I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality Chapter 808: Clues and Deduction

Having dealt with the second batch of assassins and entered the Strife Star Region, Jie Ming found the journey that followed far quieter than he had expected.

In little more than a month he passed one after another through a dozen or so control zones jointly maintained by small wizard powers.

These powers were tiny in scale, not to be mentioned in the same breath as the Noren Workshop.

Most had only a few sixth-level wizards holding them together, and more often relied on complicated diplomatic relations to scrape out a living in the gaps between the great camps.

And precisely for that reason, they understood better than anyone how to court advantage and avoid harm.

So long as a sixth-level wizard did not go looking for trouble himself, there was not one power willing to provoke him.

Quite the opposite, in fact: at every supply station he reached, someone would come out to receive him unbidden.

…

…

Inside a supply city built on a floating meteorite, the broad trading hall was brightly lit.

Hundreds of kinds of alchemical materials from different civilizations floated in transparent display cases, and the air held the particular smell of potions, ore and high-energy crystals mixed together.

The one receiving Jie Ming was a sixth-level wizard with graying hair and beard.

The old man smiled mildly. “Lord Jie Ming, your luck is good. We happen to have some rather fine materials in at the moment.”

As he spoke he set a spatial expansion pouch lightly on the counter.

“These are some of the materials we have collected over recent years. There are several rather unusual minerals inside, seldom seen within the federation. Perhaps they will interest you.”

Jie Ming took it and swept it with his mental energy, and his eyes brightened a little.

Inside was an intact piece of Void Silver Crystal, no less.

The greatest use of this material was its ability to raise a high-level rune array’s adaptability to spatial fluctuation.

He could not even find this material in stock inside the Noren Workshop, and buying it on the Star Ring Federation’s magic network required high-level military merit, along with a reservation placed several years in advance.

“Good stuff. How are you selling it?”

The old man smiled and waved a hand:

“Not expensive. Federation market price will do.”

“Also, if you have any good potions, my lord, they can serve as payment instead.”

Jie Ming nodded slightly. “Very reasonable. That works.”

With that, Jie Ming produced a tube of potion glowing with violet light. “What do you make of this?”

Jie Ming had, as it happened, gathered a great deal of Purple Qi of the East on the Infernal Sulfur Plane over this period, concentrated it for use as raw material, and refined it into a potion capable of raising the soul’s upper limit.

In effect it was the same as the potion he had refined back when he first met Viola, except that the ceiling was vastly higher, effective even on a sixth-level wizard.

“This… will do! How many potions of this kind do you have, my lord? We have a good deal of other material here as well…”

Having listened carefully to Jie Ming’s explanation of the potion, the old man’s face filled with delighted surprise.

“…Of course! We can discuss it properly.”

Once he grasped the old man’s meaning, Jie Ming was momentarily blank as well.

What he had meant was to hand over more potions of this kind in exchange for that piece of material, but from the sound of the other man, the assumption seemed to be that this single tube of potion could buy the material outright.

And so both Jie Ming and the old man came away feeling they had made a killing, and in this “win-win” situation the trade was quickly concluded.

Looking at the wizard, who was by now barely able to keep the delight off his face, Jie Ming felt rather odd about the whole thing.

Honestly, Jie Ming had not expected potions to be worth this much in a lawless place like this.

Perhaps the sheer number of logistics-line wizards inside the Noren Workshop was why it did not show there, but judging from these small powers’ reactions, the value of these potions went well beyond anything he had imagined!

…

…

Similar things kept happening at the next several supply stations.

The sheer volume of gains even had Jie Ming, unusually, slowing his pace.

On one hand he was purchasing alchemical materials; on the other, observing the technical systems of different civilizations.

The systems these civilizations had felt their way toward might not count as profound, but the inspiration struck out of the collision between them still benefited Jie Ming a great deal.

A fruitful journey did not blind Jie Ming, however, and the question of the one behind it all was turning over in his mind the whole time.

On this particular day.

A public transport vessel was cruising slowly across the void.

More than a century ago, a spatial turbulence had teleported in a multiracial joint combat squad, and a war had broken out here as a result.

Although the fighting ended in victory for several of the local wizard powers, the energy turbulence the battle produced combined with the spatial turbulence that had never settled, and spatial teleportation across the region was affected. In the end the only way to cross the Endless Chaotic Void here was by vessel like this one.

