Free Web NovelChapter 555: Chapter 476: Evolution
So, on the entire battlefield outside, you can hardly see any Wizards below the Sixth Level from the Nolun Workshop.
Because all the mid and Low Tier Wizards are huddled inside the fortress, rotating as the power source for the cannon fire.
But Jeming...
"Fire."
The moment the recharging was completed, he issued the command.
Turret number three shook slightly.
A pure white beam with a diameter of five meters tore through the air, crossing over a thousand kilometers at near light speed, and accurately landed in the center of the beetle swarm.
The white light exploded, transforming into a purification field with a diameter of three thousand meters.
Within the field, three thousand Fourth Level beetles, along with the few Fifth Level Wizards commanding them, vaporized instantly.
Leaving only a smooth-edged lava pit on the ground.
Almost at the same time the beam left the chamber, Jeming groaned, his face turning pale instantly.
A sharp pain like needles pierced through his brain, his consciousness began to scatter, as if all the strength in his body had been sucked away.
This is the feeling of spiritual exhaustion.
For a typical Wizard, experiencing it once at least requires them to be limp for one or two minutes before they can regain mobility.
Thus, you can see many Wizards around the turrets being pulled off the control platform by other waiting Wizards and moved to the rest area behind.
But not Jeming.
His left hand, long prepared, swiftly grabbed a crystal potion bottle next to the control platform, flicked the cork off with his thumb, and gulped down the deep blue viscous liquid within.
[Holy Soul Echo Secret Medicine], Sixth Level Magic Potion, capable of restoring all spiritual power for a Fifth Level Wizard in thirty seconds, market price three thousand Low Level Military Merits per bottle.
The side effect is that continuous consumption leads to soul fatigue and impaired consciousness; typically, only three bottles are used in a single battle.
As soon as the potion hit his throat, Jeming’s Body Refining Technique automatically initiated.
His digestive system decomposed the potion with efficiency far beyond ordinary people, absorbing and transforming the internal energy.
Pure potion energy surged into his brain, nourishing the parched Sea of Spirit.
Meanwhile, the Qi Cultivation Technique silently activated.
Essence, Qi, and God, the three treasures communicate with each other.
The body’s "Essence" transforms into "Qi" that nourishes the soul, and then into "God" that restores the spirit.
Three seconds.
In just three seconds, Jeming opened his eyes.
The fatigue deep within his pupils vanished completely, replaced by a freshly saturated, sharp divine light.
Without hesitation, he activated his power again, his spiritual power reaching out like tentacles, once again connecting to turret number three.
Five seconds later, recharging was complete.
"Fire."
The second beam blasted towards another gathering enemy cannon fodder swarm.
This time, Jeming felt something different.
The process of spiritual exhaustion and recovery seemed like a "refinement" of the Sea of Spirit.
Originally, it would take three seconds to fully recover, but this time, it only took 2.8 seconds.
Moreover, the total amount of restored spiritual power seemed to have... increased slightly.
The Adaptive Evolution of the Body Refining Technique was coming into play.
Not only did it strengthen the physical body, but it also fortified the soul, and even enhanced Jeming’s adaptability to the process of "consumption and recovery," as well as his resistance to drug side effects.
Light flashed in Jeming’s eyes.
He didn’t pause, continuing to connect to the turret.
Fire.
Exhaustion.
Drink potion.
Recover.
Connect to the turret.
Fire.
The entire process flowed seamlessly, without the slightest delay.
Initially, he required about eight seconds between each shot.
Among them, five seconds were turret recharging time, and three seconds were his own recovery and switching time.
But with each cycle, this interval continued to shorten.
seconds.
6.5 seconds.
seconds.
By the fifteenth shot, the interval had compressed to 5.2 seconds, almost matching the turret’s own recharging time.
This meant that, under the premise of sufficient energy supply, Jeming alone could sustain firing from a super-heavy elemental decomposition cannon at near theoretical maximum firing speed.
In the control room, other Wizards rotating to operate the turrets began noticing the anomaly at console number 09.
At first, they only felt that the frequency of firing at number 09 seemed a bit faster than others.
But soon, they realized it wasn’t "a bit faster."
It was absurdly fast.
"Hey... over there at number 09, what shot are they on?"
"The twenty-first shot. And look at the time record... There’s only a 5.1-second gap between the last shot and this one."
"5.1 seconds?! How is that possible?! Charging alone takes 5 seconds. Does he not need to recover his spiritual power?!"
"He’s drinking potions. I saw a row of empty ’Sacred Soul Echo’ bottles on his table... But even with potions, absorption takes time! Normally, a Fifth Level Wizard would take at least ten seconds to regain mobility from a ’Sacred Soul Echo,’ and a full recovery of spiritual power takes thirty seconds!"
"And have you noticed... The spiritual power fluctuations from position 09 are getting stronger."
Whispers spread throughout the control room.
