Cultivating in the Wizard World

Chapter 654: Chapter 556: Intelligence and Retreat

Jeming hovered amidst the pure white sea of light, his consciousness immersed in the fragments of information collected by the Cause and Effect Tracing Technique.

Though he had only encountered it once, combining these fragmented pieces yielded considerable intelligence for Jeming.

"Seems my previous deductions were correct..."

Fundamental Elemental Shock is indeed effective, and the reason for its efficacy is precisely because these information creatures are excessively powerful.

While these information creatures can parse complex information structures, their existence also relies on the Four Great Elements.

The outer layer of energy is constructed by elements, and although the core information is abstract, it still requires dependence on elements to "exist."

Their technology indeed approaches the essence of the world, having a distinct advantage over most civilization systems.

Frankly, these information creatures, when facing other civilization systems, are akin to permission hounds, able to directly modify "game" data from the backend.

But for this reason, their actual combat capability is quite concerning—when supposed power is merely data they can freely manipulate, there’s no need to develop power.

However, when the opponent’s attack is more fundamental, preventing them from altering backend data, this advantage instead becomes a fatal weakness.

"It’s like a hacker encountering a physical power cut."

This vivid analogy involuntarily crossed Jeming’s mind.

No matter how strong your tech is, pull the network cable, and you’re still blind.

Evidently, the theory of Four Great Elements, on which Wizard Civilization relies for survival, remains closer to the essence, even when compared to such bizarre civilizations.

He suddenly thought of those Ninth Level Wizards standing at the pinnacle of Wizard Civilization—masters of laws, freely modifying the world, endless power.

That level of existence has probably touched deeper layers beyond the Four Great Elements.

"It seems even when faced with Ninth Level entities from other civilizations, the Ninth Level Wizards might be overly powerful... I’ll have to ask the mentor about Ninth Level Wizards next time..."

"Although according to the historical records, Wizard Civilization had already mastered the Four Great Elements before leaving the Origin Plane. In this light, Wizard Civilization seems... even more absurd?"

Jeming couldn’t help but take a deep breath: "Speaking of which, can a civilization that hasn’t yet stepped out from its own plane truly have the natural ability to develop such level of theoretical technology?"

Jeming shook his head, temporarily suppressing this thought.

Continuing to analyze the lingering information.

Soon, a fact that made his pupils contract was analyzed by the Fate System.

Those information creatures—cannot be killed.

At least not with conventional means.

Information fragments captured by the Cause and Effect Tracing Technique indicated that when the indigenous creature was overwhelmed by elemental torrents, its core information underwent a bizarre "collapse."

This collapse was not destruction, but a "transfer."

From data analysis, it should be a kind of quantum entanglement state—at the moment of collapse here, reconstruction there occurred simultaneously.

All the information was instantly teleported back to the headquarters through some interceptable channel.

Jeming frowned.

He recalled the intelligence previously seen from the Expeditionary Army.

Those High Tier Wizards tried various methods: space freeze, time delay, soul imprisonment, cause and effect locking—all ineffective.

Each time, those information creatures either actively dispersed or "died" at the moment of being trapped, leaving nothing.

At that time, it was thought they were committing suicide.

But now, it seems it wasn’t suicide at all.

Just "going home."

"This behavior..."

Jeming fell into contemplation.

From a human perspective, destroy the body, and then reconstruct an identical individual elsewhere with the exact same information—does that still count as the same person?

Memory, thought, all information is identical... but the continuity breaks.

According to human ethics, this should be considered a copy rather than the original.

"But information creatures might not think this way."

Jeming recalled the reactions of those indigenous creatures.

They fought, retreated, got killed, then reappeared—throughout the entire process, there was no fear or hesitation.

To them, this might be as natural as human breathing, just a form of movement.

"This is troublesome."

Jeming frowned.

Can’t kill, can’t capture, all conventional means are ineffective.

So how can this war be fought?

He took a deep breath to calm himself:

"I shouldn’t limit my thinking to this aspect. Think carefully, since conventional means cannot cause actual damage, then one should contemplate from the information creatures’ existence itself... Since it is composed of information, one should target information itself!"

Jeming closed his eyes, actively adjusting his information structure, began searching for the next target: "Find another target and try again!"

Moments later, he "sensed" the position of another indigenous creature.

This time, he didn’t use elemental torrents.

Upon locating the target, without hesitation, Jeming directly launched the Cause and Effect Tracing Technique.

A pale golden light spread from his brow, enveloping the indigenous creature.

The core of the Cause and Effect Tracing Technique is capturing the target’s cause and effect traces—the past, residual, and entangled information.

Jeming wants to see if this magic can be used to reverse-lock the opponent’s information core, or even trace along the cause and effect line to find its headquarters.

But he failed.

The indigenous creature’s outer energy fluctuated intensely, the light of Cause and Effect Tracing falling upon it was like sliding off a slippery film, unable to penetrate.

"Not skillful enough."

Jeming frowned, withdrew his magic.

The indigenous creature seemed to sense something, started observing Jeming cautiously.

But Jeming didn’t give it a chance to attack, directly unleashing elemental torrents to annihilate it, then adjusted information, widened the distance, seeking the next target.

Second attempt.

Failed again.

"Incorrect casting method, should change operational approach..."

Third attempt.

Still failed.

"This... it seems I’ve made an oversight in my initial consideration..."

Jeming could feel it wasn’t the magic that was ineffective, but his understanding of this creature was flawed, which is why the magic continuously failed.

"Let’s try again..."

Jeming was about to continue when suddenly his whole body tensed up.

Danger!

The surrounding white light twisted violently, and a dozen figures appeared simultaneously.

A total of thirteen information beings surrounded him from all directions.

Their outer layer of energy surged wildly, obviously coming prepared.

Jeming’s frequent probing finally drew attention, and the other side was here to ambush him!

Almost the moment they appeared, those indigenous people attacked simultaneously.

Countless informational tendrils surged from all directions, at least ten times more ferocious than the previous attack.

The Ruins Armor manifested instantly.

An invisible barrier opened up, blocking the first wave of impacts.

Then the second wave.

The third wave.

The Ruins Armor began to tremble.

Although the informational tendrils were being devoured by the Returning Ruins Realm, the speed of devouring couldn’t keep up with the speed of the impact.

The light on the surface of the Ruins Armor flashed rapidly, cracks began to appear...

By the time the fourth wave of attack arrived, the Ruins Armor shattered.

Pale golden fragments scattered everywhere, vanishing into the sea of light.

But Jeming had already completed his counterattack preparations.

A golden light burst forth from the center of his brow.

The Fate System was running at full capacity!

A massive amount of calculation power poured out like a flood, instantly reversing the pressure on those thirteen indigenous creatures’ informational tendrils.

The originally chaotic and unruly information flow was forcibly taken over by the Fate System. Suppressed, the thirteen indigenous beings were immobilized simultaneously.

Their external energies fluctuated violently, clearly resisting with all their might.

But the calculation power of the Fate System was too strong.

The Incense Fire Divine Dao, a subsystem specifically for handling information, gathered the flow of faith from billions of believers, and now fully erupted, managing to pin all thirteen indigenous beings motionless purely with calculation power.

Jeming wasted no time.

He suddenly clasped his hands together.

The nearby Four Great Elements instantly went into a frenzy.