Chapter 628

Across the crack was a wilderness plunged into night.

On the distant horizon, no traces of any human activity could be seen, only endless wilderness, sparse shrubs, and withered grass rustling in the wind.

There were no celestial bodies like stars or moons in the sky, only a piece of pure, thick darkness.

Jie Ming stood on the wilderness, raised his hand to condense an energy light ball in his palm.

The light ball emitted a soft white light, illuminating a range of tens of meters around him.

The moment the light ball lit up, he felt something retract from the darkness.

That feeling was like lighting a lamp in a dark room; those rustling sounds hidden in the dark would suddenly quiet down.

"So this is the night anomaly." Jie Ming looked at the darkness around him, feeling a bit curious.

He did not attempt to use his spiritual sense to track and investigate the depths of the darkness.

Alston was right; this anomaly did not need to be dealt with, just "not being touched by it" was enough.

His gaze swept over the surroundings, looking for the traces of the other eight wizards.

Not far away, a few light spots could be seen moving.

Those were the light sources lit by other wizards; the light spots were scattered in different directions; it seemed everyone was moving in the direction they were interested in.

Jie Ming chose a direction without light spots and walked into the darkness.

The night wind on the wilderness carried a dry and cold earthy smell, surging from all directions.

Jie Ming carried the energy light ball and moved forward slowly in the darkness.

He did not appear urgent; after coming to a new plane, overly rash actions are unwise.

It is better to collect a certain degree of intelligence before taking action... just like what he is doing now.

The brightness of the light ball was deliberately controlled by Jie Ming to the minimum limit, just enough to illuminate the range of three steps under his feet, not an inch more.

Jie Ming wanted to test exactly how sensitive the "night anomaly" was.

The moment the brightness decreased, that feeling came.

It was as if something was sticking to the back of his neck, cold, damp, and as if countless eyes were staring at him from the darkness, each gaze carrying an indescribable hunger.

Just being "watched" was enough to make one feel nauseous in their heart.

"Ordinary-level organisms, if they stay in this environment for a long time, it is estimated that it won't be long before they have a mental breakdown..."

Jie Ming did not look back; he just calmly adjusted the brightness of the light ball up by one level.

Those gazes retracted instantly, like octopus tentacles that had been burned at the fingertips.

The surroundings became empty and quiet again, leaving only the rustling sound of wind blowing through the withered grass.

He tried it again.

Lower the brightness, the sense of peeping returned immediately.

Increase the brightness, the sense of peeping disappeared.

"The threshold is probably at this position." Jie Ming stabilized the light ball at a medium brightness.

This brightness could thoroughly eliminate the feeling of being peeped at, without being as bright as a lighthouse, attracting the attention of half the wilderness.

He silently noted this parameter and then continued forward.

He had no intention of continuing to test for the time being.

Alston had already said it very clearly: the night anomaly is connected to the entire plane, and excessive resistance will cause irreversible damage.

This is like entering a wildlife sanctuary; even if you are scratched by a monkey, you can't flatten the mountain with a missile.

You have to follow the rules, catch it with a tranquilizer gun, lock it in a cage, instead of flipping the table.

Jie Ming agreed with this line of thinking.

A plane that can continuously produce anomalies is much more valuable than a plane that has nothing left after being violently crushed.

He is a researcher, not a destroyer.

"However... the most troublesome thing about this night anomaly is not that you have to keep yourself in a state of light at all times."

Jie Ming looked at the empty wilderness around him and couldn't help but frown.

Letting yourself be in a state of light at all times at night is indeed easy to become a target for the enemy.

But considering that everyone is in the same situation, this is not too big a problem.

The bigger problem is that in this plane, at least in the case of night, he cannot casually use spiritual sense for wide-area reconnaissance.

Jie Ming walked while compressing the perception range of his spiritual sense to within ten meters around his body.

After all, "night" itself is an anomaly.

He was not sure what would happen if his spiritual sense swept across the night, and he didn't intend to verify it.

