I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality

Jie Ming and his team successfully descended onto the surface of the steel city.

But this was far from the end of the battle—rather, it was like stirring a massive hornet’s nest.

Before Jie Ming’s wizard squad could even survey their surroundings, the piercing screech of metal grinding and the hum of charging energy weapons erupted from all directions.

The towering skyscrapers, clad in metallic shells, suddenly split open with countless gaping holes of varying sizes.

In the next moment, a flood of diverse creatures poured out like a breached ant colony!

Some resembled upright lizards, clad in crude metal armor; others were multi-eyed, multi-legged arthropods wielding weapons that fused biology and machinery; and some were entirely energy-based phantoms, emitting mind-disrupting shrieks…

Their sole target: the wizard squad at the center of this urban district!

“Fire coverage! Clear the perimeter!” the fifth-rank wizard leader reacted swiftly.

With a raised hand, a searing molten ray swept out, instantly vaporizing the first wave of charging enemies and slicing through a swath of skyscrapers at their waists.

The other wizards unleashed their powers: frost, lightning, corrosive acid, psychic assaults…

The glow of various witchcraft erupted in the narrow streets, mowing down waves of grotesque creatures like harvested wheat.

Jie Ming’s [Great Radiance Formation] flared to life again behind him, its dense barrage of energy projectiles plowing through the surging enemy tide, leaving behind scorched earth and scattered remains.

Upon contact, sensing the enemies’ generally low first- or second-rank energy fluctuations and their diverse traits from different lifeforms, Jie Ming immediately understood their origin.

“Servant armies!” he said gravely.

These so-called servant armies were conscripted natives from conquered planes, integrated and driven into service.

The Giant Spirit Realm, having subjugated dozens of planes, naturally possessed such forces.

However, the wizard civilization preferred fully controlled, custom-engineered cannon fodder, which had initially kept Jie Ming from recognizing this.

Compared to the wizards’ meticulously designed, often stronger-than-their-masters “high-quality” cannon fodder, these servant armies were pitifully weak individually.

But… their numbers were utterly terrifying!

The Giant Spirit Realm was vast, its landmass possibly rivaling the surface area of a gas giant like Saturn from Jie Ming’s past life.

Though the wizards had split into small units of hundreds or thousands to fight across only a fraction of the Giant Spirit Realm’s dominion, the defensive zone assigned to Jie Ming’s less-than-a-hundred-strong squad still spanned an area equivalent to a mid-sized province from his previous world!

And within this region, the enemies seemed endless.

Ten minutes!

Just ten minutes of fierce combat!

Jie Ming roughly estimated that the servant armies felled by their squad likely numbered in the staggering tens of billions!

Yet, looking around, more enemies continued to pour from the seemingly bottomless metal skyscrapers, roaring as they charged.

They trampled over their comrades’ corpses, piling bodies into walls, soaking the metal ground with blood and energy, their assault unrelenting.

For a moment, this elite wizard squad found itself in a rather awkward predicament.

Looking up, the wizards’ floating fortresses and main cannon fodder legions were dominating the Giant Spirit Realm’s regular forces in the skies.

But on the ground, these wizards, meant to be battlefield overlords, were embarrassingly bogged down by the sheer volume of low-tier servant armies.

They could only hold their ground, continuously expending mana and mental energy in inefficient clearing efforts.

This wasn’t a sign of wizard weakness—quite the opposite. It reflected the wizard civilization’s unique war philosophy: leveraging knowledge to wield power.

Rather than obsessively pursuing physical evolution, they devoted their efforts to understanding and manipulating the laws of the world.

Cannon fodder legions were an extension of this philosophy, a tool of war embodying knowledge and resources. It was normal for their collective combat strength to surpass that of the wizards themselves.

This led to the bizarre spectacle where cannon fodder legions overwhelmed enemy regulars, while the wizards themselves were pinned down by enemy rabble.

After another wave of energy barrages cleared a temporary vacuum in front of them, Jie Ming frowned as he saw even more enemies surging like a fountain from the skyscraper gaps behind.

“We can’t keep going like this,” he realized.

The enemy’s intent was clear: to exhaust their strength with these cheap, near-infinite servant armies.

To break this stalemate, the only solution was to locate and destroy the enemy’s troop deployment points or teleportation nodes!

Otherwise, they’d eventually be drowned in this quagmire of flesh and metal.

He looked up, meeting the gazes of the fifth-rank leader and the two fourth-rank wizards.

Their eyes reflected the same judgment and resolve.

“Clear the field of vision! Level these obstructive ruins and metal boxes!” the fifth-rank wizard decisively issued a new command, his voice cutting through the relentless explosions to reach every squad member.

