novelraw Chapter 528: Ripples and Intelligence on the Trump Cards
Chapter 528: Ripples and Intelligence on the Trump Cards
Chapter 528: Ripples and Intelligence on the Trump Cards
Imaginary and Dark Raven remained silent for a moment before shifting the topic.
“Right, you mentioned encountering a seventh-ring wizard earlier. What happened?” Imaginary’s tone returned to its usual calm. “Weren’t the enemy’s seventh-ring wizards under constant surveillance by us?”
Dark Raven sighed. The black fluid at his severed limbs drooped listlessly as well.
“The one I ran into was one of those not under surveillance.”
Imaginary’s gaze sharpened instantly.
“You mean… those who vanished at the start of the war and have been quietly setting up their trump cards?” His speech quickened. “Wait, your defensive sector should be deep in our rear, right? Don’t tell me…”
Dark Raven nodded, then shook his head.
“It was indeed those people,” he said. “But I was lucky—I only ran into one. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have made it back alive.”
“One person…”
Imaginary lowered his eyelids, his index finger unconsciously tapping against his sleeve.
Moments later, he raised his eyes. A flash of understanding appeared in his dark red pupils.
“So that’s how it is.”
Dark Raven grinned at the sight.
“Other people who heard this intelligence reached the same conclusion as you.” He paused. “It’s actually not hard to guess. The Noren Workshop only has so many trump card technologies. Now that they’ve spread their personnel out, what they’re trying to set up is already obvious.”
Imaginary nodded.
“Then our own arrangements have probably been exposed as well.”
According to intelligence, among the seventh-ring wizards who had gone missing from the Noren Workshop, at least two specialized in soul studies.
For soul-type wizards of that level to roam freely in the enemy’s rear, it would be self-deception to think they couldn’t locate the positions where this side was setting up its own trump cards.
Dark Raven shrugged. The movement caused the black fluid on his mangled shoulder to wriggle.
“If it’s exposed, then so be it. We’re still a bit short on prepared quantity, but if we have to pull it out and use it now, it should be enough.” His tone was relaxed, carrying the composure of a veteran. “Trump cards are like that—revealing them early doesn’t mean they become useless.”
Imaginary nodded and did not pursue the topic further.
He glanced at Dark Raven’s slowly regenerating severed limbs and said shortly, “Recover well,” before turning and walking out of the treatment room. He needed to visit the command center.
At the very least, he had to record the spiritual fluctuation characteristics of Jie Ming that he had analyzed during the earlier battle into the camp’s enemy intelligence database.
Then ensure that every fifth-ring youngster still active outside received a copy.
So they could… avoid that monster as much as possible.
After watching Imaginary’s back disappear behind the automatic door, Dark Raven lay back down in the treatment pod.
Only after the pod lid had fully closed did the long-maintained silence in the treatment room finally break with a suppressed gasp of cold air.
The other fifth-ring wizards inside exchanged glances, each seeing the shock reflected in the other’s eyes.
The exchange between Imaginary and Dark Raven had revealed a lot of intelligence. The later parts concerned matters for the higher-ups and had nothing to do with them.
But the earlier part…
The first to speak was a fifth-ring wizard near the door.
He lay in a semi-enclosed treatment pod, half his body wrapped in regenerative gel, but the eye that was exposed was wider than a copper bell.
“Did I hear that right…” His voice was hoarse, carrying the daze of someone struck by lightning. “Lord Imaginary… was beaten into a nutrient pod by a fifth-ring wizard?”
From the adjacent treatment pod, a head wrapped in bandages poked out, voice urgent:
“He said ‘defeated.’ Defeated! Not ‘escaped from his hands,’ not ‘stalled for time’! It was a direct defeat!”
“That fifth-ring… is the one who took down Annihilation Hand?”
“Who else could it be!”
“My god…”
Similar low murmurs spread through the treatment room like a plague.
The fifth-ring wounded who had previously kept silent out of fear of the higher-rank wizards present could no longer suppress the shock in their hearts. They exchanged all kinds of looks with their familiar colleagues nearby.
Those looks contained fear, disbelief, and an indescribable complexity.
They were fifth-ring wizards.
They knew all too well what a sixth-ring Title Wizard represented.
Those were existences they needed to look up to, needed to team up to besiege, and needed to pray they would never encounter.
Yet now, someone was telling them that a wizard of the same fifth ring had consecutively defeated two such existences.
Not stalling, not escaping for their lives.
Defeated.
It was like dropping a bomb into a still pond, sending massive ripples surging outward.
“The Noren Workshop… actually has such a monster…”
Someone muttered in a low voice.
No one refuted it.
Because that was the most accurate description—a monster.
Some could no longer hold back and took out their magic net terminals, impatiently sharing the news with their companions.
Thus, the ripples rapidly spread.
From the treatment room to the camp corridors.
From the fifth-ring wounded to their visiting colleagues.
