Cultivating in the Wizard World-Chapter 259 - 230: Search

High above, the biting gale was isolated by an invisible shield.

Jeming and David transformed into two elusive streaks of light, flying towards the next marked area where the suspected target had been active.

During the high-speed flight, David closed his eyes beneath his helmet. His surging spiritual power was like the most precise probe, carefully inspecting the shattered soul forcibly confined within that head.

A moment later, he opened his eyes, his voice sounding somewhat muffled through the armor: "Finished checking."

"This guy is just an unlucky fellow," David concluded. "He’s not some subordinate of the target; he just happened upon that illegal wizard recently and was forcibly infected by an unknown power, turning into this wretched state."

In the fragments of that soul, only memories twisted by endless hunger and pain remained, along with the most primal fear of the figure who turned him into a monster.

Almost at the same time, Jeming also completed his analysis.

He employed the "Deciphering Skill," "Alchemy," and the "All-Purpose Eye" simultaneously to conduct a comprehensive dissection of the twisted flesh.

In front of him, on a screen projected by a terminal, the microscopic structural diagram of the "wizard" body sample analyzed by Jeming was displayed.

"I have my results here as well," Jeming’s voice was calm, "It’s confirmed that the ’negative energy’ used by this guy is essentially a negative transformation of life energy. The reason he turned into such a ghastly figure is due to the continual immersion and erosion by this energy."

Pointing at a continually decaying energy chain on the screen, Jeming continued his speculation: "According to model simulations, the opponent’s body should be continuously depleting its own life energy in daily states, which explains why he turned into such a desiccated wraith. It seems he needs to keep absorbing others’ life energy just to barely maintain his existence."

Jeming then shifted the topic, highlighting a crucial and bizarre point.

"However, according to the energy traces I’ve collected," he pointed at a set of alarming data on the screen, "just now, when that ’wizard’ was casting, most of the life energy he plundered was wasted—or more precisely, the majority of life energy disappeared into thin air during transformation. In the end, only a minuscule portion of energy was successfully transformed."

"Otherwise, based on the total energy traces remaining on this guy, he should have successfully absorbed the entire life energy of at least over a hundred ordinary people. With such a tremendous amount of energy, even if the transformation efficiency were low, the black fireball he released shouldn’t have had such weak power."

After reporting these details, Jeming lowered his head, falling into brief contemplation.

His brain, operating at speeds thousands of times beyond ordinary people, swiftly searched through his knowledge base on energy usage.

A moment later, he shook his head, asserting: "It can be confirmed that there’s definitely no such energy utilization method in the mainstream systems within the Nolun Workshop."

A hint of disdain appeared on his lips: "Mainly, the energy utilization method... is unbelievably inefficient. So low that if anyone dared use this way to fight, they’d be laughed to death on the spot."

Jeming looked up, glancing at the silent David beside him.

David immediately understood his meaning.

Beneath his heavy armor, his brow furrowed tightly; after a moment of contemplation, he also shook his head, speaking with a highly assured tone:

"I can also confirm that the old extraordinary systems of the Elorcia Plane definitely did not contain such powers."

"Although they had similar ’power of the dead’ involving life and death, the essence of their energy was entirely different from this."

After exchanging information, the two exchanged glances mid-air, each seeing a peculiar gleam in the other’s eyes.

The opponent displayed a power not belonging to the original systems of Nolun Workshop and Elorcia Plane, coupled with the specialized enhancement of that power for life absorption...

Analyzing this intel together, this was no longer a simple task of capturing a renegade.

"If our deduction is correct... let’s apply to the academy for additional support," Jeming suggested.

"Agreed, we fear the search area needs to be expanded,"

Afterward, the two didn’t speak further, merely silently increasing their flight speed, continuing towards the next marked city.

Silence spread between them, but Jeming’s thoughts were somewhat cluttered.

He couldn’t help but recall everything he saw earlier in that city.

The child, Chuck, filled with fantasy and longing for "wizards," and the other children who regarded "wizards" as bedtime stories.

