Chapter 495: Escape as Light and Preparations

Jie Ming’s figure had almost become a distorted streak of light, hurtling madly toward the depths of the wasteland—far from the coalition camp, far from the main battlefield.

Behind him, after a brief moment of shock, that squad of wizards immediately unleashed piercing alarm signals.

More wizards converged from every direction, like sharks scenting blood, howling in relentless pursuit.

Once they realized offensive sorcery was having little effect, detection locks, long-range interceptions, and binding restraints rained down like a storm.

Jie Ming was forced to change direction constantly—surging upward, plunging downward—threading through the dense net of firepower with hair’s-breadth margins each time.

“Damn it… what an undeserved disaster…”

He gritted his teeth and cursed inwardly, yet his eyes remained exceptionally calm.

He couldn’t flee in a straight line; they would predict his path.

He couldn’t head toward the Noren Workshop defensive line either—it was too far, and he would be intercepted midway.

All he could do was wage a desperate chase across this unfamiliar wasteland against the ever-growing swarm of pursuers behind him.

Instinctively, he swept his spiritual sense over the terminal in his spatial expansion bag. The signals representing allied units were so faint they were nearly gone.

Which meant that right now, he was truly alone.

“Bad luck, bad luck, bad luck, bad luck…”

Jie Ming’s figure carved a twisting trajectory across the ash-gray sky above the wasteland.

Great Void Step pushed to its absolute limit turned him into a phantom blended with the wind, yet the torrent of pursuit—dozens of multicolored streaks of light—clung to him like a gangrenous wound, refusing to let go.

“If you want to chase, then let’s deal with you first!”

Gritting his teeth, he swept his left hand backward. The stored spells in the wizard tool at his wrist released in an instant—three fan-shaped blasts of Trigram Fire Annihilation Divine Light exploded rearward!

The dark-golden streams tore through the atmosphere, swelling to thousands of meters in diameter the moment they left his hand, slamming precisely into the densest part of the pursuing formation.

Two Chaos Secret Cult wizards and three from the Tower of Annihilation failed to dodge in time. Their shields melted like ice and snow the instant the light touched them; their bodies followed, dissolving into drifting ash.

One Tower of Annihilation wizard was slightly luckier—his left arm was merely grazed by the radiance.

The entire arm vanished cleanly at the shoulder, the cut mirror-smooth; not even blood had time to spurt.

But the interruption was limited.

More attacks poured from behind: deep-crimson chains of curses, gray-white spheres of annihilation energy, invisible psychic spikes in endless succession.

Wizards proficient in binding laws joined forces, causing gravity around Jie Ming to suddenly multiply; the air thickened to the consistency of glue.

The Return to Ruins Armor continued to shimmer with faint transparent light across his body.

Most attacks that struck it sank like stones into a deep pool—rippling briefly before vanishing without trace.

Curses and psychic assaults that targeted the soul directly were quietly neutralized by the Mysterious Astral Mortal Dust Barrier.

But against tangible energy-based binding sorcery, even the Return to Ruins Armor was powerless.

To evade, Jie Ming’s speed inevitably slowed.

Worse still, the number of pursuers wasn’t decreasing—it was growing.

On the distant horizon, more points of light streamed in from every direction, merging into this swelling pursuit army.

And what made Jie Ming’s heart pound hardest was that, at the very edge of his perception range, three far more powerful presences—mountainous in pressure—were closing in at terrifying speed!

Sixth-ring wizards.

And more than one.

“Can’t drag this out any longer…”

Jie Ming drew a deep breath and unhesitatingly sank his will into his dantian, activating his trump card.

Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror.

Light-Form Escape.

“Open!”

With a low shout, his spiritual power surged madly into the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror. At the same time, he unleashed another round of Trigram Fire Annihilation Divine Light rearward!

The rainbow radiance on the mirror’s surface flared brilliantly, instantly enveloping his entire body!

In the next instant, his form completely “melted” into the light.

Under the mirror’s power, his entire body transformed in an instant—becoming true light!

Hum!!!

Amid a deafening buzz that shook the ears, Jie Ming vanished from his original position.

The wizards at the forefront of the pursuit were caught completely off guard; several were struck head-on by his final Trigram Fire Annihilation Divine Light and reduced to ash.

Meanwhile, the rainbow streak that was now Jie Ming streaked deeper into the wasteland!

Several minutes later.

Three figures appeared like ghosts at the spot where Jie Ming had disappeared.

Leading them was a sixth-ring wizard of Chaos Secret Cult, clad in dark-purple heavy armor studded with bone spikes. Black runes crawled and writhed across his exposed skin.

He hovered in midair, abyssal eyes sweeping over the chaotic pursuit squad below. His brows furrowed slightly.

“Escaped?” His voice rasped like sandpaper grinding metal.

A trembling fifth-ring wizard flew forward and bowed in report: “My lord, the target suddenly transformed into rainbow light… the speed was too great. We couldn’t track it at all…”

“Transformed into rainbow light?” Another sixth-ring wizard from the Tower of Annihilation—his entire body shrouded in gray-white mist, only two scarlet gleams flickering deep within—let out a low, droning laugh. “I didn’t know you were so skilled at literary flourish.”

