Chapter 392: Knowledge and Awakened Intelligence

While Jie Ming was weighing the situation and wondering whether the “interrupt the ritual” objective was still worth pursuing, a familiar voice burst directly into his mind, brimming with irrepressible excitement and pride:

“Hahahaha! Did you see that?! Less than a year! These little ones, relying solely on their newly awakened intellect and collective cooperation, actually managed to birth a being of this caliber! Magnificent! Absolutely magnificent! Worthy of the life I ignited!”

It was Wizard Starfall.

Jie Ming froze for a heartbeat before realization dawned.

Since the underground “grand plan” had been confirmed not to be a planet-shattering super-bomb, Starfall no longer needed to lock her full consciousness with the plane’s origin.

She was clearly using her authority as Lord of the Plane, transmitting her thoughts directly through the plane’s energy veins.

No, not just to him; she had connected all four wizards at once.

The ordinary light-elementals around him remained immersed in ecstatic worship of their newborn king, showing no reaction to this “divine oracle.” That confirmed his guess.

Immediately after, Viola’s cool voice, tinged with faint amusement, joined the channel through the same planar transmission method:

“Starfall, I’d advise against celebrating too soon. Take a close look at the residual energy-guiding grooves and rune structures on the cavern walls and floor… Don’t they look familiar?”

At her prompting, Jie Ming instinctively swept the entire massive cavern with a detailed scan.

Sure enough, beneath the dazzling light and rough stone, he discovered countless engraved marks.

Though the patterns and rune arrays looked incomplete, crudely laid, and horribly inefficient in energy circulation, their core framework and node placement were undeniably sophisticated.

“This is…!” Starfall’s voice carried unmistakable shock. “A simplified variant of the ‘Kars Sevenfold Amplification Array’? And the foundational modules of ‘Energy-Focusing Resonance Runes’? Isn’t this the exact underlying architecture of the auxiliary array we designed together when researching the high-energy beam cannon?! How is it here?!”

Viola’s tone held a trace of vindication: “Looks like my suspicion was correct. When you performed the ‘ignition of intelligence,’ even though you consciously avoided imparting knowledge, you were immersed in researching these array models at the time. The relevant knowledge, thought patterns, even the ‘feel’ of constructing them—very likely seeped through your intent and, using Imaginary Element as the medium, became imprinted on the deepest layer of these newborn souls.”

“Considering that the ignition process itself is profoundly influenced by the creator’s emotions and will, this kind of unconscious knowledge ‘infection’ is entirely possible.”

Shrinking inside his disguised light sphere, Jie Ming silently nodded.

He actually understood it even more clearly.

After all, the “enlightenment” arts of the cultivation world worked in much the same way.

When immortals enlightened stones, plants, or spirits, they typically instilled not only intelligence but also basic survival knowledge, understanding of heaven and earth, and even simple moral concepts.

Otherwise, if they merely granted power and sentience without any knowledge, the result would not be helpful cave guardians or sweeping boys, but blank-minded “super-infants” that needed to be taught everything from scratch.

Wizards were beings utterly devoted to the pursuit of knowledge. For a high-ring wizard like Starfall, the density of knowledge flowing through her soul was astronomical.

Even the tiniest unconscious leak during the ignition process would be enough to serve as the foundational cornerstone for these blank newborn intellects to build cognition and technology upon.

“So… that’s how it was?”

Starfall’s voice carried a hint of disappointment; the pure joy of witnessing a miracle of creation had been somewhat diluted.

Sensing the suddenly heavy atmosphere, Jie Ming was about to say something through the channel to lighten the mood when the situation abruptly changed again!

BOOM!

The central titan abruptly contracted, then erupted with radiance and pressure ten times more intense than before!

It was no longer an unstable energy aggregate. It now exuded a solid, stable, ocean-vast aura; its ascension had completed in mere moments, firmly stabilizing at the sixth-ring life tier!

At the peak of that blinding light, when the pressure swept the entire cavern, anomaly struck!

Jie Ming’s vision flashed pure white. Even his reinforced sight momentarily blurred under the overwhelming glare.

And in that instant—when the light was most blinding and even spiritual perception was disrupted—dozens of the seemingly exhausted light-elementals beside him suddenly sprang into action!

Their gentle or chaotic glows vanished, replaced by vicious, piercing attack radiance.

Like synchronized weapons, they fired ultra-condensed energy beams from every cunning angle straight at Jie Ming’s disguised position!

At the same time, an enormous pillar of searing white light carrying terrifying destructive intent erupted from the newly born sixth-ring entity.

With earth-splitting might, it struck precisely where Jie Ming stood!