On deck.

Jie Ming leaned against the railing, watching patch after patch of plane wreckage sweep past in the distance, all of it left behind by that war.

In the pitch-black void, countless world fragments drifted like islands, and now and then an abandoned war fortress could be seen floating slowly by.

Taking advantage of the lull, Jie Ming let his mind run back over what he had gathered so far.

“Whoever is behind this did it cleanly…” Jie Ming narrowed his eyes slightly.

The one behind it was quite careful, and every trace that could be traced, fate included, had been artificially severed.

Of everyone who had taken part in the operations, not one led back to the instigator.

Faced with a situation like that, a normal person would probably conclude there were no clues at all.

Jie Ming did not think so.

Because… being too clean was itself the biggest clue of all.

Within his spiritual sea, countless lines of deduction unfolded one after another.

The first clue was those black wizards’ severed fates.

At that thought, Jie Ming slowly closed his eyes, and those artificially cut threads of fate surfaced in his mind again.

Being able to cut fate meant, at minimum, that the other side had a fate-type wizard.

Or, put more simply, that the other side’s power or influence could call upon a seventh-level wizard skilled in the Fate Law.

The reason he said seventh-level rather than sixth was that the odds of a sixth-level wizard managing it were far too low.

Cutting the threads of fate directly showed that the other side had mastered the Fate Law, not merely made an entry-level start on fate knowledge.

The Fate Law is not one of the more common laws, like the spatial law or the flame law.

Those who can master the Fate Law at the sixth level are, without exception, the very finest geniuses in all of wizard civilization.

The reason Jie Ming himself had been able to master the Fate Law at the sixth level came down to a whole series of fortunate coincidences working together.

First he had honed a resistance to death through the Body Forging Method, then evolved the Entropy Brain talent through that same method, and on top of that came the particular nature of his own Dao Integration state, plus the fate-type knowledge he had barely gotten a foothold in by cross-referencing what he knew of two worlds.

And in the end Jie Ming’s entire head had been blown apart by very nearly limitless information, and only by risking the near-dispersal of his soul had he barely glimpsed one corner of the Fate Law.

That kind of experience simply could not be replicated.

Turned around, would a sixth-level wizard with talent like that be willing to clean up someone else’s mess?

Almost impossible.

So the one behind it was either a seventh-level fate-type wizard himself.

Or… able to call on a seventh-level fate-type wizard to act on his behalf.

Either way, this person’s identity was certainly not an ordinary one.

At that thought, a thoughtful look crossed the bottom of Jie Ming’s eyes.

“A power that can call on a seventh-level fate-type wizard… and yet falls quite a long way short when it comes to gathering intelligence?”

Combining the first clue with what the other side had let slip during the first and second encounters with the black wizards, he arrived at a second clue: intelligence.

The other side’s acquisition of intelligence on him did not seem to be especially thorough.

That was rather thought-provoking.

Jie Ming slowly raised his right hand, and a light screen surfaced above his palm.

On it was automatically compiled everything the enemy had shown, across those two attacks, of what they knew about him.

Newly promoted to the sixth level.

Alchemy master.

Runecraft specialist.

Technical personnel…

And beyond that, nothing. Neither his true combat strength nor his manner of fighting registered at all.

Looking at that information, a trace of a smile appeared at the corner of Jie Ming’s mouth.

“Far too little.”

The other side’s understanding of him was almost laughably thin.

Because… all of the above was intelligence he had deliberately displayed along the way!

As mentioned before, ever since learning that black wizards existed, Jie Ming had instinctively wanted to fish for them.

So at every junction point out on the fringe he had made a point of putting the above on show.

By the standards of black wizard intelligence, gathering that much was perfectly normal, but for a power on the level of the one behind this, it was far too poor.

All along, Jie Ming had not deliberately concealed his strength. You could even say a great deal of intelligence about his fighting had circulated quite widely.

A little investigation would turn up a fair amount.

Not everyone could look this information up, but with a little time invested, some trace of it could always be found.

And yet judging by these people’s actions, the other side did not appear to have turned up any intelligence on him.

Why?

Jie Ming tapped the railing lightly with his fingertips.

An answer surfaced naturally enough.

