I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality Chapter 693: Gaining the Upper Hand First

The cosmic battle's conclusion was all but sealed the instant the colossal black giant legion made its debut on the battlefield.

A relentless black torrent began spewing forth from the immense tear in the plane barrier.

Like an overwhelming tide, the vanguard of the black giant forces breached the outer space of the tentacle tree civilization's plane. Countless gigantic beings blotted out the void, with the sixth-rank black giants, each hundreds of meters tall, being particularly conspicuous. Their forms were encased in a flowing, liquid-metal substance that caught the distant starlight, reflecting a cold, profound darkness.

The sheer magnitude of the black giant legion amassed by Jie Ming over the years was staggering.

It was so vast that it formed a flowing black veil beneath the fissure, completely obscuring the legions still pouring in. Molten Mountain, as the leader, stood resolutely at the very forefront of this immense force.

His colossal form resembled a mobile mountain, and the vertical maw situated at the center of his chest slowly parted, exhaling searing blasts of air.

Then…

“ROAR!!!”

Concurrently, the opposing border fleet had managed to effect a hasty reformation.

The remaining several hundred warships rapidly condensed their formation. Multiple layers of joint shields deployed, their pale blue energy patterns interlinking to create a makeshift, colossal barrier around the fleet.

Simultaneously, the primary cannons mounted on the vessels' prows began their charging sequence, their muzzles brimming with clusters of blinding energy radiance.

Within the command bridge, the fleet commander's eight crystalline eyes still betrayed an undercurrent of irrepressible tension and dread.

Yet, he compelled himself to maintain composure and slammed down the decisive order.

“All warships… open fire!”

In the subsequent moment, the fleet unleashed its full offensive might!

A coordinated barrage from hundreds of warships erupted – energy beams, electromagnetic projectiles, plasma torpedoes, high-energy lasers…

Virtually every conventional weapon within the tentacle tree civilization's arsenal was expended without restraint.

The sheer density of fire momentarily displaced the volatile elemental turbulence filling the void.

An interconnected web of countless beams and projectiles, spanning over a thousand kilometers, hurtled directly towards the encroaching black giant legion!

However, as the attacks impacted the foremost black giants, the effect was eerily subdued, lacking the typical feedback associated with weapon impacts. Energy beams striking the liquid-metal surface of the black giants seemed to merely dissipate, much like heavy raindrops upon a placid lake, leaving behind faint ripples before vanishing entirely.

Electromagnetic shells, spinning violently, collided with the chests of the black giants only for their kinetic energy to be mysteriously absorbed upon contact. The superheated metal casings succumbed to the giants' body heat, melting into liquid before being gradually absorbed by the black liquid-metal layer, akin to water droplets merging with the ocean. As for the plasma torpedoes…

Upon impact, they flared with an intensely brief burst of light before their plasma mass was directly dismantled by the black giants' innate energy-absorption capabilities, ingeniously converted into pure thermal energy and evenly distributed throughout their colossal frames.

Following the conclusion of this comprehensive saturation bombardment.

Not a single black giant within the legion sustained any injury.

The heavily targeted sixth-rank black giants continued their advance without pause.

One such giant lowered its massive head, cast a cursory glance at the ongoing electromagnetic cannon fire bombarding its chest, and then casually swatted at it, as if dismissively brushing away a speck of dust.

Witnessing this display, the atmosphere within the command bridge turned frigid.

The delicate treetop-like appendages of numerous junior operators began to tremble uncontrollably.

At that critical juncture…

“Shields! The shields are failing!”

An operator aboard an escort vessel emitted a frantic, sharp alarm cry.

The black giants had initiated their counteroffensive.

Dozens of sixth-rank black giants simultaneously unleashed their fists.

Without even needing to traverse the void, the sheer elemental shockwaves emanating from their powerful blows acted as invisible, colossal hammers, striking the joint shields with devastating force.

BOOM!!!

The shield energy readings plummeted instantaneously.

Before the operators could even transmit the precise decay metrics, the second wave of concussive force from their fists arrived.

The joint shield buckled and then shattered with a deafening roar!

The cerulean barrier encasing the entire fleet erupted into countless fragments of energy that dispersed into the void, resembling a delicate soap bubble meeting its end.

With the shields annihilated, the fleet found itself utterly exposed.

The fleet commander fixed his gaze intently upon the main display, the light within his crystalline eyes flickering erratically.

Finally, he issued his last, resolute command.

“All warships, hold them off for as long as possible! Activate self-destruct protocols… ram their positions!!”

The instant this order was proclaimed, the bridge was plunged into an absolute, chilling silence.

