I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality Chapter 802: Black Wizards, and Preparations

For several days after receiving the invitation, Jie Ming stayed in his laboratory organizing his presentation material.

The Self-Stabilizing Field Regulation Protocol was, after all, a technique he had submitted publicly over three thousand years ago.

To him as he now was, it counted as early work.

All the original data was preserved intact in his database, but turning scattered experimental records from several thousand years ago into a paper fit for the podium of a joint conference between two great powers was still no easy task.

In the laboratory, light screens hung in midair, countless data streams pouring down like waterfalls.

Jie Ming stood at the center, calling up long-sealed experimental archives.

The original design concept, the derivation of the rune arrays, the cross-plane stability test reports, and the many applications derived from them since, were all sorted and reclassified bit by bit.

There was no small amount of data that made even him stop and think for a moment on seeing it again.

Three thousand years of research experience meant that looking back over that old design now gave rise to no few fresh insights.

“At the very least I need to produce something more advanced. The original version of the Self-Stabilizing Field Regulation Protocol alone will not hold a room…” Jie Ming sighed helplessly.

Fortunately the thing had been extracted from his Internal Circulation method to begin with, an energy isolation and stabilization technique, and with his present attainments optimizing it further was no great difficulty. It would simply take time.

While he was immersed in the organizing work, the laboratory door slid slowly open and a faint fragrance drifted in ahead of its owner.

“I hear you have received an invitation to the Void Architecture Academy and Anti-Entropy Alliance academic exchange conference?”

Viola leaned against the door frame, a steaming drink in her hand and a familiar smile on her face.

That expression plainly said one thing: I have heard some interesting gossip again.

She strolled unhurriedly into the laboratory, her gaze sweeping over the screens filling the room.

“Tch. Judging by the state of this place, the rumor is true.”

Jie Ming pinched the bridge of his nose helplessly. “How did you find out?”

“Those two submitted the invitation to the Star Ring Federation Technology Department first. It is hardly classified, so of course word gets out.” Viola pursed her lips, came over beside Jie Ming, glanced at the material he was organizing, and could not help laughing:

“Not bad, Junior Brother. Now you have worked your way into the core academic circles of two great powers. From here on, people out in the world will actually know your name.” Jie Ming did not even look up, still sorting his material. “It is only an exchange conference.”

“Only an exchange conference? Tch! With an attitude like that, if I did not have my pain anchor set on you, I would want to hit you.”

Viola gave a light snort and reached out to tap the metal invitation beside her, and the conference details unfolded automatically.

Her gaze fell on the date, and one glance was enough to make her raise an eyebrow.

“Hm?”

She narrowed her eyes and checked it again.

The next moment, a meaningful little hum escaped her.

“Ha! Interesting.”

“What is it?” Jie Ming finally looked up.

Viola swirled the cup in her hand lightly, a note of displeasure in her voice.

“There are only three years until the conference opens. Normally, for a large cross-power academic conference like this, invitations go out at least ten years in advance.”

“Only that way can everyone arrange experiment schedules, apply for cross-border permits and prepare their results.”

She tapped the light screen lightly. “And they only tell you now? Either someone was added at the last minute, or someone deliberately held the invitation back until the end.” “Either way, this exchange of yours is not going to be a quiet one.”

Jie Ming only nodded, having expected as much. “No matter. This much time is enough.”

Viola choked on that and rolled her eyes helplessly. “The point is not whether it is enough, the point is your attitude! Your attitude!” She folded her arms and said irritably:

“Never mind. You never take anything to heart except experiments anyway.”

Then she suddenly wore a wicked little smile.

“But let us be clear. When you are up there, do not embarrass the Noren Workshop.”

She held out an index finger and pointed at herself.

“And above all do not embarrass me. The whole academy knows you are my junior brother.”

Jie Ming laughed. “Senior Sister, as I said, this much time is enough.”

“Oh?”

Hearing him stress it like that, Viola’s eyes lit up. She understood his meaning and slapped him hard on the shoulder:

“Ha! I knew it. You are not one to come off worse, boy. Go do it, and do not be afraid!”

While the two of them were talking, the laboratory door opened again, and a tall, upright figure walked slowly in.

A deep blue robe fell to the ankles without a single crease, and the expression above it was as calm as ever, very nearly cold.

It was Mentor Clark.

His gaze swept the laboratory, and then, as though he had seen nothing at all, he passed straight over Viola and settled his eyes on Jie Ming. The corner of Viola’s mouth twitched. “Old man, that is a bit too much favoritism!”

