Chapter 511

The gray-white desolate plain extended to the end of the field of vision, and the sky was the eternal, lifeless lead gray.

The air was filled with thin and inert elemental dust, and occasionally energy turbulence swept through the depths of the clouds like silent lightning, bringing a brief pale light.

Jie Ming hovered in mid-air, his gaze calmly watching a shadow fleeing in a panic in the distance.

The opponent was the fastest and most cunning one in this twenty-person hunting team; when Jie Ming's first wave of strikes descended, he decisively abandoned his teammates and shot toward the horizon with some kind of explosive secret technique.

"Judgment correct, unfortunately..." Jie Ming whispered, raising his right index finger.

At the fingertip, a dark golden light suddenly lit up, solid as a needle.

But the moment it left his fingertip, the light "grew" from a slender light needle into a giant light pillar exceeding 10 meters in thickness.

The beam precisely drowned the figure on the distant horizon that was desperately changing direction, trying to use a spatial fold for cover.

The wizard hit exploded with several layers of hastily excited shields, but they were all easily torn apart by the extremely condensed energy upon contact with the beam.

His body stiffened for an instant, and the whole person was like a wax figure thrown into a furnace, vaporizing and dissipating silently.

Along with the shield fragments and scattered elements around him, he turned into a wisp of blue smoke rising slowly.

"Judging by the average level of the hunting team, these people's strength is not bad."

Jie Ming slowly lowered his hand and landed back on the ground.

The ground beneath his feet had long been unrecognizable, covered with energy erosion pits of varying depths, depressions melted into glass-like states by high temperatures, and hideous gullies torn open by spatial tearing-type sorcery.

The air remained with irritable fire elements, disordered spatial fluctuations, and a trace of cold lingering rhyme after soul annihilation.

Twenty enemy wizards with an average strength between Level 4 and Level 5, including three Level 5 peaks who coordinated tacitly and tried to trap him with joint sorcery, were cleaned up by him like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves in just a few breaths.

"Hiss..." An exclamation with a clear intake of breath came from the side.

The air rippled like water, and Blake's pale figure slowly emerged.

His dark purple eyes swept over the devastated battlefield, and then looked at Jie Ming, who was calm and composed, not even stained with much dust on his robes, his corners of the mouth twitching a few times involuntarily.

"I say... Jie Ming..." Blake's tone carried a complex emotion mixed with exclamation and relief, "I am now infinitely convinced that teaming up with you was the wisest decision I've made during this period."

He pointed to the energy residues that were slowly dissipating: "A twenty-person hunting team, including at least three elites under the Chaos Secret Sect's 'Pain Lasher'... you solved them more neatly than our soul-system handles a team of low-tier ghosts."

Jie Ming smiled and didn't take this compliment, instead asking: "Is this area cleaned up? Any residual mental traces of fish that slipped through the net?"

"Clean." Blake nodded affirmatively; he had just carefully screened it once with soul scanning. "Even the weakest soul lingering echoes were completely annihilated by your attack. However..."

He changed the subject, his expression becoming serious: "Don't you think the patrol density in this area... is a bit ridiculously high? We've encountered more 'hunting teams' and fixed sentry posts in these three days than in the total of the previous ten days."

"And, the configuration of this team is clearly stronger, more like... elite guards, rather than pure hunters."

Jie Ming, upon hearing this, also put away his relaxed expression.

He looked around at the gray-defeated plain, his mental power spreading out like formless ripples, carefully perceiving the subtle abnormalities in the environment.

"Something is indeed wrong. Although the energy background is chaotic, the 'orderly' disturbance residues of certain specific frequencies are much more obvious than in the outer areas. And..."

He pointed to several rune carving residues on the ground beneath his feet that had been deliberately covered up but were still conspicuous under his enhanced energy vision: "There are traces here of large-scale, systematic defensive magic arrays or concealment barriers that were activated and then deactivated not long ago."

The two looked at each other, both seeing the same judgment in the other's eyes.

"Hit the jackpot?" Blake licked his somewhat dry lips, his voice lowered, carrying suppressed excitement and tension, "Either we stumbled upon some important temporary command node or material transfer station of theirs, or... we ran into one of the 'trump cards' they are currently setting up?"

"It could also be a carefully laid bait." Jie Ming added calmly, pouring a bucket of cold water on the excited Blake.

"The workshop side has encountered it several times already, using fake energy signals and high-intensity patrols to attract our elite forces deep inside, and then ambushing them. We haven't used fewer similar means on this side either."

"Do you want to take a risk and gamble?" Purple light flashed in Blake's eyes; that was the manifestation of his highly concentrated mental power.

"Since we're here." Jie Ming was concise, "Even if it's bait, we have to confirm what the bait is and how hard the hook is. If it's real... then the value of this intelligence is enough for us to take the risk."

