Accompanied by an extremely slight ripple in space, Ian's figure was like a ghost that tore apart Void, descending into James's half-plane that had been reduced to ruins without any warning.
There are still violent embers of energy in the air here, but the battle is obviously over. As Ian expected, his overbearing Eastern Dragon True Spirit-Beidou has already suppressed all the rebellions.
The phantom of the divine dragon that exuded the aura of ancient times circled in mid-air, and then threw a small Magic Cube that exuded complex sealed golden light into the palm of Ian, and then turned into specks of light and disappeared into nothingness.
Ian lowered his head and played with the cold seal Magic Cube in his hand. Through the translucent crystal material, one could clearly see that James's soul was being tightly imprisoned in it.
"Do you have any last words to say?" Ian's tone was so calm that no emotion could be heard, as if he was just asking about today's weather.
There was a sound of soul shaking inside Magic Cube. James's voice was filled with weakness and panic that could not be concealed. "What exactly did you do? How is your situation now?"
"You are still testing the situation at this time, I guess, these are probably your last words." Ian revealed a trace of undisguised mockery at the corner of his mouth.
"Don't threaten me in vain, Ian." James Si's soul struggled fiercely in Magic Cube, trying to regain his former composure, "I know your way of doing things very well. You will definitely use all torture to pry open my mouth and extract information. But I assure you, you will get nothing!"
The reason why James Si dared to say this was because he thought he knew the Arcane Emperor in front of him. In the Empire's Core Circle, everyone knew that there were two big words engraved in this king's core values - "value".
The reason why he tolerates all races, recruits geniuses with eccentric temperaments, and even promotes absolute racial equality in the Empire is not because of any false kindness, but because these beings, as a collective, can produce unparalleled "value" for the Empire.
Therefore, James si firmly believes that as long as he is still alive, as long as his "value" as a rare high-level Arcanist is still there, Ian will not easily kill him. As long as he can bite With gritted teeth, he endured those soul tortures and delayed long enough. When Abyssal Plane's terrifying army came in full force, this arrogant Arcane Empire would surely fall apart, and he would have the opportunity to see the light of day again.
"Oh, stupid Jamess," Ian's chuckle broke the other party's illusion, and there was a coldness in the voice that made people shiver. "It seems that you still have some unrealistic misunderstanding of your own 'true value'."
Magic Cube's voice suddenly stiffened, and James's tone was finally filled with a hint of real fear. "Wait... you, do you want to use me as a living experiment material?!"
"Otherwise?" Ian looked down at the crystal in his hand coldly, "You are the first Arcanist in the Empire's history to be corrupted by Abyssal Will and successfully accommodate Dark Magic. Your mutated body and soul are much more valuable than the insignificant information in your head."
Ian paused, his eyes becoming deep and dangerous. "What's more, I'm pretty sure that the depths of your soul have been completely branded with 'Abyssal Will'. With my current realm and knowledge, Be prepared, it is indeed a bit difficult and thankless to forcibly erase that high-dimensional will. But... it is perfect to put your slices on the test bench as an observation sample to analyze Abyssal Law."
"No! You can't do this!" James's defense was completely broken and he roared hysterically, "Empire's highest law clearly stipulates that any Arcanist with legal status is strictly prohibited from being used as experimental materials! If you take the lead in trampling on this bottom line, Imperial Family will suffer immeasurable reputational backlash! Your iron-fisted rule based on the rule of law will definitely be shaken!"
"You overestimate the restraint of the law and underestimate my control over this country." Ian shook his head disdainfully and retorted in a flawless manner. "Besides, you seem to have forgotten the most important 'loophole' in the law - this kind of human rights protection has never been applicable to heinous traitors like you who attempt to subvert civilization and collude with Outer God."
Ian loves and cherishes Arcane Empire, which he created with his own hands. After all, it is a miracle of civilization that he spent countless efforts to build from scratch, brick by brick.
However, he does not rely on this Empire as Empire relies on him.
This is an extremely cold truth: if one day, all the people of the Empire are really stupid enough to revolt and overthrow his rule because of this kind of thing, he can completely leave and go to another galaxy, another plane, or even another universe to re-establish a stronger and more perfect Empire.
Because he holds "Arcane Library" in his hand - which not only stores more than 90% of the current peak technology and magic knowledge of the Empire, but also carries the fire of civilization.
As long as he has this knowledge in hand, even if he abandons everything on earth and starts over, his reconstruction speed will be a hundred times faster than before. He is a seeker, and Empire is just a huge laboratory for his pursuit of Truth, not a prison that imprisons his soul.
No longer paying attention to James's desperate curses, Ian threw Magic Cube into a top-secret storage ring that was heavily Spatial Lock loaded, and then activated Space Law, instantly teleporting back to the core center of the palace.
Ian As soon as he sat firmly on the throne, he immediately connected all the waiting emergency communication requests.
In an instant, more than a dozen holographic projection screens popped up around the throne. The core members of the Imperial Family and the top officers of Illuminati appeared on the screen at the same time, and everyone's face was filled with solemnity and shock.
