I, a cultivator, have ended up in the wizarding world.

Chapter 460 News
Ten years later.

Stepping out of the spatial folding test field specifically for testing the [Tai Xu Step], Jemin took the data light screen handed to him by the black giant priest and quickly scanned the densely packed test parameters on it.

Maximum movement speed, energy consumption curve, shielding rate against various detection methods in stealth mode, environmental adaptability data...

Statistical data shows that the modified Taixu Step has met or even slightly exceeded all the expected indicators.

“Not bad.” Jemin nodded, a satisfied look on his face.

Compared to the complex transformation process of [Gui Xu Jia], which involves the absorption of a large amount of conceptual knowledge, the transformation of [Yin Yang Tracing Technique] and [Tai Xu Step] is much "simple".

The former focuses more on information capture and trace analysis, which happens to be the wizard's forte, so it is easy to modify.

The latter focuses on spatial phase switching, energy synchronization, and optimization of stealth algorithms.

As it happened, Jieming was quite outstanding in spatial knowledge and energy switching knowledge, so he didn't spend too much effort modifying the Taixu Step.

With the rich experience gained from modifying the Guixu Armor, coupled with his increasingly profound understanding of the laws of spiritual energy and the wizard rune system, Jemin became more and more adept at subsequent modification work.

In just ten years, these two unique spells were successfully transformed from the cultivation system into a new type of composite spell model that can be driven by wizard energy and has been enhanced in performance.

At this point, the attackers possess the "Extinction of Fire Divine Light," the defenders have the "Return to the Void Armor," the scouts have the "Cause and Effect Tracing Mirror," and the traversers have the "Great Void Step."

A basic system covering the main dimensions of combat has been initially established.

Jemin estimated the time in his mind.

“There are still less than fifty years left until the eighty-year war deadline that Mentor Clark mentioned.” He pondered, “There is still plenty of time. After the Xuan Gang Red Dust Barrier is upgraded, I may be able to research one or two more auxiliary or targeted spells or magical artifacts to further enrich my methods.”

With that in mind, he returned to the core laboratory and turned on the Magic Network terminal.

This time, his search keywords were related to "power of faith," "essence of willpower," "aggregate of mental distractions," and "conceptual pollution."

To safely utilize that "incense poison" to upgrade the Xuan Gang Red Dust Barrier, relying solely on the records of incense and divine ways in the Great Dao Book Pavilion and the foundation of previous research on the divine power belief network is still somewhat insufficient.

He needs a more comprehensive and cutting-edge understanding of the broad concept of "power of faith" within the wizarding world's cognitive system and current research status.

To his surprise, the prices of information on the Magic Network terminal, including theoretical research, characteristic analysis, and historical application cases of "the power of faith," were unexpectedly affordable.

Jemin was prepared to spend high-level military merits, but he discovered that most of the relevant knowledge could be purchased with low-level military merits.

Of course, this "approachable" is relative.

Those in-depth research reports, which involve experimental data for advanced applications and analytical models of certain special belief phenomena, are still quite expensive, often costing tens or even hundreds of millions of low-level military merits.

But such a price is not a huge burden for Jemin now.

"It seems that in the mainstream understanding of wizarding civilization, although 'the power of faith' is an undeniable source of power, especially prominent in certain specific civilizations or systems, its research value and universality of application seem to be less valued than core areas such as laws, souls, and spacetime..." Jemin quickly analyzed while browsing the table of contents and introduction.

This isn't entirely a bad thing.

At least he can quickly build a knowledge framework about the power of faith at a relatively affordable cost, which is enough to support him in safely handling and applying the "poison of incense".

Given his prior knowledge of the divine power belief network, Jemin didn't need to buy a complete set of knowledge from the basics to advanced levels.

With a light tap of his finger, he began adding dozens of selected documents on the power of faith, covering different angles and levels, to his shopping cart, preparing to place a bulk order.

Just as he was carefully checking the last few paper abstracts on "the purification and dangerous properties of faith impurities", an urgent communication request suddenly popped up in the corner of the Magic Network terminal screen.

Requester: Viola.

A thought crossed Jemin's mind, and he immediately opened the communication.

Viola's face appeared on the screen. Her expression was serious, even solemn, unlike anything Jemin had seen in a long time. Her usual laziness or occasional mischievousness was completely gone.

“Jermin,” she said, cutting to the chase without any pleasantries, her voice low and serious, “the wartime has been set.”

Seeing her expression, Jieming knew the news was probably not good, and asked directly, "Earlier than expected?"

“Yes.” Viola nodded. “I just received confirmation that the final timeline set by the Star Ring Federation is… well ahead of our worst-case scenario.”

