In the tense yet fleeting gaps between research, Jie Ming allowed himself no moment of idleness.
On this day, after uploading his newly completed report on the Lava Giants, he donned his robe, his figure flickering before vanishing from the temporary laboratory at the heart of the camp.
He did not rest, nor did he seek out other wizards for conversation. Instead, he headed straight to the battlefield from days prior, where blood and flesh had once flown freely.
The frenzied aftermath of the landing campaign had dissipated, leaving only silence in the air.
Yet, to a wizard’s keen senses, this vast expanse of land was far from tranquil.
In the landing battle a few days ago, wizard fodder, Lava Giants, and Snow Beasts had clashed in this region, their blood splattering and energies raging. The slaughtered souls numbered at least a million.
Chaotic energy particles intertwined, forming a massive vortex of turbulent energy in the perception of wizards.
But what Jie Ming sought was not these energies—it was the “concepts” left behind by this brutal battle!
In Jie Ming’s vision, the area was shrouded in lingering battlefield malice and deathly aura.
He walked lightly across the scorched earth, where the air carried a nauseating stench of blood and the decay of death.Beneath his feet lay dried bloodstains, shattered weapons, twisted remains of bio-beasts, charred rocks, and frozen corpses.
Every inch of this land seemed to have endured a thousandfold tearing and destruction.
After all, besides him, many low-level wizards were also engaged in “cleanup” work on this battlefield.
Some wizards, wearing runic gloves, carefully extracted residual energy cores from the charred bodies of Lava Giants.
Others commanded golems to sort and stack the broken remains, preparing them for recycling.
There were even wizards specializing in soul sorcery, wielding strange containers to meticulously collect the lingering soul fragments that permeated the area.
Just as souls and vitality in the cultivation world could be transformed into spiritual energy, in the wizarding world, souls and flesh were valuable materials for many wizards.
Jie Ming paid no heed to the busy figures around him. He softly chanted a spell, unfastening the Malice-Gathering Gourd from his waist.
The gourd, dark and unadorned, glowed faintly with runes as its mouth slowly opened, forming a vortex nearly imperceptible to the naked eye.
The invisible malice and deathly aura in the air, laden with sorrow, rage, and destructive will, were drawn toward the gourd’s mouth as if pulled by an unseen force, absorbed completely within.
On the gourd’s surface, the once-dull markings now pulsed at a subtle frequency, steadily drawing in these negative energies.
Jie Ming made no effort to hide his actions from others.
After all, his method of collecting “raw materials” was hardly conspicuous in a battlefield teeming with wizards employing all manner of bizarre techniques.
Not far away, he even saw a wizard unfurl a massive black banner!
The banner fluttered in the wind, adorned with countless distorted ghost patterns, each seeming to contain countless struggling souls.
As the wizard chanted, the banner snapped sharply, stirring a chilling gust that sent shivers down the spine.
Within a radius of several hundred meters, all stray soul fragments and deathly auras were swept into the banner, emitting silent wails in a scene both eerie and grand.
The striking visual made Jie Ming briefly wonder if he had crossed back into the cultivation world and witnessed the legendary Ten Thousand Soul Banner!
“Truly…” Jie Ming shook his head inwardly, refocusing his attention on absorbing the malice.
As he immersed himself in the sea of malice, he encountered a few low-level wizards along the way.
They appeared to be cleaning up the battlefield’s outskirts, searching for new hunting targets.
Upon seeing Jie Ming, their eyes involuntarily revealed a hint of respect, followed by practiced flattery.
“Isn’t that Master Jie Ming? You’re working hard collecting as well?” a weary first-level wizard approached, his tone warm with familiarity. “You’re truly diligent, personally handling such tedious work!”
“I’m merely adding bricks to my own studies,” Jie Ming replied with a faint smile, his tone gentle and composed, like that of an ordinary scholar. “You’re working hard too. Keep at it.”
“Hardly! Compared to you, our efforts are nothing!” another second-level wizard chimed in, his tone even more deferential. “If not for your reports, my team and I would still be struggling with how to deal with those Lava Giants! Who would’ve thought that sonic attacks and blocking their breathing would be so effective?”
“Exactly! Master Jie Ming, do you have any new tactical analyses? We’re all eager to see them…”
Jie Ming handled their flattery with ease, his smile perfectly measured, as he had grown accustomed to such encounters.
Over the past few days, these interactions had become increasingly frequent, with their praise and thanks centered on one thing—the analytical reports he had published on the physiological traits of Lava Giants.
There was, however, an unexpected twist.
In his reports, Jie Ming had emphasized what he believed to be the most effective way to kill Lava Giants quickly: first using low-temperature attacks to harden their surface skin, then shattering their brittle bodies with concentrated physical strikes.
