Chapter 467: Tension and Preparation

After steadying his emotions, Gao Jie Ming stared at the distant sky.

The vast spatial tear spanning the horizon hung like a black maw ripped across the heavens, motionless at the edge of the Ship Plane.

Unstable violet-blue energy streams flowed along its edges, occasionally spitting out bursts of annihilating sparks—high-energy particle streams generated by friction as two higher-dimensional spaces forcibly interfaced.

His breathing unconsciously quickened.

His lungs expanded, contracted, then expanded again.

The sound of air rushing in and out of his trachea amplified inside his eardrums, heavy as a rusted bellows.

Only when that sound abruptly intruded into his awareness did Gao Jie Ming jolt back to consciousness.

Did I just... zone out?

He looked down at his hands.

His skin glowed with an unnatural pale red, as if molten lava flowed slowly beneath it.

The air he exhaled condensed into white mist—no, the temperature was too high; it was a heatwave warping the air, capable of instantly scorching a normal human's flesh to ash.

"I... I'm nervous."

Gao Jie Ming exhaled slowly, his voice carrying a hint of unfamiliar realization.

Yes, this was nervousness.

Muscles slightly tensed, blood circulation accelerated, his mind hyper-focused yet unable to fully control his attention...

All these physiological responses pointed to an emotion nearly antique to his current state.

How long?

When was the last time he felt this?

It had been when he first crossed over to this world, standing before the towering gates of Plane Nuolun Academy, waiting for his fate to be decided.

Back then, his hands were icy, his heartbeat thunderous.

Then, the first time he joined a plane war, stepping into Plane Nuolun Plane 147 with the Academy's legion.

Those final minutes before battle, his breath had also been ragged.

But after that?

How long had it been since he felt this?

Five hundred years?

Or a thousand?

Gao Jie Ming had long grown accustomed to handling everything as a wizard, and to remaining coldly rational in every situation.

Facing crises, he calmly analyzed enemy and ally strengths, calculated resource expenditure, designed contingency plans, executed optimal solutions.

Facing certain death, he could even enter a transcendent calm—confidence granted by knowledge, instinct honed by centuries.

But this time was different.

"The opponent is a wizard," he realized.

Not mindless beasts, not alien lifeforms reliant on innate talent, not those primitive civilizations crushed by technology.

A wizard.

One like himself—armor forged from reason, blade sharpened by knowledge, chasing truth across endless years.

Fear arose naturally: you never knew what cards another wizard held.

Yet another emotion surged through his veins.

Excitement.

A wizard's power stemmed from knowledge.

Then... defeating another wizard meant surpassing him academically?

That his chosen path, the technologies he had developed, and the systems he had built had proven superior in actual combat?

This proof stirred him more than destroying a hundred primitive civilizations.

The fear of death and the hunger for academic victory wove into a fine current of electricity, racing up his spine to the back of his skull.

Gao Jie Ming drew a deep breath, trying to calm himself, only making his exhalation even hotter.

He lifted his head, scanning the surroundings.

Of course.

He wasn't alone.

Across the vast assembly square of the Ship Plane, millions of wizards stood in silent formation.

They wore robes of varied colors, adorned with ornaments shimmering with elemental radiance, magic tools hovering beside them in diverse forms.

Wizards preferred silence, so despite the crowd, there was no clamor, no disturbance.

But Gao Jie Ming could "see."

The faint tremors in their fingertips, the repetitive adjustments of their magic tools, the fleeting flashes of sharpness deep within their pupils.

An invisible pressure permeated the air—a ripple from the unconscious interweaving of spiritual fields as millions of highly intelligent beings simultaneously tensed.

The entire plane was like a bow drawn to its limit.

"Gao Jie Ming."

A voice came from his left, elegant yet tinged with an almost imperceptible tremor of delight.

Sister Wei'ao turned her head toward him.

Today she wore a fitted wizard's robe, her long hair coiled into an intricate bun, revealing her long, pale neck.

On the surface, she remained the composed, graceful Gao Gao Jie witch.

But if observed closely, one would notice her right index finger idly tapping a crystal potion vial at her waist, and deep within her silver-gray eyes, some emotion was quietly boiling.

She lifted her left hand, lightly covering her lips to conceal the involuntary upward curve of her smile, her gaze locked firmly on Gao Jie Ming.

"You're going to battle dressed like that?"

Gao Jie Ming looked down at himself.

A standard dark gray wizard's robe, sturdy fabric, enchanted with basic cleansing, constant-temperature, and elemental-resistance talismans—mid-to-high quality from Plane Nuolun Academy's workshop.

But compared to the wizards around him...

To his left, a man was clad in armor plates of flowing liquid metal, each slowly reshaping, refracting rainbow halos.

To his right, a man was encased in three nested transparent force fields, their surfaces crawling with countless miniature runes, radiating terrifying energy fluctuations.

Farther out, someone had unfurled wings of light, someone stood on a rotating gear array, someone was nearly swallowed by writhing bio-mechanical armor.

Elemental radiance blazed across the square, turning the once-dull sky into a spectacle like auroras descending.

Gao Jie Ming's attire looked plain, almost shabby.

"It's enough," he answered calmly, then raised his hand and pressed it to his chest.

The surface of his robe rippled.

Beneath what appeared to be smooth fabric, dozens of precisely arranged slots emerged.

Gao Jie Ming began withdrawing magic tools from his inner dantian.

One by one, he expertly inserted metal plates and crystal shards into the slots.

Five on his chest stored the 【Return to Void Armor】.

Two on each side of his abdomen held the 【Grand Void Step】.

One embedded at his collar was the 【Acceleration】 talisman.

Three dark red diamond-shaped crystals were fixed to the outer sides of each wrist, each containing five 【Dispersing Flame Annihilation Light】 spells.

Once fully installed, the robe's surface smoothed back to normal, showing no trace of alteration.

Only Gao Jie Ming could feel the magic tools, pressed against his skin, emitting faint but steady energy pulses—like a hidden mechanical skeleton beneath his clothes.

He knew his strengths and weaknesses.

In raw magical reserves, depth of understanding of fundamental laws, speed of constructing complex spells on the fly—he likely couldn't match these peers.

But he had the alien knowledge from the 【Great Dao Library】, and his unique techniques merging cultivation logic with wizard runes.

These magic tools were his advantage, his confidence.

"Time is nearly here."

A low voice came from ahead.

Master Clark turned around without warning, his eyes—seeming to pierce fate—swept over Gao Jie Ming and Wei'ao, then settled on the distant spatial tear.

"Check your defenses," Clark said succinctly. "Combat begins the moment you enter."

Master Clark's voice was quiet, yet as soon as he finished, Gao Jie Ming and Wei'ao tensed to their limits.

Almost simultaneously, millions of wizards moved.

Some whispered incantations, some rapidly formed hand seals, some activated pre-set trigger spells.

Torrents of elemental energy surged skyward—fire, ice, lightning, gravity, light, sound, illusion, emotion...

Countless forces awakened briefly, forming layered shields, halos, force fields, and buffs, turning each wizard into a radiant battle cluster.

(End of Chapter)