I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality Chapter 776: The Plant-People, and a Meeting

On this day, Jie Ming had just finished his daily deduction of the Mustard Seed Dao-Holding True Body Art.

His consciousness had barely withdrawn from his inner world when a familiar mental fluctuation came through the Incense Fire Divine Dao’s communication network.

“Our Master. The plant-people civilization cultivation program has reached the target standard. Please come and inspect it.”

Jie Ming’s brow rose slightly.

That was rather faster progress than he had expected.

It had been only a few short centuries since he first put the plant-people’s living tissue into the cultivation room.

For plant-people, whose population consciousness was constituted out of miniature individuals, that span was long enough to complete the most basic reproduction, but they still had to rebuild the collective neural network that mattered most to the whole civilization.

That they could now report the cultivation complete on their own initiative meant they had recovered the collective intelligence a normal civilization ought to have.

At that thought he wasted no time and stepped straight onto the teleportation array.

Space twisted faintly, and the next moment a faintly humid smell of vegetation came at him.

This was a life-bearing planet whose ecological reconstruction had recently been completed.

Compared with the bustle of the dragonmen’s world, this place was a great deal quieter.

The overwhelming majority of the planet still held its gray-white rock strata and weathered sand, and only near the equator, in one enormous valley ringed by mountains, was there life so dense it could hardly be dispersed.

Seen from high above, that patch of green was like a piece of jade set into gray stone.

Purple-red moss carpeted the valley floor, low shrubs of spiral leaves crept in layers up the slopes, and several mimic trees hundreds of meters high stood at the valley mouth, their branches interwoven into a natural green dome.

The Black Giant priest responsible for the project was already waiting at the valley mouth.

Seeing Jie Ming appear, he bowed at once.

“Our Master, the plant-people civilization has currently established thirty-seven collective consciousness nodes.”

“The neural network covers the entire valley, and every miniature individual has completed information sharing.”

Jie Ming nodded. “Has there been any splitting of consciousness?”

“None.”

The Black Giant priest answered with complete certainty.

“All newly added consciousness connects automatically to the main network. Overall consciousness stability has now reached the standard of a normal civilization.”

“Good.” Jie Ming stepped into the valley.

The moment his foot came down, the whole valley moved.

Every plant in it reacted in the same instant, in unison.

The moss covering the valley floor rose and fell slowly, the canopies swayed gently, the vines wound about one another.

Then countless green miniature individuals, almost too small for the eye to make out, poured out of every leaf, every vine, every patch of moss. They converged into a soundless flowing green torrent.

The torrent rose slowly, compressing and shaping itself as it went.

At last it condensed before Jie Ming into a human figure of the same height as himself.

That figure was more finely made than the plant-people of Viola’s plane had been.

Leaves woven into a gentle face, vines forming the limbs, petals interlaced into a pair of eyes, and even the texture across its body showed something like the layering of a robe.

It bent slowly, and its voice was not like that of an ordinary living thing but like a chord formed by countless branches and leaves brushing softly together.

“Great wizard, we welcome your coming.”

Jie Ming activated the All-Purpose Eye and swept the plant-person’s interior in an instant.

Reading after reading surfaced rapidly, and by the results these plant-people had developed even better than the Black Giant priest had reported.

Jie Ming nodded in satisfaction.

“It seems you have rebuilt a complete neural network.”

The plant-person nodded slightly. “We have. There are currently thirty-seven large consciousness nodes, and all knowledge can be shared in real time.”

“Any new information obtained by any individual is synchronized to the whole population within three breaths.”

Jie Ming went on. “Have you settled in here?”

The plant-person was silent an instant, which was the whole population thinking in unison.

A moment later, that voice constituted out of countless lives sounded again.

“There is no war here, and no continual dying. The population… likes it here very much.”

Hearing that, a trace of a smile could not help surfacing in Jie Ming’s eyes.

For plant-people who had once known enslavement and lived through a plane war, this quiet life-bearing planet really could be called a paradise. He looked around the valley. “Is the current resource supply sufficient?”

“It is sufficient.”

the plant-person answered.

“But as the population grows, we will need more land suitable for breeding.”

“We estimate that in five hundred years the present valley will reach the limit of what it can carry.”

The Black Giant priest managing the planet added at once, “Our Master, we have already completed planning for a second ecological zone. Expansion can begin at any time.”

“Good.” Jie Ming nodded lightly. “Proceed as planned.”

Then he looked at the plant-person before him, and his voice grew rather more formal:

“Given your potential, from today you are no longer merely experimental subjects. The plant-people civilization formally becomes a second-level subordinate civilization under my command. What is your answer?”

The words fell.

A soft rustling rose at once throughout the valley.

Plant individuals numbering in the hundreds of millions were communicating without pause through the neural network.

The whole forest seemed to have come alive, countless leaves swaying gently, giving off an unbroken response.

A moment later, the plant-person bowed deeply to Jie Ming again. “The population accepts your protection. We are willing to fulfill the contract.”

“Since you are willing to give us land, resources and knowledge, we shall likewise offer you our research results, our labor, and the whole intelligence of our civilization.”

Jie Ming nodded calmly.

“Good. I hope you will not disappoint me in future.”

The plant-person raised its head, the eyes of petals curving gently. “We will not.”

“The population has completed its deduction. Following you is the optimal solution at present.”

Hearing that answer, several Black Giant priests nearby could not help vibrating their chests slightly, giving off a low rumble of laughter.

Jie Ming shook his head with a laugh of his own.

Dealing with a rational civilization really was rather less work.

Back at the main laboratory, Jie Ming sat down at his workbench again.

He was about to go on sorting his soul studies material when his magic network terminal suddenly lit up, and a familiar communication marker appeared at the center of the light screen. It was Avery Knight.

Jie Ming reached out and opened it. There were only a few short lines on the screen.

[In ten years, proceed to Noren Plane No. 147.]

[Location: Noren No. 147 Academy.]

[Attend an academy meeting.]

[Attached: teleportation coordinates.]

Beyond that, no explanation of any kind.

Jie Ming looked at those lines and thought for a moment.

That he had been notified specifically meant this meeting concerned sixth-level wizards at the least.

But since no content had been given, it most likely fell under internal academy affairs, and should not be any great problem.

At that thought, he casually recorded the time in the schedule in his spiritual sea, then went back to studying the material in front of him.