As time passed, the power of the Incense Fire Divine Dao, anchored by Jie Ming, continued to seep into the depths of this plane along the edges of the rift in the plane barrier. Wherever it passed, it quietly embedded the power of the Incense Fire Divine Dao into the deep laws of this plane.
Jie Ming could feel the coverage of the Incense Fire Divine Dao expanding. With every additional area covered, his perception of this world grew a bit clearer.
At the same time, the tide of battle gradually began to turn.
Looking down from high above, the dark network that had been expanding across the gray land had now come to a halt. In its place, a gray-brown tide surged from all directions.
That was hundreds of millions of Mushroom People.
They had been awakened from their slumber by the food signals emanating from the corpses of their dead kin, and were now frantically devouring every bit of organic matter they could find on the battlefield. As they fed, their shells quickly regained their luster, and their shriveled tentacles became plump and full again.
The combat power they had lost over countless years of slumber was being replenished by the nourishment turned from their kin's corpses.
It could be said that the wizards' killing was instead providing the Mushroom People with an endless stream of combat power.
The young wizards' cannon fodder legions began to retreat in defeat step by step.
Several vanguard units that had been overly successful earlier, gotten separated from the main force, and charged ahead of everyone else, had already been completely swallowed by the gray tide of Mushroom People.
The ranged units were pouring out firepower desperately, trying to barely hold the line.
But every volley that killed Mushroom People only attracted more awakeners from farther away, creating an unstoppable vicious cycle. The faces of the young wizards had long since faded from initial arrogance to pallor.
The attacks of several Third-rank wizards had come to a complete standstill; under their command, the cannon fodder units had lost more than half their number, forcing them to tighten their formations and switch to passive defense. Even the few Fifth-rank wizards showed obvious signs of anxiety on their faces, frequently looking up at the two figures who still hovered in the sky without giving any orders.
Jie Ming and Augusta, however, were not looking at them. Their gazes were both fixed on the northwest.
Not long before the Mushroom People in this area had all become active, deep within a wasteland thousands of kilometers away, a power fluctuation far stronger than any individual on the battlefield was slowly awakening.
“It seems that is where the leader of the Mushroom People in this area is located.”
Jie Ming withdrew his gaze and turned to Augusta. “Those little ones down there look like they can’t hold on much longer. I’ll take the legion to probe the enemy. You take overall command and be ready to support at any moment.”
“Alright!” Augusta nodded.
Jie Ming raised his hand, and a passage to his Inner World suddenly opened behind him with a loud bang. The Black Giant legion, long prepared, surged out of the pitch-black passage.
The average rank of this batch of Black Giants was not high, mostly around the Fifth-rank, with only a few leaders reaching Sixth-rank.
Right behind the Black Giant legion came the fleet of the Tentacle Tree Civilization.
Swaths of silver-gray warships filed out of the black passage one after another, their shields glimmering with cold pale-blue light under the gray-yellow sky.
Before long, the force, five hundred thousand Black Giants and over a million Tentacle Tree warships, had assembled.
This force of Black Giants and Tentacle Tree units could only be considered a "low-level" formation within his entire legion system. Even so, it was more than enough to deal with this plane, which was extremely deficient in resources. Besides, it was a good opportunity to let these raw recruits, who hadn’t seen much of the world since their formation, get some practice!
“Send my order... sweep away all creatures that get in the way and attack the enemy leader’s location directly!”
After a glance at the battle below, Jie Ming gave the command, “Devour all Mushroom People that lose the ability to fight on the spot. Don’t leave them as food for the enemy!”
“Nyehehehe! As you command, our lord!”
Upon hearing the order, the Sixth-rank Black Giant leaders split open the huge vertical maws on their chests and burst into a series of excited, maniacal laughs.
These fellows had been cooped up in the Infernal Sulfur Plane for too long due to their insufficient ranks. Now that it was finally their turn to take the field, each one was more excited than the last, itching to charge forward and slaughter everything in sight.
As Jie Ming's order was given, his liberated cannon fodder legion, as dense as a swarm of locusts, followed the leading Sixth-rank Black Giants as they flew northwest.
On the ground, the young wizards who had been fighting desperately stared in shock at this vast army that had suddenly appeared.
The army of Mushroom People they had barely managed to resist with all their might was now as fragile as paper in front of the Black Giant legion. The Black Giants didn’t even bother to slow down. The Sixth-rank leaders on the front line casually threw punches as they flew, blasting away swaths of Mushroom People blocking their path.
The Fifth-rank Black Giants in the rear casually stuffed the Mushroom People that had lost their combat capability into the vertical maws on their chests.
The moment their obsidian teeth snapped shut, a grating crackling sound echoed. The Mushroom People's hard, rocky shells were nothing more than an extra chew or two before the Black Giants' fangs.
The Tentacle Tree Civilization's warships provided continuous fire support from on high, pouring down pale-blue energy beams that picked off the Mushroom People surging from the surrounding ground in batches.
The entire legion cut through the gray tide like a red-hot blade through butter, carving out a perfectly straight path. Jie Ming stood aloft behind the legion, hands clasped behind his back, calmly overlooking the scene like a sovereign who controlled everything. Soon, the Black Giant legion advanced to the location where the aura had erupted.
This was a cracked wasteland riddled with countless caves and tunnels, the ground full of holes dug by the Mushroom People.
Jie Ming swept his True Illusion Void-Breaking Eye over the ground below, and his brow furrowed imperceptibly.
The ground below had almost been completely hollowed out by the Mushroom People, forming a huge underground cavern interlaced with passages.
A few Sixth-rank Mushroom People were slowly awakening deep within the cavern, but there was no trace of any Seventh-rank Mushroom People.
Now... this was interesting.
This area had clearly been detected with a Seventh-rank energy reaction during earlier reconnaissance, yet the few Mushroom People leaders here were only Sixth-rank. Jie Ming quickly reviewed the overall situation of the battlefield.
During the famine, the Mushroom People had not slaughtered each other but had chosen collective hibernation. The fact that they could suppress the instinct to devour their kin's corpses meant that not all individuals in this race had completely shattered souls; undoubtedly, many Mushroom People still retained intact intelligence.
In that case, let's see if we can find useful information from those Mushroom People who still retain their intelligence.
"Crush the Mushroom People army underground, and capture all the Sixth-rank Mushroom People hidden here, as well as any Mushroom People who seem to retain intelligence. Bring them all to me!"
With that thought, Jie Ming issued a new order.