**Chapter 73: Busyness**
Jie Ming fell into thought.
The first method was impractical. Though the wizard civilization was advanced, eighth-rank wizards were the absolute ceiling.
As for ninth-rank wizards, they transcended this world’s concepts, existing beyond the ceiling.
While the wizard civilization had many eighth-rank wizards, they typically followed ninth-rank wizards, expanding territories on major battlefronts.
Noren Academy, even the entire Noren workshop, handled mere scraps of the planar battlefield—not even “bandit suppression,” more like “post-war reconstruction.”
Hoping for an eighth-rank wizard’s aid was out of the question, leaving the other two methods.
Weakening a plane’s origin was standard for the academy, intensifying warfare while minimizing losses.
The loss of wizard apprentices was merely a necessary cost, one even the apprentices themselves wouldn’t dispute.
Unexaggeratedly, a high-tier wizard’s value far exceeded thousands of low-tier ones.For the wizard civilization, the second method was a win-win.
The third method was simple in principle.
A sixth-rank being could access a plane’s origin, but only if the plane didn’t resist.
For an external sixth-rank being, manipulating the origin was difficult without subjugating the plane.
But a sixth-rank being who ascended within the plane faced no such issue, even if originally an outsider.
With someone restraining the plane’s origin internally, other wizards could easily eliminate the enemy.
However, even in the current wizard civilization, advancing to sixth rank was extraordinarily difficult, with a pitifully low success rate per generation.
“Enough talk,” Clark patted his shoulder.
“Rest up, then get to work. Those returning wizards aren’t patient.”
Task accepted, Jie Ming returned to his lab, slightly dazed.
He had little time to complain or overthink. Almost immediately, tens of thousands of cubic meters of gold arrived in batches, piling into mountains in the storage warehouse.
The next half-month was a blur.
Jie Ming was intimately familiar with refining refined gold. To avoid exhaustion, he used his cultivation system’s true fire as the core, integrating material processing and energy conduction arrays from wizard alchemy to build an efficient refining pipeline.
He embedded himself as the core component, his pale golden true fire burning day and night.
Gold blocks were fed into the array, then refined in the true fire zone.
Vast true essence was continuously consumed and replenished.
His mental energy, wielding the Alchemy Technique like invisible hands, precisely controlled each step, removing impurities and extracting the conceptual essence.
Even with the pipeline’s aid, the half-month was grueling.
It was both mentally and physically taxing.
For half a month, he barely slept, only meditating briefly when exhausted.
He downed mental restoration potions constantly, sometimes feeling bloated from them.
Half a month later, as the final batch of gold was processed into a shimmering, subdued refined gold ingot, Jie Ming let out a long sigh.
Stepping out of the lab, the sunlight made him squint.
His body felt drained, eyes red, hair disheveled.
Now he understood why Clark, a sixth-rank wizard, always looked unkempt.
At the plaza’s edge, he ran into Amy and Victor, fresh from their tasks.
“Jie Ming!” Amy exclaimed, “What happened to you?! You look like you crawled out of a mine!”
Victor studied him, surprise in his eyes.
Though aware of Jie Ming’s major commission, he hadn’t expected it to push the usually composed Jie Ming to this state.
“Just finished a big commission. A bit tired,” Jie Ming said, rubbing his brow, voice hoarse.
“That big, huh…” Amy asked curiously, “What was it? To wear you out like this!”
“Material processing… tough work,” Jie Ming said vaguely.
Victor was curious but, not being close, didn’t press.
Seeing Jie Ming’s exhaustion, he felt a twinge of envy.
Many apprentices pushed themselves to such states, but only in Jie Ming did he see echoes of high-tier wizards.
A broadcast announced the farewell ceremony for senior apprentices was about to begin.
The trio lingered at the plaza’s edge with other apprentices, watching seniors, guided by mentors, head to the teleportation array.
They were bound for a frontline plane, entering brutal battlefields.
“Wonder which plane this batch is headed to,” Amy muttered.
Victor, recalling a chat with his father, said, “Probably the Shadow Plane. It’s tough; they’ll need reinforcements.”
“The Shadow Plane… that’s rough,” Amy whispered. “Heard the fighting’s intense.”
Given Noren Academy seniors’ average level, a typical plane could be conquered by one batch, with losses but yielding several third-rank-plus wizards.
A plane requiring more than one batch was exceptionally challenging.
“It’s not so bad. The Shadow Plane’s been scouted, so they can adjust wizardry models and gear beforehand. Less risky than exploring a new plane,” Jie Ming offered.
After all, these were elites trained for a decade. Even in a high-intensity war, preparation would prevent them from being caught off guard.