The night was dark, and the jumping bonfire made a "crackling" sound in the center of the camp, illuminating the surrounding faces of the powerful men who once dominated the <Black Clover> universe in uncertain colors.
"So, how do you expect us to accomplish such a feat that sounds like a fantasy?" Ye Jian took a deep breath from the cigarette in his mouth and blew out a thick smoke ring. His eyes, which were always lazy and dead, were shining with an extremely sharp light at this moment.
Want to rely on their group of "foreigners" to forcibly elevate the status of the entire Arcane Empire as a "combat-type Arcanist" against those "scholar-type Arcanist" who have mastered core technologies, are incredibly wealthy, and have terrifying combat power? This is simply crazier than asking them to challenge Demon Gods alone.
"In fact, you already have in your hands an 'ultimate equalizer' that can smooth the class gap." An unfathomable smile appeared at the corner of Ian's mouth. He slowly raised his right hand, and as the light flickered from his palm, a thick codex that exuded ancient, mysterious and endless laws suddenly appeared - it was the one that Empire listed as top secret [Origin Grimoire].
Ian's gaze swept across the crowd, and his voice sounded particularly low and majestic under the silent night sky, "In the Empire's past power structure, only those 'scholars' with extremely high IQs had the qualifications and ability to deeply analyze the rules and create new spell models. As creators of spells, they are not only talented Although they have the highest authority to interpret the spells, they can also apply for patents and use these spells to continuously exchange for massive wealth, resources and Arcane Merit in the Empire's knowledge base. Under that conventional system, it is almost an impossible task for a pure battle mage to surpass them in terms of comprehensive knowledge."
He paused, watching everyone's expressions gradually becoming solemn, and continued to analyze the cruel jungle law of the Empire: "Battle mages don't have the luxury of making money just by sitting in a laboratory. They work hard and struggle on the edge of life and death. At most, they rely on Combat Instinct to 'improve' existing spell models. Although this can also earn a small amount of Arcane Points and gold coins, every time they cast a spell, they still have to pay high 'copyright fees' to the scholars who created the spell. This is a kind of exploitation that is locked in from the underlying logic."
"But now, times have changed." Ian suddenly tightened his grip on the Origin Grimoire in his hand, and his domineering aura made the surrounding bonfires suddenly dim. "As long as this Origin Grimoire is in my hands, the spellcasting logic of the battle mage will be completely rewritten! From now on, you no longer need to study those mind-numbingly complex mathematical models. and magic circuits. As long as your 'willpower' is strong enough, and as long as your 'desire' is strong enough, you can use your affinity for a certain type of magic to 'create' your own killing spell directly out of thin air! Even if you don't understand the microphysical principles behind this spell at all, you can still materialize the spell like those scholars and use it as a killing weapon!"
"And this is just the most insignificant of the countless dividends that this taboo Divine Artifact can bring."
Listening to Ian's description, Nozel's always cold and arrogant face couldn't help but feel a flash of shock, but he quickly calmed down and pointed out the core of the problem keenly. "This new Grimoire system is indeed very strong, but this is different from What direct relationship do we have? What role do we play in this revolution sweeping Empire?" He did not think that this unfathomable Arcane Emperor went to great lengths to bring them here just to educate them about the new magic system.
"It's very simple. I want to make you the 'spiritual totem' and 'guiding light' of the Empire combat type Arcanist." Ian's eyes became extremely sharp, as if to pierce the souls of everyone present, "I want you to be here Under the spotlight, go and defeat Empire's most prestigious and powerful top scholars! Especially those die-hard conservatives who talk about 'scholars first' all day long! I want you to use absolute violence to declare to the entire universe: Battle mages are never inferior to anyone else!"
"While you are standing in the spotlight and killing everyone, I will be operating secretly, using the changes in politics and laws to quietly weaken the privileges of the scholar class and completely push the social status of the battle mage to Divine Altar!"
After Ian finished speaking, the entire camp fell into a dead silence that lasted for tens of seconds. Only the rustling of the leaves in the night wind echoed in everyone's ears.
Immediately afterwards, a burst of extremely wild, even bloodthirsty laughter suddenly tore the silence apart.
"Hahahaha! It sounds extremely interesting!" Mereoleona Oona stood up abruptly. Her red hair dancing like flames was extremely dazzling in the night, and violent magic was boiling around her. "Isn't it just to fight? Isn't it just to tear those self-righteous nerds apart? This is what we Beast are best at!"