Clearly, neither the Nolun Academy nor the local governing wizards deliberately tried to enhance their presence nor intentionally cover up their existence.

Yet even so, merely over a century had passed.

The descendants of those modified survivors from the Elorcia Plane had almost entirely forgotten the real and cruel truths about "wizards."

Those bloody and fiery histories had been faded into indistinct and distant legends.

Jeming couldn’t help but remember when he first traversed to this world.

Back then, he also believed that there were no extraordinary powers in this world.

In retrospect, the lord who ruled that region didn’t seem to deliberately cover up the existence of "wizards" either.

The legends of the territory still vaguely contained records of the "Mysterious Guardian."

But to the Lord, whose long life as a Second Level Wizard is almost eternal for mortals, what does it really mean in his eyes?

The other party probably just got slightly engrossed in a somewhat interesting research project, and a few centuries went by.

Or perhaps, he simply participated in a protracted plane war.

And when he leaves the territory to engage in these "mundane activities,"

the mortal beings in his territory, fleeting beings of mere decades, gradually forget the mysterious and powerful Lord amidst generations of reproduction and succession. Forgetting the existence of extraordinary power in the world becomes just another ordinary matter.

Memories fade, awe gets diluted by time.

In the end, reality transforms into legend.

"Is this...the insurmountable difference in perspective between higher life forms and lower life forms?"

Jeming couldn’t help but muse within himself.

Suddenly, he understood Professor Clark’s words on a deeper level.

Perhaps, the "maturity" that Professor Clark mentioned refers not only to emotional detachment and rationality.

It should rather mean completely transforming one’s "perspective" into that of a true high-level life form—a mature wizard’s viewpoint!

No longer using mortals’ concepts of time to assess gains and losses.

No longer being bound by mortals’ emotional ties.

Acknowledging and accepting the existence of a gulf—an impassable chasm—between oneself and those transient creatures.

When he can truly ponder and plan for the future in terms of "centuries" and "millennia,"

then the deaths of Amy and Victor might become as insignificant as a mortal recalling the childhood death of a pet, leaving merely a faint, mixed memory of regret.

By then, he would truly be a "mature" wizard.

Upon this thought, Jeming felt an indescribable complexity in his heart.

He knows the road ahead is long.

And so-called "maturity" is just the first price to pay on this cruel journey.

...

...

Two years later.

The sky is washed bright, with the sea wind carrying a salty dampness.

At a temporary seaside base, Jeming and David had just exchanged the latest intelligence with another wizard squad that came to support.

"The last suspicious energy wave from the target appeared in the ’Storm’ sea area. Thank you for your hard work," said the captain of the opposite team, a Second Level Wizard shrouded entirely in lightning, solemnly.

"Just doing our duty," David’s signature dull voice echoed.

Jeming simply nodded calmly in acknowledgment.

Afterward, the two spoke no more, turned around, and transformed into two streams of pitch-black light, dashing toward the surging ocean.

As early as two years ago, after tracking down the first Pseudo-Wizard, they immediately reported all of their findings back to the Academy.

Nolun Academy took it very seriously, promptly dispatching numerous specialized scouts and mobilizing Wizard Lords across all regions of the Elorcia Plane to assist in a comprehensive search of their territories.

Yet even with such a vast force gathered, the wizards still could not directly catch the tail of the real Illegal Wizard.

Each time they closed in, they could only catch one or two like before, infected and becoming neither human nor ghost "Pseudo-Wizards."

Of course, as time passed and the entire plane’s scouting network system gradually improved, the area Illegal Wizard could operate became more and more restricted.

He was like a cunning fox continuously driven away, with increasingly less room to move.

It sounded as if the wizards were just unlucky, always one step behind.

However, Jeming and David had anticipated all this long ago.

Because they had discovered after deciphering the first Pseudo-Wizard’s energy samples two years ago,

that these infected "Pseudo-Wizards," their true purpose was to act as mobile "base stations," tools for the Illegal Wizard hidden behind the scenes to gather Life Energy.