Chapter 164: Energy Combustion, Energy Pulse (Fourth Update)

On the massive screen was a complete map of the Blood Luo World.

Centered around the "Ancient God Ruins," the surrounding area was magnified, densely marked with countless small dots flashing in various colors.

These small dots represented the distribution of "military forces" between the indigenous faction of the Blood Luo World and Jiang Chen's faction.

Having operated in the Blood Luo World for nearly a decade, Jiang Chen's satellite surveillance had long covered the entire continent.

As a primary target of interest, the "Ancient God Ruins" region, where the lair of the "Immortal Temple" was located, was an even heavier focus of surveillance.

Under technological supremacy, every movement of the Immortal Temple was entirely impossible to conceal from Jiang Chen.

For Jiang Chen, this war was like playing a game against an opponent with the "entire map revealed."

Yet, the Immortal Temple's understanding of Jiang Chen was exceedingly scarce.

Even in warfare at the transcendent level, information remained a crucially vital component.

Under conditions of severe information asymmetry, the side holding the intelligence advantage possessed absolute initiative.

Jiang Chen could choose to fight whenever he pleased, and if he didn't, he could completely sidestep the edge of the Immortal Temple's锋芒.

At this moment, on the map, apart from the core region of the Immortal Temple where over a thousand immortal spirits were clustered together, there were large numbers of red markers representing the "immortal spirit" tier scattered across the entire Blood Luo World.

Though dispersed, their total number was by no means small, reaching several hundred.

Adding up all the immortal spirits across the continent, the number approached two thousand.

Within the region of one trillion kilometers surrounding the "Ancient God Ruins" alone, excluding the over one thousand immortals in the core area of the Immortal Temple, there were still more than one hundred immortal spirits scattered on the outside.

"Jarvis, calculate how long it would take if the Immortal Temple were to dispatch its entire force directly in a surprise attack targeting our position," Jiang Chen commanded.

For immortal spirits, as long as there was a sufficiently large unobstructed area, accelerating to the speed of light and entering dark space with their physical bodies presented no difficulty.

Even ordinary immortals could accomplish this given some time.

However, within the Blood Luo World, the presence of atmosphere, dust, and other resistance meant the speed "ceiling" would drop drastically.

Even immortals would require a significant amount of time to cross the entire Blood Luo World.

"The distance between us and the core region of the Immortal Temple exceeds three hundred billion kilometers. Calculating environmental resistance, acceleration distance, and other factors, at the speed of an ordinary King-level immortal, it would take at least fifty days."

"If calculated at the speed of an ordinary immortal, it would take at least eighty days or more."

Jarvis rapidly reported a string of figures.

Fifty days for a King-level immortal versus eighty days for an ordinary immortal might not seem like a vast gap.

Yet when it came to speed, the higher one went, the harder it was to improve.

In an environment unsuitable for high-speed travel, once speed reached a certain limit, every slight increase required a substantial enhancement in overall strength.

"Fifty days..." Jiang Chen pondered for a moment and instructed, "Jarvis, you allocate the forces to eliminate the immortal spirits closest to us first. As for the distance, base it on the condition that the mission can be completed and they can return within forty days."

Being able to slay the targets and bring back their corpses within forty days would leave enough time to convert these targets into immortal puppets before the outbreak of the full-scale war.

Of course, this timeline was calculated based on "the shortest possible time required for the Immortal Temple to immediately assemble its army and dash straight for Jiang Chen's base."

In reality, the probability of the Immortal Temple deploying its entire strength at once was very low, so the "preparation time" Jiang Chen possessed would definitely exceed fifty days.

Nevertheless, Jiang Chen was accustomed to planning for the worst-case scenario.

Having a few more immortal puppets before the war started, even if the improvement to the mechanical legion's overall combat power was negligible, still held value.

Who knew? Perhaps these exact few immortal puppets might turn out to be the most critical chips influencing victory or defeat.

"Understood, Master. Thirty-seven targets meeting the requirements have been filtered out, and the mechanical legion is currently being assigned to execute the surprise raid," Jarvis reported.

Suddenly thinking of something, Jiang Chen asked, "Right, have the [Dark Archon] and the [Stargate] been tested in the previous battles?"

"The tests are complete. Here is the video recording of the combat process." Jarvis projected a video onto the screen.

In the screen, a group of immortal spirits was being besieged by the mechanical legion.