After glancing at the battlefield recording another trembling fifth-ring wizard presented, this Tower of Annihilation wizard finally sneered:

“Interesting. Truly interesting technique. But a fifth-ring wizard mastering this level of composite spatial-elemental art? Since when did Noren Workshop produce such a figure?”

The third sixth-ring wizard—an old crone with a hunched back, leaning on a withered wooden staff—slowly descended to the ground.

She said nothing, merely tapped the staff lightly against the earth.

Hum…

Invisible ripples spread outward.

Dust on the ground, lingering energy fragments in the air, the yet-undissipated ripples of light from moments ago…

Everything connected to the recent chase—every scrap of “information”—was drawn toward the withered staff like iron filings to a magnet.

The old crone closed her eyes in concentration. Her withered lips moved silently.

Moments later, she opened them again. Countless flickering fragments of scenes reflected in the depths of her pupils.

These were traces extracted from the environment—Jie Ming’s energy signature when releasing Trigram Fire Annihilation Divine Light, the spatial disturbances from Great Void Step, even the extremely faint rainbow spirituality belonging to the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror.

“Exquisite concealment and energy-conversion technique,” the crone said slowly, her voice like wind through dead leaves. “But he left behind enough ‘scent’.”

She turned to the Chaos Secret Cult sixth-ring wizard. “Karon, your Shadow Hounds should prove useful.”

The heavy-armored wizard named Karon grinned, revealing jagged, sharp teeth.

He extended his right hand, fingers splayed.

The shadow beneath his feet suddenly twisted and writhed, rising from the ground as though alive, reshaping in the air.

It finally coalesced into a pitch-black “shadow hound” with only an outline—no details.

The shadow hound had no eyes, yet its head turned toward the information fragments gathered by the crone’s staff and let out a soundless howl.

Karon reached out and seized the fragments from the air, pressing them into the hound’s body.

The shadow hound’s form immediately solidified further. Faint rainbow patterns surfaced across its surface—the spiritual signature of the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror.

“Go,” Karon patted the hound’s head. “Find him.”

The shadow hound threw back its head in a silent roar, limbs surging with power. It transformed into a streak of black lightning skimming the ground, racing in the direction Jie Ming had fled.

Its speed was astonishing—nearly matching the full-flight velocity of a sixth-ring wizard!

The three sixth-ring wizards exchanged a glance. Their forms blurred simultaneously as they followed closely behind the shadow hound.

……

……

At the same time.

More than fifteen million kilometers away from the earlier battlefield.

A streak of rainbow light descended from the sky. The instant it touched the ground, it reconverged into human form.

Jie Ming dropped to one knee, hands braced against the earth, breathing heavily.

Light-Form Escape placed immense strain on both mind and body. Even after years of body-forging adaptation and evolution, every muscle still screamed with soreness, and his spiritual sea felt waves of emptiness.

“Huff… huff… flying that far in one go… really takes it out of you…”

Fortunately, his body-forging method had long adapted to such fatigue. His body was recovering rapidly.

Jie Ming stood up and looked around.

This region was even more desolate. The ground was no longer monotonous ash-white but a dull iron-gray, like the weathered residue of some metal vein after refinement.

In the distance stood a few low rock formations, sliced flat as though by a giant blade. The sky remained a oppressive leaden gray.

For the moment, he was safe.

Fleeing more than ten million kilometers at the speed of light—even sixth-ring wizards would find it nearly impossible to catch up…

The thought had barely formed when Jie Ming’s heart lurched violently!

Like a sudden premonition, he instantly understood—this was passive feedback from the Causal Trace Shadow Technique.

Though the technique struggled to actively foresee in such a fate-polluted environment, it remained sensitive to “danger tracing” tied to himself.

Something… was tracking him.

The Mysterious Astral Mortal Dust Barrier showed no reaction, meaning the pursuer wasn’t relying on causal lines or fate chains.

Most likely, they were using information he had left behind—which was why Causal Trace Shadow Technique had reacted!

“Sixth-ring methods… truly troublesome,” Jie Ming said gravely.

With his current understanding of tracking and counter-tracking techniques, completely erasing all residual traces was nearly impossible.

Since the enemy could pursue him, they clearly possessed tracking sorcery he couldn’t easily counter.

But…

Jie Ming lifted his head and looked toward the direction from which the shadow hound and the three sixth-ring wizards might come. Far from panic, a gleam of eager anticipation flashed in his eyes.

“Fifteen million kilometers… even for sixth-rings, catching up will take time.”

“That time… is enough to do many things.”

He had joined the outer reconnaissance mission precisely to temper his own system in actual combat.

And now, clashing against sixth-ring wizards—wasn’t that the perfect whetstone?

Of course, Jie Ming wasn’t arrogant enough to believe he could face sixth-ring wizards head-on.

Especially when the enemy most likely numbered more than one.

“So… I need to prepare some ‘gifts’ for my guests.” He grinned.