The specific content of the closed-door meeting held by Ian and those high-level Arcanists who have private demiplanes has not been disclosed to the ordinary people of the Empire.
However, in this world, there is no airtight wall. The minutes of this meeting, full of chills and warnings, seemed to have grown wings, spreading crazily in the circle of high-level spellcasters in the Empire at an extremely terrifying speed - especially those Mage Tower masters who live in "Academy City".
In the Arcane Empire, being able to own a Mage Tower of your own in Academy City is the highest honor that every spellcaster pursues throughout his life. It is not only a building, but also an absolute symbol of strength, power and outstanding achievements in Truth exploration.
Once they obtain Mage Tower, the vast majority of scholars will choose to live here permanently and devote themselves to studying profound topics that can change the pattern of the universe. For them, it is a piece of cake to open up one or even multiple demi-planes inside Mage Tower to assist experiments.
However, there is also an extremely far-reaching political metaphor hidden behind the existence of Mage Tower. Concentrating all the top and most unruly magic brains in the entire Empire in the same city, from the perspective of the ruler, this is undoubtedly the most convenient and excellent means of centralized surveillance and substantive control.
Naturally, many Arcanists who advocate absolute freedom are extremely disgusted with this implicit "captivity".
Therefore, many tower owners would rather let Mage Tower in Academy City sit empty and gather dust, or move their core laboratories to other hidden corners of the earth, or even build them directly on the barren star belt on the edge of the Empire's territory.
Empire officials have always shown a high degree of tolerance towards these "lone wolves". After all, as long as they do not touch Empire's legal red line, the rulers are also willing to give some privileges to these geniuses who do not want to be bound by red tape.
However, among this group of tower owners, there is an extremely special group - those controllers who are keen on operating "private demiplanes". What these people pursue is no longer pure academic privacy, but absolute control over an independent territory and the power of life and death.
They are eager to play the role of Creation master in their own little world. This is the root cause of the proliferation of demiplanes.
In the top-secret files of Imperial Intelligence Agency, these tower owners are divided into three different levels of monitoring lists based on their choices.
The lowest level is those tower masters who stay at Academy City honestly. These people are usually loyal fans of the Empire, or at least, they are the defenders of absolute order and will never abuse their god-like power to do evil.
The second level is those social experts who live within the regular territory of the Empire but have intricate networks of contacts in academia and politics.
The list of people with the highest risk level, without exception, are all extreme individualists who own private demiplanes, are ambitious and extremely conceited.
When the news of James and Wentworth's rebellion spread completely with the promulgation of "Private Demiplane Comprehensive Lockdown Act", the third-level tower owners on the list instantly exploded.
Many people packed their luggage overnight and moved back to Mage Tower in Academy City in despair; some even some old foxes, in order to show their loyalty, directly and proactively handed over control of their private demiplane to Ministry of Internal Affairs.
None of these guys who can cross the high-level threshold are fuel-efficient. They are extremely keen to smell the change in the direction of the wind - His Majesty the Emperor's tolerance for them has dropped below freezing point.
As the smartest brains of the Empire, they know very well that their "high value" in the context of rebellion may be transformed into a "high threat" in the eyes of the Empire's top brass at any time. Once Arcane Emperor, who is known for his ruthless rationality, believes that they are doing more harm than good, a secret purge will surely come.
Empire's frightening "Ghost Squad" is not a decoration. If those madmen walking in the shadows receive an assassination order, only a handful of the tower owners here will survive.
Of course, a few days ago, some people might have scoffed at such pessimistic predictions. But things are different now. The entire top management of the Empire already knows a terrifying truth - the emperor has the power to completely freeze the time of the entire planet in an instant!
Although these tower owners privately speculated that if they wanted to activate the kind of strategic time-stopping magic that could affect the movement of celestial bodies, they would have to pay an unimaginable and terrifying price. But the problem was that if the emperor was really determined to obliterate them, no matter how high the price was, the ruthless Overlord would never even blink an eye.
Therefore, in order to save their own lives, they could only use the most humble gesture to send a signal of surrender and obedience to the imperial power.
After finishing the secret conversation with Luna and Morgana, Ian did not rest immediately. He sat alone on the empty throne and spent several hours, through the "Skynet" terminal, coldly examining Empire's reactions to the recent events of the people of the major sectors and the extraordinary beings.
In this brutal war that swept Milky Way, the word "traitor" has been given an extremely sensitive political color.
When the public learned that the top Arcanist, who was as high as Seventh Tier, had betrayed Empire and became a terrorist trying to destroy the galaxy, the entire interstellar network was in a huge shock.
What's Luck is that under Amelia's efficient control, although public opinion was boiling, it did not evolve into a substantial panic, and all social order remained as stable as a rock.