The opinions of the two were quickly unified.

However, since they knew there was something strange ahead, the two didn't immediately advance recklessly, but once again clarified the division of labor and contingency plans.

"Old rules, I scout the way, you provide backup." Blake said, his figure already beginning to become transparent and blurry, "Keep the mental link smooth. Once I mark 'danger' or 'abnormality', you prioritize judging whether to intervene. If I mark 'retreat'... then each of us will look to our own skills."

He said half-jokingly at the end, his figure having completely merged into the environment, sneaking toward the front.

Jie Ming nodded without refuting.

He stayed in place, seemingly casually finding a rock that was considered flat to sit on, but in reality, his mental power was highly concentrated, silently sensing Blake's gradually receding position and state through the soul link.

At the same time, the energy pool in his inner cave operated slowly, replenishing the various wizarding tool energies he had consumed, ensuring he could erupt with the strongest combat power at any time.

Since switching to the cooperation mode, this combination of Blake acting as a "ghost scout" and Jie Ming as a "mobile fortress and terminator" had extremely high efficiency.

Just as Jie Ming expected, as a soul-system wizard, even if he was only Level 4, his reconnaissance range and perception ability were still much stronger than his own Level 5 wizard knowledge accumulation that was unqualified.

When the two cooperated, he could always find the enemy one step ahead and assess the threat.

And Jie Ming's simple and violent attack capability ensured that they could solve most encounter battles quickly without getting bogged down in entanglement.

For this reason, the cooperation mode between the two also changed.

At the beginning, the two agreed to maintain a certain distance and search forward side by side, but as Jie Ming and Blake discovered each other's advantages, the situation between the two sides became what it is now:

Blake scouts in front, while Jie Ming follows in an area at a certain position from him.

After Blake finds the enemy, he will pass the intelligence related to the enemy to Jie Ming, and Jie Ming will choose whether to attack or retreat.

However, so far, Jie Ming hadn't encountered a situation where he needed to choose "retreat."

In most cases, the enemy hadn't had time to force out his full strength before they no longer existed.

The waiting time wasn't long.

After estimating the distance between the two sides slightly, Jie Ming also got up and acted in the direction Blake had left.

After flying rapidly one after another for about half an hour, Jie Ming felt the magic net terminal in his portable space bag vibrate slightly.

He took it out to check; it was a message from Blake's encrypted channel.

The content was very short, but only two words, yet it made Jie Ming alert instantly:

【Ahead, abnormality.】

It didn't describe the enemy's quantity, level, type, or energy readings in detail like usual, only using the vague word "abnormality."

This didn't fit Blake's consistent style.

Did something go wrong?

Or did he discover something that couldn't be measured by conventional standards?

Jie Ming replied immediately: 【Received. Coordinates? Status?】

Blake's reply came a few seconds late, still short: 【Coordinates shared. I am unharmed, in hiding. It is recommended to hide your figure and observe from a distance, do not step directly into it.】

The coordinates came, about 500 kilometers from Jie Ming's current position, which wasn't far for a Level 5 Wizard.

Jie Ming didn't have the slightest hesitation and immediately acted according to Blake's warning.

He first stopped any energy detection and mental power extension toward that direction, avoiding alerting the enemy.

Afterward, his figure disappeared from the rock like a phantom.

【Phase Space】 activated.

He also mobilized the spirituality of the Five Elements Transformation Rainbow Mirror to cast spatial stabilization, covering up the spatial fluctuations generated by the activation of Phase Space.

After confirming that he was hiding as much as possible, Jie Ming then slowly advanced toward the coordinates provided by Blake.

The area where the coordinates were located was a Gobi desert that was more desolate and covered with giant weathered rock pillars.

Jie Ming maintained the state of Phase Space and arrived at the edge silently.

Almost the moment he stepped into the perception range of this area, a weak but vaguely familiar discomfort, like a cool spider silk, brushed across the surface of his consciousness lightly.

Jie Ming was very familiar with this feeling, because a few days ago he had also experienced this feeling on Blake; it was exactly the discomfort of presence being shielded.

"So that's it..." Jie Ming's heart tightened.

The "abnormality" Blake mentioned was exactly this kind of "being watched" and "presence pollution" that could only be faintly perceived by those with extremely keen soul perception, or those like him whose Body Tempering Method had evolved special environmental adaptability.

This meant that a soul-system wizard specializing in concealment and interference was lurking nearby, and their attainments were extremely high.

He instantly understood the reason for Blake's caution, and also understood the purpose of the other party calling him over.

Dealing with this kind of opponent who was like an environmental ghost, and very likely a troublesome guy whose level might be higher than Blake's, his existence outside the rules might be more effective than pure soul reconnaissance.

(End of chapter)