Only one month has passed since the three returned to the main base with significant discoveries.

Jeming stood on the core observation platform of the Wizard Legion, looking at the distant horizon where the black surge began to gather and rise again, and sighed helplessly.

This time, the Reaper Race’s response speed far exceeded previous records.

The sixth cycle had just started for over a month, and they couldn’t hold back, assembling an unimaginably massive force, putting forth a stance for an all-out battle.

They seem no longer satisfied with passive trial and error learning, but are becoming extremely eager.

Frost’s figure appeared at the edge of the platform, his gaze likewise solemnly cast towards the distance.

"Advisor Jeming, what is the progress of the various research projects? Is there any substantial breakthrough regarding the verification of ’paradox’ and the detection of possible ’high-level willpower’?"

Jeming withdrew his gaze and turned to the commander, with a trace of a wry smile on his face: "Most of the research has just utilized the data obtained from the last cycle to establish theoretical models and experimental schemes, and is entering the stage of deep deduction and design verification. Many key conjectures, like the effective mechanism of the ’paradox’ and whether individuals above the eighth level have ’antimodification,’ require more precise experiments and longer observation periods to confirm. Our manpower and time... are still too tight."

In other words, although the knowledge has been passed down through the Record Crystal, the process for the wizards to digest, understand, and innovate upon it cannot accelerate.

Frost frowned deeply.

He understood the rigor of research, but the battlefield waits for no one.

"I understand. I will do my utmost to drag this battle into a war of attrition to buy you time. But the enemy’s determination this time is unlike before, and the time I can delay... I fear it won’t be long."

"That’s enough, Commander." Jeming nodded and immediately made a request, "Additionally, during the battle, I hope all combat units can capture and relay real-time images of every individual of the Reaper Race they encounter, especially the details of their chest armor and any unique body markings."

"To further validate your conjectures? To confirm whether those ’partially gathered’ individuals truly ’perfectly recover,’ and whether those ’completely erased’ truly disappear?" Frost immediately understood.

"Yes. Although the previous validation at the outpost camp supports our theory, the sample size and environment were limited. I need massive amounts of data from large-scale, high-intensity frontline battles for cross-verification and statistical analysis. This will help us evaluate the coverage range, precision, and whether there are blind spots of the ’editing’ ability of that possibly existing ’behind-the-scenes willpower.’" Jeming explained.

"Alright, I will issue this as a tactical command." Frost agreed and then turned to begin issuing detailed defense and delay instructions through the Magic Net.

Soon, four terrifying pressures that could change the color of the world crushed forth from the horizon, like four moving mountains of Law.

The eighth-level leaders of the Reaper Race once again personally came to the battlefield, earlier than any previous total assault.

Jeming looked up at those four dark golden colossal figures, his heart remained calm, and even his mouth curled without mockery.

He thought of the eighth-level leader’s corpse from the previous cycle within his Inner Grotto Heaven.

Recalling how, after returning to camp earlier, upon taking out the corpse, it was immediately erased by the paradox.

Proved that even the eighth level existence—at least the eighth level existence of the Reaper Race—could not escape this complete removal based on temporal continuity.

And now, with one less eighth-level leader, it also verified his view.

"Directly collecting them into the Grotto Heaven would be the cleanest solution..." This thought flashed by, but Jeming immediately suppressed it.

For wizards, killing has never been the ultimate goal; understanding and mastering the mysteries behind it is.

These eighth-level leaders themselves were the most precious living samples for researching cycles and that ’behind-the-scenes willpower.’

Releasing the corpse of the eighth-level leader immediately after returning to camp was because Jeming wanted to see if they would recover in the next cycle.

The peak duel in the sky was playing out once again.

Frost, with one against four, his silver-gray figure shuttled through the turbulent currents of Law, pulling the battlefield into the high sky.

The ground and low-altitude combat strictly followed the script of "delay and consumption."

The wizards did not commit all main forces but mainly relied on the updated and iterated biochemical beast group to resist the impact.

These silver-gray killing machines moved like tides with a life of their own, repeatedly colliding, devouring, and splitting against the black insect tide, holding the front line firmly without rushing to advance.

Meanwhile, Jeming and several specially drafted wizards skilled in high-speed information processing were setting up a temporary "image processing center" at one corner of the observation platform.

A flood of real-time images from every corner of the frontline poured into their Rune Array like a waterfall of light.

Every frame was quickly analyzed to extract features.

The color distribution of the glory armor, the unique patterns on the shell, the old scars on limbs...

Countless details were encoded and rapidly compared to the feature database stored in Jeming’s Inner Grotto Heaven from last cycle’s "partial collection" samples.

