Translator: AnubisTL
Seeing his worried expression, Viola smiled and waved her hand dismissively. "Don't worry too much. Though the details weren't specified, generally speaking, wizards who post missions at the junction point do so to conquer the plane and claim it as their wizard tower. The fact that a plane can serve as a wizard tower indicates it's a relatively orderly world with established rules."
A "relatively orderly world" refers to a plane whose rules closely resemble those of the wizards' native plane.
While there might be minor differences in specifics, these planes generally follow predictable patterns, such as the Elosia Plane Cluster.
The real trouble lies with planes governed by highly unique rules. Wizards who die during conquest are usually victims of such environments, not combat.
The shadow plane Jieming had heard about earlier is a prime example of a special plane. Even simply existing within it inflicts constant damage on wizards.
The value of different planes is difficult to assess. For individual high-rank wizards, rule planes hold greater value, while for wizard factions, special planes might be more valuable.
As they conversed, the entire plane suddenly began to tremble violently!
Cracking sounds echoed from the ground beneath their feet, as if it were being subjected to unbearable pressure.
Jieming immediately saw a massive rift tear open in the desolate sky above, a true breach in the planar barrier!
Beyond the rift lay a bizarre spectacle: strange substances surged within, pulsating with completely unfamiliar elemental fluctuations.
"We've arrived!" Viola's voice turned grave.
The other wizards also entered battle readiness. Jieming could clearly sense that in an instant, the atmosphere among all the wizards in the plane had completely transformed.
Their destination had been reached!
In the boundless chaotic void, there existed a radiant and peculiar plane, known by its inhabitants as the "Flamefrost Plane."
From its very inception, this world was endowed with a uniquely dualistic geography and ecology.
The entire plane was permanently divided in half by projections originating from two entirely different elemental planes, resulting in two starkly contrasting and extreme landscapes.
One half of the plane was bathed in the eternal, intense light projected from the Fire Elemental Plane.
Here, perpetual daylight reigned, the scorching radiance evaporating all moisture, and the air was thick with the stench of sulfur and searing heat.
The barren, scorched earth was covered in crimson-hot sand and jagged, blackened rocks. Smoking active volcanoes dotted the landscape like festering sores, their molten fury poised to erupt at any moment, threatening to unleash cataclysmic lava flows.
The temperature here was so extreme that it could easily melt steel.
This region was named the "Blazing Sun Realm" by the native creatures.
In stark contrast to the Blazing Sun Realm, the other half of the plane was perpetually immersed in the endless, dim light projected from the Water Elemental Plane.
Here, eternal night reigned, with only ice-covered lands and bone-chilling winds.
Feather-like snowflakes fell ceaselessly, painting the world in a pristine white. The bone-chilling wind howled, freezing all living things in its path.
Apart from the occasional faint glow emanating from strange plants in the cracks, there was no other light.
This place was known as the Frostdark Realm.
Stretching like a scar between these two extreme worlds was a massive, ancient mountain range.
Unlike ordinary mountains composed of rock, this range was formed from crystals and veins of minerals created by the violent collision and fusion of two elemental energies, permeated by a chaotic and turbulent energy field.
Only a handful of specially evolved creatures dared to venture into its depths.
This mountain range served as the natural boundary between the Blazing Sun Realm and the Frostdark Realm, acting as a buffer zone between their two extreme civilizations.
In this unique plane, two distinct intelligent species had naturally arisen.
The rulers of the Blazing Sun Realm were colossal lava giants.
Their bodies were composed of flowing molten cores and solid volcanic rock, their skin glowing with a lava-like crimson. Their bodies radiated astonishing heat year-round, and their eyes burned like fiery volcanoes.
They possessed immense strength, capable of effortlessly moving rocks weighing hundreds of tons, and were naturally immune to fire and extreme heat.
Their civilization thrived around volcanoes, drawing sustenance from molten lava and power from flames.
The dominant creatures of the Frostdark Realm, on the other hand, were snow monsters—beings with long, frost-white fur covering their bodies, resembling a hybrid of a horse's lower half and a bear's upper half.
They were physically robust, their four hooves leaving no trace in the snow, their canine ears sharp, and their bear-like arms brimming with explosive power.
Naturally adapted to extreme cold, they could absorb the power of ice elements and even devour darkness.
Their civilization was built deep within glaciers, where they dwelled in colossal ice caves or castles carved from ice and snow, feeding on frozen creatures and drawing strength from the frigid cold.
The lava giants and snow monsters, two vastly different yet equally formidable species, had coexisted on the Flamefrost Plane for countless millennia.
They despised each other, and from the moment of their creation, they had waged a relentless war for dominance over the world.
The brutal conflict raged for eons near the Border Mountains, where blood and fire, ice and wails, intertwined to form the grim melody of the Flamefrost Plane.
Yet despite the ceaseless clashes, neither side had ever managed to truly defeat the other.
The reason was simple: neither side could adapt to the other's environment.
Once lava giants left the scorching heat of the Blazing Sun Realm, their bodies would gradually cool, slowing their movements.
Conversely, Snow Monsters entering the Blazing Sun Realm would suffer injuries from the extreme heat, their life force rapidly draining away.
