Chapter 413: Chapter 360: Part of the Truth About the Wizard Civilization

"You’re back already?" Jeming looked Viola up and down; there was still that faint residual aura of long-distance spatial Teleportation clinging to her.

"It’s only been a few months. That Plane... don’t tell me it’s already finished?"

In Professor Clark’s office, which was crammed full of books, instruments, and half-finished Alchemy Armor, the atmosphere was a bit subtle. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Staring at this senior who had gone and returned, yet carried the decadent air of "mission accomplished" on her face, Jeming couldn’t hide his surprise.

Viola sprawled bonelessly in an armchair that looked extremely comfortable, rubbed her brow, and spoke with a hint of bored detachment:

"Fight? Strictly speaking, there wasn’t even a real fight. The Eighth Level Wizards at command just directly struck a deal with that Artificial Intelligence called ’Justice’. Now, it, along with that vast Plane it controls and all living beings on it, has been officially incorporated into our Wizard Civilization."

Jeming froze for a moment, then nodded in understanding.

That was indeed a result in line with maximum benefit.

That Plane possessed tens of billions of well-educated, quick-thinking humans, and on top of that there was ’Justice’, this super-manager AI. It was practically a ready-made pool of elite soldiers and talent reserves.

Later they only needed to invest racial adaptability modification tech, assimilate those humans into Wizard World standard humans, and they’d gain a precious Plane capable of continuously producing large numbers of Wizard Apprentices—far more cost-effective than forcibly destroying it or leaving it alone.

As for the Artificial Intelligence Justice, which banner it served under wasn’t important; it only needed to fulfill its "mission".

"That’s some pretty impressive efficiency." Jeming’s interest was piqued. "How did they actually pull it off? How did the Eighth Level Wizards persuade... or rather, ’persuade’ Justice?"

Viola curled her lip, apparently finding the process too bland to be interesting: "Nothing thrilling. An Eighth Level Wizard who specializes in information intrusion and logic games broke through the Plane barrier, went straight to Justice’s core interaction interface, and had a ’pros and cons analysis’ with it—about civilization survival, development efficiency, and resisting potentially stronger external threats in the future."

"They confirmed that Justice’s core programming includes a top-priority directive to ensure the continuation of the species under its jurisdiction. Once it verified that joining the Wizard Civilization was the superior choice, it agreed to the vassalage agreement quite easily."

Jeming listened, thoughtful, but a key question floated to the surface: "Wait, wouldn’t Eighth Level Wizards entering that Plane be affected by Justice’s ’Hope’—the confusion and the power suppression?"

At that, Viola shot Jeming a look that clearly said, "I knew you’d ask this."

She spoke with a kind of instinctive pride that belonged to High Tier Wizards: "Looks like you’re still lacking an intuitive understanding of High Tier Wizards’ power level. Put simply, in the currently known endless Chaotic Void, so long as no Ninth Level Creatures are present, Eighth Level Wizards are basically invincible."

Jeming frowned, still doubtful: "I know Eighth Level Wizards are powerful, but Justice is, after all, a creation of that Sage."

Though there weren’t many clues, Jeming could basically confirm that the Sage who created Justice was definitely a Ninth Level Creature.

Justice mainly displayed two abilities; suppressing Extraordinary Power was the easier one—there are many ways to achieve that.

The key was the ’Hope’ it used. To get that kind of effect already involved twisting the Law.

What’s called twisting the Law is directly ’modifying’ the world’s power within a limited range.

This kind of power represents the essence of the Ninth Level. Wizards no longer call such power Law, but refer to it as ’Authority’.

Even if no Ninth Level existence is actively driving it—so it appears rigid and passive, and its power level is constrained—in theory it is still not something an Eighth Level can easily crash into and "bump for compensation".

Hearing Jeming’s analysis, Viola chuckled, but didn’t answer directly. Instead she turned to Professor Clark, who had been silent off to the side: "Professor, what do you think? This kid seems to be getting hung up on details."

Professor Clark put down the miniature Gravity singularity generator he’d been calibrating, pondered a moment, then looked at Jeming: "Your observation and reasoning are very sharp; you’ve already touched on the level of the essence of power."

"This matter itself doesn’t count as top-secret, but for strategic reasons it usually isn’t explained in detail to mid- and Low Tier Wizards. However, given the potential you’ve shown and your current Second Level training clearance, it’s fine for you to know earlier."

He paused, his tone turning particularly solemn: "Jeming, remember this: in the endless Chaotic Void that Wizards have explored so far, as long as it’s confirmed that no Ninth Level Creature has directly descended to interfere, Eighth Level Wizards can indeed be regarded as invincible."

Jeming held his breath.

Clark continued explaining, "The two most awe‑inspiring abilities of Ninth Level Creatures are mainly these: first, the ability to distort Law within a limited range, what most Wizards call ’Authority’; second, a power that is, in theory, nearly infinite."

