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

Chapter 469 The Curse and the First Round of Showdown

On the ground, Jemin shook his head.

This action was more of an instinct.

With his current physical condition, even if he were to fall freely from a height of 10,000 meters without any protection and crash into this desolate land, he would at most stir up a circle of dust, without even scratching his skin.

Moreover, only the innermost layer of the Guixu Armor was destroyed in that instant.

Although the seven outer shields were damaged by the powerful elemental turbulence structure, they had already repaired themselves to a great extent before he hit the ground, cushioning the impact to a negligible degree.

He stood up, his grey wizard robes stained with a few specks of greyish-white dust, which stood out starkly in the dim light.

Jemin's first reaction was to look around warily.

There were no signs of enemies within sight, but many wizards from Norren Workshop in the sky saw Jemin's condition and quickly descended while remaining on guard.

But it was clear from their actions that they had not found any trace of the enemy.

Moreover, not only were there traces of the enemy, but even the residual energy fluctuations were so faint as to be almost imperceptible—except for the nauseating lingering malice in the air, which smelled like rotting entrails mixed with rust.

It looks like it wasn't the enemy who attacked directly.

Jemin frowned, his consciousness sinking into his body.

The protective force that erupted at the last moment...

Without a doubt, it is the Xuan Gang Red Dust Barrier.

Jemin quickly reviewed the situation.

The Mysterious Red Dust Barrier targets various curses, prophecies, mental interference, and illusions.

Of the seven layers of protection, the "True Vision" rune array, specifically designed to counter illusions, did not trigger.

Predictive attacks typically do not cause this kind of direct damage.

The Guixu Armor did indeed take effect—before it shattered, it clearly absorbed some kind of high-intensity energy impact.

Therefore, there is only one answer left.

"curse."

Moreover, it is a powerful curse with enough force to instantly shatter the Guixu Armor.

"It seems I'm being targeted... no, it should be that all the geniuses in the Norren Workshop are being targeted!"

Jemin raised his head and looked up at the sky.

Just as he expected, specks of light kept falling from the sky beneath the leaden gray canopy of this desolate plane.

Some wizards turned into ashes during their fall and were scattered by the wind; others twisted and swelled up like sacs filled with too much gas, bursting open in mid-air with a "bang," their flesh and blood fragments raining down; still others let out a shrill scream, the sound of their souls being torn apart, lasting for several seconds before abruptly stopping.

But most of the wizards managed to regain their footing.

They either erupted with dazzling light, or appeared with dense protective runes, or directly unleashed some kind of black hole domain that devoured all energy—each displaying their unique abilities, they managed to withstand the sneak attack of the curse.

Jemin carefully observed the wizards who had been shot down.

Without exception, judging from the characteristics of their remaining energy, the strength of their mental power before the fall, and the quality of the magical artifacts they wore, these people were all among the best of their level as wizards.

"Targeted hunting of geniuses, huh..." He smirked.

A classic tactic.

In the early stages of the war, use a one-time, high-cost curse to prioritize eliminating the most promising young wizards in the opposing camp, thus weakening the enemy's future growth potential.

And he himself was clearly on the list of those worth killing with a curse.

Thinking of this, Jieming subconsciously sensed the depletion inside the Xuan Gang Red Dust Barrier and couldn't help but grin.

half!
Half of the incense's poison and malevolent energy was consumed in that instant.

You should know that he specifically upgraded the Xuan Gang Red Dust Barrier for this war.

Not to mention the high-quality deathly aura and mortal aura, all the flower god evil spirits and the incense poison gathered by billions of black giants that have been collected over the years have been added in.

Now, the existing stock has been cut in half.

The fact that the Void Armor was pierced through in an instant means a terrifying truth: the one who cast the curse on him was probably a level seven wizard!
"Looking at the energy released by the other unlucky guys, it's at most the work of a level six wizard. How come it's a level seven wizard when it comes to me? They're taking me too seriously!" Jemin felt a pain in his teeth.

As he stood up from the ground, he once again used the Return to Nothingness Armor to protect himself.

"but……"

The expression on Jemin's face gradually changed from pain to an almost cruel smile.

The Mysterious Red Dust Barrier is a counter-attack type treasure.

That half of the poison and evil energy didn't just disappear into thin air.

While blocking the curse, they had already flowed back into the depths of the caster's soul along that invisible curse connection.

"I'll take this dose anyway, hoping something bad will happen to the other person."

Even if the opponent is at level seven, taking this reverse strike head-on would leave them severely injured, if not dead. In the best-case scenario, their soul would be damaged, their combat power would plummet, and they would essentially fall into the "no longer a threat" category in the ensuing battle.

If you're lucky, the opponent who's level 7 might just be gone.

He was ambushed as soon as he entered the arena, but he quickly used a protective artifact to take down one of the opponent's level seven wizards...

