With his words, ripples seemed to spread through the surrounding space.

One figure, two, three…

Endless silhouettes began emerging from concealment in various ways.

Some stepped out from distorted light, others rose from ground shadows, some dispelled illusions, and a few cautiously approached from afar.

These were the final survivors of this brutal grand melee—aside from Jie Ming and the two fifth-level wizards who had just withdrawn.

They had hidden nearby, witnessing the earth-shaking battle.

Jie Ming’s gaze swept the surroundings, counting the ghostly figures materializing: exactly thirteen.

Six fourth-level wizards, seven third-level.

They loosely formed an encirclement, positions seemingly casual yet blocking most escape angles.

Their auras faintly linked, clearly having formed a temporary alliance.

“Allied, huh?” Jie Ming understood, unsurprised.

Wizards survived through wisdom and knowledge; uniting against an unbeatable foe was the epitome of rationality.

His detection of them relied not on scouting witchcraft.

After all, under spatial lockdown and energy turbulence, such methods were greatly diminished—and Jie Ming’s own state left him little capacity to monitor surroundings.

He discovered them through a simple fact: Helios and Morpheus had conceded and exited, yet the [Spatial Anchoring Field] enveloping the area remained steadfast.

This could only mean the maintainer—or sufficient sustaining power—still lingered.

His gaze finally settled on the figure directly ahead, at the alliance’s forefront: complex emotions mingled with resolute battle intent—Rex.

A knowing smile appeared on Jie Ming’s face as he spoke: “Rex, if I’m not mistaken, you’re the one who gathered them?”

Rex nodded, admitting frankly: “It was me. Jie Ming, after our exchange in the ‘Justice’ plane, I knew clearly: one-on-one, none of us here are your match.”

He paused, glancing at his allies: “Especially after witnessing how you ‘dealt with’ those fifth-level seniors. I believed allying was our only way to contend with you… or even find a sliver of victory.”

Jie Ming grew curious: “In that case, by optimal strategy, you should have struck like thunder while I was locked in fierce combat with those seniors—or right after, at my most relaxed. Why wait until now, giving me time to recover?”

Rex’s face revealed a helpless yet resolute smile: “Because I convinced them with two reasons. First, I could lead them to eliminate the most troublesome enemies—you and the other fifth-level wizards. Fortunately, you handled most of them. Second…”

He inhaled deeply, eyes burning as they fixed on Jie Ming: “I voluntarily forfeit claim to ultimate victory in this contest. My goal isn’t the Substitute Death Doll—it’s a true fight with you! I want to know the exact gap between us!”

“Me?” Jie Ming pointed at himself. “You’re sure—now?”

Jie Ming’s current state was ragged: unstable aura, dimmed Great Radiance Formation, his internal world’s black giant legion nearly depleted.

“Yes—your state now is perfect! This is my only chance to force out more of your methods and measure the difference!”

Jie Ming understood, a trace of appreciation in his eyes.

Forsaking a priceless reward for validation of knowledge and strength—this was very wizardly.

He glanced once more at the dozen wary wizards, suddenly smiling with inexplicable ease: “So, everyone left on the field is here now, right?”

Seeing his smile, Rex’s heart lurched, a strong premonition of doom pouring over him like ice water.

Jie Ming sighed lightly, as if regretting something: “If you were scattered across the vast battlefield, in my current state, I’d indeed be powerless and concede.”

“Or, if you’d attacked without hesitation upon gathering, I probably wouldn’t have lasted long. But fortunately… you didn’t.”

“What?!” Rex’s expression changed drastically. Though unsure of Jie Ming’s remaining trump, combat instinct urged him to roar an order for all-out assault!

Yet as he drew breath, an extremely bizarre, unprecedented suffocation seized his throat and chest!

It felt like an ordinary human suddenly thrown into vacuum.

But Rex couldn’t comprehend: wizards weren’t ordinary humans. Especially formal wizards with heavily modified bodies could survive true vacuum without issue.

He soon realized: this wasn’t physical oxygen deprivation—air still surrounded him.