Looking at this female war goddess who seemed to be tireless, Ian nodded noncommittally, but then he mercilessly poured down a basin of biting cold water. "I'm glad that you can maintain such fearless self-confidence. However, if you treat this as a light-hearted game of abuse, you will definitely die in a very ugly way."
Ian's voice was as cold as Siberia's cold wind. "In this Empire, knowledge is absolute physical power. The reason why scholars are stronger than battle mages is because they understand the essence of magic and The understanding of the legal structure and even the underlying logic of the universe has reached a microscopic dimension that can be called terrifying. While you are still thinking about how to make the fireball explode even bigger, they are already calculating how to make the fireball explode directly in your hearts by modifying the spatial coordinates."
"What's even more fatal is, don't be fooled by the word 'scholars'. Don't naively think that they are a group of weak scholars who only know how to hide in ivory towers and laboratories, wear thick glasses, and have no practical experience."
Ian's eyes showed a trace of absolute pride for the Empire's technology tree. "Empire has the top-notch 'Virtual Reality (Virtual Reality)" Reality)' technology. Those scholars can experience thousands of brutal battles on the virtual interstellar battlefield. In order to pursue the most realistic tempering of life and death, most of them will even take the initiative to seal themselves before entering the virtual cabin. Memories about 'this is a virtual world'! They were torn to pieces by alien beasts, vaporized by forbidden spells, and tortured by Abyssal Demons. In countless reincarnations of life and death, they honed their most Coldblood and most perfect fighting instincts!"
"Because of this kind of actual combat simulation that is almost masochistic, the trump card that your battle mages are most proud of - the 'willpower' and 'sense of killing' honed in life and death - will not be able to get the slightest advantage in front of these top scholars, and may even be crushed in the opposite direction."
As soon as these words came out, the faces of the heads of the Knights who were still eager to try suddenly darkened and their brows furrowed. They thought that relying on their experience accumulated in countless actual combats to deal with a group of nerds engaged in scientific research would be an easy-to-handle dimensionality reduction blow.
Only now did they realize with horror that under the emperor's iron-fisted rule, Arcane Empire had already cultivated the profession of "scholar" into an all-round War Machine without any shortcomings! This is a true Hell-level main mission!
"Why do I suddenly have a feeling... these so-called scholars are simply monsters tailor-made by you to build an invincible army?" Yami took a deep puff of cigarette, with a strong sense of powerlessness in his tone.
"Your intuition is very keen, because this is indeed my handiwork." Ian admitted without hesitation.
"I knew it." Yami turned over Byakugan and let out a desperate sigh.
Ian showed a calculating smile. In the early days of the Empire's establishment, in order to ensure that the technology tree of the entire civilization and Magical Theory could show explosive growth, he deliberately elevated the status of scholars, and Use national power to fill their shortcomings in actual combat and ensure that this core class has crushing self-protection capabilities when facing any foreign enemies. But he never expected that his original precautions would now become the biggest cancer that hinders the balance of the Empire class.
"Your Majesty, do you have specific combat plans for this operation to break the situation?" Fuegoleon asked calmly. As a natural commander, he has already begun to think about tactics to break the situation.
"Of course, you will receive the highest level of resource allocation and logistical support from the Empire. However, there are ugly words ahead." Ian looked around and said, "Once the plan is launched, you will be pushed onto Divine Altar and become superstars stared at by tens of billions of eyes across the Empire. If any of you hate the spotlight, or just want to live a quiet ordinary life, it is still too late to quit now."
"This is related to the future of all of us. We will conduct an internal vote and give you a final answer." Fuegoleon nodded solemnly.
"Very good. Does anyone else have any questions?" Ian asked.
"Me! Me me me! I have a huge question!"
At this serious moment, a voice full of energy and loud enough to shatter the eardrums suddenly sounded. Ian looked along the voice and saw the short boy with muscles as strong as a rock raising his arms in excitement.
Looking at Asta's silly look that has not been smoothed out even after traveling through the universe, Ian laughed secretly in his heart.
"Ask, Asta."
"If we do a good job in this mission, is there any super reward? For example... let me become an emperor or something?!" Asta's eyes lit up and he shouted out those treasonous words.
The surrounding group leaders instantly took a breath of cold air, and Yami almost couldn't hold back and kicked him out.
However, Ian was not angry, but looked at him extremely seriously. "The centenary celebration of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Arcane Empire will be held in 23 years. On that day, as long as you can defeat me in a duel with dignity, you can legitimately take over the crown from my hands and become the next 'Arcane Emperor'."
