I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality Chapter 795: Return, and a Challenge

Several centuries slipped by in a blink.

When the magic network terminal lit up, Jie Ming was sitting cross-legged at the center of the quiet chamber, cultivating as usual.

Pale gray radiance wound slowly about his fingertips, threads of spiritual power circulating along his hand seal and condensing in his palm into a gray handprint that hovered on the edge of visibility.

That was the fluctuation of the Void Ash Return to Origin Hand.

These hundred-odd years, his life had been extraordinarily regular.

Every day he cultivated the Void Ash Return to Origin Hand at a fixed hour and refined his understanding of the Law of Time; he filled in his runecraft, spatial studies and alchemy above the sixth level; and at intervals he checked the refinement progress of the All-Heavens Star Grand Array’s various array eyes remotely through the Incense Fire Divine Dao.

Beyond that, nothing else got in the way.

Even Viola, busy remaking her own wizard tower, had not come by the laboratory to scrounge food and drink and tease him a little in a long while.

For Jie Ming, this stretch of time had been quiet to the point of luxury.

Just then, the terminal vibrated lightly.

Jie Ming glanced idly at the light screen, and the gray handprint at his fingertips dispersed slowly.

There was only a name on the screen: Berta Vera Augusta.

The message was simpler still, only a single short line: I am back.

Jie Ming could not help the corner of his mouth lifting. “After all this time, she is finally back.”

Several centuries had passed since Augusta left.

By the trial standard her family had set, it was about time for it to end.

Conquering an entire plane might be a very nearly impossible task for an ordinary fifth-level wizard, but for that woman it had never been a question of whether she could.

He said nothing more, only sent over the spatial coordinates of his laboratory at Noren No. 147 Academy. Almost the moment the message went through, the teleportation array in the corner of the laboratory abruptly lit.

Silver-white spatial patterns bloomed layer by layer, and dense spatial fluctuations swept through the whole laboratory.

A moment later, a tall figure walked slowly out of the light.

The same familiar face.

Long black hair bound high in a ponytail, features refined to the point of near perfection, black eyes still cold and keen.

Only, compared with several centuries ago, today she was not wearing that close-fitting combat armor that always looked ready to march to war. Instead she wore a loose black robe.

The robe hung carelessly from her shoulders, the collar slack, exposing a stretch of pale, finely made collarbone.

Its wide hem swayed gently in the backwash of energy, and she looked less like a war fanatic who had just finished conquering a plane. More like a shut-in who had just woken up and was heading downstairs for a coffee.

But only those who could genuinely sense her knew how deceptive that appearance was.

The moment Jie Ming saw Augusta, his gaze tightened slightly.

Beyond any doubt, she had grown stronger, and not by a little.

She had not even released any pressure deliberately. The aura escaping her naturally was enough to raise continuous fine ripples through the space of the laboratory. The air was full of a keenness that hovered on the edge of perception, as though countless invisible swords floated all around.

Which meant Augusta had already advanced to sixth-level wizard, and was a combat-system sixth-level wizard in the truest sense.

Wizards like that were a scarce resource across the whole Noren Workshop.

Merely standing there quietly, she was like a divine weapon sheathed.

Not a trace of an edge showing, and yet she made one feel danger by instinct.

Augusta raised her head and looked at Jie Ming.

But the first thing she said was not “long time no see.” She calmly produced a few words:

“Come. Fight me.”

The air went quiet for an instant.

Jie Ming could not help laughing. “Several centuries without seeing each other, and that is your opening line?”

Augusta nodded in earnest. “Since breaking through I have not found a suitable opponent. Everyone else is too weak, but I think you should be strong enough… do not disappoint me.”

At that, Jie Ming could not help a rueful laugh.

One could only say the epithet had not been misapplied.

That Augusta could be crowned with the name “War God” while still at the fifth level was not merely down to her savage manner in a fight. Her own character accounted for a great deal of it.

Jie Ming stood and worked the puppet’s shoulder about. “Fine. As it happens, I have not tested my own combat power in a long while.” “But I have one condition.”

Augusta watched him quietly, signaling for him to go on.

“If you lose,” Jie Ming said with a narrow smile, “then my next turn of garrison duty at Noren No. 147 Academy is all yours.” Augusta agreed without even thinking about it. “Done!”

With that she had already turned and was walking out of the laboratory, her black robe throwing a handsome arc out behind her.

The two of them made their way along the academy’s corridors.

The mentors and apprentices they passed, whether discussing research topics or hauling experimental materials, would stop in their tracks without thinking.

“Wizard Jie Ming?”

“And that person is…”

“Wait!!”

“Black hair… that face…”

“It is the War God!”

Some of the more senior mentors could not help drawing a sharp breath.

“It is Wizard Augusta, the War God!”

“She is back?”

“Are you serious?”

In the space of a few minutes the news spread madly through the academy as though it had wings, while the two people concerned remained entirely unaware.

Or rather, could not be bothered to care.

They went straight to the academy’s highest-specification live combat training area.

This was the most central combat facility of Noren No. 147 Academy, its entire space reinforced by a seventh-level wizard personally.

The interior could expand freely, and at maximum could withstand the shock of seventh-level wizards fighting at full strength.

The walls, dome and floor were covered in layer upon layer of spatial stabilization arrays, defensive arrays and energy pressure-release arrays.

Any one of those arrays, taken out on its own, would suffice as the core installation of a large war fortress.

And yet, since its construction, this training ground had almost never genuinely been used.

The reason was simple.

Across the whole of Noren No. 147 Academy, there were far too few people with the strength of a high-level combat wizard.

So ordinarily the only people here were low-level combat-system wizards honing themselves against one another.

At the entrance, several apprentices taking a basic combat course froze together at the sight of Jie Ming walking straight toward them.

A second-level apprentice operating a floating target slowly let his mouth fall open.

The control rune in his hand slipped free with a snap, and the runaway training target wobbled around twice in the air.

Then it plowed straight into the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust with a bang.

Another apprentice beside him reacted faster.

He did not even spare the time to warn his companion. He pulled out his magic network terminal at once and sent a message at speed while sprinting outside.

Get over here!!!

Wizard Jie Ming and another high-level wizard I do not recognize just went into training pod 1-9!

And before long, as the messages converged, Augusta’s identity was uncovered as well.

Seconds after that message went out, the academy’s public communication channel erupted, and figures rushed toward the training area from every direction. Even several formal mentors, ordinarily the most careful about their bearing, could not spare a thought for dignity now. Their steps quickened and quickened until they simply broke into a trot.

To the students of today, both Jie Ming and [War God] Augusta were legends existing only in academy history and in their mentors’ mouths. And today.

Two legends were about to clash for the first time in earnest.