As Jie Ming had anticipated, they encountered wave after wave of sentinels as they continued descending, each more bizarre than the last.
So had evolved compound-eye-like clusters of hyper-sensitive photoreceptors capable of monitoring minute light disturbances from every direction. Others had flattened their bodies into glowing lichen, fusing seamlessly with the ambient energy radiation on the rock walls. A few had even abandoned solid form entirely, dispersing into faint luminous mist that filled the fissures—any physical object passing through would inevitably disturb the mist’s flow and betray its presence.
Anya reaped their lives as silently as a passing scythe, all while transmitting her astonishnt through the ntal link:
“For the sa elental species to diverge into so many stealth- and detection-specialized variants in re months… this speed and directionality of evolution is simply monstrous.”
Jie Ming, however, had already begun to piece together the reason.
What Wizard Starfall called “ignition of intelligence” was, in essence, enlightennt through Spiritual Qi.
In the wizard worldview, these beings were all classified broadly as “light-elent lifeforms.” But if viewed through the lens of the cultivation world…
“They should actually be considered demonkin,” Jie Ming mused inwardly. “The defining traits of demonkin are twofold: first, individuals enlightened from their original species often beco unique ‘aberrant strains’; second, their racial classification is extraordinarily granular. Especially among mountain spirits, water yaos, and natural elves, nearly every enlightened individual—due to differences in origin, opportunity, and the intent of the one who enlightened them—forms its own tiny, independent sub-race.”
“Thus, from a wizard’s perspective, this is a swarm of ‘light-elent lifeforms.’ From a cultivator’s perspective, however, this is a collection of newly awakened light-spirits whose origins are similar yet whose races are already distinct! It is precisely because each received an independent ‘racial imprint’ at the mont of enlightennt that they can, under pressure, mutate so rapidly into such wildly divergent specialized forms.”
They cleared sentinel after sentinel. Though Anya’s thods were flawless, the successive silent vanishings would inevitably leave traces.
Both knew that the light-elent horde below had almost certainly been alerted to the presence of powerful intruders in their hidden stronghold.
Yet so long as their exact identities and forms remained unknown—keeping the enemy in a state of vague dread over “an unidentified threat has infiltrated”—it might actually spur them to accelerate their grand plan. That panic was the perfect window for observing their social behavior and crisis response.
After descending several more kiloters, the fissure gradually widened until a single person could finally stand upright.
The environnt grew increasingly complex: chaotic energy currents and concealed alarm arrays began to appear.
“From here on, moving together would make too large a target,” Jie Ming transmitted. “We split up. I’ll slip directly to the core zone for close-range observation and data collection. You stay here, manipulate the shadows and remaining sentinels, and keep their attention scattered—make them believe the intruder is still infiltrating and hasn’t reached the center yet.”
Anya considered for only an instant before nodding. “Understood. I’ll maintain the illusion that the enemy is still on the periter.”
Plan decided, they parted ways.
The mont Jie Ming left the shadow cloak, his figure blurred—as though erased from the pri material plane by an invisible eraser—and he silently slipped into a temporary parallel phase space.
Movent within phase space was far stealthier and more convenient; the surveillance arrays below could no longer touch him.
He raced downward along the ever-widening subterranean fissure. Several more kiloters down, the way suddenly opened into a vast expanse.
Through the mbrane of phase space, Jie Ming beheld an enormous underground cavern easily large enough to house a small city.
And at that mont, the cavern was packed wall-to-wall with countless light-elent beings.
Their radiance was no longer uniform. Instead, they blazed in every hue—crimson, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, violet, and countless dazzling composites—turning what should have been pitch-black depths into a dreamlike ocean of light.
Waves of luminescence surged; energy humd in solemn, frenzied harmony.
At the very center stood the most breathtaking sight: a colossal sphere of light over a hundred ters across.
It was a restless miniature sun. Energy roiled violently within, emitting terrifyingly unstable fluctuations. Its surface flickered wildly between blinding white, golden-red, and deep violet.
Tiny arcs of energy lightning continually lashed out from its edges, scorching black marks into the surrounding stone.
Judging by the ceaseless torrent of energy it released and its extre activity, it resembled a super-massive bomb forcibly restrained on the verge of detonation.
Encircling it in perfect concentric rings were dozens of layers of smaller light spheres.
The innermost ring continuously poured pure light-elent energy into the titan at the center. As they did, their own radiance rapidly dimd.