Jie Ming didn’t hesitate, raising his hand to fire a highly condensed energy projectile into the sky above.

The projectile soared rapidly, and at a height of several hundred meters, he precisely triggered its detonation!

BOOM!!!

A massive explosion bloomed in the air, its ferocious shockwave slamming down like an invisible hammer onto the metal skyscraper ruins and crowded streets below!

Yet, the effect fell short of expectations.

The metal used in the Giant Spirit Realm’s structures was clearly exceptional.

Jie Ming’s projectile, capable of flattening a modern reinforced concrete city block, only cleared a roughly hundred-meter radius.

For this vast warzone, it was a drop in the bucket.

The blasted metal fragments were mostly twisted and deformed, not fully vaporized.

“Pretty tough…” Jie Ming’s eyes narrowed. “Then let’s add more!”

With a thought, the massive [Great Radiance Formation] behind him hummed to life again.

This time, instead of precise shots at ground enemies, it unleashed thousands of energy projectiles skyward, like a festival firework launcher, trailing dazzling arcs!

These projectiles didn’t aim directly at targets but, under Jie Ming’s masterful control, scattered in all directions across the sky like living entities!

They traced elegant parabolas, covering an immense airspace around the squad.

The fifth-rank wizard and two fourth-rank wizards, quick to react, cast witchcraft to erect a barrier enveloping the entire squad.

As the projectiles reached their designated detonation points…

“Explode,” Jie Ming uttered softly.

The next moment, the world fell silent!

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

An indescribable cacophony of explosions chained together, converging into a symphony of destruction that could rupture organs!

Thousands of blazing orbs detonated simultaneously in the sky, between buildings, and across streets!

Shockwaves collided and amplified, forming visible rings of distorted air that spread wildly in all directions!

Metal skyscrapers were effortlessly toppled and shredded like children’s building blocks.

The servant armies and battle debris on the ground were instantly vaporized or ground into the finest dust in this indiscriminate storm of destruction.

The intense light turned the dim battlefield as bright as day, even causing a momentary pause in the distant aerial combat, stunned by this sudden devastation from the ground.

The explosion’s aftermath lingered for over ten seconds before slowly subsiding.

As the dust and scattered energy particles cleared, the wizards couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath at the sight.

Centered on the squad’s position, the cyberpunk-styled steel jungle of countless metal skyscrapers within a hundreds-kilometer radius… was gone!

In its place was a vast, flat expanse of scorched earth, littered with glassy craters and twisted metal slag!

The field of vision was clear.

Jie Ming hovered at the center of the scorched earth, the [Great Radiance Formation]’s glow slightly dimmed.

The first step to breaking the stalemate had been taken.

Next was to find those hidden “hives.”

And then, destroy them completely!

—

On the vast scorched plain, forcibly cleared of obstacles, locating the enemy’s troop deployment nodes became almost trivially straightforward.

Under Jie Ming’s saturation bombardment, ordinary metal structures had been reduced to ruins or molten slag.

Now, the skyscrapers still standing tall on the scorched earth, continuously spewing servant armies, stood out like lice on a bald head—impossible to miss.

Looking across the plain, shrouded in smoke and metallic vapor, solitary skyscrapers stood stubbornly every kilometer or two.

Their metal shells might be scorched or deformed, but their structures remained largely intact, their surfaces flickering with unnatural energy glow.

Countless enemies continued to pour from them, like venomous bees from a hive.

“Clear targets! Prioritize destroying these nodes!” the fifth-rank wizard’s voice carried a hint of ease as he locked onto the five nearest surviving skyscrapers.

With clear objectives, the wizards’ efficiency soared.

Jie Ming, with a thought, retrieved three new metal discs from his internal space, their surfaces flowing with elemental radiance.

The three elemental storage sigil artifacts flew to his back, swiftly replacing the three dimmed discs at the [Great Radiance Formation]’s core, drained from excessive energy draw.

Fresh energy flooded the array, making the [Great Radiance Formation] shine brighter than ever.

With over ten thousand sigil artifacts now embedded in the array, thanks to his internal automated factory’s relentless production, its radiance was dazzling.

Prepared, the wizards struck.

The fifth-rank leader gripped the air, five distinct-colored, highly condensed destructive rays leaping from his fingertips.

After a brief charge, the five rays crossed space instantly, precisely striking five different skyscrapers!

The two fourth-rank wizards coordinated seamlessly: one summoned a massive elemental array to gather energy, while the other compressed it into a thunderous spear that spanned the sky, hurling it with awe-inspiring force at another skyscraper.

