Translator: AnubisTL
A cold, sticky sensation on his face snapped Jieming back to his senses.
He instinctively reached up and felt a fist-sized fragment in his palm. It was still squirming slightly, a translucent, gelatinous mass with chaotic glimmers flowing within it.
Staring at this substance, which looked like a high-grade slime, Jieming's heart began to race uncontrollably.
A burning thought instantly seized his mind—the Nest!
His "Nest," a comprehensive cannon fodder unit with an advanced design concept, had always been held back by material and technical limitations, never achieving its ideal potential.
If I could fully understand the fungal lord's near-perfect mechanisms for biological aggregation, evolution, adaptive defense, and regeneration, and then graft its essence into the "Nest"...
Then wouldn't this ultimate creation finally break free from its current awkward state of being neither here nor there? Wouldn't it become a truly terrifying war machine capable of self-evolution and infinite proliferation?!
This idea had sprouted like wild grass in his mind when he first heard reports about the fungal lord, but back then, it had been nothing more than an unreachable fantasy.
But now, the Fungal Lord's remains had fallen right before him, like a gift from the heavens themselves!
To let this opportunity slip away would be an unforgivable sin against the laws of nature!
Not only Jieming, but almost every wizard nearby realized the immense value of these drifting fragments of the Fungal Lord as research material.
They eagerly deployed all manner of techniques—some using specially crafted containers for containment, others using energy fields for restraint—frantically collecting these remains that held the secrets of an eighth-tier lifeform.
A sense of ecstatic harvest permeated the battlefield.
Yet, amidst this jubilation, Jieming suddenly felt an inexplicable jolt of dread.
An indescribable unease, like a cold snake, coiled around his soul.
This feeling... it's so familiar!
The last time he'd felt something like this was in the Void Domain Plane, when his mind had been obscured and interfered with by that eerie white mist!
"Something's wrong... something is definitely wrong!" Jieming instantly became hyper-vigilant, his gaze sweeping sharply across his surroundings.
This time, his mind might not be directly obscured, but there was undoubtedly some problem he hadn't yet detected!
But... where was the problem?!
He frowned deeply, frantically activating his body tempering method, attempting to use its innate power to adapt to and break through the unknown force that was obscuring his spiritual perception.
The soul light flickered erratically within his body as his cells vibrated and adjusted at an unprecedented frequency.
But the effect was negligible.
It was as if an impassable transparent wall separated him from that crucial "spiritual light."
The answer felt tantalizingly close, yet always just out of reach!
This sense of helplessness was like an ant trying to comprehend a giant's thoughts.
He even forgot to store the alluring fungal lord fragment in his internal space, remaining frozen in place with a deep frown, forming a stark contrast to his comrades who were enthusiastically collecting spoils of war around him.
High above, Dixon and Obolos carefully inspected the area. Only after confirming that the fungal lord's core consciousness had been completely annihilated by the ship-plane main cannon did they finally breathe a sigh of relief.
"The three great world lords have all been slain. The core of the Triangular Plane Cluster's resistance has been uprooted," Obolos's voice carried a hint of post-battle relief. "Next comes the cleanup: receiving the remaining populations of the Giant Spirit Realm and the Mental Realm, and systematically recovering their knowledge bases..."
As Dixon listened, he casually stowed several large, energy-rich fungal lord samples into his spatial wizardry artifact.
A request from Merist echoed in his mind, urging him and Obolos to save a high-quality fungal lord sample for her research. They both readily agreed.
He instinctively looked down at the wizards on the battlefield below, their faces alight with joy over their victory and the abundant spoils. A faint, gratified smile touched his lips.
The casualties of war were always heartbreaking, but the acquisition of knowledge and the triumph of civilization could always soothe the wounds.
However, as his gaze swept across the crowd, he "accidentally" noticed a figure who seemed utterly out of place—Jieming.
That face, so starkly contrasted with the joy of the others, etched with confusion, vigilance, and struggle, instantly piqued Dixon's instinctive curiosity as a fate-type wizard.
"Hmm? This little fellow..."
Normally, a fate-type wizard would never casually probe a being's destiny.
But this time, almost subconsciously, he tapped into the power of fate.
An invisible thread of fate silently reached out toward Jieming, seeking to understand what had caused this consistently outstanding young apprentice to behave so strangely.
The moment he switched to fate perception...
The smile on Dixon's face froze instantly, replaced by a pallor of sheer terror!
He clearly "saw" the numerical value representing his own fate's trajectory plummeting like an avalanche!
It hadn't just crashed through the safe baseline; it was hurtling uncontrollably past the boundary of "positive numbers" and plunging into the abyss of "negative values," the realm of misfortune and death!
No! It wasn't just him!
Dixon violently expanded his perception—the wizard legion below, Obolos beside him, even Merist, far away on the ship plane!
Every wizard, including the three seventh-tier wizards, saw their fate lines—once soaring with the triumph of victory—now plummeting in unison, shrouded by an invisible and terrifying shadow!
"Something's wrong! We've been set up!" Dixon realized in an instant.
His "accidental" glance at Jieming and the curiosity that followed weren't random at all.
It was his own fate sounding its final alarm before the impending catastrophe!
"What's wrong?!"
