Viola naturally noticed her friend’s abnormality at once.
She stood up, frowning as she asked, “Starfall? What’s wrong with you? You look like your soul’s about to fall apart. Even if the Star Ring Federation didn’t agree, or threw out so harsh conditions, it shouldn’t hit you this hard, right?”
Viola’s words seed to snap Starfall out of a dream.
The Wizard Starfall slowly lifted her head. She looked at Viola, then at Jie Ming and Clark.
A complex expression surfaced on her face—one mixed with bewildernt, shock, wild joy, and a trace of utter helplessness.
“No… it’s not that they didn’t agree…” Starfall’s voice was sowhat dry, carrying that ethereal echo, yet unable to hide the tremor within. “The Star Ring Federation side… has agreed. As long as the ‘little one’ is willing and able to successfully sign the contract, we can officially impart basic wizard knowledge to it and accept it as a special mber of wizard civilization.”
“That’s trendous news!” Viola was puzzled. “Then why do you look like your soul’s flown away? You scared us half to death.”
Wizard Starfall took a deep breath, as though trying hard to steady her emotions. Then, in an almost dreamlike murmur, she said:
“The one who contacted … wasn’t an ordinary reviewer or high-ring wizard…”
She paused. Each word ca out with unusual clarity, as though she herself could scarcely believe it:
“It was ‘Felix.’ The central controlling artificial intelligence of the Star Ring Federation’s magic terminal, Felix,personally handled and processed this application.”
“What?!”
This ti, the simultaneous gasps ca from both Viola and Jie Ming.
The two of them stood up almost at the sa instant, faces filled with pure astonishnt.
The Star Ring Federation, as one of the four great powers of wizard civilization, commanded vast territories. The number of planes, civilizations, and wizard organizations under its rule was beyond counting. The volu of information and affairs it handled every day was like grains of sand in the Ganges.
Thus, the one maintaining normal operation of the Federation terminal and processing the vast majority of routine matters was an unimaginably powerful artificial intelligence cluster system. Its core consciousness was nad “Felix.”
Under normal circumstances, sothing as “routine” as reviewing whether a special individual could join wizard civilization would never require disturbing Felix’s main consciousness. Dispersed computational sub-programs would handle it.
Felix’s main body only dealt with matters that truly concerned the Federation’s grand strategy, the direction of civilization, or those involving extrely high clearance and resources.
Back when Jie Ming, thanks to his “Self-Stabilizing Domain Regulation Protocol” technology, had been granted the opportunity to speak directly with one of Felix’s advanced sub-programs to finalize transaction details—that had already been the highest level of official entity he had ever contacted.
And it was precisely that transaction that now brought him a steady annual share of over one hundred million low-grade military rits.
But even a situation like that seed insufficient to cause Starfall to lose composure to this degree.
rely being personally received by Felix shouldn’t make a ntally resolute, peak sixth-ring wizard who had just validated her own theory beco so… unmoored, right?
Viola and Jie Ming exchanged a glance. Both saw the confusion—and even deeper curiosity—in each other’s eyes.
Viola couldn’t help but press: “And then? Besides agreeing, what else did His Excellency Felix say?”
Wizard Starfall tugged at the corners of her mouth, attempting a smile.
But that smile looked impossibly stiff. She looked at her close friend, then at Jie Ming whose face was full of thirst for knowledge, and finally at the ever-calm ntor Clark. In a tone as solemn as though she were proclaiming a universal truth, she enunciated each word:
“His Excellency Felix… on behalf of the Star Ring Federation’s Highest Deliberation Council, has formally notified …”
She paused, as though she needed to gather strength to speak the next part:
“I, Starfall, in recognition of my pioneering and paradigm-shattering contributions in the fields of ‘Plane Activation Theory and High-Rank Application of Spiritual Laws,’ as well as ‘Expanding the Scope of Acceptance for Wizard Civilization and the Model of Strategic Force Composition,’ have been awarded…”
“The Star Ring Federation Level-One Cultivation Protocol!”
Silence.
A deathly stillness.
Except for ntor Clark, who seed to have anticipated this long ago and continued calmly sipping his hot drink without any change in expression.
Jie Ming and Viola stood frozen like statues, eyes wide and round, breathing seemingly suspended.
Several seconds later…
“Hiss!!!”
Both of them sucked in a breath at nearly the sa mont!
That inhalation was so long it seed as though the two of them wanted to draw every last bit of air inside the warship into their lungs.
Level-One Cultivation Protocol!!!
Jie Ming was no longer the ignorant apprentice who once knew nothing of the upper echelons of wizard civilization.
He had long since co to understand the Star Ring Federation’s system for nurturing and supporting internal genius wizards.
The lowest tier—“Level-Three Cultivation Protocol”—was actually the basic welfare every formal wizard enjoyed: access to corresponding levels of the knowledge repository, protection of personal research from easy plundering, and basic civilizational shelter.
It was practically a universal “benefit.”
The “Level-Two Cultivation Protocol” was special treatnt granted to those “genius seeds” deed to have enormous potential to advance to high-ring status (usually seventh-ring and above).