After confirming that the rear area was safe, Ian rubbed his sore eyebrows and differentiated a high-level clone that possessed part of the computing power of his original self. He sent this clone to Void, specifically responsible for building the "Dimensional Barrier" that was used to isolate all private demiplanes.
After doing all this, Empire Overlord, who seems to never tire of it, finally decided to take a short vacation for himself.
He returned to the palace and sank his exhausted body into the warm water mixed with pure Liquid Mana and top-grade soothing potion, washing away the smoke and calculations all over his body. Then, he lay on the soft bed and fell into a deep sleep.
If you don't count the wonderful time spent with several wives, this is Ian's first true, unprepared and pure sleep in thousands of years.
A few hours later, a refreshed Ian appeared on time at the royal hunting ground of the Empire. This was the meeting place he had arranged for the aborigines of the <Black Clover> universe.
When Ian stepped into this vast camp where Expansion Charm had been imposed, everyone was already here. The leaders of various Magic Knights groups, the passionate Asta, the cold Yuno, the Lolopechka queen of the Heart Kingdom, the envoys from the Eastern Continent, "Land of the Sun", and many powerful people who had once dominated the universe were sitting around a huge bonfire.
As soon as Ian appeared, everyone who was still drinking, eating meat, and laughing and cursing loudly froze in their movements.
Ian's keen perception immediately noticed an extremely strange and even depressing atmosphere permeating the camp.
"Master Magic Emperor... No, I mean, your great Majesty Arcane Emperor!" A deputy captain who was the first to see Ian stood up in a hurry. He was even a little incoherent due to excessive nervousness.
Hearing this exclamation, everyone finally woke up from a dream, stood up straight, and performed an extremely standard and solemn military salute to the Presence, who had saved them from the edge of destruction and brought them to this vast interstellar civilization.
However, in this uniform movement, there is a sense of comic disharmony. Because when it comes to the title, some people still habitually shout "Magic Emperor", while other people who have received Empire assimilation education shout "Arcane Emperor". Some people even shouted halfway and found that they were different from others, so they abruptly changed the word.
Seeing how restrained these comrades who had fought side by side on the battlefield were, Ian's lips curved into a gentle smile, "Everyone, relax and sit down."
He did not put on any imperial airs, walked straight to the bonfire, randomly picked a log lying horizontally and sat down.
As he sat down, he naturally became the absolute focus of the audience. But Ian had long been accustomed to this kind of attention and did not feel uncomfortable at all.
At this moment, his adopted daughter - the ever-greedy sheep elf Charmy - came over excitedly. She unceremoniously stuffed a large piece of sizzling and greasy Warcraft barbecue into Ian's hand, and then brought a large bowl of steaming pasta and fried rice.
"Thank you, little Charmy." Ian rubbed her furry head and began to eat deliciously without any concern for the image. Under the complicated eyes of everyone, Ian swept away all the food like a whirlwind. It was not until he swallowed the last dessert handed over by Charmy that he wiped his mouth with satisfaction.
He raised his head and glanced at this group of powerful magic knights. "Why have you guys become so boring?"
Faced with this ridicule, the entire audience was silent. In this world where technology and magic are at the height of Fusion and where the horror of the Empire destroys galaxies at every turn, this group of former indigenous strongmen felt a deep sense of humiliation. No one knew how to respond to this sentence.
Except for one person.
"Can you blame them?" Yami held the cigarette that he seemed to never finish smoking, still maintaining his careless, unshaven and rugged look, "If you were suddenly thrown into a world where even a sweeping robot could release a forbidden curse, you would have to shut yourself up."
As he spoke, he blew out a smoke ring very naturally, completely ignoring his sister who was desperately kicking his calf, hinting that he should show some respect to the emperor.
"I'm quite pleased to see that your moral character has not changed at all." Ian laughed dumbly.
"It's hard to say. Maybe one day I will be assimilated by your bureaucracy." Yami curled his lips noncommittally.
Ian nodded, put away the smile on his face, and his eyes became deep. "I know that since you came to the Arcane Empire, you have been holding back a lot of questions. Tonight, I will give you all the answers at once."
The crowd remained silent. After a few seconds of suffocating and awkward silence, everyone's eyes turned to Yami, hoping that this guy who spoke freely could serve as a substitute.
However, Yami just shrugged indifferently, with a "Don't look at me, I'm only responsible for complaining" look.
"In that case, let me speak on behalf of everyone."
With a calm and majestic voice, the Lion King of Red Lotus - Fuegoleon strode to the front of the crowd.
"Your Majesty, with all due respect, I think most of us here are currently in a state of deep confusion. What is the 'meaning of our existence' in this huge Empire?"
