As the flames of battle briefly subsided, Jie Ming swiftly sank his consciousness inward to assess his condition.
The Great Radiance Formation’s energy reserves were depleted by more than half, and many runic artifacts had been consumed, but his internal factory would soon replenish them.
The Black Giants’ cores were being nurtured within the nest, awaiting reformation.
Meanwhile, the nest’s breeding zone operated at full capacity, compensating for the Prowlers’ losses…
Overall, his foundation remained intact, though his conventional fodder units had suffered heavy losses.
He exhaled lightly, turning his attention to his surroundings—his surviving comrades.
The sight made even Jie Ming, with his steady disposition, inwardly startle.
In the void, the once-mighty legion of ten thousand wizards now appeared sparse.
The vibrant glows of various spells had dimmed, replaced by a oppressive atmosphere.
The wizards’ rock golems, crystal cluster creatures, and phantom legions had sustained catastrophic losses, their wreckage floating in the void, forming desolate graveyards—a grim but expected outcome.But the loss of wizards themselves was staggering.
With a cursory scan, Jie Ming sensed that at least one-tenth of the surrounding mental signatures had vanished!
That meant at least a thousand full-fledged wizards had perished in the brutal battle to breach the barrier!
The number weighed heavily on Jie Ming’s heart.
He had read the Star Ring Federation’s planar war archives, aware of the brutal reality for wizards in their first planar conflict—survival rates below five percent, a statistic built on the bones of countless prodigies.
However, that was typically for an entire protracted expedition cycle.
After surviving their first planar war, wizards’ survival rates would rise sharply with gained resources and experience.
For an expedition of this scale against the Giant Spirit Realm, potentially spanning decades, the total mortality rate was expected to hover around one-tenth.
Yet now, in just the landing battle, in merely breaching the outermost defense, a legion of ten thousand had already paid a tenth of its number!
And Jie Ming’s legion was merely a flanking force within the million-strong expedition army. The true main force, led by a Tier-7 wizard, was still locked in fierce combat.
“A civilization that high-tier wizards treat with such caution… its reputation is well-earned,” Jie Ming thought gravely.
This expedition’s difficulty far exceeded the norm.
No wonder such a massive force had been mobilized, with orders for “total destruction.”
“However, ‘total destruction’ also means high-tier wizards will care less about preserving spoils, increasing their frequency and intensity of intervention,” Jie Ming analyzed calmly. “If we can secure the planar barrier’s passage in the early stages, subsequent battles might become… relatively ‘easier’ with high-tier forces’ direct involvement.”
In the chaotic void, high-tier wizards were limited by the need to maintain law-stabilized domains, restricting their available power.
Once inside the plane, they could act more freely, significantly reducing the expedition army’s combat pressure.
He cast his gaze toward the distant, massive rift torn open by “Starbreaker” Balsa.
Balsa’s figure had vanished from its original position, evidently having entered the Giant Spirit Realm through the rift.
Yet, the energy fluctuations emanating from within suggested his situation was far from ideal.
Straining his vision, Jie Ming peered through the distorted energy currents and lingering spatial ripples, faintly discerning Balsa’s figure.
After breaking into the Giant Spirit Realm, Balsa hadn’t, as expected, unleashed a slaughter in the enemy ranks. Instead, he had taken a defensive stance.
Inside the Giant Spirit Realm, free from the chaotic void’s interference, the enemy’s numerical advantage was even more pronounced.
As far as the eye could see, a true “sky-blotting” flood of steel surged forth!
Warships of varied forms, living metallic beasts, and indescribable giant constructs charged toward Balsa like a boiling metal ocean.
Energy beams, physical projectiles, and strange force fields…
Attacks rained like a storm upon the Tier-6 wizard’s position.
More alarmingly, amidst the dense enemy ranks were several auras no less formidable than Balsa’s—Tier-6 entities of the Giant Spirit Realm.
Even more terrifying, on the distant horizon, an overwhelming, vast pressure, resonating with the heavens themselves, approached at an astonishing speed!
A Tier-7 being!
The Giant Spirit Realm’s top-tier forces had been roused by the wizards’ commotion!
Balsa’s situation was precarious.
To prevent the planar barrier’s breach from rapidly healing, he had to anchor himself at the core of the thousand-kilometer rift.
To normal vision, Balsa’s sturdy frame seemed insignificant against the hundreds-of-kilometers-wide rift.
But in Jie Ming’s perception, though Balsa’s humanoid form was small, his presence was like a towering pillar, as if an invisible giant behind him forcibly held open the contracting barrier passage.
The problem was, this stance bound him like invisible shackles, limiting his mobility and forcing him to endure relentless attacks from all directions.
With a casual wave, his power effortlessly erased swathes of enemies, clearing vast areas.
But the next moment, more enemies fearlessly filled the gaps.
Some even launched suicidal attacks just to land a blow on him.
A swarm of ants can kill an elephant, especially when some “ants” could wound the “elephant.”
“What a bothersome lot!”
Balsa’s protective force field rippled violently. He let out an enraged roar, the soundwave shattering nearby low-tier units, yet his situation remained frustratingly passive.
He held his ground with difficulty, never retreating a step, blocking all attacks outside the rift to buy time for those behind.
At that moment, another Tier-6 wizard, having stabilized their regional law domain, teleported to the rift’s edge.
The planar barrier wasn’t a thin membrane but a boundary layer between the plane’s elemental sphere and the chaotic void, potentially spanning tens of thousands of kilometers, akin to a unique “elemental atmosphere.”
Tearing it open meant creating a temporary passage through this thick “atmosphere.”
This passage would constantly attempt to heal itself.
This explained Balsa’s predicament.
In just this short time, the edges of the once-thousand-kilometer rift had begun to blur, visibly shrinking.
Without Balsa’s immense power holding it open, the passage would likely have already closed.