Yet, this “low-temperature plus physical strike” method had not garnered much attention from the low-level wizards.
Instead, the other two methods mentioned in passing had been hailed as treasures and widely adopted.
These were the use of suffocation-based sorcery (or similar elemental suppression) to restrict the Lava Giants’ movements and the later-published method of using high-frequency sound waves to target and damage their auditory systems.
Both methods proved unexpectedly effective.
Regarding “suffocation sorcery,” Jie Ming had explained in his report that, despite being elemental creatures, Lava Giants required breathing.
This wasn’t breathing oxygen in the traditional sense but rather a process of “heat pumping and elemental conversion” through surface fissures and internal systems to maintain their core furnace’s stability.
Thus, by isolating, suppressing, or directly blocking these “breathing” fissures, one could disrupt the Lava Giants’ heat balance and elemental flow, forcing them into rigidity or unconsciousness.
Wizards didn’t need to search for weak points; specific sorcery could make these colossal creatures “suffocate,” temporarily incapacitating them.
Normally, making elemental creatures “suffocate” would be challenging, but Jie Ming hadn’t anticipated that the wizards would find suitable spells almost immediately.
The reason lay with one of the nine ninth-level wizards in the sorcery civilization.
This wizard’s name was unknowable, as all personal information about ninth-level wizards was obscured, leaving only codenames.
This one’s codename was “Breath.”
The codename stemmed from the law this wizard had chosen to study at the third level.
While most wizards pursued grandiose laws, this one had chosen the simple law of “Breath.”
Yet, this wizard had elevated “Breath” to extraordinary heights. By the time they reached the fourth level, the law of “Breath” in their hands could sever a target’s energy exchange with the outside world.
Moreover, they generously shared related spell models, including simplified versions that low-level wizards could construct, making it far easier than Jie Ming had imagined to find ways to suffocate Lava Giants.
The “high-frequency sound wave” method was even more ingenious.
In his report, Jie Ming had hypothesized that the Lava Giants’ auditory systems, formed of unique mineral crystals, were highly sensitive to specific high-frequency sound waves, which could cause resonance and disintegration of their internal structures.
Frontline combat wizards, following this hypothesis, quickly experimented by incorporating specific high-frequency vibrations into high-intensity explosions or sustained wind-based spells.
They discovered that these sound waves could penetrate the Lava Giants’ “rock skin,” causing violent internal vibrations that disrupted their molten flow, inflicting pain and even temporarily incapacitating them.
These two methods gained fame not only for their surprising effectiveness but also because they allowed wizards to capture Lava Giants alive with ease!
This was the core reason why these findings became wildly popular among low-level wizards.
During the landing campaign, the battle outcomes of the two powerful monster kings (Kalamoth and Agron) and Master Erwin had quickly spread among the wizards.
Faced with the formidable combat potential of the Flamefrost Plane, wizards naturally recognized the immense value of its native inhabitants.
For low-level wizards, the greatest harvest from the Flamefrost Plane wasn’t the visible resources but the natives themselves!
Living Lava Giants or Snow Beasts were, to these low-level wizards, walking treasures.
Whether captured as slaves, experimental subjects for sorcery research, or transformed into bio-beasts, golems, or wizard servants, their value was incalculable.
A living Lava Giant could provide alchemists with the purest molten plasma samples, offer unique bodily structures for bio-wizards to study, or even be used to create more powerful biological weapons.
Low-level wizards could even sell them to major wizard factions, earning astonishing merits and resources.
But before this, the Lava Giants’ formidable strength made it difficult for low-level wizards to capture them intact.
Killing them was easy, but capturing them alive while preserving their abilities was a challenge of another magnitude.
Jie Ming had inadvertently provided effective methods. His two research findings opened a Pandora’s box for low-level wizards, enabling them to capture Lava Giants at low cost and with high efficiency.
Thus, in a short time, Jie Ming became renowned in the camp, hailed as a respected “biology master.”
Of course, Jie Ming knew his fame was merely due to the simplicity of his research topic.
While the Lava Giants’ physiology was unique, it was still a relatively basic research direction compared to the plane’s broader laws and more complex lifeforms.
He was aware that the camp now housed many higher-level, more experienced logistics wizards from places like Noren Academy, the Tower of Annihilation, and the Chaos Secret Cult.
These masters, with their deeper understanding of biology and planar laws, would soon complete more advanced research, devising more effective and precise strategies against the plane’s natives.
When that happened, his “small achievements” would quickly be swept away by the tides of history.
But that wasn’t his concern now.
Regardless, being able to help more wizards and earn their recognition was a feeling Jie Ming didn’t dislike.