This meant that even the most brutal battles were confined to the vicinity of the Border Mountains, preventing either side from striking deep into the other's core territory.
This stalemate had persisted until the present day.
Now, in the heart of the Blazing Sun Realm, atop a colossal ten-thousand-zhang-tall active volcano, within a palace surrounded by endless lava, a massive bubbling sound echoed through the halls.
Blazing hot steam filled the palace, creating distorted, shimmering illusions.
At the core of the palace lay the Lava Giant King's private lava pool, where temperatures soared to thousands of degrees, capable of instantly melting metal.
A lava giant over ten meters tall luxuriated in the pool, treating it like the most comfortable hot spring.
Molten lava flowed over his body, nourishing his form with a satisfying sizzle.
With his eyes closed, he savored this ultimate comfort and power.
He was Karamos, the King of the Blazing Sun Realm, a powerful sixth-tier creature who commanded an army of tens of millions of lava giants.
Suddenly, the tranquility was shattered by the sound of hurried, anxious footsteps.
A lava giant serving as a guard crashed into the private palace with a thunderous roar, his body radiating an even more agitated heat than usual.
"Your Majesty! A Heaven and Earth Anomaly!" the guard giant bellowed, his voice trembling with barely suppressed terror.
Karamos slowly opened his eyes, two furious glares piercing the guard. His voice rumbled like the deep tremors before a volcanic eruption: "What's all this commotion?!"
"Your Majesty! The sky... the sky has been torn open!" the guard giant trembled, pointing toward the palace ceiling. "A massive, pitch-black rift! We observed... we observed a circular, yellow rock at the very center of the rift!"
Due to the distance, the guard giant couldn't accurately judge the size of the ship plane and instinctively mistook the planar projection for a rock.
To him, the scene resembled a colossal, pitch-black eye suddenly appearing in the sky, with the yellow rock as its pupil, staring down at their world!
"What nonsense is this?!"
King Karamos's face twisted with fury at the guard's words.
He surged to his feet, molten lava cascading from his body and splattering across the palace floor with a searing hiss, instantly coating the ground.
Unable to endure the guard's incoherent babbling any longer, the lava giant Karamos decided to investigate the truth himself.
With a single gesture, he blasted through the palace ceiling. As countless fragments of rock and molten rain showered down, Karamos's colossal form shot skyward, directly exposing himself to the Blazing Sun Realm's scorching sky.
His massive lava eyes locked onto the pitch-black "eye" the guard had described, hanging in the heavens.
The spatial rift was indeed colossal, stretching across nearly half the sky. Yet the "Ship" Plane suspended at its center seemed comparatively small.
It blocked a portion of the searing sunlight, casting a shadow across the land below.
To Karamos's horror, the massive rift, combined with the "eyeball"-like "rock" at its center, was even larger than the blazing sun that had eternally hung in their sky!
Such an anomaly had never been witnessed in tens of thousands of years!
A primal sense of dread surged through King Karamos's heart, unlike anything he had ever felt before.
"Oracle! Come before me at once!" he roared, his voice echoing across the Blazing Sun Realm.
Moments later, his chief oracle, a gaunt lava giant whose skin was etched with ancient runes, arrived, escorted by trembling guards.
The oracle pressed his molten hand against the king's chest, closing his eyes to sense the Heaven and Earth Anomaly.
After a tense moment, the oracle's eyes snapped open, his gaze filled with terror.
"Your... your majesty!" the oracle's voice trembled with age and fear. "The ancient prophecy... it's true. In just a few days... enemies will descend from the sky... they will... tear our world apart!"
"Enemies?!" King Karamos's rage flared, his hair standing on end.
His first thought turned to his eternal foes, the "white-haired fiends" of the Frostdark Realm!
For countless millennia, these icy creatures had sought to invade and corrupt the Blazing Sun Realm.
"This must be the work of those damned white-haired fiends! They're trying to exploit this trickery to launch a surprise attack from above!" King Karamos roared.
Molten lava dripped from his body, fueled by his incandescent fury.
Without the slightest hesitation, his massive body shuddered violently as he issued the most urgent command: "Summon all legions! Prepare for battle! Assemble at the Border Mountains! We will burn these white-haired fiends who dare to attack from the sky to ashes!"
Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the Flamefrost Plane, in the Frostdark Realm shrouded in eternal night, the earth-shattering anomaly was also detected.
Deep within a colossal glacier, at the core of the magnificent ice crystal palace, in the frozen lake carved from millennia-old ice, the towering Snow Monster King Agron received the same intelligence from his guards.
Unsurprisingly, he reacted identically to the Lava Giant King Karamos.
"Summon all clan warriors! Assemble the legions!" Agron roared, his voice echoing through the glacier like an avalanche, "Prepare for battle! We will bury these stone fragments that dare to invade from the sky beneath our eternal ice and snow!"
Thus, completely unaware of each other's actions, the Flamefrost Plane's two ancient enemies—King Karamos of the Lava Giants and King Agron of the Snow Monsters—both mobilized their vast armies, preparing for the impending war.
(End of the Chapter)
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