Translator: AnubisTL
The fleeting spark of insight, like a slippery fish, leaped briefly from the shallows of consciousness before vanishing into the deep pool of thought.
Jieming froze in place, acutely aware that he had grasped something crucial, yet utterly unable to recall what it was.
The sensation was profoundly unsettling, even ominous.
As a wizard specializing in mental power, photographic memory and crystal-clear thinking were fundamental skills. As a cultivator, reflecting upon the pathways of his own mind was effortless.
Yet now, his memory of that fleeting moment of insight was a complete blank, leaving only a visceral, baseless intuition that something was wrong.
"This isn't right..." Jieming frowned deeply, a chill running down his spine at the sensation of his thoughts being invisibly interfered with.
Refusing to give up, he swiftly summoned two Black Giants to flank him, guarding his sides.
He then assumed a cross-legged posture mid-air, purging all distractions. His consciousness, like a probe, sank into the deepest recesses of his mind, meticulously retracing his steps and searching for the lost spark of insight.
At first, the search yielded nothing. The memory region felt as if it had been erased with a rubber, leaving it despairingly clean.
He even began to doubt if the mental fatigue from continuous battles was causing hallucinations.
However, the body tempering method once again demonstrated its heaven-defying adaptability.
As Jieming maintained his focus on "searching for lost thoughts" and clearly perceived the anomaly, the body tempering method began to operate autonomously. A targeted resistance, or rather, an "information tracing" ability, was quietly activated.
His mind seemed to be coated with an invisible filter membrane, resisting the intangible force of "forgetting."
He didn't know how much time had passed—perhaps only a moment, or perhaps a prolonged struggle.
Finally, in some corner of his consciousness, a faint, obscured "trace" was recaptured and amplified!
"Filter-feeding... organisms... microorganisms... white mist!"
The fragmented keywords reassembled! He had finally recovered that fleeting thought—since the Void Domain Plane contained so many giant beasts that relied on filter-feeding the white mist, it meant that this seemingly empty mist must contain vast numbers of microorganisms or other tiny life forms suitable for filter-feeding!
The logic was so simple it was almost glaringly obvious.
Yet why had none of the wizards who came to the Void Domain Plane, including himself, ever truly noticed this?
He had even frequently scanned the environment with the Universal Eye, which could perceive microscopic details, yet remained blind to the "fog-borne ecosystem" right under his nose!
"...No!" Jieming's eyes snapped open, a sharp glint flashing in them. "It's not that I didn't discover it—I was guided to overlook it!"
Instinctively, he activated the Universal Eye again.
The moment the runes in his eyes lit up, a strange phenomenon occurred.
The dense white fog surrounding him, as if possessing life, retreated silently and naturally, almost as if obeying a physical law.
It formed a perfectly clear, spherical space about two meters in diameter around him, its edge precisely aligned with the Universal Eye's detection range.
And what his Universal Eye observed was only this deliberately cleared zone, naturally yielding nothing!
"So that's it!" Jieming's face lit up with a mixture of shock and intense excitement. "It's not that it's absent—it's hiding! It's precisely evading every method we might use to probe it!"
He deactivated the Universal Eye, and the white mist flowed back in like a tide, seamlessly filling the void.
Everything happened so smoothly, so "naturally."
There was no doubt that a powerful cognitive interference force was at work, causing all observers to automatically overlook this highly unusual phenomenon—including any other suspicious aspects of the mist itself.
"There's a force... subtly guiding, even distorting, our perception and focus of thought," Jieming murmured to himself, his gaze sharp as a blade.
He reached out and carefully constructed a simple energy barrier.
As the barrier formed, a portion of the white mist was naturally enveloped within it, showing no signs of actively fleeing or being repelled.
"It doesn't exhibit clear self-awareness," Jieming analyzed. "It's more like an instinctual 'concealment' mechanism operating at the rule level. Moreover, if this entity possessed immediate, proactive malice, Dionysius Spencer would never have dared to lead the entire expeditionary force into this place."
At this point, Jieming could almost definitively conclude that the white mist enveloping both planes—the mist most wizards dismissed as mere background—was Dionysius Spencer's true target!
The so-called conquest of the planes might merely be a side effect, or perhaps a necessary step toward some ulterior motive.
He had a clear understanding of his own capabilities.
Even with the adaptive evolution granted by the body tempering method, which ultimately allowed him to detect the anomaly, this proved the limited scope of the cognitive interference.
He speculated that the upper limit of this power's influence likely fell below the fifth-tier.
Coincidentally, within the entire expeditionary force, only Dionysius Spencer himself surpassed the fifth-tier!
Considering the collective absence of observers from the Three Great Factions, who should have been stationed here... Jieming was almost certain that Dionysius Spencer was fully aware of this, and it might even be part of his plan.
Opening a space gate to the Holy Continent must have a deeper reason, perhaps related to the properties of this white mist or Dionysius Spencer's grand scheme of fate.
"Since there's no attempt to stop me, it implies tacit approval, at least within certain limits..." Jieming mused, his gaze sweeping over the seemingly harmless white mist around him.
Without further hesitation, he began cautiously collecting the mysterious white mist using various methods.
He was certain that as a seventh-tier wizard of the fate system, Dionysius Spencer would have sensed the moment he broke through his cognitive barriers and perceived the mist's anomalies.
Since Spencer hadn't intervened, Jieming concluded that his current actions fell within the permitted scope.
Floating City, Core Secret Chamber.
Dionysius Spencer leaned back lazily in his chair, a luminous screen before him clearly displaying Jieming's cautious efforts to collect the white mist.
Watching Jieming's mixture of excitement and caution, Spencer couldn't help but curl his lip, his face betraying a blend of helplessness and a pang of regret.
"Tsk, what a sharp little fellow... Fate's backlash came swiftly," he muttered under his breath, his fingertips unconsciously tapping the armrest. "I merely borrowed your fate's trajectory as a 'navigation' tool, enjoying a smoother ride. And I've already paid the price! Now I have to share a portion with him? What rotten luck..."
His gaze seemed to pierce through the luminous barrier, settling on the white mist Jieming had painstakingly gathered, his expression complex.
Within that mist lay something even a seventh-tier wizard like himself deeply valued.
Yet now, according to fate's "equivalent exchange," he had no choice but to acquiesce, even passively gifting a portion to this second-tier wizard who had stumbled upon the truth.
"Ah, well," he finally sighed, shaking his head with a knowing smile. "This too is part of fate. Little one, let's see what you can glean from this."
(End of the Chapter)
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