Fuegoleon looked directly into Ian's eyes, with a sadness that belonged to a soldier in his tone. "If it is to protect safety... With all due respect, based on our observations during this period, Empire's Auror Department team, Earth Interstellar Defense Force The combat power of E and the Imperial Starfleet that covers the sky and the sun is so powerful that it is outrageous. Not only can they protect this planet, they are even enough to crush any enemy outside the territory of the Empire. Our combat power seems to be of no use here."
As magic knights who once swore to protect the kingdom with their lives, when they discovered that the force they were proud of was nothing but a joke in front of a Interstellar Planet-Buster Cannon, the frustration of the collapse of their faith was indescribable.
"So, is it to allow us to participate in scientific research?" Fuegoleon continued with a wry smile, "However, the vast majority of us are pure combatants, our brains are all about muscles, and we know nothing about those profound arcane theories. Our poor magic system can make minimal contributions to the Empire's vast technology tree."
"So, what can we do in this country?"
Ian Looking at the magic knights nodding silently around him, he could truly feel the loss and confusion in the hearts of these warriors.
He was silent for a moment, quickly organizing words in his mind, and then, the majestic and majestic voice slowly sounded under the night sky:
"There are many reasons why I have tried so hard to bring all of you back to the Empire. Most of you are combat geniuses that are rare to see in your respective fields for a century. As long as you are fully integrated into the Empire's training system and accept the infusion of the Empire's massive resources, you definitely have the potential to grow into the top Arcanist in this universe."
Ian narrowed his eyes slightly, with Blink's eyes filled with ambition to swallow up the stars. "Arcane Empire's destiny is to conquer and rule this boundless universe. Our tentacles will extend to every corner of the star sea. A corner! And those superior beings - the 'gods' you call them - will never sit back and watch us encroach on their power. Therefore, in order to meet the Twilight of the Gods that is destined to come, I need to accumulate as much top-level combat power as possible."
"But this is just a macro-level layout. To be more precise, I brought you back because there are two extremely special core strategies. Looking at the entire Empire, only your team can be perfectly qualified!"
As soon as these words came out, the eyes of all the magic knights lit up instantly, and their originally distracted eyes refocused.
"The first task, I named it 'Plane Expeditionary Legion'." Ian announced in a deep voice, "Empire was recently explored by Void, confirming the existence of other dimensional planes. To facilitate your understanding, you can imagine those planes as the legendary 'Underworld' or 'Bliss Pure Land' in your world."
"I need to form an absolutely elite secret army to sneak into these unknown planes. You cannot carry any of the Empire's iconic weapons of mass destruction. You can only disguise yourself as indigenous people, start from the bottom, climb up step by step, and eventually disintegrate and control the entire plane from the inside!"
Ian's gaze swept across the crowd. "This kind of near-death infiltration mission requires members to have extremely high combat talents, an adventurous spirit that is not afraid of death, and a strong survivability ability to adapt to changes in Extremis. And your strange and highly personal magic attributes are simply tailor-made for this kind of expedition!"
Speaking of this, Ian suddenly paused, took the glass of juice handed by Charmy to moisten her throat, and pinched her chubby cheeks.
"As for the ultimate purpose of bringing you back..." Ian put down the cup and his tone became more solemn than ever before, "It is to bring 'balance' to this huge Empire."
"Balance? Forgive me for being stupid, I don't think with the Empire's current level of prosperity, anything is out of balance." Fuegoleon frowned.
"You only saw the superficial strength of force, but you didn't see the undercurrents under the Empire's power structure." Ian sighed, calmly uncovering the scars behind the Empire's prosperity.
"In the Arcane Empire, extraordinary people are strictly divided into 'scholar type Arcanist' and 'combat type Arcanist'. Because I personally have an almost paranoid fanatical pursuit of Truth and knowledge, which leads to As a result, the resources and policies of the entire Empire are tilted towards the research field. This has created an extremely abnormal situation-scholar mages have a very high social status, master the core technology, and their comprehensive strength even completely crushes pure combatants."
"On the other hand," Ian's eyes flashed with sadness, "Those combat-type Arcanists who fight with real swords and guns on the border and in other dimensions are the most dangerous and most dangerous Empires in the world. They work hard, shed the most blood, but earn the meager salary, and are at the absolute bottom in terms of political and economic status. Unfortunately, this imbalance in tactics and status has evolved to an extremely dangerous point that may even lead to class divisions."
Ian stood up suddenly and stared at the purest group of warriors in front of him with burning eyes:
"And this is the stage where you are about to appear. I will use you, a group of natural fighting maniacs, to achieve brilliant achievements that will go down in history in the coming years! I will use your illustrious military exploits to elevate the status of the combat type Arcanist, and completely reshape the balance of power of the Arcane Empire!"