I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality Chapter 863: The Meeting

Jie Ming stood beside the teleportation array, quietly taking all of it in.

“The style here really is a far cry from that of the other three great powers.”

There were differences of style among the Star Ring Federation, the Anti-Entropy Alliance and the Void Architecture Academy as well, but at least they had never been this extreme.

Viola stood beside him and swept a glance over their surroundings.

“Perfectly normal. The Crimson Court has never been any sort of pacifist. One might even say these fellows are the madmen fondest of war out of all four great powers.” There was a certain gravity in her voice.

“They study war not in order to win wars, but in order to squeeze more out of them.”

Jie Ming turned that over thoughtfully.

He had in fact heard Mentor Clark say the very same thing.

The Crimson Court's philosophy of war counted as quite extreme within the whole of wizard civilization.

The war philosophy of the other three great powers came down, in essence, to securing victory at the smallest possible cost.

If the other side was weak enough that it could not even manage a self-detonation of its plane, they would commit absolute combat power to suppress it without the slightest hesitation.

And if there was any risk of self-detonation, they would adopt measures of slow assault and erosion instead.

The Crimson Court's philosophy, however, was nothing of the kind. Once a plane war had begun, their war objectives did not contain the objective of “winning the battle with minimal losses” at all.

Quite the opposite. The wizards of the Crimson Court would even deliberately regulate the intensity of the fighting, making certain that the ferocity of the war stayed above a certain line at all times.

They did this for one purpose only: to force the enemy to dig out more of their wisdom and more of their hidden cards.

What the Crimson Court truly wanted had never been a beautiful victory. It was the enemy's knowledge.

War was a catalyst for technology. Under high-intensity warfare, the technology of an enemy civilization would take an enormous leap forward.

In every plane war, the Crimson Court would not bring the fighting to an end until the other side's every last drop of technological potential had been squeezed dry.

Such a philosophy did indeed harvest a vast quantity of technology, but the trouble with it was that it consumed a great deal of combat power.

And so the wizards of the Crimson Court had, as a rule, researched cannon-fodder technology extremely deeply.

Everything of the sort was to be found here: proliferating flesh across the battlefield, turning corpses undead, devouring the enemy's materiel to manufacture combat units at speed, even converting an entire battlefield directly into a large-scale biological factory.

“So that is how a style like this took shape.” Jie Ming drew his gaze back. “No wonder there are so many combat wizards here.”

Although in theory combat wizards and logistics wizards could not be told apart by their outward appearance, in practice the difference in bearing between the two was enormous.

And within this junction point, Jie Ming had run into no small number of high-level combat wizards in a very short span of time.

“Of course there are.” Grand-Mentor Anton turned his head and smiled. “Inside the Crimson Court, so long as you live long enough, you can accumulate a great pile of data and technology that nobody else has. And so long as you are strong enough, it does not matter in the least whether a wizard has any capacity for development of his own, because there will be enemies to do the developing for you.”

Jie Ming considered that.

Indeed, a wizard needed only to employ a small measure of technique in order to “gift” the other side the very technology he wished to research.

And in the face of extreme, high-pressure warfare, an enemy civilization would carry out that research at any cost whatsoever, which amounted to having the enemy research the technology on one's own behalf.

Plainly, this method made up to a very great degree for the gap in research capacity between combat wizards and logistics wizards.

“It seems the environment here really does suit combat wizards.” Jie Ming nodded.

Viola could not help turning her head to look at him. “How is it that this remark of yours sounds so dangerous?”

“Does it?”

“It does!” Beside them, Wizard Anton held his small face taut and nodded hard.

Viola turned her head away without hesitation. “Never mind. Take it that I said nothing.”

The group did not linger there long. This junction point was, after all, no more than one official junction point the Crimson Court had established in its border region.

Before long they boarded the teleportation array once more, and after several spatial transfers one after another, they arrived at last at their destination.

…

…

As the light of the teleportation array slowly dispersed, Jie Ming had barely arrived before he felt an entirely different aura.

It was a sense of vitality so exuberant as to be very nearly absurd. Even the air itself had life elements of extraordinary richness drifting through it.

And the architecture here had shed masonry construction altogether. All of it had grown of its own accord out of enormous tissues of flesh and blood.

Layer upon layer of runic structures covered their surfaces, and one enormous blood-red pillar of light after another ran through heaven and earth.

At first perception, it was as though the entire city were alive.

“So this is the Scarlet Hive…” Jie Ming could not help his eyes going wide.

There was no doubt of it. With vitality this absurd and a form of existence this peculiar… this junction point of the Scarlet Hive was without question a war machine that had been rebuilt for the purpose!

“Welcome.”

Just then an enthusiastic voice reached them.

Jie Ming raised his head. A red figure was already striding over to meet them.

Long dark red hair, a great crimson robe. The whole person was like a burning flame, flamboyant and fervent, without the least trace of the coldness common to wizards.

“You have arrived at last. I have been waiting for you for ages!”

Teacher Kastilla spread her arms wide with a smile.

Jie Ming was about to make his bow, but one of Teacher Kastilla's hands had already come down on top of his head.

“Teacher… mm?”

“Your strength has risen a great deal from before.”

As though inspecting some kind of experimental material, Teacher Kastilla gave Jie Ming's head a couple of rubs, then went on to pinch his cheek.

“This puppet is built quite sturdily too. Fine workmanship.”

Jie Ming: “…”

Nor did he dare dodge. He could only stand there stiffly.

Beside him, Viola had already begun quietly backing away.

“Teacher.” Her whole face was wary. “I think perhaps we could first…”

“Viola.” Teacher Kastilla turned her head, eyes crinkling in a smile.

Viola froze on the spot.

“Come here, let me have a look at you.”

“…”

A few seconds later.

Jie Ming and Viola stood side by side, the hair of both of them somewhat disheveled.

Teacher Kastilla, for her part, withdrew her hands in satisfaction.

“Not bad. You little ones really are the adorable ones after all.”

Viola silently set her hair back in order. “Teacher, we are both sixth-level wizards now.”

“I know that.” Teacher Kastilla nodded as though it went without saying. “Which is exactly why it ought to be treasured all the more.”

“…”

Viola was left with absolutely nothing to say.

Having finished “tormenting” the two juniors, Teacher Kastilla let her gaze pass over the pair of them and come to rest on Clark.

“You have come.”

Clark nodded.

“I have come.”

Neither of them said anything more. The next moment Kastilla simply spread her arms wide, Clark made no move to avoid her, and the two of them came together in an embrace.

“Tsk! Look at these two carrying on like an old married couple. Now we are the ones left looking pathetic.” Viola curled her lip.

Jie Ming silently nodded to signal his agreement.