To Conquer

Wizard Jade Shadow's Elemental True Body gave no verbal reply, only moving slightly.

The entity raised its right hand.

That arm was as thick as a mountain range. The mere act of lifting it stirred the surrounding clouds, swirling the green-tinted vapors into massive vortexes.

When the arm reached its highest point, the five fingers slowly curled into a fist.

Every Treant transitioned instantly from a kneeling position to standing, then from standing to hovering. Their emerald-green energy cores resumed their rotation.

Wizard Jade Shadow's Elemental True Body withdrew its right hand, and those emerald, star-like eyes slowly swept across the plaza.

Wherever that gaze projected from the pupils passed, everyone felt their scalp tingle.

There was no killing intent in that gaze, no pressure, not even any superfluous emotion; it was a gaze of pure, calm scrutiny.

When Ethan felt that gaze pass over him, he felt a chill run from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.

It was the feeling of being completely seen through, a sensation a million times more thorough than when Gal had tested his innate mental power.

But it was only for an instant. The gaze moved on.

Then, the entity spoke.

The voice emanated from the thousand-meter-tall Elemental True Body, steady and clear.

"A brand new world, with endless resources and treasures, shall throw its gates wide to us! Every inch of its soil, every shred of its power, shall become the ladder upon which we climb to higher peaks!"

"I, Fourth-Tier Star Wizard—Jade Shadow, shall personally lead you! Fourteen Third-Tier Wizards shall be our spearhead, one hundred and eight Second-Tier Wizards shall be our backbone, and thirteen thousand, one hundred and thirty-two First-Tier Wizards shall be our flood! We shall form an unstoppable Wizard legion to conquer! To plunder! We shall carve the mark of our Mother World into the very sky of that world forever!"

"Now, it is not I who commands you forward, but glory that calls to you! All academies, heed my command: step into the teleportation arrays and write our epic!"

"Conquer! Conquer! Conquer!"

As Wizard Jade Shadow's words fell, the entire plaza erupted.

Countless Wizard Apprentices roared with bloodshot eyes.

The roars of millions of apprentices converged into a physical tide, wave after wave crashing against the sky.

The apprentices around Ethan were flushed red, veins bulging on their necks as they pumped their fists wildly in the air.

Some roared until their throats went hoarse, their voices sounding like broken bellows, yet they continued to scream with all their might.

The apprentices behind him were trembling with excitement.

A bald, burly man in a dark red short robe clenched his fists and roared at the sky, his facial muscles twitching.

Beside him, a tall, thin youth wasn't shouting, but his lips were trembling violently, and tears were welling in his eyes.

Ethan looked away, his lips twitching slightly.

He understood this fanaticism.

A World War was a gamble with a narrow chance of survival.

But ninety percent of those who survived would advance to become Official Wizards within ten years.

For these people who had languished in the academy for over a decade or even decades, stuck as Third-Tier Apprentices, this was their only way out.

Rather than slowly rotting away in the academy until death, it was better to take a chance on the battlefield.

Win, and ascend to the heavens in a single step.

Die, and it was all over anyway.

In the sky, Jade Shadow Star's Elemental True Body began to slowly dissipate.

The overlapping layers of emerald halos disintegrated from the edges, turning into countless tiny particles of light.

...

Time ticked by, minute by minute.

Fourteen hours.

A full fourteen hours passed.

During this time, there was no sound other than the friction of movement. Even now, everyone was still immersed in the shock brought by Wizard Jade Shadow.

The voices of the Treants above Blood Bone Tower rang out simultaneously.

"Blood Bone Tower Academy, enter the teleportation array."

Stepping into the teleportation array...

Ethan steadied himself and looked up, his pupils constricting slightly.

This was a world of plants.

Everywhere he looked, there were flowers, grass, and trees.

Beneath his feet was a wide flagstone path made of a pale green stone, its surface polished smooth and warm.

On both sides of the road was dense vegetation—tall and short, flowering and non-flowering, fruiting and non-fruiting—laid out in overlapping layers that completely covered the ground.

The tree trunks were covered in thick green moss, a deep emerald hue that looked like a velvet carpet. Vines hung from the branches; some were as thick as an adult's arm, while others were as thin as a strand of hair, swaying gently in the breeze.

The air was filled with a fresh, botanical scent.

That scent was completely different from an ordinary forest.

There was no musty smell of decaying leaves, no earthy scent of damp soil—only a pure, clean plant fragrance with a hint of sweetness.

With every breath, that scent surged through his nose and into his lungs, making him feel refreshed from the inside out.

Ethan took a deep breath, his eyes narrowing slightly.

The concentration of wood-element energy particles in the vicinity was staggeringly high.

Those energy particles flowed slowly through the air at a concentration at least several times higher than the outside world.

"In this environment, I feel like my meditation efficiency could increase by at least thirty percent."

From the outside, the War Fortress was an inverted castle, a dark gray metal construct with eerie green runic light—a cold, bizarre, and oppressive war machine.

But the interior was like this.

Flowers, trees, living tree houses, rich wood-element energy particles, and fresh plant scents.

The contrast was staggering.

Treants began to guide the crowd, splitting them into different streams.

"Official Wizards, please follow me."

"Third-Tier Apprentices, please go this way."

"Contracted beasts and slaves, stand by."

The voices came from the leaf-like structures at the top of the Treants, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

Ethan stood in the crowd, watching the Official Wizards being led toward the depths of the fortress.

The apprentices were led in a different direction.

Ethan set off, following the crowd.

The vegetation on both sides of the flagstone path grew denser.

Tree houses extended from the ground to the heights; some were built at the forks of tree trunks, some hung from vines, and some were embedded directly into the trees themselves.

Each living tree house had an independent wooden staircase connecting it to the ground, with railings wrapped in glowing vines that emitted a soft, pale green light.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, the Treant in front stopped.

"Blood Bone Tower Academy apprentices, your residences are in this area."

It raised an arm, pointing toward a cluster of scattered wooden houses.

"Select a vacant house for yourselves. Once inside, you can use your mental power to activate your residency permissions. Necessary living supplies are provided within. For additional needs, you may go to the Supply Exchange in the center of the area."

With that, the Treant turned and left.

The apprentices began to disperse.

Some couldn't wait to head toward the tree houses, some stood in place surveying the wooden buildings, and others gathered in small groups to discuss whether they should live close to one another.

The information coming from the surrounding trees was far too enthusiastic.

Those tree houses were not inanimate objects.

Each one was alive, a lifeform somewhere between a plant and a building.

Their conscious ripples were transmitted clearly into Ethan's mental sea through his Plant Affinity passive. The noisy chatter was like stumbling into a crowded marketplace.