Jie Ming stood at the entrance of the hemispherical combat room, looking up at the unfamiliar space before him.
Having been at Nolen 147 Academy for so many years, this was his first time stepping into the academy's highest-specification practical training room.
The entire combat room was seamless, as if cast from a single piece of pure white metal.
The dome hung high, without a single gap or exposed runic pattern. Only a soft white light seeped slowly from the depths of the metal, illuminating every detail of the space.
The air was filled with a faint, ozone-like odor—a unique smell produced by seventh-rank defensive arrays when they are on standby for long periods. Jie Ming swept his gaze around and instinctively extended his spiritual power, only to be gently blocked by an invisible barrier.
Clearly, everything here was sealed before the training mode was activated.
Ahead, Augusta had already walked to the center of the field.
She turned around, her black robe swaying with the movement, her voice still crisp.
"What environment do you want?"
Jie Ming smiled. "Anything, but I hope the space is as large as possible."
Augusta nodded. "Then we'll go with a cosmic environment."
Snap.
With a soft snap of her fingers, the entire world changed instantly.
The pure white metal above their heads receded like a tide, and the space around them expanded wildly.
The dome and walls vanished beyond the horizon within a single breath.
The next moment, darkness descended.
To be precise, it wasn't darkness but actual cosmic space.
An unfathomably vast starry sky replaced the white dome, and a blazing star slowly rose, casting golden light in all directions.
The ground beneath their feet also changed rapidly.
The white metal melted into gray-brown rock layers, with countless cracks, canyons, and craters spreading out. A desolate, lifeless rocky world appeared beneath them.
In just a few moments, the space had completely transformed, looking like a barren rocky plain.
Jie Ming deliberately released his spiritual power, and the structure of the entire planet emerged in his mind.
Rocky crust, boiling mantle, scorching core…
When he probed further, three other planets were slowly orbiting the star, forming a complete star system.
A hint of surprise flashed in Jie Ming's eyes. "Truly worthy of the academy's highest-specification training ground."
This level of spatial simulation had surpassed the realm of illusions; it was essentially a complete set of physical laws constructed for real.
Augusta, however, was not as surprised as Jie Ming. Instead, she flexed her wrist.
She casually rolled her wide black robe up to her elbows, revealing slender and powerful forearms.
She looked up at Jie Ming. "Ready?"
When her gaze fell on the puppet, she frowned almost imperceptibly.
"Are you really not going to switch to your true body?"
Jie Ming moved the puppet's shoulders, the metal joints making a faint grinding sound.
"Don't worry, it won't affect my combat ability."
Augusta nodded. "Fine."
Before the sound of her words faded.
Boom!
The ground within a radius of several kilometers exploded simultaneously.
Augusta vanished in an instant, so fast that she didn't even leave an afterimage.
Almost at the same time, she appeared before Jie Ming.
Her fair, slender fist carried enough force to shatter the earth, striking straight at him. The space issued a strained scream before that fist. The air didn't even have time to produce a sonic boom before the fist was already before Jie Ming's eyes.
Jie Ming's expression didn't change at all. His right hand rose "slowly."
In the center of his palm, a faint gray light circulated quietly.
[Embers of Nihility - Reversal Palm].
His five fingers closed gently, and gray ripples spread like water rings.
In the next instant, Augusta suddenly paused.
She found the scene before her receding rapidly, and her body uncontrollably shot backward along the trajectory she had come from.
In just a daze, she was already back in her original position.
Her movements, posture, even the angle at which her robe fluttered—nothing had changed.
It was as if that punch had never been thrown.
Augusta looked down at her fist, then at Jie Ming.
For the first time, a clear interest appeared in her black pupils.
"Is this the new trick you've learned over the years? Time? Or some other power?"
Jie Ming just smiled and didn't explain.
Augusta didn't press further; she preferred to figure it out herself.
She raised her right hand again.
Buzz…
An invisible magnetic field suddenly expanded, and the ground beneath them shook violently.
Large sheets of rock were torn apart, and countless boulders weighing hundreds of thousands or even millions of tons rose into the air.
The moment they left the ground, their internal structure began to change wildly.
Under Augusta's manipulation, electromagnetic forces directly rearranged the crystal structure, causing the gray rock to quickly take on a metallic, dark luster. The ordinary rock's hardness instantly increased several times.
Then.
Boom!!!
Dozens of mountain-sized boulders simultaneously broke the sound barrier, crashing down toward Jie Ming with terrifying force.
Jie Ming stood still as the gray ripples spread again.
The first rock had just touched the gray light.
Boom!
The entire rock shattered instantly.
One after another, the following rocks crashed into Jie Ming, but all the giant boulders seemed to hit an intangible realm, turning into countless fragments on the spot. Countless rock debris scattered like a rainstorm.
Standing behind the storm of debris, Augusta's black robe rustled, but her eyes grew brighter: "I see."
She had already figured it out: these rocks were not destroyed.
Rather, they had been restored to their original state.
Once her enhancement disappeared, they reverted to ordinary rock, naturally unable to withstand such terrifying high-speed impacts and thus disintegrated on their own. "It seems your ability returns a target to some previous state of existence," she said with a slight smile. "Truly interesting. In that case, let's continue."
