Chapter 29: Give Me a Pivot Point

Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Give Me a Pivot Point

"Two point one eight percent of an Hourglass of time!" Chen Shang quickly and accurately determined the time until the Meteorite fell.

To better manage the world, Wizards had established a unified unit of time. While the specific standards were complex, twelve Hourglasses of time roughly equated to one full day and night in that era.

Baal’s face was as pale as paper. Chen Shang didn’t even look at him, instead roaring at the Ben Bo’Erbas, "Gather around! Carry us, and run!"

Dozens of the troops rushed out from the shadows. Chen Shang grabbed the back of Baal’s collar, hurled him onto the back of the nearest Ben Bo’Erba, and leaped onto another himself.

"Over there! There’s a large lake ahead! Our chances of surviving are higher in the Water!"

The Ben Bo’Erbas sprang into action immediately. Carrying the two men, they sprinted wildly. The Dragon Power Runes flickered, making them look like dozens of launched artillery shells.

Chen Shang lay flat against the Ben Bo’Erba’s back, squinting against the fierce wind.

"How much longer?" Baal shouted from behind, his voice hoarse.

The thermal radiation from above had already begun to spread. A stretch of Water, reflecting dark red from the fiery glow, suddenly appeared in their field of vision.

"Jump!"

The Ben Bo’Erbas launched themselves forward, carrying the two men as they plunged into the Water and rapidly dove deeper. The lake was a full several hundred meters deep.

"Defense!" Chen Shang roared.

The Runes on the Ben Bo’Erbas lit up simultaneously as they surrounded the two men. The Water flowed and condensed around them, forming wall after wall of Water.

If they merely hid underwater, Chen Shang and Baal would be shattered by the shockwave. Therefore, following his intent, the Ben Bo’Erbas constructed alternating layers: a layer of air, a layer of Water, another layer of air, and another layer of Water. Guided by the Runes, the pale Blue Water Element converged into a Vortex, resembling a blooming flower at the bottom of the lake.

Sixty mythical Ben Bo’Erba creatures collectively activated Water Manipulation!

Baal wasn’t idle either. He tapped his pendant a few times, and thousands of Mechanical spiders—previously compacted into metallic spheres—popped out. They unfurled their six legs underwater, swimming to the outermost perimeter to enclose the Ben Bo’Erbas in the center.

Pale Blue Shields lit up on their carapaces. Each was only the size of a palm, but tightly packed together, they formed a dense layer of scales.

Then, he pulled out his azure device and activated it. A Blue light formed a hemispherical glowing cover above their heads, just enough to envelop them and the sixty Ben Bo’Erbas.

Chen Shang didn’t stop either. Reaching out, he forcibly extracted the Water Element from the surrounding Water, condensing it and making it heavier to form an additional protective membrane.

The next second, time was up.

The world turned white. A brilliant light, more dazzling than the sun, erupted! It was as if a magnificent Power forcibly expelled every other Element in that split second.

Chen Shang knew it was the rock finally crashing down.

In that instant, it felt as though the entire world had been picked up and shaken. Every cell in Chen Shang’s body braced against the tremor—and this was after it had been weakened by multiple layers of Defense!

Then, a fiery glow exploded on the surface of the Water. It looked as if the entire sky were burning. The shockwave swept right over the surface, pressing the lake down into a massive concave crater.

The Mechanical spiders on the outermost edge were the first to give way. Their Shields cracked like eggshells, their Runes extinguished, and they were swept away by the current one after another.

Next, the Ben Bo’Erbas’ Water walls began to collapse. The outer troops were scattered by the turbulent Water, their Runes burning out from the overload. Chen Shang felt a deep pang of heartache sensing the loss of his Ben Bo’Erbas.

Fortunately, the protective cover Baal had paid heavily for stood firm. Though the device emitted wisps of blue smoke from the overload, it held on tenaciously.

The shockwave finally passed, followed immediately by thermal radiation assaulting them from all directions.

