The Black Giant Priests arrived quickly after receiving the order.
Following Jie Ming's instructions, they did not rashly attempt to separate it but instead first modeled the surrounding environment.
Jie Ming crouched beside the energy device, his fingers gently resting on the edge of its casing. With his All-Purpose Eye, he peeled away layer after layer of the instrument's inner wall—a precision-coated structure so intricate it bordered on the uncanny.
Just then, a burst of rapid footsteps approached from behind.
He didn't even need to turn around to know who it was.
On the entire battlefield, there was only one person who could walk with such a mix of smugness and feigned modesty: Viola.
"The interrogation results are out!"
Viola stopped behind him, hands clasped behind her back, chin slightly raised, the corners of her mouth nearly reaching her ears. She radiated an air of triumphant satisfaction.
"Just as we guessed, these octopus faces are merely a small unit within their civilization. The main force of the entire Octopus People civilization has been split into dozens or even hundreds of squads, each assigned different tasks and scattered across several regions. But they have hard mouths, and there are seals on their souls, so it's hard to extract useful information in a short time."
She paused deliberately, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Jie Ming, as if waiting for him to ask further.
But Jie Ming merely crouched there and gave a cooperative "Mm," not even shifting his gaze from the device.
Seeing this, Viola didn't mind and continued on her own:
"But thanks to that leader being scared out of his wits, I managed to pry a coordinate of a Multiracial Alliance outpost from him." Viola's tone carried a hint of satisfaction.
Then, as if remembering something, she spread her hands with a touch of disappointment:
"Unfortunately, that outpost's combat strength far exceeds what the two of us can handle. There are over a hundred eighth-level beings stationed there permanently, and its defense system is complete. We can't take it head-on. We'll have to report the coordinates to the Star Ring Federation and sell them."
"But even just selling the intel, we'll still get a good reward."
Viola began to calculate on the fly, her slender fingers tapping the air one by one as if working an invisible abacus. "The reward from selling the coordinates, plus the other loot from this haul, should be enough to cover the entire early-to-mid stage renovation of this plane. Integrating the planar origin into my Law-Crystallization Domain, restoring the surface ecology, laying the foundation for the Wizard Tower... and maybe even have some scraps left to upgrade the lab equipment."
She grew more fluent and more pleased as she spoke, the corners of her eyes and brows brimming with barely restrained excitement.
But as she talked on, she noticed Jie Ming showed no reaction at all.
Viola's smile faltered. Her thoughts pulled back from her calculations and focused on Jie Ming.
"You... found something good, didn't you?"
She narrowed her eyes, her tone shifting from smugness to scrutiny.
Jie Ming didn't hide it.
He stood up, stepped aside, and fully revealed the waist-high, dark gray cubic device behind him.
The device's casing bore no markings, its non-reflective dark gray coating so understated in the faint emergency lighting of the factory that it was almost inconspicuous.
Viola gave it a casual glance at first.
But the next moment, as if sensing something, she frowned slightly.
Without a word, she stepped forward and pressed her palm against the casing.
Her gray-white Law-Crystallization Domain silently expanded, slowly penetrating every inch of the device's internal structure.
Then her expression changed. It was as if she had just witnessed a treasure that should have been hers being picked up by someone else.
She instinctively clutched her chest, took half a step back, and her face clearly read four words: heart-wrenching regret.
Seeing her expression, Jie Ming's eyes lit up.
According to wizard customs, loot belongs to whoever finds it unless both contributed equally.
Moreover, Viola had let him handle the battlefield, which implicitly meant everything found on the surface was his reward.
Now her expression was essentially telling him with her face...
This thing was valuable enough to make Viola regret what she had just said.
His earlier estimation shot up another notch.
After the initial excitement, Jie Ming had thought the device was probably some energy extraction technology he couldn't detect. After all, Level 9 artifacts were far beyond him; he had only casually considered it.
But now, judging by Viola's reaction, could it be...
"Senior Sister, this thing couldn't be..." Jie Ming ventured.
"That's right... a Level 9 artifact."
Viola practically ground out the words, yet each one was crystal clear.
She looked up at Jie Ming, her eyes full of regret.
"You can't tell now, but after you advance to sixth-level and gain a Law-Crystallization Domain, you'll be able to recognize it directly... Damn it, why did you have to be my junior? If you were a stranger wizard, it'd be better!"
She took a deep breath, and her voice finally steadied.
"The operating logic of this thing is indeed creation from nothing."
