The lava boar roared furiously, clearly enraged by its inability to breach the transparent barrier. Its massive body charged again, each impact sending ripples across the force field.

“Merely a Grade 3 beast,” Jie Ming said calmly, unfazed by the lumbering creature.

The other wizards at the node showed no fear, even casually pointing at the beast. In the wild, they might approach such a creature cautiously, but within the protective rune arrays, they were confident.

One of the node’s Grade 2 wizards turned to Jie Ming. “Your task is to inspect and collect materials, right? Want to try your hand? Once the beast tide hits, you won’t get a chance to test the controls yourself.”

“Sure, thanks,” Jie Ming nodded after a brief hesitation.

Guided by the wizards, he quickly familiarized himself with the node’s array controls.

“Thunder attribute, Grade 3 charge…”

He extended his palm, adjusting the floating control screen. Soon, a blazing thunderbolt gathered in midair, crackling and illuminating the force field’s interior.

This wasn’t raw energy but a “Thunder Arrow” refined by the rune array, designed to devastate a beast’s energy core.

“Go!”

With Jie Ming’s low command, the Thunder Arrow shot forth like a loosed arrow, striking the lava boar’s head with unmatched speed!

“Roarrr!” The Grade 3 beast let out a piercing scream. Its vaunted rocky hide was pierced instantly, black blood and a scorched stench gushing from the wound. The thunder’s force penetrated its skull, dealing a massive blow to its fragile beast soul.

Its massive body swayed, collapsing with a thud, kicking up dust. Yet, its tenacious vitality kept it struggling, limbs twitching.

“It’s still alive?” Jie Ming raised an eyebrow, surprised. That was a proper Grade 3 spell, specialized for beast-slaying, yet the creature survived?

A wizard nearby explained, “This plane’s creatures—lava giants, snow monsters, and others—have exceptionally strong vitality.”

Jie Ming nodded, raising his hand to conjure a thicker Thunder Arrow, targeting the boar’s heart—its energy core.

Boom!

The second arrow struck true, piercing the heart. Without even a scream, the boar’s body stiffened, its limbs ceased twitching, and the ferocity in its eyes faded.

Jie Ming didn’t waste time. His task included collecting materials. He activated the array, forming runes around the boar’s corpse—not to dissect but to capture and transport it. As the array glowed, the massive body vanished in a spatial ripple, sent to the camp’s biochemical beast factory.

Jie Ming reined in his mental energy, reflecting on the array’s operation. A combat wizard explained, “Frontline nodes are built like this. Time’s tight, and recycled outpost materials are limited, so we make do with these makeshift setups.”

“Thanks. But will this hold against a beast tide?” Jie Ming nodded politely.

“It’s enough for a beast tide. The core’s Grade 4, and beast tides rarely include anything above that. Even if we can’t kill them all, survival’s assured.”

Jie Ming nodded at the explanation. His task was more inspection than rigorous review. The nodes weren’t meant to fend off lava giants, only to deter wild beasts.

“Since the ship plane left and Master Augustine departed, the camp’s been getting reports of wild beast attacks,” Jie Ming mused, assessing the situation.

Initially, no one paid much attention, attributing it to increased beast activity from plane energy surges. But within a month of his mandatory biochemical beast task, these “nuisance” attacks escalated beyond imagination!

At their peak, the camp faced millions of relentless beast assaults daily, surging from the Blazefire Realm’s scorched earth and the Frostflame Plane’s ice plains, hammering the camp’s force field day and night.

Investigations showed most of these wild creatures were Grade 1, with a few reaching Grade 2 or 3. Against the camp’s impregnable defenses, designed by Grade 5 wizards, such a tide was negligible, unable to breach the barrier.

In a sense, the endless beast tide was less a threat and more a supply of raw materials for biochemical beasts.

“Their relentless numbers and incessant harassment forced the camp to expand outer defensive nodes for buffer space, preventing beasts from piling up at the core force field’s edge,” Jie Ming summarized.

This was his current task. The nodes only needed to intercept and warn, not undergo strict scrutiny.

Jie Ming logged the data on his terminal, marking the task complete under the pleased gazes of the other wizards. After a brief exchange of intelligence, he prepared to return to his lab in the camp’s core to continue his biochemical beast work when—

Buzz buzz buzz…

A piercing alarm blared within the node! The wizards frowned, and a Grade 2 wizard deftly operated the array.

