Chapter 556

Jie Ming hovered in the pure white sea of light, his consciousness immersed in the information fragments collected by the Causal Trace-Shadow Technique.

Although he had only actually encountered one once, combined with these fragmented pieces of information, Jie Ming had gained quite a bit of intelligence.

"It seems my previous deduction was correct..."

The basic elemental impact was indeed effective, and the reason it was effective was precisely because these information lifeforms were too powerful.

Although those information lifeforms could analyze complex information structures, their own existence also relied on the four basic elements.

The outer energy was constructed from elements, and although the core information was abstract, it still needed to rely on elements to "exist."

Their technology was indeed close to the essence of the world, and they held the upper hand when facing most civilization systems.

To put it bluntly, when these information lifeforms faced other civilization systems, they were more like "permission hackers" who could directly modify "game" data in the background. But for this very reason, the actual combat power of their main bodies was quite worrying—when so-called power was just data that could be mobilized at will in their eyes, there was naturally no need to develop power.

But when the opponent's attack was more essential, making them unable to alter the background data, this advantage instead became a fatal weakness. "Like a hacker encountering a physical power cut."

This image couldn't help but come to Jie Ming's mind.

No matter how strong your technology is, once the network cable is pulled, you're still blind.

Facts proved that the four-element theory that the wizard civilization relied on for survival was still closer to the essence, even when compared to such a strange civilization. He suddenly thought of the Level 9 wizards at the top of the wizard civilization—controlling laws, freely modifying the world, infinite power.

That level of existence had probably touched upon a deeper level than the four basic elements.

"Looking at it this way, even when facing Level 9 existences of other civilizations, Level 9 wizards are probably excessively strong... I'll ask my mentor about Level 9 wizards next time..."

"But I remember according to the records of Wizard History, the wizard civilization had already mastered the four basic elements before leaving the origin plane. Looking at it this way, the wizard civilization seems... even more outrageous?"

Jie Ming couldn't help but gasp: "Speaking of which, does a civilization that hasn't even stepped out of its own plane really have the ability to naturally develop this level of theoretical technology?"

Jie Ming shook his head, temporarily suppressing this thought.

He continued to analyze the residual information.

Soon, a fact that made his pupils shrink slightly was analyzed by the Fate System.

Those information lifeforms—were fundamentally unkillable.

At least they couldn't be killed by conventional means.

The information fragments captured by the Causal Trace-Shadow Technique showed that the moment that indigenous inhabitant was crushed by the elemental torrent, its core information underwent a strange "collapse."

That kind of collapse was not destruction, but a "transfer."

From the perspective of data analysis, it should be a kind of quantum entanglement state—the moment it collapsed here, it was synchronously rebuilt over there.

All information was instantly transmitted back to the base camp through some kind of unblockable channel.

Jie Ming frowned deeply.

He recalled the expeditionary force intelligence he had seen before.

Those high-tier wizards had tried various means: spatial freezing, time slowing, soul imprisonment, causal locking—all were ineffective.

Every time, those information lifeforms either dissipated on their own or "died" the moment they were trapped, leaving nothing behind.

At the time, they thought they were committing suicide.

Now it seemed that it wasn't suicide at all.

It was just "going home."

"This kind of..."

Jie Ming fell into deep thought.

From a human perspective, if you destroy the body and then rebuild an individual with exactly the same information in another place, is that still the same person?

The memory is the same, the thinking is the same, all information is the same... but the continuity in between is broken.

By human ethical standards, that should be considered a clone, not the original.

"But information lifeforms might not think so."

Jie Ming recalled the reactions of those indigenous inhabitants.

They fought, retreated, were killed, and appeared again; the entire process had no fear or hesitation.

To them, this might be as natural as human breathing, just a way of moving.

"This is troublesome."

Jie Ming frowned.

Can't kill them, can't catch them, all conventional means are ineffective.

Then how is this war supposed to be fought?

He took a deep breath, calming his mood:

"I shouldn't limit my thinking to this aspect. Think carefully: since conventional means cannot cause actual damage, then I should hypothesize from the existence of the information lifeforms themselves... since they are composed of information, then I should start from the information aspect!"

Jie Ming closed his eyes, actively adjusting his own information structure, and began to look for the next target: "Let's find another target and try!"

A moment later, he "perceived" the location of another indigenous inhabitant.

This time he didn't use an elemental torrent.

After finding the target, Jie Ming didn't say a word and directly activated the Causal Trace-Shadow Technique.

Pale golden light spread from between his brows, enveloping that indigenous inhabitant.

The core of the Causal Trace-Shadow Technique is to capture the causal traces of the target—those past, residual, entangled pieces of information.

Jie Ming wanted to try if he could use this spell to reversely lock onto the opponent's information core, or even follow the causal line to find its base camp. But he failed.

That indigenous inhabitant's outer energy fluctuated violently, and the light of the Causal Trace-Shadow fell on it like it was falling on a slippery, thin film, unable to penetrate at all.

"Not skilled enough."

Jie Ming frowned and withdrew the spell.

