Chapter 434: Chapter 377: Imaginary Element
As his words echoed, the surrounding space seemed to ripple.
One, two, three...
Silhouettes emerged continuously, appearing from their hidden states in various ways.
Some walked out from twisted light, some rose from the shadows on the ground, some directly dispelled illusion techniques, while others cautiously approached from afar.
These people were the final survivors of this brutal melee, excluding Jeming and the two Fifth Level Wizards who had just exited.
They had been hiding around, witnessing this earth-shattering battle.
Jeming’s gaze swept across the emerging ghost-like figures around him, numbering exactly thirteen.
Among them, there were six Fourth Level Wizards and seven Third Level Wizards.
They formed a loose encirclement, their positions seemingly casual, yet blocking most potential breakout angles.
Their energies subtly connected, evidently achieving some temporary alliance.
"Allied?" Jeming understood, unsurprised.
Wizards survive through wisdom and knowledge, and choosing to unite when facing invincible foes is a display of rationality and intelligence.
The reason he could detect these people wasn’t due to scouting witchcraft.
In the interference of space locks and energy turbulence, those means are significantly weakened, and Jeming himself was in poor condition, unable to focus on the surrounding circumstances.
He discovered the enemies based on a simple fact: Helios and Mephistopheles had already conceded and exited, yet the space anchoring force field enveloping this area remained as firm as ever.
This could only mean that the person maintaining the force field was still present, or there was still sufficient power supporting it.
His gaze finally settled in front of him, on the figure at the forefront of the alliance, with a complex yet determined battle intent in their expression - Reks.
A knowing smile appeared on Jeming’s face as he spoke, "Reks, if I’m not mistaken, it should be you who gathered them, right?"
Reks nodded, frankly admitting, "It was me. Jeming, after interacting with you on the ’Justice’ plane, I realized very clearly that one-on-one, none of us here are your match."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over his allies, "Especially after witnessing how you ’handled’ those Fifth Level seniors, I believed that uniting was the only way we might contend with you, perhaps even... find a glimmer of victory."
Jeming felt a touch of curiosity upon hearing this, "In that case, according to the optimal strategy, you should have launched a thunderous assault when I was fiercely battling those two seniors, or just after I finished the battle, at my most relaxed moment. Why wait until now, giving me a chance to breathe?"
A helpless yet steadfast smile appeared on Reks’s face, "Because I convinced them with two reasons. First, I can lead them to solve the most challenging enemies, namely you and other Fifth Level Wizards - thankfully, most Fifth Level Wizards were handled by you. Secondly..."
He took a deep breath, his gaze blazing as he looked at Jeming, "I willingly relinquish the final victory qualification of this contest. My purpose is not for the ’Death Replacement Doll,’ but to truly duel with you! I want to know, the gap between us, just how wide it is!"
"Me?" Jeming pointed to himself, "You sure it’s now?"
At the moment, Jeming’s state appeared somewhat disheveled - his Qi unstable, the Great Light Appearance dim, and the Black Giant Legion within him nearly depleted.
"Yes, your current state is just right! This is my only opportunity to force you to reveal more techniques and measure the gap between us!"
Jeming realized, a hint of appreciation flashing in his eyes.
To seek verification of knowledge and prowess, even willingly giving up precious rewards readily available, that’s very wizard-like.
He again glanced around at the dozen or so tightly prepared wizards and suddenly chuckled, his tone carrying a peculiar ease, "So, those on the field now, are indeed the last of them, right?"
Seeing his smile, Reks felt a jolt in his heart, a strong sense of foreboding poured down like icy water.
Jeming sighed softly, as if lamenting something, "If you had dispersed across the vast battlefield, given my current condition, I truly would be powerless and could only concede."
"Or, had you all unhesitatingly launched a full assault upon meeting, I probably wouldn’t last long either. But fortunately... you didn’t do that."
"What?!" Reks’s expression changed drastically, though he didn’t understand what card Jeming had to play, instinctive combat awareness prompted him to open his mouth to shout, ordering a full-scale attack!
However, just as he exhaled, an extremely bizarre, unprecedented sense of suffocation seized his throat and chest!
It was like an ordinary person suddenly thrown into a vacuum environment, an oppressive suffocation.
But Reks couldn’t comprehend; wizards are not ordinary humans. Especially for an official wizard of this level, the body modified through numerous means could easily handle true vacuums.
Thus, he quickly realized that what he felt wasn’t a physical lack of oxygen; the surrounding air was still present.
Rather, it was a deeper, almost existential foundational suffocation!
Instinctively trying to gather his best blast technique, his Spiritual Power extended, attempting to capture and guide the surrounding fire elements.
Yet oddly, though Spiritual Power sensed "something," it couldn’t mobilize them like usual.
