Recaps

Benjamin presented the ascension force to the Fourth Seat and three senior Level 8 Wizards, who quickly recognized its extraordinary combat potential. The review left them considering how a widely usable power multiplier could let a skilled Level 8 Wizard challenge a Level 9 lifeform before it finished gathering power.

• Benjamin struggled to stay calm when the Fourth Seat introduced himself, while Savien, Bastian, and Morna also nervously tried to appear composed.
• The Fourth Seat began the review and had everyone examine the documentation for Benjamin’s ascension force.
• Savien analyzed the technology’s energy utilization and law adaptation, then exclaimed in shock at what he found.
• Bastian and Morna calculated the ascension force’s potential and recognized that it could multiply a wizard’s existing combat power by as much as five times.
• Savien realized that a Level 8 Wizard who mastered the technology could potentially suppress a Level 9 lifeform before it finished gathering power.

Benjamin’s ascension force technology impressed Savien, Bastian, and Morna with its potential to strengthen Level 8 Wizards and change the Wizard Civilization’s high-level combat power. The Fourth Seat revealed that he had altered fate to bring Benjamin’s future breakthrough into the present because the technology would be needed in a coming war, leaving Benjamin worried about how dire the conflict would become.

• Savien, Bastian, and Morna recognized that the ascension force could let Level 8 Wizards challenge Level 9 Life and transform the Wizard Civilization’s combat strength.
• Benjamin cautioned them that the technology remained imperfect and that its potential against Level 9 Life was not a guaranteed victory.
• The Fourth Seat thanked Benjamin for his research, then apologized for intervening in his fate thread.
• The Fourth Seat explained that he had brought forward Benjamin’s breakthrough because the ascension force would become crucial after a future war began.
• Benjamin realized the Wizard Civilization must face a grave situation in that war and asked the Fourth Seat whether its outcome was already so dire.

Benjamin’s Ascension Force passed its review and qualified for a level one training agreement, earning praise from the Fourth Seat and the three Space School masters. As the technology and news of Benjamin’s achievement spread through the Wizard Civilization, he prepared to use the coming resources to refine the Spirit Energy Law.

• The Fourth Seat explained that the enemy was not especially powerful, apologized for interfering with Benjamin’s fate, and promised to bear all resulting backlash himself.
• Savien, Bastian, and Morna approved the Ascension Force for a level one training agreement and celebrated Benjamin’s achievement.
• Felix announced that the technology had passed its technical assessment, and the Fourth Seat confirmed that it qualified for the agreement.
• The Fourth Seat and the three masters departed, and Benjamin returned to the laboratory, where Clark, Castillo, and Viola congratulated him.
• The Four Great Factions began sharing the Ascension Force’s theory and research results, and Benjamin’s level one agreement became a source of excitement across the Noren Workshop and Wizard Civilization.

Benjamin explored the Level One Training Agreement’s extensive resource system and learned that Felix would serve as his dedicated liaison. After Benjamin asked for help pursuing mastery of all laws, Felix recommended research materials, specialized resources, and leading scholars he could meet.

• Benjamin opened the resource purchasing interface and discovered that his allowance appeared unlimited and gave him access to rare materials, advanced knowledge, and special resources.
• Felix contacted Benjamin to congratulate him and explained that he would assist with resource applications, research coordination, and scheduling guidance from High-Rank Wizards.
• Benjamin told Felix that he intended to master all laws and asked for advice based on his current situation.
• Felix recommended foundational studies of laws and their relationships, specialized materials and laboratory access, and meetings with prominent researchers.

Benjamin learned that the Star Ring Federation would rapidly spread Ascension Force throughout the Wizard Civilization, suggesting a major war would begin within a hundred years. Felix offered to use authorized personnel-allocation adjustments to protect wizards Benjamin cared about, leaving Benjamin astonished by the administrative privileges of his Level One Training Agreement.

• Benjamin asked Felix to prioritize research materials and Plane Origins that would help him master more laws, while he postponed deciding whom to invite for appointments.
• Felix told Benjamin that the Third Seat had ordered the Four Great Artificial Intelligences to spread Ascension Force throughout the Wizard Civilization within a hundred years.
• Benjamin connected the deadline to the coming war and worried that his mentor Clark, Mentor Castillo, and senior Viola might not survive it.
• Felix offered to adjust conscription schedules, assignments, and deployments within the rules to reduce danger for wizards Benjamin valued.
• Benjamin realized the Level One Training Agreement granted him access to some Star Ring Federation administrative privileges and reacted with disbelief.

