Chapter 529: A Simple and Brutal Hidden Card

The indoor hologram had not yet fully shut down; tactical images and data analyses floated in midair.

Clark walked to the main console, casually turned off several holograms, then turned to look at Gao Jie Ming.

"I just received the intelligence report from your latest mission," he said, his voice as flat as ever—but the next words made Gao Jie Ming freeze.

"You did well. Winning against Xu Xu Huan was truly beyond my expectations."

Gao Jie Ming blinked, still processing, when a sharp gasp came from beside him.

"W-wait a minute!" Her voice cracked. "Xu Xu Huan?! Not some other sixth-rank sorcerer—Xu Xu Huan?! And you actually beat him?!"

Gao Jie Ming turned and saw Viola's delicate face etched with three giant characters: "Impossible."

Her silver-gray eyes were wide open, her mouth slightly agape, utterly lacking her usual poise.

It wasn't just her.

A few seventh-rank sorcerers still standing in the corner of the command room had also turned their heads, their gazes locking onto Gao Jie Ming in unison.

Gao Jie Ming felt uneasy under their stares, but he now understood: Xu Xu Huan must be the sixth-rank sorcerer who wielded the Fiction Law.

He cleared his throat softly and asked, "That—uh—is Xu Xu Huan famous?"

"Famous?" Sister Wei Ao Wei Wei Aola nearly shouted. "Famous?! Do you even know who that guy is?!"

Gao Jie Ming shook his head.

Sister Wei Ao Wei Wei Aola took a deep breath, struggling to organize her words, then decided on the most direct explanation: "In raw combat power, he's not among the absolute top tier of sixth-rank Title Sorcerers. But that's because his 【Fiction】 Law is inherently inferior to those specializing in destruction."

She paused, then continued: "But listen carefully! In every other field, against any lower-tier target, his efficiency is absurdly high!"

Gao Jie Ming blinked. "That—I actually understand a bit. After all, Xu Xu Huan uses the Fiction Law."

"No! You have no idea what that means!" Sister Wei Ao Wei Wei Aola cut in sharply.

"I'm not just talking about low-level enemies—I mean low-level civilizations! For example, when our workshop invades other civilizations' planes, and the enemy has sixth-rank or higher beings who control the plane's origin, we're forced to advance slowly, rely on logistics to spread out, and have sorcerers slowly chip away at each strong enemy and fortress. But if you replace them with Xu Xu Huan—"

She locked eyes with Gao Jie Ming, speaking slowly and deliberately: "He can skip every single step of conquest. Leveraging the unique nature of the Fiction Law, he bypasses control entirely and directly seizes the plane's origin—then wipes everything clean."

Gao Jie Ming froze.

"You mean—"

"I mean!" Sister Wei Ao Wei Wei Aola interrupted him. "While other sixth-rank sorcerers are still grinding through enemy armies, defense systems, and local Laws, Xu Xu Huan has already defined the outcome of conquest outright."

"His efficiency in plane conquest is insane. At least half of the current scale of the Tower of Annihilation is thanks to him."

She stared at Gao Jie Ming with a new, almost reverent gaze. "He's terrifying when facing opponents weaker than himself—and you, you actually defeated him head-on."

Sister Wei Ao Wei Wei Aola fell silent for three full seconds, then asked in a tone laced with complexity: "Gao Jie Ming, be honest—have you already surpassed me?"

Gao Jie Ming opened his mouth, unsure how to answer, when a barely audible cough came from beside him.

Clark's gaze lingered on Sister Wei Ao Wei Wei Aola for a moment, then he nodded thoughtfully: "Makes sense."

Sister Wei Ao Wei Wei Aola's alarm bells rang loudly.

"After the war, you'll come under my guidance along with the Star Fall living plane— as your senior, I can't let my junior catch up!"

Sister Wei Ao Wei Wei Aola's face turned green instantly.

"Master! That's not what I meant! I meant—"

"Hmm." Clark had already turned away, his tone as casual as if commenting on the weather. "I know. But I agree with you—you do need more responsibility."

Sister Wei Ao Wei Wei Aola opened her mouth, then closed it, saying nothing—only shooting Gao Jie Ming a furious glare.

Gao Jie Ming spread his hands helplessly, signaling this wasn't his fault.

After the brief interruption, Sister Wei Ao Wei Wei Aola swiftly changed the subject, voicing the question Gao Jie Ming also wanted to ask: "Master, what's the current situation?"

Clark fell silent for a moment, then spoke slowly: "Essentially—the two sides have laid their cards on the table."

Gao Jie Ming's heart tightened. "Laid their cards? Has our hidden card been discovered?"

