novelraw Chapter 600: Duels and Release
Chapter 600: Duels and Release
Chapter 600: Duels and Release
Several months passed in the blink of an eye.
The dueling arena operated at full capacity from morning till night.
Wizards from the four major powers lined up to enter and lined up to leave. Some emerged beaming with satisfaction, while others left with bruised faces and swollen eyes—the latter usually having encountered counterparts of similar strength.
However, such unlucky individuals were ultimately in the minority.
The parallel world’s wizards had shifted from initial vigilance and resistance, to eager anticipation, and now to actively bringing their families and rushing over on their own. The speed of this attitude change even left Jie Ming somewhat indifferent feeling.
The change had begun with the first batch of wizards who signed the contracts.
Those parallel world wizards with withered faces and mad eyes seemed like completely different people the day after signing the contracts.
They wore new robes provided by their counterparts, their physical conditions had clearly improved significantly, and they sat in the spectator seats eating the free food provided by the dueling arena, cheering for people they knew.
When asked about the content of the contracts, they did not hide anything. They simply took out the contract texts and showed them to others. The high-ranking wizards on the four major powers’ side, having far less pressure in daily life and enough room to exercise their own morality, possessed a much higher moral standard than their parallel world counterparts.
Moreover, wizards understood that only when their other self became strong enough could they truly help in research or support each other along the same path.
Therefore, the contracts they offered their counterparts were not harsh. They were essentially a variant of an academic cooperation agreement:
Party A provides knowledge and resources to assist Party B in increasing their strength. Party B serves as Party A’s research assistant for the agreed period, helping complete experiments. Upon expiration of the contract, both parties shall not harm each other and shall peacefully terminate the agreement.
After reading the contract, the parallel world’s wizards showed remarkably consistent expressions—first disbelief, then wild joy.
After all, in their understanding, “research assistant” meant “experimental material plus slave,” something to be discarded after use. But the result?
These magnificently dressed counterparts on the other side actually treated them as real “assistants.”
They had food, drink, and books to read. After working for a few thousand years, they could regain their freedom and even take away a full set of skills.
This contract was far better than the indenture contracts they had signed in the past just to obtain knowledge!
The news spread through the parallel world’s warship fleet like a plague.
The low-ranking wizards who had originally been hiding in corners trembling at first did not believe it either, but after confirming the authenticity of the information, they began dragging their families and rushing toward the dueling arena.
Some came to find their own counterparts. Those who could not find one sought out any pleasing wizard from the four major powers to beg for shelter. Others simply came to freeload meals—the free meals distributed by the four major powers were ten thousand times better than their usual combat rations.
The sixth-ring wizards responsible for maintaining order could not stop them. In the end, Felix had to step in and announce that “all parallel world wizards willing to accept the civilization fusion plan will receive temporary residency qualifications,” which finally restored order to the scene.
As for Jie Ming, he had done nothing for these past few months except sit in the spectator seats watching fights.
One match after another.
From sixth-ring to eighth-ring, from elemental systems to fate systems, from formal duels to street brawls.
The Fate Subsystem operated at full capacity, recording the data of every battle, categorizing and archiving it all.
Over several months, his combat database had expanded enormously.
The situation of the battles was exactly as he had expected. Fights between the two wizard civilizations were completely one-sided crushing victories.
The techniques mastered by the present-world wizards far surpassed those of their counterparts.
It was not that the parallel world’s wizards were too weak, but that this side was simply too strong.
It was a crushing superiority of one system over another, of complete inheritance over fragmented knowledge.
However, Jie Ming had also noticed some interesting details.
The parallel world’s wizards were comprehensively behind in technical level, but in terms of combat instinct, their top fighters were even stronger than the present-world wizards. That ruthless drive to squeeze every ounce of power to the limit was something the present-world wizards could not match.
Although the wizards on this side had also participated in countless wars, both their combat mentality and the brutality of the battlefields they had experienced were far inferior to their counterparts.
The match he was watching at this moment was the best example.
This duel had attracted the attention of most wizards, as it was a rare eighth-ring versus eighth-ring fight.
The present-world side was a wizard from the Void Architecture Academy. Jie Ming could not quite remember the name, only that he was one of the representatives from the Void Architecture Academy delegation. His aura was as steady as a mountain.
