Chapter 545: Giant Bug

Ace sighed with some emotion as he said to Ancestar: “This Cortes, I’m afraid, made a mistake. Introducing the powerful forces of the upper realm cannot possibly suppress and balance; it is highly likely to lead to frantic plundering. Even if it’s a transformation, it won’t be what they expected.”

Ancestar felt deeply touched. His eyes flickered with thought, and he said in a low voice: “Indeed. Cortes introduced the gods of the upper realm, which is probably also the root cause of this world’s demise. Even our arrival in this world, to some extent, has completely changed the world. For the old world, it is also a kind of demise.”

The witch’s sweet voice suddenly became somewhat somber, and the surrounding atmosphere also began to change colors.

She said in a deep voice: “Cortes communicated with the gods of the other world many times. Finally, one day, He set up a ritual to trigger the descent of the other world’s gods. No one knows the specific details; it’s only known that the Day of Descent became the first day of the Era of Decline.

“Darkness shrouded the entire world. A ball of eternal flame appeared in the Heaven Realm, completely burning the dwelling of the gods to ashes. Countless minor gods died, and two Pillar Gods also died on the spot.

“The eternal flame continuously swallowed everything. The purification Cortes hoped for finally descended. It is said that this flame lasted for nearly a hundred years. Countless heroes went to crusade against it, and even Demigods once received the world’s favor a few times and went to crusade.

“But ultimately, all failed. That flame just hovered quietly, and the entire world became weaker and weaker. In despair, Cortes ran towards the flame and disappeared completely.

“The flame burned for nearly a thousand years. When the world was on the verge of collapse and people were in complete despair, that flame suddenly disappeared, as if it had never appeared.

“The shattered world ruins have a large amount of glass-like substances, which are all products of that era.

“This flame seems to have taken away a massive amount of the world’s Great Source. The entire world was simply insufficient to support it. The Demigods first fought cruelly, and finally fell into slumber one by one. The only awake Demigod ignited Himself to sustain the entire world.

“He called Himself the Lord of Cinder.

“This era was also called the Era of the Lords of Cinder, lasting roughly the final epoch of nearly a million years. These gods turned into empty shells one by one, and finally suffered a backlash, transforming into the Dark Lords.

“The final Dark Age was the era when the Dark Lords awakened one after another. They were no longer gods, having burned up everything. They were just cinders, the mutated bodies of Demigods.

“The entire world shattered in the struggle among the Dark Lords, or rather, it turned into ashes. This is also why this world has very little residual Source Power.”

Ace and Ancestar also felt somewhat emotional. Such a long forty million years, how much decline and prosperity, countless people fighting, scenes of joys and sorrows, partings and reunions, yet ultimately all turning into illusions.

Ace suddenly wanted to say some words to the wizards. Perhaps there were some things that needed to be reminded, letting the wizards know what they needed to do.

After taking Ancestar to meet the other members of the Supreme Council, Ancestar also became a member of the astral scavengers. Afterward, Ace gathered all the wizards in the Academic City and began a speech.

The wizards were all full of expectations, discussing lively. No one knew what Ace was going to talk about. Some said he wanted to talk about his comprehension of advancing to Level 4; some said there were brand new theoretical discoveries; others said Ace might want to share a certain powerful magic.

In short, everyone was looking forward to it. Just then, Ace flashed onto the high platform.

High hat brim, black magic robe, a somewhat pale yet handsome face, slender fingers. The wizards cheered collectively.

Ace looked at the crowd below the stage, activated magic to make his voice loud and clear, and said: “I am Wizard Ace. I can also unceremoniously say that I am your guide.”

A burst of friendly laughter came from below the stage; a few wizards even shouted “Teacher.”

Ace continued: “Today I am not here to talk about magic, but to talk about the development of our world, the civilization of our world. The entire Wizard World is a world cluster with a complex architecture. As more Demigods are born in the future, perhaps this world cluster will become even more complex and diverse.

“And why did I construct the world like this?”

Looking around, the other wizards had thoughtful expressions on their faces. Some had already thought of magical mechanics, whispering things like “celestial systems.”

Ace nodded and said: “I heard someone say celestial system. This is relatively correct. We indeed constructed a world system similar to a celestial system, which also objectively proves that action at a distance remains effective at the macro scale of the world. And this system is exactly the goal of our Wizard World: to de-involute, and concentrate power on the outside.

