Chapter Summaries

Benjamin learned that an unidentified wonder was disrupting time and space and obstructing the Noren Workshop’s escape route. With contact expected in roughly fifteen hundred years, Dean Avery asked the wizards to remain close to the Academy starting a thousand years from then, and the meeting ended without immediate alarm.

• Benjamin reasoned that the unusual wonder likely contained a new form of elemental energy and could be dangerous to handle before its properties were known.
• Dean Avery reported that the wonder’s temporal and spatial interference had disrupted plane exploration and prevented the Workshop from confirming its exact coordinates.
• Benjamin and Augusta realized that the wonder had caused the Augusta Family’s earlier difficulty calculating precise coordinates.
• Avery projected the Workshop’s route and estimated that the Noren Workshop’s Plane Cluster would encounter the wonder in about fifteen hundred years.
• Avery asked the wizards to avoid distant expeditions starting a thousand years later so the Workshop could gather its top-tier combat power.
• The meeting ended, Viola disappeared, and Benjamin and Augusta exchanged greetings before leaving through separate Teleportation Arrays.

Benjamin joined Augusta aboard a void warship as she briefed the wizards accompanying them on a campaign against a plane inhabited by the Mushroom People. The scouting report revealed that the enemy had formidable high-level forces and more than a billion elite units, leaving the young wizards facing the scale of the coming war.

• Benjamin shut down his laboratory, confirmed his facilities were operating autonomously, and teleported to the gathering location Augusta had sent him.
• Augusta introduced Benjamin as the operation’s other leader to the young Augusta Family wizards aboard the warship.
• Benjamin assessed the group and recognized that several were likely Elite Combat Units, though most appeared to have come from the Logistics Department.
• Augusta displayed the target plane and explained that its inhabitants, temporarily named Mushroom People, combined rock-elemental and biological traits.
• Augusta reported that the plane had five to seven confirmed Level 7 creatures, over one hundred Level 6 units, and more than one billion elite units above Level 4 but below Level 5.

Augusta briefed the Wizards on the Mushroom People’s enormous population, rapid reproduction, and resilience, while identifying them and the plane’s abundant mineral veins as the war’s main targets. After the warship reached the plane barrier, Augusta and Benjamin prepared to lead the attack, with Benjamin handling large-scale suppression and Augusta facing high-tier enemies.

• Augusta reported that the plane held over a billion Level 4 and Level 5 Mushroom People and more than one hundred billion civilians.
• Augusta explained that Mushroom People reproduced rapidly through spores, survived on scarce resources, and could multiply almost without limit.
• Augusta identified Mushroom People samples and abundant elemental mineral veins as the main targets of the plane war.
• The warship reached the plane barrier, and Augusta told the young Wizards that she and Benjamin would lead the fighting.
• Augusta assigned large-scale suppression to Benjamin and high-tier combat to herself, then walked out of the bridge with him and the Augusta Family Wizards.

Benjamin and Augusta led a wizard force to invade a barren plane inhabited by hibernating Mushroom People. After Benjamin tore open and secured the Plane Barrier, Augusta ordered the legion to begin its advance through the breach.

• Augusta declared the plane their battlefield, and Benjamin enveloped the young wizards in his Law Solidification Domain as they approached the Plane Barrier.
• Benjamin manifested his enormous Dharma Image and ripped open a breach in the Plane Barrier.
• Benjamin used his True-Delusion Breaking Pupil to spot Mushroom People fused into the rock, while Augusta confirmed that most were hibernating from a lack of food.
• Benjamin and Augusta agreed to clear the plane by regions and recover all Cannon Fodder Legion corpses so the Mushroom People could not use them as nourishment.
• Benjamin widened and secured the breach, and Augusta ordered the wizards to send their cannon fodder through it.
• More than a dozen wizards summoned nearly a million Cannon Fodder Legion troops, which surged into the plane.

Benjamin and Augusta investigated the Mushroom People, discovering that their souls were shattered and that the plane held signs of artificial influence. As the Augusta Family's young wizards celebrated an easy advance, their attacks awakened more Mushroom People, and Benjamin let the battle continue in hopes of drawing out the region's hidden Level 7 target.

• More than a hundred thousand starving Mushroom People attacked the Cannon Fodder Legion, but the young wizards' forces slaughtered them with little resistance.
• Benjamin examined captured Mushroom People and found that their hybrid elemental and living bodies had shattered souls, though he could not determine why.
• Benjamin and Augusta discussed evidence that the Mushroom People Plane had once been shaped by a civilization, despite showing no visible structures.
• The young Augusta Family wizards grew overconfident as their legions advanced, while Benjamin and Augusta noticed that dead Mushroom People were awakening others with food signals.
• Augusta chose not to intervene, allowing the young wizards to learn from their mistakes, and Benjamin let them continue their attack to help locate a Level 7 target.