However, judging from the situation of the two anomalies he had contacted at the current stage, soul energy is very easy to have an impact on anomalies.

Alston's "warning" was already very clear: do not cause damage to this plane.

Whether spiritual sense detection will trigger the stress response of the night anomaly, no one can say for sure.

If it triggers the automatic resistance of the opponent's spiritual sense, it is very likely to hurt the entire plane.

In this uncertain situation, the safest way is not to use spiritual sense perception.

"Just in case, abandon all reconnaissance methods related to spiritual sense, and temporarily disable various active wide-area reconnaissance wizardry to prevent causing too much damage to the plane environment."

"Just in case, abandon all reconnaissance methods related to spiritual sense, and temporarily disable various active wide-area reconnaissance wizardry to prevent causing too much damage to the plane environment."

Although it is a pity to give up the most convenient reconnaissance means, it is trivial for a wizard.

After all, besides active diffusion-type reconnaissance, there are various reconnaissance means that can bless oneself.

And for Jie Ming, it is even simpler: he directly uses his five senses.

Jie Ming's five senses, under the blessing of the Void Refinement perfect true body, even exceeded the effects of various blessing-type wizardry released by many Tier 6 wizards.

And besides the five senses, there are other means.

Jie Ming stopped and closed his eyes for a moment.

A faint golden light lit up on his forehead.

Fate System, activate.

The golden light flickered slightly on his forehead, as if some invisible sense had been opened.

The scene in front of Jie Ming changed.

Countless thin threads of light emerged on the ground of the wilderness, some bright, some dim.

Some extended straight into the distance, some tangled and intertwined at a certain point, forming one "knot" after another.

Those were fate lines.

Each "knot" represented a convergence point of fate, usually meaning human settlements, events, or some kind of abnormal existence.

He did not mobilize these fate lines.

In this plane where anomalies and laws are deeply intertwined, actively pulling the causal network is like flying a kite in a thunderstorm, which is very likely to attract unnecessary trouble.

He was not sure what level of things those "unnecessary troubles" were, nor was he sure how deep their connection with this world was. Before figuring it out, not provoking them was the wisest choice.

But just "observing" and using it to provide information for himself was no problem.

Jie Ming's gaze swept over those "knots," looking for those that met two conditions: first, the degree of entanglement with anomalies is high, and second, the number of people involved is relatively small.

He needed intelligence.

Language, writing, social structure, anomaly distribution... these things all needed to be obtained from the locals.

He quickly locked onto a direction.

To the northeast, about two hundred kilometers away, there was a "knot" of fate lines that was not very conspicuous.

The density of light there was far lower than the surroundings, and the color was dark.

And the texture of those light threads presented an unnatural twist, as if they had been forcibly twisted together by some external force.

Jie Ming opened his eyes, and the golden light on his forehead faded.

He adjusted his direction and moved toward the northeast.

However, he still did not fly, just walked on foot.

Flying would produce energy fluctuations, and energy fluctuations might be captured by the night anomaly, or might be captured by other existences in this plane.

Before obtaining intelligence related to this plane, everything must be cautious.

"Ha! This feeling is really nostalgic."

Jie Ming suddenly couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Because he joined an elite combat unit, Jie Ming hadn't experienced this kind of behavior of needing to cautiously test and find ways to obtain new intelligence in a new plane for a long time.

"The last time I was this careful, it seems it was still participating in the graduation trial with Victor and Amy... unconsciously, it's been nearly two thousand years..."

The wilderness under his feet "slowly" retreated in the darkness, leaving only a sigh drifting in the wind.

Jie Ming's pace didn't look fast, but every step spanned a hundred meters; this was the passive strengthening of the flesh by the true body.

No energy output was needed, purely the embodiment of physical fitness.

After walking for about half an hour, the terrain ahead began to change.

The flat ground of the wilderness appeared with undulations, and some low hills outlined blurred contours on the horizon.

