Wizard: My career panel has no upper limit

After the Sunburn Front was established, border surveillance was upgraded.

Each fixed post is staffed by three people on rotation, with each person on duty for eight hours and not allowed to leave without permission.

When the spine tree broke through the vines behind the western boundary, the sentry on duty noticed the unusual activity immediately, but she did not initially realize what it meant.

She simply felt that the shape of those green shoots was completely different from that of the pioneer vine.

The pioneering vines creep and extend horizontally, occupying space in a sprawling manner, like a carpet wrinkled by the wind, spreading along the earth.

And these newly sprouted buds are growing vertically upwards.

They are thin yet powerful, rising straight up from the ground.

The sentry stared at the tender shoots, then seemed to remember something, and turned back to run towards the heart of the settlement.

When she shared her observations with the leader, the leader showed a very subtle change after she mentioned the words "growing upwards."

"Gather all the miners in the square, and also call all the lightsmiths and mediums."

The leader spoke without any particular change in tone, simply placing his palm on the trunk of the Echoing Tree.

He is seeking “revelation” and reconnecting himself with collective memory.

“There’s still time,” he told the sentry.

“Those seedlings still need time to grow. We need to use this time to figure out one thing.”

"what's up?"

What's underground?

………………

While the growth rate of the spine tree is not as rapid as that of the pioneer vine, it possesses extremely strong resilience.

They rise from the ground, orderly and steadily, growing upwards.

A mature spur tree can grow to over 30 meters tall, and once its crown is fully extended, the crown width can reach 20 meters.

The leaves are densely layered and opaque.

The green wall of spine trees quickly took full shape.

The green walls are not formed overnight. They are formed in a way similar to the tides washing over the beach, with tree canopies overlapping tree canopies, branches intertwining branches, and the gaps gradually narrowing.

Until a certain moment, sunlight pierced through the last gap, and then the gap disappeared.

The green wall has completely shut its doors.

During that period, some members of the bloodline advocated for the entire clan to migrate north, bypassing the area covered by the Green Wall;
Some have suggested shrinking the Sunscorch Line to a smaller area and concentrating resources to protect the core region;
Some suggested that a settlement could be reached with Green Tide in exchange for the latter ceasing its expansion.

After the last suggestion was made, everyone looked at the proposer as if they were an idiot:
"How do you make peace with plants?"

The proposal fizzled out amidst a flurry of laughter, but it did lighten the mood somewhat.

Then, the really important discussion began.

The mining captain stood up and placed the piece of pyroxene corroded by acid in the center.

"What they want is light."

His voice was hoarse:

"The vines steal the sunlight, and the spine trees block the sunlight. In the end, they want to cut off our light."

"They can block out the light on the ground."

He tapped the pyroxene with his finger. "But they can't reach the light underground."

The chief lightsmith then spoke:
“I have conducted experiments and found that when pyroxenes are densely packed, they will produce a chain resonance and emit light continuously.”

"Not as strong as sunlight, but enough."

The leader turned his gaze to the Echoing Tree.

The distant singing was carried by the wind, then carried away by the wind, flashing past the edge of his perception.

But that flash was enough.

"The tree will follow; as long as there is light, its roots will follow the light."

………………

The first decade after the Green Wall was closed was the most silent decade in the history of the Bloodline.

Surface activity has almost completely ceased.

From an aerial monitoring perspective, the hills were slowly swallowed up by a green curtain.

The periphery is shrinking, the interior is declining, and all signs point to a simple yet cruel conclusion: the target population is heading towards extinction.

When Serafina submitted this phase of the evaluation report to Ashe, she used a very restrained word: "As expected."

The flower buds in the Azure Garden unfurled slightly, a way for Ashe to say "I understand."

Then, the flower bud closed up again.

That seemed to be the end of it.

But beneath the surface, the real story is just beginning.

Going underground was something that had never happened in the history of the bloodline, nor had anyone ever seriously considered it.

They are children of the hills and the sunshine.

Culture, technology, and all creation point towards the sky and towards light, and have nothing to do with the darkness and silence of the underground.

The first miner to venture deep into the tunnels described the experience.

He said that as he went down, the star debris on his skin created a subtle resistance.

But that resistance was completely overwhelmed when the first pyroxene vein appeared.

Like a heartbeat, the sun buried itself underground, where it continued to burn quietly.

The first week of digging downwards was slow and difficult, with hard rock, rough tools, and narrow, cramped passageways.

Breathing became heavy, and each hammer blow kicked up a cloud of dust.