That indigenous inhabitant seemed to have perceived something and began to watch Jie Ming vigilantly.

But Jie Ming didn't give it a chance to attack, directly casting an elemental torrent to annihilate it, then adjusted his information, opened up the distance, and looked for the next target. Second attempt.

Failed again.

"The casting method is wrong; I should change the operating method..."

Third time.

Still failed.

"This... the direction I considered at the beginning seems to have deviated..."

Jie Ming could feel that it wasn't that the spell didn't work, but that his cognition of this kind of creature was biased, which was why the spell kept failing.

"One more time..."

Jie Ming was just about to continue when his hair suddenly stood on end.

Danger!

The white light around him distorted violently, and more than a dozen figures appeared simultaneously.

A full thirteen information lifeforms surrounded him from all directions.

Their outer energy surged wildly; they were clearly prepared.

Jie Ming's frequent probing had finally attracted attention; the opponent was going to encircle and annihilate him!

Almost the moment they appeared, those indigenous inhabitants attacked simultaneously.

Countless information tentacles surged from all directions, ten times more violent than the attack of the previous one.

The Return to Void Armor appeared instantly.

The invisible light shield expanded, blocking the first wave of impact.

Then the second wave.

The third wave.

The Return to Void Armor began to tremble.

Although those information tentacles were devoured by the Return to Void artistic conception, the speed of devouring couldn't keep up with the speed of the impact.

The light on the surface of the Return to Void Armor flashed rapidly, and cracks began to appear...

By the time the opponent launched the fourth wave of attacks, the Return to Void Armor shattered.

Pale golden fragments scattered and flew away, disappearing into the sea of light.

But Jie Ming had already completed his preparations for a counterattack.

Golden light shone brightly between his brows.

The Fate System operated at full capacity!

A massive amount of computational power poured out like a burst dam, instantly suppressing the information tentacles of those thirteen indigenous inhabitants in reverse.

Those originally violent and disorderly information flows were forcibly taken over and suppressed by the Fate System, and the thirteen indigenous inhabitants fell into a state of rigidity simultaneously.

Their outer energy fluctuated violently; they were clearly resisting with all their might.

But the Fate System's computational power was too strong.

The sub-system of the Incense Divine Path, which specialized in processing information, gathered the belief flows of billions of believers; at this moment, it exploded with full force, and by relying on pure computational power, it managed to suppress all thirteen indigenous inhabitants in place, unable to move.

Jie Ming didn't waste time.

He slammed his hands together.

The four basic elements around him rioted instantly.

Fire, wind, water, and earth—the four basic elements surged from all directions as if they had gone mad.

Jie Ming stirred his mind slightly, and that massive amount of elements automatically divided into thirteen torrents, locking onto the thirteen indigenous inhabitants respectively.

Those indigenous inhabitants' outer energy fluctuated desperately, attempting to analyze these elemental torrents, but there was no way to start.

This was just a pile of messy, primitive elements; there was no structure to analyze, no logic to tamper with.

They could only take it head-on.

But when it came to the ability to mobilize elements, how could they possibly be better than a wizard who specialized in this?

The first indigenous inhabitant's information fluctuated violently, frantically mobilizing the surrounding elemental power to form a shield in front of it.

However, when it was submerged by the elemental torrent, the outer energy instantly disintegrated, exposing the information core.

Following that were the second, the third...

Within a short time, the information cores of all thirteen indigenous inhabitants were exposed to the scouring of the elemental torrent.

The thirteen information cores collapsed almost simultaneously, turning into countless fine points of light.

Jie Ming didn't stop.

He waved his hands continuously, and the light of the Causal Trace-Shadow Technique enveloped all the information fragments that were dissipating.

This time, those fragments were forcibly frozen before they could fully transmit back.

Jie Ming operated the Fate System to its limit, retrieving all the information fragments he could get his hands on.

A moment later, those fragments completely dissipated.

Jie Ming withdrew his hands and gasped for air.

Cold sweat streamed down his forehead, and the golden light between his brows dimmed significantly.

The previous battle actually didn't cost much energy; it was the subsequent collection of information that exhausted him.

He rested for a few seconds, then looked up and scanned his surroundings.

The pure white sea of light was silent.

But Jie Ming could feel that undercurrents were surging.

The commotion he had just caused was too big.

Those indigenous inhabitants must have already noticed him. If he stayed any longer, the next wave wouldn't be just thirteen.

Jie Ming made a decisive decision: "It's too dangerous now; retreat first!"

He closed his eyes, adjusted his information structure to lower his sense of existence to the minimum, and converged his overflowing information as much as possible. Thus, he began to slowly "move" toward the crack.

The sea of light flowed around him.

After an unknown amount of time, a fine crack appeared in front—that was the plane barrier.

Jie Ming stepped out.

The pure white faded, and before his eyes was the familiar wasteland of the Ship Plane.

In the distance, the huge crack spanned the sky.

Nearby, countless wizards were still busy with their own tasks.

Jie Ming landed and exhaled a long breath.