Chapter 451: Level-One Cultivation Agreement

Viola immediately noticed her friend's unusual state.

She stood up, frowning. "Star Fall? What's wrong? You look like your soul's about to fall apart. Even if the Star Ring Federation didn't agree—or imposed harsh conditions—it shouldn't be this bad, right?"

Viola's words seemed to jolt the wizard out of a dream.

Star Fall slowly lifted her head, looking at Viola, then at Gao Jie Ming and Clark.

Her face bore a complex expression—confusion, shock, wild joy, and a hint of helplessness.

"No… it's not that they refused…" Star Fall's voice was dry, echoing with an ethereal tone, yet trembling beneath it, "The Star Ring Federation… agreed. As long as the 'little one' is willing and capable of signing the contract, it can be formally taught basic wizard knowledge and accepted as a special member of wizarding civilization."

"That's incredible!" Viola frowned. "Then why do you look like your soul's been ripped out? You scared us half to death."

Star Fall took a deep breath, as if struggling to calm herself, then spoke in a voice almost like a dreamer's murmur:

"The one who contacted me… wasn't an ordinary reviewer or high-level wizard…"

She paused, enunciating each word with unusual clarity, as if she herself couldn't believe it:

"It was 'Felix.' The Star Ring Federation's master artificial intelligence—Felix—personally handled and processed this application."

"What?!"

This time, it was Viola and Gao Jie Ming who gasped aloud.

Both rose to their feet simultaneously, faces etched with shock.

As one of the four great powers of wizarding civilization, the Star Ring Federation's territory was vast, governing countless dimensions, civilizations, and wizarding organizations, with information and affairs to process as numerous as grains of sand in the Ganges.

Thus, maintaining the Federation's magic network and handling the vast majority of daily affairs fell to an unimaginably powerful AI cluster system, whose core consciousness was named "Felix."

Under normal circumstances, routine matters like reviewing a special individual's application to join wizarding civilization required no involvement of Felix's core consciousness—its distributed computational subroutines handled them effortlessly.

Felix's core only intervened in matters of true strategic importance to the Federation, the civilization's future, or those involving extremely high authority and resources.

Gao Jie Ming had once secured direct dialogue with a high-level Felix subprogram to finalize the terms of his "Self-Stabilizing Field Regulation Protocol," and that had been the highest-level official entity he'd ever contacted.

That very deal had earned him an annual stable share of over one hundred million low-tier military merits.

Yet even that scenario hadn't made Star Fall look this unhinged.

Just being personally contacted by Felix shouldn't be enough to make a sixth-rank peak wizard, whose theories had just been validated, lose her composure like this, could it?

Viola and Gao Jie Ming exchanged a glance, each seeing the other's confusion and deeper curiosity.

Viola couldn't help pressing: "And then? What else did Lord Felix say, besides agreeing?"

Star Fall tugged at her lips, trying to smile.

But the smile looked rigid. She looked at her friend, then at Gao Jie Ming, full of curiosity, and at the ever-calm Master Clark, and spoke with solemn, deliberate gravity, as if announcing a cosmic truth:

"Lord Felix… on behalf of the Star Ring Federation's Supreme Council, has officially notified me…"

She paused, as if gathering strength to utter the next words:

"I, Star Fall, for my forward-looking and revolutionary contributions to 'Planetary Activation Theory and Advanced Applications of Spiritual Laws,' and to 'Expanding the Scope of Wizarding Civilization's Acceptance and Strategic Force Composition Model,' have been awarded…"

"Star Ring Federation Level-One Cultivation Agreement!"

Silence.

Deathly silence.

Except for Master Clark, who, as if expecting it all along, continued sipping his hot drink without expression.

Gao Jie Ming and Viola stood frozen, eyes wide, breath seemingly halted.

A few seconds later…

"Sssss!!!"

Both drew in a sharp, prolonged breath at the same instant!

The inhalation was so deep, as if they wanted to suck every last bit of air from the ship into their lungs.

Level-One Cultivation Agreement!!!

Gao Jie Ming was no longer the ignorant apprentice who knew nothing of wizarding civilization's upper structure.

He had long understood the Federation's system for nurturing and supporting internal genius wizards.

The lowest tier, "Level-Three Cultivation Agreement," was simply the basic welfare granted to all formal wizards: access to corresponding knowledge databases, protection of personal research from easy plunder, and basic civilizational protection.

It was essentially a universal "benefit."

The "Level-Two Cultivation Agreement" was special treatment reserved for those deemed highly likely to ascend to high-rank (typically seventh-rank or above)—"genius seeds."