She paused for a moment, then uttered a specific number: "Twenty-five years later. Formal coordination of the war begins."

"Twenty-five years?!" Jemin couldn't help but frown.

This cut more than twenty years of preparation time in one fell swoop!

For wizards who plan and accumulate in units of hundreds or thousands of years, twenty years may not seem like a long time, but it is enough to disrupt many carefully planned schemes and rhythms.

For him, many research projects that were originally scheduled to be postponed, such as continuing to develop new spell modifications and optimizing the cannon fodder army, had to be shelved or significantly scaled back. He could only concentrate all resources to prioritize the final improvement of the core combat force.

Jemin's situation is considered relatively good.

You should know that wizards have all sorts of strange and wonderful methods.

Some wizards are not skilled in conventional combat magic or general technology, but rather in large-scale war weapons, special ecological legions, one-time strategic magic arrays, etc., which require long-term preparation, specific environment cultivation or temporary construction.

These methods are often extremely powerful or have remarkable effects in specific areas, but they have a long preparation period and lack flexibility.

The sudden acceleration of the war's start time undoubtedly dealt the greatest blow to this group of wizards.

Ironically, these "powerful" or "specialized" wizards often play a crucial role in decisive battles or turning the tide of battle on the front lines or in specific tactical phases.

The fact that the Star Ring Federation finally settled on this obviously early date was by no means unfounded.

This means that in the previous game, the Tower of Annihilation and the Chaos Cult had exerted greater pressure.

The fact that the other side made this choice indicates that their war preparation cycle is shorter and they are more inclined to engage in a decisive battle at an earlier stage.

This indirectly confirms that the enemy began targeted preparations for war earlier than the Norren Workshop.

"Has the war zone been determined?" Jemin suppressed his thoughts and asked another crucial question.

“It’s confirmed.” Viola’s expression didn’t relax at the answer to the question; instead, it became even more serious. “The battlefield designated by the Star Ring Federation is a super-large abandoned plane that they provided and which has been specially modified.”

Upon hearing the description of "a super-large abandoned dimension," Jemin immediately understood why Viola's expression was so grim.

Super-large planes are rich in resources and their laws are relatively stable and complete, so they are rarely completely "abandoned".

Once something is labeled "abandoned," it usually means that its core resources have long been depleted.

The environment may be extremely harsh or unstable, and may even have experienced some kind of catastrophic trauma.

And it was "provided" and "modified" by the Star Ring Federation, with a special emphasis on being "super-large"...

It is almost certain that this battlefield is a special product created by the Federation using technology to forcibly piece together and solidify fragments or debris from multiple abandoned planes.

Its purpose is clear—to provide a sufficiently large arena to accommodate high-level wizard battles, while minimizing the possibility for both sides to "utilize battlefield resources".

On such a battlefield, conventional battlefield techniques such as quickly deploying troops using local resources, catalyzing the formation of local organisms to provide assistance, and drawing energy from other planes to replenish resources will be greatly diminished.

The competition between the two sides will be more about their own resource reserves, immediate combat power, and tactical execution in head-on confrontations.

This is clearly not a favorable condition for the Norren Workshop.

Although Norren Workshop boasts the largest number of wizards among the three major wizarding forces, it would still be at a disadvantage if it were to face the other two wizarding forces at once.

Apart from the level eight wizards whose combat strength is barely on par, the remaining combat strengths of the same level are generally at a disadvantage in terms of numbers.

"A head-on war of attrition... is certainly not good news." Jemin frowned even more deeply.

This means that the devastation and resource consumption of the war may far exceed initial estimates.

“That’s the situation.” Viola’s voice was tinged with weariness, but her eyes remained sharp. “My mentor told me to inform you to prepare. The top priority is to enhance immediate combat capabilities and ensure survival.”

“I understand,” Jemin replied in a deep voice.

The communication ended, and the light screen went dark.

The laboratory fell silent for a moment.

Jemin stood there, staring at the unfinished Faith Power knowledge purchase interface on the terminal screen, his eyes flickering.

The sense of urgency and anxiety that followed the news was quickly calmed by Jemin.

Now that things have come to this, there's no point in being anxious.

Only by making the most of these last twenty-five years can we arm ourselves to the teeth.

"Fortunately, the core spell modifications are complete." He pinched the bridge of his nose, his gaze returning to calm and focus. "The basic combat system is complete. Although the overall combat power will be much lower than initially expected, the real-time combat power won't be too much worse. However... the upgrade of the Xuan Gang Red Dust Barrier needs to be put on the agenda immediately."

Without further hesitation, he quickly tapped his fingers on the screen, confirming and paying for all the knowledge about the power of faith that he had just filtered out.

(End of this chapter)