“The so-called involution is when power is constantly concentrated internally, fighting continuously.

“We have been exploring the shattered world ruins recently, and found such a ready-made example. I believe many of you understand the vicissitudes of the Karovorm World. The birth of this world was involution: gods killed the Holy Beast, sought revenge against each other, and constant struggles intensified.

“This greatly consumed the world’s potential. This world had very strong resources, able to gestate at most nearly double-digit Demigods. You must know that the resources of our world can at most support two Demigods.

“With such massive resources, this world should have had great potential. Perhaps it could have quickly ascended to a higher astral layer, and everyone’s bottlenecks could be broken through, with the possibility of becoming True Gods.

“But that was not the case here. The people of this world kept fighting, putting their limited energy into infinite internal strife.

“Various overt and covert schemes eventually left the world in a mess. Such a path and ideology for a world is wrong.

“We should not fall into internal strife. And when in internal strife, desiring to rely on external forces and attempting to appease the inside through external forces is even more wrong.

“We should always oppose these two ideologies. We must oppose both the involution ideology and the pro-foreign ideology.

“We must always remain independent and autonomous, and strive to enlarge the base internally, and increase the base externally.”

Some of the wizards below the stage listened with great interest, while others felt it had nothing to do with magic and listened drowsily.

Ace carefully observed their states, and his voice suddenly grew louder, jolting many people awake: “Maybe some people think it’s irrelevant, but this is closely related to us. You are the core figures of the Wizard World. Everyone who ascends to the Celestial Realm is at least an official wizard.

“We need to be alert, and we also need to be vigilant. There is competition among wizards, but internal strife is absolutely not allowed. Wizards should wholeheartedly develop and prosper internally. Powerful wizards should focus their energy externally. Only by constantly hunting and scavenging supernatural power and matter from the external Astral Void can we better enrich our world.

“The development of a world should be built on such a foundation: internal prosperity and external hunting and gathering. At the same time, we must also guard against possible attacks from other worlds, and be prepared to hunt other worlds.

“The Astral Void is neither lonely nor safe. If our Wizard World wants to develop, we must maintain high vigilance at all times and reject involution!”

The wizards also applauded one after another. They slowly understood what Ace said. Internal strife would indeed make the entire world lose vitality and potential. But just burying their heads in prosperous development was also too slow. Only by building with their heads down while simultaneously hunting and scavenging more from the external world could the world develop rapidly.

With the development of the world, it could inevitably support more Demigods, and this was the foundation of this world.

After the speech, Warren found Ace. He looked left and right, suddenly activated an isolation barrier, and handed Ace a fist-sized gray stone.

Ace looked at Warren puzzledly. Warren said with a solemn expression: “This is not an ordinary stone. It seems to be a directional stone. It might contain something hidden; I dare not activate it lightly.”

Ace’s eyes flickered with white light. Looking at this stone, his gaze sharpened.

“If this isn’t mistaken, it should be a coordinate, a two-way astral coordinate! As long as it’s activated, our location will be exposed, and at the same time, another astral location will appear. This thing indeed cannot be activated randomly. It is highly likely the coordinate linking to the upper realm that Cortes obtained.

“We’d better be careful.”

Warren also nodded cautiously. He felt this thing was a hot potato. Giving it to Ace made him feel much more at ease.

Ace looked at this stone, applied layers of seals on it, and stored it away. He already had the coordinates of the world of the Holy Light and angels. Perhaps he could infiltrate, but the direction of infiltration was a problem.

Ace didn’t plan to expose the current location of the Wizard World. Perhaps jumping from the powerful Kaya World would be a good choice.

…

While Ace was thinking, inside the Wizard World, in the stellar habitable zone.

Sunlight poured down. Inside the crystal wall bubble, the Totem Continent was bathing in the sunlight. The Level 1 Mage Thales was making his final records.

During these ten years, he spent three years earning enough magic stones on the Blood Origin Planet, and completely mastered the knowledge Warren left behind. Because of this, he also discovered many interesting things, but we’ll leave that aside for now.

After leaving the Blood Origin Planet, Thales successively went to several other habitable planets and the newly arrived crystal wall bubbles. Many strange civilizations of exotic styles also broadened his horizons. After ten years passed, he finally arrived at the Totem Continent as he wished, and completed his travelogue here.

This was Thales’s gift to his teacher Warren. Regarding the exploration of all habitable planets and bubbles containing life, the Totem Continent had already begun to be colonized. People from nearby habitable planets successively arrived here directly through means such as prayer trials.