Gao Jie Ming himself had received a Level-Two Agreement as a wizard apprentice, after demonstrating exceptional potential with the fifth-rank material, refined gold.

Its main provisions included broader knowledge access, better resource exchange ratios, and a degree of research freedom and market preference.

It was more like a "recognition" and "convenience," offering platforms and opportunities, not direct resource infusion.

But the "Level-One Cultivation Agreement…"

That was an entirely different category.

It was granted only to those the Federation's highest echelons judged as possessing research, paths, or even existence itself capable of triggering a "leap-level" enhancement to the entire wizarding civilization's overall strength!

What did receiving a Level-One Agreement mean?

It meant annual, unconditional research funding from the Federation, so vast it would make most eighth-rank wizards envious!

It meant that if you chose to surrender part or all of your research to the Federation, the compensation would be unimaginably generous—beyond imagination.

It meant the entire Star Ring Federation's resource repository was fully open to you!

Any material you needed—even rare ones you'd never heard of, special environments, forbidden knowledge permissions…

If it existed and didn't violate core taboos, the Federation would unconditionally coordinate its provision!

Even if it involved core taboos, negotiation was possible!

And if you required exclusive resources only held by other supreme powers—like the Crimson Court or the Void Architecture Institute—Felix would personally intervene to attempt coordination and exchange!

It was a direct ticket to the true pinnacle of wizarding civilization!

A symbol of resources, authority, status, and infinite possibility!

If a Level-Two Cultivation Agreement was the elite entrance ticket most ordinary wizards could never obtain, then the Level-One Cultivation Agreement was a "privilege" most eighth-rank wizards couldn't even conceive of!

Gao Jie Ming's mind raced. After the initial shock, upon deeper reflection, he realized Star Fall's receipt of the Level-One Agreement seemed… reasonable, even inevitable!

What had been her contribution?

Not merely successfully activating a dimension and verifying the advanced application of spiritual laws.

But more crucially, her subsequent idea—that a living dimension could become a wizard.

What did that mean?

The terrifying strength of a living dimension lay in its unparalleled "scale" and innate affinity with dimensional laws.

The energy and matter a living dimension could mobilize far surpassed anything a single wizard could ever imagine.

Their frequent ability to challenge higher ranks stemmed precisely from this "scale" advantage.

Wizards' strength, however, lay in qualitative leaps—using knowledge to amplify limited power into thousands or tens of thousands of times its original effect.

What would be the true combat power of such a monstrous fusion?

Gao Jie Ming barely envisioned it in his mind, and felt a chill run through him.

Excluding the bizarre reality-altering abilities of ninth-rank beings, a seventh-rank living dimension wizard, with its dimensional-scale energy reserves and wizardly knowledge amplification, could likely overpower many weaker ninth-rank beings in direct confrontation!

In other words, at seventh rank, a living dimension could accomplish what three eighth-rank wizards together could barely manage.

If it ascended to eighth rank, achieving law solidification and immunity to most rule-layer distortions,

then combined with an eighth-rank wizard's terrifying multipliers of elemental output…

It might truly serve as a "conventional strategic unit" capable of rivaling conventional ninth-rank entities!

And this wasn't the end.

If Star Fall's theory was perfected and her techniques matured, turning "cultivating living dimension wizards" into a replicable, scalable path…

It would mean wizarding civilization could potentially "mass-produce" these super-units with quasi-ninth or ninth-rank combat power!

This was a strategic breakthrough capable of altering the balance of civilizational strength and reshaping the known wizarding power structure!

Therefore, Star Fall's receipt of the Level-One Cultivation Agreement was not a reward—it was an investment!

It was the Star Ring Federation placing vast resources on her, expecting her to pave, widen, and perfect this path, delivering a clear signal of leap-level advancement for the entire civilization!

Realizing all this, Gao Jie Ming's gaze at Star Fall shifted from shock to profound admiration.

Viola clearly had similar thoughts. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but instead stepped forward and hugged Star Fall's soul tightly.

"You crazy thing…" Viola's voice was muffled, "You've really broken the sky."

Star Fall seemed to have just begun recovering from the overwhelming shock.

She hugged Viola back, and finally, a brilliant, radiant smile spread across her face—her previously dim soul-light flared brightly.

"Yes…" she whispered, her gaze sweeping over Gao Jie Ming and Clark, then drifting toward the void, as if seeing the Star Fall Dimension, "I think… I really broke the sky."

(End of Chapter)