Floating city, a brief discussion

The direction in which Ringwraith City should develop has always been Li Lin's biggest concern. In its current state, Ringwraith City is completely incapable of fulfilling the functions of a city. In fact, when faced with the proposal from the ruling mage of the City of a Thousand Towers, Li Lin did hesitate for a moment. After all, a bustling city was also his aspiration, but ultimately Li Lin abandoned the idea. Putting aside everything else, food was the biggest problem. Although the apparent permanent "population" of Ringwraith City now exceeds ten thousand, the actual number of people needing to eat, including Li Lin, is only about a thousand. The elves are fine with fruit, and Kalin's "Garden of Verdure" only needs... As long as its core continues to operate, there will be enough fruit in the forest for the elves to eat. As for the remaining few hundred students, Li Lin, and the Dark Elf, purchasing some food reserves from the City of a Thousand Towers will suffice. Of course, Li Lin had already considered this and devised a plan. In the inner ring of the Garden of Verdure, some mages had begun cultivating land and planting crops according to Li Lin's instructions. In fact, as long as it's not about feeding an army, food reserves are relatively easy to maintain. If it weren't for Angela's "zombie army," Li Lin would probably have had to put in a lot more effort in this regard.

This is one of the reasons why Li Lin refused to relocate to the City of a Thousand Towers. After all, he doesn't have enough food reserves to feed the ordinary people. If mages can reduce their consumption through meditation and potions, what about the ordinary people? Are you going to teach them how to "calm their minds and feel cool"?

While Li Lin was discussing the teaching of magic with the City of a Thousand Towers, an idea suddenly came to him.

That is to build an academy city.

This wasn't difficult for Li Lin, because the Magic Empire had encountered various difficulties at its inception, and at that time, he had used the Ringwraith City to train mages. Of course, after the Magic Imperial Academy was built, he returned everyone. But this still provided some experience. In addition, after transmigrating to Earth, Li Lin had also consulted some information on Earth's architectural planning. It was clear that the concept of building an education-centered city already existed on Earth. For example, the city where Li Lin had lived had planned to build a university town. However, the development failed due to insufficient funding. But it must be admitted that Li Lin had never thought of such a novel idea when he was in the Magic Empire. Although Arcane Mage at that time also focused on the inheritance of arcane art, in their minds, an academy was just an academy. No matter how large or how complete its functions were, it was ultimately only for serving magical education. They hadn't shifted their focus to building a comprehensive academy city system.

Of course, the so-called university towns on Earth aren't actually huge cities. They usually combine large colleges with surrounding communities, calling them one large community. However, now that such a good opportunity has presented itself, Li Lin certainly doesn't intend to just build a community. Besides, he had read many online novels from Angela, many of which mentioned magic academies. Although most of these descriptions lacked realism and were somewhat fantastical, there were still many points worth considering.

"First, we need to proceed step by step. We need to secure all the people we can currently control. Expansion can be done slowly. Once we turn all these potential individuals into mages, our foundation will be solid enough."

Walking along the cobblestone path, Li Lin and Nia discussed in hushed tones. He recounted his observations and experiences on Earth and explored their feasibility. Since the central city was Li Lin and Nia 'Nia territory, it, like Kalin's "Garden of Verdure," fully reflected the characteristics of its owner. Everywhere were towering libraries and archives, as well as academic buildings left over from the past used for research. After being improved by the mages, it had become a place for temporary apprentices to attend classes. These apprentices were mostly recommended by the City of a Thousand Towers —loyal, promising, and harboring hatred for the Five-Nation Alliance. If everything progressed smoothly, they could become qualified mages within six months at most.

Thinking of this, Li Lin couldn't help but recall the surprised expressions on the faces of the three old mages when he promised to train these apprentices into qualified mages within a few months. No wonder, he had heard that the current teaching of mages was extremely backward, and it sometimes took more than ten years to train an apprentice into a qualified mage... Judging from the expressions of those three old mages, if they weren't so old, they might even want to apply to come back and receive re-education.

"Training a mage takes ten years? Are you kidding me?"

At this point, Li Lin couldn't help but complain.

"There are already few people with magical sensitivity and talent. If it takes ten years to train one mage, wouldn't we have perished long ago? Would it be the Five-Nation Alliance's turn to attack us?"