They were also very curious about Thales’s flying machine. This was completely different from teleportation, but no one wanted to ride it. They all wanted to conquer this place, not to see rarities.

Thales recorded: “A third of the Totem Continent has already been colonized. The colonists from various planets almost all arrive by teleportation. And with their colonization, this continent has also undergone drastic changes.

“Especially after the Totem Sun died, almost the entire continent fell.

“The alien auras within the continent are also constantly weakening. It is certain that, as long as the colonists haven’t unified the entire continent, the Wizard World digesting this continent is only a matter of time.”

This was indeed the world’s method of digesting various continents and island fragments. People’s colonization and the consumption of supernatural energy would ultimately cause these foreign objects to be digested. It was all a matter of time.

Thales took the flying machine, slowly approaching the nearest habitable planet. There was the megastructure necessary for his ascension. As a Level 1 Mage, he had no qualification to directly trigger the Magic Net to ascend to the Celestial Realm. He could only ascend to the Celestial Realm through someone else’s help.

Three days later, Celestial Realm, Academic City.

Like a country bumpkin entering the city, Thales first wandered around the Academic City for a while, inquired clearly about Warren’s residence, and then headed straight there.

As a Legendary Wizard, Warren was a top-tier big shot in the Celestial Realm. Basically all wizards knew his residence. Every Legendary Wizard had a Wizard Tower in the Academic City, which could be said to be a very eye-catching building.

Thales walked to the door, only to be stopped outside by the Tower Spirit.

The eagle squatting on the pillar at the main gate of the Wizard Tower spoke human words: “This is the Wizard Tower of His Excellency Legendary Wizard Warren. Please stop, otherwise I will teach you a lesson.”

Thales had long heard people say that every Wizard Tower had an exceptionally intelligent Tower Spirit, which was also a golem with high intelligence, its strength close to a Golden Wizard.

He didn’t dare to be careless. Standing respectfully outside the red line, he said: “I am His Excellency Warren’s Mage disciple from the starry sky of the Human World. I just recently advanced to an Official Mage and came specially to visit the Teacher. I hope Your Excellency will report this.”

That eagle, with a metallic luster all over, glanced at Thales somewhat disdainfully. It didn’t know Warren had a disciple, but it wasn’t that certain either, so it asked: “How do you prove it?”

Thales thought for a moment, took out the sealing scroll of the giant flying machine Starry Sky Butterfly made by Warren, and handed it over respectfully.

“This is the advanced flying machine made by Teacher Warren, capable of sailing in space in the Human World using sunlight. You are Teacher Warren’s Tower Spirit; you must recognize this.”

The eagle flew down from the pillar, hovered to Thales’s side, stared carefully at the sealing scroll, and after a long time said:

“The magic mark on this scroll is indeed His Excellency Warren’s. But I can’t let you in based on this alone. Leave this item. His Excellency Warren recently went scavenging in the Astral Void. No, it seems to be conquering, anyway, that’s the meaning. He won’t be back for a while.

“If he returns, I will report.”

Thales thought for a while. He had indeed heard that the wizards had just discovered something new, but didn’t know exactly what it was. In short, many wizards had gone adventuring.

…

Outside the world, countless tentacles of the Magic Net had extended, hooping a super-giant transparent bug-like thing.

Ace personally held the fort, controlling the Demigod Level Magic Net, constantly proliferating threads to tightly hoop this giant transparent bug.

That giant transparent bug shook with a rumble, opened its huge mouthparts, and spewed out extremely terrifying void turbulence.

Ace waved his hand, and a nebula suddenly appeared in front of the void turbulence. Spinning violently, it absorbed the spatial turbulence directly. Ace’s eyes flickered with white light. Looking at this giant bug, a strange brilliance flashed in his eyes.

“What is this? The volume of this bug is comparable to a world, and how is its skin the same as a crystal wall? It’s too strange.”

Ace’s eyes met the giant bug’s. The Mythical Level Dream Magic activated. A large amount of dream mist drilled into the giant bug’s closed single eye. There seemed to be terrifying roars and lightning and thunder; countless people were twisting and wailing.

That giant bug’s single eye abruptly opened. Ace instantly mobilized the Source Power of the entire world, activated the World Controller’s Authority, and borrowing the power of the world, the dream mist covered the single eye.

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