Chapter 305: Chapter 273: Something Amiss

The post-action award assessment was unsurprising. Jeming, for being the first to discover and stabilize the Space Gate node, restraining the Divine Spirit at a critical moment, and transmitting critical coordinates, was recognized as the one who rendered the most meritorious service.

Although the three Fourth Level Wizards were a bit envious of the generous rewards, considering each of them had acquired a living Fifth Level “Indigenous God” as research material, they tacitly remained silent and did not voice any objections.

The massive amount of Military Merit Points as a reward for the first merit was enough to make someone of Jeming’s wealth feel satisfied.

More importantly, the Seventh Level Wizard Dionysius Spencer personally decided that all the knowledge subsequently collected on the Divine Continent could be shared with Jeming!

This was invaluable to a wizard in pursuit of knowledge.

Jeming was very pleased with this.

The next fifty years were the standardized plane conquest process of the Wizard Civilization.

Resistance?

After losing their top-tier Divine Spirit, their faith collapsing, and facing the Wizards’ endless strange tactics, the remaining Holy Mission forces quickly melted away like snow under the sun.

The Wizards swept through the entire Divine Continent with an overwhelming force.

The only regret for some wizards who were keen on exploration was that the Space Gate connecting the Divine Continent to the world beyond, due to Dionysius Spencer forcibly opening and maintaining it initially, showed some signs of instability, temporarily unable to locate the other four Otherworld coordinates as mentioned by the Holy Mission.

This potential expansion path was temporarily blocked.

Fifty years later, Jeming completed a mission to clear out residual resistance and returned to the wizard sub-camp established at the former capitals of the Four Great Empires on the Divine Continent.

Seeing the constant stream of Holy Mission slaves, bound by Rune shackles, being transported to various research stations or planes, his face showed little joy, instead a hint of contemplation.

To be honest, the resources of the Divine Continent are considered rich, but… they don’t seem to justify such a large-scale mobilization by a Seventh Level Wizard.

Even factoring in the Indigenous Gods doesn’t seem worth the effort, after all, the deities here merely claim to be gods, without the real ’power’ of being divine.

Moreover, through fifty years of observation, Jeming clearly sensed that Dionysius Spencer maintained an almost indifferent attitude towards the Divine Continent itself.

As if conquering this place was just a necessary process, not the ultimate goal.

He couldn’t help but recall the meaningful words of Dionysius Spencer fifty years ago, when the Space Gate was about to open: “…your real ’feast’ is about to begin.”

Could it be that neither the relatively resource-poor “Aerial Plane” nor this “Divine Continent” has ever been seen by that Seventh Level Wizard as the real target?

To Dionysius Spencer, might they not even count as appetizers?

But this speculation led to an even larger question: if these two worlds are not the target… what on earth is Dionysius Spencer’s true purpose for expending such Heart Power?

Ever since the Space Gate stabilized, this commander-in-chief doesn’t seem to have made any significant moves, which in itself is unusual.

Jeming shook his head, suppressing this overly bold conjecture.

He knew that as the commander of the Expeditionary Army, all actions of Dionysius Spencer must align with the highest interests of Wizard Civilization, an iron rule brought by contract.

Under this premise, the schemes of a Seventh Level Wizard are far beyond what a Second Level Wizard like him is qualified to question and explore.

This curiosity could only remain a personal reverie.

“Perhaps this High Tier Wizard of the Destiny Element is already silently waiting for something by relying on others’ lines of fate…” Jeming thought.

As he glanced over his colleagues in the camp, enthusiastically discussing their next exploration targets due to their plentiful harvests, an unspeakable sense of alienation and… boredom suddenly surged in his heart.

He didn’t take on any new tasks, instead rising on his own to aimlessly fly over the conquered lands.

For the first time, he truly observed this world, trampled by the wizard’s iron hooves, as an “observer” rather than a “conqueror.”

However, the view that entered his eyes could hardly be called a landscape.

The extreme plundering over fifty years gave this plane a pathologically depleted appearance.

Without any restrictions from Dionysius Spencer, the Wizards’ greedy nature was fully revealed.

If the previous “scratching the ground three feet deep” on the Aerial Plane was an exaggeration, then here it was a true depiction.

The organic-rich soil was shaved away in large areas for the cultivation of Biochemical Beasts.

The mountains were thoroughly broken down, minerals and Energy Crystals extracted.

Rivers and lakes dried up, the Water Element extracted completely…

The whole world seemed to be gnawed away, leaving only a hollow skeleton.

The mist before his eyes gradually thickened, and Jeming only then realized that in his aimless flight, he’d unconsciously arrived near the massive Space Gate.

Ever since the Space Gate remained open for long periods, the milky-white mist, unique to the Aerial Plane and containing faint energy factors, had continually spread across the Divine Continent.

By now, more than half of the Divine Continent was shrouded in this veiling mist.

Pausing for a moment, Jeming moved his mind, passing through the stably functioning Space Gate and returning to the Aerial Plane after a long absence.

Compared to the “bustle” of the Divine Continent, the Aerial Plane seemed much quieter at this time.

Most Wizards had moved on to the more resource-concentrated new battlegrounds, leaving only scattered research stations and puppet operators maintaining basic functions.

The pervasive mist remained, yet lacked the constant dazzling reflections of light from the past.

Jeming drifted idly in the gravity-less vastness, his mind empty.

Just then, a colossal shadow slowly glided over him, blocking out the sky.

It was an enormous beast resembling a whale, over a hundred meters long, leisurely floating in the zero-gravity environment.

It kept its enormous mouth open, looking somewhat fierce.

Yet, seeing it, Jeming’s tense nerves actually relaxed.

He recognized this creature, dubbed “Aerial Giant Fish” by the Wizards in jest.

According to some wizard scholars’ research, these massive beasts occupy a very special ecological niche — their evolutionary path focused on being “inedible” and “durable.”

With thick skin and tough flesh, and despite their enormous size, their meat held no nutritional value and contained substances repulsive to most creatures — even the indiscriminate Black Giants.

They also had a strong regenerative ability, able to slowly recover as long as less than 40% of their body wasn’t devoured at once.

These filter-feeding creatures swam around with their mouths open, consuming fine mist-bound microorganisms and energy particles that were nearly invisible to the naked eye…

Suddenly, he was jolted awake, his pupils contracting sharply: “Something’s wrong!”

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