It was an extremely mentally demanding task. Jeming’s Spiritual Power operated at full speed, processing hundreds of comparison threads simultaneously. The other specially selected wizards proficient in data analysis each carried out their duties, continually sorting and making preliminary judgments.

In the torrent of data, conclusions gradually became clear:

"In area numbered K-7712, image match successful, target identified as Fourth Level ’Piercer’ variant, unique arrangement of bone spikes on the right wing root matches ’partial collection-right wing sample.’ Real-world individual has intact wings and uninterrupted bone spike arrangement."

"Cluster numbered S-3098, match found... Sixth Level ’Commander’ variant, the depth of the third groove on the left side of the crown matches ’partial collection-partial crown shell’ data. Real-world individual’s crown is intact and groove continuous."

"No ’partially collected’ sample shows any signs of tissue loss or abnormal healing in corresponding real-world entities."

"No ’complete storage and disappearance’ sample has been found to have any corresponding real-world entities in image records."

The results once again confirmed previous findings.

The power of time reversal tends to "repair" or "cover" the entities that have been partially "cut" back to a complete state.

For entities that have been completely removed from the timeline, it decisively "deletes" their existence and corrects related logical chains.

Half a month has passed amidst the consumption of data flow and flesh.

Despite the Wizards’ efforts to control the pace, the Scythe Race’s assault this time was unprecedentedly frantic and reckless.

The consumption rate of the Biochemical Beasts began to exceed the replenishment, and pressure on the defense line increased day by day.

When monitoring data showed that the total number of the Scythe Race was once again approaching the critical threshold for triggering the loop, Frost knew the limit of delay had been reached.

"Execute final clean-up procedures! All research units, immediately seal the data!" His orders were decisive and clear.

On the platform, Jeming and others were already prepared.

Instruments shut down, crystals encapsulated, notes archived... everything was orderly and methodical.

Jeming’s Spiritual Power expanded like an invisible giant net, sweeping all critical research materials on the platform into his Inner Grotto Heaven.

At the moment the last crystal entered the Grotto Heaven, that irresistible pulling sensation from the world’s root source descended once again.

This time, Jeming felt it particularly clearly.

He could even "sense" a certain anchoring of his consciousness and body in the reverse flow of time—that was the resistance brought by the evolution of the Body Refining Technique in action.

Darkness engulfed his vision.

But this time, the darkness was not void.

Numerous clear images, sounds, data, insights... the complete memory belonging to the sixth loop imprinted clearly in the depths of his soul at the last moment before the consciousness submerged.

Just after rushing through the space rift, Jeming’s figure remained motionless.

No dizziness, no trance, just a peace of stepping into familiar scenes.

He opened his eyes, behind him were three thousand support Wizards, looking slightly blank, and ahead was their vigilant unit awaiting action, with the far-off horizon beginning to stir.

The seventh loop.

He remembered everything that happened in the sixth loop completely.

Frost’s tactical arrangements, Scythe Race’s frenzied total attack, every detail of the image comparison, and his orderly "data rescue" before time flowed backward.

"Captain?" came the inquiry from a team member behind.

Jeming turned around, his eyes swept across these companions who would fight side by side once more, his voice steady and affirming:

"No worries. Get ready, we have work to do again."

He raised his head, looking towards Frost flying in from the direction of the command platform.

...

...

After completing the routine opening of each loop, Jeming’s first focus was not the battle situation but those "constant" data that required continuous monitoring.

He mobilized Logistics Wizards to combine the detailed data stored in his Inner Grotto Heaven from previous rounds and conducted high-precision verification of the elemental abundance, energy tide baseline, space curvature parameters, etc., of the current Plane.

The results soon emerged: everything was normal.

There was no systematic decay of 0.3%, no slight relaxation on the level of laws.

The basic "constants" of the Plane were as solid as a rock, completely matching the data baseline of the fourth round.

"As expected..." Jeming stood before the Rune Light Curtain in the laboratory, looking at the comparison results, understanding it in his heart, "The energy decay observed in the last round was not the ’wear’ of time reversal itself, but the ’cost’ triggered by our experiment."

With data support, the results were evident:

When time reversal occurs, to "repair" those Scythe Race entities he had "partially collected" to restore them to completeness, the Plane needs to consume extra energy and "information," extracting data from an earlier timeline or a certain "backup" to fill in the parts cut away by Jeming.

This "repair" operation is the source of that 0.3% decay.

And those individuals completely stored in the Grotto Heaven, because their existence was thoroughly "deleted," the repair logic doesn’t apply and may not have such consumption.