In the empty and solemn palace hall, as the holographic projections of other core high-level officials were extinguished one by one, only Ian and Luna were left. A suffocating and dull atmosphere filled the hall, like the dead silence before a storm.
"Is it about the Prophecy Department?" Luna was the first to break the silence. His eyes, which were usually ethereal and Transcendence, could not conceal their fatigue at this moment. Tired and defensive. She quietly looked at the Empire Overlord sitting on the throne, "You should be very clear that the development of the current situation has far exceeded my personal capabilities."
"No," Ian slowly shook his head, a complex emotion flashing through his deep eyes, "I left you here not to blame you for that kind of thing. I have always seen the pressure on the Prophecy Department."
"Oh? Then why did your Majesty keep me here specifically?" Luna's tone contained a rare sharpness.
Ian fell into a brief pause. For the first time, there was an obvious hesitation on his face, which had always been calm and seemed to be able to calculate the entire universe.
Seeing his abnormal appearance, Luna's expression became even weirder, and his beautiful eyebrows frowned slightly. "You... are you asking me to do something crazy again?"
The corner of Ian's mouth twitched almost imperceptibly, and he tried to make his tone lighter. "Things are not as bad as you described."
"So, what kind of crazy plan is this?" Luna let out a long sigh full of helplessness and discouragement. She knew the man in front of her very well. In his dictionary, as long as Truth can be touched and Empire can be defended, any bottom line can be redefined.
"I just... happened to come up with a plan that can instantly and significantly increase Prophecy Department's overall computing power and prediction depth." Ian said in a deep voice, his eyes fixed on Luna's reaction.
"What is the specific plan?" Luna asked vigilantly.
Ian took a deep breath, no longer hiding anything or hesitating, and revealed the extremely cold plan. "I plan to use Space Law and causal traction to accurately capture countless 'variants' of you from the vast Multiverse. Then, we passed Alchemical Matrix Purify and stimulate the 'Seer Bloodline' in their bodies, and finally use Mental Link Network to forcibly connect all their consciousness centers in parallel. This will form an unprecedented 'Biological Prophecy Amplifier' - it can push your precognition ability to an unprecedented new level that will make even the gods tremble!"
"Are you crazy?!" Luna took a breath of cold air, and the cold voice was raised due to extreme shock, "You want to use my other variants in Multiverse and treat them as some kind of consumable biological battery? Or an emotionless Prophecy Divine Artifact?!"
"When you use such emotional words to describe it, this plan does sound a bit appalling. But in fact, it is not that evil." Ian tried to explain it with rational logic.
"Then what does this sound like to your great Arcane Emperor? A great scientific sacrifice?" Luna retorted without giving up.
"We can use memory tampering and consciousness erasing techniques to completely clear their memory centers. In this way, they will not feel any pain or fear during the entire linking process." Ian calmly offered what he thought was a benevolent solution.
In the gene pool of the Arcane Empire, the bloodline of Luna has always been an insurmountable mystery. The characteristics involving fate and cause and effect are so special that even the most advanced cloning technology of the Empire cannot perfectly copy her.
Even if a few clones barely survive occasionally, they will completely lose the extraordinary ability of the "prophet" at the moment of formation. Because of this, if you want to realize the grand Prophecy network plan, Ian's only option is to directly "borrow" those living Luna variants in different timelines from Multiverse.
"Instead of sounding better, it actually sounds even creepier!" A trace of Wrath and sadness flashed in Luna's eyes, "Once you do this, once you erase their personality and memory, they will be completely reduced to a pile of cold objects and tools!"
"You misunderstood, Luna. I don't want to plunder in the normal Multiverse." Ian's eyes became as deep as an abyss, as if reflecting the endless Black Hole, "Our target pool is the 'Dark Multiverse' that is full of distortion and depravity. This means that the variants we are about to capture are all existences that have gone completely evil and are full of blood."
