I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality Chapter 801: The Invitation

The laboratory had no day or night, only countless runic radiances flowing quietly between its metal walls.

In the blink of an eye, fifty years slipped past.

When Jie Ming raised his head from an iteration experiment on the Talisman-Rune Artifacts, the residue of complex rune deduction still lingered in his spiritual sea.

He looked up at the timekeeping array shifting continuously at the top of the laboratory, and only then belatedly realized that a full half century had passed since Viola last brought that matter up.

The wedding of Mentor Clark and Teacher Kastilla remained nowhere in sight.

Jie Ming was not the least surprised by that.

Both seventh-level wizards were currently at the most crucial stage of their respective research.

By Jie Ming’s rough estimate, it would be at least another century or two before they had the energy to genuinely begin preparing a wedding.

At that thought, Jie Ming could not help a smile.

To an ordinary person, a century was very nearly a lifetime.

But to a long-lived high-level wizard, it was as brief as a few months to an ordinary person.

Never mind putting it off a hundred years. Holding the wedding several centuries from now would hardly be worth remarking on.

His thoughts soon returned to the experiment.

At the center of the workbench, a core model composed of several hundred layers of three-dimensional runes turned slowly, countless energy flows fine as hairs interweaving within it as they computed one possibility after another.

Jie Ming picked up his rune pen again, ready to go on adjusting the energy-channeling structure of the Talisman-Rune Artifact’s core runes.

And then.

Hmmm…

A faint fluctuation broke the laboratory’s long quiet, and the magic network terminal hanging in midair lit with a soft silver-white glow. At the sight of it, Jie Ming stopped what he was doing and raised a hand to accept the call.

The light gathered, and a familiar virtual figure condensed slowly.

It was the artificial intelligence administering the Star Ring Federation magic network—Felix.

It inclined slightly, its tone as level as ever:

“It has been a while, Wizard Jie Ming. On behalf of the Star Ring Federation Technology Exchange Center, I am forwarding you an invitation to an academic exchange conference.” “Oh?” At that, Jie Ming set down his rune pen with some curiosity. “An academic exchange conference?”

“Yes. Requesting your teleportation authorization.”

“Granted.”

As the words left him, a silver-white teleportation array the size of a palm appeared quietly on the experiment bench.

As the array’s pillar of light lit, a dark golden invitation descended slowly through it.

Jie Ming reached out and caught it.

The invitation was cool to the touch. It was not paper but some kind of metal foil stretched to its limit, so thin it was very nearly weightless, yet giving off faint energy fluctuations.

On its cover, two ancient emblems set one another off.

One belonged to the Void Architecture Academy, the other to the Anti-Entropy Alliance.

Jie Ming brushed a hand across it, and flowing script surfaced continuously on its surface, the content being his invitation along with the time and place. While Jie Ming read, Felix went on explaining:

“This conference is jointly hosted by the Void Architecture Academy and the Anti-Entropy Alliance, and is a regular high-level academic exchange between the two powers. The invitation reached the federation through formal diplomatic channels and was passed to you by the Technology Department.”

Jie Ming looked down at the invitation, a trace of puzzlement in his eyes. “Why would they invite me?”

He had very nearly no dealings with either of those two top-level powers.

Over the years he had spent the overwhelming majority of his time inside the Star Ring Federation.

He occasionally took outsourced assignments, and even then usually operated in federation territory.

He had met people from the other three great powers back in the parallel plane, but he had never genuinely had contact with the core circles of these two. Felix pointed at the invitation, immediately turning up the information section on the back, and quickly marked a passage:

“The reason lies in a technical achievement you previously made public: the Self-Stabilizing Field Regulation Protocol.”

Jie Ming blinked. He had assumed at first that the invitation was on account of the Blood Sacrifice Method.

Felix went on calmly:

“The technique you researched was originally designed to help low-level wizards stabilize the elemental energy of a region. On the strength of its simple structure, high compatibility and low manufacturing cost, it has since given rise to more than ten thousand derivative technologies in practice.”

“Several years ago, a research team at the Void Architecture Academy used one of those derivatives to break through a stability bottleneck that had troubled the field of nano-architecture for many years, solving the problem of long-term structural maintenance for nano-architectural units in cross-plane environments.”