From the logistics wizards responsible for recording battle losses to the combat personnel about to rotate to the front lines.
The news that “the Noren Workshop has a fifth-ring wizard who consecutively defeated two of our Title sixth-ring wizards” swept through the lower-rank wizards of the Tower of Annihilation like a silent gale.
Accompanying it was an indescribable subtle shift in mentality.
It was a complex emotion mixing fear, vigilance, and a trace of admiration that even they themselves were unwilling to admit.
At this moment, at the center of this storm, the young man referred to as a “monster”
was racing at full speed through a distant stretch of void far from the battlefield, together with his companions, heading toward the camp.
The moment Jie Ming and Black’s figures passed through the camp’s outer defensive barrier, their personal terminals vibrated simultaneously.
Jie Ming glanced down. It was a communication request from Viola.
“You go rest first,” he said shortly to Black.
The latter nodded in understanding. His figure quickly merged into the camp’s shadows and slipped toward the exclusive rest area for soul-type wizards.
Jie Ming changed direction, walking briskly along the camp’s main avenue straight toward the central command center.
Outside the command center, that familiar silver-gray figure was already waiting at the door.
Viola leaned lazily against the metal pillar beside the entrance, arms crossed over her chest. Her silver-gray eyes narrowed slightly the instant she saw Jie Ming, the corners of her mouth curving into a half-smile.
That gaze swept over him from head to toe and back again several times, as if appraising some rare object.
“Tsk.” She finally let out a soft, meaningful click of her tongue. “You made it back alive, junior.”
Jie Ming walked closer. He had long grown immune to her sarcastic greetings and simply nodded. “Luck was on my side.”
“Luck?” Viola raised an eyebrow. “Beating back another sixth-ring wizard—you call that luck?”
Jie Ming’s steps paused as he looked at her.
Viola waved her hand. “Don’t look at me like that. Black submitted the battle intelligence after he returned. Although he didn’t include the specific process, the record of ‘encountered a sixth-ring wizard and successfully withdrew’ was already enough to shock me.”
Jie Ming did not linger on the topic. Instead, he asked, “You said there was an emergency?”
“Let’s talk inside.” Viola turned and pushed open the side door of the command center, motioning for Jie Ming to follow. “But there’s still a meeting going on inside, so we’ll have to wait a bit.”
The two stopped in the corridor outside the side door. Viola leaned against the wall while Jie Ming stood opposite her.
“Let me tell you some big news,” Viola lowered her voice, though the excitement she couldn’t suppress betrayed her. “The enemy’s trump cards… have been found.”
Jie Ming’s pupils contracted slightly. “Found? Both the Chaos Secret Cult’s and the Tower of Annihilation’s?”
“Yes, both of them,” Viola nodded. “During the time you were out on your mission, the Workshop’s two seventh-ring soul-type wizards made their move. Using all the intelligence collected by the frontline reconnaissance teams, they performed full-domain deductions, eliminated all low-probability zones, then personally infiltrated and verified the few highest-probability coordinates one by one.”
“And then… they found them?”
“And then, they found them.” Viola spread her hands. “Precision guidance, direct hit. Gotta say, when it comes to finding things, those old soul-type bastards really are professionals.”
A surge of indescribable excitement rose in Jie Ming’s heart.
What did this mean?
It meant they could destroy the enemy’s war trump cards in advance. It meant the Noren Workshop might gain a decisive advantage in this war!
“That’s fantastic!” he blurted out. “Since they’ve been found, why not destroy them immediately?”
Yet Viola’s expression was not as delighted as he had imagined.
She shook her head, a trace of helplessness flashing in her silver-gray eyes.
“That’s the problem—we found them, but we can’t stop them.”
Jie Ming was stunned.
“What do you mean?” He frowned. “We discovered the enemy’s trump cards but can’t stop them? Is it because we don’t have enough forces? Or are they too heavily guarded?”
“Neither.” Viola sighed. “You’ll understand the specific reasons once you see the intelligence later. Saying it now might not feel real to you. Better to see it with your own eyes.”
Jie Ming wanted to press further, but Viola raised a hand to stop him, her gaze turning toward the tightly closed metal door at the end of the corridor.
“The meeting is almost over.”
Sure enough, not long after, the command center’s metal door opened from inside.
One seventh-ring wizard after another filed out.
Their expressions varied—some with tightly furrowed brows, some with grave faces, others lost in thought.
Every one of them glanced at Jie Ming as they passed by—those gazes containing scrutiny, curiosity, and an indescribable complexity.
Jie Ming felt a bit uncomfortable under the stares but maintained a calm expression on his face.
Until finally, Mentor Clark’s gray figure appeared at the doorway.
His gaze bypassed Viola and landed directly on Jie Ming. Something seemed to flicker faintly in those ancient, rippleless eyes.
“Come in.” Clark spoke concisely, stepping aside to open the way.
Viola shot Jie Ming a “let’s go” look. The two of them entered the command center one after the other.