Chapter 530: Pre-Battle Preparations

Chapter 530: Pre-Battle Preparations

On the light screen, the white sphere of light with a diameter of one kilometer floated quietly, emitting a soft and seemingly harmless glow.

Jie Ming stared at it, speechless for a long time.

Twenty trillion tons of antimatter.

The number echoed repeatedly in his mind, growing heavier with every repetition.

He finally understood firsthand what it meant to possess power “capable of assisting eighth-ring wizards in battle.”

In a sense, only forces of this level qualified one to participate in battles between eighth-ring wizards.

Eighth-ring wizards had fixed laws and were immune to world modification.

Their confrontations had already transcended the scope of conventional witchcraft, touching upon deeper, more fundamental levels of rules.

And trump cards like the antimatter light sphere before him were precisely prepared for battles at that level—chips used to break the balance and create as much advantage as possible.

Jie Ming took a deep breath, suppressing the surging shock in his heart, and turned to Clark:

“What is the Chaos Secret Cult’s trump card?”

Clark did not answer. He simply raised his hand and operated the main control console a few more times.

Another light screen unfolded before the three of them.

The image was pitch black.

It was not ordinary darkness, but an absolute void that seemed capable of devouring everything.

Jie Ming stared at it for several seconds and even had the illusion that his own gaze was being “absorbed” by the darkness.

Moments later, the image gradually adjusted, revealing a massive hollow structure deep underground.

The scale of the hollow was almost comparable to the surface area occupied by the array they had seen earlier.

Inside the hollow swirled a dense gray-black mist that the naked eye could not directly perceive. It could only be “seen” through energy detection spells, rolling slowly like thick liquid.

“This is…” Jie Ming frowned.

“The trump card prepared by the Chaos Secret Cult,” Clark’s voice remained calm, yet it carried a few degrees more solemnity against the backdrop of the dark image. “We cannot probe the specific details too deeply—their defenses there are even stricter than the Tower of Annihilation’s. However, based on the soul-type wizards’ reverse deduction, it should be…” He paused. “A massive amount of emotional energy.”

“Emotional energy?” Jie Ming repeated.

“Correct.” Clark nodded. “The very thing the Chaos Secret Cult is best at manipulating. Fear, despair, madness, pain… these extreme emotions, after being collected, purified, and compressed through special methods, transform into an extremely special form of energy. It can be used to strengthen certain laws or directly serve as a weapon, especially with its lethality against the soul, far surpassing energy attacks of the same level.”

He looked at the churning gray-black mist on the light screen:

“According to the deduction, the total volume of emotional energy inside… its energy level is on the same scale as the Tower of Annihilation’s twenty trillion tons of antimatter.”

Jie Ming felt cold sweat breaking out on his back.

Twenty trillion tons of antimatter.

A massive amount of emotional energy.

If either one lost control, it would be enough to completely erase this entire battlefield from the plane.

And now, there were two such existences.

“Gives you the chills just looking at it, doesn’t it?” A voice with a hint of teasing came from the side.

Jie Ming turned his head and saw that Dionysius Spencer had somehow already walked over to them.

This seventh-ring wizard wore his usual refined smile, but deep in his eyes was an exhaustion and solemnity that could not be concealed.

He sighed, his gaze lingering on the two light screens for a moment.

“The Workshop’s prepared trump card is theoretically slightly stronger than either of theirs at the current stage, but it can only handle one of them.” His voice was calm, yet carried a heavy weight. “Facing both at once… there really isn’t much we can do.”

Jie Ming was momentarily stunned.

“Slightly stronger than either of theirs at the current stage?” He caught the key phrase. “The Workshop’s trump card… is stronger than both of these?”

Dionysius and Clark exchanged a glance.

After a moment, Dionysius gave a slight nod:

“Since we’ve already reached this stage and the final decisive battle will begin soon, there’s no harm in telling him.”

Clark turned to Jie Ming. In those ancient, rippleless gray eyes, a rare trace of complex emotion surfaced.

“The Workshop’s prepared trump card is actually very simple,” he said. “In fact, you frequently use a simplified version of this thing.”

Jie Ming was stunned.

He frequently used it?