Danger alarms screamed in his mind!

There was no time to think. Battle-honed instinct and years of research instantly activated. The Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror flared, assisting with instantaneous calculations.

Phase space!

His figure blurred and phased out, peeling away from the prime material plane and slipping into a temporary parallel phase space by the narrowest of margins.

BOOM!!!!!

In the prime material, the spot he had occupied—along with everything within several dozen meters, stone, air, and the dozens of light-elementals that had attacked him—was completely vaporized by the intersection of the sixth-ring beam and countless energy lances.

When the dust settled, only a perfectly smooth, bottomless circular crater remained.

The stone at its edges had even crystallized from the instantaneous extreme heat.

Hiding in phase space, Jie Ming stared at the terrifying aftermath and felt cold sweat trickle down his back, followed immediately by overwhelming confusion.

How was I discovered? When? How?

He had absolute confidence in his disguise.

It was a perfect fusion of the Body Forging Art’s morphological control, light-element simulation sorcery, and All-Purpose Eye fine-tuning of energy fluctuations.

In theory, it should have fooled even a freshly ascended and not-yet-stabilized sixth-ring existence.

Unless the opponent possessed specialized detection methods, or…

“Jie Ming! Can you hear me?! What’s your status?!”

Starfall’s urgent voice came again through planar authority; she had clearly monitored the sudden eruption of devastating attacks in the cavern.

“No injuries. I reacted in time,” Jie Ming replied calmly while rapidly stretching his body back to normal form inside phase space.

“But I don’t understand. My disguise was perfect. How did it lock onto me so precisely?”

After a brief pause, Viola joined the channel:

“Analyzing the imagery Starfall just sent—judging by the attack pattern, the sixth-ring entity first flooded your position with blinding interference light before delivering the killing blow.”

“That means it already knew your exact location from the very beginning and even predicted the visual disruption the flare would cause you… or rather, it knew the visual weakness of ‘flesh-and-blood organisms’ under intense light.”

Viola didn’t finish her sentence, but all three on the channel realized the bone-chilling possibility at the same moment.

“It was a trap,” Jie Ming’s voice sank. “A trap specifically set for potential ‘observers’ or ‘intruders.’ They didn’t just detect the existence of wizards… or rather, the ‘Creator.’ They even exploited information leaked during recent frequent experiments—such as our attempts to simulate ‘flesh forms’ and probable observation behavior—to lay this ambush. They intend to counter-kill the Creator!”

Starfall fell silent for a heartbeat. Then every trace of disappointment vanished.

In its place burned an even fiercer, almost boiling research fervor: “Counter-kill the Creator?! My gods! They actually deduced the concept of a ‘Creator’ and chose rebellion instead of awe! This intelligence… this spirituality… marvelous! This excites me far more than merely witnessing a miracle!”

From Viola’s side came a low chuckle and the faint sound of equipment operation: “Starfall, don’t get too excited yet. My monitors just picked up some even more interesting ‘little problems.’ It seems your ‘children’ prepared more than one surprise.”

Starfall must have seen the same thing through planar surveillance, because her laughter grew even more delighted: “Hahaha! I see it! How fascinating! They actually kept a backup plan! Jie Ming!”

Her tone suddenly turned solemn and brimming with expectation:

“Viola has to deal with a small accident up here and can’t get away for now. So the big surprise underground is all yours and Anya’s to handle. Remember…”

Her voice carried fierce emphasis: “Do not under any circumstances harm that big guy’s life! It is now our most precious living research specimen! I want to study its thought patterns, social structure, motives for rebellion… everything!”

Jie Ming: “…”

“…Excuse me? Me?”

You want a fourth-ring wizard—me—to live-capture a sixth-ring entity that has its entire race lying in ambush?!

Oh right, and Anya, a third-ring wizard.

He opened his mouth to protest, but the planar channel cut off cleanly.

Almost simultaneously, a short message from Anya arrived via the Maginet terminal: “I’ve cleared the outer interference and am rushing to the core at full speed. That energy reaction is insane. How’s your side?”

Jie Ming stared out from phase space at the sixth-ring light-entity hovering above the crater, radiance flowing as it searched for traces of him, and at the countless light-elementals moving like a disciplined army, deploying energy interference and lockdown runes.

He let out a helpless sigh.

Protest overruled.

He quickly messaged Anya back with a concise summary of the situation.

Her reply was calm yet faintly eager: “Almost there. Let’s coordinate tactics. I need its energy characteristics and your exact position.”

“Tch… always dumping trouble on me…” Jie Ming took a deep breath, banished stray thoughts, and his gaze sharpened into razor focus once more.