Blake slightly organized his thoughts before explaining his situation.

As a member of the elite combat unit, his next mission was assigned to a secondary plane battlefield.

As is well known, every plane that requires the intervention of these elites is not easy to handle.

Correspondingly, because it is "support," there will be some basic intelligence circulating about these planes.

"According to the information I have received, the plane we are going to this time... is very strange. It seems to be a world where the lines between illusion and reality are extremely blurred." Blake’s brows slightly furrowed.

"The first batch of wizards to enter sent back ambiguous information, but the core pointed to one thing—there, it’s easy to become engulfed in illusion and hard to distinguish between true and false."

"Fortunately, initial judgments suggest they have not suffered massive casualties; it’s more like they are trapped. So, our group is considered to be going for support and to resolve the situation."

He lifted his head, his gaze focused on Jeming through the light screen: "Therefore, I hope you can help me create a witchcraft artifact, with the core function of resisting illusion or cognitive interference. I don’t know much about the alchemy element’s products, but I’ve heard you have a way with creating special witchcraft artifacts."

After listening to Blake’s description, Jeming instinctively touched his chin.

However, Jeming was not thinking about weapons; he was primarily considering another aspect.

Blake’s request illuminated a blind spot in his own defense system.

He quickly calculated in his heart.

He had a variety of methods, from Black Giant to Talisman Witchcraft, from Profound Gang Red Dust Barrier to Inner Grotto Heaven, seemingly comprehensive, but indeed he had a shortcoming in resisting high-intensity illusion and cognitive interference.

The Profound Gang Red Dust Barrier could prevent curses and prophecy, but it was not effective against direct mind-distorting powers.

The body refining technique’s adaptive resistance was strong, but it was ultimately passive and needed time to take effect.

’I can’t rely on brute force with body refining every time...’ Jeming thought to himself.

Blake’s request happened to give him a practical chance to test what kind of protective equipment his technology could create.

Understanding this, Jeming nodded, responding calmly: "I understand the situation. Creating a witchcraft artifact to resist illusion and cognitive interference is not a problem."

He shifted the topic, stating his conditions: "In terms of price, I can offer you a discount. However, I have a request—after the war on that plane, you must provide me with complete data on the artifact’s specific effects, including activation status, energy consumption, protection thresholds, types and intensities of interference encountered, and all other recordable data."

Blake pondered slightly.

Revealing the specific effect parameters of the witchcraft artifact meant leaking part of his combat intelligence.

But on the flip side, to obtain this valuable firsthand data, Jeming would inevitably put more effort into creating the artifact, likely ensuring better quality.

This was more beneficial than detrimental for him as he was about to step into an unknown and dangerous plane.

"Okay." Blake agreed with only a slight hesitation, "I will do my best regarding data recording."

Since Jeming was creating this kind of specific function witchcraft artifact for the first time, coupled with Blake’s relatively broad requirements, it was difficult to determine the deposit amount or specific delivery time all at once.

Blake thought for a moment and gave a clear time frame: "I have roughly a year to prepare. As long as the artifact can be completed within a year, that will be fine."

"A year is enough." Jeming nodded, accepting the commission, "Then, once I complete the preliminary design and estimate the costs and specific plans, I will contact you to confirm the details."

"Alright, thanks a lot." After Blake finished speaking, they ended the communication.

The light screen dimmed.

After the communication ended, Blake sat in his laboratory, not entirely at ease in his heart.

The reason he unexpectedly contacted this almost unfamiliar and non-acquaintance genius from the same grade actually stemmed from the suggestion of his mentor—Oswaldo.

Originally, Blake intended to seek another alchemist he was more familiar with and who was more specialized in the field of mental protection.

But before making a decision, his mentor Oswaldo unintentionally learned of his plan and casually mentioned: "Perhaps, you could ask that kid Jeming?"

Although Blake didn’t understand—Jeming had not shown any special expertise in the field of mental protection during his time at the academy—from trust in his mentor’s vision, he still attempted to contact Jeming.

During the communication just now, Jeming’s initial ability to break through his unconsciously emitted "existence concealment" and directly recognize him surprised Blake, giving him a new appraisal of Jeming’s actual abilities.

But in the subsequent exchange, he could clearly feel that Jeming did not seem very familiar with creating such witchcraft artifacts; at least, he did not appear to have a mature plan.

This contradictory feeling left Blake somewhat uncertain.

’After all, heading to such a place... it’s always good to have more preparation.’ He thought quietly.

Contemplating for a moment, Blake reopened the communications list, his finger sliding over several familiar names.

’Perhaps... I should ask someone else to help create a similar witchcraft artifact just in case...’

With this in mind, he began to select the next possible collaboration partner.

...

...

After hanging up the communication with Blake, Jeming did not immediately start working but habitually performed a simulation first.