This tactic represented the absolute peak of the tentacle tree civilization’s combat strategy. A warship’s self-destruction sequence unleashed all its stored power reserves, creating an explosion far exceeding any conventional armament. With a stroke of luck, it was even capable of breaching an enemy formation through a desperate, suicidal charge.

Those drafted into the border legions were the very crème de la crème, prompting a swift reaction from several warships. Dozens of vessels simultaneously pushed their engines to overload, their hulls transforming into fiery meteors that plunged madly towards the colossal black giant legion.

Before long, the initial escort ship collided violently with the chest of a sixth-rank black giant. A deafening BOOM! erupted as the self-destruct system detonated immediately. The entire warship was consumed by its own released energy, a blinding inferno engulfing over half of the black giant’s form.

Several seconds later, as the explosion subsided, the black giant lowered its head to inspect its chest. A crater, easily spanning ten meters in width, had been gouged into its liquid metal exterior. Around the pit’s edges, the black substance writhed unnaturally, flowing back like a living entity. In mere moments, the crater vanished entirely, the wound completely healed.

The black giant raised its head once more. Its chest maw widened slightly, revealing a chilling array of sharp fangs resembling black obsidian. The expression it wore suggested not injury, but mild annoyance, as if it had merely been nudged.

Other black giants nearby, subjected to similar assaults, displayed comparable resilience. Some, benefiting from superior protection, sustained no damage whatsoever.

Witnessing this display, an unnerving silence fell upon the bridge. Every tentacle tree present grasped a grim reality: their most potent attack, the suicidal ramming maneuver, could only inflict superficial damage upon their foes. Conventional weaponry, it seemed, was utterly incapable of leaving even a scratch.

The fleet commander observed the unfolding disaster, the light within his eight crystalline eyes gradually dimming. Behind him, a young tentacle tree tasked with communications slowly shielded its crystalline eyes with a tentacle, its treetop quivering uncontrollably. A palpable wave of despair washed over the bridge.

The battle raged on in the vacuum of space, yet its outcome had been irrevocably sealed long before the conflict commenced. The main black giant legion had yet to fully deploy; only a fraction of its vanguard had engaged. Yet, these mere dozens of sixth-rank black giants at the forefront had already utterly annihilated the entire border fleet.

At this juncture, the black giants ceased their hasty advance. They began to meticulously reorganize their formations beneath the planar fissure, establishing defensive lines while awaiting the arrival of their main force, a legion numbering in the billions.

In this moment of utter tactical disadvantage, the fleet commander’s head slowly lifted. His gaze swept past the systematically dismantled fleet, fixating on the cosmic expanse behind them. The border forces’ ultimate defensive system had finished its charging sequence. Moments prior, the final communication from rear command had been received: “Charging complete. Prepare to provide attack coordinates.”

A spark reignited in his crystalline eyes, blazing with unwavering determination. “All forces…” he bellowed, slamming his order down with such force that spiderweb-like cracks fractured the control surface. “All warships still capable of propulsion, activate spatial jump engines! Synchronize coordinates with the flagship! Guide the ultimate weapon’s strike… here!!”

A brief, stunned silence descended upon the bridge. Then, operators moved with frenzied purpose, executing the orders. Every vessel forcibly engaged its spatial jump engines, aligning their trajectories with the flagship. In the ensuing instant, a colossal beam of light, over a hundred meters in diameter, descended from the cosmic depths with a deafening roar!

Despite the successful transmission, the sheer energy output of this ultimate weapon had violently distorted the surrounding space during its passage. Ripples coursed through the fabric of reality around the light pillar, akin to agitated water. Any warship caught in these spatial distortions instantly disintegrated into mere dust.

The flagship bore the brunt of this cataclysm. The commander on the bridge had no time for further commands as his entire vessel began to disintegrate at a molecular level the moment the light beam struck. The ship transformed into a roiling plasma cloud, subsequently swept along by the light pillar as it continued its inexorable plunge towards the planar fissure. Along its path, several other warships were effortlessly consumed, vanishing without even a flicker of explosion before being fully submerged within the incandescent torrent.

At this critical juncture, the entire void blazed with an intensity rivaling daylight itself. The shockwaves from the light pillar stirred the ambient elemental turbulence into colossal, swirling vortices. At the planar fissure, Molten Mountain, who had assumed the role of first-line defense, replacing the Nest before the opening, slowly raised his head.

A destructive torrent, more than a hundred meters in diameter and packing enough energy to obliterate a planet, blasted directly towards him. The surrounding cosmic space emitted unbearable creaking sounds.

Molten Mountain’s chest maw widened.

“ROAR!!!”

With a silent roar, he charged head-on into the planet-destroying light pillar!