Clark glanced at him and nodded slightly: "Our workshop's hidden card requires dispersed deployment. But during that process, one of our seventh-rank sorcerers encountered enemy sorcerers behind the lines. He escaped successfully, but the enemy likely now suspects our intent."

Gao Jie Ming fell silent.

This was one of the worst possible scenarios.

Once an opponent discovers a hidden card, its deterrent power and battlefield effectiveness plummet.

But what intrigued him more was this: what kind of hidden card required a seventh-rank Soul Sorcerer to uncover it—and prompted Sister Wei Ao Wei Wei Aola to say "even if discovered, we can't stop it"?

"Sister Wei Ao Wei Wei Aola just said the enemy's hidden card has been found—but we can't stop it now," Gao Jie Ming looked at Clark. "Why?"

Clark didn't answer directly. He turned and operated the main console.

A massive hologram slowly unfolded before the three of them.

"You know the purpose of our hidden card, right?" Clark asked.

Gao Jie Ming thought briefly: "To create an advantage for the eighth-rank sorcerers' final confrontation?"

Clark's lips curled slightly into a satisfied smile.

"Good. You understand."

As he spoke, he adjusted the hologram's display.

The screen showed a gray-white, desolate plain.

The sky was leaden gray; the ground stretched endlessly as dead rock, devoid of any sign of life—a textbook abandoned plane.

"This is footage recorded by the Magic Net terminal," Clark explained calmly. "Captured by a reconnaissance sorcerer who successfully infiltrated enemy territory."

The image advanced. The camera crossed the wasteland, passed several low hills—then—

The sorcerer in the footage stopped.

Ahead, the scenery showed no obvious difference—but the on-screen markers told Gao Jie Ming: it was an extremely sophisticated spatial isolation barrier.

The reconnaissance sorcerer took a deep breath and stepped across the boundary.

The next instant—

The wasteland vanished.

In its place: a massive array covering the entire field of view.

The array's intricate, dizzying patterns spread, intertwined, and nested layer upon layer; every line pulsed with a cold, chilling light that seemed capable of freezing the soul.

At key nodes of the array, over fifteen seventh-rank sorcerers sat cross-legged.

Their eyes were closed, expressions focused, surrounded by halos of various-colored Laws.

Around them stood nearly a hundred sixth-rank sorcerers.

They formed specific formations, continuously channeling energy into the array to assist the seventh-rank sorcerers in sustaining an unimaginably vast ritual structure.

And at the center of it all—

Directly above the array, hovering two kilometers above the ground, floated a massive light sphere over a kilometer in diameter.

The sphere emitted a soft white glow, like a miniature sun—yet gave off no heat, no energy leakage.

It simply hung there, pure, tranquil, and—unnerving.

"That's—" Gao Jie Ming's voice sounded strange.

"The Tower of Annihilation's hidden card," Clark replied, his tone still calm. "This Soul Sorcerer's detailed probe confirmed its essence is an extremely complex magnetic confinement layer."

"Magnetic confinement layer?"

"Yes." Clark nodded. "It appears as a glowing object because the magnetic field blocks everything—light included. Internal light cannot escape; external light cannot enter. The white light we see is merely the reflection of all external electromagnetic radiation."

Gao Jie Ming stared at the light sphere, his heartbeat accelerating.

Hearing this description, a dread, like a cold serpent, slowly slithered up his spine.

He swallowed hard, forcing out the question he least wanted to ask: "What's inside?"

Clark fell silent.

That silence stretched like a century.

Then his voice came again—calm, unnervingly so: "After detailed calculations, it contains nearly two trillion tons of antimatter."

In an instant.

Gao Jie Ming's face turned green.

Two trillion tons.

Antimatter?!!

How the hell did those two words even go together?!

In his mind, countless data points exploded violently—

When antimatter contacts normal matter, it annihilates completely, converting entirely into pure energy.

The energy conversion efficiency is 100%, far exceeding any nuclear fusion or fission reaction.

One gram of antimatter annihilation releases energy equivalent to twenty thousand tons of TNT.

One kilogram: twenty million tons.

One ton—

Ten trillion tons—

He dared not calculate further.

He finally understood what Sister Wei Ao Wei Wei Aola meant by "even if discovered, we can't stop it."

That light sphere—that kilometer-wide, seemingly harmless, gentle orb—if it lost control—

The entire battlefield, both armies' encampments, millions of sorcerers—

Would be utterly vaporized by that pure, annihilating energy.

Gao Jie Ming's lips moved. After a long pause, he rasped out a barely audible sentence: "No wonder it's the Tower of Annihilation."

He paused, then added dryly: "What a simple, brutal hidden card."

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