He returned to the laboratory bench, his fingertips unconsciously tracing lightly across the smooth surface, as two pieces of related knowledge in his mind began to rapidly integrate.

For protection against illusions and cognitive interference, whether it is the "Mental Protection" in the Wizard System or the "Soul Suppressing" and "Breaking Illusion" types of Dharma Gates recorded in the Great Dao Book Pavilion, the core principles can generally be summarized into three main categories:

The first is the casting type, akin to equipping one’s mind with a sturdy layer of armor.

By continuously releasing states like "Mental Barrier" and "Heart-Clearing Spell," the user enhances their mental resistance, passively resisting external disturbances.

The advantage is that it can be prepared in advance, providing stable effects against routine interference.

The disadvantage is that the duration is limited, and the protection strength has an upper limit. Once faced with an attack that exceeds the threshold, the protection may shatter instantly.

The second is the awakening type, equivalent to setting up an emergency alarm system.

When the user’s mind succumbs and falls into an illusion, strong soul stimulation—like "Soul-Stabilizing Clear Sound" and "Pain Feedback Array"—forcibly awakens them.

The advantage is its strong targeting and reversal effect on already effective interference.

The disadvantage is the response delay, and the awakening force depends on the interference intensity and the apparatus’s power. If the illusion is too deep, awakening may fail.

Finally, the isolation type constructs an absolutely safe "Mental Chamber."

Directly building a barrier around the user’s consciousness fundamentally isolates internal and external information exchange, making it impossible for illusions and cognitive interference to reach the core.

The advantage is once and for all; as long as the barrier doesn’t break, it is almost immune to all similar influences.

The disadvantage is the enormous energy consumption. Maintaining the barrier requires the continuous consumption of large amounts of energy, posing a severe test to the material and rune or array stability, and possibly affecting the user’s normal perception of the outside world.

Of course, after long years of development, whether it’s wizard’s magical artifacts or heart-protecting magical treasures in the Cultivation Immortality Realm, it is rare to find a single type, mostly composite designs.

But limited by the number of runes the material can bear and energy throughput, in the same level of apparatus, there will inevitably be a focus on a certain function.

If you pursue powerful capabilities in all three functions, you must use higher-tier materials, leading to soaring costs.

The final product may ironically seem mediocre in the same level, not outstanding in any aspect.

Jeming analyzed the information provided by Blake:

"If the entire Plane has problems, then it’s almost certain that the moment you step into that Plane, the illusion attacks could rush in like a tide. There’s a very high ’first glance kill’ risk."

"At the same time, the user would face a Plane war that could last for decades. This means the witchcraft artifact needs to have extremely long-lasting combat capability. Furthermore, the intensity of the interference is entirely unknown, possibly gentle or suddenly spiking in certain areas."

Based on these judgments, he quickly ruled out the casting type.

The limited duration of casting-type witchcraft is a hard flaw, needing frequent activation or maintenance, lacking reliability in unknown long-term tasks.

More dangerously, if its fixed protection strength cannot resist the Plane’s own erosion, the user may succumb unknowingly, which is more terrifying than having no protection at all.

Next, he also set aside the awakening type.

Although more proactive than casting types, its effect requires the user to have already succumbed, creating a dangerous "gap period."

In the perilous Other Plane, even a second of cognitive deviation could be fatal.

Moreover, if the awakening strength is insufficient to break powerful Plane-level interference, this witchcraft artifact is as good as nonexistent.

"So, the safest solution is to address the problem at its root—make the user’s consciousness core completely inaccessible to external illusionary forces."

With a clear strategy emerging, the isolation type became the optimal choice.

Create a pure mental space, protecting Blake’s consciousness, remaining unmoved regardless of the bizarre outside world.

This can minimize the risk of succumbing the moment you enter a Plane, offering stable long-term protection.

However, the well-known drawback of the isolation type also surfaced.

When not in activation mode, it can remain on standby for a long time, but once in activation mode, there will be stunning energy consumption and operational wear.

If facing the worst scenario, where the entire Plane has strong cognitive interference and illusions, the isolation type’s maintenance time might even be shorter than the casting type’s.

Moreover, long-term high-load operation poses an extreme challenge to the durability of the witchcraft artifact’s core materials and the stability of the rune structure.

This means that crafting such a witchcraft artifact will not be cheap.

At this point, instead of feeling overwhelmed, Jeming’s eyes lit up slightly.

"From a commercial perspective, more wear and tear seems more suitable..."

After all, besides collecting data, it’s also about making money, and the more the user spends, the more he earns!

Since what Blake needs is the highest level of security assurance, paying a hefty fee for it is also part of the equivalent exchange.

"Very well, let’s do it this way." Jeming’s lips curled into a slight smile, hesitating no longer.

Get to work without delay.

He got up immediately, the laboratory lights brightened, and multiple auxiliary computation and design light screens lit up simultaneously.