The parallel world side was an existence that could barely be recognized as human.
Half of the opponent’s body consisted of constantly writhing fleshy tumors, while the other half was exposed bone.
His head hung crookedly on his shoulder, with only one eye still retaining a human shape.
The moment Jie Ming noticed that eye, a chill ran down his spine.
After watching battles for several months, he knew the fighting style of parallel world wizards all too well.
The calmer they appeared, the crazier they fought.
“Hehehehehehe…”
The moment the duel began, the parallel world’s eighth-ring wizard let out a sinister laugh.
The laughter was hoarse and ear-piercing, like air being forced out of a broken bellows.
He raised his hand, and endless elements in the void converged toward him.
Fire, wind, water, earth… The four major elements were forcibly condensed in an extremely short time, then compressed and collapsed under his control.
Thus, a star formed in his palm.
The so-called “star” was not a metaphor—it was a real star.
That mass of scorching plasma rotated and burned in his palm, releasing energy capable of incinerating entire planes.
Although Jie Ming, protected by the dueling arena’s barrier, could not feel the terrifying heat waves, the simulated environment inside the arena that instantly vaporized showed that this was no mere display.
But this was only the opening move.
Afterward, the star was rapidly compressed—from a diameter of tens of millions of kilometers down to hundreds of kilometers, then to several kilometers, and finally to the height of a person. In the end, this star was compressed into a shuttle the height of a person.
The originally scorching surface quickly returned to calm, even becoming overly deep. Once the compressed volume broke through a certain limit, its color suddenly turned into absolute darkness, and the surrounding light and spacetime began to distort.
That was… a black hole!
And this monstrous thing simply floated in the palm of the parallel world wizard, like a javelin ready to be thrown at any moment.
Jie Ming sucked in a sharp breath.
Was this what an eighth-ring wizard was capable of?
Even the opening move was this outrageous!
If not for the fact that this dueling arena had been specially constructed, this thing would probably have destroyed the surrounding planes the instant it appeared!
Seeing that his counterpart had no intention of blocking, the parallel world’s eighth-ring wizard unhesitatingly tossed the shuttle in his hand.
The moment the shuttle left his hand, all light in the void dimmed for an instant.
Along its path, all light was absorbed!
The dueling arena’s protective barrier flickered madly. Countless runes lit up simultaneously, firmly locking the gravitational waves emitted by the shuttle within the arena. The wizards in the spectator seats only felt a slight vibration, but Jie Ming knew that if the Void Architecture Academy had not accounted for attacks of this level when designing the dueling arena, the mere aftershocks of those gravitational waves would have been enough to tear all the surrounding spectators into pieces.
Seeing that his counterpart had finally launched an attack, the eighth-ring wizard from the Void Architecture Academy moved.
His figure flashed and disappeared from his original spot.
The next instant, he appeared at the other end of the dueling arena.
But the shuttle also turned, pursuing him at a sharp angle that completely defied physical laws.
Flash again. Pursue again.
Flash again. Pursue again.
The eighth-ring wizard used at least seventeen different techniques—from phase jumps to spatial folding, from existence erasure to probability shifting. Each technique was enough to shake off the vast majority of tracking spells, yet that shuttle seemed to have eyes, relentlessly biting at his heels. The distance never increased by even a centimeter.
Jie Ming narrowed his eyes, rapidly analyzing in his mind.
“Guaranteed hit,” he quickly concluded. “It’s fate-system knowledge. The opponent directly set the result of ‘hit.’ No matter how the target dodges, the outcome will not change.”
From the development history of the parallel world’s wizard civilization that Jie Ming had received, they had also researched ninth-ring creatures in their pursuit of the path to ninth-ring.
Although they ultimately failed to achieve their goal, they had indeed obtained imaginary laws capable of breaking through illusion and reality, and thus genuinely acquired fate-system laws.
However, unlike the wizard civilization on this side, the development path of fate-system laws in the parallel world’s wizard civilization leaned heavily toward combat applications.
Just like the guaranteed hit in the causal aspect right now.
In the dueling arena, the eighth-ring wizard from the Void Architecture Academy suddenly stopped.
He floated in mid-air with his back to the rapidly approaching shuttle, a trace of emotion appearing on his face.
