Chapter 539: The News of Death and the Plan

After the kneeling civilians dispersed like a receding tide, the teleportation array area finally fell quiet.

David glanced at the dozen or so wizards around him and broke the silence:

"Gentlemen, before we begin work, there is something I must remind you of." This book is originally published on Daily Novel Reading, 🅣🅣🅚🅢. 🅣🅦 for seamless, error-free reading.

Everyone turned to look at him.

David pointed at the retreating backs of the civilians, his tone serious:

"Don't be too gentle when speaking to these people."

He paused, then explained:

"They've been ruled by the Chaos Cult for three hundred years. Their rigid hierarchy is etched into their bones. If we treat them with Norlen Workshop's 'equality' approach, they'll be bewildered—and even…" He shook his head. "Develop dangerous thoughts."

Someone frowned. "What do you mean?"

"They think we're weak," said a nearby wizard with more experience. "Don't laugh—I've seen it happen. Speak politely, and they see weakness. They start pretending obedience while sabotaging you behind your back. When you finally show real force, they panic, beg on their knees." David nodded. "So in the early stage, maintaining proper authority is necessary. You don't need to be terrifying, but they must understand we are the rulers, the ones who set the rules. Once they gradually adapt to Norlen Workshop's methods, we can adjust later." Everyone nodded, understanding.

Next, the dozen wizards quickly divided tasks according to their specialties.

Some were assigned to survey the plane's overall structure, others to map detailed terrain, others to tally population distribution, and still others to detect residual magical arrays and spell traces.

Gao Jie Ming and David were tasked with investigating the current core city.

After receiving their orders, the others dispersed, each employing their own methods.

Gao Jie Ming and David walked side by side into the city.

The city was sizable, housing roughly half a million people.

Buildings along the streets were constructed of stone and wood, none taller than three stories.

The roads were paved with rough stone slabs, flanked by rudimentary drainage ditches.

The air carried a faint odor of animal manure mixed with cooking smoke—a typical agrarian civilization scent.

As they walked, they scanned their surroundings with spiritual sense.

"By the way," Gao Jie Ming suddenly spoke, "how are the others?"

David's step slightly halted.

After two seconds of silence, he sighed:

"Lei Ke is dead."

Gao Jie Ming's brow furrowed.

Lei Ke… had once cooperated with him on the Just Plane, a man outwardly cold but inwardly warm.

"How did it happen?"

"He went out to scout during the war," David said. "A fifth-level wizard of the Chaos Cult targeted him with a sacrificial curse. He didn't survive long enough for rescue."

Gao Jie Ming fell silent for a moment.

The face of that ever-smiling man surfaced in his mind.

"…A pity."

David nodded, continuing: "The others are fine. But…"

He gave a bitter smile. "All of us, like me, were forced to ascend to fifth level out of sheer survival."

Gao Jie Ming looked at him.

Fifth level was already a respectable achievement for most wizards; Norlen Workshop's core wizards hovered around this level. "Your knowledge hasn't kept up?" Gao Jie Ming asked.

David's smile grew darker. "Yes…"

"Ha, doesn't matter—get used to it… like me."

David sighed. "My physical body and spiritual power have barely reached fifth-level standards, but my knowledge is still stuck at fourth-level wizardry—I can't cast a single spell that requires advanced knowledge."

Gao Jie Ming patted his shoulder, saying nothing.

The two walked in silence for a while.

David suddenly spoke, his tone tinged with complexity:

"By the way, you've really made it big."

Gao Jie Ming raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?"

"I heard," David said, studying him. "You've taken down at least four sixth-level wizards. Two of them were title wizards—【Hand of Annihilation】 and 【Illusion】, right?"

Gao Jie Ming paused, then shook his head:

"Just lucky."

He meant it sincerely.

In the 【Hand of Annihilation】 encounter, he was supposed to die—neither side expected him to survive.

In the 【Illusion】 fight, if Augustus hadn't arrived in time to buy him that one second, his outcome wouldn't have been good.

"It really was luck," Gao Jie Ming emphasized again.

David looked at him, then smiled:

"You know, you're incredibly annoying like this."

Gao Jie Ming was confused.

"You're absurdly strong, yet act like you don't realize it," David shook his head. "You kill four sixth-level wizards on the battlefield, one of them being 【Illusion】—a guy who can clear an entire plane alone—and you tell me it's luck?"

Gao Jie Ming opened his mouth to explain, then thought better of it and closed it.

Forget it—impossible to explain.

David didn't press further, only remarked:

"Forget it. People can't be compared. I, with a ten-level innate talent, thought I'd climb smoothly—but I got stuck at fifth level." Gao Jie Ming frowned. "You call a ten-level talent 'just'?"

David shook his head:

"Innate talent's influence diminishes the higher you go." He pointed at Gao Jie Ming. "By the time I advanced from fourth to fifth level, my talent had already become useless. Do you know what that means?"

Gao Jie Ming said nothing.

"It means my path forward must be carved by sheer effort," David said. "Knowledge, understanding, insight—talent can't help with these. Even if I finally catch up on knowledge, I don't believe I could defeat a sixth-level wizard, let alone a title wizard."

