Chapter 493: Confirming the Search Range

Jie Ming did not really want to get entangled with other enemies under the current circumstances.

After all, there were too many enemies around now, and one careless move could attract even more.

So he simply moved toward an area as far away as possible, and after leaving the most intense combat zone, he simply flew at high speed.

After ten consecutive hours of extreme flight, with the Grand Void Step running at full power, his figure almost turned into a faint shadow merging into the background.

Not until the energy fluctuations of those intertwining collisions in his perception became as thin as the low buzzing of mosquitoes in the distance did he slowly reduce speed and land on the leeward side of a low rocky mountain.

Calculating slightly in his heart, his current position was about 1.2 million kilometers away from the Plane Nuolun defensive line.

Jie Ming raised his head and looked at the sky.

Even at such a distant range, there were still faint lights flickering behind the clouds in the direction of the main battlefield.

The aftermath of various elements and energies was like a heartbeat that never stopped; although weak, it still came intermittently.

"To think it can be transmitted from such a long distance; it seems the battle situation on the main battlefield is quite scorching." Jie Ming smacked his lips.

But thinking about it, it was normal. Plane Nuolun intended to give the opponent a hard blow, so who knew if the opponent intended to use those harassment legions as bait to ambush Plane Nuolun in return?

With the wisdom and cunning of wizards, it was normal to have nested strategies in terms of tactics.

So in the end, it still depended on the hard power of both sides.

"However, various facilities have been built in the camp, which can be considered Plane Nuolun's home field, so they shouldn't suffer losses." Jie Ming stroked his chin and pondered the current situation.

"Moreover, after the previous battles, high-level wizards on both sides are afraid to move easily. And the main direction of the Chaos Secret Sect and Tower of Extinction allied forces should still be searching and scouting outside, which involves a lot of combat power. If only counting combat power below the high stage, the workshop side might even have the upper hand."

However, this also meant that even if Jie Ming left the most dense combat zone, the probability of encountering hostile wizards was still not small.

"Fortunately, my original purpose is this; as long as I don't meet high-stage wizards, it's fine."

Next was the true mission of his trip.

Jie Ming reached out to mobilize spiritual power, casting Phase Space, and shrank himself into a space crack.

After finding a temporary safe zone, he began to sort out his thoughts.

This abandoned plane chosen by the Xinghuanlian Alliance as a battlefield was essentially a "super-large plane" forcibly spliced together from dozens of resource-depleted plane fragments.

And being classified as a super-large plane by the Xinghuanlian Alliance meant that the size of this plane was quite exaggerated.

Its scale was far beyond ordinary worlds.

Facts were indeed so.

According to the intelligence provided by the Xinghuanlian Alliance before the war, this plane belonged to a typical "round sky and square earth" structure—the earth was laid out like a chessboard, and the sky covered it like a dome.

The land diameter was about 15 billion kilometers, which could be said to be exaggeratedly large.

If compared with the cognition of his previous life, the land of this super-large plane could almost fill the solar system space bounded by the heliosphere.

But this metaphor was not entirely appropriate.

Although the solar system in his previous life had a vast range, the actual matter was extremely thin.

The sun itself occupied more than 99.86% of the total mass of the solar system, but if the heliosphere range was compared to a football field, the sun was just a soybean in the center of the field.

If one wanted to fill the entire solar system space with matter, without considering gravitational collapse, it wouldn't be necessary to drain the entire galaxy, but the matter of one or two spiral arms of the galaxy might not be enough.

Fortunately, the physical laws of the Wizarding World were different from his previous life, and the forms of expression were also different.

Coupled with the fact that the resources of this plane had long been thoroughly squeezed dry, the earth element was extremely thin, leading to gravity far smaller than normal, so the wizard army could move relatively freely here.

"Looking at it this way, the landing points of the space cracks where the Xinghuanlian Alliance transported both sides in were... quite precise." Jie Ming was thoughtful.

In the vast land with a diameter of 15 billion kilometers, the locations where Plane Nuolun and the allied forces landed were almost "face to face."

This was likely not a coincidence, but the Xinghuanlian Alliance intentionally compressed the initial distance between the two armies to the limit, forcing the war to enter a white-hot stage in a short time.

"But even if three wizard factions are fighting each other, this battlefield range is given too large." Jie Ming frowned slightly.