All wizards, regardless of level, couldn’t help but glance at the 09 control station from the corners of their eyes.
They looked at the gray-robed wizard sitting in front of the station, eyes closed, face calm, with sweat continuously seeping and quickly evaporating from his forehead.
They saw that after Jeming fired a shot, there would be an extremely brief moment of weakness — a pale face, a stuttering breath.
But the next second, he would grab a bottle of magic potion and down it, then almost without any pause, connect to the next turret.
The whole process was as fast as magic.
"Monster..."
A Fourth Level Wizard, who had just fired a shot with a comrade and was now sitting breathlessly with a pale face, couldn’t help but mutter.
Their companion, an elderly wizard at the peak of the Fifth Level, shook his head with a wry smile.
"Not a monster. A real genius... No, a monster among geniuses. Did you notice the speed at which he drinks the potion? ’Sacred Soul Echo’ is a viscous potion, normally it takes at least two seconds to drink. But he almost swallows it the instant it’s poured into his mouth, which means his body has been modified, with an astonishing speed of digestion and absorption."
"But my body has also been modified..."
A wizard subconsciously muttered it, then lowered their head under the gazes of others looking at him like an idiot.
It’s true, who among those present hasn’t modified their body?
And energy digestion rate is a top priority, impossible to overlook.
Yet this monster... or rather, genius, still far surpassed others in digestion rate!
"And did you sense that his spiritual power... has increased since the beginning?"
Reminded by the old wizard, the other wizards carefully sensed it.
Then, they all changed their expressions.
It was true.
The spiritual power fluctuations radiating from the 09 control station were visibly growing stronger.
According to the standard delineated spiritual power intensity, from the initial Fifth Level early stage, it had now steadily stepped into the Fifth Level middle stage, and was still slowly and steadily climbing.
"Is he cultivating with this method...?"
"Improving while in battle?! What a joke!"
Shock, envy, disbelief.
Various emotions intertwined in the control room.
But Jeming paid no attention to these.
Or rather, he noticed but didn’t care.
His entire mind was immersed in a peculiar "rhythm."
Fire, exhaust, recover, fire again.
With each cycle, the Sea of Spirit expanded a bit, control over spiritual power became more refined, and understanding of the turret system grew deeper.
By the thirtieth shot, he found he could slightly "distract" himself.
While manipulating the turret to charge, aim, and fire, he could spare a little attention to observe the battlefield situation.
This allowed him to "see" the current battlefield situation.
Overall, Nolun Workshop was actually... slightly gaining the upper hand?
In the high-tier battlefield above, even with the millions of Seventh Level shadow creatures and over ten thousand Eighth Level Shadow Lords supplemented by Professor Clark, the Chaos Secret Sect and Tower of Annihilation countered with over a hundred Seventh Level Wizards and over two thousand Sixth Level Wizards, who were formidable.
The high-tier cannon fodder creatures they released, in terms of both quantity and average level, were actually slightly superior to Clark’s shadow army.
But Clark’s shadow cannon fodder was of such high quality.
Those same Seventh Levels, the tactical flexibility and survivability of the shadow drakes far exceeded the opponent, their combat power at least 1.5 times that of the enemy individuals.
And those over ten thousand Eighth Level Shadow Lords... became the "stabilizers" on the battlefield.
Even though they faced high-tier units, wherever they went, large areas of enemy cannon fodder were cut down like wheat.
As a result, Chaos Secret Sect and Tower of Annihilation had to continuously deploy other high-tier cannon fodder, focusing their forces to encircle and suppress those Shadow Lords, which instead greatly eased the pressure on Nolun Workshop’s other cannon fodder armies.
But what Jeming couldn’t take his eyes off was the battlefield belonging to "High Tier Wizards" at an even higher altitude.
Around a hundred kilometers above the ground.
The combat here was starkly different from the cannon fodder war below.
Due to the almost absence of a medium to transmit sound, there wasn’t the deafening noise of the lower battle.
All there was, was the silent elemental collision, and... one-sided suppression.
Clark floated in the void.
Still in a simple black cloak, with hands naturally hanging by his side, his face expressionless.
He hadn’t even taken out his magic staff.
And all around him were over one hundred and thirty Seventh Level Wizards and over two thousand Sixth Level Wizards.
They swarmed around Clark like a hive, each radiating an energy fluctuation that made one’s heart palpitate, holding witchcraft artifacts of at least Tier Seven, with some even emitting the unique law brilliance of Eighth Level creations.
In fact, many of these were specially mobilized from the Chaos Secret Sect and Tower of Annihilation alliance army, intended as a special ops team to "decapitate" one of Nolun Workshop’s highest combat powers.
Their mission was simple: destroy or severely injure Clark at all costs.
After all, they had even collected intelligence on Nolun Workshop’s new generation geniuses, so there was no reason to overlook someone as conspicuous as Clark.
(Extra Chapter, and one more to go.)
