Chapter 626: Eleven Years of the Wizard World

Ace only then noticed that the altar was actually in the very center of a plaza. The people walking scattered around were all, like John, shrouded in multicolored dream-like brilliance, their faces and figures obscured.

Leaning over the edge of a fountain, Ace found that his own reflection was also shrouded in multicolored light, his appearance and form invisible.

“This is Gem City?”

Ace looked carefully at everything before him. Every single building, including the clear fountain, was crafted from solid blocks of gemstones. This was a city of pure gems—a dreamlike metropolis.

“Lord, there are a total of 2,531 residents here, all of whom are Your believers. Our Gem Order follows an elitist principle, only absorbing those with high destinies and potential. We currently have one Prophet, thirty-one Foreseers, and 420 High Apostles.”

John softly introduced the city to Ace.

This was the Dream of the Wilderness. It wasn’t a mapping of the Mansus, but a crystal sphere based on the Dream of the Wilderness—a collection of countless dreams. Within it was the Gem Dreamscape, with the ruby serving as its core. The dream world here was naturally stable; as long as the crystal sphere remained intact, the dream would never perish.

Ace didn’t linger. Everyone here was cloaked in multicolored radiance, and Ace had no desire to let them know he was the “Lord.” He didn’t even know what was going on himself yet.

Ace stepped into the altar. His figure flickered and soon disappeared, entering the Gem Secret Realm.

The swirling mist of dreams, the shimmering gems… Ace felt an incomparable sense of familiarity. He gently touched a gemstone, and a mass of dream mist drifted over his head. He saw his past reincarnation, growing up in a blacksmith’s home—living in a supernatural world, yet powerless to seek the supernatural.

When he tried to learn more, he felt a splitting headache and lost consciousness.

When he opened his eyes again, Ace found himself lying quietly in bed. Sunlight spilled before his eyes, a bit dazzling. He sat up slowly, recalling the bizarre and frantic experiences of the previous day.

“I… don’t think this is my first time transmigrating?”

Ace felt a sharp pain in his head. In his blurred memory, he seemed to have entered the Gem Secret Realm again and triggered a pre-prepared mechanism.

Outside the Realm of True Names, six streamlined sub-planes had assembled. Hundreds of Named Ones and thousands of Pseudonymous Ones entered them, following the Lords of Time into action.

As Lords of Time, their sub-planes could accelerate to 50% of the speed of light—faster than the sub-planes of the Named Ones.

What they failed to notice was an informational wave leaping away from the Realm of True Names.

Within the Wizard Multiverse, eleven years had passed. The entire world’s crystal wall was now studded with controllable nuclear fusion thrusters, capable of accelerating the entire Wizard World to 20% of the speed of light, entering a state of sub-light-speed navigation.

“Unknown information wave received from four-dimensional space-time!”

“Begin parsing; research the meaning within.”

Outside the world, fifty artificial sub-planes were arrayed, each one a mobile war fortress, information hub, and research center.

On an artificial sub-plane named the Atal, the Mythical Wizard Daru received a unique information stream. It was from four-dimensional space-time and was exceptionally distinct.

“It’s the hexagram mark—the Tenth Ring! An information stream from Lord Ace?”

“Lord Ace? Could he have encountered an accident while collecting space-time curvature data in four-dimensional space-time? Or is there a major discovery?”

“Accelerate decryption! Analyze carefully; utilize Artificial True God-level computing power.”

Gradually, the information was decrypted. Daru’s eyes widened. “Invasion by six Sovereigns! Report to the Supreme Council immediately—it is imperative!”

Today, Bayen was serving as the Rotating Chairman. Among the 600+ Legendary Immortal Wizards, he was still the most senior and respected, elected as a representative and chosen as this year’s chairman.

The vast majority of Legendary Immortal Wizards had headed to four-dimensional space-time to explore the mysteries of space-time curvature. After all, secret treasury exchange points were vital even for newly advanced Legends. The mapping of space-time curvature was of great significance; even without a reward, it needed to be pushed forward—let alone with one.

Ace himself had personally led teams to four-dimensional space-time to record and calculate, summarizing the laws of curvature transition and picking up Level 5 runes related to space-time curvature.