Theoretically, a Tier 7 wizard indeed had the ability to independently destroy a plane.

But that generally referred to planes of conventional size—that is, planes about the size of the moon to a small star.

Facing a world of the scale of a super-large plane, even if all Tier 7 wizards on both sides bombarded together, they might not be able to cause too much damage to the plane itself.

Unless...

Jie Ming suddenly raised his head and looked at the high sky.

Above the firmament, four "suns" were hanging.

But those were not real stars, nor were they reflections of the fire element plane.

All resources of this abandoned plane had been extracted by wizards, and even the reflection coordinates of the element plane had been transferred.

So the four suns overhead now were the energy brilliance released when four Tier 8 wizards fought.

The terrifying elemental energy radiation was like four artificial sun wheels hanging in the sky; wherever the light reached, even space showed subtle distortion and wrinkles.

A flash of realization crossed Jie Ming's eyes.

"The protagonists of this battlefield were never us."

Everything the wizard legion did—building defensive lines, scouting and hunting, competing for resources, setting up trump cards—ultimately was just to add a slight "probability weight" to the victory of their own Tier 8 wizards.

The true deciding factor of the war was in the high sky.

"So both sides are so attentive to the mission of scouting the enemy's trump card positions, and my next focus..." Jie Ming withdrew his gaze and refocused on what was in front of him, "... should also be to search for the positions of the enemy's trump cards."

Jie Ming wanted to test himself, so he needed to encounter enough enemies. Since both sides were attentive to the positions of their trump cards, as long as he continued to search, he would definitely encounter a constant stream of enemies.

However, searching for a few hidden points in an area with a diameter of 15 billion kilometers sounded like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Fortunately, Jie Ming thought about it for a moment and understood that the actual search range was not that exaggerated.

After all, setting up trump cards required time, and even more required concealment and safety.

High-stage wizards would never waste precious time on long-distance trekking.

At the same time, in order to be able to quickly enter the battlefield after the trump cards were completed, the distance between the setup point and the main camp must be controlled within a certain range.

"Calculating from the mobilization reaction speed of the allied forces these days, the distance between their base camp and the Plane Nuolun base camp defensive line should be within 10 million kilometers."

Jie Ming took out the map on the terminal and drew a circle with the Plane Nuolun camp as the core.

"Then this range should be the optimal distance for the mobilization and reaction of high-level wizards on the side of the Chaos Secret Sect and Tower of Extinction. In that case..."

Jie Ming drew a larger circle outside the circle with a doubled radius.

Since the conventional movement speed of high-stage wizards was set, the area where the enemy set up trump cards would not exceed this distance from their camp.

"A search area with a radius of 20 million kilometers... still vast, but at least no longer despairing."

Thinking for a while, Jie Ming erased the outermost circle: "In that case, prioritize finding the opponent's camp, and then with the camp as the center, only need to search and expand an area with a radius of 10 million kilometers outward."

In this way, the range that needed to be searched was reduced by more than a little bit.

As for the specific location of the opponent's camp...

Although Plane Nuolun had been suppressed and beaten during this period and failed to find the location, there was still a general direction.

Jie Ming left the Phase Space, made a slight calculation, selected a direction, and his figure turned into a faint shadow and streaked out again.

Another few hours passed.

While flying, Jie Ming's heart suddenly moved.

His scouting wizardry discovered that about 300 kilometers ahead, three grey-white energy fluctuations were rapidly approaching the direction he was in.

"This kind of elemental fluctuation... is from the Tower of Extinction." His eyes narrowed slightly.

What Jie Ming cared about more was that the opponent did not change direction because of his detection, and the direction of advance was exactly the position he was in.

This meant...

"They discovered me earlier than I perceived them." Jie Ming couldn't help but frown.

His shortcomings in scouting methods were exposed without doubt at this moment.

Originally, Jie Ming felt that his preparations were considered perfect, but after arriving at the wizard's battlefield, he felt that he still underestimated the difficulty of wizards.

The Causal Tracing Technique was more suitable for tracking existing clues or covering one's own traces on a battlefield where the fate line was completely polluted.

And in terms of active detection and long-range early warning, he still relied on old technology.

Facing wizards specializing in scouting of the same level, this weakness was particularly glaring.