He quickly searched his mind for the methods he commonly used—talisman seals, witchcraft artifacts, Trigram Fire Annihilation Divine Light, Return to Ruins Armor, Great Void Step, Light God Transformation… which of them could possibly be linked to a “trump card”?

No, ordinary wizards probably wouldn’t even use most of these!

Clark did not make him guess for long.

“The Workshop’s prepared trump card is a transmutation array specialized for alchemy,” he said calmly. “Except… the scale is slightly larger. It is a super-wide-area transmutation array capable of covering the entire plane.”

“Hiss…”

Jie Ming couldn’t help but draw in a sharp breath.

A transmutation array… that covers the entire plane?

Dionysius added an explanation from the side:

“The greatest advantage of a super-wide-area transmutation array is that it does not need to be limited to any fixed region for deployment. However, precisely because of this, every sub-array must be spread across the entire plane.”

He paused, a trace of helplessness in his tone:

“The area of this abandoned plane is simply too vast. That’s why it took us so long to finally complete it.”

Jie Ming was stunned.

Then, countless pieces of information in his mind connected like lit fuses, rapidly forming a complete picture.

A transmutation array was the foundation of alchemy. Through complete understanding and reconstruction of material structure, it achieved the decomposition and resynthesis of matter. A super-wide-area transmutation array covering the entire plane… meant that the instant the array activated, all matter within the entire plane would fall under the control of the Noren Workshop’s alchemy.

If that was the case…

The Tower of Annihilation’s twenty trillion tons of antimatter could indeed be “processed.”

It could be completely decomposed, converted, or transferred to a safe area through the transmutation array.

The Chaos Secret Cult’s massive emotional energy could be handled in the same way.

No wonder Dionysius said it was “theoretically slightly stronger than either one.”

A super-wide-area transmutation array was indeed qualified to handle any single one of the trump cards alone.

But the problem was…

“It can only handle one?” Jie Ming asked.

“Correct.” Dionysius nodded. “After the array activates, all energy will be concentrated on the selected target. To handle both at the same time… we would need a second transmutation array of the same level, or other sufficiently powerful auxiliary means.”

Jie Ming fell silent.

Then, he realized something else:

“So… all the reconnaissance battles we conducted earlier were actually unnecessary?”

Dionysius looked at him calmly. There was no guilt or apology in his gaze—only the near-ruthless composure of a strategic decision-maker.

“Yes.”

“But in doing so, we would expose our intentions ahead of time.” Dionysius continued, his tone showing no fluctuation. “Letting the other side know that our personnel are active across the entire plane is far better than letting them directly see a super-large array covering the whole plane. As for the losses from those reconnaissance battles…”

He paused.

“From a cost perspective, this was the most suitable method.”

Jie Ming fell silent.

Then, he gave a gentle nod.

Even though he himself had been part of the cost, Jie Ming still agreed with Dionysius’s reasoning.

Because he understood.

This was war.

To strategic decision-makers like Dionysius, the mid- and low-rank wizards who had fallen during reconnaissance missions were “acceptable costs.” The words sounded cruel, but on a macro level, it was an unavoidable reality.

Rather than dwelling on sacrifices that had already occurred, it was better to think about how to make good use of the current forces and give those sacrifices meaning.

He raised his head and looked at Dionysius and Clark:

“Then what do we do next?”

Beside him, Viola smiled, her expression carrying a hint of eager excitement:

“Of course… we start the decisive battle ahead of schedule!”

She looked at Jie Ming, battle intent flashing in her silver-gray eyes:

“If we delay any longer and let the other side accumulate even more energy, even activating the super-wide-area transmutation array might not be enough to suppress them.”

Jie Ming understood what she meant.

The Tower of Annihilation was still continuing to produce antimatter, and the Chaos Secret Cult was still collecting emotional energy.

The longer time dragged on, the thicker the enemy’s trump cards would become, and the more limited the effect of the super-wide-area transmutation array would be.

They had to launch the decisive battle before the other side reached a certain critical point.

But then, another question occurred to him:

“If we can only handle one trump card… what about the other one?”

Clark looked at him, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly to reveal a meaningful smile:

“That is precisely why we called you over.”

Jie Ming was stunned.

“Huh?”

He pointed at himself, his confusion completely unconcealed:

“Me?”

He couldn’t figure it out.

He was only a fifth-ring wizard.

