I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality Chapter 627: Analysis

Chapter 627: Analysis

Nine individuals positioned themselves atop the hillside, eyeing one another carefully.

A brief silence hung for several seconds. Then, the middle-aged wizard clad in a deep blue robe broke it.

“Looks like all of you selected this location.” His tone remained steady while his eyes scanned their features. “I hadn’t anticipated such a crowd choosing it.”

“Likely because others went for more blatant options,” a young female wizard cut in. Her voice held a chilly, dissecting edge. “This Strange operates as the gradual killer type, not the explosive one that razes cities instantly. Plenty might dismiss this ‘mild’ Strange as low-value.”

“Low value?” The robust male wizard snorted derisively. “Are we truly evaluating rule-based beings by their slaughter pace?”

The young female wizard shot him a look but refrained from debating. She merely stated coolly, “I’m just breaking down others’ mindsets. It doesn’t reflect my opinion.”

Jie Ming lingered at the group’s periphery, holding back from chiming in.

He observed that the wizards’ vibe wasn’t as fraught as he’d pictured. Nor was it overly friendly. It resembled colleagues thrown together briefly, testing waters before diving into the task.

Each grasped that in this arena with capped output energy and bans on massive devastation, solo action wasn’t always best. Particularly against an enigmatic Strange, an extra ally provided additional safeguard.

The deep blue-robed middle-aged wizard, boasting the most potent spiritual power aura, had emerged as the interim head.

He continued, “With everyone gathered, I propose we locate the administrative android first for direct intel, then plan ahead. Thoughts?”

Objections were absent.

The nine silhouettes lifted off the modest hill, soaring toward the town’s heart.

To prevent alarming civilians, they dropped height upon nearing the town’s airspace, skimming over rooftops, before touching down outside a three-story stone structure.

A wooden plaque dangled at the entry: “Town Hall.”

An elderly figure waited by the door.

Or something resembling one.

Stooped, he donned a gray coat faded from countless washes. Wrinkles etched his face, his gray beard precisely groomed.

Amber eyes gleamed, matching this plane’s sky hue precisely.

All, fresh from plane data review, recognized this as the hallmark of an administrative android.

“Old Herman?” The deep blue-robed male wizard advanced.

The old man inclined slightly, his gesture exuding antique courtesy. “Yes. At last, you lords have come.”

His voice rasped, laced with an ambiguous weariness or resignation.

“Let’s discuss indoors. It’s improper outside.”

The town hall’s ground floor featured a vast meeting room, chairs lining both sides of a lengthy table.

Nine wizards settled in. Old Herman positioned himself at the table’s end, palms on the wood, amber gaze roving over the assembly.

“I’ll verify your current knowledge first,” he announced. “The magic network report was from three hours back. Since then, two additional deaths occurred.”

Tension thickened in the room.

“Same family?” Jie Ming inquired.

Old Herman met his eyes and affirmed. “Correct. That finger showed up in blacksmith Hans’s salt shaker yesterday. His family of five dined last night. This morning, Hans and his eldest son went first. Later, wife and youngest daughter. The youngest son clings on, but…” He shook his head, trailing off.

“Show us the corpses,” the young female wizard declared, rising.

Old Herman eyed her silently, nodded, and pivoted to guide them.

The town hall basement served as an impromptu morgue now.

Forty-nine bodies lay orderly on metal slabs, each draped in white cloth.

A peculiar scent filled the air—not rotting foulness, but… salty fishiness.

“Reminds me of a coastal fish-drying area.”

Jie Ming averted his eyes, pondering quietly.

Old Herman unveiled the closest corpse’s cloth.

Jie Ming and others approached.

The dead man was middle-aged. Swelling bloated his form, skin pallid and translucent like long-submerged. Yet the skin’s texture shocked more—fibers contracted and toughened unnaturally, akin to preserved salted meat.

The male wizard clad in deep blue robes inquired, “Hasn’t a more thorough autopsy been conducted?”

“Conditions for that aren’t available here at the moment, and my soul lacks the relevant technical expertise.”

Regretfully, Old Herman shook his head while glancing at the corpses from before.

“For now, using only the basic anatomy info from the doctor’s knowledge base, we managed just a basic check. Deeper analysis exceeds what we can do.”

Jie Ming didn’t waver upon hearing those words.

He lifted his hand, forming a razor-thin wind blade at his fingertip that softly cut along the dead body’s belly.

Skin split open.

The sight of the under-skin layer made every wizard there alter their faces.

For someone freshly deceased, the fat beneath the skin ought to appear pale yellow and remain soft.

Yet this body’s under-skin layer showed grayish-white, rigid as wax.

Jie Ming pressed on. Deeper went his wind blade, slicing into the kidney.

The kidney had withered to almost half its original volume, surface shriveled and creased, color shifting from dark red to black.

With the wind blade’s edge, he pried up a tiny tissue sample and scrutinized it up close.

“Fascinating. Sodium levels in this tissue remain standard,” Jie Ming remarked. “Yet it resembles pickled flesh entirely. The foe’s technique doesn’t merely reshape matter; instead…”

He halted, hunting for the precise phrasing.

“…it’s a shift on the plane of existence itself.”

The young female wizard drew nearer too. She reached out her right hand, a soft blue light flickering at her fingertip, and lightly probed the kidney sample.

Seconds later, she pulled back, face growing grave.

“Detection sorcery reveals this kidney has turned into salted meat at a ‘conceptual’ level.” Her voice stayed even, though her words chilled all hearts. “No real salting occurred; some force redefined it as ‘its true form.’ Within that force’s view, this tissue was always meant to be salty, tough, and preserved.”

The basement plunged into silence for several seconds.

The deep blue-robed male wizard drew in a sharp breath. “The food suffered likewise. Not overloaded with salt, but transformed into something salty by ‘concept.’”

“Exactly,” the young female wizard affirmed with a nod. “Bodies aren’t the only victims. Sense the lingering soul fragments in these bodies.”

Instinctively, the wizards sent out their spiritual power to probe.

Jie Ming’s spiritual power plunged into the corpses’ leftover soul imprints, encountering a bizarre “warp” like never before.

No terror or agony lingered in the dead souls’ shards… or better said, such feelings had been utterly supplanted by an unknown force.

Over them draped a sheer, “natural” “saltiness.”

Imagine querying salted meat, “Are you salty?” It wouldn’t reply—it simply embodied saltiness.

Saltiness defined its core, beyond mere feeling.

Jie Ming pulled back his spiritual power and shared looks with the fellow wizards.

Right then, the nine wizards aligned in understanding.

“No curse is this,” declared another wizard, tone steady yet audible. “It redefines ‘salty’ itself. That finger doesn’t taint the meal; it proclaims… ‘You’ve always been salty.’”

Quiet enveloped the conference room.

Off to one side stood Old Herman, amber eyes fixed on the elite wizards’ deduction. His lips quirked faintly.

Next, he pivoted toward the stairs, dropping one final line.

“Blacksmith Hans’s salt shaker holds that finger now. Lords, when you’re set, I’ll guide you there.”