novelraw Chapter 408: Information from Myself
Chapter 408: Information from Myself
Jie Ming sat cross-legged on the base of a collapsed rune turret, eyes half-closed, his consciousness fully immersed in his Inner Cave Heaven.
Time was pressing.
The next battle could erupt at any moment. With the vast intelligence gap between enemy and ally, it was bound to be another brutal fight.
The metal plaque marked “2” lay quietly on the ground.
It was clear that in the first loop, he hadn’t been certain whether his Cave Heaven would be affected, so he’d simply hung a marker as a precaution.
By the second loop, he had realized the truth and begun consciously collecting intelligence.
Jie Ming’s attention was drawn to the pile of recording crystals beside it.
He needed to review this information as quickly as possible.
Because the enemy’s next offensive… could come at any second.
And this time, he had to stay one step ahead. “So these messages are the key.”
Jie Ming looked at the pile of crystals behind the plaque marked “2.”
A rough count showed more than thirty, each emitting faint mental fluctuations—his own soul imprints, serving as both authentication and access keys.
He picked up the nearest one and sent his divine sense into it.
Images began to flow.
What appeared was not visual footage, but a direct infusion of “memory playback” into his consciousness:
Underground.
Dim, damp, a labyrinth of nest tunnels.
Jie Ming—or rather, his previous self—led a squad of twenty wizards in a rapid penetration.
Low-tier Sickle-Skull crawled over the surrounding walls like a tide, but the squad cleared them with ease.
Suddenly, the ground trembled.
Not from above, but from deep below.
The nest floor cracked open. Blazing streams of energy erupted from the fissures.
Then, one after another, figures “rose” from the cracks, emerging directly into three-dimensional space as though surfacing from water.
These figures were completely different from ordinary Sickle-Skull: dark golden carapaces, far more intricate patterns, larger in size, all radiating auras of fourth-tier or above.
“Imperial Guard Insects.” His voice in the memory was low and grim. “Damn it, this is a trap. Their main force wasn’t on the front line at all…”
He switched to another crystal.
Another memory: the edge of some battlefield, himself scanning the earth veins with a detection witchcraft.
The instrument screen was densely packed with light points representing Sickle-Skull numbers, like a starry sky.
“These creatures’ movement patterns are strange. At this stage they seem to be deliberately attempting guerrilla tactics.” Another wizard’s voice came from the side.
His previous self nodded. “Strange. If the time reversal condition is the total population dropping below a certain threshold, or deaths exceeding a certain proportion, they should be fighting us desperately—at the very least to gather more intelligence.”
“…Unless the loop also carries a cost for them.”
“Or… they’re afraid of something else.”
Jie Ming opened his eyes, quickly set the crystal aside, and picked up the next one.
This crystal recorded the discovery of a suspected “reincarnation device.”
In the memory, guided by intelligence from previous loops, he had locked onto an anomalous energy point deep underground.
Probing results showed an abnormally high concentration of time-law fluctuations there—clearly an artificial construct.
The squad decided to raid it.
And then… walked straight into a trap.
It wasn’t a device, but a carefully designed “decoy node.”
Once the squad penetrated deep enough, the node detonated—not with an explosion, but with a violent spacetime turbulence.
Three wizards were instantly torn apart by the chaotic time flows—their “existence time” randomized. Parts of their bodies aged to dust, while other parts regressed into embryonic cells.
He had barely survived thanks to the adaptive evolution of his body forging technique, but even now his right arm’s time flow had never fully normalized.
In the memory, he could feel that arm alternating between fast and slow, like an unstable pendulum.
“So the location of the reincarnation device is still unknown,” Jie Ming murmured.
He continued browsing.
Most of the following crystals contained tactical details: characteristics of various Sickle-Skull variant units, terrain information for specific areas, records of allied wizard combat processes and enemy responses…
Until he reached the third-to-last crystal.
The moment he read it, Jie Ming’s breathing caught.
This memory… was a near-death experience.
In the footage, his squad was exploring an abandoned Sickle-Skull structure.
The building had a bizarre style, resembling some kind of temple, its walls covered in indecipherable symbols.
Suddenly, without any warning, an eighth-tier Sickle-Skull appeared.
The monster materialized directly inside the structure, as though it had always been hidden there.
The terrifying pressure instantly incapacitated all wizards below fourth-tier. Fifth-tier wizards barely held on.
The squad’s only sixth-tier wizard, “Iron Wall,” roared and stepped forward. Thick law patterns lit up across his body as he raised a turtle-shell-shaped energy shield with both hands.
Then the eighth-tier Sickle-Skull merely lifted one forelimb and tapped lightly.
The shield shattered.
A transparent hole appeared in Iron Wall’s chest. He could look down and see straight through to the scenery behind him.
But he did not die immediately. With his last strength, he detonated all the energy reserves in his body.
The self-destruct shock briefly disrupted the eighth-tier being’s lock-on, granting the others less than a second to escape.
In the memory, his previous self activated the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror without hesitation.
Light transformation.
His body decomposed into countless particles of light, fleeing outward at the speed of light.
But the instant light transformation began, dozens of energy fields suddenly lit up around the perimeter of the building.
These fields precisely blocked his escape routes in light form.
Each field had different properties: some disrupted energy flow, some twisted spatial structure, some were specialized against high-speed moving targets…
His light stream barely forced its way through the blockade, yet he could sense that the ambushing Sickle-Skull had clearly been stunned for a moment.
The final thought in the memory came through with perfect clarity:
“It seems I used light transformation to escape here in the previous loop as well. They saw it before… but didn’t understand it.”
Jie Ming’s eyes snapped open. Cold sweat had already soaked his back.
He lowered his head to look at his right hand.
It was intact now, but in that memory, this very arm had nearly collapsed during forced passage through the interference fields in light form, leaving permanent law damage.
Then he saw the “text message” attached to the final crystal.
“…The Sickle-Skull underground nests are traps. They use large numbers of low-tier individuals to draw fire. Their true main force—the ‘Imperial Guard Insects’—teleports directly from the earth veins, with grades generally fourth-tier and above…”
“…The trigger condition for time reversal is most likely the Sickle-Skull population count, but strangely, the Sickle-Skull themselves also seem to be avoiding crossing that threshold…”
“…High-concentration time-law fluctuations detected in regional subsurface energy sources, suspected artificial construct. Previously believed to be the insect swarm civilization’s ‘reincarnation device,’ but later confirmed as a trap…”
“Do not use the light transformation ability of the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror to escape. In the final moments of this loop, although I managed to escape with this ability, the enemy clearly reacted. They just didn’t understand the specific nature of light transformation, so it failed. If used again in the next loop, it’s very likely to be countered…”
“I’ve already exposed that my physical body is extremely strong, but the enemy should still be uncertain about the exact degree. Find a way to let the version of myself two loops from now know about this.”
Reading these messages, Jie Ming remained silent for a long time.