In the Central High Tower of the Celestial Realm, Bayen received the information stream. His eyes narrowed slightly as he said softly, “They’ve finally come. Activate Contingency Plan One! Trigger the controllable nuclear fusion thrusters on the crystal wall; accelerate to sub-light-speed navigation!”

As Bayen issued the command, the thrusters on the massive surface of the Wizard Multiverse’s crystal wall ignited simultaneously. The immense thrust caused the entire world to tremble slightly. The speed continued to increase; within ten days, it reached 1% of the speed of light, entering sub-light-speed flight.

Just then, Ace returned from four-dimensional space-time. This harvest had been bountiful; the space-time curvature of the entire Level 3 layer had basically been scouted, further strengthening Ace’s power.

“The world has entered sub-light-speed navigation. Has the Realm of True Names discovered us? In four-dimensional space-time, I observed six powerful particles rapidly breaking away from the Realm of True Names’ particle cluster,” Ace asked immediately upon his return.

Bayen rose and bowed slightly, nodding. “Exactly so. Your clone transmitted the information. The opponent has dispatched six Lords of Time. These so-called ‘Hours’ possess strength equivalent to an ordinary Main God of the Kaya World.”

Ace grinned, revealing eight white teeth.

“They certainly think highly of us. It just so happens I’ve gained a deeper understanding of space-time curvature; I’ll use those six to test my skills. Stop acceleration at 10% light speed. We will wait for them to close in.”

Looking at Ace’s smile, Bayen let out a long sigh. He didn’t know what capabilities these incoming Lords of Time possessed, but there was a high probability they were going to suffer. Ace’s power was something the Kaya and Elven gods had tasted years ago; an ordinary Main God likely wouldn’t be his match. Only a God King or a Controller within the Realm of True Names could possibly oppose him.

Ace’s figure slowly vanished, leaving the Central High Tower to appear in the world’s rule layer.

The reason Ace was unwilling to attack the Realm of True Names directly was that he had sensed potential opponents.

That Eternal Night of the Midnight Hour was very likely a God King, or even a World Controller. If Ace entered the Realm of True Names blindly, he might actually meet with disaster.

Over these ten years, Ace had not been idle. He spent the vast majority of his time in the depths of the Great Source opening high-dimensional rifts, converting high-dimensional energy into super-dimensional mana, and then birthing one stellar system after another.

Ace’s own sub-plane had only a little over two million stars, but the Wizard Multiverse now boasted over 100 million.

A sub-plane is merely a four-dimensional particle, while a Wizard World is a four-dimensional particle cluster. The difference in their four-dimensional essence dictated the massive difference in their three-dimensional capacity.

Given the same energy degraded from high dimensions, his own sub-plane reached its limit at two million stars, but the Wizard World remained far from its limit even with 100 million. This enrichment through conversion, coupled with the increasing number of Legendary Immortal Wizards, continuously provided positive feedback.

The 100 million stars of the Wizard World would be Ace’s strongest backup. As the World Controller, with the blessing of the Wizard World, he could fully utilize Overlimit Power—the powerful strength of a pseudo-Level 6—within the world.

Bathing in the tides of the Great Source, Ace murmured:

“The Wizard Multiverse currently has over four hundred natural four-dimensional particles and over six hundred four-dimensional particles from Legendary Immortal Wizards. However, those sub-planes do not completely belong to the Wizard World. To truly enhance our foundation, I need to work on the three thousand Dream Gods.”

As things stood, Ace had stopped opening high-dimensional rifts to convert energy, as the interior of the Wizard World was nearly saturated. 100 million stars were close to the current limit the world could sustain. If he wanted to strengthen the foundation further, he couldn’t do it through the three-dimensional level; he had to actually increase the four-dimensional particles.

Unlike Legendary Immortal Wizards—whose sub-planes were loosely connected to the world and somewhat independent—gods were inextricably linked to their world. Everything a god possessed was entrusted to the world; once separated from it, their law-based power would weaken significantly.

Wizards were different. Whether in their home world, wandering the Astral Plane, or in another world, a wizard’s combat strength remained exceptionally stable. The foundations of the two were different: Laws must be based on a world, but Laws of Reality (Universal Constants) transcend worlds.

The patterns discovered by wizards were not specific to one world, but were truths applicable throughout the Astral Plane. This was the source of a wizard’s power.

