Chapter 427: Mark and Bait

Jie Ming fell silent for a moment, digesting the flood of information.

From the very beginning, Starforger’s arrangement had never been simple reinforcement, it was a pressure test aimed at a spacetime weapon.

And all of them, the wizards who struggled, researched, and fought through the cycles, were indispensable variables in this test… including himself.

A deduction emerged naturally.

Jie Ming lifted his head and looked toward the projection of this eighth-ring wizard. His tone was no longer one of pure inquiry, but carried the weight of near-certainty:

“So the reason you came to find me specifically this time… is because I, or rather the impact my actions have produced, have already pushed the accumulation of ‘variables’ within this plane to the very brink of overload?”

He no longer used “variables” to refer vaguely to the reinforcement forces. He pointed to himself.

Because he understood clearly: his very existence, maintaining complete memory through his inner cave-heaven and body-forging methods, then using that as the core to drive the entire research system into rapid iteration, was itself an unplanned “variable.”

His behavioral patterns, the acceleration of research he brought, the series of paradox experiments he conducted… all of them had added an incalculable weight to the “variable injection” formula that Altreus had set.

A satisfied smile tinged with approval appeared on the face of Altreus’s projection.

“You guessed correctly,” he admitted openly. “It is precisely because of your efforts, and the chain reactions you triggered, that the ‘information contradictions’ and ‘rule disturbances’ this plane must process have surged dramatically in a short time.”

“According to my observations and calculations, the ‘thing’ that controls the time reversal has already reached a load perilously close to its absolute limit. You are a wonderful accident within my plan… and the key catalyst that accelerated the entire process.”

A flash of excitement passed through Jie Ming’s eyes.

But the excitement was fleeting. More practical confusion quickly followed.

He furrowed his brows slightly and voiced the question that still had no solution:

“Even if it’s approaching overload, up to this point we still haven’t located its ‘true body.’ We don’t know what it is, where it’s hidden, or in what form it exists. Even if it does overload, we still won’t be able to find that thing’s core.”

Without a target to locate, even if the enemy truly overloaded and lost the ability to create time reversal, it would be meaningless.

Because what the wizards needed was to study it—not merely to resolve some insignificant plane.

Altreus nodded. He was not surprised by the question.

His expression remained calm, as though he had already considered it countless times.

“You’re right. We cannot find it,” he first acknowledged Jie Ming’s doubt, then shifted the direction of his words:

“But why must it be us who find it?”

Jie Ming froze.

The Starforger’s tone carried the unshakable certainty of one who controlled the entire situation:

“Wouldn’t it be better to let it come find us on its own?”

Let it come find us?

The idea struck like a spark, instantly igniting the scattered clues in Jie Ming’s mind.

Although for most of the time that unknown entity seemed to be nothing more than a rigid program, certain behaviors revealed that the “existence” or “program” hidden behind the cycle mechanism was not entirely lifeless. It possessed a certain level of “reactivity” and “adaptive capability.”

A system pushed to its absolute limit, a “thing” that sensed its own existence on the verge of collapse—what would it do?

“Eliminate the threat…” Jie Ming murmured to himself, his thoughts suddenly becoming crystal clear. “When the variables become too numerous to process and overload is imminent, its most direct instinctual response would be to eliminate the ‘source’ causing the surge of variables—or at the very least, the most prominent ‘anomaly point’ it can identify!”

And in this plane, who was the most conspicuous, the most likely “anomaly point” responsible for skyrocketing information-processing complexity?

It was the group of wizards who had obtained Time Anchoring, retained complete memories, and whose research capabilities had advanced by leaps and bounds.

And within that group, who was the earliest, the most central “variable trigger”?

Jie Ming’s gaze met the eyes of Altreus’s projection. The answer needed no words.

“It will… target me?” Jie Ming spoke the words aloud. Strangely, he felt little fear—only excitement.