As the Incense Divinity Path spread through the plane, the awakened Mushroom People overwhelmed the young wizards’ forces, prompting Benjamin to lead a Black Giant and Tentacle Tree army toward the source of their awakening. His legion reached the underground stronghold, where he found only Level 6 leaders despite earlier signs of a Level 7 presence, and ordered intelligent Mushroom People captured for questioning.

• The Mushroom People devoured battlefield corpses, replenished their strength, and drove the young wizards’ Cannon Fodder Legions into retreat.
• Benjamin and Augusta sensed a powerful awakening in the northwest, and Benjamin left Augusta to oversee the battle while he led reinforcements toward it.
• Benjamin deployed five hundred thousand Black Giants and a fleet of over a million Tentacle Trees, ordering them to clear a path and consume incapacitated Mushroom People.
• The Black Giants and warships cut through the Mushroom People and advanced to a wasteland riddled with underground tunnels.
• Benjamin discovered several awakening Level 6 Mushroom People below but no Level 7 leader, and ordered his forces to capture the leaders and any Mushroom People that seemed intelligent.

Benjamin’s forces captured several Level 6 Mushroom People, and he used Soul Search to uncover the Mushroom People leaders’ plan to sacrifice their communities while the Level 7 elders gathered strength. He ordered the captives guarded and flew with them toward the Plane Barrier crack.

• Benjamin ordered his legion to attack the wilderness, where Black Giants stormed caves and the Tentacle Tree fleet cut off Mushroom People reinforcements.
• Black Giant leaders brought Benjamin five Level 6 Mushroom People and over a hundred elite captives.
• A Level 6 Mushroom Person killed several elite captives, but Black Giants subdued the remaining Level 6 prisoners.
• Benjamin searched the Level 6 Mushroom People’s souls and learned that their upper echelon had sent them as sacrificial pawns while Level 7 Mushroom People regrouped and fed on their own kind.
• Benjamin ordered the captives guarded and sent his forces to help clear the plains before flying toward the Plane Barrier crack with the prisoners.

After the Mushroom People leader was captured, Benjamin sent the young wizards and Black Giant Legions to scout nearby gathering sites while Augusta searched for traces of the hidden Level 7 Mushroom People. Examining captured Level 6 Mushroom People, Benjamin discovered that someone had artificially modified part of their elemental life structure.

• Benjamin and Augusta confirmed the battlefield was clear and decided to send the young wizards on missions to nearby Mushroom People gathering sites.
• Benjamin summoned several Black Giant Legions, assigned one to each wizard squad, and ordered the squads to scout, attack if able, and capture Level 6 Mushroom People.
• Augusta set off to search for traces left by the relocated Level 7 Mushroom People.
• Benjamin stored the captured Level 6 Mushroom People in his Internal Grotto-Heaven and began studying them with the Black Giant Priests and Tentacle Tree researchers.
• After five days of experiments, Benjamin identified an orderly elemental structure within the Mushroom People and concluded that someone had artificially modified it.

Benjamin received an emergency call from an Augusta Family wizard whose forces were trapped by an overwhelming swarm of Mushroom People. As the besieged troops faced near-certain defeat, Benjamin arrived, and the Black Giants recognized their lord’s presence.

• A Level 5 Wizard of the Augusta Family reported that his forces were ambushed, and Benjamin sent Black Giants to guard the Plane Barrier crack before flying to assist.
• The Augusta wizards and their Black Giant and Cannon Fodder Legions found themselves surrounded by Mushroom People whose numbers and Level 6 fighters kept increasing.
• The Mushroom People overwhelmed the Black Giants underground and destroyed multiple Tentacle Tree warships outside the cavern, while the wizards discovered they could not escape because Earth Elements were disrupting space.
• A Level 6 Black Giant detonated himself, killing many Mushroom People and creating a temporary clearing that quickly filled again.
• A terrifying pressure descended over the battlefield, stopping both sides, and the Black Giants cheered as Benjamin arrived.

Benjamin arrived on the battlefield, brought in Level 6 Black Giants to defeat the Mushroom People, and captured several dozen Level 6 units. While searching their memories for the Level 7 Mushroom People, he discovered that their claims about the plane’s depleted resources conflicted with the Augusta Family’s reconnaissance and ordered an investigation.

• Benjamin opened the cavern ceiling and appeared above the battlefield, where thousands of Level 6 Mushroom People had surrounded him.
• Benjamin summoned more than a hundred Level 6 Black Giants and ordered them to capture the surrounding Mushroom People alive and kill the rest.
• Benjamin left the Black Giants to fight alongside the young wizards and stored several dozen captured Mushroom People in his Internal Grotto-Heaven.
• Benjamin searched the captured Mushroom People’s memories for clues to the Level 7 Mushroom People and found that they claimed every high-energy resource in the plane had been consumed.
• Benjamin compared those memories with the Augusta Family’s reconnaissance data and ordered young wizards to investigate the plane’s geology and mineral distribution.