But simultaneously, this meant a wizard’s sub-plane was too independent to provide a greater foundation for the world.

“The technique for artificially nurturing deities is now mature. To nurture an Artificial True God, one first needs a pure, flawless soul at the limit of the Demi-god level. Most of the True Gods nurtured by the wizards lack personality traits and resemble pure machinery; thus, they are jokingly called ‘True God Computers.’

“But there is another line of thought: using the Stele of Fate as a computer hub and the three thousand Dream Gods as NPCs, ascending illusory data into real souls. Simultaneously, the Stele of Fate would also ascend, merging with the Great Source of Dreams to become the hub that suppresses the entire Wizard World.

“Nurturing three thousand souls at the Demi-god limit isn’t incredibly difficult, but I would need to prepare three thousand Artificial Fruits of Immortality and artificial sub-planes. This is a truly massive project. Once these are ready, complete Laws won’t be as difficult to manage.”

Ace gradually cleared his thoughts. He suddenly noticed the world’s stars seemed to dim collectively and realized, “It seems the high-dimensional rifts cannot stop yet. Sub-light-speed navigation requires too much energy. To avoid consuming the energy of the stars, I can only use myself as a human generator.”

Crackle, crackle!

The sounds were incessant. High-dimensional rifts appeared in the depths of the Wizard World’s Great Source—ten thousand, a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand… eventually reaching as many as five hundred thousand. This was the blessing of the World Controller status, allowing Ace to double the number of rifts he could open.

Ace sat within that core of the Magic Net, manipulating the net to extend strands of thread. They plugged into the high-dimensional rifts, drawing high-quality energy. The Glassy Heart Fire burned fiercely, disciplining the high-dimensional energy into super-dimensional mana.

Super-dimensional mana possessed the attributes of both energy and matter—or rather, energy and matter were one. The materials needed for controllable nuclear fusion were provided by super-dimensional mana through further conversion by the Magic Net, supplied directly through Magic Net channels to every controllable nuclear fusion thruster on the crystal wall.

The artificial sub-planes on guard outside the crystal wall all accelerated to 40% of the speed of light—the current limit of the magical civilization’s acceleration. In terms of pure sub-light-speed navigation, the wizards’ techniques were inferior to those of the Realm of True Names.

However, a wizard’s strongest method of travel was never sub-light-speed navigation, but Four-Dimensional Curvature Navigation. Through curvature mapping—while they were still some distance from collecting enough curvature runes to advance to Level 6—the complete four-dimensional curvature data of the Level 3 Astral Plane layer and the technique of curvature jumping allowed wizards to navigate faster than light instantaneously.

As Astral Plane combat units, the artificial sub-planes here already possessed a technological generational gap in terms of speed. Even the powerful explosions created by nuclear fusion technology could produce temperatures of 300 million degrees at the epicenter. If a direct hit landed on a Sovereign-level True God, it could vaporize and melt them instantly.

The only problem was hitting them. The raw lethality of nuclear magic was enough to strike the enemy, but precision guidance remained a major issue.

Ace’s gaze seemed to pierce the Astral Plane. The distance between the Realm of True Names and the Wizard World was six light-years. Considering the Wizard World itself was navigating at 10% of the speed of light, it would take the opponent at least fifteen or sixteen years to catch up.

This length of time was enough for the Wizard World to develop further, and even more so for his wisp of clone consciousness to grow stronger. He needed to figure out what the so-called Mansus actually was, and most importantly, whether that Eternal Night of the Midnight Hour was a God King or a Controller!

“War is fought with military force, but even more so with informational disparity. The opponent’s world has made a major misjudgment regarding the Wizard World, thinking six Lords of Time are enough to crush a newly advanced, immature world, unaware that I am already strong enough to suppress them.

“But more time is needed. Before scouting the opponent’s information, one must never act rashly. Carelessness often leads to a capsize, and a single capsize could mean losing the entire game!”

Residing deep within the Great Source, acting as a human generator, Ace’s gaze remained burning bright.

“This job as a human generator is truly tedious. If we breach the Realm of True Names, I will turn all the bodies of the Lords of Time and Named Ones into ‘human generators,’ and wipe the consciousness from their souls to turn them into pure Spirit Computers!”

