With everyone gathered in the main hall, a brand-new light screen slowly unfolded at its center.
[Special Symposium] [Today's Topic: Explorations into the Optimal Matching Laws between Mental Fluctuations and Rune Combinations] [Host: Wizard Redes]
Seeing the topic on the light screen, Jie Ming was slightly taken aback.
It was Redes's topic, and moreover, content he had gone over just today.
Jie Ming instinctively glanced around. The surrounding wizards showed no surprise at all; instead, eager looks filled their faces.
It seemed that the technology Wizard Redes had released had indeed stirred quite a few people's interest.
"Still, that's a good thing. This technology interests me a lot as well." Just as Jie Ming thought this, a conference room passage unfolded beside the main hall.
The crowd streamed toward it, and Jie Ming naturally followed.
Compared to the disciplined lectures at the branch venues, this so-called special symposium was a genuine brainstorming session.
Wizard Redes stood at the center of the venue, no longer demonstrating any sorcery. Instead, he raised a hand and unfolded a vast mental-frequency model in midair.
"For this symposium, we'll focus on finding the patterns inside it."
As he spoke, points of light spread out like a river of stars, and rune sets arranged themselves in sequence.
"Why do they require different frequencies? Why is there no unified rule? Do different laws share a common frequency..." One question after another was thrown out, and in no time, the entire venue was boiling over.
Jie Ming listened to the brainstorming, frantically recording and calculating.
The special symposium lasted a full two hours. By the time it ended, the night outside the window had grown deep.
The banquet naturally followed.
Compared with the restrained welcome reception, once the symposium truly began, the atmosphere at the banquet was noticeably more relaxed. Many wizards moved through the crowd holding wine glasses.
Many exchanged contact information on the magical network and agreed on future visits; a considerable number even finalized joint research plans on the spot.
Jie Ming also made many new acquaintances. Though he had not come across someone of Savien's caliber, the researchers in front of him all possessed deep attainments in their respective fields.
By the time that day's symposium ended, Jie Ming felt he had reaped a great deal.
Over the following days, the Academic Symposium maintained this pace.
Jie Ming went from branch venue to branch venue during the day, attended special discussions in the evening, and after nightfall joined banquets or free exchanges, packing his schedule airtight.
In just one week, he was exposed to a large number of research directions he had never touched before, and many technologies opened up new trains of thought for him.
Only on the eighth day after the symposium began did his own report finally arrive.
That morning, Jie Ming stood before the full-length mirror in his room, inspecting himself.
The young man in the mirror wore a dark-gold wizard's robe, the hem sharp and free of any wrinkle.
Jie Ming reached up to smooth his cuff, confirmed the medal on his chest, then put the prepared stack of materials on the table into his spatial ring.
Perhaps influenced by the atmosphere of the past few days, Jie Ming was uncharacteristically a little tense.
He took a deep breath, suppressed the barely perceptible excitement in his heart, and pushed open the door, heading toward the main hall of the symposium.
Along the way, people kept nodding to him in greeting.
"Morning, Wizard Jie Ming."
"Wizard Jie Ming, looking forward to today's report."
Jie Ming responded with a smile and a nod, not slowing his steps as he quickly reached the main hall.
After listening to the day's keynote talk, he confirmed his venue with the committee member on duty and headed for his branch venue.
However, the instant he pushed open the door, his steps came to an abrupt halt. Because... there were simply too many people!
Looking around, the entire hall was densely packed with wizards in various robes.
The space that could originally hold several hundred people had been extended again, enlarged several times over.
Even so, every seat was occupied. A rough sweep told him at least nearly ten thousand people were present.
That number represented the majority of the entire Academic Symposium's attendees.
Let me turn the clock back a little. Not long after this morning's talk ended, many people had already come to claim good seats, talking in lowered voices.
"Finally, this day has come."
"I heard Wizard Jie Ming is presenting technology related to the Self-Stabilizing Field Regulation Protocol again?"
"Should be those technologies researched together with His Excellency Savien, right?"
"No, I heard it was developed by Wizard Jie Ming himself, but His Excellency Savien seems very interested in it too!"
Just then, a slight stir came from the entrance. Three figures entered together. They were Savien, Basian, and Morna—the three most eminent existences in the field of spatial studies.
The three walked in with calm expressions, heading straight for the front-row seats.
Their appearance immediately quieted the hall by several degrees.
Soon after, countless mental fluctuations began flowing quietly through the crowd.
"These three... actually came together?!"
"Weren't there two Level 8 wizards giving reports today? They didn't go listen?"
"Looks like they turned everything down. They really came for Jie Ming!"
"That's crazy. At the welcome reception, they had already publicly acknowledged Wizard Jie Ming's talent, and now they actually came in person to hear the report..."
"Tsk tsk tsk. The implication is completely different now. This is not just recognition—it's endorsement!"
"Right, and it's three major figures endorsing him together!"
"Is this Jie Ming really worth the three of them doing that? Could he have some powerful background?!"
When Jie Ming entered, he could clearly feel that the hall was quiet, yet filled with flowing mental fluctuations.
After Jie Ming appeared, countless eyes focused on him once more, full of envy.
Standing at the entrance, Jie Ming looked at the nearly packed hall, then turned his gaze to the trio in the front row.
Savien and Morna merely gave Jie Ming reserved smiles as a greeting. Basian was more direct and waved at Jie Ming.
"Kid, hurry up and start. I can hardly wait! Hope you don't disappoint me!"
Jie Ming smiled and nodded at the three in response.
"Sss!"
Hearing such "cordial" words from Basian, the wizards in the hall could not help but draw in a sharp breath.
Those who had insisted that the three were endorsing Jie Ming because of his background opened their mouths wide.