Between the hills, some regular geometric shapes could be vaguely seen, which looked like artificial buildings.

Jie Ming slowed his pace and adjusted the brightness of the light ball a bit lower.

Those buildings were getting closer and closer.

With Jie Ming's eyesight, he could clearly see that it was an abandoned settlement.

The stone walls had collapsed for the most part, the wooden roofs had long since rotted, and only some crooked beams and pillars were creaking in the night wind.

There were narrow alleys between the buildings, and the alleys were piled with rubble and withered branches.

But deep in the settlement, there were a few buildings that were relatively well-preserved, emitting a faint orange-red light from the cracks in the stone walls.

It was a campfire.

There were people inside.

Jie Ming did not deliberately hide himself and walked straight toward the direction of the firelight.

His pace was very light, but in the silence of the night, the sound of rubble being stepped on was still clearly audible.

And the white light cluster beside him revealed his position completely.

Jie Ming walked into a narrow alley, with collapsed stone walls on both sides.

The firelight was less than fifty meters ahead; through a dilapidated stone window, he could see several figures swaying.

Then, a crisp sound.

Something flew out from the darkness, moving so fast that ordinary people couldn't react at all.

Jie Ming glanced at the bullet head, then looked at the direction the bullet flew from.

Behind a stone window next to the firelight, a figure was holding a long, thin metal tube, and the muzzle was still smoking.

Gun.

Jie Ming's eyes lit up slightly.

Judging from the caliber of the bullet, the initial velocity, and the material of the bullet head, the technological level of this plane's civilization was roughly the same as the world he was in before he crossed over.

Interesting.

Jie Ming threw the bullet head on the ground casually and continued to walk forward.

The gunman behind the stone window was clearly stunned.

At this distance, he couldn't see Jie Ming's face clearly,

Only saw that he fired a shot, the other party didn't even dodge, and the bullet disappeared.

Missed? Bulletproof vest? Or something else?

Regardless, his reaction was fast.

Another three consecutive gunshots.

Three bullets flew in a product shape, two aiming at Jie Ming's chest, and one aiming at his head.

The shooting accuracy was high, and it consciously blocked the space for dodging left and right.

Jie Ming stretched out his right hand and drew an arc in front of him.

The three bullets seemed to be attracted by a magnet, deviating from the original trajectory, and were "sucked" toward his palm, falling neatly into his palm.

He lowered his head to look at the three bullet heads, then looked at the direction of the gunman.

"Not bad." He said softly, his voice not loud, but it traveled very far in the silence of the night.

The person behind the stone window was clearly heard; that figure stiffened, and the hand holding the gun trembled slightly.

Jie Ming did not speed up his pace, still walking forward at that unhurried speed.

Since the other party's armament couldn't pose a threat to him, he wanted to test the technological level of this world again to see what the limits of these firearms were.

At the same time, Jie Ming was also sizing up the appearance of those few people.

A total of four people, three men and one woman.

Wearing rough leather jackets, with dark oil paint on their faces, their specific features couldn't be seen clearly.

Their weapons, besides guns, also included daggers and short knives; the equipment looked like some kind of militia or hunter configuration.

The one who opened fire was the man standing behind the stone window, tall and sturdy, with some kind of animal totem tattooed on his right arm.

The gun in his hand was a long-barreled rifle, roughly made but structurally solid, with signs of wear on the gun body, indicating that this gun had been used many times.

The moment Jie Ming walked into the range of the firelight, all four people saw his appearance: a young man wearing a simple dark-colored robe, with a clear face, holding an energy light ball emitting soft white light in his right hand.

His left hand hung naturally by his side, his pace as calm as if he were taking a walk in his own backyard.

Whether it was that white light ball or the means he used to deal with the gunfire just now, it all indicated that this guy in front of them was definitely not a good person!

The tall man pulled the trigger again.

This time Jie Ming didn't catch the bullet.

He tilted his head slightly, the bullet flew past his ear and hit the stone wall behind him, splashing a piece of rubble.