"So what? This doesn't make your atrocities justice!" Luna retorted uncompromisingly, "According to the investigation report you submitted before about Dark Multiverse, the reason why the people there degenerate into monsters is often just because of a small event or one or two nodes on our main timeline that have been wrongly deflected. In other words, the reason why they become the 'evil beings' you call them is completely forced by the trick of fate and the cruel environment!"
Faced with Luna's arguments, Ian let out a dull growl, with a hint of unquestionable imperial coercion in his tone. "At this critical moment of life and death, can you take a longer view?! If you agree to this plan, it will not only save Empire The tens of billions of people of E have a very high probability of helping you break the shackles and touch the Truth threshold of Eleventh Tier! You know better than anyone else how big the stakes we are facing now, and you have also seen that the malicious future is approaching us!"
"Put away your moral kidnapping tricks, Ian." Luna looked at him coldly, "We haven't even found a clear path to Eleventh Tier's position. Therefore, this sinful plan cannot produce a decisive reversal of the Empire's high-end combat power pattern."
Ian stared into her firm eyes for several seconds. In this silent game, he finally let out a frustrated sigh.
"Well, since you are so insistent... then how about we each take a step back and make a compromise?" Ian's brain was running rapidly and he immediately came up with a backup plan, "We will not use your variant, but change the target to Professor Trelawney's variant."
"Although her Divination Bloodline is far from comparable to yours in terms of purity and character, we can use sheer quantity to make up for the quality gap. More importantly, we can completely classify this matter as Empire's top secret, and there is no need to reveal even a word to her personally." Ian's tone revealed a chilling pragmatism.
Luna's brows were tightly knitted together, and she was struggling fiercely in her heart. On the one hand, she was in awe of life, and on the other hand, she was worried about the Empire's future. For a long time, she coldly said, "I will consider it." Then, she cut off the holographic connection without hesitation, leaving Ian alone on the cold throne.
In the empty hall, Ian rubbed his temples tiredly.
"Morgana, use your logical algorithm to deduce it. If I completely bypass her and secretly push forward this plan, what will be the consequences?" Ian whispered to Void.
A flash of purple light flashed, and House-elf Morgana's holographic projection floated lightly in front of Ian. A rare sympathetic smile hung on her delicate little face, "Boss, as a The supreme controller of the Prophecy Department, she has almost absolute awareness of the operation of the entire department. If you want to conduct such a large-scale living alchemy experiment under her nose, the probability of Infinity being exposed is close to 100%."
"And once she discovers the truth... well, according to the deduction of the human emotion module, the best case scenario is: she will completely ignore you and keep a cold war for hundreds of years; as for the worst case scenario... she will probably slap the divorce agreement directly on your face." There is a hint of schadenfreude in Morgana's electronic music.
Ian let out an extremely dull groan of pain and muttered to himself, "Are the consequences so serious..."
"Boss, if you are willing to listen to my analysis." Morgana stopped joking and his tone became extremely serious.
"Tell me. You know that between us, we never need those false politenesses and disguises." Ian leaned on the back of the chair with his eyes closed.
"Your current overreaction actually stems from the extreme insecurity deep inside your heart." Morgana was like the most accurate psychiatrist, mercilessly dissecting the arcane emperor's mental state. "The empire's planetary defense system, which cost countless resources to build and is said to be indestructible, was so easily torn apart from the inside by James and Wentworth. This sense of loss of control completely triggered your 'persecution paranoia.' Your subconscious is frantically sounding the alarm, fearing that a similar fatal crisis will happen again."
"It is this deep-rooted fear that drives you to do whatever it takes to repair every potential loophole. Even if the cost is sacrificing your most cherished personal relationship, you will not hesitate." Morgana's analysis is precise and hits the point.
Ian was silent. Time passed slowly in the dead silence of the hall. After a long time, he slowly opened his eyes, and a hint of helplessness flashed in his deep pupils. "You... are probably right."
"My algorithm has always been accurate." Morgana blinked mischievously, trying to dispel the heavy haze in the hall in this way. She knew very well that Ian was at an extremely fragile psychological node at this time. After experiencing the "Illusory Realm Tempering" that faced Empire's destruction, his nerves were already tense to the extreme.
