Time, for a wizard immersed in research and work, always passes swiftly.
In the blink of an eye, fifty years had slipped by.
After the tumultuous planar war and the subsequent tedious and complex development and organization, the preliminary development of the Frostflame Plane had finally concluded.
And Jie Ming was preparing to return.
Standing in the now bustling temporary air harbor of the Frostflame Plane, Jie Ming gazed at the core of the plane in the distance, bound by countless runic chains yet still emanating a heart-palpitating aura. A sense of surreal detachment washed over him.
He hadn’t expected that what began as a routine planar conquest mission would lead to such an extended stay in a foreign plane.
It was all because of that living Frostflame Plane.
Its unique lifeform and the shattered continents left after its defeat had caused immense trouble for the later stages of statistical work and resource organization, consuming countless hours and manpower from the wizards.
Due to the overwhelming workload, Jie Ming had spent these fifty years either conducting ecological surveys on fragmented floating islands or analyzing and organizing data in temporary laboratories.
He barely felt the weight of “fifty years,” as if this long stretch of time had passed in a fleeting moment.But his decision to return at this juncture was driven by a critical reason—he was preparing to advance to the rank of a second-tier wizard!
Over the years, despite his heavy workload, Jie Ming had never paused his meditation and cultivation.
His mental strength had already fully saturated the Ring of Truth, meeting the standard for advancement!
Whenever he chose, he could perform the advancement ritual.
Moreover, Augustine, leveraging the massive “magnet” of the living plane, had attracted an increasing number of wizards from various planes, including high-tier wizards accompanied by their students and assistants.
The Frostflame Plane had become a hive of activity, with people coming and going. This allowed Jie Ming to collect a considerable amount of Mortal Dust Qi.
However, in recent decades, as the development of the Frostflame Plane gradually stabilized, the planar conquest had effectively concluded.
Many wizards transitioned from a state of “war” back to “normalcy.”
For the anomalous entity that was the wizarding civilization, this meant wizards were shifting from a “normal society” back to “abnormality.”
As a result, the Mortal Dust Qi Jie Ming could collect had dwindled.
Still, the accumulation over these decades was sufficient for him to produce enough Mortal Dust Potion to settle all his remaining debts.
This resolved one of his lingering concerns.
Before departing, Jie Ming made a special trip to the temporary research center established in the core region of the Frostflame Plane, led by his mentor, Clark.
He intended to bid farewell to his mentor and Senior Sister Viola before leaving.
Inside the temporary research center, strange runic instruments hummed, and the air was thick with the unique blend of cold and scorched scents from the disintegrating surface materials of the Frostflame Plane.
When Jie Ming found Mentor Clark, the latter was recording data from a writhing, dark-red chunk of flesh.
His robe was stained with unidentifiable grime, still sporting the classic look of a wizard dressed like a vagrant.
“Mentor,” Jie Ming called out.
Clark looked up, his turbid eyes glinting at the sight of Jie Ming. “Oh, it’s Jie Ming. Leaving?”
“Yes, the war here is over. I’m heading back to Elosia to recuperate for a while,” Jie Ming replied respectfully.
At that moment, a listless voice came from nearby: “Safe travels, Junior Brother… Don’t forget to send me some potions when you’re back at the academy—preferably something to boost energy and fight fatigue. I feel like this blasted data is draining me dry…”
Jie Ming turned to see Senior Sister Viola practically embedded in a massive light screen, her eyes shadowed with dark circles, looking utterly exhausted.
Despite her dazzling title as a sixth-tier wizard, she exuded the heavy aura of an overworked laborer.
“Got it, Senior Sister. Next time, for sure,” Jie Ming replied, suppressing a chuckle.
Clark shot Viola a disdainful glance. “Pathetic! Whining over this workload?! And you’re too slow! If you don’t finish this data today, don’t even think about resting!”
“You might as well say I won’t get any rest this week!” Viola grumbled weakly.
Ignoring her, Clark turned back to Jie Ming, his tone softening as he patted his shoulder. “Alright, go rest well. You’re close to advancing. I look forward to seeing you as a second-tier wizard when I return.”
He paused, then added casually, “I’ll probably be stuck here for decades, maybe centuries. The mysteries of this living plane will keep me busy for a while, so I won’t be back at the academy anytime soon.”