"Accuracy is not bad." Jie Ming nodded slightly.

Jie Ming just judged the position of the bullet based on the muzzle, and the position where the bullet grazed was consistent with his prediction.

This shows that the trajectory of this gun is very stable and the accuracy is high.

Another shot hit Jie Ming's shoulder, but the bullet shattered into fragments the moment it touched the robe.

Another shot.

Jie Ming raised his heel, and the bullet flew under the sole of his shoe——the other party's mentality was already a bit unstable.

After four shots, the magazine was empty.

The tall man's complexion turned pale in the firelight.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but only a dry swallowing sound came from his throat.

The remaining three people had already taken the opportunity to pull out firearms, but seeing this situation, they didn't have the courage to continue firing at all.

Jie Ming stood less than ten meters away from them and finally stopped his pace.

"Your guns are not bad." He said.

Jie Ming had already drawn conclusions from the data of these few shots: the firearm technological level of this plane was roughly the same as Earth, but there were two obvious differences.

One is that the power of the weapon is greater.

The kinetic energy of the same caliber bullet is about thirty percent higher than similar weapons on Earth, which should be a problem of charge amount and material.

Second, although the recoil is greater, it doesn't seem difficult for the people who fire the guns to use them, indicating that the physical fitness of the people in this world is good.

Or, they might have some means of improving physical fitness.

The four people clearly couldn't understand his words; there was no understanding in their eyes, only fear and confusion.

Language barrier, this was expected.

Jie Ming's gaze fell on the only thin man who didn't hold a gun.

He could feel that there was a strange energy in this person's body, and that energy carried a kind of... strange texture.

Just like the feeling emitted by the salty finger, but weaker and more introverted.

The thin man pulled a short knife from his waist, and the blade reflected a cold light in the firelight.

He took a deep breath, and the fear on his face was replaced by a near-crazy determination.

Then he "exploded."

A strange aura sprayed out from his body; Jie Ming was very familiar with that feeling, exactly the same as the curse fluctuation emitted by the salty finger.

Then, a "snake" drilled out from the tall man's chest.

That was something composed of translucent slippery substances, about the thickness of an arm, covered with dense scales, and the scales reflected an oily green luster in the firelight.

Its eyes were two dark red light spots; just seeing those eyes, an instinctive fear of snake-like creatures would surge from the bottom of his heart.

Jie Ming deliberately lowered his resistance, carefully experiencing that kind of fear.

The feeling should be at the physiological level, engraved in the biological genes, the fear of being entangled and swallowed.

But unfortunately, this experience only lasted for an instant.

Even if Jie Ming deliberately lowered his resistance, the body-refining method still completed the evolutionary immunity to this kind of mental attack in an instant.

That feeling of fear surged up like a tide, and retreated like a tide, without leaving a trace.

"Tsk, a bit of a pity."

Thinking this way, Jie Ming stretched out his right hand, spread his five fingers, and aimed at that "snake."

That anomaly symbiotic with the tall man seemed to feel danger and lunged out from the man's chest.

Opened its mouth, revealing two rows of dense teeth hooked inward, pouncing toward Jie Ming's face.

But Jie Ming's hand was faster than it.

His five fingers drew an arc in the air, precisely pinching the snake's neck.

The slippery touch came from his fingers, the snake body twisted violently, and the scales scratched a harsh sound on his skin, but those scales couldn't even break the first layer of his epidermis.

Between the convergence of spiritual sense, strands of suppression runes lit up and stuck to the snake head.

The runes lit up with golden light, and the spell spread from the circular piece, like an invisible net, wrapping the entire snake inside.

The snake's struggle became powerless in an instant, its body began to shrink, collapse, and was finally compressed into a dark green bead the size of a thumb, embedded in the center groove of the rune.

The tall man let out a muffled groan the moment the anomaly was sealed, his eyes rolled back, and his body softened to the ground as if emptied.

Dark liquid seeped from his mouth and nose, his breathing was rapid and chaotic, his pupils dilated, and he lost focus.