Benjamin declined to use his administrative authority to arrange safer wartime assignments for Clark, Castillo, and Viola, then focused on improving his own strength. After 130 years, his Triple Dharma Manifestation reached perfection, and he decided to prepare for advancement to the Mahayana Realm.

• Benjamin asked Clark, Castillo, and Viola whether they wanted him to arrange safer assignments, but all three refused.
• Viola said she wanted to experience the war for combat data and suffering, and told Benjamin she would seek his help only after using up her Substitute Dolls.
• The Four Great Factions issued wartime conscription orders 130 years later, prompting the Wizard Civilization to mobilize and many High-Rank Wizards to welcome the chance to encounter a powerful enemy.
• Benjamin perfected his Triple Dharma Manifestation after years of study with resources from the Level One Training Agreement and guidance from Felix.
• Benjamin concluded that mastering all laws would take too long, so he decided to raise his cultivation through the Immortal Cultivation System and prepare to advance to the Mahayana Realm.

Benjamin discovered that reaching the Mahayana Realm required more than accumulating power: practitioners had to cultivate their nature to control and use that power more efficiently. He decided to study nature cultivation and adapt its theories to his own mixed wizard and cultivation system.

• Benjamin studied a manuscript explaining that the Mahayana Realm required completing dual cultivation of nature and life.
• Benjamin learned that nature cultivation improved how much of a practitioner’s power they could control and use, rather than simply increasing their power.
• Benjamin realized that nature cultivation could amplify power independently of wizard knowledge and the cultivation system’s use of heaven and earth.
• Benjamin resolved to reach the Mahayana Realm and continued mastering laws and refining his spirit energy law according to Felix’s plan.
• Benjamin gathered materials on nature cultivation and began rebuilding a research framework suited to his own power system.

Hundreds of years later, Benjamin studied sword cultivation texts in the Great Dao Library to understand nature cultivation, but found their explanations too idealistic. He connected sword intent to the way will could influence underlying world structures and left with a clearer direction for his research.

• Benjamin read sword cultivation inheritances to learn why nature cultivation could strengthen practitioners, but found their claims about sword intent vague and idealistic.
• He considered whether sword intent changed rune structures or manipulated external laws, since belief alone could not explain how weaker sword cultivators defeated stronger enemies.
• Benjamin recalled how a level 9 lifeform used its will to alter the world's underlying rune structures and wondered if nature cultivation worked through a similar process.
• He concluded that cultivators and high-rank wizards could gain higher-order power through different methods, and that he could investigate how convictions influenced power without adopting sword cultivators' approach.
• Benjamin decided to keep researching the mechanisms by which will could affect power, then withdrew his consciousness from the Great Dao Library.

Jack returned after nearly six hundred years and officially advanced to Level 6, where Benjamin approved of his progress. Benjamin recruited him to help test a new version of Ascension Force in legion combat on the expanding war fronts.

• Jack told Benjamin that he had completed his advancement trial and become a Level 6 Combat Department wizard.
• Benjamin examined Jack's Law of Combat and foundations, then said his strength was respectable among Level 6 wizards.
• Benjamin invited Jack to help test a new version of Ascension Force, explaining that the test would involve an entire legion.
• Benjamin described how the war had expanded into a large-scale conflict across multiple fronts and selected a battlefield for testing.
• Benjamin instructed Jack to study the technical documents and record energy-cycle changes and interference during combat.

Benjamin prepared a battlefield trial of the improved Ascension Force, whose theoretical amplification had risen from fivefold to tenfold. With Dickson assigned as his guard and the selected legion already training, Benjamin set out to meet the troops and hand over command.

• Benjamin chose a legion for the Ascension Force trial and sent its members the technical documentation for basic training.
• Felix arranged a Level 8 Fate Wizard to guard Benjamin, and Dickson arrived at the laboratory.
• Benjamin and Dickson recognized each other from the Triangle Plane mission, where Dickson had acted on Benjamin’s warning and prevented the Expeditionary Force from violating a fundamental contract.
• Dickson agreed to protect Benjamin as they headed to the battlefield together.
• Felix confirmed that the legion and testing preparations were ready, and Benjamin, Dickson, and Jack entered the Teleportation Array.

