novelraw Chapter 599: Negotiation
Chapter 599: Negotiation
Chapter 599: Negotiation
Seeing the high-ranking wizards from both sides enter the palace, those outside could no longer perceive what was happening inside.
At that moment, Jie Ming’s magic network terminal vibrated.
He looked down and saw a continuous stream of intelligence sent by the artificial intelligences pouring in. Every piece had been meticulously organized.
From the parallel world’s political structure to its power system, from the history of its civilization’s development to the crises it currently faced—everything was categorized and as clear as an academic paper.
He quickly browsed through the text and gained a general understanding of the parallel wizard civilization before him.
As Jie Ming had estimated during his earlier conversation with Dean Avery Knight, the parallel world’s wizard civilization had no ninth-ring wizards. After all, once the “first” wizard in their civilization achieved ninth-ring, the protective treaty regarding knowledge had already been established.
It could be said that later wizards enjoyed far better conditions in every aspect than those in the parallel world’s wizard civilization.
And if even under relatively superior conditions no one could achieve ninth-ring, the possibility of achieving it in a harsher environment was extremely low. Moreover, the difficulty of reaching ninth-ring was extraordinarily high. Even excluding those nine ninth-ring wizards, it was questionable whether anyone else in wizard civilization had the aptitude to achieve it.
Therefore, Jie Ming had already anticipated the information that the parallel world lacked ninth-ring wizards. But only when he saw the detailed data analysis did he truly understand what that meant.
A civilization without a ninth-ring wizard overseeing it was like a giant beast without fangs in the endless chaotic void.
While it could still be considered powerful, it lacked overwhelming force.
And the expansionist nature of wizards had not changed. Once expansion reached a certain scale, the parallel world’s wizard civilization encountered unprecedented resistance. Hostile civilizations around it united and squeezed its living space from every direction.
War had never stopped.
Every generation of wizards in the parallel world was born on the battlefield, grew up on the battlefield, and died on the battlefield.
Knowledge was passed down through the flames of war and also lost in them.
Those profound technical theories that required long periods of focused research were simplified into the most direct killing techniques.
Experiments that required several generations of continuous effort were interrupted by warfare.
Precious classics recording the wisdom of past sages were reduced to ashes in the struggles and battles between wizards.
Survival had become the sole goal of this wizard civilization.
Jie Ming raised his head and looked at the palace floating in the void.
The silvery-white walls reflected cold light under the starlight, forming a sharp contrast with the twisted warships opposite.
Waves of aura continuously erupted from within the palace as both sides unconsciously displayed their power, probed each other’s bottom lines, and fought for initiative on every clause. Even through the palace walls, those auras caused the surrounding void to tremble faintly.
It seemed the negotiations were not going smoothly, but judging from the frequency of the aura fluctuations, neither side had any intention of flipping the table.
Jie Ming and the surrounding wizards waited patiently.
After an unknown amount of time, the doors of the palace finally opened.
The four hundred eighth-ring wizards walked out first, their steps calm and their faces showing varying degrees of satisfaction.
Following them were the more than one hundred eighth-ring wizards from the parallel world. Their expressions were far more complicated.
Some looked relieved, some unwilling, and others had something in their eyes that Jie Ming could not understand.
Felix and the other three major artificial intelligences appeared in the void, their voices spreading across the entire battlefield.
“The agreement has been reached. The four major powers promise not to launch an extermination war and will adopt a civilization fusion plan to fully integrate the parallel world’s wizard civilization.”
A low murmur rose in the void.
The wizards of the four major powers nodded slightly. This outcome was within their expectations.
On the warships opposite, however, the wizards with withered faces fell into even deeper agitation.
Felix continued, “Before civilization fusion, both sides must locate their respective counterparts and engage in one-on-one combat. The loser will voluntarily sign a soul contract and serve as the winner’s research assistant.”
The moment the words fell, suppressed cheers erupted from the camps of the four major powers.
The high-ranking wizards rubbed their hands together in anticipation. Some loosened their muscles, some checked their equipment, and others had already begun scanning the twisted warships opposite with their spiritual power, searching for possible counterparts.
Wasn’t this exactly what they had come to this gathering for?
An individual with the same origin as themselves. A research assistant who could verify and promote each other.
On the warships opposite, the scene was entirely different.
The wizards with withered faces looked at one another. The madness in their eyes was replaced by anger and terror.
The term “research assistant” did not exist in their vocabulary. They only knew slaves… and experimental subjects.
Some were furious, some were in despair, and others trembled as they tried to charge forward, only to be firmly held back by their companions.
But after the brief chaos, even more of them fell into silence.
They looked at their magnificently dressed, stable-aura counterparts on the other side, at the four war machines radiating terrifying power, and at the eighth-ring wizards in the sky that they could never hope to reach…
In the end, they silently accepted this outcome.
It was not what they wanted, but it was what they could obtain.
Jie Ming stood at the edge of the flagship, his gaze sweeping across the figures on those warships.
Most had already accepted reality and appeared extremely dejected, but a small portion had flickering eyes, clearly thinking about something.
Jie Ming memorized those faces.
Over the next few days, the entire void turned into a massive construction site.
The wizards of the Void Architecture Academy took the lead in building the “dueling arena.”
It was a giant structure floating in the endless chaotic void, constructed entirely from silvery-white metal and covered with folded geometric rune patterns on its surface.
Its internal space had been folded countless times. From the outside, it appeared to be a building only dozens of kilometers in diameter, but the actual internal space was large enough to host over a thousand battles simultaneously.
The wizards of the Star Ring Federation were responsible for energy supply, connecting part of the Quantum Entanglement Ship’s power to the core of the dueling arena.
The wizards of the Crimson Court handled the barriers, cultivating a layer of living protective shield around the dueling arena that could absorb any overflow from attack aftershocks.
The wizards of the Anti-Entropy Alliance were in charge of establishing the rules. They implanted a completely fair “law” inside the dueling arena.
Any participant who entered would be suppressed to the same rank, the same physical strength, and the same spiritual power intensity.
“We will ensure relative fairness,” an eighth-ring wizard from the Anti-Entropy Alliance announced.
The wizards of the four major powers had no objections.
For them, the real advantage lay in knowledge and understanding of the essence of power. These would not disappear simply because ranks were suppressed.
When the parallel world’s wizards heard this rule, however, their expressions became even more complicated.
Jie Ming stood at the edge of the flagship, watching the dueling arena take shape, silently calculating his own plans.
He had basically confirmed that he most likely had no counterpart, but this grand event itself was a rare opportunity.
The battles of high-ranking wizards were rarely perceptible to lower-ranked wizards. Every move they made was the materialization of knowledge.
As long as he watched carefully and learned seriously, the gains would be no less than any research.
Soon, with the final component of the dueling arena installed, silvery-white light shone from the building’s surface, illuminating the entire void.
Felix’s voice rang out once again, calm and solemn: “The dueling arena is ready. The search for counterparts will begin tomorrow.”
Cheers surged like a tidal wave from the camps of the four major powers.
On the warships opposite, the wizards with withered faces raised their heads and looked at the magnificent structure. The madness in their eyes gradually receded, replaced by something long absent—fatigue.
Some wizards sighed, suddenly feeling a sense of relaxation.
Although the term “research assistant” did not sound very reliable, at least… it was better than dying on the battlefield.