"Soul backlash, it seems you and this anomaly have a deep degree of symbiosis."

Jie Ming looked at the tall man lying on the ground and tilted his head slightly.

He almost understood the supernatural system of this plane.

Not considering those technologies that improve physical fitness, the mainstream supernatural power of this plane should be "coexistence with anomalies."

These people seal anomalies in their bodies, or coexist with anomalies in some way, using the power of anomalies to strengthen themselves and fight against enemies.

But the risk of this way is extremely high.

After all, anomalies are not docile livestock; they are dangerous and uncontrollable existences that may backlash against the host at any time.

And in order to coexist with anomalies, these people and anomalies have also undergone deep symbiosis.

Just like just now, he only sealed that snake, and the man suffered a violent backlash.

If it were an anomaly actively going berserk, or the host losing control in battle, the consequences would be even more serious.

Jie Ming took out another empty test tube and collected the dark green bead, his gaze sweeping toward the remaining three people.

Those three people had completely collapsed.

What did they see?

A stranger, catching bullets with his bare hands, walking to them without blushing or panting, and then casually pinching the "thing" in their boss's body that made them both respect and fear into a bead like pinching a bug.

The woman's lips were trembling violently, and finally let out a sharp cry.

She turned and ran, and the other two people followed after reacting, stumbling into the depths of the ruins.

Jie Ming shook his head when he saw this, raised his hand, and clenched his five fingers gently.

Invisible power surged from the void, like a giant palm, gripping those three people along with the air around them.

Their bodies stiffened for a moment in mid-air, and then were slowly pulled back by that power, as if pulled by invisible ropes, falling in front of Jie Ming.

The three people sat on the ground, shivering all over, their faces pale.

The woman had already started to cry, silently, rolling down her cheeks in large drops.

The two men stared at Jie Ming, their eyes mixed with fear, despair, and a kind of incomprehensible confusion.

They began to say something incoherently.

The speaking speed was very fast, and the voice was trembling.

Jie Ming couldn't understand a word, but even if he couldn't understand, he knew that these people should be begging for mercy.

Those three people became more and more excited as they spoke, and more and more desperate.

The woman's tears became more and more, the man's voice became more and more hoarse, and one even started to kowtow, the sound of the forehead hitting the ground echoing in the ruins.

Jie Ming couldn't understand a word, but even if he couldn't understand, he knew that these people should be begging for mercy.

Those three people became more and more excited as they spoke, and more and more desperate.

The woman's tears became more and more, the man's voice became more and more hoarse, and one even started to kowtow, the sound of the forehead hitting the ground echoing in the ruins.

Jie Ming squatted down, stretched out his hand, and gently covered the forehead of the man who was kowtowing.

The man's body trembled violently, and then under extreme stimulation, he suddenly pulled out a gun and fired several shots at Jie Ming's face.

Unfortunately, the one who fell to the ground and wailed was the man.

Some of the bullet fragments that hit Jie Ming's face and shattered rebounded, hitting him just right.

Jie Ming looked at the man rolling on the ground, blinked innocently, and then stretched out his hand again, reaching toward the head of the other man.

Seeing the fate of his companion, the man's body shook, but he didn't dare to continue resisting.

His eyes stared fixedly at Jie Ming's face, reflecting the white light of the energy light ball in his pupils.

【Soul Search】.

Jie Ming's spiritual sense, like dense tentacles, seeped from his palm into the depths of the man's consciousness.

With Jie Ming's current level of spiritual sense manipulation, the effect of performing soul search was much better than back then.

Not only was the efficiency of information acquisition greatly improved, but the damage to the subject was also reduced a lot.

Like an experienced librarian organizing bookshelves, not a robber rummaging through boxes and cabinets.

Language, writing, social structure, historical common sense, anomaly knowledge...

Information surged into Jie Ming's consciousness like a tide.

(6000-word long chapter, not easy to split chapters, just do it like this)