Benjamin discovered that the Mushroom People could rapidly advance by devouring their own spore-born descendants, but doing so devastated their intelligence. He suspected their missing Level 7s had been sacrificed to raise a hidden leader to Level 8, and traced the likely hiding place toward the direction Augusta had gone.

• Benjamin found that the Mushroom People had secretly prepared for the invasion and forced selected Level 5 elites to advance by devouring others.
• Benjamin learned that each Mushroom Person's spore-born descendants could increase its intelligence, and that forced advancement without enough descendants caused severe mental decline.
• Benjamin concluded that the missing Level 7 Mushroom People might have been used as nutrients to advance an unknown leader to Level 8.
• Benjamin mapped the Mushroom People's movements and narrowed the likely hiding place to the direction Augusta had taken.
• Benjamin decided to send the intelligence to Augusta and wait for her report before making further deployments.

Benjamin joined Augusta in fighting five unexpectedly powerful Level 7 Mushroom People, whose rapid healing and defenses made them difficult to defeat. After they crippled all five, Benjamin searched one’s soul and found its memories were fragmented, leaving the cause of the Mushroom People’s strength unresolved.

• Augusta reported finding traces of Level 7 Mushroom People, and Benjamin teleported to her battlefield, where she was fighting three.
• Benjamin attacked two more Level 7 Mushroom People with Echo Bomb Rune Artifacts, while Augusta’s matter-manipulating attacks struggled against their defenses and healing.
• The Mushroom People turned on Benjamin and Augusta, but Benjamin’s escalating Echo Bombs and Augusta’s gravity and electromagnetic forces crippled all five.
• Benjamin searched the soul of one defeated Mushroom Person and found its memories were fragmented, just like those of Mushroom People that had temporarily advanced to Level 6.

Benjamin and Augusta concluded that the Level 7 Mushroom People had been deployed to delay them while their leader advanced, then used a mineral survey to locate the high-level Mushroom People’s gathering place. They set their sights on the plateau where the remaining mineral-like elemental readings were concentrated.

• Benjamin and Augusta sealed five Level 7 Mushroom People and discovered that they had been forcibly promoted by devouring their own kind, leaving their souls severely damaged.
• Benjamin concluded that the Mushroom People’s leader was stalling for time to advance to Level 8, while Augusta explained how false clues had delayed her investigation.
• Augusta and Benjamin considered whether the trail ahead led to a prize or another deception, and Benjamin waited for additional intelligence.
• Benjamin received a plane mineral analysis showing that the plane’s remaining elemental reactions were concentrated in one plateau region.
• Benjamin and Augusta inferred that the concentrated readings came from high-level Mushroom People underground and identified the plateau as their likely gathering place.

Benjamin and Augusta uncovered a hidden Mushroom People cavern and found that its leader had recently advanced to Level 8. After they killed its Level 6 guards, the colossal leader awoke and warned them that they had lost their final chance.

• Benjamin and Augusta checked the barren plateau for traps, then Augusta used her powers to lift the ground and expose a vast underground cavern.
• They found only a dozen Level 6 Mushroom People and a colossal leader whose law patterns revealed it had advanced to Level 8.
• The Level 6 guards attacked to protect their newly advanced leader, but Benjamin and Augusta killed them in a single exchange.
• The Level 8 Mushroom People leader awoke, triggered an Elemental Riot with its roar, rose from the cavern, and told Benjamin and Augusta they had lost their final chance.

Benjamin and Augusta attacked a newly advanced but unstable Level 8 Mushroom People leader, deploying their forces to contain it and withstand its assault. The battle escalated as the Black Giants and Nest defended against thousands of rock meteors while Benjamin bombarded the leader with Echo Bombs and Final Rays.

• Benjamin and Augusta laughed at the Mushroom People leader’s threats, survived its tentacle strike, and judged that its unstable advancement left it weaker than a normal Level 8 Lifeform.
• The Mushroom People leader raised thousands of immense rock meteors and hurled them at Benjamin and Augusta.
• Benjamin summoned four Level 7 Black Giants and Nest, then assigned them roles in the fight while Augusta used the Four Fundamental Forces to restrain the leader.
• The Black Giants smashed incoming meteors as Nest shielded and replenished them, while debris turned the battlefield into a destructive storm.
• Benjamin fired Final Rays and thousands of Echo Bombs at the leader, tearing off its tentacles and filling the battlefield with explosions.

Benjamin, Augusta, the Black Giants, and the nest fought the Level 8 Mushroom People leader and broke through its defenses. After it survived their finishing attacks, the leader surrendered, revealed that it had pretended to be unintelligent, and became Augusta’s contracted servant, ending the Plane War.