The main force consisted of Void Dragon Mechas and immortal puppets.

Supplemented by a large number of fighters and Gundam-style mechas providing diversionary suppression, immense pressure was brought to bear upon this group of immortal spirits.

Yet, most striking of all were two massive spherical objects.

One was entirely blood-red, resembling a condensed mass of energy. It appeared to have no physical entity, with a faint humanoid phantom visible internally.

The other possessed thick metallic armor, from the gaps of which several barrel-like objects protruded at the bottom.

[Dark Archon], [Specialized Combat Platform 'Stargate'].

These were two "strategic combat units" with extremely high value to the mechanical legion that Jiang Chen had completed during the thirty-plus years before arriving in the Blood Luo World.

Their positioning within the mechanical legion was similar to the [Warp Arbiter]; they possessed no combat capability themselves, but served extremely vital auxiliary functions.

The [Dark Archon] was a creation of the same "psionic" system as the [Warp Arbiter]. Its sole special skill was called "Energy Burn."

This skill could directly ignite almost all forms of energy, including energy existing in nature or transcendent power within living organisms.

Origin force, spiritual will, and even immortal divine power all fell within the attack range of "Energy Burn."

When applied to biological entities, while burning away their transcendent energy, it would continuously inflict an equivalent amount of damage upon them.

It was equivalent to using the target's own transcendent power to kill the target.

One had to admit that the technology of the psionic system was indeed thoroughly unreasonable and intensely "idealistic," capable of achieving all sorts of bizarre effects.

Naturally, against excessively powerful entities, the effect of Energy Burn would be drastically reduced or even fail completely.

According to the results of Jiang Chen's tests in the virtual universe, King-level immortals possessed strong resistance against "Energy Burn."

Even for a King-level immortal with single-fold gene levels, the time required to completely burn away their divine power would still be measured in "days."

In battles at the King-level tier, this was already an exceedingly long period of time.

Existences at the level of universe overlords and above were entirely immune to "Energy Burn," suffering not a shred of damage.

Furthermore, unlike most other combat units, the potency of "Energy Burn" could not be stacked through numbers. Even if a dozen [Dark Archons] simultaneously cast "Energy Burn" on a single target, the resulting effect would be identical to that of a single [Dark Archon], with zero difference.

Meanwhile, the [Stargate] was purely a product of "natural science."

It possessed two special capabilities.

The first was to cast a layer of "plasma shield" onto target units. This shield could stack with "psionic shields" and possessed even higher durability.

A "plasma shield" operating at maximum power could withstand a full-strength blow from a barely King-level immortal spirit.

Naturally, operating at such high power consumed staggering amounts of energy; a single activation cost over a million mixed Yuan units.

This belonged to the category of "life-saving skills" meant for critical moments, capable of rescuing high-value mechanical units from powerful enemies.

As for ordinary fighters and mechas, they simply weren't worth it.

Building a new one cost far less than activating a "plasma shield" once.

At the very least, units of the caliber of immortal puppets or Void Dragon Mechas facing mortal threats were worth saving with a "plasma shield."

The second skill of the [Stargate] was the "Energy Pulse," which could plunge all energy within a target area into a "chaotic" state, making its circulation exceptionally difficult.

Similar to "Energy Burn," it could likewise take effect on the transcendent energy within living organisms.

However, its purpose was completely different.

The objective of Energy Burn was to inflict damage and even kill the opponent by burning the transcendent energy within their body.

In contrast, the objective of "Energy Pulse" was to make it difficult for the target to mobilize the transcendent power inside them, plunging them into a weakened state.

Once immortal spirits were unable to circulate their divine power, their combat capability would plummet drastically, making them unable to defeat even a normal World Lord.

After all, regardless of the secret arts or laws employed, energy was required to sustain them.

Without transcendent energy, relying solely on physical strength naturally resulted in very weak combat prowess.

In the video footage, the [Stargate] emitted a powerful "electromagnetic pulse," instantly causing a massive majority of the immortals in the group to completely lose control over the divine power within their bodies.

The remaining small fraction, though barely able to manage the circulation of their divine power, found it extremely arduous, and the threat posed by the attacks they unleashed dropped sharply.

Once the [Stargate] completed its task, a swarm of [Dark Archons] moved in, locking onto targets one-on-one and casting "Energy Burn." In a mere matter of minutes, they completely incinerated the divine power within each immortal spirit.