"What happened?" Amelia was the first to ask. This usually calm strong woman could not hide the horror in her eyes at this moment, "Why did the entire earth's time... suddenly stop just now?!"
During the absolute time stop that affected the entire planet just now, these core high-level people were among the very few who were not frozen.
Because as the absolute power center of the Empire, each of them is forced to wear three strategic life-saving Divine Artifact representing the highest crystallization of the Empire Alchemy: Anti-Time-Stop Pocket Watch, Absolute Death-Immunity Amulet, and an Void Traversal Talisman that stores pure Void Energy and can tear any Spatial Lockdown apart.
It is precisely because of this layer of protection that they can maintain mobility in Ian's Time Magic. Of course, the more important reason is that Ian has excluded them from the attack targets when casting the spell.
Ian did not hide anything, and used the most concise language to describe the entire process of James's rebellion, Wentworth's attempt to detonate half a plane to destroy the galaxy, and his own forced use of Time Stop to resolve the crisis.
After hearing these words, the entire communication channel fell into deathly silence. Then, there was a burst of fierce accusations mixed with fear.
"How on earth did they bypass our so-called all-round defense system?" Dumbledore frowned, and his gray beard trembled slightly with excitement.
"Have the people of the Intelligence Bureau and Prophecy Department become trash waiting to die?" Grindelwald sneered and took over the words, with an undisguised murderous intent in his eyes. As the former Dark Lord, the last thing he could tolerate was this kind of fatal security loophole.
"Please don't put all the blame on the Prophecy Department. Our manpower has already been seriously overloaded." Luna's ethereal voice sounded on the channel. Although his tone was still soft, there was also a hint of exhaustion that could not be concealed.
Recently, Prophecy Department has just received two "prophet" talents with great potential - one is a visitor from another world named the miko Satoru, and the other is Yami's sister.
The addition of these two people has indeed greatly alleviated the computing power pressure of the Prophecy Department. However, in order to prevent these two newcomers from suffering high-dimensional backlash due to excessive prying into their fate, Luna has been gradually guiding them to adapt to the cause and effect monitoring system of the Empire, and does not dare to put too much pressure on them.
"I fully believe that you and your department have tried their best, Minister Luna. But you must understand that the consequences of failure are unbearable for us." Grindelwald did not give in, and stared at the screen with his sharp heterochromatic pupils.
Luna sighed, unable to refute. In a sense, Prophecy Department and the intelligence network are Empire's first line of defense against the unknown gods outside. And their omission this time almost turned Empire's Central Star Domain into cosmic dust.
If Wentworth's conspiracy succeeds, a suicide bombing of that level, although not enough to completely destroy Arcane Empire, who has a profound background, can definitely push back Empire's civilization process for hundreds of years. And once Guznader seizes this vacuum period that Empire has fallen into and launched a general attack, the outcome will be unimaginable.
"We really need to continue to expand the number of Prophecy fighters and Divination divisions at all costs." Ian knocked on the armrest and set the tone.
"But you know very well that this kind of talent involving Law of Fate is a rare and scarce resource in the entire universe." Luna reminded helplessly.
"Then expand our audition scope."
"You mean... recruiting from Multiverse?" Luna was slightly startled, "However, due to excessive plunder when building Floating City, aren't we currently in the 'exile period' where we are warned by higher-dimensional beings and prohibited from interfering with Multiverse?"
"Not just the normal Multiverse, we can also try our luck in other independent planes," Ian's lips curved into an unfathomable smile, "Besides, the 'recruitment place' I am referring to... is the 'Dark Multiverse' that is full of despair and madness."
"Dark Multiverse? What is that concept?" There was an exclamation in the communication channel.
"Regarding the preliminary detection report of the twisted dimension, I have synchronized it to the top-secret area of Arcane Library. You can check it yourself after the meeting." Ian waved his hand and interrupted the topic.
"It's too early to discuss where to recruit people. We still haven't figured out what means Guznader used to quietly bypass our mental barrier and causal monitoring. If we can't block this from Source, If there is a loophole, then all remedial measures will be in vain." Olivia, who had been listening in, pointed out the core contradiction to the point. As the supreme military commander of the Empire, she will never allow this kind of disadvantage of being in the dark to continue to exist.
"If my deduction model is correct, there should be only one answer left - dreamland." Ian said in a deep voice.
"Dream Revelation?!" Olivia instantly recalled that the scientist named Albert who was at the Sage Clan also obtained high-dimensional technology through a similar method. "Indeed, this seems to be the most common insidious method used by the superior gods to bypass physical defense lines and deliver oracles to believers."
"Now that the enemy's infiltration route is clear, do we have any countermeasures plan?" Amelia immediately entered the role of the internal affairs manager.
"It's very simple. We can artificially construct a 'Dream Dimension' covering the entire Empire territory, as a second layer of spiritual barriers outside the real defense line." Rowena proposed a very constructive academic plan.
"This plan is extremely feasible, and Chloe's achievements in Dream Magic are fully sufficient to support a framework of this dimension." Ian agreed.
