Translator: AnubisTL
For wizards of lower tiers, spell artifacts weren't necessarily better the higher their tier.
Take first-tier wizards, for example. Under normal circumstances, their combat prowess could easily overwhelm any other first-tier beings from other planes.
The more exceptional among them could even challenge "ordinary" second-tier beings and remain undefeated.
However, when facing "special" second-tier beings, only a handful of geniuses stood a chance of victory.
But if a first-tier wizard possessed a high-tier wizard artifact, even an average one could take down such a second-tier being alone, provided they had the element of surprise or prior preparation.
In a sudden, unplanned encounter, however, the first-tier wizard's chances of success would plummet rapidly.
This was because as the tier of a wizard artifact increased, so did the mental power required to activate it.
While this was negligible for wizards of the same tier, who could activate such artifacts at will, it could introduce a significant delay for lower-tier wizards.
Artifacts beyond the sixth tier were simply beyond the activation capabilities of first-tier wizards.
Once an enemy's strength reaches the third tier, even the most ordinary third-tier foe becomes an insurmountable challenge for a first-tier wizard under normal circumstances—even one wielding a high-tier wizard artifact.
When facing a third-tier enemy, a first-tier wizard might not even have time to activate their high-tier wizard artifact before the enemy senses the danger.
After all, a third-tier creature's speed far exceeds a first-tier wizard's reaction time, allowing it to break free from the wizard's mental power and visual lock. It could even counterattack and kill the wizard before they fully realize what's happening.
Even if the wizard manages to activate a higher-tier shield in advance to protect themselves, it would inflict minimal damage on the enemy.
Moreover, the shields conjured by wizard artifacts have limited duration. Once the shield's duration expires, the first-tier wizard's demise becomes inevitable.
It was for this reason that Jieming, despite having ample funds, only purchased a few fourth-tier magical artifacts. Higher-tier artifacts would be pointless, as they would only slow down activation speed.
Of course, if one were truly prepared to die, activating a high-tier area-of-effect spell artifact for a suicidal explosion might offer a slim chance of killing the enemy.
However, all of this assumed that the first-tier wizard had prepared in advance and ambushed a third-tier enemy.
But what if... it was a sudden encounter?
A disturbing pulse of mysterious energy, like a heartbeat, emanated from the depths of the altar, rapidly spreading throughout the mine and causing cracks to appear in the surrounding rock walls.
Jieming, Victor, and Amy simultaneously exerted their power, using alchemy to move the stone wall blocking their path and reveal the altar behind it.
"What... what is that?!" Victor exclaimed in shock.
"No wonder... there weren't any subordinates around this guy," Amy said, her voice trembling slightly.
Before them stood a stone altar, its main structure seemingly composed of a crystal-like mineral.
Clearly, this mineral was the very thing Jieming and his team had come to retrieve.
The only difference was that the intelligence reports described the mineral as faintly transparent yellow.
But the entire altar now glowed a vivid crimson, resembling a massive ruby.
The reason for this dramatic color change was obvious: the mountain of underground demon corpses piled beside the altar.
Sensing the exact same "vibration" emanating from the altar as the demon elder had in life, Jieming's pupils constricted sharply.
He immediately realized the truth: the long-dead Underworld Demon Elder, now devoid of consciousness, was merely bait!
Its death had triggered the trap!
Almost simultaneously, Victor and Amy felt the oppressive force surging from the altar, their faces paling instantly.
The moment Victor saw the altar, he instinctively reached into his wizard's robe for a high-tier wizard artifact.
But just as his fingers brushed against the artifact—
Shriiiik!
A crimson blade flashed across the air like a teleportation, severing Victor's arm—the one holding the artifact—with a spray of blood. The severed limb flew high into the air!
The stump of his arm was a mangled mess of flesh and bone, the ground instantly stained crimson with hot, reeking blood.
Victor let out a muffled groan of agony, the swiftness of the cut leaving him no time to even scream.
Only then did the group finally see clearly.