The next moment, she raised her hand again.
Boom!!!
This time, the entire planet shook violently.
An even more terrifying force erupted, and an entire continent began to detach.
Mountains collapsed, continental plates were torn apart, cracks spread tens of thousands of miles, and the scorching, red-hot core was completely exposed.
Then, countless continental fragments recombined in the magnetic field.
In the blink of an eye, huge rock fists as large as mountains floated in the sky.
Each one had been strengthened to the extreme by the magnetic field.
Subsequently, the atmosphere around the fists began to vibrate, and layers of electromagnetic acceleration rings appeared in the air fluctuations.
With the help of electromagnetic acceleration, these fists instantly broke through a thousand times the speed of sound!
The entire sky was almost completely filled with countless giant rock fists.
Faced with such an attack, Jie Ming had no room to dodge, but he hadn't planned to dodge anyway.
Gray ripples spread outward in rings.
Every time a ripple passed, dozens of giant fists turned into rubble, as if no attack could truly get close to him.
But as the continuous fists came crashing down, Jie Ming's heart gradually sank.
"Troublesome."
He already understood what Augusta was trying to do.
She never expected these rocks to hurt him; she only wanted to force him to keep casting.
For her, this level of electromagnetic control was as natural as breathing.
But for him, it was different.
Every activation of the Embers of Nihility - Reversal Palm required locking onto the target's state of existence precisely and forcefully reversing it. The consumption of mental energy and computational power was far higher than hers.
If this continued… he would surely be at a disadvantage!
"Truly worthy of the Combat Department."
Jie Ming sighed inwardly.
In just one exchange, even without knowing the details of his ability, she had found the optimal solution based on combat experience.
Just then, Jie Ming's perception suddenly issued a sharp warning.
Danger!
Jie Ming instinctively sidestepped while pushing the Embers of Nihility - Reversal Palm to its limit.
But he was still a step too late.
At the same time, a blinding beam of light pierced through heaven and earth.
Ssshhh!!!
The gray domain was forcibly torn open, and the various protective barriers Jie Ming had added to himself at the start of the battle were penetrated one after another.
Finally, the beam slammed heavily onto the surface of the Return to Ruins Armor.
The Return to Ruins Armor shook violently, its light patterns flashing frantically.
Although it successfully weakened most of the power, the remaining force still pierced through the puppet's chest.
Half of the body exploded instantly, with metal fragments scattering in all directions.
Augusta slowly lowered her hand, a trace of electric light still lingering at her fingertips.
Looking at Jie Ming, whose defenses had been broken through, she said calmly:
"Your methods are peculiar. But no matter what the method, as long as you raise the output power high enough, you can break through."
Jie Ming looked down into the distance.
Only then did he notice that the entire planet's core had already disappeared.
At some point, Augusta had extracted the metallic core of the entire planet.
Then she continuously compressed and strengthened it, finally propelling it to sub-light speed via electromagnetic acceleration.
So the real attack had never been those giant rock fists; they were just a diversion to attract his attention.
The real main attack was the core of the entire planet.
Jie Ming sighed deeply.
Indeed, relying on the current level of the Embers of Nihility - Reversal Palm to fight a sixth-rank wizard was still too naive.
The most terrifying aspect of high-rank wizards was never technique, but absolute power.
Low-rank wizards liked to use all kinds of strange and clever sorcery to win.
But the higher you go, the more it returns to simplicity.
When the power unleashed is strong enough to crush all rules, no matter how exquisite the technique, it is ultimately just technique.
As he was pondering, the sky darkened again. A second wave of giant rock fists had already covered the entire sky.
Jie Ming's eyes suddenly sharpened. Dozens of modified magical instruments flew out at the same time.
[Trigram Fire Annihilation Divine Light]!
Countless dark golden beams converged instantly.
Boom!!!
A golden torrent piercing through heaven and earth burned through the sea of fists.
Jie Ming executed the Void Step, turning into a streak of light and shooting up from the gap.
He only stopped after flying out of the encirclement.
Augusta did not pursue.
She slowly rose into the air. Behind her was the broken planet that had lost its crust and core.
Her black robe fluttered violently in the remnant storm of the planet's collapse, her long black hair flowing in the wind.
She hovered there quietly, like a war goddess commanding the stars.
Looking at Jie Ming, she said in an still calm voice:
"Jie Ming, if you keep playing these little tricks, it won't be interesting anymore."
She slowly raised a finger, pointing at Jie Ming. "Let your true body come out, or you're going to lose."
Jie Ming looked down at the tattered puppet.
Gray light swirled, and the Embers of Nihility - Reversal Palm activated again. The shattered body quickly returned to its original state.
Looking at the restored body, Jie Ming helplessly spread his hands:
"I already said, it's not that I don't want to come out, but right now I can only maintain this state."
Augusta frowned slightly.
Clearly, she hadn't expected this.
Jie Ming slowly flexed his restored hand, the smile in his eyes gradually fading.
"But you're right to remind me; I really am just a beginner at that move. Using such little tricks against you was too presumptuous." He lifted his head and met Augusta's eyes, a fighting spirit emerging in his gaze.
"I apologize for my earlier behavior. So, you'd better be careful now!"