Benjamin joined a five-million-wizard joint legion aboard a Ship Plane to test the new Ascension Force against the Giant Beast Alliance. The legion set out on a year-long voyage toward the Scaled Beast Faction’s territory, with training scheduled during the journey.

• Benjamin, Jack, and Dickson arrived aboard a Ship Plane and met the Level 8 commanders Peyton, Alvis, and Meridian.
• Peyton explained that the joint legion included over five million wizards and had received the new Ascension Force technology for training and testing.
• Peyton identified the Scaled Beast Faction as the legion’s target and described its creatures’ strong defenses and varied abilities.
• Peyton explained that destroyed planar nodes prevented teleportation to the front, so the Ship Plane would need about a year to reach the battlefield.
• Benjamin agreed to depart, and Peyton ordered the legion to begin its voyage while training in the Ascension Force.

Benjamin and Peyton's expedition encountered a huge Scaled Beast Faction force before reaching its target area. Peyton set out to test the new Ascension Force against the enemy in battle.

• Benjamin continued gathering training data as the legion traveled toward its target area.
• The Ship Plane detected more than a thousand approaching enemies from the Giant Beast Alliance's Scaled Beast Faction.
• Benjamin saw that the force included Level 8 giant beasts as large as stars and Level 7 servant creatures the size of mountain ranges.
• Peyton explained that escaped infiltration squads had likely revealed the legion's route and described the giant beasts' combat strength.
• Peyton decided to personally test the new Ascension Force against the intercepting force and vanished from the control room.

Peyton used the new version of Ascension Force to unleash the Law of Heat Death, wiping out a legion of Level 8 behemoths. Afterward, he gave Benjamin detailed feedback on the technology, and the Ship Plane continued toward its target region.

• Peyton appeared outside the Ship Plane and spread a white mist that killed the approaching behemoths and their Level 7 servants.
• Jack watched in shock as Benjamin identified the mist as the Law of Heat Death, which stopped energy flows and caused structures to collapse.
• Peyton realized the new version of Ascension Force had greatly amplified his power and returned to the Ship Plane.
• Benjamin recorded Peyton's battlefield experience and concluded that the technology had no major problems when used on an individual.
• Peyton ordered the Ship Plane to resume its course toward the target region.

After a month of peaceful travel, Benjamin and the Expeditionary Force reached the target region and used long-range reconnaissance to investigate it. They discovered a vast Giant Beast Alliance stronghold built from shattered planes, containing more than a million Level 8 giant beasts and countless servants.

• Peyton ordered the Ship Plane to stop short of the target region and activate its long-range reconnaissance arrays.
• Benjamin explained that the earlier battle’s shock waves had disrupted elemental and spatial storms, creating an unusually quiet region.
• Benjamin noticed an anomalous area, and Peyton redirected the reconnaissance toward it.
• The reconnaissance revealed a Giant Beast Alliance stronghold made from shattered plane fragments and occupied by giant beasts and their servant races.
• Benjamin learned that the stronghold held more than a million Level 8 giant beasts, while Peyton explained that they survived by consuming matter and energy from the void and nearby fragments.

Benjamin, Jack, and Dickson discovered three Level 9 giant beasts in the Giant Beast Alliance’s nest, and the beasts detected the Wizard Civilization’s fleet. Both sides mobilized their forces, and as their vanguards clashed, the three Level 9 beasts began to move toward the Wizard Civilization’s Level 8 Wizards.

• Benjamin saw that the nest contained more than a thousand leader-class beasts and three enormous Level 9 giant beasts.
• Dickson warned that the giant beasts had probably detected the Ship Plane, and the beasts across the nest turned toward its location and prepared for battle.
• Peyton ordered Alvis and Meridian to deploy the Wizard Civilization’s forces according to plan, while Benjamin, Jack, and Dickson prepared to join the fight.
• More than five million wizards and their auxiliary forces formed up as the Giant Beast Alliance assembled its servants.
• The two sides’ vanguards clashed in the Endless Chaotic Void while Benjamin, Jack, and Dickson watched from the rear.
• The three Level 9 giant beasts began to move as Peyton, Alvis, and Meridian deployed their Law Fixations to face them.