“That is a reasonable inference,” Altreus did not deny it. “For a highly specialized system built for war, its crisis-management logic very likely includes options such as ‘decapitation’ or ‘elimination of key disturbance sources.’ When conventional ‘cycle trial-and-error’ fails to eliminate the threat and is instead pushed to the brink by it, activating a deeper-level elimination protocol would be perfectly logical.”

“Although it possesses time-paradox abilities, a lethal weapon against high-level enemies, since I have already thoroughly studied and mastered the time-paradox mechanism of this plane, I would never commit such a low-level mistake…” Jie Ming instinctively continued the thought.

“So the most probable action it will take… is to directly strike and eliminate me!”

Once he understood this, Jie Ming actually grew more concerned: “But even if it actively moves to ‘eliminate’ me, does that guarantee we’ll be able to locate its core?”

This was the most frustrating point.

The other side controlled time. It could hide in any “past” or “possible future” to launch its attack.

The corners of Altreus’s projection curved into a profound arc—an unshakable confidence born of overwhelming knowledge superiority.

“There is no need to worry about that,” he said steadily and with power. “Having investigated to this extent, and combining it with the characteristics of time manipulation this thing has displayed, I already have a fairly clear picture of its ‘hiding’ methods.”

“It cannot truly detach from this plane. Its ‘existence’ must be deeply bound to the spacetime structure of the plane itself. To put it bluntly, after gathering all the prerequisite conditions, the possible guesses about how this thing hides can now be narrowed down to three or fewer.”

“The only reason I still cannot locate its true body is that I am missing one final, crucial clue… As long as it takes action, it will provide that last fragment.”

Wizard Altreus paused. His gaze seemed to pass straight through Jie Ming, looking toward something deeper:

“The true reason I came to find you this time… is to prepare for exactly that.”

Jie Ming listened intently.

“I need to leave a special ‘mark’ on you,” Altreus stated directly. “This mark has two functions. First, it will establish and maintain an extremely concealed one-way connection.”

“When that ‘thing’, under the pressure of impending overload, takes some extraordinary action against you, or against what it judges to be the ‘key threat,’ especially if it employs deeper layers of time authority or exposes more characteristics of its true body, this mark will allow me to sense, in the very first instant, all the changes triggered by its actions.”

“Additionally, the mark itself contains a strand of my power. It cannot guarantee your absolute safety against any attack, but at the most critical moment, it will at least buy you a sliver… of a chance to survive.”

In short, it was both the highest-grade “detector” and a “life-saving talisman.”

Jie Ming barely hesitated. He nodded.

“I understand. I accept.”

For him, this was all upside and no downside.

It allowed him to cooperate with the Starforger’s ultimate plan to uncover the final mystery, while also granting him an extra layer of protection.

As for the risk of serving as “bait”… from the moment he stepped into this plane, risk had never left his side.

Compared to that, having a clear objective and the covert attention of an eighth-ring wizard actually made him feel far more secure.

Altreus said nothing more. There was no complex spellcasting gesture, no surge of energy.

He simply gave Jie Ming a light nod. That gaze was profound, as though it condensed countless pieces of information and instructions into a single glance.

“Then,” the Starforger’s voice grew faint; the edges of his projection began to ripple and fade like a reflection in water, “I will await your good news.”

With those words, the plain figure vanished from the laboratory air like pencil marks erased by a rubber—leaving behind not the slightest trace of residual energy or spatial disturbance, as though it had never existed.

Jie Ming stood in place and quietly sensed himself for a moment.

His body felt no different. His soul detected no added burden or foreign presence.

Yet he knew that the “mark” Altreus had left behind had already anchored itself to his existence in a way he currently could not comprehend.

He turned his gaze back to the grand schematic before him. This time, his state of mind was entirely different.

The hunter had laid the final bait and trap.

And the prey… might very soon emerge from its nest, sleeping alongside time itself, to deliver a fatal strike.