Translator: AnubisTL
The massive amounts of vitality "wasted" and "dissipated" by the pseudo-wizard during their spellcasting were actually being secretly "sacrificed" to the true illegal wizard behind them.
Since a constantly connected "network cable" existed between the two parties, the illegal wizard could naturally detect the sudden deaths of these "base stations."
This allowed them to anticipate the wizards' search patterns and evade capture in advance.
The wizard squad they had just encountered had been tracking them all the way from another continent.
As Jieming and David flew at high speed, they finalized their analysis, combining the information exchanged with the squad with their own discoveries from the past two years.
All the clues, like rivers flowing into the sea, converged on the same region.
"Confirmed," Jieming's eyes flickered with streams of data. "The illegal wizard is currently hiding in the middle of the ocean, on some inconspicuous, deserted island!"
It had taken Jieming two full years, utilizing his vast computational power as a second-tier wizard and the capabilities of his Universal Eye, to finally decipher the bizarre path and trajectory of the illegal wizard's vitality transfer.
Moreover, Jieming had successfully traced the invisible "network cable" in reverse, pinpointing the approximate coordinates of the illegal wizard's current location!
With this rough location, Jieming and his team quickly reached the target sea territory.
After crossing a certain climate zone, the ocean's weather immediately turned treacherous.
Storms raged, and dark clouds, heavy as lead, pressed down on the sea surface.
The duo soon arrived at the target area, surrounded by storms and reefs.
Beneath the violent thundercloud storm, a pitch-black, ominous island loomed into view.
Just as they prepared to directly infiltrate the desolate island, they encountered the expected wave of frenzied resistance at the perimeter!
"They're here!" David hissed.
Twisted figures erupted from the murky seawater.
Sensing the overwhelming vitality radiating from Jieming and David, they swarmed into the air like sharks smelling blood, blocking the duo's path.
These were pseudo-wizard—creatures whose vitality had been completely drained, leaving them resembling desiccated corpses!
Though these beings showed no signs of normal vitality, they retained a residual combat instinct and astonishing physical capabilities.
Even more astonishing to Jieming was the pure, violent surge of negative energy radiating from their bodies. Each pseudo-wizard here possessed power firmly at the second-tier level!
And that wasn't all.
Behind the dozen or so humanoid pseudo-wizard at the front, a dense mass of creatures—likely numbering over a thousand—lurked. These were clearly monsters created by transforming various powerful marine life forms.
Their bodies were equally desiccated, as if drained of blood and flesh, yet the potent energy surging within them rivaled that of the humanoid pseudo-wizard.
A massive battle was about to erupt!
Without exchanging a word, Jieming and David charged forward.
Boom!
David led the charge, his menacing black heavy armor erupting with a thunderous roar.
His combat style was utterly unlike that of a wizard, more akin to a humanoid Tyrannosaurus Rex.
No spells, no incantations—he simply hurled himself into the densest cluster of monsters!
A heavy punch, enveloped in tangible earth-yellow energy, exploded outward, instantly shattering the skull of a colossal whale corpse monster the size of a small hill as if it were a fragile clay pot.
With a powerful side kick, the resulting gang wind cleaved three humanoid pseudo-wizard in half at the waist, their severed bodies disintegrating into ash mid-air.
Each of his attacks was simple, brutal, and devastatingly effective—pure, overwhelming force crushing all resistance, carving vacuum-like clearings through the dense enemy ranks.
Meanwhile, Jieming, after instantly assessing the situation, surprisingly abandoned ranged spellcasting and charged forward alongside David.
The moment he engaged the enemy, Jieming felt immense pressure.
He keenly sensed that the strange negative energy radiating from the monsters not only corroded energy shields with extreme potency but also aggressively drained the vitality of anyone struck by their attacks.
The thick-skinned sea beast corpse roared as they formed an impenetrable wall of flesh, their massive bodies absorbing Jieming's attacks and obstructing his movements.
From behind this living barricade, the humanoid pseudo-wizard unleashed a relentless barrage of pitch-black fireballs.
These fireballs were not only immensely destructive but also carried a bone-chilling yin energy and a potent life-force-draining effect.
The most troublesome aspect was that their attacks indiscriminately targeted both friend and foe, violently engulfing the entire frontline battlefield.
Yet, strangely, the pitch-black flames that scorched the sea beast corpse and the pseudo-wizard themselves caused no harm. Instead, they acted like the finest tonic, rapidly repairing the damage inflicted by Jieming and David!