“I never expected…” His voice was not loud, but through the dueling arena’s amplification array, it clearly reached every spectator’s ears. “I actually have the potential to learn fate-system knowledge.”
Before the words finished, the shuttle collided.
Blinding white light swallowed everything.
Even with the protection of the dueling arena’s arrays, the intense light still made Jie Ming instinctively squint.
But the Fate Subsystem continued operating, faithfully recording every frame.
Under the impact of the shuttle, the outermost several layers of energy defenses on this eighth-ring wizard burst like bubbles.
The shuttle continued forward and smashed into the eighth-ring wizard’s chest.
Then, the shuttle shattered.
That javelin compressed into a black hole disintegrated like fragile glass the instant it struck its target’s chest, breaking into countless fragments. The fragments flew in all directions, crashing into the walls of the dueling arena. The terrifying force was absorbed by the arena’s protective arrays, and the remaining material was instantly converted into the most basic elemental particles under the arrays’ effect and expelled into the endless chaotic void.
The eighth-ring wizard from the Void Architecture Academy simply stood in place, lowered his head to look at his chest.
There was a fist-sized scorch mark on his robe, but that was all.
He reached out and casually flicked the scorch mark, as if brushing off a speck of dust.
“I’m really not skilled with that type of fate-system knowledge. Dealing with a guaranteed hit is indeed troublesome,” he said. “But if it cannot break through the enemy’s defense, then it is meaningless.”
“However… thanks to your reminder, I have seen another possibility. In the future, I can develop in the direction of the fate system…”
Opposite him, the parallel world’s eighth-ring wizard stood frozen in place.
His expression shifted from sinister laughter to shock, from shock to disbelief, and from disbelief to something close to collapse.
“Impossible…” he rasped. “You… this…”
The Void Architecture Academy wizard offered no explanation.
He simply stood there, calmly looking at his opponent, like a patient teacher waiting for his student to accept reality.
The parallel world’s eighth-ring wizard did not give up immediately.
He roared and attacked again.
Countless twisted tentacles surged from the void, each carrying curses capable of corroding entire planes.
He tore open space and summoned a giant beast that had been slumbering in the depths of the void.
He even released all his spiritual power at once, turning it into a spiritual assault that slammed toward his opponent.
But every attack turned into nothing the instant it touched the eighth-ring wizard’s body.
The tentacles shattered, the giant beast wailed as it retreated into the void, and the spiritual assault struck an invisible wall without raising even a ripple.
Jie Ming sat in the spectator seats, watching this scene, and helplessly shook his head.
The parallel world wizards’ attacks looked eerie, powerful, and impossible to guard against, but those were merely appearances.
Ever since wizard civilization had analyzed the essence of the four major elements, combat methods had become increasingly simple and brutal.
After all, no matter how fancy the techniques, they were meaningless in the face of absolute numerical superiority.
The parallel world’s wizards were not weak.
They could also use knowledge to strengthen the output multiplier of individual elements and produce destructive power far exceeding their own rank.
But their output multiplier was an entire order of magnitude lower than that of the present-world wizards.
It was not that they were weak. The gap in technological level between the two sides was simply too vast.
Perhaps in the early stages, catalyzed by war, the parallel world’s wizards would develop quickly.
But in the middle and later stages, without a suitable environment for exchange, the parallel world’s wizard civilization’s technology would stagnate.
In an environment where everyone guarded their own knowledge jealously, new wizards could only constantly start from zero to explore techniques that had already been thoroughly researched long ago. Meanwhile, the present-world wizard civilization’s technological level would catch up at an exaggerated speed and complete its transcendence.
In the dueling arena, the parallel world’s eighth-ring wizard finally stopped.
He floated in mid-air, breathing heavily. In the single eye that still retained a human shape, madness and calmness alternated.
Then, he smiled.
That smile contained bitterness, release, and a trace of long-lost ease.
“I surrender,” he said. “I can’t win.”
The Void Architecture Academy wizard nodded, took out a contract text he had prepared long ago, and handed it over.
The parallel world’s eighth-ring wizard accepted the contract without even looking at it and directly imprinted his soul mark onto it with spiritual power.
Light flashed as the contract took effect.
The Void Architecture Academy wizard put away the contract with satisfaction and extended his hand toward his opponent. “Pleasant cooperation.”
The two hands clasped together.