Chapter 177

Originally, Jie Ming had no interest in their argument.

This kind of haggling over every ounce of contribution did not have much attraction for him.

He was preparing to collect his mind and think about how to efficiently process these fresh lava giant samples.

But suddenly, a strange look appeared in his expression.

He felt a faint rhythm from the rune seal used to collect Red Dust Energy deep in his dantian.

He immediately collected his mind, his spiritual power penetrated into his dantian, and he carefully perceived that rune seal.

Jie Ming was soon happily surprised to find that on the surface of that rune seal, some thin Red Dust Energy had actually been collected!

"This... how is this possible?" Jie Ming felt unprecedented surprise in his heart.

He had speculated before that Red Dust Energy originated from the interaction between the intense emotional fluctuations of living beings and the concept of "society."

And in the Eluosia Plane, that was energy that could be seen everywhere.

But wizards, especially in the orthodox wizard civilization, Red Dust Energy was extremely rare, and almost non-existent.

The daily interaction of wizards was filled with various rational rules and cold data.

They did not easily get angry, did not get deeply involved in emotions, and did not pursue worldly warmth.

Therefore, he almost failed to collect any Red Dust Energy from wizards.

He subconsciously cast his gaze toward the few wizards who were still arguing until their faces were red, and then spread his spiritual power to perceive the breath of other wizards who were scattered in the distance, counting the spoils.

Although those wizards were trying their best to keep their faces calm, their emotional fluctuations were clearly manifested in his perception system, which was extremely sensitive to emotions.

There was anger, unwillingness, greed, cunning, and even a trace of suppression because private desires were suppressed.

In an instant, Jie Ming's heart suddenly opened up, suddenly understood!

He finally understood!

Wizards, this kind of near-extreme rational creature, were difficult to produce Red Dust Energy because the vast majority of wizards were very rational.

In daily life situations, it was difficult to have quarrels with others, and they would not carry out that kind of social interaction full of worldly fireworks.

All their communication revolved around knowledge, power, and utility, lacking the fierce collision of the seven emotions and six desires of mortals.

But!

When facing real interest problems, when competing for resources related to their own growth, even wizards would be like ordinary people, arguing for their own interests!

Their rationality still occupied the dominant position at this moment, but they would do it, they would curse, and deep in their hearts, the hidden greed, competitive desire, unwillingness, and even those dark emotions that could not be seen were completely stimulated at this time.

These seemingly insignificant emotional fluctuations were precisely the source of Red Dust Energy!

Jie Ming took a long breath, and an unprecedented realization surged into his heart.

This confirmed his speculation about "Red Dust" for many years, and also completely overturned his stereotype of wizard civilization.

He originally thought that wizards were completely detached from the mortal world, but it turned out that "rationality" only suppressed the expression of their emotions, not eliminated their existence.

In front of some core interests, the cold rational shell of wizards would also appear with tiny cracks, leaking the "mortal heart" hidden within.

No wonder wizard civilization had endless wars!

No wonder wizard civilization had such a strong desire for external conquest!

He once wondered why this group of existences pursuing eternity and extreme rationality was so fanatical about external plane conquest.

Now he understood that the entire wizard civilization had already been alienated long ago.

For this civilization, the real "social" interaction and game between individuals were no longer limited to stable life, but were cleverly transferred to the battlefield!

Obtaining resources through plane wars, distributing spoils and merit through wars, and stimulating the most original "seven emotions and six desires" of individual wizards through these most direct and primitive interest distributions—greed, slaughter, competition, control...

These emotions that were once suppressed by rationality were not only released on the battlefield, but also became their internal driving force to continuously improve their strength and pursue eternity.

This was a civilization that was cold to the extreme, but also efficient to the extreme!

It converted all negative emotions into war power and guided all personal private desires toward external expansion.

Jie Ming looked at the fierce spoils argument in the distance, and the sound of the wizards' quarrel in his ears seemed to carry a special rhythm.

He felt again the Red Dust Energy from the wizards in his dantian, which was weak but endless.

Yes, this was the "society" of wizards. Only on such a battlefield where interests were contested and life and death were at stake would the most essential flames of wizards as living beings be truly ignited.

Blooming with those bits and pieces of light belonging to "Red Dust."

"Hey... an unexpected joy." Looking at this scene, Jie Ming couldn't help but grin and show a smile.

It's just that he didn't even notice it himself, his smile was no different from the wizards present, also full of greed.

Jie Ming stood in mid-air, watching other wizards continue to pursue the defeated indigenous army.

The distant sound of pursuit and slaughter had nothing to do with him.

After this round of fighting, Jie Ming did not choose to continue hunting with others.

Unlike other wizards who still needed to strive for military merit and resources, his harvest was already enough.

This time he obtained a large number of precious living lava giant captives, enough to saturate Jie Ming's subsequent research work.

"It's time to go back," Jie Ming whispered to himself, his figure turned into a stream of light, and he galloped toward the wizard camp without looking back.

For him, the significance of simple killing or capturing was far less important and valuable than dissecting and analyzing them and drawing knowledge from them.

Moreover, he had another research target—the snow monsters of the Frost-Dark Realm.