"Must find a way to make up for it after the war." Jie Ming noted this matter in his heart.

In his perception, the three fluctuations were getting closer and closer, without any sign of slowing down or dispersing.

"Very confident." Jie Ming sneered.

Not only did he not retreat, but his speed suddenly increased, rushing toward the opponent!

Since he couldn't hide, there was no need to hide anymore.

"Target accelerating... did not choose to flee, but is preparing to meet the attack!"

Among the three Tower of Extinction wizards, the one in the middle held a constantly rotating grey-white crystal ball, and the surface of the ball reflected the phantom of Jie Ming rushing over.

"Be vigilant, daring to actively charge the formation while facing three people... the opponent either has an ambush or relies on their own strength." The wizard on the left said in a low voice. "Send a signal, let nearby squads move toward this area."

The one in the middle took out the magic network terminal without hesitation, and a short request for help was sent out.

But they did not retreat, but began to apply various protective wizardries to themselves one after another, and accelerated toward the target.

In the eyes of the three Tower of Extinction wizards, the levels of both sides were the same, and the numerical advantage of three against one was real.

Even if the opponent really had something extraordinary, it was not difficult for them to circle for a while and wait for support.

So under such tacit understanding, the distance between the two sides rapidly closed.

Soon, the distance between the two sides was shortened to 100 kilometers.

This distance was already quite close for a Tier 5 wizard; if most offensive wizardries were released at this distance, ordinary Tier 5 wizards simply couldn't dodge them!

"Do it!" The Tower of Extinction wizard shouted sharply.

The three mobilized spiritual power at the same time, and the annihilation energy intertwined with grey-white and pitch-black began to converge...

But Jie Ming's movements were faster.

He just raised his right hand and pointed his index finger in the air.

In the shocked eyes of the three wizards opposite, the surrounding atmosphere and light began to distort.

A point of dark golden light quietly appeared at the fingertip, and then turned into a slender beam of light, streaking out silently.

The beam expanded rapidly during the flight, and when it hit the position where the three were, it had already expanded to a width of over a hundred meters.

Pop!

In the sound as light as a bubble bursting, the protection released by the two hit wizards shattered instantly.

The seemingly harmless light instantly covered the bodies of the two.

After the dark golden light disappeared, there was no trace of the two in the original position, as if they had been erased out of thin air.

The third person's pupils shrank, terrified and wanting to retreat.

However, Jie Ming had already started preparing space wizardry when he released the Li Huo Mie Jue Divine Light.

As soon as the Li Huo Mie Jue Divine Light ended, he cast a space jump, and his figure appeared in front of this terrified wizard like a ghost.

Then, a punch!

A simple, unadorned punch was thrown out.

Where the fist passed, the air was squeezed into visible cone-shaped ripples, and with the help of the space distortion brought by the just-broken space jump, subtle space cracks flashed and disappeared around the fist surface.

The wizard only had time to cross his arms to protect his chest, and grey-white annihilation energy frantically condensed on his arms, forming an arm shield containing high-intensity compressed annihilation power.

Fist and arm shield touched.

Crack!

The black arm shield shattered inch by inch like fragile glass, and the annihilation energy tried to erode Jie Ming's body, but it couldn't break through the protection of the Gui Xu Armor at all.

The fist momentum did not fade, continued forward, smashed through the body-protecting energy, and smashed into the chest.

The wizard's body bowed violently, and then the whole body exploded into a pool of blood mist.

Jie Ming mobilized elemental energy and casually annihilated the opponent's soul that was trying to escape.

Jie Ming retracted his fist, shook his hand, and shook off the stained blood mist.

"Pity, can't get any intelligence from these people." His tone was a bit regretful.

Even during the coordination war, the ban of the Star Orbit Arbitration Tribunal was still in effect.

Unauthorized soul searching or memory plundering of wizards, once discovered, would be regarded as knowledge theft from other wizards, and might even lead to direct intervention by the Arbitration Tribunal.

He dared not take the risk.

"However..." Jie Ming looked up in the direction where the three came from, "Since there is a patrol squad here, it means the direction is correct."

Ahead, it should have entered the outer scouting circle of the enemy camp.

His figure faded again, merged into the environment, and continued to sneak toward that unknown area.

(I've been a bit busy these two days, so I can only update this chapter today.)

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 494 =====