"Damn it! These bastards are tenacious!" Jieming cursed under his breath, his figure flickering rapidly through the dense rain of fireballs.
Initially, the pervasive vitality erosion had slightly hampered his movements.
Waves of icy weakness relentlessly attempted to penetrate his body, draining his strength.
But in the next instant, the body tempering method forged through countless trials within him began to operate autonomously.
Faced with this foreign, bizarre energy stimulus, each of his cells seemed to awaken like a slumbering Taotie, frantically analyzing, dissecting, and memorizing the characteristics of this negative energy.
Then, they began autonomously restructuring his bodily tissues, generating powerful resistance!
Amidst the intense, high-speed combat, Jieming's body was undergoing a fierce, invisible evolution.
The sluggishness caused by the vitality erosion rapidly dissipated, and the icy weakness receded like a receding tide.
In just over a dozen breaths, he went from initially needing to divide his focus to resist the energy, to feeling only a slight discomfort, until finally—
Buzz!
An invisible shield materialized within his body!
The negative energy, which had previously clung to him like a leech, now struck his body like a stream crashing against an unyielding reef, unable to budge him even slightly!
In just a few hours, Jieming had become completely immune to this energy.
"Huff..."
Jieming exhaled sharply, his eyes flashing with a brilliant light.
Having broken free from his final restraints, his combat style instantly transformed.
His speed surged to a new level, his figure blurring into a series of elusive afterimages, perfectly evading the vast majority of fireball attacks.
A highly condensed energy field, shimmering with intricate radiance, instantly enveloped his hands. No longer a mere shield, it had become the sharpest of weapons.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Each strike became precise and lethal.
No longer needing to obliterate entire monsters, Jieming's rune force field-covered hand sliced through the pseudo-wizard's neck with the precision of a razor-sharp light blade, or pierced the energy core of a sea beast corpse.
With each swift movement, a monster's soul fire extinguished instantly, its stiffened corpse plummeting from the sky like a dumpling dropped into boiling water.
The pressure had suddenly shifted to the monsters' side!
Jieming and David, one agile and the other ferocious, carved through the enemy ranks like two red-hot daggers through butter, relentlessly pushing deeper into the fray.
After what seemed like an eternity, when the final, resentful roar faded into the storm, the sky finally returned to its eerie calm.
Across the sea's surface floated countless shattered, desiccated corpses.
Jieming and David had finally cleared the outer perimeter of this massive enemy force, a legion in its own right.
The two men hovered in mid-air, their bodies still radiating an overwhelming baleful qi.
They exchanged a glance, and without a moment's rest, transformed into streaks of light, hurtling toward the island shrouded in yin clouds.
After breaching the defensive line built from death, they set foot on the desolate island, where an unsettling silence hung heavy in the air.
No vegetation grew here, not even the hardiest moss.
Only charred, black reefs stretched across the landscape, while the air reeked of blood and decay.
Reaching the island's center, Jieming and David finally saw the unassuming figure who had been standing motionless there all along.
The man appeared perfectly normal, even healthy.
His skin was ruddy, his limbs well-proportioned—nothing like the withered, skeletal monsters outside whose vitality had been completely drained.
His appearance was equally unremarkable: a plain gray robe, a face etched with the marks of wind and frost, like that of an ordinary farmer who had toiled in the fields his entire life.
Yet this very man radiated a terrifyingly powerful energy!
In Jieming's eyes, the energy flowing around the man surged wildly, while the data in his mind refreshed frantically like a cascading waterfall.
He carefully sensed the opponent's massive, condensed energy fluctuations, and his face darkened abruptly.
He couldn't help but turn to David beside him, muttering under his breath, "The academy's intelligence department should be collectively fired! This guy isn't second-tier—he's clearly a genuine third-tier!"
Moreover... not even an early-stage third-tier!
Fortunately, the opponent seemed to be using the wizard system merely as a means to enhance his power, without delving into serious study.
David didn't reply, only slowly shaking his head. His eyes, hidden beneath the heavy armor's visor, held an unusually complex expression.
He showed neither surprise nor fear, simply gazing calmly at the familiar yet unfamiliar figure below.
The two slowly descended from mid-air, landing lightly on the hard black reef rocks with a faint sound.
Three figures now stood in a tense standoff at the heart of the desolate island.
(End of the Chapter)
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