The unexpected incident in which the defense network was broken down in reality gave him a terrifying illusion in his subconscious that "the tragedy in the fantasy is about to become a reality." This sense of dislocation made his paranoia reach an unprecedented peak.
"Okay, you smart-aleck slippery man, I'm glad to have you by my side to keep me from turning into a hopeless lunatic." Ian turned over Byakugan, forcibly expelling those weak emotions from his mind, "Let's stop the small talk, let's get down to business. Have all the invitations to the meeting been sent out?"
"It has been broadcast to the entire network. Everyone is on standby in the designated encrypted channel." Morgana immediately returned to his most intelligent and capable voice.
"Who dares to be absent?" Ian's voice became cold and majestic again.
"No. However, there are a very few tower owners who are in the final stages of some key experiments and cannot escape in person, so they have sent plenipotentiary representatives to the meeting."
"It doesn't matter, as long as someone takes the call." Ian nodded and waved his hand, "Switch to the main channel and the meeting will begin."
In an instant, thousands of holographic projection screens emitting blue light lit up like stars in succession around Ian's throne. Behind each screen, represented a high-level Arcanist who was calling the shots in the Empire Wizarding World.
Among them are white-haired human wise men, alien elves with beautiful faces, orc shamans wearing heavy armor, and even some old monsters who maintain the appearance of children because they have practiced some forbidden arcana.
But they all have one thing in common - they are all the best in this cruel cosmic competition. The lowest strength is Fourth Tier, and the highest strength even reaches the threshold of Seventh Tier! More importantly, each of them has his own private half-plane.
As the figure of Ian appeared on everyone's home screen, this group of usually unruly magic masters lowered their noble heads and saluted with their chests in unison, paying the highest respect to the supreme emperor who created the glory of the Empire.
However, when they raised their heads, they were keenly aware of the strangeness of the atmosphere. Ian was sitting on the throne and did not give even the slightest response to their tribute. His sculpture-like cold face was covered with a layer of creepy frost. An uncontrollable chill rose in everyone's heart - something big had happened.
"Less than thirty minutes ago," Ian's voice sounded like Bleach's announcement echoed in thousands of demi-planes at the same time, "Empire's high-level Arcanist, James Si·Carter and Edward·Wentworth III blatantly betrayed their oaths and sold their dirty souls to our mortal enemy Guznader."
The whole place was in an uproar. But Ian's next words made everyone's blood freeze instantly.
"During this rebellion, Wentworth almost successfully detonated a destructive forbidden spell that was increased to the Eighth Tier level by sacrifice. If I hadn't intervened in time, at this moment, the entire Solar System, including the earth, would have been turned into cosmic dust."
The faces of all high-level Arcanist turned pale in an instant. Waves of fear gnawed at their hearts like poisonous snakes. Among the more than 3,000 people present, if they really faced the kind of terrifying blow that destroyed the galaxy in an instant, there would be absolutely only a handful of people who could survive. This was a real, passing disaster!
"Your Majesty... Is this, is this the real reason why Earth Prime experienced an unexplained time stagnation not long ago?" An experienced Arcanist asked cautiously with a trembling voice.
"That's right." Ian replied coldly in the affirmative.
The entire communication network fell into a deathly silence. Countless pairs of eyes exchanged glances rapidly behind the holographic screen. No one who could reach this point on the path of magic is a fool.
After experiencing a brief panic, their brains immediately keenly sensed the true political intentions behind this unexpected meeting. Many people had begun to secretly complain in their hearts.
"At the beginning, the reason why I defied all opinions and publicly delegated the use rights of my private demiplane to you was to provide you with the most absolute privacy and freedom to explore the boundaries of Truth." Ian's His voice rose a bit, with an irrefutable sense of oppression, "I have given you the power to dominate your own micro-nations, and even tacitly allowed you to form a huge Golem Legion. I gave you everything you want!"
"But what's the result? This is what you give me in return?!"