In the very next moment, the light pillar violently slammed into his chest.

From a great distance, Jie Ming, who was in the process of stabilizing the final stressed nodes of the plane fissure, paused momentarily.

His brow’s vertical eye turned towards the ongoing battle. The rapidly expanding, colossal sphere of light was reflected perfectly in his pupils.

BOOM!!!

The energy detonated completely.

The impact aftershock transformed into visible, ring-shaped shockwaves that swept across tens of thousands of kilometers.

Vast amounts of warship wreckage were sent tumbling through space.

Even the distant black giant legion was compelled to raise defensive shields to withstand the powerful aftershocks.

Jie Ming’s eyebrows rose slightly.

“A seventh-rank attack?”

He quickly performed his assessment.

The power of this planet-destroying cannon had, in fact, reached the standard seventh-rank level.

The so-called standard seventh-rank designation referred to power sufficient to destroy an ordinary planet.

However… it was merely ordinary seventh-rank.

This attack was undoubtedly potent, achieving the standard for planet destruction. Yet, it merely utilized raw, violent energy to overcome a planet’s gravitational binding energy and shatter the entire world. This standard, while remarkable for ordinary beings, was still far from sufficient for wizards!

Under typical circumstances, an average seventh-rank wizard’s attack could also only achieve planet destruction. But even among planet-destroying attacks, differences existed.

Putting aside the vast disparities in planetary volume and mass, what wizards referred to as “planet destruction” generally meant directly annihilating and evaporating most of a planet’s matter. Of course, some seventh-rank wizards were not as “skilled” at pure destruction. However, they could still completely alter the material composition of an entire planet or shrink the whole world down to the size of a marble, among other astonishing feats.

In essence, the seventh-rank concept in the eyes of wizards signified the ability to influence the vast majority of matter and elements across an entire planet. While the destructive force might not sound significantly different from ordinary seventh-rank attacks, the underlying energy levels differed by several orders of magnitude.

As for the black giants…

The fundamental material for black giants stemmed from lava giants, and lava giants were counted among the rare, powerful creatures that could pose a challenge even to wizards fighting above their rank. Black giants, forged through the layered modifications of their ancient foe, the snow monsters, atop lava giants, possessed unimaginable strength. They might lack the versatility of wizards of equivalent rank, but their defensive and survivability capabilities placed them among the top-tier monsters of their level. It was no exaggeration to state that sixth-rank black giants, given sufficient numbers, could defeat wizards of the same rank!

Therefore, the outcome of this particular strike had been predetermined from the outset.

The sphere of light slowly dissipated. Molten Mountain remained standing in his original position.

Not a single scratch marred the flowing, black metallic covering his body.

He raised a massive hand and casually wiped his chest, dispersing the residual energy embers.

Then, a low grunt emanated from the vertical maw located in his chest. This strike hadn't even truly breached his core energy-absorption talent.

At this precise moment, the space around the plane fissure began to ripple layer upon layer.

Countless ripples spread and intersected throughout the void. These were spatial distortions generated by a large-scale fleet executing spatial jumps. Each ripple signified a massive warship exiting its transition state. Thanks to the delaying tactics of the vanguard legion, the main fleet of the tentacle tree civilization had finally arrived.

Jie Ming cast a glance at the continuously spreading jump ripples before securing the final stressed nodes of the plane barrier.

The Dual Dharma Manifestation slowly retracted. The five-hundred-kilometer-tall golden phantom transformed into a tide of dark-gold light, collapsing back into the thousand-meter true body. Subsequently, even the true body reverted to its original human form.

He stepped out of the fissure and into the outer space surrounding the homeworld of the tentacle tree civilization. The plane inhabited by the tentacle tree civilization was a rare cosmic-type plane. Consequently, the moment Jie Ming entered, he was met with the vacuum of space—entirely inhospitable to carbon-based life. For Jie Ming, however, it was no different than walking into a laboratory with a slightly lower temperature.

The jump ripples within the surrounding space continued their spread. He could clearly perceive every subtle vibration within the spatial structure.

A distinct sign, indicating a massive simultaneous warp jump of high-tonnage vessels, filled the void.

The scale of this primary fleet dwarfed the border fleet by at least two magnitudes.

“This civilization appears inexperienced. Appearing so overtly—if the opposing side possessed advanced enough technology, they could have easily blocked this spatial jump.”

Jie Ming scoffed, retracting his senses and opting not to interfere with the enemy's warp. Instead, his gaze shifted to Molten Mountain, standing beside him.

“The enemy's main armada has finally graced us with their presence. Let us begin by utterly crushing their defiance and showcasing our might.”

“Understood, Master!”