not to see me after you come in. I will lock its core defense mechanism as much as possible and suppress and contain it. Its main body's active defense capability has been greatly weakened, but its inherent data firewall and information countermeasures are still running."

"If you come in, take advantage of the time I contain the opponent's protection mechanism to approach the sphere and try to perform information cracking and linking from external interfaces or weak points. I will maintain suppression with all my strength."

The information was concise and clear, pointing out Jie Ming's task at this moment.

Jie Ming did not have half a hesitation.

In a game at this level, it is stupid to doubt the judgment and arrangement of a Tier 8 wizard.

If there is a defense that even the Star-Caster cannot solve, his own strength has no ability to resist at all.

Conversely, if Artelius creates an opportunity, he must seize it!

His figure moved, turning into a stream of light, heading straight for the huge mechanical sphere.

The sphere obviously sensed Jie Ming's approach.

The energy wires on its surface flickered more violently, and the entire sphere emitted a low tremor, as if in anger.

However, as Artelius's information said, its "active defense"—those will attacks that directly erased existence, time turbulence, space blockade, and other means—seemed to be held down tightly by a more powerful force and could not be deployed.

The sphere's performance at this moment was more like a central computer that had been unplugged from most of its weapon systems, only able to issue alarms and conduct limited internal defense resistance in vain.

Seeing Jie Ming approaching rapidly, the remaining defense mechanisms inside the sphere were completely activated.

A torrent of will, although much weaker than before but still huge and mixed, mixed with massive amounts of disordered information flows full of contradictions and noise, surged toward Jie Ming's consciousness like a broken sewage pipe!

This was the most primitive mental pollution and information overload attack, attempting to crush Jie Ming's reason, block his thinking, and make him an idiot or have a scattered consciousness.

If dealing with ordinary Tier 4 or Tier 5 creatures, or even some Tier 6 existences not good at mental defense, this move might be effective.

Unfortunately, in the eyes of a wizard, this method was too "crude."

And Jie Ming was not only a wizard, but also a cultivator with a Soul Transformation Stage primordial spirit!

His soul essence had been tempered twice, and its stability far surpassed his peers.

"Petty tricks!" Jie Ming snorted coldly.

His primordial spirit was as clear as a mirror, the Five-Aggregates Transformation Rainbow Mirror glowed, his mental power turned into an indestructible dam, and he simultaneously operated the "Clearing Heart and Calming Spirit" technique recorded in the "Great Dao Book Pavilion."

The surging chaotic will and information garbage hit his mental defense, most of it was directly bounced off and deflected, and the small part that seeped in was also quickly decomposed and isolated by the Five-Aggregates Transformation Rainbow Mirror, unable to affect his core thinking and actions.

Facing this "mudslide" of spirit and information, Jie Ming landed steadily beside the huge mechanical sphere.

Observing at close range, one could feel the precision and antiquity of this creation even more.

What flowed in those energy wires was not just energy, but seemed to compile extremely complex information codes.

Without time to appreciate it carefully, Jie Ming immediately urged the Eye of Omnipotence with all his strength.

Deep in his pupils, complex runes and spiritual light intertwined, raising his vision and perception to the limit.

The huge metal sphere in front of him was quickly deconstructed in his "eyes" into countless flowing data, energy paths, rune structures, interface definitions, information keys...

Massive amounts of highly encrypted data flows with unknown technology tree characteristics washed over his consciousness.

Jie Ming concentrated all his mind, quickly screened and compared, looking for patterns and breakthroughs.

His goal was clear: find an "interface" that could interact, a "centralized area" for information storage, or a "logic vulnerability" with relatively weak defense.

Time passed in highly tense cracking.

The sphere's resistance became weaker and weaker, but the complexity of the data flow inside this thing was also beyond imagination.

Finally, at a certain moment, Jie Ming's Eye of Omnipotence captured a special "data flow."

This data flow was different from other information responsible for energy transmission, system maintenance, or defense feedback; it was more "complex," more "ordered," and its flow path pointed to a core area inside the sphere protected by multiple encryptions.

Its data encoding method, after Jie Ming's repeated confirmation, was considered to be of the "archiving" and "recording" type.

"Information storage agency... or... access channel to the core database?" Jie Ming's eyes lit up.

While processing a large amount of information, he immediately separated a part of his consciousness tentacles carrying his own soul imprint and cracking runes, and slowly "probed" toward the area indicated by that special data flow cautiously.

The moment the consciousness tentacles made contact, a data shock far more vast than the previous information torrent surged toward him.

But this time it was not an attack, but just a simple outpouring of massive recorded information.

Jie Ming's consciousness was instantly swept into a bottomless data abyss composed of memories and time.

(End of chapter)