For a power capable of calling on a seventh-level fate-type wizard, being unable to find out was impossible.

Which left only one possibility… there had not been time.

The one behind this had, for some reason, suddenly decided to move against him.

So all he could do was send a first batch of black wizards to probe and gather combat intelligence, then arrange a second, more precisely targeted attack based on the data collected.

“Put that way, it becomes simple.” Jie Ming let out a long breath.

If the other side had not had time to investigate, then the other side had never paid him any attention before this.

Which was to say, the notion of attacking him had only arisen recently.

And the only thing to happen recently that could have drawn attention to him… was that invitation.

Jie Ming looked off into the distance.

Out in the void, an enormous artificial star serving as a lighthouse was slowly rising.

Pale golden radiance spilled across the vessel’s deck, but Jie Ming’s gaze only grew deeper.

“The other side is not someone inside the federation.”

If the one behind this came from the Star Ring Federation, then however pressed for time he was, he would not have investigated only to this degree.

There was a good deal of public material on him inside the federation, and some of it could be found without much trouble at all.

But the other side had not, which showed that his ability to obtain intelligence from inside the federation was weak.

Which meant… the answer was growing clearer and clearer.

Jie Ming laughed softly, twice:

“It was only after word spread that I could attend the academic exchange conference… that they decided to kill me. Which is to say, the one behind this is most likely at that very conference.”

“Heh… put that way, that overdue invitation actually did me a favor.”

The vessel slowly passed through a void storm, and the deck trembled faintly.

Jie Ming stood there as though he had not felt a thing, still working through a third possible clue.

Purpose.

Any action requires a purpose.

For wizards this is especially so.

And where this academic exchange conference was concerned, the most directly relevant thing was of course profit.

Moving against someone over a large enough profit fit wizard logic perfectly well.

But at that thought, Jie Ming instead frowned.

Profit… the targets tied to that were far too numerous.

Never mind the Blood Sacrifice Method. The range of industries affected by the Self-Stabilizing Field Regulation Protocol alone was outrageously large.

It had driven the development of the entire field of stability, but it had equally cost a great many people who made their living off the old technology.

More troublesome still, those who had since developed derivative technologies on the back of that protocol had reason to kill him too.

Because under wizard civilization’s knowledge contracts, so long as the original creator of a technology was still alive, every use of a derivative technology automatically allocated a share of the proceeds back to the source.

With Jie Ming dead, a great many interests would be redistributed.

At that thought, Jie Ming could not help scratching his head:

“Thinking about it that way, I seem to have a few too many enemies.”

That was not good news.

Of course, this was a conclusion drawn on the premise that the second clue held.

Beyond that there was naturally another possibility: that the first batch of black wizards had not been there to gather intelligence at all, but were a smokescreen sent out on purpose to mislead his reasoning.

Regrettably, as Jie Ming saw it, that possibility was also quite high.

If there is one thing the creatures called wizards love to play at, it is misdirection layered upon misdirection.

“So that possibility cannot be ruled out either.” Jie Ming nodded lightly. “Since the existing clues are too few, then I will go and get new ones myself.”

He then raised a hand and spread out the star map, his gaze settling on the next stop he was bound for.

That was a blood-red region on the map—the Broken Bone Corridor.

Beside it was marked a danger icon:

【Long-term Reflection Dimension seepage node】

Jie Ming tapped the railing absently with his fingers, a cold smile surfacing on his face:

“Now then, it is my turn to make a move.”

For the overwhelming majority of wizards, the Broken Bone Corridor was a forbidden zone they would never willingly go near.

For Jie Ming it was precisely the opposite.

Because of the Reflection Dimension’s seepage, that region was in fact his natural home ground.

The venue was settled. What came next depended on the other side’s choice.

Whatever the other side chose, even choosing not to move against him again, a certain amount of information would be exposed.

Jie Ming closed the map and looked up into the distance.

Ahead of the vessel, a long, narrow, pitch-black region had gradually appeared at the far end of his vision.

Countless broken continents drifted within it, dim spatial rifts crisscrossing among them, and now and then pale violet energy lightning could be seen flashing away deep inside a rift.

The Broken Bone Corridor.

Here at last.

Jie Ming slowly straightened, his robe lifting gently in the void.

His gaze was calm as still water.

“Come, then.”

“Let me see… what you choose.”