Ian walked slowly on the soft and luxurious red carpet, followed step by step by two solemn-looking Empire ambassadors. At the end of this long passage, quietly Standing on the ground is a stunningly beautiful woman. She has dark skin as deep and beautiful as obsidian, and her eyes seem to reflect the entire vast universe of stars, so deep that you can't help but sink into them.
Even Ian, who was used to seeing countless stunning beauties, couldn't help but feel a sense of stunning trance the moment his eyes touched her face.
"There have been rumors from the outside that Queen Katula is the most beautiful and most incredible beauty in the entire Milky Way Galaxy. Now that I have seen her true appearance, I realize that those meager rumors are not enough to describe even one ten thousandth of your peerless elegance." Ian smiled slightly and praised elegantly.
"There are also rumors from the outside world that His Royal Highness the Arcane Grand Archon is a libertine who shows mercy at all times. Now it seems that this rumor is absolutely true," Queen Katula counterattacked without giving in with a charming smile on her lips.
"That's such a pity," Ian shrugged, without showing even a trace of embarrassment or embarrassment on his face. He turned slightly sideways and gestured to the ambassador behind him. The ambassador immediately understood. Yes, he stepped forward respectfully and slowly opened a luxurious gift box in his hand. Inside, quietly lay several bottles of rare Potions that exuded a charming halo. "This is the first meeting gift I have prepared for you."
Seeing this, Queen Katula slowly walked down from the slightly raised podium with two thrones symbolizing supreme power placed side by side. If she had followed the royal etiquette of the Starskin tribe in normal times, she would have definitely signaled to her ministers to collect it on her behalf. Give this gift. However, Queen Katula knows better than anyone else that this is not the time to put on royal airs or play political tricks, because standing in front of her is the master of a super empire whose background is countless times more terrifying than her civilization.
She cast her eyes on the Potions in the gift box. At that moment, a look of obvious shock suddenly flashed across her eyes as deep as the starry sky. With the Star-Skin Tribe's proud talent of fast Divination, she only felt it briefly and immediately understood the bottle of Potions. The incredible effect of: This turned out to be a bottle of supreme medicine that could completely heal the stubborn old wounds in her body! What made her even more incredible and even horrified was that the formula and medicinal properties of this bottle of Potions seemed to be perfectly tailored for the unique physiological structure and physique of the Star-Skin Tribe!
'The secret of Star Magic is really breathtaking,' Ian sighed silently in his heart. According to the top-secret analysis report of the Arcane Empire Supreme Research Institute, those bright and eternal stars hanging in the infinite deep sky The energy contained in stars is far more complex than ordinary people imagine. In addition to the most basic cosmic magic and conventional solar energy, they will also continuously radiate two other rare and unique ultimate energies: Cosmic Energy and Stellar Energy.
In most cases, the violent energy of the sun is used by Arcanists to cast those extremely destructive fire spells, which is also called "Pure Yang Arts" in the Eastern cultivation system. Although Cosmic Energy has wider inclusiveness and versatility at the application level, its violent and disordered nature makes it It is still a great mystery that is difficult to fully resolve. Although Arcane Empire has successfully developed a magic machine and a huge array that can control Cosmic Energy, for any individual who tries to directly control it with his mortal body, it is simply more difficult than reaching the sky, let alone systematically integrating it into a new arcane sub-professional system.
As for Stellar Energy, that is the core energy source that Star-Skin Tribe in front of us relies on and is proud of. This strange energy can be flexibly used in a variety of dazzling magical spells: such as forcibly controlling eternity. The terrifying weight of the star is enough to crush everything, teleport through space regardless of distance, cast light magic that heals and purifies everything, or use mysterious astrology to determine precise destiny Divination and many other activities closely related to magic.
Through in-depth analysis and research on how Star-Skin Tribe perfectly transforms Stellar Energy into its own magic power, Arcane Empire has achieved explosive growth in the field of Star Magic Profits. And when Ian brought back the Star Magic inheritance of Yuno and others from another dimension, the process of this analysis and Fusion was accelerated like crazy.
Queen Katula only hesitated for a brief moment, then picked up the bottle of Potions without hesitation, raised her head and drank it in one gulp, completely ignoring the extreme panic and worry that almost overflowed from the face of the minister next to her.
The moment she drank Potions, a majestic and terrifying aura, full of endless vitality and vitality, suddenly burst out of her body! Immediately afterwards, her waist-length hair, which had become pale and withered due to excessive overdraft of vitality, unexpectedly At a speed visible to the naked eye, it regained its soft luster that shined like the night. Her originally sickly pale face instantly regained its healthy rosiness, making her unique skin become even more dazzling under the light, like the most dazzling stars in the night sky.
