Jie Ming’s gaze was calm, but his mental energy silently swept over the group.
He sensed carefully, confirming that only Alvin, the administrator, bore the faint connection of a soul contract.
This meant the other elves were all new generations, born after his departure and unbound by any contract.
Alvin seemed to feel the weight of Jie Ming’s gaze, his body trembling involuntarily.
Without waiting for questions, he began explaining the changes in the Golden Garden over the years.
His account was much like Otto’s, centered on the food shortage that couldn’t sustain the growing human population, forcing them to leave the Golden Garden to fend for themselves.
Jie Ming listened to Alvin’s smooth, seemingly rehearsed words, nodding without expression or comment.
He stepped over the kneeling elves, heading straight for the depths of the Golden Garden, toward his mansion, sealed for fifty years.
Alvin and Otto, trailing behind, exchanged glances, each seeing a trace of unspoken fear and unease in the other’s eyes.
Reluctantly, they followed Jie Ming’s steps cautiously.Along the way, Alvin detailed the various changes within the Golden Garden.
From Jie Ming’s observations, the rare magical flowers were well-maintained, the gardens neat, brimming with natural vitality and harmonious elemental fluctuations.
It seemed the elves had indeed been diligent in maintaining the garden.
To Jie Ming’s pleasant surprise, when he passed an area designated for collecting special energies, he found that the arrays he’d set up to automatically gather Flower Baleful Qi and Mortal Dust Qi had yielded impressive results.
Several temporary containers were nearly filled to the brim.
The arrays had stopped functioning only because their stored spiritual energy was depleted; otherwise, his harvest might have been even greater.
This was an unexpected windfall.
The sight of these abundant resources eased the displeasure Jie Ming had felt over the “rebellion” in his territory.
Soon, he reached his mansion.
He noted that the protective barrier he’d personally set up around it was still functioning, glowing faintly with elemental energy.
This was expected.
The mansion was powered by an independent elemental pool buried underground.
Unless some extraordinarily energy-intensive experiment was conducted, the pool could sustain the mansion, including the underground laboratory, for a thousand years.
Jie Ming deftly dispelled the barrier and entered his laboratory.
Ignoring the elves and humans who stayed outside, he went straight to the main console, checking the operational logs of the laboratory and the Golden Garden’s monitoring system for the past fifty years.
When he emerged from the laboratory, a crowd of elves had gathered outside the mansion.
They had rushed over from various parts of the garden upon hearing the news.
Only a small portion were new generations, and most bore expressions of unease and apprehension.
The younger elves, however, looked at their legendary “Master” with a mix of awe and curiosity, stealing covert glances.
Facing the anxious crowd, Jie Ming nodded calmly, his face betraying no emotion.
Without a word, he fixed his gaze on Alvin, kneeling at the forefront.
Then, reaching out into the air, he made a slight pinching gesture.
Boom—Rumble!
Using Alchemy Technique, he instantly summoned massive rocks from the ground.
Countless sharp stone spikes erupted from the earth beneath Alvin, snapping shut like an iron cage, instantly crushing the elf administrator—who had been smugly confident in his excuses—into a bloody, indistinct paste!
Blood, bone fragments, and green sap splattered, staining the beautiful flowerbeds nearby.
“Lord Alvin!
”The new-generation elf guards roared in fury and confusion, instinctively preparing to attack.
Jie Ming merely flicked his hand.
Several invisible mental energy blasts precisely struck their brains.
Their roars cut off abruptly, their bodies went limp, and they collapsed into deep unconsciousness.
To Jie Ming, it was as if he’d merely crushed an ant.
His visit to the laboratory was primarily to check the monitoring logs related to spatial stability.
This was his second lingering question: he hadn’t forgotten that his failed teleportation was due to a precise “blockage.”
From the logs he’d just reviewed, the obstruction to his spatial jump was indeed the natural energy barriers set up by the elves, which he’d casually destroyed upon arrival.
Jie Ming was certain that if he’d questioned Alvin, the elf would have offered a slew of excuses—perhaps claiming it was to fend off external enemies or protect the garden’s ecosystem.
He also knew why the patrol team consisted only of new generations: only they, unbound by contracts, could oppose him without fear.
If it came to a debate, that elf could likely conjure plenty of plausible reasons.
But Jie Ming had no need to argue with him.
For such weak and treacherous beings, the wizard’s approach was always simple and direct.
His gaze swept over the terrified, trembling elves, settling on an older one whose eyes still held a trace of reverence and who seemed respected within the elf community.
Pointing at him, Jie Ming commanded in an undeniable tone, “From today, you will take Alvin’s place and lead the elf race.”
As for Otto, trailing behind, Jie Ming spared him further punishment.
Considering the man had done a commendable job developing the human race outside, Jie Ming neither troubled him nor stripped him of his “king” title.
From his perception, Otto’s life force was already faint, nearing the end of his days. Letting him live out his life as king wouldn’t affect much.
This was his reward for diligently fulfilling his “management” duties over the years.
Shortly after Jie Ming issued his orders, word reached the dwarves.
Soon, a group of dwarves arrived from the distant mountains, nervously carrying a massive, gleaming metallic machine.
Through questioning, Jie Ming learned that the dwarves were initially unaware of the elves’ intentions.
Only when the elves began erecting the energy barriers to seal off the Golden Garden did the dwarves realize something was amiss.
Fearing the unfathomable power of wizards, the dwarves saw the elves’ actions as suicidal and argued fiercely with them.
In the end, the dwarves took their people and a backup Resource Converter, decisively leaving the Golden Garden and cutting ties with the elves.
Meanwhile, the humans, under Otto’s leadership, had established a kingdom and displayed aggressive expansion.
To the stubborn dwarves, both humans and elves seemed like lunatics.
To avoid being wiped out alongside them when the wizard returned, the dwarves occupied a remote mountain region, relying entirely on the Resource Converter to sustain their clan and refusing all contact with the other two races.
Jie Ming nodded after hearing their account.
He instructed the dwarves to return and calm their people, informing them that over the next few years, they would undergo several rounds of bloodline and soul modifications.
While checking the laboratory earlier, Jie Ming had noticed numerous messages accumulated in his communication terminal over the past fifty years.
Among them were many from David, along with a stockpile of biological modification materials and potions sent to his warehouse.
These were part of the agreed-upon compensation from their contract, intended to fully transform the remnants of the Elosia Plane into beings suited for the wizarding world.
Jie Ming planned to contact the academy to send someone to take these people away once their transformations were complete.
His territory was now on track, and he had no interest in maintaining a native kingdom next to his laboratory.
After swiftly reorganizing his territory with decisive measures, Jie Ming finally found some peace and returned to his underground laboratory.
He reactivated the main console and contacted Noren Academy on the main Elosia Plane.
With practiced ease, he posted a commission on the task panel for the “transformation of alien populations in his territory,” prepaying a portion of points as a deposit.
He requested that the academy promptly send personnel to conduct bloodline and soul transformations for the humans, elves, and dwarves in his territory.
The Elosia Plane, after years of continuous development by Noren Workshop, was no longer what it once was.
A new branch of Noren Academy was nearing completion, built with abundant resources.
Though the academy hadn’t yet begun large-scale student recruitment, a trickle of formal wizards, fresh from military service, had started applying for teaching or research positions.
Thus, Jie Ming wasn’t worried that his task would go unclaimed.
After all, for wizards just off the battlefield, such safe, point-earning, and resource-gaining “internal tasks” were undoubtedly the best choice.