"Really or not?!" Asta's jaw almost dropped to the ground.
"In the Empire, the <Challenge Act> is absolutely Truth written into the Supreme Constitution." Ian smiled slightly, with a hint of pride in the majesty of the emperor.
Asta's eyes instantly turned into two Winky glowing stars, and he felt that the blood in his whole body was boiling. His once dream was to become the Magic Emperor, but now, in this vast sea of stars, he has found a more grand and unreachable ultimate goal - to become Arcane Emperor who rules the starry sky!
With the conclusion of this crazy bet, the originally depressing atmosphere in the camp was swept away and became relaxed and warm. Ian did not stay too long. After briefly asking about the status of the alien territories that were forcibly spliced into the Pangu Continent, as well as the social integration of Elves and Dwarves, he left early. He also had a more important old friend to visit.
Following an extremely hidden space ripple, Ian was quietly teleported into a high-level top-secret laboratory full of a sense of science fiction and magic.
In the center of this room surrounded by countless precision alchemy instruments and holographic projections, a silver-haired woman with an alluring face was staring at the main screen, her eyeballs covered with bloodshot eyes. She was so focused that when Ian suddenly appeared behind her, she was shocked as if she was electrocuted. The magic power in her fingertips instantly became violent, and she almost instinctively threw back a devastating forbidden spell that could level the room.
"Oh... it's you." After seeing the person clearly, Pheobe breathed a long sigh of relief, forcibly dispelled the magic power from his fingertips, and nodded tiredly.
"How did you get yourself into such a ghostly state?" Ian frowned, looking at the once magnificent Veela in front of him. At this moment, Pheobe's eye sockets were sunken, his skin was so pale that there was no trace of blood, and there was a sense of weakness all over his body that he might die suddenly at any time.
"I'm just a little tired." Pheobe waved his hand perfunctorily.
"How long has it been since you slept?"
"Probably... for a while."
Ian's face completely darkened. Since the end of <Black Clover>'s expedition, Pheobe plunged into this laboratory.
What made him even more frightened was that he keenly captured the terrifying fluctuations of "Time Acceleration" in the general environment of this room! Performing high-intensity mental deductions without sleep when the flow of time is forcibly accelerated is simply burning your soul and overdrawing your life!
"Stop the experiment immediately and go to rest!" Ian said in an unquestionable command tone.
"No! Absolutely not! I feel like I have already touched that membrane!" Fleur glared at him like a lioness protecting her prey, with a fanatical and morbid light in her eyes. "As long as I can successfully break through this node, this great research will become an epic civilization miracle comparable to your tenth-level floating city!"
"But if you're not even alive, what's the point of even a miracle coming? Go get some sleep and let your energy Divine Power return to its absolute peak state. Your probability of success will only be higher than the crazy woman you are now."
Faced with Ian's irresistible and powerful aura, Pheobe was ultimately unable to find a reason to refute. She bit her pale lips and reluctantly walked to the "deep sleep chamber" deep in the laboratory.
In the Empire's high-end medical system, for ordinary people, just lying down in the deep sleep cabin for three hours is enough to keep the body running at high intensity for 48 hours without any fatigue. And for high-end Arcanist like Pheobe, who has extremely huge soul power, the recovery effect of this equipment is exponentially increased.
However, this time, Pheobe lay in the sleeping cabin for 24 hours before faintly waking up. From this, we can see how desperate she had pushed herself before.
"Do you feel alive?" Ian, who had been reading materials in the laboratory, looked at Pheobe who walked out of the hatch and asked softly.
"Yes, I feel great, thank you for forcing me." Pheobe walked up to Ian, with a hint of apology and gratitude, and gently kissed him on the cheek.
"That's good. So, can you tell me the answer to the mystery now? What kind of earth-shattering discovery can make a scholar of your level even risk his life?"
Hearing this sensitive topic, Pheobe's azure eyes instantly burst out with a brilliance brighter than the stars. She quickly walked to the main console, her fingers turned into an afterimage on the holographic keyboard, and quickly called up an extremely clear top-secret video.
On the screen, a huge dragon with a body that could cover the sky and exudes terrifying dragon power was curled up and sleeping in a mysterious space - it was the dragon king who once put Empire into a bitter battle, Albion.
"It's been a long time since I've seen this huge lizard that's oversized." Ian looked at the screen and let out a sigh. Back then, in order to prevent Dragonkind from locking himself through the causal line and exposing Arcane Empire At the coordinates of, Ian extremely carefully sealed Albion in a Void "World Gate" located outside this universe.
