Chapter 460: The News

Ten years later.

Emerging from the specialized spatial folding testing ground used to evaluate 【Great Void Step】, Jie Ming accepted the data light screen handed to him by the black giant priest. His gaze quickly swept over the densely packed test parameters displayed on it.

Maximum movement speed, energy consumption curve, shielding rate against various detection methods while in stealth state, environmental adaptability data…

From the statistical results, every indicator of the modified Great Void Step had reached—or even slightly exceeded—the expected model.

“Not bad.” Jie Ming nodded, a satisfied expression appearing on his face.

Compared to the highly complex modification of 【Return to Ruins Armor】, which involved absorbing massive amounts of conceptual knowledge, the modifications to 【Causal Trace Shadow Technique】 and 【Great Void Step】 had been far more “straightforward.”

The former focused primarily on information capture and trace analysis—precisely the area where wizards excelled at data processing—so modifying it presented no real difficulty.

The latter centered on spatial phase shifting, energy frequency synchronization, and stealth algorithm optimization.

And coincidentally, Jie Ming was exceptionally strong in spatial knowledge and energy-switching techniques, so modifying Great Void Step had not required excessive effort either.

With the rich experience accumulated from modifying Return to Ruins Armor, combined with his increasingly profound understanding of the Spiritual Qi Law and the wizard rune system, Jie Ming found the subsequent modification work increasingly effortless.

In just ten years, these two uniquely mechanized spells had been successfully converted from the immortal cultivation system into new composite spell models that could be driven by wizard energy and had undergone significant performance enhancement.

At this point, his offensive capabilities included “Trigram Fire Annihilation Divine Light,” defense was covered by “Return to Ruins Armor,” reconnaissance by “Causal Trace Shadow Mirror,” and mobility by “Great Void Step.”

A foundational combat system covering the main dimensions of battle had been preliminarily established.

Jie Ming mentally calculated the remaining time.

“From the eighty-year war timeline Mentor Clark originally mentioned, there are now… less than fifty years left,” he mused. “The time is still relatively ample. Once the Mysterious Astral Mortal Dust Barrier is upgraded, there might even be enough time to research one or two more supportive or highly targeted spells or witch tools to further enrich my arsenal.”

With that thought, he returned to the core laboratory and opened his terminal.

This time, his search keywords were “power of faith,” “essence of wish power,” “aggregate of mental stray thoughts,” “conceptual pollution,” and related knowledge.

To safely utilize that mass of “Poison of Incense Fire” to upgrade the Mysterious Astral Mortal Dust Barrier, the records on the Incense Fire Divine Dao in the Great Dao Book Pavilion—along with his prior foundation from studying divine power faith networks—were still slightly insufficient.

He needed a more comprehensive and cutting-edge understanding of the broad category of “power of faith” within the wizard world’s cognitive framework and current research status.

What surprised him somewhat was that, on the terminal, purely theoretical research, characteristic analyses, historical application cases, and similar knowledge materials concerning “power of faith” were unexpectedly “affordable.”

Jie Ming had already prepared himself to spend high-grade military merits, yet he discovered that the vast majority of related knowledge could be purchased with only low-grade military merits.

Of course, this “affordability” was relative.

In-depth research reports, experimental data involving high-tier applications, and models for certain special faith phenomena still carried steep prices—often tens of millions or even billions of low-grade military merits.

But for the current Jie Ming, such costs were no longer a significant burden.

“It seems that in mainstream wizard civilization cognition, while ‘power of faith’ is undeniably a non-negligible source of power—especially prominent in certain specific civilizations or systems—its research value and universality of application appear to receive far less emphasis than core domains like laws, souls, spacetime, and so on…” Jie Ming analyzed rapidly as he browsed the catalog and synopses.

This was not entirely a bad thing.

At the very least, he could quickly build a solid knowledge framework around the power of faith at a relatively bearable cost—one sufficient to support safe handling and application of the “Poison of Incense Fire.”

Given his existing foundation from prior research into divine power faith networks, Jie Ming did not need to purchase an entire set of knowledge from beginner to advanced.

His finger tapped lightly, adding dozens of carefully selected documents—covering different angles and levels of faith power knowledge—to his cart, preparing for bulk purchase.

Just as he was meticulously verifying the abstracts of the final few papers on “purification of faith impurities and their hazardous characteristics,” a sudden urgent communication request popped up in the corner of the terminal screen.

Requester: Viola.

Jie Ming’s heart stirred. He immediately accepted the call.

Viola’s face appeared on the light screen. Her expression was one Jie Ming had not seen in a very long time—grave, even carrying a trace of solemnity. The usual laziness or occasional flashes of wicked amusement were completely absent.

“Jie Ming,” she spoke without any pleasantries, straight to the point, her voice low. “The war timeline has been set.”

Seeing her expression, Jie Ming knew the news was likely unfavorable. He asked directly, “Earlier than expected?”

