Chapter 562: War Is Coming

Chapter 562: War Is Coming

Jie Ming subconsciously lowered his head to look at the blue crystal in his hand.

The crystal felt slightly warm, and the light points inside flowed slowly, as if they possessed life.

The corners of his mouth gradually spread into a grin.

“It seems my hypothesis was correct. It truly caused effective damage…”

“No, it was an effective kill.”

Thinking this, Jie Ming only glanced back once at the surging white tide behind him before continuing to fly outward without hesitation. In truth, the moment he burst out of the fissure, Jie Ming knew the situation had escalated.

The pure white planar barrier behind him churned wildly as countless rays of light converged.

The momentum was completely different from before. Without a doubt, these were the true armies of the information beings.

“Damn! These guys’ reaction is way too intense.”

Jie Ming wasted no words and broke into a full sprint.

His figure transformed into a streak of flowing light, charging madly toward the depths of the ship plane.

The next second, the fissure exploded.

Countless information beings poured out like a bursting flood. Pure white light instantly dyed half the sky.

They had no physical bodies, yet the overwhelming sense of presence they emitted made it hard to breathe.

Upon detecting the enemy assault, the ship plane’s defensive arrays activated instantly.

Dozens of light pillars shot into the sky. Thick torrents of elemental power blasted directly into the hordes of information beings.

Under the effect of the arrays, the four major elements—fire, wind, water, and earth—converged and poured down mercilessly toward the enemy camp, tearing apart the foremost ranks.

But those fragments did not dissipate into light particles as they usually did.

They twisted in place, seizing surrounding energy and rapidly reassembling. In just a few seconds, they reformed into complete information beings and continued charging forward.

“What the hell is going on?!”

“Have they gone mad?!”

“Enemy attack! Activate all arrays!”

Shocked cries from wizards rang out around him.

Jie Ming glanced back while running, his pupils shrinking slightly.

The last time the information beings had chased out, it had only been a probing assault. After being blasted back by the arrays, they had retreated.

But this time was completely different.

The number of information beings was far greater, and their will to fight was far more resolute.

They no longer returned to their base to respawn as before. Even when torn apart by elemental torrents or polluted by chaotic information, they kept resurrecting on the spot and charging forward again and again.

It was as if something had struck their most core bottom line, making them willing to pay any price to pursue.

Of course, Jie Ming knew exactly what that bottom line was.

That “bottom line” was the information being he had truly killed earlier.

He gripped the blue crystal in his hand tighter and ran even faster.

In the sky, the battle grew increasingly fierce.

Only after reaching the protection of the arrays did Jie Ming have the leisure to carefully observe the current situation.

He noticed that the ship plane’s defensive arrays this time were clearly different from before.

In addition to the conventional elemental assault arrays, a large number of special arrays he couldn’t understand were operating.

These arrays did not release elemental energy but rather distorted chaotic information fluctuations.

With every wave of information fluctuation that swept past, large swathes of information beings would suffer disordered outer energy and convulsing cores, only to be torn apart by the subsequent elemental torrents. In terms of actual effect, these chaotic information attacks performed quite well.

Although the information beings could still resurrect after taking damage, the frequency of their resurrection had clearly slowed down.

“It looks like I wasn’t the only one who made progress during this time. Makes sense, it was only natural…”

Jie Ming understood in his heart.

With the task Martin had issued, it seemed no one had been idle.

Moreover, the wizards had even found quite the correct method. It probably wouldn’t be long before they could achieve true lethality even without him.

At that moment, the magic network terminal suddenly vibrated.

【Command Emergency Notice: Jie Ming, come see me immediately. – Martin】

Jie Ming glanced up at the fiercely raging battlefield in the sky, then looked at the still-warm blue crystal in his hand. Without hesitation, he changed direction and flew toward the core camp.

Inside the command center, the atmosphere was strange.

When Jie Ming walked into the hall, he found all the high-ranking wizards gathered around a massive light screen.

The screen was playing the scene of him escaping the Information Plane and the information beings’ army chasing after him.

Martin sat on the main seat. Seeing Jie Ming enter, the corners of his mouth curved into a playful smile.

“You’re here?”

Jie Ming stepped forward a few paces and respectfully saluted.

“Jie Ming greets Senior Martin and all the esteemed wizards.”

Martin waved his hand, indicating there was no need for excessive courtesy.

Then he pointed at the scene on the light screen and looked at Jie Ming with a half-smile. “Kid, you really know how to surprise people.”

Jie Ming’s mouth twitched slightly.

“Causing such a big commotion – none of us old fellows combined can compare to you.” Martin’s tone carried a hint of teasing. “Tell us, what exactly did you do to make these guys so worked up?”

The high-ranking wizards around them also turned their gazes toward Jie Ming, their eyes filled with curiosity as if they had already anticipated something.

Jie Ming gave an awkward light cough.

“Well… it really was my fault.”

“What fault?” Martin waved his hand indifferently. “They can’t break in for the time being. We still have some time, and we’re all very curious… What did you do to touch their core interests?”