"Don't underestimate it. Through in-depth dissection and soul tracing of it, I finally found the 'Bloodline Source' of all the Dragonkinds in the world!" Pheobe's tone was slightly trembling with excitement. She suddenly switched the screen and projected another image in mid-air that could make any living being's soul tremble.
In the image, there is an ancient Ancestral Dragon that exudes the aura of endless vicissitudes and terrifying laws.
It lay there quietly, covered with dazzling purple and gold dragon scales. On the top of its head, there was a circle of terrifying bone spurs growing naturally like a crown.
It is not lying on an ordinary mountain range, but is entrenched on a "treasure world" made entirely of endless rare magic ores, Godhead fragments and cosmic treasures!
Although its visually displayed size is not as exaggerated as a planet like Albion, judging from the coercion inadvertently revealed between its purple-gold scales, the surrounding Space Law is painfully collapsing and reorganizing with every breath it takes!
"This Ancestral Dragon is the original origin of all Dragon Bloodline in the world." Pheobe's eyes were fixed on the screen, as if looking at the real god, "It is not only The source of the bloodline is the absolute controller known as 'Bloodline Source Dimension'. That unknown dimension is the absolute forbidden area where all Dragonkinds store their oldest memories, ultimate magical knowledge and racial heritage!"
Ian's pupils shrank suddenly to the size of a needle tip, and he took a breath of cold air. For the first time, extreme fear flashed in his eyes. "This kind of terrifying pressure that can even affect the bottom of Multiverse's bloodline... This Ancestral Dragon The strength of has definitely reached the Eleventh Tier level! Even if it has not completely reached the level, it is definitely a Truth monster that is half a step closer to that threshold than Infinity!"
According to the information Imperial Intelligence Agency previously had, in this Cosmic Faith Plane dominated by belief systems, there is no such supreme being as Eleventh Tier that can distort the underlying cause and effect.
But Ian has always maintained extreme suspicion. He is well aware of the cruelty and depth of the universe. Just imagine, there are so many top-level planes around that are like tigers and wolves, why have they not launched a full-scale invasion here for hundreds of thousands of years?
It is true that the fear of the mysteriously disappeared "Magekind" is the biggest deterrent, but in the dark, there is definitely some "underlying" that can make those top predators feel a fatal threat.
And today, the answer seems to be revealed at the tip of the iceberg. The Eleventh Tier purple gold Ancestral Dragon entrenched in the treasure world in front of you is definitely one of the largest nuclear deterrents in the universe!
"Now that you have located their Bloodline Source, have you tried to sneak in and steal the ultimate inheritance of Dragonkind?" Ian suppressed the shock in his heart and looked at Pheobe with burning eyes.
Pheobe shook his head helplessly, with frustration written all over his face, "It's impossible, I failed. I tried my best, but I just intercepted some worthless marginal memory fragments at the outermost periphery."
"Why? Your soul stealth technology is top-notch among the Empire."
"The defense mechanism of that dimension is too terrifying, completely beyond our cognitive system. Moreover, the moment I tried to go deep, I had an extremely strong sense of fatal crisis - if I dared to take half a step forward, the sleeping Eleventh Tier Ancestral Dragon will definitely lock onto me instantly and completely obliterate my soul along the line of cause and effect." Pheobe recalled with lingering fear the feeling of despair of being stared at by Bleach.
According to Pheobe's rigorous data analysis afterwards, if it weren't for the fact that she was currently in the Void crack outside this universe, taking advantage of the geographical advantage of dimensional isolation, she wouldn't have been able to steal even those pitiful edge fragments, and would have been directly punished by God.
"This is really bad news... Do you have any ideas for cracking it?" Ian frowned.
"Not yet. Perhaps the simplest and crudest way is to go directly to that Ancestral Dragon and use your strength to force it to tell you the inheritance personally." Pheobe laughed bitterly at himself.
"It seems that this is not the real reason why you are so crazy that you are dying." Ian moved his gaze away from the terrifying Ancestral Dragon and fell back on the still sleeping Albion. "With your character, it is impossible for you to be so desperate if you are just a treasure house that you can see but cannot eat."
"You are always so keen." The corner of Pheobe's mouth curved up with an extremely coquettish arc, which was a kind of madness after discovering something shocking. "That's right. Although I did not get the ultimate inheritance of Dragonkind, during the dissection process, I discovered something deep in the genes of this big lizard... a miracle that can truly subvert our understanding."