• The Mushroom People leader battered the Black Giants and the nest, while Benjamin and Augusta searched for a way past its strong defense and regeneration.
• Augusta slowed the leader with gravity as the Black Giants and the nest restrained it, allowing her Electromagnetic Cannon and Benjamin’s Void String to crack its rocky armor.
• Benjamin and Augusta struck the exposed leader with the Final Ray and Electromagnetic Cannon, leaving it gravely wounded.
• The leader rose and charged, then fell over and exposed its vulnerable stalk to surrender to Benjamin and Augusta.
• The leader admitted it had feigned stupidity to seek a chance to attack them, but surrendered because it could not win.
• Augusta completed a master-servant contract with the leader, and Benjamin and Augusta declared the Plane War over.

Benjamin learned that the Mushroom People came from an unknown plane and arranged for the Lineage to study their origins, then began researching them as potential cannon-fodder units. After decades of research and reflection on the steep path to higher wizard levels, he received Dean Avery Knight’s order for all Academy instructors to gather.

• Augusta shared the Mushroom People leader’s memories with Benjamin, revealing that scientists had created the race as mining tools and that its people had been exiled from another plane after gaining collective consciousness and rebelling.
• Benjamin and Augusta agreed that the Lineage could study the Mushroom People leader’s structure and Law imprints to try to recover the coordinates of its original plane.
• Benjamin returned to the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, inspected the war’s losses, and placed the captured Level 7 and Level 6 Mushroom People in separate Restraint Arrays for future modification research.
• After several decades, Benjamin reviewed his progress in the Laws, improved spells, and Five-Skandha Rainbow Mirror, then considered the immense requirements for advancing to Level 7.
• Dean Avery Knight summoned all Academy instructors to a meeting, and Benjamin left his laboratory through the Teleportation Array.

Benjamin attended an Academy-wide meeting where Dean Avery Knight announced an education reform that would enroll every child with minimum wizard aptitude and improve their aptitude through the Blood Sacrifice Method. A low-level wizard from the Crimson Court had solved the soul-sampling cost problem with a prenatal technique, making the reform feasible and leaving the instructors to recognize its civilization-wide potential.

• Benjamin arrived at a crowded conference room and saw that senior instructors and Academy administrators had gathered for Avery Knight’s meeting.
• Avery Knight announced that Noren Academy No. 147 would enroll all children with minimum wizard aptitude and use standardized Blood Sacrifice Method modifications to raise their innate potential.
• Benjamin doubted the plan could be afforded because safely sampling ordinary people’s souls had made the Blood Sacrifice Method too costly to apply broadly.
• Avery Knight revealed that a low-level wizard from the Crimson Court had developed a Low-Level Soul Cultivation Technique that safely collected samples from fetuses.
• Benjamin confirmed that prenatal soul sampling could resolve the cost barrier, and the instructors recognized that combining the techniques could transform Wizard Civilization.

Benjamin agreed to lead Noren Academy’s effort to standardize the Blood Sacrifice Method and integrate it with other technologies into a long-term system for producing Wizard Apprentices. The meeting ended after Dean Avery approved Benjamin’s request for full access to the relevant materials and technologies.

• Benjamin confirmed that the Blood Sacrifice Method could be standardized and scaled, but Dean Avery Knight explained that it killed ordinary people with insufficient soul talent.
• Dean Avery Knight said that making every newborn a wizard could disrupt society and sharply reduce the birth rate, while maintaining a large ordinary population supported Wizard Civilization.
• A Level 6 mentor raised concerns about the Academy’s capacity, and Dean Avery Knight presented plans for expansion, automated laboratories, artificial mentors, resource quotas, and plane-based education centers.
• Dean Avery Knight asked Benjamin to oversee the technical integration of the Blood Sacrifice Method, clone cultivation, fetal soul sampling, and aptitude testing.
• Benjamin accepted the assignment on the condition that he receive full access to all relevant materials and technologies, and Dean Avery approved his request.

After the meeting, Viola told Benjamin that he had been unusually isolated from ordinary wizard society and explained that his research reports had been required because the mentors worried he might die in seclusion. She urged him to quickly establish the first version of the Education Reform system before the Academy departed to help Mentor with his marriage plans.

• Benjamin met Viola in the corridor after the meeting and learned that she already knew about the Education Reform.
• Viola questioned Benjamin about his lack of social life, and he said his routine consisted of research, cultivation, war, rest, and eating.
• Viola explained that most wizards maintained social ties and revealed that Benjamin alone had been required to submit regular reports so the mentors could confirm he was alive.
• Viola urged Benjamin to build the Education Reform framework quickly because the Academy would soon depart.
• Benjamin guessed they were going to help Mentor show his strength, and Viola corrected him by saying they were going to marry their teacher's wife into the family.