Ian's question hit everyone's soul like a heavy hammer. In fact, back then, there was an extremely heated debate among the Empire's top leaders about whether private individuals should be allowed to control the demiplane. Countless conservatives strongly opposed this "laissez-faire" policy, believing that it would breed countless lawless places.
But Ian forced the implementation of this bill as a dictator. Because his vision has already seen through the long river of time - one day in the future, when the fleet of the Arcane Empire sails towards the deep Multiverse When, these Arcanist must learn how to survive, conquer, and explore as an independent "walking civilization". Therefore, he must delegate power in advance and let them practice the future in the demiplane.
"But in view of this painful lesson, from this moment on, Empire will comprehensively tighten the supervision standards for all private demi-planes, and significantly increase the qualification threshold for holders!" Ian finally saw the light of day and threw out his cruel sanctions.
"We will use the highest authority space array to forcibly erect a 'Dimensional Barrier' constructed of pure laws between all private demiplanes and the main territory of the Empire. Any space jump and teleportation without the authorization of the high command will be considered an act of treason!"
"So, you'd better be mentally prepared in advance. From now on, it will be very difficult for you to step into the territory of the Empire from your comfortable comfort zone!"
Thousands of arcanists clenched their fists behind the screen and uttered the most vicious curses in their hearts. Although Lin An used high-sounding official rhetoric such as "comprehensive tightening of supervision" to package his intentions, how could these people not hear the subtext?
This is simply a unilateral deprivation of power! This means that from today on, Imperial Intelligence Agency's group of vicious dog-like agents will receive the highest authorization, openly infiltrate into their demiplane, and put all their secrets and all experimental data under round-the-clock surveillance!
After all, if they want to continue experiments and maintain Golem Legion, they must continuously obtain resources from the Empire. And in the process of material transportation, Intelligence Bureau has thousands of ways to complete the infiltration without anyone noticing.
Even some Arcanist who are withdrawn and extremely exclusive, who don't even use living assistants and only rely on alchemy Golem to operate, feel a numbing despair at this moment. Facing Imperial Family's bottomless heritage and Ian's Near-Omniscience's technology are overwhelming. Who can guarantee that those seemingly loyal people have not been secretly implanted with surveillance codes?
What's even more terrible is that the shackles named "Dimensional Barrier" not only locked their throats, but also cut off their lifeblood. For high-level Arcanist, working behind closed doors is a taboo in magic research.
The collision of inspiration, the exchange of knowledge, and even the academic exchanges between different factions are the cornerstone for them to continuously climb the peak of truth. This barrier will greatly increase the cost of their journey to the earth, and abruptly cut off the intricate network of connections and resources established between them and other peers.
If it had been any other period in the past, faced with such a powerful decree that was almost exploitative, this group of arrogant and arrogant magistrates would have exploded in an instant. They would have joined forces in a frantic manner and used their huge social influence and public opinion tools to force the imperial power to bow its head and make concessions.
But today, they dare not. These cunning mages know better than anyone else that the rebellion of James and Wentworth gave the emperor the most perfect and impeccable excuse!
At this sensitive moment when the entire galaxy is almost wiped out, anyone who dares to say "no" to this "Security Act" project, or even expresses dissatisfaction even slightly, will be immediately Ian accused of "suspected of sympathizing with the traitor" or "harboring evil intentions" and dragged to the guillotine without hesitation, becoming the emperor's perfect Sacrifice to scare the monkeys!
This is Ian's conspiracy, cruel, precise, and impeccable.
"I have finished all the instructions I want to convey." Looking at the unwilling but helpless eyes on the holographic screen, Ian coldly announced the final Judgment, "Today's meeting is over, you can leave."
Without giving anyone a chance to ask questions, defend or even plead, Ian waved his hand gently, and the thousands of blue holographic screens in the hall were all extinguished in an instant.
The hall once again fell into darkness and silence. Only the lonely Arcane Emperor was left, sitting on the throne, looking down indifferently at his Empire, who was completely controlled by an iron fist.