I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality Chapter 651: Analysis

Hovering about ten meters above the churning sea, Jie Ming found himself enveloped by a fog far thicker than any on land, as if the entire ocean had been confined within a giant steamer.

Visibility for a normal person would plummet to less than two meters in this environment, where the air was heavy with a saline, fishy scent mingled with a strangely nauseating, sweet rotten odor.

Jie Ming estimated he had journeyed roughly one hundred nautical miles southwest from Mist Capital's coastline.

The signal from his Micro-Light Eye was intensifying, indicating the shark monster was less than two nautical miles ahead and remained stationary.

He had harbored a faint hope that the creature might be heading towards a hidden base, rendezvous with allies, or at least find a secure hiding spot.

However, the Micro-Light Eye detected no other enemy Qi fluctuations in the vicinity.

Having confirmed his proximity to the Micro-Light Eye's location, Jie Ming reduced his speed, gliding silently through the dense mist. His Great Void Step minimized his presence, allowing the sea breeze to pass by without disturbance.

Soon, Jie Ming spotted his target. The monster floated on the water's surface, half its body exposed, swaying with the restless waves.

Its five-to-six-meter frame appeared diminished against the vast expanse of the gray-black sea.

Despite the intelligence gathered from the Micro-Light Eye, witnessing the monster's state firsthand brought a wave of disappointment.

Not only was it alone, but its body was visibly deteriorating. Patches of its scaled skin peeled away, exposing raw muscle tissue prone to ulceration and oozing pus.

Its dorsal fins were fractured, leaking a dark fluid that tainted the surrounding seawater a sickly brown.

The shark head remained, but its once-black eyes were now clouded, covered by a grayish-white membrane. The gums around its inwardly-curved teeth had blackened and atrophied, with several teeth loose and trembling with shallow breaths.

The distorted human face fused beside the shark head was now completely unrecognizable. Where vague features once existed, there were now only indistinct hollows and depressions, as if crushed by an unseen force.

Jie Ming hovered mere meters away, observing the grim scene. There was no question: this monster had been abandoned, left to its fate on the desolate ocean.

Its former handlers were clearly cautious, understanding the monster might be tracked after its exposure in battle and ruthlessly discarding it once its purpose was served.

After a moment of silent contemplation, Jie Ming descended. His feet touched the water's surface, creating a slight ripple that didn't even dampen his shoes.

Approaching the creature, he extended his right hand, fingers spread, and grasped a relatively intact scale on its shoulder.

Despite its imminent collapse, the monster reacted with surprising speed. Its body convulsed, and its clouded eyes suddenly focused on Jie Ming. The shark head opened its maw, emitting a guttural roar as its left arm swung ferociously, aiming for Jie Ming.

Jie Ming made no attempt to evade this final, desperate attack. His right hand, still gripping the scale, remained steady. He casually allowed the blow to land on his seemingly unprotected cheek.

A dull thud echoed. Even in its dying moments, the monster possessed astonishing strength; the force of that strike could have crushed a car. Yet, Jie Ming stood unmoving, his face showing no deformation, as if he had simply caught a falling leaf.

A flicker of bewilderment crossed the monster's dark eyes. It strained its arm, attempting to dislodge Jie Ming's hand, but his fingers were like steel claws, firmly embedded in its flesh.

Ignoring the monster's futile struggle, Jie Ming activated his All-Purpose Eye and the Fate Subsystem. Golden light emanated from his forehead, and cryptic runes illuminated his pupils.

The All-Purpose Eye pierced through the monster's skin, muscle, and bone, reaching its core structures. Jie Ming aimed to extract as much technical information as possible before the creature disintegrated completely.

Information flooded his mind like a deluge: sealing structures, fusion methods with 'The Strange,' traces of biological modification, energy transmission channels... Each layer was rapidly deconstructed and analyzed by the All-Purpose Eye.

Time continued to tick by.

The monster’s grotesque form continued to decay within Jie Ming’s hold, its scales flaking off by the minute.

Beneath the disintegrating skin, muscles turned to mush, releasing a dark fluid that dripped from Jie Ming’s fingers into the churning seawater below.

Its feeble struggles lessened, its ferocious roars softening into choked whimpers, which eventually faded into silence.

At last, Jie Ming released his grip and ascended into the air, leaving the rapidly collapsing carcass behind.

The creature was entirely devoid of life. In mere hours, it would decompose into its most fundamental elements, rejoining the energy cycle of this realm.

Jie Ming cast no further glance at the remains.

Hovering above the ocean’s surface, he closed his eyes, meticulously sorting through the recently acquired intelligence within his mind.

The ensuing analysis caused a faint crease to appear between his brows.