"Only a level nine being can permanently imbue such a conceptual effect into an artifact."
Jie Ming had braced himself, but hearing Viola's confirmation still made him gasp.
So this unassuming waist-high instrument was the highest-level Wizard World artifact he had encountered since his transmigration.
"This... the Multiracial Alliance's resources are truly excessive."
Jie Ming glanced at the Black Giant Priest who had indicated the environment modeling was complete, then carefully disconnected the device from its power supply chain and held it in his hands.
"According to the information you just extracted, this place is only a small unit. It's not even an outpost—just one of the hundreds of squads scattered from the entire civilization... and they carry a Level 9 artifact with them?"
His tone carried both admiration and genuine shock.
"In the Star Ring Federation, at least an eighth-level True Name Wizard would need authorization to apply for such a thing, right? Are their level nine beings so plentiful they're bored?"
He muttered the last part unconsciously, about to store the device in his Inner World, when he noticed Viola didn't respond.
He looked up and saw that the look of heart-wrenching regret on his senior's face had completely vanished.
In its place was a rare seriousness and silence.
She stood with arms crossed, brows slightly furrowed, her silver-gray eyes fixed on the device.
But clearly, she was no longer upset about the artifact going to Jie Ming; she was pondering something deeper.
Jie Ming's heart tightened.
He had known Viola for thousands of years. He had seen her put on airs, gloat, scheme, and revel. But the number of times she had been truly serious to the point of silence could be counted on one hand.
"Senior Sister?" he called tentatively.
Viola seemed to snap out of her thoughts.
She lowered her arms, walked slowly to the factory's porthole, and looked through the broken frame at the battlefield still shrouded in smoke. Under the pale purple sky, black smoke rose slowly in the distance like lingering scars.
"What you said isn't impossible."
Finally, she spoke. Her tone was flat, without her usual teasing lilt.
Jie Ming blinked, momentarily not catching which remark she meant.
A few seconds later, he realized she was referring to his half-joking complaint: "Are their level nine beings so plentiful they're bored?"
His expression shifted from confusion to seriousness.
Viola didn't immediately elaborate. She simply gazed into the distant sky, as if organizing various pieces of information.
After a moment, she spoke slowly:
"I've never been to the frontlines, so I don't know the specifics."
"But some information can still be roughly deduced from the known data."
She turned around, backlit by the pale purple sky outside the porthole, half her face in shadow, lending her expression a particular stillness.
"The Wizard Civilization has never released exact numbers on how many eighth-level wizards it has. But from what I know, the Star Ring Federation alone has over ten million known eighth-level wizards."
"Adding the Crimson Court, the Void Architecture Academy, and the Negentropy Alliance, the total number of eighth-level wizards across the four major factions conservatively exceeds fifty million."
"Even if more than half are stationed within Wizard Civilization territory, the eighth-level wizards that can be deployed to the frontlines number over twenty million."
"And the Wizard Civilization has eight ninth-level wizards on the frontlines."
Viola took a light breath.
"That means each commands over two million eighth-level wizards directly."
"And that's not counting the seventh-level wizards, who are far more numerous and serve as support—equally critical on the battlefield."
Jie Ming stood quietly, listening.
Viola's words were unadorned, but that made them all the more weighty.
She glanced at him and continued:
"The Multiracial Alliance is the weakest of the three main enemies of the Wizard Civilization in the Endless Chaotic Void."
"Even so, they are currently facing at least two legions led by ninth-level wizards on the frontlines."
She didn't finish the sentence.
But Jie Ming understood completely.
Two ninth-level wizards, each with over two million eighth-level wizards and countless billions of seventh-level wizards under their command.
In a war of this scale, the Multiracial Alliance was likely always at a disadvantage, even beaten like a dog. But the fact that they could endure for eons without being wiped out by the Wizard Civilization itself proved their combat strength was formidable.
No matter how many eighth-level beings they had, they couldn't hold out this long against the sea of eighth-level wizard cannon fodder, let alone with ninth-level wizards present. So... the number of level nine beings in the Multiracial Alliance must be far greater than they had previously thought.
And this machine indirectly confirmed that idea.
After all, a small unit scattered to a remote star zone for menial tasks could carry a Level 9 artifact with them.
This meant that for the Multiracial Alliance, Level 9 artifacts were probably not clan-guarding treasures but standard equipment issued to basic units.
This conclusion was more startling than the artifact itself.
And it completely overturned Jie Ming's understanding of the distribution of top-level combat power in the Endless Chaotic Void.