Chapter 511: Search

The gray-white desolate plain stretched to the edge of vision, beneath a sky of unchanging, lifeless leaden gray.

Thin, inert elemental dust permeated the air. Occasionally, chaotic energy currents flashed silently through the depths of the clouds like wordless lightning, casting fleeting, pallid light.

Jie Ming hovered in midair, gazing calmly at a distant, panicked fleeing shadow.

The other party had reacted the fastest and most cunningly among the twenty-man hunter squad. The moment Jie Ming’s first wave of attacks descended, he had decisively abandoned his teammates and shot toward the horizon using some explosive secret art.

“Correct judgment… unfortunately…” Jie Ming murmured, raising his right index finger.

At the fingertip, a point of dark-golden light flared abruptly—condensed to needle-like sharpness.

But the instant it left his finger, the slender beam of light “grew” into a colossal pillar exceeding ten meters in diameter.

The beam precisely engulfed the figure desperately changing direction in the far sky, attempting to use a spatial fold for cover.

Multiple hastily activated shields burst open around the struck wizard, yet they were effortlessly torn apart the moment they contacted the beam’s extreme concentration of energy.

His body stiffened for an instant. Like a wax figure tossed into a furnace, he silently vaporized and dispersed.

Even the shield fragments and scattered elements around him turned into wisps of curling azure smoke that drifted upward.

“For the average strength of a hunter squad, these people were quite capable.”

Jie Ming slowly lowered his hand and descended to the ground.

The earth beneath his feet was already unrecognizable—pockmarked with craters of varying depths corroded by energy, glassy depressions melted by extreme heat, and hideous gashes torn open by spatial-rending sorcery.

The air still carried irritable fire elements, chaotic spatial fluctuations, and faint, chilling aftertastes of annihilated souls.

Twenty enemy wizards, average strength between fourth and fifth ringe, including three peak fifth who coordinated seamlessly and attempted to trap him with joint sorcery, had been swept clean by him in less than a few breaths, like fallen leaves in an autumn gale.

“Hss…” A sharp intake of breath, laced with clear astonishment, came from the side.

The air rippled like water. Black’s pale figure slowly materialized.

His deep-purple eyes swept across the devastated battlefield, then settled on Jie Ming—who stood utterly composed, his robes barely dusted with dirt. The corner of Black’s mouth twitched uncontrollably.

“I say… Jie Ming…” Black’s tone carried a complicated mix of awe and relief. “Right now I’m more convinced than ever that teaming up with you was the smartest decision I’ve made recently.”

He gestured toward the slowly dissipating energy remnants. “A twenty-man hunter squad—at least three of them elite under the Chaos Secret Cult’s ‘Pain Flagellants’… You dealt with them more cleanly than we soul specialists handle a pack of low-tier wraiths.”

Jie Ming smiled, not taking the compliment, and instead asked, “Is this area cleared? Any lingering mental traces from fish that slipped the net?”

“Clean,” Black confirmed with a nod. He had already meticulously swept the area with soul scanning earlier. “Even the faintest soul echoes were completely obliterated by your attacks. However…”

His tone shifted, expression turning grave. “Don’t you think the patrol density in this region… is absurdly high? In the past three days, the number of ‘hunter squads’ and fixed sentries we’ve encountered exceeds the total from the previous ten days combined.”

“And this squad’s composition was clearly stronger—more like an elite escort detail than ordinary roving hunters.”

Jie Ming’s relaxed demeanor faded as well.

He surveyed the desolate gray plain. His mental force spread outward like invisible ripples, carefully probing for subtle anomalies in the environment.

“You’re right. Something’s off. While the energy background is chaotic, certain specific frequencies show far more pronounced ‘ordered’ disturbances than in the outer zones. And moreover…”

He pointed to several rune-carved remnants on the ground—deliberately concealed, yet still conspicuous under his enhanced energy vision. “Not long ago, large-scale, systematic defensive arrays or concealment barriers were activated here and then withdrawn.”

The two exchanged a glance, reading the same conclusion in each other’s eyes.

“We hit the jackpot?” Black licked his somewhat dry lips, voice dropping even lower, laced with suppressed excitement and tension. “Either we’ve stumbled onto an important temporary command node or supply transfer point… or we’ve run straight into one of their hidden ‘trump cards’ being set up?”

“Or it could be a carefully laid bait,” Jie Ming added coolly, dousing Black’s excitement with cold water.

“The workshops have fallen for it several times already—using fake energy signatures and high-intensity patrols to lure our elites deep, then ambushing them. We’ve used similar tactics ourselves plenty of times.”

“Want to gamble on it?” Purple light flickered faintly in Black’s eyes—a sign of extreme mental focus.