Obolos immediately sensed the drastic change in Dixon's expression and the terrifying, chaotic aura that erupted from him. His body, formed of condensed shadows, instantly shifted into its highest combat stance.
"Vigilance! Maximum vigilance!!" Dixon practically roared.
He didn't even have time to explain. A crushing sense of crisis made every cell in his body scream.
Out of absolute trust in the abilities of a fate-type wizard, Merist and Obolos acted without hesitation!
Merist instantly boosted the power of all the protective magic arrays on the ship plane to their maximum. The reconnaissance system scanned every corner of the Triangular Plane Cluster, and even every inch of the surrounding chaotic void, with unprecedented intensity, over and over again!
Obolos's immense perception also flooded out like mercury, penetrating the remaining giant spirit realm and mental realm, not missing a single abnormal energy fluctuation or sign of life.
Nothing!
The scanning results showed that besides the wizards themselves and the collapsing indigenous remnants, this void... was empty!
Yet, this "empty" result sent Merist and Obolos's hearts sinking into the abyss.
They knew all too well the characteristics of high-tier fate wizards—a danger that even they couldn't detect often meant it had already exceeded their current level of comprehension and ability to respond!
Without hesitation, Merist slammed her fist onto the crimson button on the console, the one representing the highest state of emergency.
A hyperspace distress signal, carrying the coordinates of the Triangular Plane Cluster and the highest-level crisis code, was instantly sent across the endless void.
But... even for high-rank wizards, higher-tier reinforcements would still need time to arrive!
Dixon fought back the dizzying sensation of his fate continuously plummeting as he frantically scanned the threads of destiny, trying to find the source of the crisis.
Suddenly, he noticed a detail he had overlooked.
Why... are the fate values of the remaining indigenous beings in the Giant Spirit Realm and the Mental Realm showing as zero?!
The fate of a living being, or even a plane itself, could be positive (prospering) or negative (declining).
But it could absolutely, absolutely not be zero!
Zero meant "nothingness."
...meaning it possessed no fate trajectory at all...
The only things that fit such a description were lifeless, dead objects!
A jolt of realization, like ice water poured over his head, snapped Dixon awake!
His thoughts just now... were completely wrong!
Why had he subconsciously considered "receiving the remaining population"?
They were on a mission of the highest priority: "Annihilation"!
The objective was to completely erase all threats from the Triangular Plane Cluster on both physical and spiritual levels. Aside from valuable knowledge and technology, all other living beings were on the extermination list. There was absolutely no possibility of taking prisoners!
Something... was silently influencing their minds!
Distorting their judgment!
Even he, a seventh-tier fate wizard, had nearly fallen for it!
Looking down at the wizard legion below, still oblivious as their fate values continued to plummet, and then at the grim expressions of his two colleagues beside him, a flash of resolve crossed Dixon's eyes.
He hesitated no longer. He summoned all the "Luck" he had accumulated and stored over his long years, igniting it without reservation and pouring it all into his own precarious fate trajectory!
Buzz—!
The fate of the entire area began to vibrate violently.
In that instant, Dixon's fate value was forcibly pushed to an unimaginable, even common-sense-defying peak.
Under the blessing of this fleeting, almost "destined" good fortune, he relaxed his control over his body, surrendering everything to this momentary "coincidence" and "inevitability."
Through a series of bizarre coincidences, his throat began to vibrate uncontrollably, his vocal cords trembling at a strange frequency.
His mouth opened and closed, struggling to utter five blurred syllables:
"Drop... the... spoils... of... war..."
The moment the words fell, the forcibly elevated fate, like burnt-out firewood, instantly plummeted back to the bottom. The backlash was so severe it made him cough up a mouthful of golden blood.
But he paid no heed to this. Gathering all his strength, he roared the words again, his voice shaking the very heavens and earth:
"Everyone! Drop all spoils of war immediately! Drop every single piece of loot you've taken from this war!!"
Obolos and Merist, though bewildered, didn't hesitate to obey, their trust in Dixon absolute.
The mandatory order flashed through the magic net terminals, instantly searing into the minds of every wizard with unquestionable priority.
Simultaneously, the two seventh-tier wizards began frantically dumping the spoils they had collected from their spatial equipment—Kog's metal fragments, Hilla's spirit core shards, and most critically, the fungal lord's tissue samples—hurling them away in a desperate frenzy.
A wave of turmoil swept through the wizard legion. Many wizards stared at the precious spoils in their hands, their faces etched with reluctance and confusion.
But under the absolute authority of the mandatory order, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and comply.
One by one, they threw out the materials they had gathered, even the enemy equipment captured in battle, as if discarding red-hot potatoes.
The moment Jieming heard the mandatory order, the tension that had been taut in his heart suddenly snapped.
Though he still couldn't grasp the exact source of the danger, an instinct told him this was the right move!
Without hesitation, he flung the Fungal Lord fragment from his hand and then emptied his internal space, discarding all the spoils of war he had collected.
He went even further, retrieving and ruthlessly abandoning even the auxiliary equipment that had been powered by energy crystals from this plane.
For a moment, the battlefield was transformed into a surreal "rain of wealth" as wizards painfully discarded countless precious materials and equipment, which piled up like mountains.
TL/N: This is one of the best depictions of fate/destiny I have seen in a novel.
(End of the Chapter)
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