"The sources of fatal hidden wounds in my body that have been entangled for countless years... have actually been completely eradicated," she murmured in a low voice incredulously. Katula Queen could clearly feel that although she had not yet returned to the perfect state at her peak, The huge stone that had been hanging on her vitality had been completely shattered. With her current rejuvenated health, she could finally use the sealed taboo Divine Artifact without any scruples, without having to worry about dying on the spot due to backlash.
"I sincerely thank you for your generosity, Your Highness the Archon."
"It's just a trivial greeting gift. Your Majesty, there is no need to be so polite." Ian responded calmly.
Subsequently, the highest-level representatives of both parties formally took their seats and began the highest-level closed-door talks that would determine the fate of hundreds of millions of lives. As expected by Ian, Star-Skin Tribe took the initiative to bow his head this time. The core purpose was to carefully negotiate the specific conditions for their surrender and surrender.
On most core terms, the negotiations between the two sides went smoothly, with almost no substantive friction. Only on one sensitive pain point - the issue of the retention of "royal power", the two sides reached a brief deadlock.
Arcane Empire's system is iron-blooded and overbearing. They will never recognize or grant independent "Imperial Family" or "royal" status to any subordinate force. However, in order to demonstrate Empire's inclusive and tolerant policy, Ian finally agreed to make a partial compromise: he could generously give the Queen a noble honorary title with many privileges.
However, this title is just a gorgeous empty shell and does not contain any substantive political power that can directly interfere with the operation of the Empire. If Queen Katula wants to truly represent the interests of the Star-Skin Tribe in Supreme Arcane Council, she must honestly participate in brutal democratic elections like all Empire politicians.
In addition, this noble title is absolutely not allowed to be hereditary. However, as compensation, those who obtain this title will enjoy unparalleled internal preferential treatment in the Empire's huge resource allocation, the highest level of security access rights, and certain other specific social privileges.
Considering that Star-Skin Tribe is a special race that is rich in Seer and Divination divisions (although not everyone is, but the proportion is amazing), Ian is very willing to make these small concessions in order to completely tie this group of precious strategic talents to work.
Since the specific details of the abolition of royal titles cannot be finalized overnight, after a tacit exchange of glances, the two delegations agreed to temporarily adjourn the meeting and postpone this difficult game to the next day.
However, just as Ian was about to get up and leave, Queen Katula secretly sent him an invitation for a private meeting, saying that there were some confidential matters that must be confided to him alone.
In the quiet and luxurious private parlor, Queen Katula solemnly presented Ian with a glass of the finest wine that only belonged to the Star-Skin Tribe Imperial Family. Ian tasted it elegantly, feeling that unique, a taste that makes the soul tremble, the only adjective he can think of is: this cup of liquid tastes like the taste of the "stars" themselves. You must know that stars are essentially just huge, violent, ultra-high-temperature plasma objects. However, at this moment, he can truly and incredibly "taste" their vastness and depth.
"Before all those complicated political terms are completely settled, I feel it is necessary to tell you frankly about some of the secret origins of our Star-Skin Tribe." The Queen slowly put down the wine glass in her hand and looked at Ian with a deep gaze. "Your Highness the Grand Consul, do you know about the existence of 'Astral Realm' and other endless planes?"
The reason why she asked this slightly abrupt question was because she knew very well that although the Arcane Empire in front of her showed terrifying technological and magical heritage, tracing back to its origins, this extremely young civilization had only been established for a mere hundred years.
"Of course we know. In fact, not long ago, Empire's advance fleet has decisively taken the first great step in cross-dimensional exploration," Ian replied calmly.
"That's easy. Then I must tell you that we Star-Skin Tribe actually do not belong to this universe. Our real hometown is from another distant plane-'Brilliant Plane'," she said while looking sharply at Ian's reaction, trying to catch a trace of shock on his face. "After listening to it, you don't seem surprised at all?"
"After the Empire successfully detected the existence of the Astral Realm, our top Think Tank scholars have put forward the hypothesis of the migration of this alien civilization through careful deduction. After all, your race The characteristics displayed are really too special and out of place." Ian calmly took another sip of the star-like wine. "The only thing I'm curious about now is how did you break through the many blockades and come to this plane?"
According to the core top-secret information he possesses, the current Cosmic God Plane has been completely sealed for billions of years in the distant past in order to prevent the invasion of terrifying external forces!