Only then did Clark turn his gaze on her. “Build your mental energy up first. With the Blood Sacrifice Method available, your mental energy has somehow not risen more than a hundredfold in all these years. It seems you need special training.”

At the words “special training,” Viola could not help shrinking back a little.

Beside them, Jie Ming had already risen.

Mentor Clark rarely came to the laboratory in person. Ordinarily, whatever the matter, he either called directly or had Viola pass it along. That he had come himself meant the matter warranted a warning in person.

Clark came straight to the point. “You have received an invitation.”

“I have.”

Clark nodded lightly. “On the way, mind the black wizards.”

Jie Ming’s expression tightened slightly. “…Black wizards?”

Clark went on. “A good many black wizards who specialize in hunting wizards are active near the public transit zones. In ordinary circumstances they are indistinguishable from ordinary wizards, and they conceal themselves extremely well. They only strike once they have confirmed a target is worth enough.”

“Most black wizards are stuck at the fifth level because their intelligence falls short. They lack the resources to break through to the sixth, and they live under the long-term pressure of mandatory war conscription. To gather advancement resources quickly, there is nothing they will not do.”

“And…” Clark paused. “To ensure a hunt succeeds, they rarely act alone. Cooperative hunting is what they are best at.”

“The wizardry they command is almost entirely aimed at individuals, and its killing efficiency is extremely high.”

Jie Ming listened carefully.

He had read no small amount about black wizards in the federation database, but had never genuinely encountered one.

The Star Ring Federation’s well-developed military merit system meant any capable wizard could realize his potential and obtain sufficient resources. But not everyone in the wizard civilization had “capability.”

It was hardly strange that someone whose resources were exhausted, who could not break through no matter how long he tried, and who might be conscripted to the front at any moment, would in despair take another road.

“Which regions are they mainly active in?”

Jie Ming asked.

“Inside the Star Ring Federation there is nothing to worry about. So long as you do not go out of your way into the obscure minor-power regions, you will not run into them. What most warrants attention is the public transit zone on the border between the two great powers.”

Clark had evidently looked into it in advance.

“In a place like that no single power holds complete jurisdiction, patrol fleet coverage is insufficient, and the danger rises substantially.” “During the conference the hosts will handle security. So where you are genuinely in danger is the journey there and back.”

Jie Ming nodded and committed the information firmly to memory.

Having said everything he had come to say, Clark did not linger. He turned and left the laboratory.

Throughout, he did not once look at Viola, who kept making faces at Jie Ming beside him.

Once the laboratory door had closed again, Viola finally could not help sighing.

“I suspect Mentor is just using special training as a pretext to oppress me.”

Jie Ming said, perfectly straight-faced, “Is there any chance it is because you are too lazy, Senior Sister?”

Viola blinked, then grabbed the cushion off the desk and threw it straight at him.

For once, a burst of easy laughter came out of the laboratory.

At the same time.

At the other end of the Endless Chaotic Void.

The Void Architecture Academy, core district.

Inside an enormous conference archive room, countless light screens hung in midair.

Several dozen wizards were rapidly organizing information on the attendees.

Technical files, research directions, affiliated powers…

Document after document was filed away.

One witch scrolled through the roster, and just as she was about to finish, she suddenly stopped.

“Jie Ming?” She murmured the name softly.

For a wizard who had arranged more exchange conferences than she could count, the name was genuinely unfamiliar.

But the technique listed beside it looked very familiar indeed.

[Self-Stabilizing Field Regulation Protocol.]

She frowned slightly.

“This person… is the author of that stability protocol made public several thousand years ago?”

A colleague beside her leaned over for a look.

“That is right, that is him.”

“He was only second level back then and could already produce a result like that. He should be sixth level by now.”

The young witch was immediately interested. “So another genius, then.”

Her colleague shrugged.

“They would not have invited him if he were not. I hear the Nano-Architecture Academy is beside itself. The technical bottleneck that stumped them for centuries was broken using a derivative of that protocol.”

Then he wore a meaningful little smile.

“Though… in the open discussion sessions, I expect a fair few people will give him trouble. That protocol did take the bread out of a good many mouths.” At the same moment.

The Anti-Entropy Alliance.

Deep inside an enormous database.

The intelligence officer responsible for compiling attendee backgrounds paused in his work.

His gaze had fallen on the same name.

Jie Ming.

Having searched the intelligence on him, he suddenly laughed.

“Interesting. Second level, and he could develop a technique with that much impact.”

“And not long ago he produced something as outrageous as the Blood Sacrifice Method…”

He closed the file gently, a flicker of anticipation in his eyes.

“I wonder what else this little fellow has in his head.”

“Genuinely… something to look forward to…”