"Profitable."

Jemin dusted off his robe, and his mood inexplicably improved.

Dozens of kilometers away, high in the sky.

Mentor Clark stood in mid-air, his black robes remaining perfectly still amidst the chaotic elemental currents.

As Jemin lost control and plummeted to the ground, a faint, almost invisible silvery-white light slowly dissipated from the palm of his right hand.

That was the lingering effect of witchcraft involving "fate intervention".

The moment Jemin was cursed, he had already prepared three different intervention plans.

But in the end, he did not make a move.

Because that kid took it all on his own.

Clark's indifferent face showed a very subtle upward curve at the corner of his mouth, which then returned to normal.

Almost simultaneously, a mental fluctuation came from above, carrying obvious surprise and admiration:

"Impressive, junior brother!"

The messenger was Dionysius Spencer.

He was wearing a silver-blue robe and was currently hovering higher up, his hands forming a complex mudra.

A semi-transparent light screen with a diameter of over ten meters unfolded before them, with tens of thousands of data streams flowing across it.

For a level seven wizard, a distance of tens of kilometers is no different than being face-to-face.

"I didn't expect your disciple to have such a trick up his sleeve." Dionysius's mental fluctuations were tinged with amusement. "The strength of that curse just now had already touched the threshold of the mid-stage of the seventh level. If it were an ordinary fifth-level wizard, even with a high-level magical artifact specifically designed to protect against curses, they would be seriously injured and fall to the ground. But your disciple is amazing; not only did he withstand it, but it seems he didn't even suffer a minor injury?"

Clark didn't look up, his gaze calmly sweeping across the battlefield below, but the mental fluctuations he transmitted carried an unusual hint of barely suppressed, almost boastful, smugness:
"It's alright. This kid's strength is quite solid, but just like his senior sister, he always likes to rush to advance without being fully prepared."

"Ha!" Dionysius laughed. "Anyway, it doesn't seem to have affected his combat power, so advancing faster won't make a difference."

At this moment, another mental fluctuation interrupted, coming from a sixth-tier female wizard clad in dark green armor entwined with vines, her tone filled with obvious envy:
"Lord Clark, your apprentice's skill level is truly astounding... That protective treasure, was it crafted using divine techniques? I detected fluctuations of high-purity faith power in the energy characteristics during the counterattack just now."

Clark neither confirmed nor denied, but simply changed the subject:
"What are the battle results?"

The topic returned to the main point, and the mental states of all the high-ranking wizards instantly became serious.

A level six wizard had just cast a curse resistance spell, blocking an attack for a targeted genius. After calculating the result, he quickly reported back:
"Our first round of curse attacks released a total of 3,742 curses, all targeting the detected enemy 'high-potential seeds'. Hit rate... 89.3%."

A rather astonishing number.

This means that in those few short seconds, more than three thousand young genius wizards from the Chaos Cult and the Tower of Annihilation were fatally cursed.

"What about the enemy's interception situation?" Clark asked.

“The interception efficiency at the Tower of Annihilation is relatively low.” Another level seven wizard chimed in, his voice tinged with pride. “Their curse protection technology focuses on materialization and energy deflection, which is insufficient against our new type of curse that combines soul attacks and conceptual anchoring. According to feedback, they only intercepted about 20%, and the remaining 80% of targets… were either killed or maimed.”

"What about the Chaos Cult?"

“It’s a bit troublesome.” This time, it was a sixth-tier wizard skilled in prophecy and counter-prophecy who spoke, his tone somewhat grave. “They seem to have made targeted preparations in advance, and it appears that a seventh-tier wizard presided over the release of a ‘cause-and-effect confusion’ type of witchcraft. Nearly half of our curses were misled or weakened in power, and only about half of them actually killed or severely injured the target.”

On the light screen, the data continued to scroll.

High-ranking wizards from various regions sent in real-time battle reports:
"Seventh team, 60% clearance completed."

"Team Eleven, the enemy has two level seven wizards who set up a group purification barrier in advance, but they have only completed 40% of it."

"The third team... we couldn't stop them all, and the casualties were quite heavy... I'm sorry."

"Ninth team, perfect execution, all twelve enemy targets annihilated."

Information is quickly summarized.

Ultimately, Dionysius gave a preliminary assessment:

"Overall, we used curses to kill about 50% of the enemy's high-potential seeds in this round. As for the similar curse attacks launched by the enemy against us... according to monitoring, we intercepted about 50% of them."

It's 50/50.

On the surface, it seems like a draw.

However, considering the difference in the total number of participants on both sides, using the same exchange ratio, Norren Workshop actually made a small profit.

With fewer troops, they exchanged an equal number of high-value targets from the enemy.

Although it was somewhat cruel, it could indeed be considered a slight tactical advantage.

(End of this chapter)