These "things" had extreme inertia; they responded to his spiritual commands reluctantly, even subtly repelling them.
Struggling to collect enough elements to barely form an unstable technique model, it collapsed instantly upon activation due to extreme discord with the environment, the backlash from the Spiritual Power leaving him dizzy and disoriented.
"What’s happening?!"
"My witchcraft has failed!"
"Elements... the elements won’t obey!"
A flurry of panicked spiritual fluctuations and low murmurs erupted around.
Other wizards encountered the same situation, and only those with exceptionally strong spiritual power or reliance on their physical body or special bloodlines managed to launch a few feeble attacks.
But they were all greatly weakened, their trajectories skewed, blocked effortlessly by Jeming.
A mysterious "suffocation," an invisible obstruction, the mass failure of witchcraft...
Reks forced himself to endure the discomfort at the soul level, frantically scanning the surroundings with various scouting witchcraft — no energy fluctuations, no force field interference, no known curses or field effects...
All detection results indicated "normal," yet their spell-casting abilities were virtually crippled!
This feeling was as if they were suddenly thrust into a foreign plane with different laws, possessing power but unable to wield it.
"Something nonexistent... able to produce real effects... able to disrupt elemental responses..." Reks’s mind raced, ruling out one possibility after another.
Suddenly, a concept he had only seen in ancient texts flashed through his mind like lightning!
He jerked his head up, looking at Jeming, who was leisurely walking towards him, his eyes filled with disbelief and horror, speaking with a voice so dry it almost couldn’t come out:
"Illusory Elements?! Is the law you master... Illusory Elements?!"
Jeming stopped in front of the semi-kneeling Reks, who was struggling against the "suffocation" feeling.
Hearing this, he nodded calmly: "Yes, that’s roughly how you can understand it."
"Illusory Elements..." Reks repeated the term, his face showing utter bitterness and resignation.
Seeing his expression, Jeming shook his head.
Jeming hadn’t deployed any powerful attacking witchcraft just now; instead, he had harnessed the "Spiritual Qi Law" he controlled!
His overall grasp of the Spiritual Qi Law wasn’t very profound, but he excelled in one crucial technique—Elemental-Spiritual Energy Transformation!
In the brief moment during the conversation with Reks, Jeming had quietly activated this ability.
Using himself as the center, he transformed the multitude of basic elemental particles in the surrounding space that wizards depended on for spell-casting into another form of energy—Spiritual Qi!
This might sound like just an energy form transformation with no direct destructive power.
But just like in ancient times, when oxygen first appeared in Earth’s atmosphere, it was tantamount to a catastrophic toxic calamity for anaerobic organisms of that time!
Elements and Spiritual Qi are both foundational components of the world.
But for wizard spell models built entirely on the elemental system, the spiritual guidance patterns are suddenly plunged into an environment suffused with an "alien" foundational particle like Spiritual Qi, leading to disaster.
Their spiritual commands couldn’t effectively guide Spiritual Qi, their spell models couldn’t stably operate in the Spiritual Qi environment, and the "rules" they relied upon for survival were temporarily overridden or distorted!
This is why Reks and the others felt "suffocated"—their souls and cognitive systems were repelling and not adapting to the unfamiliar foundational rules.
This is why the witchcraft failed—because the "bricks" the spells were built from (elements) were temporarily replaced with incompatible "wood" (Spiritual Qi)!
This is why nothing abnormal could be detected—because Spiritual Qi itself is neither a curse nor a force field; it is simply an "objective existence," but the conventional detection methods in this plane are based on the elemental system, naturally unable to recognize or understand it!
Under the influence of the plane’s laws, the forcibly transformed Spiritual Qi was rapidly being corrected by the plane itself, reverting back to its original elemental form.
But this needed time, and this bit of time was more than sufficient for a battle.
Reks looked at Jeming, standing in front of him, feeling the "otherworldly" environment gradually receding yet still enfeebling.
In the end, all his fighting spirit and unwillingness transformed into a long sigh as he lowered his head:
"I lost."
"We admit defeat."
...
With Reks’s concession, the other wizards also gave up resistance and announced their withdrawal.
A few unwilling ones tried to charge forward relying on their physical bodies or special tools, but Jeming easily took them down with martial skills far beyond ordinary, forcing them to retreat in grudge.
Beams of teleportation light lit up one after another, sending the defeated wizards off the battlefield.
In the blink of an eye, only Jeming was left on this ravaged scorched land.
He felt the Spiritual Qi entwining around him, being swiftly "purified" by the plane, and finally displayed a relieved yet slightly smug smile.
"I’ve won."
His figure flickered, and he too was enveloped by the power of teleportation, disappearing from the dueling arena.
