I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality Chapter 873: The Choice

When Jie Ming arrived at the last fragment of space, his first glance almost convinced him he had come too late.

Because there was no “person” to be seen here at all.

Great swaths of flesh and blood lay scattered across the ground, splintered bone mixed in with organ tissue whose original shape could no longer be made out. The whole battlefield was like a slaughterhouse.

Never mind life-force fluctuations; not even soul fluctuations were left.

“Dead?” Jie Ming frowned.

Just then the spatial fold beast lunged at him. The Dharma Form’s fist swung out almost casually, and the transparent behemoth was shattered by that single punch!

And even as fragments of space scattered and whirled across the whole of the sky, the flesh on the ground began, of all things, to move.

Jie Ming, on the point of leaving, paused. The pieces strewn across the ground were being drawn by some invisible force, and the flesh had started to move of its own accord.

From the tissue lying everywhere a small portion of each flew up, and before long they had assembled into a complete human figure.

And the soul fluctuation Jie Ming had been unable to detect before arose in the same moment the figure was born.

“Interesting. A remarkable concealment technique, that. Even I was fooled.”

Jie Ming watched the man’s rebirth with considerable interest, and without the slightest scruple opened the True-False Void-Piercing Pupil to record every kind of data throughout.

One had to admit it: when it came to preserving their own lives, the wizards of the Crimson Court really did know a trick or two.

Watching the wizard open his eyes and salute him, Jie Ming nodded, explained the situation briefly, and took him out of the fragment of space.

…

…

By the time Jie Ming brought the last rescued sixth-level wizard back to the safe area, Viola was just coming out of another spatial rift, a wizard covered in wounds following behind her as well.

The dozen and more survivors pulled out earlier had given their injuries a hasty patching and had already gathered together, unable to wait, to analyze the data they had just collected.

One sixth-level wizard said excitedly, “The spatial fold beast’s ability really is extraordinary. If we could crack that mirroring in reverse… heh heh heh heh.”

“Personally I think we should make use of the mechanism first and build a defensive system tailored against it.” Others had different views.

The wizards discussed it in high spirits, with nothing about them to suggest they had only just crawled back from the brink of death.

They were wizards of the Crimson Court, and it showed; they were plainly well used to scenes of this kind.

Jie Ming took the place in at a glance, then rejoined Viola, and the two of them looked together toward the only two fragments of space that remained.

Rescuing these wizards had taken no short time, and yet even with the work finished, neither Clark’s battle nor Azrael’s had ended.

“Which one first?” Viola turned to look at Jie Ming.

Jie Ming sank into thought. “Hard to say…”

In fact the choice was obvious. From a purely tactical standpoint they should of course go to Azrael first.

Mentor Clark’s strength was, after all, far off the scale, and the behemoth he faced was more absurd still.

With the combat strength of their present group, even if every one of them went, the help they could offer would be limited.

Whereas if they went to help Azrael, the two of them alone could bring that fight to a swift close.

And with one more elite seventh-level’s worth of strength added before they went to assist Mentor Clark, things would be a great deal easier.

The problem was that Jie Ming had not forgotten who the prime suspect was for the situation they were now in: Azrael.

Or, to put it plainly, calling him the culprit outright would probably be more accurate.

Nobody knew what the man was actually after, and if he turned on them the moment he was pulled out, then in the state everyone here was in there would be little capacity to resist.

Viola had thought of the same thing. “Awkward. Azrael really isn’t the one to rescue first, but our combat strength as it stands really isn’t up to the other. And if we have the rest of them go save the Mentor first, they may not be willing to give it everything…”

While the two of them hesitated, the group of Scarlet Hive wizards off to the side suddenly gathered together.

A dozen and more of them formed a circle and conferred for a while, exchanging thoughts rapidly through mental energy.

At length the wizard who looked the oldest among them came over.

Meeting Jie Ming’s and Viola’s eyes, he coughed lightly. “Ah… you’ll be deciding which wizard to rescue first, I take it. We’ve talked that over among ourselves as well.”

At that, Jie Ming and Viola exchanged a glance.

The old wizard rubbed his hands together, somewhat embarrassed. “Going by what we decided… it’s a little more dangerous, but we’d like to try rescuing Wizard Clark first. Would that be all right with you?”

“?” ×2.

Both Jie Ming and Viola were left rather stunned, doubting for a moment that they had heard correctly. It had honestly not occurred to them that the other side would put forward such a request of their own accord.

Viola asked, puzzled, “You’re sure?”

The old wizard gave an awkward, bitter laugh. “We’re sure. The truth is we’re rather worried about Azrael ourselves.”

“He is the one who brought all this about, after all, and nobody knows what he’s really after. The odds are small, but if he should decide to silence the witnesses afterward…”

He did not go on, but the two of them understood: the possibility was not nonexistent.

“So rather than pin our hopes on Azrael, we would sooner place our trust in you.” The old wizard made no attempt whatever to conceal what he was thinking.

“You have no direct conflict of interest with us. So long as Wizard Clark is brought out, then even if something really does go wrong, there will be at least one seventh-level wizard able to hold the situation down. Even if Azrael means to silence us all afterward, he will certainly have to reckon with your presence.”

Hearing this, Jie Ming and Viola nodded silently.

There was an element of using them as a shield in it, but the choice was indeed an entirely rational one.

Jie Ming soon thought of something else, though. “But even if you are genuinely afraid Azrael will silence you, you do have a third option, don’t you?”

Indeed, the reason Jie Ming and Viola had not expected these wizards to lend their strength was precisely that, from the moment they were rescued, a third option had been open to them.

That was to stay in the safe zone and wait for the eighth-level wizards outside to get them out.

Unlike the two of them, who wanted to help Mentor Clark, these wizards, once their own safety was secured, really ought to have had no greater pressure on them.

There was of course the possibility that while they waited, Azrael, having prepared in advance, would get out ahead of Clark.

But Azrael silencing them was itself no more than a possibility, and set side by side, the two made it far likelier that these wizards would choose to wait.

“There is another reason, of course.” The old wizard swallowed. “We looked into the properties of the spatial fold beasts earlier, and we found a very serious problem.”

Jie Ming’s expression sobered. “What is it?”

“These spatial fold beasts don’t merely alter spatial structure; they also affect the state of existence inside a fragment of space. The longer they exist, the faster the fragment falls toward the Reflection Dimension.”

Jie Ming’s face changed at once. “You mean…”

“Yes. The longer we wait, the harder a rescue from outside becomes, which is to say the harder it becomes to get out at all.” The wizard nodded. “And once the fragment of space we are in has fallen fully into the Reflection Dimension…”

Then, with no “marker” of any kind left for them on the outside, they would very likely never come back!

Jie Ming and Viola fell silent. They understood now why these wizards had made the choice they had.

Judging by the situation as it stood, the surest course really was to gather everyone’s strength and get Mentor Clark out first, and then let the Mentor deal with what remained.

“Right!”

Jie Ming and Viola exchanged a glance, then nodded. “In that case, let’s discuss tactics first.”