Jie Ming himself, during his wizard apprentice phase, had once obtained a Level-Two protocol because of the outstanding potential he demonstrated with the fifth-ring material Adamantine.
Its main provisions included broader access to knowledge, more favorable resource exchange ratios, and a certain degree of research freedom plus market preferences.
It was more like a form of “recognition” and “convenience”—providing platforms and opportunities rather than direct resource pouring.
But the “Level-One Cultivation Protocol”…
That was an entirely different level of concept!
It was granted only to those peerless figures whom the Federation’s highest echelons judged capable—through their research, their path, their very existence—of propelling the overall strength of wizard civilization to undergo a “step-change” leap!
What did obtaining a Level-One protocol an?
It ant that every year, an enormous sum of “unconditional research funding”—enough to make most eighth-ring wizards green with envy—would be directly allocated by the Federation!
It ant that if one was willing to hand over part or all of their research to the Federation, the compensation received would be so lavish it defied imagination—even surpassed imagination.
It ant that almost the entire resource vault of the Star Ring Federation would be thrown wide open to you!
Any rare material you needed, any special environnt, any forbidden knowledge clearance—even things you had never heard of…
As long as it existed and did not touch the core taboos, the Federation would unconditionally do everything in its power to coordinate and supply it!
Even if it did touch core taboos, negotiation was possible!
Moreover, if the required resources were unique holdings of the other supre powers—such as the Crimson Court, Void Architecture Academy, and so on—Felix would personally step in to attempt coordination and exchange!
This was a direct express ticket to the true pinnacle of wizard civilization!
It was the symbol of resources, authority, status, and infinite possibility!
If a Level-Two Cultivation Protocol was an entry ticket to high-ring wizardry that ninety-nine percent of ordinary wizards could never obtain, then a Level-One Cultivation Protocol was a “privilege” that ninety-nine percent of eighth-ring wizards could not even imagine!
Jie Ming’s mind raced. After the initial shock passed and he thought it over carefully, he suddenly realized that Wizard Starfall receiving a Level-One Cultivation Protocol seed… entirely reasonable, even entirely to be expected!
What were her contributions?
It wasn’t rely succeeding in activating a plane and validating a path for high-rank application of spiritual laws.
What was far more critical was the idea she proposed afterward—allowing a living plane to beco a wizard!
What did that an?
The innate terror of a living plane lay in its incomparable “quantity” and its natural affinity with plane laws.
The amount of energy and matter a living plane could mobilize was sothing no individual wizard could ever hope to match, no matter how wildly they imagined.
They were often capable of cross-rank challenges precisely because of this overwhelming “scale” advantage.
A wizard’s strength, on the other hand, lay in leaps of “quality”—in using knowledge to explode limited power into thousands or tens of thousands of tis its original efficacy.
Now, what would the true combat power of such a monster—a fusion of both—be?
Even just running a rough ntal simulation, Jie Ming felt a wave of palpitations.
Setting aside the bizarre world-rule-altering abilities of ninth-rank beings, a seventh-ring living-plane wizard, relying on its plane-scale energy reserves combined with a wizard’s knowledge amplification, would likely be capable—in direct confrontation—of suppressing many of the weaker ninth-rank entities!
In other words, at seventh-ring, a single living plane could accomplish what normally required three eighth-ring wizards.
And if it could advance to eighth-ring, complete law solidification, and gain immunity to most rule-level distortions…
Then, with its sheer scale combined with the terrifying output multiplier an eighth-ring wizard could achieve over elents…
It might truly serve as a “standard strategic unit” capable of matching conventional ninth-rank existences!
And that was not even the endpoint.
If Starfall’s theory were perfected and the technology matured, allowing “cultivation of living-plane wizards” to beco a replicable, scalable path…
Then wizard civilization would have the potential to “mass-produce” super-units possessing quasi-ninth-rank or even true ninth-rank combat power!
This was a strategic-grade breakthrough capable of altering the balance of civilizational strength and reshaping the existing of wizard powers!
Therefore, Wizard Starfall receiving a Level-One Cultivation Protocol was not a reward.
It was an investnt!
It was the Star Ring Federation placing a massive bet on her—expecting her to walk this path to completion, to widen it, and to bring a step-change elevation to the entire civilization!
Having thought it all through, the look Jie Ming directed toward Wizard Starfall had already shifted from shock to deep admiration.
Viola had evidently reached similar conclusions. She opened her mouth as though to say sothing, but in the end simply stepped forward and wrapped Starfall’s soul in a forceful embrace.
“You crazy woman…” Viola’s voice ca out muffled. “You really… poked a hole through the heavens this ti.”
Only now did Wizard Starfall seem to recover slightly from that colossal impact.
She returned the hug. At last a brilliant, radiant smile appeared on her face. The previously dim light of her soul flared brightly in response.
“Yeah…” she said softly. Her gaze swept across Jie Ming and Clark, finally turning toward the void—as though she could see the Starfall Plane itself. “This ti… I really seem to have poked a hole through the sky.”
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