Hum...
Silver-white spatial radiance soared into the sky.
When the light faded, Jie Ming had just stepped out of the spatial passage when a sense of crisis suddenly struck.
Not good!
At almost the same time, the surrounding space suddenly froze.
Pieces of space law that had been pre-ambushed instantly closed in, like countless invisible chains, completely sealing off all his escape routes.
Then, the pre-prepared attack descended!
Boom!!!
Dozens of distinctly different witchcrafts erupted at almost the same instant.
Every single attack had no waste at all, and they were seamlessly interlinked.
The outer defensive witchcraft didn't even last half a breath before being successively penetrated.
Then came Jie Ming's body.
Pfft!
A blazing white energy beam precisely pierced through the center of his brow, and his head exploded with a bang.
Skull fragments mixed with brain tissue splattered in all directions midair.
At the same time, the other attacks also hit simultaneously.
In the blink of an eye, that body had been completely dismembered.
Countless pieces of flesh and broken bones drifted slowly over the wasteland.
The remaining half eyeball, trailing a few nerve strands, tumbled through the air, reflecting the gray figures that slowly appeared around him.
More than a dozen wizards stepped out from the void.
They wore identical deep gray robes, their surfaces continuously flowing with obscure runes, completely blocking spiritual detection, and even their body outlines were blurred into shadows.
Everyone's aura was maintained at Level 5.
However, each aura was eerily obscure.
Clearly, those robes themselves also had the effect of disguising auras.
They stood in positions that echoed each other from afar, each angle precisely blocking all possible escape routes Jie Ming had just had.
The entire ambush circle left no dead angles.
Seeing the prey so easily crushed, several leading black wizards slowly moved forward to confirm the spoils.
Suddenly, one of the wizards, slightly slender in build, seemed to sense something and sharply raised his right hand.
'Don't go over!'
His mental energy fluctuation became rapid: 'That's not the real body! It's a puppet!'
As his words fell, all the black wizards simultaneously stopped and even warily stepped back a few paces.
Then dozens of detection witchcrafts erupted simultaneously, and almost all the investigative spells that could confirm the target's identity poured out at that moment.
Waves of witchcraft ripples continuously swept over the flesh fragments that had not yet landed.
Those flesh were as real as a living person, every piece exuding vigorous life aura.
But that was the biggest problem!
It was already shattered like this, yet it still maintained a vigorous life aura, but they could detect no trace of a soul.
This was simply not a living person!
Just as their companion had warned, this was a puppet.
The air fell silent for a moment.
In the gaze of the crowd, the flesh scattered on the ground suddenly trembled slightly.
All the fragments simultaneously rose into the air, converging as if time were flowing backward.
The broken bones rejoined, the shattered internal organs re-coalesced, muscle fibers interwove, and skin quickly spread and covered from the fingertips.
In a short time, a complete body stood before everyone again.
Jie Ming gently flexed his right hand that had just re-formed, then looked up and scanned the surroundings, a hint of genuine admiration on his face: 'Impressive. Truly worthy of professionals in this line of work.'
He was telling the truth.
To lure out the black wizards, he had never activated the Return to Ruins Armor during this entire journey.
But that didn't mean he was completely defenseless.
Using purchased arcane artifacts, this puppet body was permanently imbued with a Level 6 standard protective witchcraft certified by the Federation Quartermaster Department.
According to theoretical data, it could withstand a direct blow from a Level 6 wizard.
But just now... those defenses didn't hold for even an instant before being completely shattered.
Just this round of coordination was enough to prove that these black wizards were no rabble.
However, facing Jie Ming's praise, the black wizards on the other side fell silent.
A group of black wizards continuously released detection witchcrafts.
But no matter how many times they scanned, the feedback was always blank.
Jie Ming's real body seemed to not exist here at all.
Some exchanged glances, while others had cold sweat on their foreheads.
The intelligence they had did not include this.
The target was only a Level 6 wizard who had advanced a few hundred years ago.
He specialized in alchemy, runes, research... a standard technical expert.
In the combat ratings of intelligence personnel, he was even slightly below an ordinary Level 6.
But now, over a dozen experienced black wizards had executed a perfect ambush using a pre-laid trap, only to fail.
Jie Ming didn't bother with them anymore. Instead, he looked around.
This was a desolate, dead rock wasteland, with gray-brown earth stretching to the horizon.
Clearly, this was definitely not some junction point; it should be an artificially created 'hunting ground.'
The sky displayed an eerie dark purple, a special celestial phenomenon formed by the refraction of starlight after space was compressed and sealed layer by layer.
The True Illusion Void-Breaking Eye slowly opened.
Soon, the outline of a massive spatial barrier appeared in his vision.
The entire wasteland was completely covered by a substantial barrier.
This place was completely isolated from the outside world.
Not to mention battle fluctuations; even space teleportation and distress messages couldn't leave.
Jie Ming quickly realized that his teleportation coordinates had been tampered with.
These black wizards had directly infiltrated the junction point teleportation network, dragging him from his original route into the pre-set hunting ground.
Thinking this, the admiration in Jie Ming's eyes deepened.
'Their operational capabilities are indeed impressive.'
He nodded slightly, then looked back at the crowd before him.
His gaze slowly passed over the few leaders at the front, finally resting on an inconspicuous gray-robed wizard at the back of the group.
Jie Ming's lips slowly curled up.
'I didn't expect we would meet again so soon. This... boss.'
His calm voice echoed slowly across the silent wasteland.
That figure's body stiffened noticeably.
Although the gray robe concealed his appearance, aura, and mental fluctuations, enough to fool most detection witchcrafts.
But in the vision of the True Illusion Void-Breaking Eye, all this was meaningless.
Above the other's head, an information light screen that only Jie Ming could see floated quietly.
Innkeeper.
Level 6 wizard.
There was even an avatar icon of this innkeeper beside it.
All the information recorded before was still completely floating there.
Those robes that could block spiritual detection were as good as useless before the True Illusion Void-Breaking Eye.
Jie Ming crossed his arms, his smile still warm, but there was a hint of mockery in his eyes.
'In the inn, you chatted with me quite a bit. You advised me to be wary of black wizards, and you remarked on the vitality of young wizards.'
'And in the end... you yourself are a black wizard?'