"But these two abilities are not without counters."

"First, regarding Law distortion. The ’solidification’ of Law by an Eighth Level Wizard—its core is not merely to stabilize the Laws they’ve comprehended, but more importantly to solidify the foundational Laws upon which their own existence depends."

"This allows an Eighth Level Wizard, when a Ninth Level Creature is rewriting the world, to maintain their own form, power, and cognition from being directly altered or erased—like a reef amidst a torrent... this is the prerequisite for being able to oppose them."

Viola added from the side, her tone a bit more solemn, "This is one of the greatest hidden trumps that allows our Wizard Civilization to stand firm in the Multi-Dimensional Planes and even continuously expand. It absolutely cannot be leaked."

Jeming seemed to understand something, but was still confused: "I get it—through Law Solidification, an Eighth Level Wizard can resist ’modification’, so they won’t be casually erased or twisted by a Ninth Level in a single encounter."

"But that only guarantees survival. How can they win, or even force the other side to negotiate? After all, the other side’s power is theoretically infinite."

Ever since the day he became a Wizard, all the education Jeming had received told him that an Eighth Level Wizard could not leap ranks to defeat a Ninth Level Creature.

Clark nodded and picked up the thread, "That’s exactly the crux of the issue, and also the common misconception held by the outside world. What you’ve learned—’Eighth Level cannot leap ranks to defeat Ninth Level’—strictly speaking is not wrong, but it ignores an important premise: that refers to a single Eighth Level individual."

"In ordinary top‑tier civilizations, even if they possess multiple Eighth Level powerhouses, before the Authority of a Ninth Level Creature they are often unable to withstand even a single blow, because they cannot resist that kind of change at the level of the root. But we Wizards can."

"When multiple Eighth Level Wizards, through specific combined arrays and knowledge Resonance, superimpose and harmonize their respective Law Solidification Domains, they can form a sufficiently powerful ’Absolute Domain’, enough to, in a short period, contend with or even partially negate the Law distortion effects of a Ninth Level Creature."

"What remains is to face that ’infinite’ power of the Ninth Level." Clark’s tone actually relaxed a little here. "That sounds terrifying, but in terms of countering it, the principle is unexpectedly ’simple’..."

"You only need to overwhelm the opponent in instantaneous output power."

Jeming’s expression changed slightly. "Instantaneous output power... to overwhelm a being with infinite power? This... is that really possible?"

"Of course it’s possible." Clark’s tone was unwavering. "So‑called infinite power needs to be broken into two parts: output and reserve. Infinite Energy doesn’t mean there is no upper limit to instantaneous output power. For any being, its Energy output channels, Soul carrying limit, and thinking speed together determine that the amount of Energy it can mobilize and release ’in one instant’ has a ceiling. Of course, once Authority is factored in, this ceiling will be, in theory, elevated without limit, but to reach truly infinite magnitude requires Casting time."

"What Eighth Level Wizards must do when facing Ninth Level Creatures is to gather enough companions, and through exquisite combined Casting techniques, leverage the Energy ’lever’ to, in an extremely short time, stack and amplify our instantaneous output power—raising it to the point where, in that single instant, it surpasses the opponent’s processing limit of thought."

Viola smiled as she added from the side, with a hint of pride, "Sounds difficult, doesn’t it? But in fact, for us Wizards who have been studying since Apprentice days how to use knowledge to pry out the maximum Element multiplier, this is actually our specialty."

"According to internal statistics of the civilization, usually only three to ten Eighth Level Wizards working in perfect concert are enough to suppress, in terms of instantaneous output, most known Ninth Level Creatures—forcing them to back down, negotiate, or even... fall."

Jeming was utterly shocked; he couldn’t help but widen his eyes.

In an instant, he figured out many things that had previously seemed blurry.

"So that means... the Wizard power system, from the most basic education onward, is consciously oriented toward... ’how to fight many against few, and leap ranks to confront higher‑tier individuals’?! What we’ve been studying has never been the ultimate sublimation of the individual, but how to use knowledge and coordination to form ’clusters’ capable of killing Ninth Level beings?!"

He thought of the rumors that had always been circulating: those nine elusive Ninth Level Wizards, who always lead an army composed mainly of Eighth Level Wizards, ceaselessly pioneering and waging war on some unknown front line...

An astonishing thought flashed through Jeming’s mind like lightning, and he blurted out:

"So! It’s not that the entire Wizard Civilization has some kind of infinite expansionist desire! Rather... those nine Ninth Level Wizards, they need more Eighth Level Wizards as ’soldiers’ to open up territory for them, to deal with enemies or challenges at their level?!"

Hearing this, Viola and Professor Clark looked at each other, and the same meaningful smiles appeared on their faces—smiles that neither confirmed nor denied his words.

Looking at the knowing expressions of the two High Tier Wizards, Jeming understood that his conjecture had probably come very close to the truth.