The mont one sphere exhausted itself and turned dim and translucent, another from the outer rings would imdiately take its place, seamlessly continuing the infusion.
The entire scene resembled a solemn collective sacrifice ritual.
“This is it,” Jie Ming confird from within phase space.
Whatever that colossal sphere truly was—bomb or otherwise—it was undeniably the core objective of this mission.
Yet remaining in phase space prevented sufficiently detailed scanning, especially of its internal structure and energy circulation patterns.
After a brief mont of thought, Jie Ming had a plan.
Controlling the body tempered countless tis by the Body Forging Art, he began a deliberate microscopic “collapse” within phase space.
Muscles, bones, and organs reorganized and compressed under perfect control. Assisted by a size-reduction spell, his form rapidly shrank.
In the end, he beca an irregular energy sphere less than half a ter across.
Next, he mimicked the energy signature of light-elentals, cladding his surface in soft, ever-shifting radiance and emitting fluctuations indistinguishable from the natives.
From a distance, he now looked no different from any ordinary light sphere in the cavern.
For added realism, he even calibrated his luminosity to match the weaker, exhausted specins.
He locked onto a recessed area near the cavern wall where depleted spheres were being gathered.
Seizing the mont when the central sun’s violent flashes created a brief chaos of light and shadow, Jie Ming slipped from phase space back into the pri material plane. Like an unremarkable little orb, he “rolled” behind a protruding boulder in the exhausted zone.
Beneath the blinding interwoven radiance of countless spheres and the explosive flares from the central sun, this “sowhat feeble runt” successfully blended into the horde without drawing any extra attention.
“All-Purpose Eye.”
Once close enough, Jie Ming imdiately activated it.
Torrents of data flooded his mind. His vision pierced through the surface brilliance, delving into energy flows, structural stability, and law-level interference, conducting a full-spectrum scan of the central titan.
At the sa ti, through spiritual force he linked to the terminal in his personal dinsion and began streaming the massive real-ti data—energy spectra, pressure readings, structural stress, spirituality fluctuation curves—back to Viola in the surface laboratory.
The transmission proceeded smoothly for roughly a quarter of an hour.
Then his wrist terminal vibrated slightly. An urgent analysis brief from Viola flashed across:
[Jie Ming, situation critical. Structural fragility of the central aggregate has far exceeded the critical threshold; internal energy pressure has broken theoretical containnt limits. Per current models, uncontrollable chain-annihilation collapse should have occurred 7 minutes 32 seconds ago. Yet it still exists.]
[The only plausible explanation: an internal restraint chanism or core structure is forcibly maintaining cohesion, counteracting nearly all collapse-inducing pressure. Preliminary inference—this core possesses extre energy affinity and stability, and may even be alive.]
[Exercise extre caution. Target may not be a simple ‘energy bomb.’]
Jie Ming’s heart clenched. Just as he began to digest the warning’s implications, the scene before him changed catastrophically!
BOOM!!!!!
Not a physical explosion, but an irresistible tide of energy accompanied by a thunderous spiritual shockwave erupted from the central titan!
The entire cavern shuddered violently; stone dust rained from the ceiling.
What stunned Jie Ming even more was that sweeping outward with the energy tide was a clear, vast, and rapidly ascending aura of life!
This was no re superposition of countless individual auras. A unified, higher-order will was awakening, expanding, tamorphosing!
“Damn it!” In that instant, Jie Ming understood both Viola’s warning and the fatal flaw in their earlier judgnt. “This isn’t so grand firework at all! They’re pooling the strength and spirituality of the entire race, using an extre thod to forcibly catalyze the birth of a ‘King’ or ‘ultimate weapon’ capable of bearing the hopes of their people! They’re forcing a breakthrough in life tier!”
In his perception, the energy level within the central sphere rocketed upward.
The newborn will inside rapidly solidified and swelled. Its power signature effortlessly shattered the boundaries of fourth- and fifth-ring, still climbing unchecked toward the sixth!
An overwhelming sixth-ring aura—pure, scorching, and vast as mountains and oceans—manifested as a tangible storm of light that instantly engulfed the entire subterranean domain!
Every single light-elent being, whether still feeding energy or not, simultaneously emitted a buzzing radiation filled with awe and ecstasy. Their lights pulsed rhythmically in worship of their newly born divinity.
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