The next morning, the reception plane specially set aside by the Void Architecture Academy was bathed in morning light.
Beside the teleportation hall, a few wizards were already preparing to leave. Yet even as they departed, they could not help glancing toward a particular teleportation array. There, four of the most conspicuous figures of this Academic Symposium were gathered together.
Jie Ming stood before the teleportation array, taking his leave of Savien and the other two one by one.
"If you run into any problems later, just contact me anytime," Savien said casually, giving his Magic Net terminal a little shake. "Spatial studies aren't something you can thoroughly master with just one or two exchanges."
Basian also laughed heartily. "If you ever come to the Anti-Entropy Alliance, let me know in advance. I'll take you to see the old-timers' treasured secret laboratories there."
Morna smiled gently and gave a slight nod. "Be careful on the road. Far more people have their eyes on you now than when you first arrived."
Hearing this, Jie Ming bowed respectfully. "Thank you for taking care of me all this time, seniors. I hope I'll have the chance to seek your guidance again in the future."
Savien waved a hand, cutting off his pleasantries. "Enough with the formalities. Get back and keep researching. Next time we meet, I hope you can still pull out something that surprises all three of us."
Jie Ming smiled, a hint of seriousness in his eyes. "Of course."
As the spatial array slowly brightened, a silver-white pillar of light abruptly bloomed and swallowed his figure completely.
The first half of the return trip was surprisingly smooth. Jie Ming passed through several public Junction Points in succession—registration, payment, teleportation—the whole process almost identical to the way there, without a ripple.
But this was also within his expectations; he had only just left the Void Architecture Academy, after all, and still remained under the influence of its controlled zone, which was naturally far more stable than the central public areas.
Until... Jie Ming stepped onto another teleportation array once more.
As space began to fold layer by layer, that familiar sense of weightlessness returned. Jie Ming, who had been standing quietly in the center of the teleportation light array, suddenly narrowed his eyes in the instant before the teleportation was about to begin!
Something was wrong!
The spatial coordinates of the destination had been changed!
Under normal circumstances, an ordinary sixth-rank wizard would indeed be unable to detect whether the spatial coordinates of a public teleportation array had been altered. However, Jie Ming had already experienced this once when he was attacked by Black Wizards, and on top of that, he was currently in the special state of the Mustard Seed Contains the Dao True Body Art, making his perception of space extremely acute. He quickly noticed the anomaly.
Someone had tampered with his teleportation destination!
Jie Ming's gaze instantly turned cold.
Still, he did not recklessly interrupt the teleportation. Since the teleportation had already been initiated, forcibly breaking away midway would most likely cause him to plummet into a spatial rift, with unpredictable consequences.
Fortunately, he had already anticipated this kind of accident. A Magic Net terminal appeared in his hand. Jie Ming ran a finger over it, and then his entire body vanished into the silver light.
Hum...
As the silver light before his eyes slowly faded, solid footing returned beneath him.
Just as he had thought, what came into view was not the public Junction Point he had originally been heading to.
Around him lay a desolate floating continent. For hundreds of kilometers, there was not a single building or trace of any living creature. The sky was a bleak gray, oppressive enough to make it hard to breathe.
"Seems... it's the same trick as the Black Wizards before—using a fragment of an abandoned plane as the battlefield."
Jie Ming felt the violent elemental turbulence sweeping past in constant howls, but he did not act recklessly. Instead, he immediately activated the True Illusion Void-Breaking Eye to analyze the situation.
Soon, his gaze fixed on a certain direction.
His vision penetrated through layer after layer of spatial barriers, and he "saw" a figure hidden within a spatial rift.
As if realizing it had been discovered, the figure slowly stepped out from the spatial rift.
It was a tall, middle-aged wizard wearing a black robe with no markings of any kind.
Though he appeared unremarkable on the surface, Jie Ming became vigilant the instant he appeared, every nerve in his body screaming with alarm.
The reason was the aura emanating from the man.
Seventh rank!
Although the sorcerous fluctuation of his mental power still carried a hint of unsteadiness, and the oppressive weight of his power fluctuation was not particularly heavy—indicating he had only recently broken through—he was nevertheless a genuine seventh-rank wizard!
"Has the fact that the Reflection Prism is in my hands been exposed?!"
Seeing a seventh-rank wizard lying in ambush for him, Jie Ming instinctively thought this. But he immediately dismissed the idea.
If the Reflection Prism's existence had truly been exposed, the one waiting for him now would not be merely a seventh-rank who had just advanced.
The middle-aged wizard looked at Jie Ming and revealed an almost simple, honest smile. Instead of making a move right away, he waved at Jie Ming with great enthusiasm. "Wizard Jie Ming? I've been waiting for you."
As he spoke, the wizard even gave a very polite bow. "Allow me to introduce myself first. My name is Hogg, and I am a... hmm..." He paused to deliberate over his wording with an utterly serious expression, then announced solemnly, "A free resource allocation worker."
"What?" Jie Ming frowned.
Free resource allocation? What kind of profession was that?
Seeing the obvious confusion on Jie Ming's face, Hogg coughed lightly and looked a little embarrassed.
"Ahem... Actually, there's a more common name for it... a robber."
Jie Ming: "..."
The air seemed to go silent for a moment. Even with Jie Ming's composure, the corner of his eye couldn't help twitching.
A seventh-rank wizard... working as a robber?
And saying it with such straight-faced conviction?
Hogg, however, showed no trace of embarrassment. Instead, he smiled with complete candor. "Can't help it. I just broke through to the seventh rank, and things are a bit tight on my end. I heard the Mobius family compensated you with a fair amount of resources, so I wanted to borrow some from Wizard Jie Ming."
He said it perfectly naturally, as casually as asking a good friend for small change.
Jie Ming paused for a moment. "Borrow?"
"Yes!"
Hog nodded seriously. "Just borrowing a little, of course. As for when I'll return it, that's not so certain."
At this point, Jie Ming was finally certain that this fellow really was a robber!
...At least on the surface.
Jie Ming sized up Hogg, his mind racing through calculations.
The fact that the other party knew about the Mobius family's compensation meant his sources were not low... at the very least, he had access to inside information from the Academic Symposium. Yet his manner of doing things did not seem at all like someone deliberately trained by some faction.
Of course, it was also possible he was simply very good at pretending.