After returning to the wizard camp, he did not return directly to his temporary laboratory, but went straight to the "Resource Trading Area" designated in the camp.

It was brightly lit here, even in the gaps of war, it was filled with the whispering conversation of wizards and the collision of energy fluctuations.

Countless wizards came here with their spoils, either selling, exchanging, or looking for the raw materials they needed.

The air was filled with the smell of various alchemy potions, elemental materials, and magic ores, noisy and orderly.

Jie Ming applied for a stall through the magic network terminal on the way back, and at this time he stopped in front of his stall following the terminal's guidance, carefully taking out a few Tier 2 lava giant living captives in the best state.

These living lava giants were bound by rune barriers, lying quietly in specially made confinement boxes, and their body surfaces were still emitting traces of scorching heat.

They were exactly what he had carefully selected from those thousands of defeated troops, each possessing complete life activity and a powerful elemental core, which were rare research samples.

"Urgent need for living snow monsters!"

Jie Ming did not shout to sell, he just released his needs through the magic network terminal and clearly listed the items he could exchange—high-quality lava giant living captives, and some exclusive research material copies targeting lava giants.

Sure enough, in just a moment, several logistics wizards specializing in biology and elemental affinity gathered around.

Tier 2 living lava giants were still very marketable, especially the "goods" on Jie Ming's stall were quite complete.

"Your lava giants are indeed good, I have a few Tier 2 snow monsters just captured here, their vitality is very strong, how about it?" A biology wizard's eyes shone.

In his confinement box, a few snow monsters bound by ice-blue rune chains emitted low whimpers.

These snow monsters were covered with white long hair, their body size was slightly smaller than the same-tier creatures of lava giants, but they also emitted powerful life breath.

After a short bargaining, Jie Ming successfully exchanged a few living snow monsters with a part of his lava giant living captives and several data models and wizardry formulas of "high-frequency sound wave suppression" verified by the magic network.

He satisfiedly took them back into his space ring; these fresh samples were enough to support his research progress for a period of time in the future.

After the transaction was completed, Jie Ming did not stay for a moment and went straight back to his temporary laboratory.

He couldn't wait to start a more detailed study of the snow monsters.

As representatives of the two poles of the plane, the elemental composition and physiological habits of snow monsters must be completely different from those of lava giants, which contained a huge treasure trove of knowledge.

Jie Ming put a living snow monster into a special ice crystal confinement box on the dissection table, and used the "Eye of Omnipotence" to initially probe its body surface and external energy flow.

This snow monster was obviously more adapted to the extreme cold environment, ice elements were highly active in its body, and the white long hair on its body surface could even condense ice crystals, forming natural armor.

It was forced to submit and comatose by wizardry, even so, every breath it took carried an extremely low temperature, making the surrounding air condense into white frost.

However, just as he was preparing to conduct a deeper probe, the magic network terminal issued a rapid and solemn prompt sound again!

But this time it was not a combat alarm, but a highest-priority notification for issuing new tasks.

This kind of notification was usually aimed at all combat personnel or a core functional department.

Jie Ming's heart moved, he stopped the research at hand, and clicked on the terminal.

Sure enough, this was a task instruction synchronized to all logistics wizards, and even some excellent combat wizards.

The issuer was Master Aierwen, and another Tier 5 wizard Jie Ming had not yet come into contact with.

The task content was clear and concise:

【Important Emergency Task—Demotion and Popularization of Targeted Destruction Wizardry】

Task 1: Demotion and transformation of "Targeted Destruction Wizardry" (Code: Lava Annihilation) against lava giants.

Led by Master Aierwen, all relevant research wizards need to cooperate closely.

Goal: Change the wizardry model to make its structure simple and easy to understand.

Requirement: Lower the wizardry level, and transform it into different level wizardry models from 1 to 5, for combat wizards of different strength levels to learn and use.

Focus: Ensure that combat wizards can understand the transformed wizardry and can get started in a short time.

Task 2: Dimensional reduction transformation of "Targeted Destruction Wizardry" (Code: Frost Soul Disintegration) against snow monsters of the Frost-Dark Realm.

Led by Master Roland Vannar, all relevant research wizards need to cooperate closely.

Requirements and goals are the same as Task 1.

Jie Ming's gaze swept quickly over the task list; he had expected this task long ago.

After all, targeted destruction wizardry was the one that required the highest level of knowledge among wizardry of the same level; wanting to popularize it to the group of wizards going out to fight, especially considering those reckless combat types, it must be simplified as much as possible.

This was a good opportunity for Jie Ming; after all, if he took this task, he would definitely have to provide relevant research materials when this wizardry was developed, and these knowledge were quite useful for Jie Ming.

"However... Roland Vannar?"

Looking at Task 2, Jie Ming looked at the master's name, and his gaze couldn't help but be somewhat strange.

This person could be considered half an acquaintance strictly speaking; when he signed up at the junction point, he was among the group of wizards from the Tower of Silence who gathered around.

The other party was also one of the only three Tier 5 wizards in this junior high school task.

"They are all acquaintances..."

(End of chapter)