Unbeknownst to them, a towering figure with four wings had materialized above the altar deep within the mine.
He wore blood-red armor, his face stern and majestic, and his four massive wings generated a blood-soaked wind pressure.
The energy radiating from his body left no doubt: this was a third-tier creature.
A blood angel!
Jieming's eyes narrowed.
Drawing on his recently acquired knowledge of Elosian culture, he immediately recognized the being before him as a blood angel, a servant of the blood war god—one of the Elosian pantheon's deities whose primary domains were slaughter and warfare.
These creatures, the strongest beings beneath the gods, were revered by the Elosian natives as demigods—true third-tier creatures!
Though blood angels were considered among the weakest of the Elosian demigods, they were still transcendent beings who had breached the barrier between the divine and mortal realms.
At the very least, crushing three first-tier wizards like Jieming would be effortless for them.
The blood angel's icy gaze swept over the trio, his indifferent eyes burning with loathing for "heretics" and "demons."
He raised his longsword and began to speak, his voice resonating like an ancient prayer, imbued with chilling divine power: "Filthy heretics, blasphemers of our god, your souls shall..."
He had intended to strike as soon as he finished his incantation, but before he could complete the words, Victor, whose arm had just been severed, suddenly staggered forward two steps and collapsed to his knees with a thud.
"Spare me! Spare me, great angel! I... I'm willing to betray the wizards! I'll join the gods' ranks!" Victor sobbed uncontrollably, his face etched with utter terror and despair.
He pleaded frantically, his words tumbling out like a machine gun: "I'll reveal everything about the wizards! Their weaknesses! Their strongholds! I'll tell you anything! I'll even kill these two heretics to prove my sincerity! Just spare my life..."
His abject fear and desperation were palpable, as if the pain of his severed arm and the threat of death had completely broken him. His face was deathly pale from the agony and blood loss.
The blood angel smirked mockingly, ready to taunt the pathetic traitor further.
But in that instant, an inexplicable sense of danger surged through his mind!
His face instantly contorted with fury.
Victor, still kneeling on the ground, his face streaked with tears and snot, now wore a sinister smile.
As Victor raised his head, a terrifying vacuum blade, radiating an aura of dread and carrying silent cutting power, hurtled toward his skull.
Beneath Victor's clothing, a necklace he had worn around his neck silently lost all its luster, crumbling into a pile of ash.
This was Victor's desperate gamble. Exploiting the blood angel's arrogance and mockery, he had seized a fleeting moment, pouring every ounce of his mental power into activating his trump card.
Alas, the gap in their power was insurmountable.
"Hmph!" the blood angel scoffed.
With a casual flick of his longsword, a crimson blade flashed, instantly intercepting the terrifying vacuum blade and shattering it into countless wisps of qi.
Then, relying solely on his overwhelming presence, a torrent of divine power erupted like a mountain flood, instantly blasting Victor away.
Pfft!
Victor spat out a mouthful of blood, flying backward like a kite with a severed string. He crashed heavily against the rocky wall with a sickening thud, then slid to the ground, his fate uncertain.
The blood angel raised his hand to deliver the final blow, but suddenly felt an indescribable stiffness in the joints of his limbs and the connection points of his four massive wings.
He glanced down and discovered his joints and wings were covered in a dense layer of tiny ice crystals.
These crystals weren't the cause of the freezing; rather, they had formed because of the uncontrollable cold emanating from his joints.
This bone-chilling cold, though subtle, was like a persistent infection, hindering the smooth flow of divine power through his body.
Sensing the energy fluctuations, he whipped his head around to face Amy.
Her face was equally pale, sweat beading on her forehead. It was clear that the sudden freezing ability had been unleashed with every ounce of her strength.
Though Amy typically used the fireball spell, that was simply because fireballs were "convenient" in most situations.
As a genius who had independently constructed her own Witchcraft Model, Amy's creation was far more complex and sophisticated than it appeared on the surface.