Within the Great Source, Ace uttered terrifying words. Perhaps this was a wizard: possessing goodwill toward their own, but toward the gods of an alien world—especially those invading their own—they held none.

It was like looking at excellent experimental materials; his mind was entirely focused on how to utilize them effectively.

Thinking of utility, Ace thought of Artificial True Gods. Nurturing an Artificial True God from scratch was truly too difficult; in eleven years, the wizards had only manufactured about twenty.

Ace actually wanted to utilize those Named and Pseudonymous prisoners. However, Pseudonymous Ones were not Level 5 and couldn’t draw high-dimensional energy; they could at most be made into soul computers, which was quite wasteful. Most wizards used Pseudonymous Ones as partial soul material for Artificial True Gods to save the trouble of nurturing them from scratch.

Though Named Ones were Level 5, without their Fruits of Immortality, there wasn’t much utility for them. Only by grasping their Fruits of Immortality could they be used as stable “human generators” and “God-level Spirit Computers.”

“In other words, if our Wizard World wants to obtain massive computing power and produce huge amounts of high-dimensional energy, we must invade the Realm of True Names. That vast world has over a thousand Named Ones and twenty-six Lords of Time inside and out. If we can defeat them and seize their True Name marks in the Mansus, our Wizard World will usher in a period of great development!”

For a moment, Ace thought of slave societies—the beginning of human civilization. It was extremely similar to what he was thinking: invading other tribes, turning enemies into slaves, and exchanging their sacrificed interests for development through exploitation.

With a thought, Ace appeared in the Magic Sanctuary deep within the galactic center of the world’s interior.

The starlight was brilliant here, the floor like a clean mirror. Directly above was a main throne, with over six hundred ornate chairs below.

He sat upon the highest seat, gently tapping the chair. Ripples undulated with each tap; with every strike, a dozen or so Legendary Immortal Wizards appeared.

About ten minutes later, all the Legendary Immortal Wizards had arrived, sitting in their chairs.

Some of the Legendary Immortal Wizards present had descended in their true bodies, others as projections; regardless, everyone was present.

Only Ace possessed such charisma; other elected representatives—the Chairman Legends—could not possibly summon everyone.

As per routine, the Rotating Chairman, Bayen, began to preside over the meeting. He first walked slowly toward Ace and asked in a low voice, “Lord Ace, what is the matter for summoning all the Legends?”

In his heart, he was thinking about the sub-light-speed navigation and the enemy’s sortie. Was it to increase infiltration and scouting of the Realm of True Names? Or regarding the energy deficit?

The Chairman’s group had already discussed these and had some drafts ready to report to Ace.

Ace smiled and said, “The moment I see you like this, I know your Chairman’s group has topics to discuss. Let everyone wait for a moment; come with me to the Sea of Consciousness to talk.”

With a swirl of radiance, the two vanished.

The Legends present no longer sat still and began to whisper among themselves.

“It must be about the Realm of True Names dispatching their Lords of Time. Six ordinary Main Gods… I estimate Lord Ace might disdain to act and wants us to test our hands.”

“If Lord Ace acts, there’s certainly no problem. but if we act, I fear even those lords in the Chairman’s group might not necessarily defeat them.”

“It’s ultimately a difference in level. However, the artificial sub-planes have already been loaded with the God-Slaying tactical nuclear fusion Legendary weapon jointly developed by the Betty and Warren research institutes—it’s called ‘Twilight of the Main Gods.’ I heard the core temperature of the explosion reaches 300 million degrees!”

“300 million degrees can absolutely destroy the physical body of an ordinary Main God. Even the neutron impact from the chain reaction would heavily damage or destroy a Lord of Time’s soul. But the key problem is how to imprison these Lords of Time. If they perform a jump, we lose.”

“That is true. There are still a dozen years or so. Perhaps we can meticulously research a powerful magic, something similar to Lord Ace’s Space-Time Mythic Lock.”

“The Space-Time Mythic Lock is too difficult; it’s a standard Tenth Ring Legendary spell. Unless we degrade it!”

“I say, it might not necessarily be about having us defeat the Lords of Time. We are currently performing world-class sub-light-speed navigation; do you know how much energy that consumes? I think it’s likely about discussing a wartime system for Legendary Immortal Wizards to take turns ‘generating power.'”

(Chapter finished)

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