I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality Chapter 958: Invaders

In the blink of an eye, fifty or sixty years slipped past.

With the high-level fighting strength of the Holy Spirit plane cluster wiped out, the development of the plane cluster gradually got onto the right track.

More and more young wizards took charge of the clean-up on the front lines, and Jie Ming, if anything, had more time to put into his own research.

On this day, Jack had just finished a war mission on one of the planes and returned, worn out, to his temporary lodgings back on his home world.

In fact, his being here at all was the result of quite a coincidence.

When Jie Ming had applied to Noren Workshop to conscript low-level wizards for the subsequent development of the planes, the application had been approved without a hitch.

As luck would have it, Jack had just finished his own graduation trial around that time.

And so, after going round in circles, Jack had ended up back under Jie Ming after all.

“Teacher, you have no idea how much trouble those guys are!”

Before he had even sat down properly, Jack could not help complaining.

Jie Ming was sitting at a metal desk studying a set of documents. He did not even look up. “What’s wrong?”

“The races the Holy Spirits used to control are just pig-headed.” The more Jack spoke, the angrier he got.

“We clearly helped them get rid of that control and stabilized their worlds for them, and the moment our backs are turned they treat us as enemies. Some races even organize armies and attack us outright.”

“I really can’t understand it. We helped them, so why are they still fighting us?”

At that, Jie Ming finally raised his head and looked at him, his expression very calm. “You feel angry about it?”

“I feel like my good intentions got thrown to the dogs.” The more Jack thought about it, the more frustrated he became; he clearly could not let it go.

Jie Ming only laughed. “That’s perfectly normal. It’s because you’re seeing it from the wrong standpoint. The biggest problem right now isn’t those alien races, it’s that your mindset has never shifted.”

Jack was stunned.

Jie Ming put away the materials in his hands, his gaze serious.

“Even now, you’re still acting with the mindset of a savior.”

“Aren’t we?” Jack asked back without thinking.

As he saw it, they were clearly rescuing those races from the hands of the Holy Spirits.

But Jie Ming’s expression grew steadily sterner.

“That’s exactly the error in your understanding. Wizards have never been saviors of any kind!”

“Quite the opposite. To those native lives, the Holy Spirits and the wizards alike are, in essence, invaders.”

Jie Ming went on, “The Holy Spirits invaded them, so they enslaved them, controlled them, plundered them. We wizards arrived, drove out the Holy Spirits, occupied their planes and took over their resources.”

“From where you stand, we’re liberating them. But from where they stand?”

Jie Ming pointed outside.

“All they see is a group of powerful strangers barging into their world, driving out another group of strangers, and then taking the place over.”

“But… isn’t that how you saved us back then?”

Jie Ming gave a cold laugh at that. “You can’t twist the nature of what we’re doing just because they live better than they did before. Look at it from another angle. If wizards came across a civilization with a highly developed welfare system, the way we dealt with those creatures wouldn’t change much either. If the same actions damaged those creatures’ own interests, would that become an ‘invasion’ as you understand it?”

Jack fell silent.

“If you keep clinging to naive ideas like that, sooner or later you’ll come to grief.”

Jie Ming’s voice was very calm, but it held no softening at all.

“On the battlefield, the other side won’t refrain from killing you just because you think you’re saving people.”

“You can minimize pointless slaughter as much as possible, and you can choose gentler methods, but first you have to see your own position clearly.”

“Only when you know clearly that you’re an invader will you make every preparation.”

Jie Ming said finally, “Recognize the nature of what you’re doing. That way, even if you die on the battlefield one day, you’ll have no one else to blame.”

Jack lowered his head and said nothing for a long while.

Only after some time did he stand up. “I understand.”

“Go and rest. You’ve just finished a war mission, and it took a lot out of you.”

Jack nodded, turned and left.

Once the door had closed, the room grew quiet again, and Jie Ming’s attention returned to the research before him.

Over these fifty or sixty years, what he had truly poured the most effort into was not the development of the Holy Spirit plane cluster, but the study of the technology he had obtained from the laboratory ruins.

World Nesting Technology.

Jie Ming lifted his hand and tapped, and the rune model on the light screen unfolded at once.

The originally minute spatial structure rapidly split apart, forming layer upon layer of world models nested inside one another.

Each layer of space had its own relatively independent rules, yet they were linked to one another in some extraordinarily complex way.

This technology was far too profound.

Even with Jie Ming’s present research ability, after several decades he had only barely grasped parts of its outline.

But as he kept sorting through the intelligence left behind by the Holy Spirits, the insect-man civilization and other advanced civilizations, their understanding of the Central World grew clearer and clearer, and one judgment became more and more certain.

This technology was very likely the fruit of the previous human civilization’s research into the Central World in this plane cluster.

With the Central World something they would inevitably have to face in the future, Jie Ming naturally could not give it up lightly.

What surprised him somewhat, however, was the Mustard Seed Dao-Holding True Body Art.

As his research went deeper, he discovered that the two techniques were, astonishingly, similar in certain parts of their underlying logic.

They took different outward forms, but in essence both involved reconstructing the hierarchy of spatial layers.

It was precisely because he had discovered this that Jie Ming’s research had sped up noticeably.

He could even turn things around and use his understanding of the Mustard Seed Dao-Holding True Body Art to take apart certain structures in World Nesting Technology.

Runes that had been obscure and hard to understand gradually grew clear as each confirmed the other.

Jie Ming’s mental energy swept again and again over those complex structures, and the calculations in his mind hardly stopped.

Just then, his magic network terminal suddenly gave off a communication fluctuation.

Jie Ming glanced at the caller’s name, set his research aside and raised a hand to answer.

“Mentor, it’s been a long time. How are things on your end? I heard from Senior Sister earlier that you and Teacher Kastilla had pinned down the exact coordinates of three advanced civilizations?”

Clark’s voice came through. “Your news is a little out of date. With Number One’s help, we’ve already crushed those three advanced civilizations.”

“But what comes next is a long clean-up. Taking them over completely and putting them in order will need a great deal of time. Viola tells me you’ve conscripted a large number of low-level wizards? I’ve come to ask for a share.”

Jie Ming nodded. “No problem. The next graduation season for wizard apprentices is coming soon. We can send that batch to your side first, Mentor.”

Clark went on, “Also, over these years Starfall has summoned two more sixth-level plane wizards.”

Jie Ming’s gaze sharpened at once.

Clark said, “Counting Number One, three sixth-level plane wizards have now been committed to the battlefield. They’re advancing very fast. Quite a few advanced civilizations didn’t hold out for long at all.”

Jie Ming was silent for a moment. He easily grasped the subtext of his Mentor’s words: Starfall’s actions were certainly under Wizard Fate’s influence.

And if she had begun to exert herself, that meant… the time for the decisive battle was drawing near.

“At the current pace, they should be close to reaching the real target area.”

Clark said, “In any case, as long as you’re clear on it yourself. Remember to be ready for battle.”

“Understood!”

The call ended, and the laboratory returned to silence.

Jie Ming did not go on studying the world model in front of him. Instead he stood up and gazed out of the window at the pitch-black void.

After a long while, he let out a slow sigh. “It’s faster than I expected.”