"Based on the information and intelligence gathered by the Mages' Association, achieving this is already quite impressive."

Nia, however, was not as agitated as Li Lin. Having traveled the continent for a thousand years, she had long seen through all of this, so instead of complaining like Li Lin, she comforted him.

"Moreover, I think these mages are working even harder now. After all, the knowledge they have acquired is only a fraction of what we possess, yet they have reached such a level, which is already quite remarkable."

"If we disregard their almost nonexistent sense of self-respect, I would agree with your assessment."

Li Lin shook his head. Although he understood that it was inevitable that the Mages' Association would be controlled by the Five-Nation Alliance under the current circumstances, it did not mean that he could accept the fact that these greedy mages, who relied on the remnants of the Magic Empire for survival, were working for the Five-Nation Alliance.

Now that I have shown them a new path, it is up to those monks themselves to decide what to do next.

"Ah, Master, Master...!"

Just as Li Lin and Nia were exchanging opinions, a voice suddenly came from not far away. Turning around, they saw a pair of blonde ponytails swaying in the sunlight. Yi Aier ran up to the two of them, panting, and bowed to them.

"Sister Nia, you're here too! I've been looking for you everywhere... This place is still so big, it's exhausting!"

"What's up?"

"Ah, yes, Master."

As she spoke, Yi Aier took another deep breath, barely managing to regain her composure, and said with a serious expression.

"Just now, Sister Suoxiate received a report from the Dark Elf that the Five-Nation Alliance seems to be..."

"... A meeting is being prepared, right?"

Angela's cold, smug laughter followed, echoing Yi Aier's words. This made Yi Aier frown in displeasure, hands on her hips.

"Miss Angela, could you please refrain from interrupting me while I'm reporting to my master?"

"Anyway, what you're reporting is nothing but boring information. I know far more than you do, so why should I waste my time listening to your nonsense?"

"You...!"

"Alright."

Li Lin decisively nipped this pointless and low-level argument in the bud, and then turned to Angela.

Where is the location?

"Saint Rolante City."

"Saint?!"

Li Lin's attention was immediately drawn to this unusual prefix. And soon, Nia, who was beside him, provided the answer.

"That place is located in the Temple Autonomous Territory within the Vila Federation, and it is also a very important Temple City."

In other words...

The answer is obvious.

"That's right."

Angela chuckled softly and began to speak.

"According to the information I gleaned from that useless Grand Duke's mind, this joint conference was initiated by the Temple. According to the Grand Duke's memories, the summons was issued by the Grand Master of the Temple's directly subordinate Knights Templar. As required by the conference, each nation will send its most important envoy. While I'm not familiar with other places, it's clear that this idiot Grand Duke doesn't intend to attend personally; he's currently indulging in his own daughter's... um." At this point, Angela glanced warily at the sulking Yi Aier standing beside her, and continued only after seeing no reaction from her. "In short, it seems that Grand Duke Lalia intends to send that interesting 'toy' to the conference."

Needless to say, she was referring to the skilled guard she had encountered in Lalia. However, given that the king had actually sent him to such an important meeting, it was clear that he was more than just a guard.

"I never expected the Temple to be so proactive."

Li Lin frowned. It was quite a surprise that they had clashed with the Temple so quickly.

"Li Lin, should we cancel the plan?"

Nia could guess Li Lin's thoughts simply by observing his facial expression.

"No."

Li Lin shook his head.

"We absolutely cannot let such a good opportunity slip by..." As he spoke, he suddenly looked up at Angela.

"Angela, how long has it been since we returned to this world?"

"How long?"

Faced with Li Lin's question, Angela frowned, rolled her eyes, and tried to recall carefully before giving an answer that was not entirely certain.

"About two or three months?"

"Then, judging by the timeline, your coffin should be ready by now."

This inexplicable remark left everyone except Angela completely baffled. Only Angela excitedly rushed over and hugged Li Lin's arm.

"Finally done?"

"Although your requirements are demanding, I believe it should be almost finished... So, it's time for us to get started."

As he spoke, Li Lin looked at Yi Aier.

"Go back and tell Kalin and Suoxiate to prepare to leave. This time, we'll give them a very memorable gift."