“The two powers therefore decided to jointly host this special exchange conference, and have listed you as a specially invited guest.”

The laboratory went quiet again.

Jie Ming looked down at the invitation in his hand, his fingertips brushing lightly over the cold metal tracery.

A basic protocol he had casually made public three thousand years ago had somehow gone on developing all the way to today, and had even influenced an important research direction in another quarter of the wizard civilization.

Not even he had anticipated that.

Felix had not finished its report. Strings of data flowed quietly past in its virtual eyes.

Then its tone grew rather more serious than before.

“Wizard Jie Ming, as the federation’s core artificial intelligence, I am obliged to remind you of the risks this conference may carry.”

At that Jie Ming turned serious. He laced his fingers before his chin and leaned forward slightly. “I am listening.”

Felix continued. “The conference itself is of an extremely high security rating.”

“It is being held in a public zone on the border between the Void Architecture Academy and the Anti-Entropy Alliance, with both sides jointly responsible for security. For the duration of the conference, both your personal safety and your academic rights will be under formal protection, and there will be no direct danger.”

“But what genuinely warrants attention is what comes after the conference ends.”

In the laboratory, only Felix’s level voice echoed slowly on.

“At that point you are very likely to receive private invitations from various powers. Some of those invitations may involve cooperation that has already gone beyond the scope of normal academic exchange.”

“If you accept such private invitations, the hosts will no longer bear any responsibility for your safety.”

Jie Ming nodded silently. “Understandable. Even inside the Star Ring Federation there is no such thing as perfectly aligned interests. Still less at an exchange spanning multiple civilizational powers.”

Truth be told, he was no stranger to being knifed in the back.

Wizards on a battlefield could go to their deaths shoulder to shoulder, but once large enough interests came into play, a combat squad cooperating in perfect good faith one second and stabbing one another the next was commonplace.

And away from combat, looking at “peacetime,” there were even more points of friction.

Resources, results, schools of thought… competition of every kind, everywhere.

The wizard civilization’s contracts have only ever bound betrayal of one’s race, collusion with the enemy, and harm to the interests of the civilization as a whole.

As for academic disputes, resource competition, factional maneuvering and even covert games of interest, so long as no line was crossed, the civilization’s leadership generally did not interfere.

Because competition is itself part of how the wizard civilization continually sifts out the strong.

“It is good that you understand.”

Felix went on. “Additionally, even during the conference, there may be those who publicly challenge your research.”

“Although the Self-Stabilizing Field Regulation Protocol advanced the wizard civilization, it also affected the interests of certain schools.” “Those wizards may well put aggressive questions to you during the open discussion sessions.”

At that, Jie Ming only smiled faintly.

If the earlier warning had been enough to sharpen his attention, this one certainly was not.

Genuine research ought to face questioning and refutation, and be refined continuously through it.

Otherwise, what is the point of speaking of the pursuit of truth?

Seeing Jie Ming’s calm expression, Felix said no more.

“That concludes my report. Whether to attend rests on your own will.”

It bowed slightly, and the silver-white streams of data began breaking apart bit by bit.

Before long the virtual projection had vanished entirely, and the laboratory returned to silence.

Only that dark golden invitation lay quietly on the experiment bench, refracting a faint metallic sheen under the cold blue illumination.

Jie Ming opened the invitation and looked again at the conference time, venue and preliminary agenda recorded in it.

The conference would be held several years from now.

The venue was a neutral space station on the border between the Void Architecture Academy and the Anti-Entropy Alliance.

He read it through twice, and his mind was soon made up.

Having both powers jointly guarantee security for the duration was enough.

As for private invitations afterward… he simply would not go.

He had no intention at present of traveling the various planes, and no interest in getting drawn into those powers’ complicated webs of interest.

As for so-called academic hostility…

The corner of Jie Ming’s mouth lifted slightly.

If one fears one’s peers’ questions, one has no business standing at the podium of an academic conference.

A genuine wizard has never feared debate.

He put the invitation away and gave his sleeve a light flick.

The light screen unfolded again before him, and a string of future experimental plans surfaced rapidly.

That exchange conference would presumably run for no short time, so it was better to arrange everything in advance.