An attitude like that could not be obtained by simply having connections!
After greeting Savien and the other two, Jie Ming stood at the center of the podium, his expression calm.
"Thank you all very much for coming to my report today." Jie Ming smiled at everyone, then raised a hand slightly.
With mental power surging out, the enormous light screen behind him slowly unfolded.
Runes quickly spread out, outlining an extremely stable three-dimensional magic formation in midair.
Seeing this, the near-ten-thousand wizards in the hall fell silent at once. The mental fluctuations that had been circulating throughout the venue also vanished quickly, leaving only the faint hum given off by the operating runes.
Jie Ming had no intention of idle pleasantries. After a single greeting, he went straight to the subject.
"You should all be aware of the core function of the Self-Stabilizing Field Regulation Protocol I previously invented: it maintains the absolute stability and absolute sealing of the environment."
As he spoke, the runic model on the light screen suddenly contracted and turned into a silver orb hovering in midair, spinning quietly.
Various runes appeared on the orb—exactly the Self-Stabilizing Field Regulation Protocol.
"What I am going to present this time is the advanced technology of this technique."
Jie Ming raised his hand and tapped lightly. The silver-white orb suddenly flew to the other side.
There, a standard human body model had already been projected at some point, lifelike as it floated at the center of the light screen.
The moment the two came into contact, the silver orb directly merged into the human model, and a layer of silver runic patterns emerged on the model's surface.
Jie Ming's voice sounded at the same time: "The key point of this technology remains stabilizing the target, but unlike the previous Self-Stabilizing Field Regulation Protocol, the new technology shifts the object of stabilization from the surrounding environment to the living being itself!"
As his words fell, the hall was unexpectedly quiet.
Because quite a few of the wizards present had not immediately reacted.
After all, the technology Jie Ming had introduced sounded simple, yet not simple.
No one dared to hastily conclude what it truly meant. Jie Ming paid no attention to those reactions and continued.
"As everyone knows, the living body itself is a dynamic system that is constantly changing. The flesh, mental power, and soul affect and feed back into one another. If any one of them fluctuates violently, the overall stability will decline."
"The technology I am reporting today will neither restore wounds nor increase the living being's strength. Its only function... is to keep the flesh and soul of the living being stable at all times!"
Screech!
With a sudden scraping of a chair, everyone in the hall instinctively turned their attention toward the rear. A Level 7 wizard had risen abruptly there.
This area was the section where combat wizards were concentrated, so it was comparatively more spacious than other parts.
Not many combat wizards had attended Jie Ming's report—or rather, in most reports there were no combat wizards at all, because even if they came, they would just stare blankly into space.
But now, the combat wizards who should have had vacant expressions all had their eyes wide open, and their breathing had quietly grown rapid.
Everyone could clearly feel that these combat wizards, each usually one to remain steadier than the next, now had eyes that were almost frighteningly bright.
Realizing that the whole venue was looking at him, the Level 7 wizard suddenly became aware of his indiscretion and promptly sat back down with a nonchalant air.
But although his body was seated, his eyes continued to stare fixedly at Jie Ming on the stage. Nearby, a few Level 6 logistics wizards looked baffled.
"What's gotten into them?" one whispered to his companion.
Indeed, the combat wizards' reactions were far too intense. Many had involuntarily manifested their Law-Crystallization Domains because of overwhelming emotion.
Moreover, subtle ripples appeared on the surfaces of those Law-Crystallization Domains, like waves spreading across water.
Still, not every wizard failed to understand.
A wizard who was long in charge of plane warfare slowly breathed out, his eyes carrying a touch of world-weariness. "Because they know better than anyone what this really means."
"You've been high-rank wizards for too long; you may have already forgotten. Back when you were low-rank wizards, every time in plane warfare, the first thing the vanguard did after stepping into an unfamiliar plane was never to fight—it was to adapt!"
The few Level 6 wizards were startled, then realization dawned on their faces.
Right. Because they had been Level 6 wizards for too long, they had forgotten that when they were low-rank and entered a new plane, the enemy they had to deal with first was not the native lifeforms, but the environment!
Each plane's elemental concentration, elemental ratio, law structure, gravity, time flow, spatial structure... all possessed a variety of unique characteristics.
In some especially unusual planes, even the means by which mental power propagated could be completely different.
Wizards above Level 6 could rely on their Law-Crystallization Domains to forcibly adapt and isolate themselves, but those below could only forcibly adjust themselves. The wizard slowly closed his eyes, as if remembering something he did not want to mention again.
"In planes with too great a divergence in laws, many young wizards with promising futures did not die because they were no match for their enemies; they had just stepped onto the battlefield when their mental power suddenly lost its balance, and they were easily cut down by enemies in an instant."
The combat wizards' expressions turned heavy.
This was a pain point that everyone who had personally experienced planar warfare knew all too well, yet found difficult to solve.
An unfamiliar plane meant absolutely unfamiliar rules. No matter how gifted a wizard was, they still needed time to adapt.
But war never gave anyone that time. And as the vanguard in every war, combat wizards could best understand this dilemma.
The Level 7 combat wizard looked at Jie Ming on the stage, his eyes complex and unreadable.
"If this technology is truly as he said—ensuring that wizards can still keep their minds and bodies stable after stepping into an unfamiliar plane, even if only for a few seconds—it will be enough to allow countless young lives to survive!"
"In that case, the lower limit of the wizard army's combat power will directly rise a whole level, and the mortality rate of the vanguard will probably drop drastically!"
More and more people realized the gravity of the matter and could not help but open their eyes wide.
This seemingly simple capability was, in fact, a technology that could truly rewrite the wartime landscape of the wizard army!