The lake Water boiled. The temperature outside the glowing cover skyrocketed. The Energy membrane around Chen Shang sizzled—SIZZLE. Gritting his teeth, he compressed even more Water Element into it.

An unknown amount of time passed before the tremors finally stopped and the outside fell silent. The fiery glow beyond the protective cover shifted from blinding white to a burnt orange, and finally, into a dull gray.

Chen Shang looked up. Through the cover, he could see the sky above the surface. The sun was gone, replaced by a boundless, oppressive gray.

He deactivated the Energy membrane, collapsing onto a Ben Bo’Erba’s back from sheer exhaustion. Baal wasn’t faring much better.

"Are you still alive?"

Baal gave a heavy nod. "Yes, but the Mechanical devices... they’re completely shattered!"

Chen Shang let out a bitter laugh. "I’m not doing much better. Only seven Ben Bo’Erbas are left, and every single one is injured. The standard set for the Wizard Apprentice exam is way too terrifying. This is completely aimed at triggering a mass extinction."

"Let’s go up first!"

The two of them crawled out of the lake. The shore had been completely leveled by the shockwave. As far as the eye could see, every single tree had vanished.

A layer of the earth itself had been sheared away, exposing scorched black rocks underneath. Cracks spiderwebbed across the rocks, with dark red magma sluggishly flowing within them.

In the far distance, a massive crater—easily a hundred kilometers across—was still smoking. A colossal pillar of smoke rose from the horizon, blanketing the entire sky. The ground was coated in a thick layer of white ash that let out soft POOF sounds when stepped on.

The two of them recovered a bit of stamina and began to regroup. Chen Shang tended to the injured Ben Bo’Erbas, while Baal searched for leftover Mechanical parts, cannibalizing pieces to cobble together a few functioning devices.

Suddenly, Baal’s expression turned incredibly grim. He handed his Crystal Plate to Chen Shang. "Brother, this Meteorite wasn’t part of the exam set by the Wizards... It was caused by other pending Apprentices!"

Chen Shang whipped his head around, asking in astonishment, "What?!"

He took the Crystal Plate. The message came from one of Baal’s private circles.

"The Meteorite was summoned by people from the Secret Fire Laboratory. Three pending Apprentices happened to run into each other right after landing. They couldn’t find the Hallucinogenic Mushrooms and felt that searching for them one by one was too slow. So, they decided to eliminate everyone else using this method."

Chen Shang sucked in a breath of hot air. "How on earth did pending Apprentices summon a Meteorite seven kilometers in diameter?"

Baal pulled up another message. "They built a Spirit Link device. Merging the Spirits of all three, they reached upward for who knows how many kilometers, captured a small celestial body floating outside the atmosphere, and then... dragged it down."

Chen Shang fell silent. Three pending Apprentices had caused such a massive commotion... Those in the know understood this was a First Level Apprentice exam, but anyone else would have thought the world was ending!

He suddenly recalled what Leia had told him.

"Never fight a prepared Wizard. You have no idea what they might unleash."

Those categorized destructive power Levels were utterly meaningless. It didn’t matter what degree a First Level Apprentice could reach, what a Second Level Apprentice could do, or what an Official Wizard was capable of... How much Attack Power, how much Defense Power, how much Spiritual Power.

To a Wizard, these numbers were merely for reference.

Because Wizards didn’t rely on raw stats to survive. Wizards relied on wisdom, knowledge, and methods that ordinary creatures simply couldn’t comprehend.

Just like those three people. Their individual Spiritual Power was at most a dozen or so degrees. Combined, it didn’t exceed fifty. But the Attack Power of this Meteorite was absolutely over a thousand!

A single device had linked their Spiritual Power together, allowing them to locate a rock outside the atmosphere and drag it down.

This wasn’t their Power. It was the Power of gravity.

They had simply used their knowledge to find a Pivot Point...

And then, they wiped out everything within a radius of several thousand kilometers!