I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality Chapter 886: The Meeting

Several years later.

Jie Ming, in the middle of an experiment in his laboratory, suddenly received a communication.

He opened the light-screen. There were only a few short lines on it: “Upon receipt of this message, please proceed as soon as possible to the conference hall of Noren Academy No. 1 to attend a meeting.”

Below that were the meeting’s starting time and a teleportation permit.

Jie Ming glanced at the signature at the very bottom. It was an official dispatch of the Noren Workshop.

Seeing the notice, his brow rose.

By the look of it, it had in all likelihood been issued by one of the Noren Workshop’s two eighth-level wizards.

“Every wizard who sees this is to hurry to Noren Academy No. 1 as soon as possible? Interesting. It seems this is no ordinary matter.”

Jie Ming did not dwell on it. He first sealed away all the experimental data before him, then changed into a formal robe.

After that he activated the teleportation array in the laboratory, and spatial ripples rose abruptly.

The next moment, his figure had vanished from the laboratory.

Elsewhere, in Noren Academy No. 1.

The instant Jie Ming stepped out of the teleportation array, he keenly sensed a trace of something out of the ordinary.

Noren Academy No. 1 was far too lively today.

Noren Academy No. 1 was the most central academy in the entire Noren Workshop, and the first academy Wizard Noren had founded with his own hands back when he had just established the Workshop, so the number of high-level wizards in it was considerable even at ordinary times.

But today, the number of high-level wizards in this academy was frankly excessive!

Figure after figure draped in robes of every color swept ceaselessly past the corridors and the floating platforms.

Sixth-level wizards were to be seen everywhere, and seventh-level wizards were nowhere near as rare as they usually were.

Within his line of sight alone, the auras of several seventh-level wizards had already appeared.

Jie Ming’s step faltered slightly, a flicker of surprise in his eyes. “This many high-level wizards?”

Correspondingly, the number of mid- and low-level wizards was much reduced; it even looked as though the academy’s mid- and low-level wizards had been deliberately dismissed in advance.

Jie Ming quickly reached a judgment.

This meeting was, in all likelihood, an emergency assembly aimed specifically at the high-level wizards of the entire Noren Workshop.

Puzzled, Jie Ming set off along the main passage toward the assembly hall.

Before long he caught sight of Viola outside one of the side halls.

Her silver-gray hair was gathered carelessly into a low ponytail, a few strands hanging beside her ears, and she stood half-leaning against a stone pillar, chatting easily with two sixth-level witches.

The picture she made stood in sharp contrast to the distinctly grave atmosphere around her.

Spotting Jie Ming, Viola raised a hand at once and beckoned. “Over here.”

Jie Ming walked over, glancing around him by reflex. He did not see Clark.

“Where is Mentor Clark? He did not come?”

Viola shrugged.

“The old man and Teacher Kastilla are at a critical stage in their research; they cannot get away at all. Don’t worry, I asked him beforehand. He said it would be enough to bring the important decisions back afterward and tell him about them.”

“Understood.”

Jie Ming nodded, then took another sweeping look at the state of the hall, and the strangeness he felt only deepened.

Several of the genuinely renowned seventh-level wizards of the Noren Workshop had already arrived, and sixth-level wizards had gathered in whole swathes.

Yet up to now, neither Wizard Noren himself nor Grand-Mentor Anton had appeared.

And judging by the scene, though quite enough people had come, the high-level wizards who had not come were probably more numerous still.

“So this is only an emergency summons, then, and not a compulsory attendance?”

“More or less.” Viola nodded. “In fact a good many high-level wizards never received the message at all. By the look of it they only notified those who happened to be free.”

Jie Ming glanced at her.

“Come to think of it, what exactly has happened? To call this many people over in such a hurry, it can hardly be a routine meeting, surely?”

At that, Viola raised an eyebrow.

“You really are as indifferent to the affairs of the upper echelons as ever. Besides, have you forgotten? A few centuries ago Dean Avery Knight held a meeting for us at Academy No. 147, the one about the ‘Wonder.’”

At Viola’s words, it came back to Jie Ming at once.

Dean Avery Knight had announced a piece of news to the academy’s mentors then: a “Wonder” had been discovered along the moving route of the Noren Workshop’s plane cluster… which was to say, a kind of large-scale special disaster within the endless chaotic void.

At the time the distance had been considerable, and the space and time around the Wonder too chaotic, so no scouting party had been rashly dispatched to investigate the particulars.

Going by the deductions of the day, however, Dean Avery Knight had made a point of reminding them that they would do well to stay on a war footing within a window of one to two thousand years.

“So it is that business.” Jie Ming nodded. “True enough. They said back then that we would meet that Wonder in about a thousand years, and going by the timing, it is about time to prepare a reconnaissance.”

Sustaining a strategy across a thousand years and more would be far too absurd for ordinary living things, but for wizards, laying out strategy centuries or even millennia in advance was, on the contrary, an entirely normal practice.

By now the number of high-level wizards entering around them was gradually swelling.

Viola clapped Jie Ming on the shoulder. “Let us go. It is nearly time for the meeting; we can talk once we are inside.”

Jie Ming nodded and followed her into the main assembly hall.

The main hall was itself a large, independently opened space, so even with several thousand wizards inside it did not seem the least bit crowded; there were still considerable stretches of open ground.

By the time Jie Ming and Viola came in, the wizards who had arrived before them were already seated according to their respective levels and factions.

Layer upon layer of observation arrays hung high overhead, ensuring that the central podium could be seen clearly from every corner…

Though for high-level wizards, a distance like that made no difference whatsoever to their view.

Jie Ming found a spot at random and sat down.

As the hour of the meeting drew near, the hall, noisy before and holding several thousand people, nonetheless fell swiftly quiet, every wizard waiting in silence for the meeting to begin.

Hmmm…

Placid spatial ripples spread outward from the podium, and Wizard Noren’s figure appeared at its center.

Every wizard present roused themselves at once, watching Wizard Noren in silence.

Under the gaze of several thousand high-level wizards, Wizard Noren merely looked around him, confirming the number who had come, and then went straight to the point.

“This meeting concerns the Wonder observed in the endless chaotic void several centuries ago.”

“As to that Wonder’s position, I have completed the latest round of coordinate extrapolation. According to the data obtained so far, it is now confirmed that the time of its intersection with the Noren Workshop’s sphere of influence will be roughly one hundred and twenty years from now.”

Hearing the figure, Jie Ming rubbed his chin, thoughtful.

A hundred and twenty years was no great span for a wizard of the sixth or seventh level, and where an unknown disaster of this kind was concerned, it meant the moment for genuine action had arrived.

Wizard Noren raised a hand and drew a streak of light across the empty air, and a slowly extending route trajectory surfaced along with it.

“At present we cannot judge the nature of this Wonder, nor determine whether it is a simple void disaster or an anomalous region left behind by the ruins of some supermassive civilization.”

“Therefore, the Workshop has decided to form several investigation teams to look into it.”

“Just as I thought…” Jie Ming nodded silently.

Boom!

Not a soul made a sound, yet Jie Ming could feel clearly that the mental ripples throughout the hall had markedly surged for an instant.

“Heh. It seems everyone is quite excited.”