The remaining wizards, based on their strength, teamed up in groups of ten or four, unleashing their most powerful single-target or small-area assault witchcraft.

Deadly streams of light arced across the scorched plain, targeting the conspicuous nodes.

Jie Ming, after recharging, displayed jaw-dropping siege prowess.

With intense focus, his massive [Great Radiance Formation] adjusted its angle, locking onto ten skyscrapers within his mental range!

The next moment, the [Great Radiance Formation] unleashed its barrage. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Under Jie Ming’s control, the barrage split into ten radiant energy whips, tearing through the air with piercing shrieks, lashing viciously at the surfaces of the ten skyscrapers!

Buzz!!!

The moment they were struck, the skyscrapers’ surfaces flared with translucent energy barriers, swirling with complex geometric patterns, attempting to repel the destruction.

Yet, under Jie Ming’s relentless “energy flood,” these barriers held for less than two seconds before shattering like fragile glass, emitting a series of anguished groans!

With the barriers broken, the energy whips struck the buildings unimpeded!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Ten near-simultaneous explosions rang out!

The ten towering skyscrapers, along with any teleportation devices, energy cores, and unborn servant armies within, were instantly vaporized by the extreme heat and destructive energy upon contact.

One volley, ten nodes obliterated!

Only ten bottomless, glassy-edged craters remained, wisps of smoke rising—Jie Ming had scoured even their foundations clean.

This terrifying siege efficiency made the other casting wizards glance over, their eyes brimming with unmasked admiration and shock.

The fifth-rank leader looked at Jie Ming, marveling.

His keen eye could discern the strengths and weaknesses of Jie Ming’s attack pattern.

While the energy whips were immensely powerful, their speed and flexibility were flaws.

Not just a fourth-rank wizard, even a seasoned third-rank wizard could easily dodge them with preparation.

But for fixed targets and stronghold assaults, this brute-force, relentless energy deluge was more efficient than even his own fifth-rank abilities!

“The drawback… likely the immense mental strain and the bottomless consumption of those special energy reserves,” the fifth-rank wizard mused, watching Jie Ming swiftly down two vials of high-grade potions to replenish his mental energy.

“But with such terrifying instantaneous destructive power, those flaws are more than compensated. What a… monstrous young talent.”

He said nothing more, but the approval in his eyes deepened.

Seeing the node-clearing strategy’s effectiveness, he immediately directed the squad to target all remaining skyscraper nodes in their field of vision, determined to uproot the enemy’s troop deployment capacity in this region!

Under the squad’s efficient and lethal clearing, the once-tidal servant armies visibly waned, their dense ranks thinning.

Without the nodes’ continuous reinforcements, these low-tier servant armies lost much of their effectiveness.

Facing the merciless slaughter by Jie Ming and the wizards, they finally showed signs of collapse, their fearless charges giving way to chaos and retreat.

From high above, the Giant Spirit Realm’s battlefield was dotted with dazzling explosions.

Clearly, other wizard squads that had landed, after initial struggles, had also found countermeasures.

Like Jie Ming’s team, they began large-scale purges of the “soldier hives” hidden in the steel jungle.

The sharp decline in ground servant armies seemed to sap the Giant Spirit Realm’s regular forces’ resolve.

The Giant Spirit Realm’s fleets and mechanical legions, still clashing with the wizards’ cannon fodder in the skies and afar, saw their resistance weaken, their formations loosening as they gradually retreated.

The clamor of war shifted from intense confrontations to sporadic firefights and pursuits.

“This area’s enemies have been cleared. Next… collect resources. There’s more fighting ahead,” the fifth-rank wizard ordered, watching the last batch of fleeing servant armies.

Jie Ming said nothing, and the wizards acted, capturing the final servant armies as spoils.

Realizing the first phase’s toughest battles were nearing their end, the wizards methodically shifted tasks.

Temporary resource collection arrays were set up across the battlefield, drawing in, sorting, and classifying the wreckage of Giant Spirit Realm warships, mechanical giant fragments, and servant army corpses with invisible forces.

These alien materials and energies would become valuable resources for crafting cannon fodder in the next assault.

Jie Ming stowed his [Great Radiance Formation], landing on the scorched earth, feeling the significant drain on his mental energy and the hum of his internal automated factory.

Gazing at the ravaged yet firmly wizard-controlled battlefield, he exhaled softly.

The brutal, chaotic, yet efficient first phase of the landing war, with the Giant Spirit Realm’s armies retreating and the wizards beginning to sweep the battlefield, finally drew to a close.