She hadn't simply created a "fireball spell." Instead, she had combined fundamental fire spells with her knowledge of alchemy and extraction arts, autonomously constructing a deeper-level technique: "heat manipulation"!
Normally, she could absorb ambient heat to condense fireballs. But in critical moments, she could reverse the process, drawing heat from an opponent's body to induce freezing paralysis.
However, the gap between a third-tier creature and a first-tier wizard was simply too vast.
Even with Amy's utmost effort, she could only achieve a fleeting moment of paralysis.
This negligible chill was quickly overwhelmed by the blood angel's surging divine power, dissolving almost instantly.
Yet, in that fleeting instant—the moment the enraged angel paused to expel the cold from his body—he sensed an unprecedented, overwhelming danger.
He whipped his head around, only to see Jieming holding a massive crystal orb that had materialized in his hand. The orb pulsed with blinding light, aimed directly at him!
The blood angel instinctively raised his now-restored arm, his longsword slashing out a divine power-infused strike that howled toward Jieming!
Yet just as the devastating blow was about to reach Jieming, the blood angel noticed a sly grin spreading across Jieming's face.
Then, with a cheerful grin, Jieming retracted the dazzling crystal sphere.
The terrifying third-tier strike, poised to strike within a foot of Jieming, was abruptly halted by an invisible barrier that materialized before him!
The barrier appeared transparent, yet proved utterly impenetrable. The blood angel's strike rippled across its surface, unable to penetrate even an inch.
"Idiot! That was just to distract you!" Jieming sneered at the blood angel's stunned expression.
With that, he extended his other hand, revealing two now-dimmed fourth-tier defensive spell artifacts.
"You vile wizards!" the blood angel roared in fury, whirling to slash at Amy and Victor once more.
Two crimson sword strikes descended, only to be blocked by a transparent barrier that materialized before them.
Seeing Amy and Victor's relieved yet mocking glances, the blood angel suddenly realized the truth. His eyes flashed with extreme fury and humiliation.
He understood now!
Victor's feigned "pleading for mercy," Amy's "freezing spell," and Jieming's ostentatious display of an "offensive spell artifact"—all of it had been a ploy to buy time.
Just enough time—less than a second—to distract him, allowing Jieming to activate the fourth-tier defensive spell artifact he had prepared, enveloping them in a fourth-tier shield capable of withstanding his attacks!
Jieming couldn't help but sigh in relief.
The gap between a third-tier creature and a first-tier wizard was simply too vast!
Even without exerting his full power, the blood angel far surpassed their reaction limits.
In that situation, had the blood angel not underestimated them and acted instantly, he could have annihilated the trio before they even had a chance to activate their spell artifacts.
Everything Amy and Victor had done was to buy Jieming the crucial time he needed to activate the fourth-tier shield!
Everything Jieming had done, including his earlier taunt, was designed to draw the blood angel's attention, giving him time to activate other spell artifacts and create identical protective shields for Amy and Victor.
Extreme fury flashed across the blood angel's face as he realized he had been outmaneuvered by these three "insects."
But his composure quickly returned.
After countless battles against wizards, he understood his enemies well.
Shields created by "special magical tools" like these had limited duration and could never last long; they would soon dissipate.
"Once your little tricks expire, you will pay the price!" the blood angel threatened coldly.
Jieming remained unfazed, completely ignoring the blood angel's menacing words.
His focus was now entirely on another matter.
The blood angel finally noticed that behind Jieming, countless fingertip-sized crystals were materializing from nowhere.
These crystals, glowing faintly, swarmed out of Jieming's spatial storage like a swarm of bees.
Guided by Jieming's powerful alchemy, these thousands of offensive rune-imbued magical artifacts rapidly unfolded behind him, arranging themselves into a massive circular ring several meters in diameter.
As the ring expanded, the blood angel attempted to attack.
But he discovered that Jieming had already expanded the shield's range when he first activated it, ensuring it protected all the rune-imbued magical artifacts behind him—as if he had anticipated this move from the start.
(End of the Chapter)
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