Jie Ming took a deep breath. He knew these wizards had probably already guessed the answer.

He took out the blue crystal from his bosom and held it in his palm.

“I killed an information being.”

The tent fell silent in an instant.

Although they had already guessed at certain possibilities, hearing the words come directly from the person involved still caused all the wizards to reveal expressions of surprise.

All eyes focused on the pale blue crystal.

Inside the crystal, countless fine light points flowed slowly, as if alive.

“A true kill,” Jie Ming added. “Not repelling them, not making them teleport back to resurrect, but completely erasing them.”

A seventh-ring wizard couldn’t help stepping forward. He stared at the crystal for a few seconds, then drew in a sharp breath.

“This… is its core?”

“It should be.” Jie Ming nodded. “All its energy and information collapsed and crystallized after its death.”

The breathing around them grew noticeably heavier.

During this period, the expeditionary force’s wizards had developed quite a few methods capable of quickly killing information beings based on Jie Ming’s “chaos counters order” theory.

Elemental torrents combined with chaotic information could basically achieve instant kills.

But everyone knew that such “instant kills” were only temporary.

The core information of those information beings would teleport back to the mother network the instant they “died,” then recondense elsewhere.

The so-called “kill” could at most force them to temporarily withdraw from battle; before long, they would return in full force.

But the crystal in Jie Ming’s hand…

“How did you manage it?” another seventh-ring wizard couldn’t help asking.

Jie Ming did not hide anything.

He raised his hand and pointed into the air. Two spell models unfolded simultaneously.

“These are two fifth-ring spells I recently completed.”

He pointed at the model on the left. “This one I named ‘Information Weaving.’”

“Fifth-ring spell?” someone frowned.

“Yes.” Jie Ming nodded. “Its core function is to sever the target’s causal connections with the outside world. I used it to cut off all connections between that information being and the mother network, preventing it from teleporting back the instant it died.”

He then pointed at the model on the right. “This one is called ‘Pain Corruption.’ It compresses the chaotic information generated by living beings in states of pain into an information toxin, specifically targeting the entropy reduction state of information beings.”

“First, use the junk data from Pain Corruption to bombard it, forcing it to divert most of its computing power to maintain its own order. The moment it experiences a computing stutter, use Information Weaving to sever all its causal lines, leaving it isolated and helpless. Then…”

Jie Ming gripped the blue crystal tightly.

“Fully activate Pain Corruption and completely erase it while it cannot call for help or teleport.”

The tent fell silent once again.

After a long while, Martin spoke first, his tone filled with undisguised admiration.

“Jie Ming, you are even more outstanding than I imagined.”

Jie Ming secretly broke into a cold sweat.

Strictly speaking, this wasn’t entirely his own ability.

The core idea behind the Information Weaving spell actually came from the cultivation system’s understanding of “cause and effect.”

Cultivators emphasized severing cause and effect to transcend reincarnation, so even very basic cause-and-effect knowledge contained related techniques and methods. Such techniques were rare in wizard civilization.

Although wizard civilization had fate-type wizards, they tended more toward “following the tides of fate.”

Techniques on the level of “forcibly severing cause and effect” were not something even ordinary seventh-ring fate wizards could do. Many times, they only became widespread at the eighth ring.

But he couldn’t say that. He couldn’t expose his golden finger.

So Jie Ming could only thicken his skin and lower his head slightly. “Senior flatters me.”

Martin did not press further.

He stood up, walked over to Jie Ming, and let his gaze fall on the blue crystal.

“Are you willing to sell the models for these two spells?”

Jie Ming was stunned.

Martin continued, “If they are effective, then the highest reward for this research task will be yours.”

Jie Ming reacted and nodded without hesitation.

“I am willing.”

This was the “highest reward” personally promised by an eighth-ring wizard—one million high-level military merits.

Added to the research value of this blue crystal, he had really struck it big this time.

Martin nodded in satisfaction.

“Once this battle is over, I’ll send someone to your laboratory to copy the models.”

As soon as his words fell, a violent rumbling sound came from outside the tent.

Everyone simultaneously looked up at the light screen.

On the screen, the information beings’ army had become even more frenzied in their assault.

They charged at the ship plane’s defensive arrays regardless of cost. Even if blasted apart a hundred times, they would charge a hundred and first time.

Martin narrowed his eyes.

“It looks like they’ve really lost their minds.”

He turned to look at all the high-ranking wizards present.

“Don’t just stand there. Go watch the front lines. The two spells provided by Jie Ming – organize them later and prioritize equipping them to the defensive forces.”

Everyone responded in unison and left the tent one after another.

Jie Ming was about to leave as well when Martin called him back.

“Keep that crystal for yourself.”

Martin looked at him and smiled. “That’s spoils of war you earned with your own ability. I don’t have any extra high-level military merits left to buy it from you.”

Jie Ming nodded heavily.

He gripped the blue crystal tightly and turned to walk out of the command center.