"That's it," Queen Katula nodded helplessly, with a trace of unconcealable sadness and reminiscence in her eyes. "We Star-Skin Tribe used to be a peace-loving civilization, living a peaceful life without fighting against the world in our own plane. However, an unexpected incident The coming Cataclysm destroyed everything. A terrifyingly powerful Ninth Tier plane - that is, the group of bloodthirsty 'Moon Demons' - brazenly invaded our world and set off a tragic and bloody horrific war."
"In this resistance with great disparity in strength, we were ultimately defeated. In order to continue the fire of the race, our ancestors luckily found an ancient plane door left by Ancient Wizard Race when they were desperate. They had to bear the pain and completely abandon the beautiful homeland that gave birth to us and fled to this plane in embarrassment."
After listening to this tragic history of ethnic exile, Ian couldn't help but let out a slight sigh.
"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with my narrative?" The Queen was keenly aware of his mood swings.
"Sorry, I made you laugh. I just suddenly felt a ridiculous emotion: In this vast multiverse, it seems that every major event that has happened recently that is enough to subvert history, no matter how it is circumvented, will always be inextricably linked to the demise of Ancient Wizard Race." Ian shook his head helplessly.
"The truth of your words is definitely far beyond your imagination," the Queen agreed with deep sympathy.
Ian sighed again and decisively brought the topic back on track. "Let me guess; the reason why you confided these top secrets to me is because you hope that Empire can send troops to help you regain your lost homeland, right? Since the invader is just a Ninth Tier plane, then for us Arcane Empire, it is just a piece of cake to crush it completely."
"Excuse me, has the great Arcane Empire successfully developed the profound 'Reincarnation Magic' system?" The Queen suddenly asked a question.
"Reincarnation Magic? Does this have any necessary connection with the sending troops to restore the country we just discussed?" Ian was a little confused by this jumping question.
Hearing this answer, Queen Katula stared at him with a strange, even unbelievable look. "Your Highness the Grand Consul, please don't tell me that as the commander-in-chief who is about to start a plane expedition, you actually know nothing about the <Planar War Guide> which is regarded as the iron law of the Astral Realm?!"
"It's a pity, I have never heard of it." Ian shrugged frankly.
Queen Katula did not dare to delay at all. She immediately skillfully cast a space summoning spell, directly summoning a heavy tome that exuded an ancient and vicissitudes of life from the depths of her heavily guarded Royal Library, and solemnly handed it to Ian.
Ian was not polite. He narrowed his eyes and released a spiritual analysis spell arrogantly. In a few seconds, he violently reproduced and absorbed all the vast top-secret information contained in this thick ancient book into his mind.
Plane War, or cross-dimensional invasion, in the endless Astral Realm is definitely a serious life-and-death gamble that can even make the top gods feel heartbroken. And the root cause of all this is the existence of the ruthless and terrifying "Planar Will".
Any mature plane breeds the exclusive and powerful Planar Will. Once any unauthorized visitor from another world breaks in, Planar Will will be like an angered distant Ancient Gods. It will immediately lower the most terrifying laws of natural punishment and repelling power, and launch a crazy and unreserved stranglehold on the intruder.
As intruders, the only thing they can do is to rely on their own heaven-defying heritage to resist this repulsive force that is enough to crush the stars.
In this cruel invasion process, the rank gap between the invader and the invaded plane will become the absolute key to life and death! If a superior Eighth Tier Archmage brutally invades a lower plane with only Seventh Tier, then he can calmly spend some time to slowly fight and destroy the weak Planar Will
; If he finds it troublesome, he can even brutally and directly use absolute power to completely blast the entire plane into nothingness along with his will from the physical and legal levels.
But! If this arrogant Eighth Tier strongman dares to invade a Eighth Tier plane of the same level regardless of life and death, then what awaits him is that he will most likely be completely suppressed in despair!
Because in its own home ground, Planar Will not only possesses endless natural Source Force power, it can even unreasonably directly borrow all the terrifying power of all living beings in the plane - especially those native Eighth Tier peak entities, to brutally encircle and suppress the invaders.
This kind of absolute law suppression from the entire plane is definitely the most disgusting and desperate ultimate nightmare that any individual or civilization that attempts to conduct a cross-plane expedition must face; it is like an almost insurmountable natural chasm, cruelly strangling the ambitions of most attempts to carry out large-scale plane invasions.
Therefore, in addition to simply and crudely relying on the power of higher levels to carry out dimensionality reduction attacks on low-level planes, the cunning civilizations in the Astral Realm, through endless blood and trial and error, have summed up several heaven-defying methods that can cleverly circumvent or resist this desperate suppression.
