novelraw Chapter 413: Plan
Chapter 413: Plan
The opening of the fourth loop could be described as perfect.
With near-prophetic precision provided by Jie Ming’s intelligence, the first encounter battle concluded within a single hour.
At negligible cost, the wizard legion completely annihilated the Sickle-Skull’s meticulously prepared interception force, even turning the tables to destroy three of their key earth-vein teleportation nodes.
Throughout, Jie Ming remained in the secure zone designated by Commander Frost.
He did not participate in direct combat. Instead, he raced against time to sink his mental power into the Inner Cave Heaven, rapidly reviewing the vast records left behind by his previous-loop self.
Timelines of war progression, patterns in Sickle-Skull main force movements, countermeasures against new tactics, characteristics and weaknesses of various variants…
And more critically, preliminary research summaries on the synchronization between “time ripples” and metamorphic development.
A flood of information surged into his consciousness, only to be methodically sorted and digested by Jie Ming’s powerful mental strength.
By the time the order signaling the end of battle spread across the entire army, Jie Ming had already gained a clear understanding of the full scope of the previous loop’s two-month war.
He went straight to Frost and, without hesitation, transferred every recording crystal representing the most important intelligence and research achievements from the previous loop. A vast quantity of crystals soon formed a small mountain inside the command headquarters.
A seventh-tier wizard’s information-processing speed was astonishing.
Frost did not read them one by one. Instead, he performed a high-speed mental scan, extracting key information.
As runes flickered, the contents of tens of thousands of crystals flashed through his consciousness like streams of light.
In merely a quarter of an hour, the mountain of crystals had been swiftly “browsed.”
“…Issue command: All combat units adjust deployment according to ‘Intelligence Packages 1-7 through 1-12.’ Research sequence task priority elevated to ‘war-critical.’” Frost first transmitted clear instructions through the Netherweb.
But he did not permit Jie Ming to leave.
The commander stood in place, gazing at the battlefield being cleared in the distance. His fingers unconsciously tapped against the staff at his waist as he fell into thought.
After a moment, he turned to Jie Ming, his voice steady yet carrying a trace of inquiry:
“In the previous loop, according to timestamps in the records, once we gained intelligence superiority, we crushed the Sickle-Skull resistance in less than two months, pushing their civilization to the brink of collapse?”
“Yes, Commander. That is accurate according to the records,” Jie Ming confirmed with a nod.
“I just noticed…” Frost’s gaze sharpened. “Many lines of research—especially the core studies on their deep binding to the time loop—had only just begun. They were far from complete. Many critical experiments were interrupted because the war ended ‘too early,’ resulting in sample loss and incomplete data.”
Jie Ming already understood what he was driving at and nodded. “You’re right. Once the war entered the mopping-up phase, research focus was forcibly shifted.”
“Therefore,” Frost made his decision, “in this loop, we change the tempo. Slow the frontal offensive. Extend the duration of the war as much as possible.”
“We will not rush to destroy them. Instead, we will create a sustained, controllable high-pressure situation. The goal is to force continuous reactions from them, exposing more information, while securing the maximum time and richest samples for our own research.”
Jie Ming asked from the side, “You intend to use the war itself as a pressure source for experimentation—observing their developmental changes, social structural adjustments, and… their interactions with the loop mechanism under prolonged high pressure?”
“Precisely.” Frost nodded. “The recording crystals you provide are our dashboard for controlling the pace of this ‘experiment.’ At every critical node, we must apply exactly the right amount of pressure or relaxation, keeping this pot of war at a constant near-boil.”
Frost’s gaze burned as he looked at Jie Ming. “I hope your storage space is sufficiently vast!”
“Please rest assured, my lord.” Jie Ming bowed slightly. “My space is more than adequate.”
“Good!”
The fundamental shift in strategic direction immediately manifested in the war situation over the following months.
The wizard legion remained overwhelmingly powerful, its offensives still sharp—but it no longer pursued total, lightning-fast destruction.
The initiative remained firmly in the wizards’ hands. With detailed intelligence support, every engagement felt like fighting with a full battlefield map; no large-scale Sickle-Skull movement could escape monitoring.
Relying on precise intelligence, the wizards continuously raided various Sickle-Skull resource sites and gathering places, securing massive quantities of living samples.
As more living specimens—especially individuals at different developmental stages—were continuously delivered to rear laboratories, research progress surged forward.
Even more crucially, because most combat-oriented targeted witchcraft and technologies had already been largely developed in the previous loop, far more logistics-system wizards were freed from weapon development this time.
A large number of logistics wizards devoted themselves fully to deep research into the fundamental nature of Sickle-Skull civilization, its social structure, and especially its relationship with the time loop.
The concentration of research power produced qualitative change.
In just a few months, breakthroughs were achieved in deciphering the Sickle-Skull pheromone language.
Preliminary maps of their social hierarchy and division of labor were drawn. Several prototype predictive models for the “time ripple” were even established.
To obtain the highest-tier samples, Frost personally took action.
In a meticulously planned bait operation, he successfully captured two eighth-tier Sickle-Skull leaders alive.
When these two terrifyingly oppressive giants—whose carapaces were naturally engraved with complex rune patterns—were sealed layer upon layer and transported to the highest-security laboratory in the research center, every wizard involved in related studies was electrified.
Jie Ming participated in the initial examination at once. The energy fluctuations and genetic information extracted from their bodies might directly reveal the degree of “memory” retention in high-tier Sickle-Skull during loops.
However, it was not long before the wizards’ deliberately crafted “slowly boiling the frog” war situation finally aroused the highest vigilance among the Sickle-Skull leadership.
Time passed quietly. A full year went by.
The wizards immersed themselves in ever-deeper research, with paradigm-shifting discoveries emerging one after another.
The war situation appeared calm on the surface, yet undercurrents surged violently.
Until this day.
A piercing global alarm sounded without warning across the entire wizard camp, its deafening buzz and flashing scarlet runes penetrating even the deepest underground laboratories.
Jie Ming had just peeled a fragment containing time-law shards from the carapace of an eighth-tier Sickle-Skull sample and was preparing for in-depth analysis.
The instant the alarm rang, his heart sank heavily.
The Netherweb Terminal automatically displayed the highest-priority emergency report. The blood-red text was shocking:
【Enemy Situation Bulletin: Remaining Sickle-Skull main force has mobilized in full. Concentration completed in the forward monitoring zone one day ago. Confirmed presence of three eighth-tier life signatures. Total estimated force approaches trillion-scale, in full assault formation. Vanguard has already breached the seventh and ninth buffer zones. Current distance to main camp defensive line: less than one thousand kilometers. Assessment: civilization-survival total offensive.】
A force approaching one trillion!
Three eighth-tier leaders personally commanding!
A distance of less than one thousand kilometers—for an army of this scale of high-energy transcendent beings—was practically face-to-face.
After a year of silence, the enemy had somehow gathered such terrifying power and chosen the most desperate form of counterattack.