“Yes.” Viola nodded. “The latest confirmed information just came in. The final coordinated start time set by the Star Ring Federation… is significantly earlier than even our most pessimistic internal estimates.”

She paused, then stated a precise figure: “Twenty-five years from now. Official coordinated war commencement.”

“Twenty-five years?!” Jie Ming couldn’t help furrowing his brows tightly.

That cut more than twenty years off their preparation time in one stroke!

For wizards, who routinely planned and accumulated on scales of centuries or millennia, twenty years was not particularly long—but it was enough to disrupt many carefully laid plans and rhythms.

For him personally, many research projects originally scheduled for later—such as further deducing new spell modifications or optimizing cannon-fodder legions—would now have to be shelved or drastically scaled back.

All resources could only be concentrated to prioritize the final perfection of core combat power.

And Jie Ming’s situation was still relatively favorable.

One must remember that wizards possessed all manner of strange and varied methods.

Some wizards did not specialize in ready-to-use combat spells or general-purpose techniques. Instead, their strengths lay in long-preparation, environment-specific cultivation, or on-the-spot construction of large-scale war weapons, special ecological legions, one-time strategic arrays, and so on.

Such methods often possessed immense power or miraculous effects in specific domains, yet they came with long preparation cycles and poor flexibility.

The sudden advancement of the war timeline would undoubtedly deal the heaviest blow to this category of wizards.

And yet, it was precisely these “big move” or “specialized” wizards who frequently played decisive, game-changing roles on the front lines or in key tactical segments.

The Star Ring Federation’s final decision to lock in this clearly early timeline was certainly not arbitrary.

It meant that, in the preceding negotiations, the Tower of Annihilation and Chaos Secret Cult had exerted even greater pressure.

And the fact that the enemy chose this path indicated that their own war preparation cycle was shorter—they were more inclined toward an early decisive battle.

This indirectly confirmed that the enemy had begun targeted war preparations far earlier than Noren Workshop.

“Has the war zone been determined?” Jie Ming suppressed his swirling thoughts and asked another critical question.

“It has.” Far from relaxing at the question, Viola’s expression grew even heavier. “The battlefield designated by the Star Ring Federation is a specially modified, ultra-large abandoned plane provided by them.”

Hearing the description “ultra-large abandoned plane,” Jie Ming immediately understood why Viola’s face looked so grim.

Ultra-large planes were rich in resources and possessed relatively stable and complete laws. They were extremely rarely “abandoned” outright.

Once labeled “abandoned,” it usually meant the core resources had long since been exhausted.

The environment might be extremely harsh or dangerously unstable—possibly even scarred by some catastrophic trauma.

And for the Star Ring Federation to “provide” it, “modify” it, and specifically emphasize “ultra-large”…

This was almost certainly a special construct created by the Federation using technology to forcibly splice and solidify fragments or wreckage from multiple abandoned planes.

Its purpose was clear: to provide an arena vast enough to withstand battles between high-tier wizards while maximally stripping away both sides’ ability to “exploit battlefield environmental resources.”

On such a battlefield, conventional tactics—such as drawing on local materials for rapid array setup, catalyzing native lifeforms into reinforcements, or absorbing planar energy to replenish consumption—would all be severely restricted.

What the two sides would be competing on would primarily be their own carried resource reserves, real-time combat power, and sheer head-on tactical execution.

For Noren Workshop, this was clearly not a favorable condition.

Although Noren Workshop possessed the largest number of wizards among the three great wizard factions, facing the other two combined would still leave them at a numerical disadvantage.

Aside from barely holding parity at the eighth-ring level, in terms of quantity, combat power at equivalent ranks was generally inferior.

“A head-on war of attrition… indeed not good news,” Jie Ming’s frown deepened.

This meant the brutality of the war and the scale of resource consumption might far exceed initial estimates.

“That’s the situation.” Viola’s voice carried a trace of weariness, yet her gaze remained sharp. “Mentor asked me to inform you—prepare yourself. Everything must prioritize raising immediate combat power and ensuring survivability.”

“I understand,” Jie Ming replied gravely.

The communication ended. The light screen went dark.

The laboratory fell silent for a moment.

Jie Ming stood in place, staring at the still-open faith power knowledge purchase interface on the terminal screen. His eyes flickered.

The sense of urgency and worry that had surged upon hearing the news was quickly calmed by him.

What was done was done. Anxiety served no purpose.

He could only do his utmost, making full use of these final twenty-five years to arm himself to the teeth.

“Fortunately, the core spell modifications have already been completed,” he pinched the bridge of his nose, his gaze once again turning calm and focused. “The preliminary combat system is in place. Though overall combat power will be considerably lower than initially anticipated, real-time fighting strength won’t be too far off. However… upgrading the Mysterious Astral Mortal Dust Barrier needs to be moved up immediately.”

Without further hesitation, his fingers moved swiftly across the light screen, confirming and paying for every one of the previously selected faith power knowledge documents in one decisive batch.