The first method that is regarded as a divine skill is called "Concealed Consciousness Infiltration Technique". As the name suggests, it is a high-dimensional method of deceiving the heavens. Through this technology, the invader can perfectly use a camouflage halo to completely annihilate himself and his huge army. Wrap them up, thus completely covering up their aura as foreign invaders. Once they successfully deceive Planar Will's perception, they can act like local ghosts and do whatever they want in any invaded plane.
However, it is a pity that throughout the vast and long history of the Astral Realm, so far, only two incredibly powerful civilizations have successfully developed this forbidden technology: one is Ancient Wizard Race, which has mysteriously died.; the other is the unfathomable Abyssal Plane - to this day, there are still a very small number of ancient and terrifying Abyss lords who secretly master this incomplete technology.
Ian even keenly speculated that similar concealment methods mastered by some religious gods in the current universe are most likely stolen from the remains of some ancient wizards that have not yet been discovered.
The second, most widely used and bloody method in the Astral Realm: living sacrifice. By brutally Carnage and sacrificing a large number of native residents in the invaded plane, the invaders can Using these blood and souls full of resentment, he forcibly weaves a layer of flesh and blood camouflage on his body composed of the original aura of the plane, thereby perfectly pretending to be a legal citizen of the plane, in order to insidiously avoid the pursuit of heavenly punishment by Planar Will.
However, this seemingly perfect method of sacrificial flow has a fatal logical loop in actual operation: because the intruder will be immediately attacked by Planar Will's most violent and inhumane force in the brief moment when he forcibly lands on the plane. Suppressed by the law of love, under such absolute Extremis that they can barely move a finger, how could they still have extra time and energy to calmly Carnage and sacrifice a massive amount of the local population?
In order to perfectly solve this fatal paradox, this book <Planar War Guide> lists in detail several other insidious tactics that must be coordinated with it.
The first tactic is the crude body-seizing method. That is, before the invader arrives, he forcibly descends his soul and seizes the body of a local resident of the invaded plane. However, this method has been proven to be full of flaws in actual combat, because those keen Planar Will can still easily detect the alien soul hidden under the body, thereby unleashing the wrath of Law of Thunder.
The second tactic seems cunning: the invader will patiently and secretly bewitch a local greedy native, tricking him into actively creating a summoning formation, summoning the invader as some kind of "guardian spirit" or "god", and signing a harsh contract.
Once they arrive, the invaders will insidiously exploit the fatal loopholes hidden in the contract, or directly create an extremely desperate dilemma, forcing the poor contractor to actively hold a bloody large-scale sacrifice ceremony for them in order to survive. This despicable tactic is usually the most common trump card of cunning high-dimensional creatures, or terrifying civilizations that are proficient in soul manipulation and contract magic.
The last recorded ultimate tactic is to use the enigmatic "Reincarnation Magic"! The invaders directly use this heaven-defying magic to completely wash away foreign marks from their souls, and reincarnate majestically in the invaded plane, perfectly becoming legal "citizens" native to the plane. Then, they hibernate and develop in secret, and finally, with their legal identity, fatally disintegrate and control the entire plane from the inside!
Ian quietly closed his eyes and spent a short moment conducting an in-depth review and deduction of the vast top-secret information that had just poured into his mind, which was enough to subvert all three views.
He is keenly aware that among these vast Astral Realm planes, there are two special, even weird planes that must arouse his utmost vigilance: one is the hometown that gave birth to him-that is, the current cosmic plane filled with the beliefs of gods; and the other is the Abyssal Plane that is regarded as an absolute taboo and nightmare by all civilizations.
For example, that unfathomable Abyss Planar Will, when faced with foreign invaders, not only will it not drop even a trace of rejection and suppression, but will instead act like a greedy Demons with open arms, crazily encouraging and luring more lives into it, in order to greedily devour and assimilate them.
And the Cosmic Faith Plane where Ian is located, in the distant ancient times, was actually the same as Abyss, maintaining an open attitude to outsiders. However, since that indispensable After Ancient Wizard Race of the first generation mysteriously evaporated collectively in this starry sky, everything underwent earth-shaking and strange changes. The entire plane seemed to have been touched by some kind of reverse scale, and was completely and rigidly sealed off.
After thoroughly sorting out all the fatal joints, Ian opened his eyes suddenly, raised his wrist without hesitation, activated the identity terminal, immediately contacted his wives, and solemnly issued the highest order, requiring them to immediately and carefully verify the real-time dynamics of Hermione's interdimensional expeditionary force that was on the verge of danger!