Gao Jie Ming fell silent.

He knew David spoke truth.

The wizard's path: the higher you climb, the less weight talent carries, the more weight wisdom holds.

A ten-level talent only lets you advance faster in the early stages.

At mid-to-high levels, everyone stands on the same starting line.

"Take your time," Gao Jie Ming finally said.

David smiled, and dropped the subject.

"Alright, split up." He pointed to a towering structure in the distance.

It was a typical religious temple, its spire piercing the clouds, its walls carved with intricate Chaos Cult runes.

"I'll go to the temple, talk to the city's elite. What about you?"

"I'll examine the city's magical array layout," Gao Jie Ming said.

They nodded and parted ways.

Gao Jie Ming rose above the city, surveying its layout from above.

Then he used his spiritual sense to perceive the hidden array patterns embedded in buildings, roads, and deep underground.

Soon, his brow furrowed.

The Chaos Cult's array system in this city was highly sophisticated.

And its functions were unmistakably clear.

Lust-inducing array.

Childbirth-assisting array.

Cognitive-modification array.

Together, they formed a complete "production line" targeting the population.

Gao Jie Ming closed his eyes and expanded his perception to surrounding cities.

Then to the entire province.

The result was the same.

Similar arrays existed everywhere.

He opened his eyes, a complex glint flashing within.

The Chaos Cult clearly treated wizards as "intelligent beings of the same civilization."

As for ordinary humans… in their eyes, they were no different from native lifeforms of other planes—mere resources, mere tools. The lust-inducing array ensured high birth rates.

The childbirth-assisting array ensured newborn survival rates.

The cognitive-modification array ensured the populace remained perpetually reverent and obedient.

Combined with ample material supplies and the temple's advanced supernatural medical techniques, the Chaos Cult's population production system operated with remarkable efficiency.

Gao Jie Ming couldn't help but recall Norlen Workshop's methods.

The Workshop also desired its human populations to reproduce as much as possible.

After all, for planes not yet achieving universal transcendence, wizard births were pure luck.

Even in universally transcendent planes, whether a genius emerged depended on luck.

The larger the base population, the higher the chance of producing a super-genius.

But the Workshop never used such methods.

Instead, it employed a carefully designed system of policies and environmental influences, taking a much longer route to naturally guide human reproduction.

For example, they were well aware of a biological fact: when resources are overly abundant, a population's reproductive drive actually declines.

Thus, the workshop carefully regulated the total resources allocated to each human group, keeping them "just enough" but never "truly wealthy," to maintain moderate reproductive pressure.

It sounded harshly controlled.

But compared to the Chaos Secret Cult's practice of forcibly inducing reproduction through fertility arrays, it was as gentle as spring breeze.

In terms of results, the Chaos Secret Cult's method had the advantage of rapid population growth, naturally producing a greater absolute number of wizards.

But quality…

Gao Jie Ming recalled the data from that war.

Combined, the Chaos Secret Cult and the Tower of Stillness had only fifty percent more wizards above Level Three than the Plane Nuolun Workshop.

Setting aside the Tower of Stillness, given that the Chaos Secret Cult's population base was at least several times larger than the workshop's, this "fifty percent" seemed pitifully small. "Trading quantity for quality," Gao Jie Ming murmured, "it's not entirely wrong…"

He didn't finish, but he had already reached his conclusion.

He pulled out his Magic Web terminal, summarized the findings of his investigation, and sent them to all colleagues operating on this plane. Soon, replies began arriving.

Others' survey results matched his.

Across the entire plane, every settlement was built this way.

Finally, after a brief discussion in the channel, the dozen or so wizards reached a consensus:

Since every city on this plane was constructed according to this "breeding factory" model, they might as well tear them all down and rebuild from scratch. Gao Jie Ming had originally planned to use his alchemy to sculpt a new city for the people.

In his view, this was the simplest and most efficient approach.

With his current power, he could raise a fully functional, logically laid-out new city in just a few minutes.

But David offered a different opinion.

"Don't rush," he said. "The process of rebuilding the city is also the process of rebuilding their worldview."

Gao Jie Ming paused, then understood his meaning.

If he simply used alchemy to conjure a city, the people would merely passively accept it.

They would think, "The Saint is truly miraculous," but they wouldn't understand why the city was built this way, nor would they change their own thinking in the process.

But if they built it themselves…

"That makes sense," Gao Jie Ming said over the channel. "Let them tear it down themselves, let them rebuild it. We only provide guidance and necessary aid. Let them see with their own eyes that a city can exist without temples, without statues they kneel before; let them build schools, hospitals, and council halls with their own hands; let them, through this process, slowly understand the value of 'humanity.'"

The channel fell silent for several seconds.

Then someone replied: "I think that's good. I agree."

Another said: "But this will take much longer."

"It was always a decades-long mission," Gao Jie Ming said. "A few more years won't matter."

He looked down at the city beneath him, built entirely for "breeding," and suddenly had an idea.

Decades from now, when the city's residents had built their new homeland with their own hands, they would likely look back and remember the past.

And then, they would understand…

What was truly worth protecting.