"This is indeed a perfect countermeasure plan. With this dream barrier, any oracles, whispers or high-dimensional revelations that attempt to penetrate us through dreams in the future will be forcibly intercepted and analyzed by the system." Amelia quickly recorded the decision on the optical brain. They are destined to be enemies of the gods in the sky, so they must be fully prepared in every dimension that may be breached.
"Why limit ourselves to defense? We can completely change our passiveness into activeness!" Grindelwald's eyes gleamed with fanaticism in Blink's eyes. "We can use this Dream Dimension to reverse infiltrate the enemy's base camp! Collect top-secret intelligence, carry out traceless assassinations, and even directly implant 'psychological suggestions' in the subconscious of the leaders of hostile forces!"
"This is absolutely not possible! If this method is abused and exposed, it will cause a catastrophic crisis of trust and backlash throughout the universe!" Dumbledore immediately objected sternly. Although after seeing the cruelty of the universe, he is no longer the man who only knows how to understand the universe. He is a good old man who gives in and assists Empire wholeheartedly, but he still adheres to the moral bottom line of mankind. He never wants Empire to become a terrifying totalitarian that willfully monitors the dreams of civilians and uses brainwashing to maintain its rule.
Several dove elders such as Lily and Flitwick in the conference room also nodded and stood on the side of Dumbledore.
"Besides," someone raised a technical question, "Many high-level Arcanists only need deep meditation after breaking through a certain level. They no longer need sleep at all, and naturally they will not dream. This method is completely ineffective for them."
"If they don't dream, then we will use magic to force them into dreaming!" Grindelwald counterattacked coldly.
"Okay, there is no need to use such extreme measures on our own citizens." Rowena came out to smooth things over, "But when used to deal with foreign enemies who try to destroy us, we don't need any so-called moral restraints."
"Establish Dream Dimension and form a specialized relevant department." Ian finally made the final decision, ending the debate. "We need to train a group of professional dream Auror, dream intelligence agents and nightmare assassins. I assure you that this technology will never be used to monitor Empire's legal citizens-unless there are confirmed suspicions of treason."
"Yes, Your Majesty. This matter will be implemented by Ministry of Internal Affairs." Amelia took over the important task, but her brows still did not relax, "So now, how should we deal with the external public opinion crisis?"
Although only the core senior executives wearing Divine Artifact could move freely in the time stop just now, the moment the time stop ended, those keen high-level Arcanist would definitely immediately notice the violation.
Especially when they contact alien colonies through inter-galactic communication equipment, they will be horrified to find that only a period of Earth Prime has been forcibly erased!
With their vicious vision and the deductions of the Empire's masters who publicly mastered Time Magic, the truth cannot be concealed at all.
"Reveal the truth directly." Ian leaned back in his chair and said calmly.
"Are you crazy? If all the mages in the world know that someone can single-handedly bring the time of the entire planet to an absolute standstill, this will cause unimaginable panic and chaos among the high-level casters!" Amelia was shocked.
For those high-level Arcanist who are accustomed to holding their destiny in their own hands, if someone can control their life and death without them knowing it, like squeezing an ant to death, this huge gap and sense of powerlessness are enough to destroy their sanity - even if they know in their hearts that when all Tenth Tier Floating City are lifted into the air, the emperor will have this great power of life and death.
"We can do a little bit of 'artistic processing' to reduce this psychological impact. It is claimed that this is a space phenomenon caused by 'Time Auror Department' using a super-standard strategic grade Divine Artifact that is still under testing. "Ian's eyes flashed with a cunning gleam, "If they think this is just a cumbersome dead thing that requires all the efforts of the whole country to activate, instead of a magic that someone can make at will, their resistance will be much smaller."
"In addition, I will personally convene a top-level closed-door meeting with Mage Tower later. When I finish 'talking' with them, I guarantee that no one will dare to say more nonsense in public." Ian's tone revealed an imperial majesty that cannot be disobeyed.
"Putting the blame on 'Time Auror Department'... This is indeed a good idea. After all, the existence of this department is a semi-open secret among the Empire's top executives. This explanation is logically tenable." Amelia agreed with this public relations strategy.
"The more important point is..." Ian's eyes suddenly became extremely fanatical, which was a thirst for knowledge that saw countless crystallizations of wisdom. "Under the stimulation of this panic, I bet that in order to save his own life, there are at least one-third of the geniuses in the Empire Arcanist They will delve into the defense system of 'Anti-Time Magic' like crazy! And the amazing creativity and experimental data they were forced to come up with by fear will eventually be integrated into Arcane Library, becoming the most solid Cornerstone under the Empire Throne of Truth!"
After hearing these words, everyone present took a deep breath. Facing this king who could perfectly calculate and exploit even the fears of his subordinates, they could only nod silently in addition to deep admiration.
"Okay, today's meeting is over. Everyone can go about your duties."
Everyone saluted and the holographic screens went out one by one.
"Luna, don't leave yet." Ian suddenly stopped the blonde witch who was about to cut off the communication, "I have some very special things that I need to explain to you alone."