A screen unfolded, revealing the gray sky now covered by a dense swarm of “fire crows,” rolling like dark clouds, blotting out the sun. Each radiated searing flame, diving toward the node at alarming speed.

At the swarm’s forefront were several tiny, fleeing “black dots.” When the wizards zoomed in, they saw wizards desperately escaping the fire crows!

The sky-darkening swarm and the fleeing wizards shattered the node’s brief calm. Jie Ming and the stationed wizards tensed instinctively.

“Activate the energy conduit core!” the Grade 2 wizard barked.

“On it!” the energy operator responded.

Stored energy surged like a flood from the node’s core. Thick rune beams shot from the main turrets, not targeting the crows but scattering them like a giant hand swatting flies, tearing a massive path through the swarm.

The dispersed fire crows screeched in pain but fled faster, ignoring their injuries.

Seizing the gap, the pursued wizards flickered into the protective barrier.

“Close the force field!” the Grade 2 wizard ordered.

The transparent field contracted instantly, safely enclosing the new arrivals.

“Are you okay?” The stationed wizards approached, offering mental restoration potions.

But the rescued wizards’ expressions were sheer terror—pale faces, bloodshot eyes, pupils contracted uncontrollably, bodies trembling at their physical and mental limits.

They seemed deaf to their colleagues’ concern, too frantic to pause, shouting:

“The enemy’s here!”

“Run!”

They tried to rush through the node toward the camp’s core.

“What enemy? Just the fire crows?” a stationed wizard asked, puzzled, having seen the crows scatter.

“No! The crows aren’t the enemy—they’re fleeing!” a near-broken wizard shrieked, voice hoarse.

The others didn’t fully grasp his meaning. Beyond the fleeing crows, no new enemies appeared.

But Jie Ming felt an indescribable chill—a soul-deep cold, like an invisible blade at his neck. An overwhelming sense of impending death surged, flooding his limbs and bones!

His “spiritual sense” screamed in the most extreme way: Death is coming!

This wasn’t an ordinary crisis, nor was it as simple as the fire crows!

Adrenaline spiking, Jie Ming roared, “Run!!” His voice, laced with soul-deep fear and resolve, jolted the surrounding wizards.

His body erupted in dazzling white light. The Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror

activated instantly, transforming him into a blinding streak, speeding toward the camp’s core.

His speed was blinding, vanishing from the node in a blink, leaving only a white afterimage.

He wasn’t alone. In the oppressive plane repulsion, wizards’ spiritual senses were heightened. Jie Ming’s warning and action were a spark, jolting several others who’d sensed something amiss.

Survival instincts overrode confusion and hesitation. They instinctively tried to activate teleportation, rapid flight, or other escape methods.

But…

The instant Jie Ming vanished—

Swish!

A faint, almost inaudible sound rang out, as if the air itself froze.

Everything stopped!

Inside the node, the wizards who’d just escaped the crows, mouths agape, faces frozen in terror and panting, stood petrified, unable to move a hair.

In the sky, the fire crows’ flapping wings stilled mid-motion, feathers no longer falling.

Outside, the dust from the boar’s charge and scattered stones from explosions hung motionless, as if time had paused.

Even the wizards preparing escape spells—their hand seals, incantations, and surging mental energy—halted abruptly, their bodies locked in unfinished motions, faces bearing confusion and resolve.

An absolute silence replaced all clamor.

The world was like an insect trapped in amber, utterly still.

No sound escaped; even the light in their eyes froze.

Only Jie Ming’s radiant streak had vanished into the horizon.

Moments later—in what seemed an instant to the node’s wizards—a massive dust cloud surged irresistibly from the horizon!

It was a flood of lava giants, covering the skyline, marching in heavy, uniform steps with unstoppable force. Their bodies, clad in hard rock and molten magma, shook the earth with each step.

Their numbers were incalculable, dominating the scorched landscape.

The lava giants didn’t accelerate or pause. Their mere advance was enough to crush everything—residual fire crows, frozen in midair, and wizards locked in sculptural poses.

Like an unstoppable wall of flesh, they mercilessly rolled over all.

Crunch!

No creature could resist. Without even a groan, they were pulverized into broken blood and bone by the mountain-shattering force, becoming part of the land in an instant.

The node, still functioning moments ago, collapsed into fragments, flattened by the giants’ steel-like tread.