The life essence of immortal spirits relied upon immortal divine power.

Without divine power, vitality naturally depleted as well, leading to instant death.

Only a single immortal spirit who had reached the Marquis level persisted slightly longer.

Yet, under the dual suppression of the [Stargate] and the [Dark Archons], his combat power also plummeted drastically, falling short of even an ordinary immortal in a normal state.

Besieged by a group of immortal puppets, he lasted not long before his divine power was depleted to an extremely perilous degree.

Knowing he had no power to escape and refusing to become an enemy captive, he very decisively chose self-detonation.

The entire battle lasted less than ten minutes.

A full fifty immortal spirits perished entirely, with not a single survivor.

Except for the leading Marquis-level immortal, the rest of the immortals didn't even have the chance to self-detonate, and the majority retained the greater part of their corpses.

Watching the conclusion of the battle in the video, both Luo Feng and Babata were struck with profound shock.

This was not merely a matter of simple strength or weakness, but rather a crushing suppression at the technological level.

It felt akin to martial arts masters of the cold-weapon era encountering a modernized army.

The two simply did not belong to the same era.

"Technology... is it really this powerful?" Luo Feng could not help but harbor some doubt regarding his own cultivation path.

"In the universe, the pinnacle of technology belongs to the Machine Clan. However, when Master and I roamed the universe, the Machine Clan we encountered wasn't this formidable..." Babata's voice gradually trailed off.

"The technology of the Machine Clan is indeed formidable, but human technology is not far behind; it is simply used less frequently," Jiang Chen said upon hearing their words, turning around with a smile. "Moreover, cultivating the laws, when pushed to the extreme, is equally powerful. You aren't cut out for my path, Luo Feng, so don't overthink it and focus peacefully on cultivating your laws."

Hearing Jiang Chen's words, Luo Feng couldn't help nodding and saying, "True, although my grades were good back when I was in school, I could never compare to a monster like you. Those mathematical formulas give me a headache just looking at them."

At Luo Feng's teasing remark, Jiang Chen couldn't help recalling his days back on campus.

Back then, he and Luo Feng were like the literary and martial pillars, both focal points of the school.

After stepping onto the path of cultivation, the two seemed to have continued along their past trajectories, walking divergent paths.

"Alright, enough chatting for now; I need to arrange some proper business."

Jiang Chen greeted Luo Feng and mentally reviewed the preceding combat process in his mind.

A vast amount of data surfaced in his consciousness, naturally forming a series of formulas.

Within Jiang Chen's thought processes, every mechanical unit was assigned a numerical value based on factors such as positioning, value, and cost.

Countless mechanical units combined with one another, coupled with external factors like environment and resources, formed an immensely complex formula.

By plugging in parameters such as the enemy's strength and the resources at his disposal, an optimal ratio was calculated.

A moment later, Jiang Chen opened his eyes and spoke, "Jarvis, reset all priorities starting right now. Priority One: increase the number of [Dark Archons] to three hundred. Priority Two: increase the number of [Stargates] to one hundred, while stockpiling enough energy reserves to unleash at least a thousand instances of 'Plasma Shield' and 'Energy Pulse.' Priority Three: convert captured immortal spirit corpses into puppets. Priority Four..."

With Jiang Chen's commands, the contents and priority sequences of various tasks on Jarvis's "work log" were instantly updated accordingly.

Correspondingly, whether it was stock resources, production capacity allocation across manufacturing bases, or even the extraction sequences of various mineral veins, everything was re-optimized according to the needs of the missions.

The workload involved here was unimaginably vast.

Yet, supported by formidable computing power, Jarvis managed everything in an orderly fashion without the slightest confusion.

Babata expressed immense envy within Luo Feng's consciousness, saying, "A low-level artificial intelligence with hardware this powerful is simply too extravagant! Even I, Lord Babata, never had conditions this good!"

Hearing Babata's words, Luo Feng couldn't help rolling his eyes, instantly playing dead and not daring to reply.

How was he supposed to answer that?

Although Luo Feng didn't know the exact extent of Jiang Chen's wealth, he was well aware that as Jiang Chen's most vital "subordinate," the funds spent on Jarvis were undoubtedly staggering.

Luo Feng simply couldn't conjure up that kind of capital to invest in Babata.