Even though he had just defeated Imaginary and mastered powerful techniques like Light God Transformation, he was still as insignificant as dust before trump cards of that level. Neither of the two trump cards prepared by the enemy alliance was something he could handle alone.

Yet Clark offered no further explanation. He simply turned to Dionysius and gave a slight nod:

“I’ll leave the rest to you.”

Dionysius smiled and nodded. The smile carried a deeper meaning that Jie Ming could not understand.

Then Clark beckoned to Jie Ming and Viola:

“Let’s go.”

Jie Ming followed in a daze. After taking a couple of steps, he turned his head to look at Viola, who was following behind:

“Senior, you’re coming too?”

Viola rolled her eyes and grabbed his arm, dragging him forward:

“Obviously. The old man already spoke. How could I not go?”

The two followed behind Clark, exiting through the command center’s side door and walking along the corridor toward the depths of the camp.

Behind them, Dionysius watched the three figures disappear at the end of the corridor.

Then he withdrew the smile from his face.

The refined and gentle expression vanished instantly like a mask washed away by water.

In its place was a calm so cold it bordered on cruel.

He turned around to face the remaining senior staff officers and communication wizards in the command center.

“Orders! Notify all wizards currently on external missions.” His voice was not loud, yet it reached every ear clearly, carrying unquestionable authority. “Withdraw immediately. All personnel return to camp.”

He paused.

“Prepare for the decisive battle.”

The air in the command center seemed to freeze for an instant.

Then…

Encrypted communication channels were fully activated. Streams of orders spread like invisible threads at high speed to every corner of the camp and to the wizards executing missions across the plane.

Less than two days after Dionysius’s orders were issued, preparations were complete.

The vast majority of the Noren Workshop’s wizards outside returned frantically from every corner of the plane like rivers flowing back to the sea.

Layer after layer of defensive barriers around the camp lit up. Spatial anchoring spell structures operated at full power, ensuring that every returning wizard could be identified, admitted, and settled in the shortest possible time.

The first to return were the reconnaissance teams closest to the camp.

They arrived travel-worn, still bearing traces of battle on their bodies, yet no one complained or questioned the sudden recall order.

The tense atmosphere permeating the entire camp, thick enough to feel almost solid, already explained everything.

Everyone understood what it meant when the highest command issued the order for “all personnel to return to camp.”

Those dust-covered, heavily wounded reconnaissance wizards had barely caught their breath before logistics personnel ushered them into designated fortresses.

Next came the elite squads that had ventured deep behind enemy lines.

Some were covered in blood, some dragged unconscious companions, and some had only their souls brought back inside soul containers. But they had all returned.

Finally, the seventh-ring wizards responsible for deploying the trump cards arrived.

They appeared silently in the deepest part of the camp, their bodies still carrying the fatigue and chaotic energy fluctuations from prolonged high-intensity spellcasting.

At the same time, at the far end of the distant horizon.

Dense teleportation lights also lit up above the alliance’s camp.

Clearly, the other side had also sensed the storm gathering in the air.

The wizards of the Chaos Secret Cult and the Tower of Annihilation were likewise frantically pulling back their personnel and concentrating their forces.

The enemy reconnaissance units that had previously flickered in and out of sight at the edge of the gray-white wasteland all vanished overnight.

Occasionally, powerful spiritual senses swept across the central battlefield area. Both sides confronted each other from afar, yet both tacitly refrained from sending out even a single soldier.

For a time, the entire battlefield fell into the calm before the storm.

Dionysius Spencer stood before the three-dimensional tactical sand table in the center of the command room, hands clasped behind his back, his gaze sweeping across the dense points of light on the sand table.

Behind him, several thousand high-rank wizards stood solemnly, awaiting the final order.

“Confirmation has been made,” Dionysius spoke. His voice was not loud, yet it reached every ear clearly. “All high-rank wizards on external missions have returned.”

“The enemy has also finished contracting their forces. Their trump cards have transitioned from the ‘production phase’ to ‘ready-to-deploy status.’”

“There is no longer any need to wait.”

He turned around to face everyone, his gaze calm yet carrying unquestionable authority:

“Begin. Initiate the final decisive battle.”

The instant the order was issued, the Noren Workshop’s war machine roared to life.