“We’re already here.” Jie Ming’s reply was concise. “Even if it’s bait, we need to confirm what kind of bait it is and how sharp the hook is. If it’s real… then the value of that intelligence is worth the risk.”

Their opinions aligned instantly.

Still, now that they knew something was unusual ahead, neither rushed forward recklessly. They once again clarified their roles and contingency plans.

“Same as always—I scout ahead, you hold the rear,” Black said. His figure was already turning transparent and indistinct. “Keep the mental link open. The moment I tag ‘danger’ or ‘anomaly,’ you decide whether to intervene. If I tag ‘retreat’… then it’s every man for himself.”

He added the last part half-jokingly. His form had already fully blended into the environment and was stealthily advancing forward.

Jie Ming nodded without objection.

He remained in place, seemingly casually sitting on a relatively flat rock—while in truth his mental force was fully concentrated, silently sensing Black’s gradually receding position and condition through their soul link.

At the same time, the energy pool within his inner cave heaven slowly circulated, replenishing the various wizard artifact energies he had expended earlier, ensuring he could unleash peak combat power at any moment.

Ever since they switched to this cooperation model, the combination of Black as “phantom scout” and Jie Ming as “mobile fortress and finisher” had proven extremely efficient.

Just as Jie Ming had anticipated, even at only fourth ringe, Black’s scouting range and perception as a soul-path wizard far surpassed his own.

During joint operations, Black could always detect enemies and assess threats one step ahead.

Meanwhile, Jie Ming’s straightforward, brute-force breakthrough capability ensured that most encounters were resolved swiftly, without dragging into prolonged fights.

As a result, their cooperation pattern had naturally evolved.

At first they had agreed to maintain a certain distance and advance side by side. But after both discovered each other’s strengths, the current arrangement emerged:

Black conducted forward reconnaissance, while Jie Ming followed at a set distance behind.

When Black discovered enemies, he would relay relevant intelligence to Jie Ming, who would then decide whether to engage or withdraw.

So far, however, Jie Ming had never once needed to choose “withdraw.”

In most cases, the enemies ceased to exist before they could even force him to exert full power.

The wait was not long.

After roughly estimating the distance between them, Jie Ming rose and moved in the direction Black had gone.

After flying rapidly one ahead and one behind for about half an hour, Jie Ming felt the terminal in his spatial pouch vibrate faintly.

He took it out to check—an encrypted message from Black’s channel.

The content was extremely brief, only two words, yet they instantly put Jie Ming on high alert:

【Ahead. Anomaly.】

No detailed description of enemy numbers, ringes, types, or energy readings as usual—just the vague term “anomaly.”

This was completely out of character for Black.

Something wrong?

Or had he discovered something that couldn’t be measured by conventional standards?

Jie Ming replied immediately: 【Received. Coordinates? Status?】

Black’s response came a few seconds later, still terse: 【Coordinates shared. I’m fine, concealed. Recommend concealing yourself and observing from range. Do NOT step directly into the area.】

The coordinates arrived—roughly five hundred kilometers from Jie Ming’s current position. For a fifth-ring wizard, not far at all.

Without the slightest hesitation, Jie Ming acted according to Black’s warning.

First, he ceased all energy probing and mental extensions in that direction to avoid startling the prey.

Then his figure vanished from the rock like a phantom.

【Phase Space】 activated.

He also drew on the spirituality of the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror to cast Spatial Stabilization, masking the spatial fluctuations produced by Phase Space.

After confirming he was as hidden as possible, Jie Ming slowly advanced toward the coordinates Black had provided.

The area at the coordinate point was an even more barren stretch of gobi desert, studded with enormous weathered rock pillars.

Maintaining his Phase Space state, Jie Ming arrived silently at the edge.

Almost the instant he entered the perceptual range of this region, a faint yet familiar sensation of discomfort brushed across the surface of his consciousness—like icy spider silk.

Jie Ming was very familiar with this feeling. Just a few days earlier, he had experienced the exact same sensation on Black—the discomfort of one’s presence being obscured.

“So that’s it…” A chill ran through Jie Ming’s heart.

What Black called an “anomaly” was precisely this “being watched” feeling combined with “presence contamination”—something only those with exceptionally acute soul perception, or people like him whose Body Forging Method had evolved special environmental attunement, could faintly detect.

It meant a soul-path wizard specialized in concealment and interference was lurking nearby—and one of extremely high proficiency.

In an instant, Jie Ming understood why Black had been so cautious, and why he had called him here.

Against an opponent like an environmental phantom—especially one likely higher in ringe than Black—someone like Jie Ming, an existence outside the normal rules, might prove far more effective than pure soul detection.