Chapter 571: Chapter 488: Reflection
All the wizards still alive were frozen in place, their faces written with extreme fear and despair.
Attack, ineffective.
Melee, instant kill.
Even the most insidious curses were "absorbed" by the opponent in some bizarre way, instantly counter-killing the caster...
How can this fight be won?!
This isn’t a battle at all!
This is... slaughter!
A one-sided, utterly inevitable, total slaughter!
"Monster... monster..."
"Run... run quickly..."
"Scatter and run, spread out the information about this guy!"
Finally, a wizard broke down.
He turned around, frantically invoking all life-saving witchcraft in an attempt to escape this hell.
But...
Buzz.
The dark golden glow shone again.
This time, Jeming no longer used a fan-shaped barrage.
Instead, he executed precise "spot kills" against each scattered flying target.
Pop, pop, pop, pop...
Soft sounds, like the footsteps of death, echoed across the wilderness.
Every soft sound represented the complete annihilation of a Fifth Level Wizard.
A few seconds later.
The light dissipated.
Jeming slowly withdrew his hand, the dark golden glow at his fingertips faded away.
Thirteen Fifth Level Wizards, completely wiped out.
Not even leaving behind a corpse.
Jeming stood in place, silent for a moment.
Then, he sighed softly.
"These guys were even weaker than I expected..."
The one-sided "battle" just now—if it could still be called a battle—flashed repeatedly in his mind.
Thirteen Fifth Level Wizards, fully equipped, a seemingly perfect hunting squad, yet they were obliterated in an instant.
"Did I misunderstand the level of Fifth Level Wizards, or were these people just mediocre among the Fifth Level?"
He frowned slightly, sensing that the reason was likely the latter.
The cooperation among those wizards was quite decent, but they clearly lacked combat habits for dealing with strong enemies, still relying on ganging up or bullying the weak.
In fact, many wizards have this problem, as most of the time they face indigenous creatures weaker than themselves, and indeed have no experience in battling strong enemies.
However, for an Elite Combat Unit, because they wish to gain more benefits, they take on more risks than wizards of the same level, and their combat experience against strong enemies is more abundant.
More importantly, true elite wizards rarely act in groups—being a wizard is inherently solitary, and only those with aligned philosophies can stand side by side.
But such kindred spirits are definitely not many.
And for a group of wizards banding together like this, it seems like a way to compensate for their lack of strength with numbers.
"Willing to gather so many people for a hunt isn’t a choice elites would make."
Jeming sighed lightly.
He voluntarily joined the peripheral reconnaissance to hone his combat system through actual combat.
After all, after reaching Fifth Level, many things are newly developed, and mere simulation and deduction are far from enough; personal verification through actual combat is necessary.
But if opponents are at this level...
"It seems... there is no point in verification."
Just like using a starship to bombard a primitive tribe, there is nothing to gain besides the conclusion of "can win."
Suddenly, he recalled the words of a wizard wearing a monocle shouting: "...The Sixth Level Wizard will arrive soon..."
Jeming’s eyes flickered.
"Is there a Sixth Level stationed nearby?"
This makes sense, as so many wizards forming a hunting zone naturally require high-tier leadership.
"So... should I confront the Sixth Level?"
The moment this thought arose, Jeming’s heart uncontrollably quickened—not out of fear, but a natural excitement when facing an unknown strong enemy.
But the next moment, rationality suppressed the impulse, and he couldn’t help but shake his head.
"No."
Jeming recalled the Sixth Level Wizards he had encountered, and even if excluding the anomaly of Professor Clark, even Senior Sister Viola, often criticized by the professor as too weak for a Sixth Level Wizard, gave Jeming no confidence in victory.
After all, there is a qualitative difference between a Fifth Level Wizard and a Sixth Level Wizard.
The Sixth Level has begun to "solidify" Laws, transitioning from "borrowing" to "controlling."
The level of mastery over technical knowledge between the two is a chasm-like gap.
"With my current combat power, facing a fully prepared Sixth Level head-on... I would most likely die a miserable death."
Even with Ruins Armor and Fire Extinction Divine Light to maneuver, the final outcome might still be a severely injured escape, or even mutual destruction.
Without gathering sufficient intelligence, understanding the opponent’s main Law, proficient witchcraft, combat style, and forbidden techniques, it’s too risky to make a hasty challenge.
Moreover, who says there’s only one Sixth Level Wizard around here?
The first rule of wizards is rationality.
Waging a high-risk battle with unclear returns using limited resources?
That’s not bravery, it’s foolishness.
"However..."
Jeming looked down at the two Data Crystals in the Inner Grotto Heaven, rewards from those two Nolun Workshop wizards.
"This trip was not without gain."
The core knowledge of two Fifth Level Wizards is the essence of their survival, polished over a millennia.
Such "unique" knowledge is often not-for-sale, even unable to be bought with Military Merits.
"Going back to analyze them carefully. The optimization algorithm for nested multi-layer Barrier might add another defense layer to the Ruins Armor; the ’compression’ idea in Water Element shaping and energy compression technology might improve the energy storage efficiency of Fire Extinction Divine Light..."
Thinking of this, his mood slightly relaxed.
Looking up at the boundless gray-white wasteland, he formed a seal with his hands, his figure fading away like ink in water, completely hidden.
Void Step, Jeming was currently using Stealth mode.
Flying openly in such a battlefield is tantamount to being a live target, with enemies in the shadows ready to take a life at any moment.
About a minute after Jeming’s figure left.
In the air above the Magma Basin where Jeming fought earlier, the space rippled slightly.
A figure in a dark purple robe, wearing a silver mask, appeared.
He hovered in mid-air, his gray eyes scanning the environment below.
Lava churned, fragments of witchcraft artifacts charred, and several patches of cursed residue were evaporating a foul stench, but beyond that, there was no more intelligence.
"Completely wiped out? In such a short time?"
He raised his hand and pressed down slightly, sending out ripples of perception.
High-level battlefield retrospection witchcraft analyzed residual energy traces, Law fragments, and information echoes.
For a moment, the brow beneath his mask tightened.
"At least eighteen Fifth Level energy signatures; judging by the elemental decay, there should have been two rounds of battle, with the first round having only four people, and the second round fourteen people. The first round of battle seemed normal, but the second round... ended too quickly."
According to the analysis of residual elemental energy spectra, from the first attack to the disappearance of the last energy signature, the total duration was startlingly brief.
Most of the energy residue exhibited "brutal erasure" characteristics, indicating the enemy’s overwhelming destructive power.
"Energy intensity resembles a Sixth Level...but the energy fluctuation nature is still in the Fifth Level pattern."
"A Fifth Level, instant-killing thirteen same-level elites? Nolun Workshop unexpectedly has such a genius?"
He was silent for a moment, his figure twisting and disappearing again.
"I must relay the message back to the command center."
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