I Arrived At Wizard World While Cultivating Immortality

Chapter 467: Tension and Preparation

After steadying his emotions, Jie Ming fixed his gaze on the distant sky.

That colossal spatial rift spanning the horizon hung silently at the edge of the ship-plane like a pitch-black maw that had torn open the firmament.

Unstable violet-blue energy streams flowed along its edges, occasionally bursting with annihilating sparks—high-energy particle flows born from the violent friction of two higher-dimensional spaces forcibly对接.

His breathing unconsciously quickened.

Lungs expanded, contracted, expanded again.

The sound of air rushing through his trachea amplified inside his eardrums, rough and heavy like an old, broken bellows.

Only when that sound abruptly intruded into his awareness did Jie Ming suddenly snap awake.

I was… distracted just now?

He lowered his head to look at his own hands.

The surface of his skin was suffused with an abnormal pale red, as though molten lava were slowly coursing beneath. The breath he exhaled condensed into white mist in front of him—no, the temperature was far too high; it was heat distortion rippling the air, hot enough to instantly sear ordinary human flesh to cooked meat.

“I… I’m actually nervous…”

Jie Ming murmured as he exhaled, a trace of unfamiliar realization in his tone.

Yes, this was tension.

Muscles subtly taut, blood circulation accelerated, mind highly focused yet unable to fully control attention…

All these physiological responses pointed to an emotion that, for the current him, felt almost like an antique relic.

How long had it been?

When was the last time he felt this way?

Was it when he had first transmigrated to this world, standing before the towering gates of Noren Academy, awaiting the moment that would decide his fate?

Back then his hands had been ice-cold, his heart pounding like war drums.

And after that?

The first time he participated in a plane war, following the academy legion into Noren Plane No. 147.

In those few minutes before the battle, his breathing had also become disordered.

But after that?

How long had it been since he last experienced this emotion?

Five hundred years?

A thousand?

Jie Ming had long since grown accustomed to handling everything as a wizard—accustomed to maintaining icy rationality in the face of any situation.

When crisis struck, he would calmly analyze the advantages and disadvantages of both sides, calculate resource consumption, design contingency plans, and execute the optimal solution.

When facing certain-death dead-ends, he could even enter a transcendent calm—that was the confidence granted by knowledge, as well as the instinct honed across long years.

But this time was different.

“The opponents are wizards.” He suddenly understood.

Not mindless magical beasts, not foreign creatures reliant on innate talent, not those indigenous civilizations that could be crushed by superior technology.

Wizards.

Beings like himself—armored in reason, wielding knowledge as blades, pursuing truth across endless ages.

Fear arose naturally: because you could never know what trump cards another wizard might hold in their hand.

Yet at the same time, another emotion surged through his veins.

Excitement.

A wizard’s power stemmed from knowledge.

Therefore… to defeat another wizard—was that not proof that one had surpassed the other in scholarship?

That the path one had chosen, the techniques one had developed, the system one had constructed had demonstrated its superiority in actual combat?

Such proof stirred the heart far more intensely than destroying a hundred indigenous civilizations.

The fear of death and the thirst for academic victory intertwined into fine electric currents, racing up his spine and into the back of his skull.

Jie Ming drew a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself, only for the exhaled airflow to grow even hotter.

He raised his head and looked around.

Sure enough.

It wasn’t just him.

Across the vast assembly plaza of the ship-plane, millions of wizards stood silently in formation.

They wore robes of various colors, adorned with accessories that shimmered with elemental radiance, wizard artifacts of diverse forms floating beside them.

Wizards preferred silence, so even with so many present, there was no clamor, no disturbance.

But Jie Ming could “see.”

The faint trembling of fingertips, the overly frequent small adjustments to artifact positions, the sharp glints that flashed and vanished deep within pupils.

An invisible pressure permeated the air—the ripples unconsciously produced when the mental fields of millions of highly intelligent beings simultaneously reached peak tension and intertwined.

The entire plane felt like a fully drawn bow.

“Jie Ming.”

A voice came from his left—elegant, yet carrying a barely perceptible tremor of delight.

Senior Sister Viola turned her head toward him.

Today she wore a form-fitting wizard robe, her long hair elegantly pinned up in an intricate bun that exposed the graceful white column of her neck.

On the surface, she remained that poised and graceful high-ring witch.

But upon closer inspection, one would notice her right index finger unconsciously tapping lightly against a crystal potion vial at her waist, and deep within those silver-gray eyes, a certain emotion quietly seething.

She raised her left hand, covering her lips as though to conceal the unconscious upward curve at the corners of her mouth from excessive excitement, her gaze locked tightly on Jie Ming.

“You’re going into battle wearing just that?”

Jie Ming looked down at himself.

The deep gray standard-issue wizard robe—solid material, enchanted with basic cleaning, temperature regulation, and elemental resistance runes—was considered upper-mid tier in Noren Academy’s workshops.

But compared to those around him…

To his left stood a wizard whose entire body was covered in flowing liquid-metal armor plates, each piece slowly deforming and refracting rainbow-like halos.

To his right, another was enveloped in three nested layers of transparent force fields, countless miniaturized runes drifting across their surfaces, emanating heart-palpitating energy fluctuations.

Farther away, some had radiant wings unfurled behind them, others stood atop spinning gear arrays, and still others were almost entirely encased in writhing biomass armor.

Elemental light bloomed wantonly across the plaza, turning the originally dim sky into something resembling an aurora.

In comparison, Jie Ming’s attire was almost starkly plain.

“It’s enough,” he answered calmly, then raised his hand and pressed it against his own chest.

Ripples spread across the surface of the wizard robe.

Beneath the seemingly flat fabric, dozens of carefully arranged card slots emerged.

Jie Ming began retrieving wizard artifacts from his inner cave-heaven.

One after another, metal plaques and crystal shards of various shapes were deftly slotted in by his practiced hands.

Five on the chest—housing the Return to Ruins Armor.

Two on each side of the abdomen—for the Great Void Step.

One embedded at the collar—an acceleration rune artifact.

On the outer sides of both wrists, three dark-red diamond-shaped crystals each, every crystal sealing five charges of Trigram Fire Annihilation Divine Light.

Once all were installed, the robe’s surface smoothed out again, showing no abnormality.

Only Jie Ming himself could sense the faint yet steady energy fluctuations emanating from the artifacts pressed against his skin—like a set of mechanical exoskeleton concealed beneath his clothing.

He knew his own advantages and shortcomings.

In terms of conventional spell reserves, depth of understanding of fundamental laws, or speed of on-the-spot complex spell construction, he most likely could not match wizards of the same ring at present.

But he possessed knowledge from another world brought by the Great Dao Book Pavilion, and unique techniques that fused immortal cultivation logic with wizard runes.

These wizard artifacts were his advantage—and his confidence.

“Time is almost up.”

A low voice came from ahead.

At some point Instructor Clark had turned around. Those eyes that seemed capable of piercing fate swept across Jie Ming and Viola before finally settling on the distant spatial rift.

“Check your defenses,” Clark said concisely. “The moment we enter, combat will begin.”

Though Instructor Clark’s voice was not loud, the instant his words fell, both Jie Ming and Viola tensed to their absolute limit.

Almost simultaneously, the million wizards began to move.

Some chanted softly, others swiftly formed hand seals, still others directly activated pre-set triggered spells.

Surging elemental torrents soared skyward—flame, frost, lightning, gravity, light, sound, illusion, emotion…

Countless forces were briefly awakened, transforming into layered shields, halos, force fields, and enhancement spells that enveloped each wizard in radiant spheres of war.