The wizard techniques embedded within the monster, alongside the methods employed for altering The Strange, were surprisingly rudimentary.

It wasn’t that the core technology was crude, but rather that the application on this particular monster was demonstrably an “inferior” version.

While the fundamental principles remained sound, numerous execution details lacked refinement, hinting at a lack of polish.

This suggested the monster wasn’t the direct creation of a wizard, but rather fashioned by natives of this world who had acquired wizarding knowledge.

Jie Ming could readily identify certain techniques that resonated with his existing knowledge base.

The adversary's proficiency… at least in the domain of modifying The Strange, did not exceed his own.

It might even be somewhat inferior.

However, Jie Ming refrained from jumping to definitive conclusions.

After all, these techniques were the result of a collaboration between local inhabitants and a wizard.

It was conceivable that this wizard had merely imparted low-level technology or intentionally withheld advanced knowledge while guiding the natives’ modifications.

After all, no individual would willingly disclose their most closely guarded secrets to a partner.

Jie Ming’s eyes fluttered open, his gaze sweeping over the turbulent, thick fog blanketing the sea as his thoughts shifted to another pressing concern.

This particular wizard’s operational tempo was significantly swifter than his own.

He had only been present on this plane for a little over two months.

Throughout this period, he had remained inconspicuous in Mist Capital, dedicating his time to studying The Strange, procuring necessary materials, and deploying his Micro-Light Eyes.

While his own progress was steady, the wizard orchestrating this monster's existence was clearly more efficient.

That individual had already secured local allies, established a considerable organization, and was capable of producing Anomalies with this degree of profound integration. Though the methodology was basic, enabling local natives to achieve such results from scratch indicated a well-established operational strategy: utilize proxies, forge alliances, and leverage local power structures.

This strategy was indeed effective.

Jie Ming harbored similar ambitions, but at the present juncture, these plans were merely in the preliminary setup stages.

Those contacts in the black market served at best as temporary assistants for errands, acquisitions, and rudimentary intel – far from being genuine collaborators.

Yet, the unseen wizard commanded an organized force adept at infiltrating the Spirit Medium Association’s activities, executing maritime assaults, and even ruthlessly sacrificing a subordinate.

All wizards on this plane, including himself, had arrived via Wizard Austin’s directive.

While outright hostility was not guaranteed, they were undeniably rivals for resources and influence.

The current predicament stemmed from the limited availability of one thousand mission slots. Securing a spot amongst such intense competition meant that none of the participants were ordinary individuals.

Generally, three distinct categories of wizards managed to obtain a mission slot.

The first category encompassed individuals possessing immense strength.

These wizards could manage multiple tasks simultaneously, maintaining constant vigilance over the magic network terminal and its elite combat unit task system. The instant this mission materialized, they possessed the requisite surplus capacity to outmaneuver other wizards and claim a slot.

Such individuals were typically of high standing – at least sixth-ring initiators, potentially even seventh-ring.

Their inherent power was their most significant advantage.

The second category included wizards like Jie Ming himself.

They benefited from a modicum of good fortune, discovering the mission opportunity at the opportune moment, coupled with sufficient strength to secure their position.

This group was likely the smallest in number, with considerable variance in their power levels, creating a wide spectrum between the most and least capable.

The third, and most formidable category, consisted of wizards who were “lucky.”

This “luck” was not born of random chance, but rather of fortunate outcomes orchestrated through the manipulation of fate-related knowledge.

For adepts skilled in fate-based arcane arts, luck itself became a controllable variable.

A proficient fate-weaver needed only to subtly adjust the threads of destiny at the precise moment the mission appeared, making the outcome of “securing a slot” the most probable path.

Wizards capable of such feats demonstrated a profound mastery over fate-related disciplines – vastly exceeding the capabilities of a novice like Jie Ming, who had only recently begun exploring this esoteric field.

Regardless of their classification, each of these wizards presented a significant challenge.

After all, the precious resources available were finite.

The amount of Strange entities that could be studied within any given sector of this realm per span of time was a set quantity. If one more was captured by him, it meant one less for others.

With the presence of Great Wizard Austin on this plane, even amidst rivalry, the wizards would naturally maintain a certain limit to their competition.

Yet, the existence of competition was an undeniable fact.

Furthermore, the mysterious wizard had already proven capable of a swifter deployment than himself.

Should he fail to quicken his efforts, by the time the other party had gathered all the superior research materials in Mist Capital and its adjacent regions, locating valuable research specimens would become considerably more challenging for him.

“It appears… I must accelerate my pace.”

Jie Ming retracted his stare from the water's expanse and returned towards Mist Capital.