He glanced at Jie Ming. “No rush on that debt you owe me. Take your time. That large seventh-tier elemental pool won’t be finished anytime soon. Settle it with interest when I’m back at the academy. For now, focus on improving yourself. Everything else is secondary.”
Jie Ming’s heart warmed.
How could he not catch the subtext in his mentor’s words? Clark was clearly worried that Jie Ming’s earnings from this planar war might not suffice to craft the Mortal Dust Potion due to unexpected setbacks. Instead of saying it outright, he’d found a roundabout excuse, granting Jie Ming an incredibly lenient buffer period.
This meant that if Jie Ming’s haul was insufficient, he could use this precious time to venture to other planes, gather resources, and return to “settle the debt.”
Jie Ming silently etched this thoughtful care into his heart.
Without making a fuss, he suppressed all emotion, bowed deeply and solemnly to Clark.
“I’m leaving. Please take care, Mentor, and you too, Senior Sister.”
“Enough, enough, get out of here! Don’t delay my research!” Clark waved him off impatiently, turning back to tinker with the writhing flesh.
Jie Ming straightened, then called out to Viola, still struggling in the light screen. “Senior Sister, I’m off.”
“Mm… Safe journey… Don’t forget my potions…” came her muffled reply from the screen.
Jie Ming smiled, turned without hesitation, and stepped onto the path to the teleportation array, leaving behind the Frostflame Plane that had held fifty years of his life.
With a flash of light, Jie Ming first passed through the interplanar teleportation array established in the Frostflame Plane, arriving at the Junction—a strategic stronghold in the void set up by Noren Workshop and two other wizard factions.
Without lingering, he headed straight to the management hall at the Junction.
There, he sold off the vast but less significant materials he’d collected over the past fifty years in the Frostflame Plane—high-purity ice and fire energy crystals, various exotic biological materials, and even the body of a fourth-tier lava giant he’d “picked up,” minus its core. Everything was exchanged for the wizard factions’ universal currency: military merits.
After tallying it up, Jie Ming realized that without the lava giant’s body, his fifty years of painstaking resource collection amounted to just over a hundred thousand military merits.
Including the income from various tasks over those fifty years, the total came to just over two hundred thousand military merits.
For a first-tier wizard, this was an impressive sum, even enough to be called “striking it rich”!
But Jie Ming reflected that this amount still paled in comparison to what he’d earned by sneaking into a snow monster city to “scavenge” while its high-tier occupant was absent.
Once again, he confirmed a truth in his heart: in the wizarding civilization, information and knowledge were the most valuable assets.
Pure manual labor, even at the risk of life, yielded limited returns.
Only by mastering information gaps and core techniques could one achieve a leap in wealth.
With all loose ends tied up, Jie Ming boarded the teleportation array from the Junction to the Elosia Plane, feeling unburdened.
Radiant light enveloped him, space began to warp, and the familiar sensation of weightlessness set in.
In his mind, Jie Ming quietly planned what needed immediate attention upon returning to his laboratory.
First, he would organize the materials and knowledge required for advancing to a second-tier wizard.
Second, he would use the collected Mortal Dust Qi to start crafting Mortal Dust Potion.
Finally, he would catalog all the valuable knowledge gained from this Frostflame Plane expedition, transforming it into his own foundation…
But as he immersed himself in these plans, the teleportation light surrounding him suddenly flickered violently, unstable as a faulty bulb.
The spatial coordinates, too, became chaotically misaligned in an instant!
“What’s happening?!” Jie Ming’s heart jolted, a sense of crisis surging within him.
Before he could react, an overwhelming repulsive force erupted from the chaotic spatial turbulence!
In an instant, Jie Ming was flung out of the teleportation channel like a stone launched from a slingshot!
His vision went black, the sensations of weightlessness and tearing pain hitting simultaneously, nearly causing him to lose consciousness.
After being “ejected” by the chaotic, violent spatial forces, Jie Ming tumbled awkwardly through the air several times before stabilizing himself with his formidable physique and precise energy control.
Floating midair, he found himself surrounded by unfamiliar mountains and forests, the air tinged with the faint, unique elemental fragrance of the Elosia Plane.
“Damn it! A malfunction of this magnitude in the Junction’s main teleportation array?” Jie Ming frowned, a trace of displeasure rising within him.
Such a teleportation mishap was serious enough to be recorded as a third-tier safety incident.
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