**Chapter 102: Movements of All Sides**
“It seems the commotion from the breakthrough was too great.” Jie Ming opened his eyes, a shimmering glow flickering within them, impossible to suppress.
It was the natural overflow of his excessively powerful mental energy after the breakthrough.
Fortunately, with his experience at the Foundation Establishment stage, Jie Ming quickly brought it under control.
“Let’s leave this place first!” Jie Ming made a swift decision. “The disturbance from the breakthrough has attracted too many eyes. From now on, we’ll change locations for every breakthrough!”
The trio quickly reached a consensus. Amy and Victor followed closely behind Jie Ming as they slipped out of the underground chamber before the surrounding beast horde could close in, blending like phantoms into the dark forest.
After his breakthrough, Jie Ming’s aura became even more restrained, his movements swifter. Each step he took was nearly silent, making it difficult for Amy and Victor to keep up despite their efforts.
Ever since tens of thousands of Noren Academy’s wizard apprentices were “scattered” into the Elosia plane, this vast land had become their testing ground.
Unlike traditional armies, wizards excelled in individual or small-team combat, a trait that defined their invasion strategy.
The frontline clashes between the wizard stronghold and the allied forces of the Elosia plane grew increasingly intense.
The main wizard forces from Noren Workshop, previously engaged in a deliberately controlled stalemate with the Elosia divine coalition, suddenly intensified their assault several-fold after the apprentices entered the plane.
Blazing wizardry radiance tore through the sky, rune fortresses constructed by the wizards pushed forward, and terrifying summoned creatures roared as they charged.
This ferocious offensive was clearly designed to draw the attention of the Elosia plane’s allied forces, creating more room for the scattered wizard apprentices to operate.
This allowed them to infiltrate and sabotage from within while avoiding quick elimination by the plane’s powerhouses.
Meanwhile, behind the lines of the Elosia coalition, the apprentices displayed their unique talents.
David was like a walking war fortress. Upon landing, he wasted no time, charging headlong like a brute into the nearest orc tribal camp.
The massive axe on his back, imbued with the ferocity of earth and metal elements, unleashed earth-shaking roars with every swing.
Pure strength and destructive power reduced every orc camp in his path to rubble, leaving only severed limbs and scorched earth in his wake.
After the contribution leaderboard was released and his rank was surpassed by Jie Ming, his assaults grew even more frenzied.
It wasn’t long before David’s name spread even among the native inhabitants.
But with that fame came a sharp rise in the dangers he faced.
At the same time, Seraphina Nightshade moved like a wisp of smoke blending into the darkness, infiltrating a native town on the outskirts of the elven kingdom.
Skilled in illusions and stealth, her presence went almost unnoticed.
Her goal wasn’t destruction but intelligence.
She slipped into every corner of the town, gathering maps, faction distributions, and local policies.
After securing a legal identity, she even attempted to sow discord, instigating rebellions among factions dissatisfied with the elven court or certain deities.
In a secluded valley far from the battlefield, Kaelern Vania, now a first-level wizard, held an ancient tome, engrossed in studying the Elosia plane.
His aim was to construct a large-scale rune array to disrupt the plane’s energy cycle on a massive scale or replicate a native divine technique, providing strategic support for the wizard forces.
In a partially cleared underground space, Rex Magnus, clad in heavy power armor radiating intense heat, meticulously set up his alchemy workshop.
Relying on the production lines he had brought and his masterful Alchemy Technique, Rex’s underground workshop was soon operational.
One after another, intricately designed mechanical constructs rolled off the production line, neatly arranged in a hollowed-out section of the mountain.
The wizard apprentices, through such diverse and decentralized methods, were thoroughly infiltrating the Elosia plane.
Some, with their unique talents, managed to infiltrate native factions and rise to high positions.
In a short time, a few even became local leaders, embedding themselves deeper in secrecy.
But at the same time, countless others, due to overconfidence, strategic missteps, or sheer bad luck, had their identities exposed or their hideouts discovered.
They were hunted down one by one by the Elosia plane’s powerhouses, paying the ultimate price with their lives.
While the wizard apprentices grew increasingly active, in the heart of the Elosia continent, within a magnificent palace suspended atop a massive floating island, the atmosphere was unusually heavy.
In the grand hall, a massive round table was surrounded by leaders of various races.
They represented their people and the deities behind them—a human king clad in golden armor, an elven queen in emerald robes, a stout and resolute dwarf elder, a towering orc chieftain adorned with totems, and even a dragon king in humanoid form, still bearing wings and a tail, among others.
Over a dozen leaders sat at the table, with thousands of their attendants seated behind them, each with a softly glowing communication crystal before them, linked to frontline reports.
“The northern front is under even heavier assault!” a visibly anxious human noble slammed the table. “The wizards’ giant constructs are advancing like mad. The Thunder Knights have already lost over half their numbers!”
“Our forest defenses are under immense pressure as well!” the elven queen said, her voice tinged with exhaustion. “Those creatures that seem to come from the abyss are endless, and new wizard summons have appeared—shadow-like beings that corrode life itself!”
The meeting began with heated discussions on countering the wizards’ suddenly intensified offensive, the atmosphere growing increasingly tense.
After a flurry of intense debates and strategic adjustments, the orc chieftain spoke up, his rough voice laced with impatience. “Forget the main forces of those foreign devils for now. We need to talk about those ‘foreign evil gods’ and their ‘new reinforcements’!”
The “foreign evil gods” he referred to were the high-ranking wizards who had twice forcibly torn through the plane’s barriers, projecting massive phantoms.
Though their two “feigned deaths” had successfully deceived the gods into believing the invaders’ strength was limited, the colossal phantoms and the power that ripped through the plane’s barriers still left the natives deeply uneasy.