It was deeper—as if his very foundation of existence was shaken!

Instinctively, he tried condensing his signature explosive spell, mental force reaching to seize and guide surrounding fire elements.

But strangely, though his mental force sensed “something,” he couldn’t command them as usual.

Those “things” were inert, ignoring his directives, even faintly repelling them.

Barely gathering enough for an unstable model, it collapsed upon activation due to extreme environmental incompatibility, backlash dizziness assaulting him.

“What’s happening?!”

“My witchcraft failed!”

“The elements… they’re not responding!”

Panic-filled mental fluctuations and cries echoed around.

The other wizards faced the same; a few with strong mental force or reliant on physique/special bloodlines barely unleashed attacks.

But power greatly reduced, trajectories skewed—easily blocked by Jie Ming.

Mysterious “suffocation,” invisible hindrance, widespread witchcraft failure…

Rex endured soul-level discomfort, frantically scanning with detection witchcrafts—no energy fluctuations, no field interference, no known curses or domain effects…

All results showed “normal,” yet their casting was crippled by half!

It felt like being thrown into a foreign plane with alien laws—power abundant but unusable.

“Non-existent… yet truly affecting… interfering with elemental response…” Rex’s mind raced, eliminating possibilities.

Suddenly, a concept seen only in ancient texts flashed like lightning!

He jerked his head up, staring at the leisurely approaching Jie Ming, eyes filled with incredulous horror, voice dry and strained:

“Im… Imaginary Elements?! Your law… the law you’ve grasped—is Imaginary Elements?!”

Jie Ming stopped before the half-kneeling Rex, struggling against the “suffocation,” and nodded calmly: “Mm, that’s close enough.”

“Imaginary Elements…” Rex repeated, face etched with utter bitterness and resignation.

Seeing his expression, Jie Ming shook his head.

What Jie Ming had done was not unleash a powerful attack witchcraft but invoke his controlled “Spiritual Qi Law”!

His overall mastery of Spiritual Qi Law was not high, but he excelled in one key technique: element-spiritual qi conversion!

In the brief conversation with Rex, Jie Ming had silently activated this ability.

Centered on himself, he massively converted basic elemental particles in the surrounding space—those wizards relied on for casting—into another energy form: spiritual qi!

This seemed merely an energy conversion, without direct lethality.

But just as ancient Earth’s first oxygen appearance was catastrophic poison to anaerobic life!

Elements and spiritual qi were both world foundations.

Yet for wizard spell models and mental guidance built entirely on elemental systems, sudden immersion in an environment filled with “alien” spiritual qi particles was disastrous.

Their mental commands couldn’t effectively guide spiritual qi; their spell models couldn’t stabilize in a spiritual qi environment; the “rules” they survived by were temporarily overridden or distorted!

This caused Rex and others’ “suffocation”—their souls and cognitive systems rejecting and maladapting to unfamiliar base rules.

This caused witchcraft failure—the “bricks” (elements) building them temporarily replaced by incompatible “wood” (spiritual qi)!

This caused undetectable anomalies—spiritual qi wasn’t a curse or field; it was “objective existence.” Conventional element-based detection naturally couldn’t identify or comprehend it!

Under plane laws, forcibly converted spiritual qi was rapidly corrected back to elements.

But that took time—enough for a battle.

Rex gazed at Jie Ming before him, feeling the gradually fading yet still debilitating “alien” environment.

All battle intent and reluctance dissolved into a long sigh as he lowered his head:

“I lost.”

“We concede.”

…

With Rex’s surrender, the other wizards abandoned resistance, withdrawing one by one.

A few unwilling tried charging with physique or special artifacts but were easily felled by Jie Ming’s superhuman martial skills, forced to exit bitterly.

Teleportation lights flashed successively, removing conceding wizards.

In moments, only Jie Ming remained on the ravaged scorched earth.

Feeling the lingering spiritual qi around him—rapidly “purified” by the plane—he finally smiled with relief and a hint of triumph.

“I won.”

His figure flashed, enveloped in teleportation force, vanishing from the duel field.