The lightsmiths acted before the main excavation team; their task was to attempt to establish the first "pyroxene resonance node" in the already explored shallow mineral veins.

The leader's description of the Echo Tree's influence is the earliest and still the most frequently cited:

"The tree sensed it, and it descended much faster."

Within three days of the first pyroxene resonance node being established, the Echoing Tree automatically began to follow.

On the other side, the green wall extends to the north and south while also continuing to advance inward.

When the light intensity dropped to 30% of its original level, the underground project had already expanded to the scale of the first large cavern.

On the rock walls of that cave, fragments of pyroxene are inlaid with each other and resonate in a chain.

It was not like noon, but closer to the thin morning light.

The leader stood in the center of the cave, his palm resting on the Echoing Tree in the crevice of the rock wall, feeling the steady vibrations emanating from its thin roots.

The tree roots have extended to the deepest part of the cave, and their tips have touched the largest piece of pyroxene on the main vein.

"The House of Sunshine is not that hill, nor is it any place on the ground."

"Solheim is where the light is."

"Home is where the light is."

The underground era of the Bloodline is described in the later epic collection "Song of Darkness".

That description has been repeatedly quoted by many psychics in their narrations.

"They want to block out the sky and suffocate us in the dark."

But the sun isn't just in the sky; it's also in the stones, and in the blood of every one of us.

The House of Sunshine burns silently in the darkness.

………………

Throughout the construction of the green wall and the continuous decrease in internal light intensity, the Blue Gardens has produced satisfactory progress reports.

The progress in the western region is in line with expectations, with the coverage area steadily expanding and the frequency of surface activity of the target population decreasing sharply.

Serafina compiled these reports into documents and stored them in a database, while maintaining a daily routine of real-time monitoring and checks.

One afternoon, the results of the examination produced an unusual fluctuation in a sub-data item that she would normally skip.

That sub-data item is the underground magic density of the area where the target population is located.

After the establishment of the Green Tide, the surface magic density in this area should be on a continuous downward trend.

However, that number did not decrease.

It stabilized at a new baseline, and... upon closer inspection, after a certain point in time, it began to climb extremely slowly but undeniably upwards.

Serafina switched the perspective to cross-sectional view mode to observe the distribution of magic in that area from the side.

Soon, she discovered the pyroxene resonance nodes arranged deep underground.

She mentally calculated the size and spacing of those nodes, and then compared the values ​​with the area of ​​their settlement.

How many of these nodes did they build?

Data feedback: Six have been established, three are under construction, and four are under exploration.

Serafina closed the report and got up to walk towards the main hall.

Ashe's reaction was slower than last time: "Just keep pushing forward."

"My lord, the existence of underground pyroxene veins indicates that their energy cycle can be maintained in a reduced manner even without sunlight on the surface."

In that case, the green wall's light-blocking effect...

"You mean, after going through all this trouble, we still haven't been able to cut off their light?"

"Yes."

"Interesting," Ashe chuckled.

"Then let the tentacles of the Mother Nest Flower seep into their ground and see the exact size of those nodes."

"If they have indeed built an energy cycle underground, then this matter... needs to be addressed in a different way."

………………

Regarding the authority of the Grand Wizard to interfere with the species he releases on the public server, one of the rules is written into the basic rules of the "Small Chessboard Usage Guidelines".

The wording of this rule is extremely apt.

It didn't directly say "interference is prohibited," but used a more elegant expression:

"The more perfect the will of creation becomes, the more cautious the creator must be in touching it."

In layman's terms: the smarter the thing you create, the less you can directly control it.

The underlying logic of this rule stems from the original design concept of the small chessboard.

The Creator's purpose in creating public servers was never to allow great wizards to remotely control armies to fight each other.

That's too boring and has no academic value whatsoever.

What He wants to see is the survival wisdom that creatures demonstrate in real competition, relying on their own will and adaptability after being separated from the Creator.

Therefore, the rules have made extremely fine-grained tiers for the interference permissions of different types of creations.

At the very bottom are creations without will.

The pioneering vines of the green tide don't think about "why I'm spreading westward"; they simply execute the expansion instructions written into their genes.

Iron Tide's replication unit doesn't question "Why should I turn this ore into parts?"; it simply follows the fixed procedures set at the factory.

For this type of creation, the creator has almost complete control:
Adjusting growth direction, modifying replication parameters, specifying attack targets... all done with effortless ease.

Because they do not have a "self" that needs to be respected.

The middle layer consists of creatures with low willpower, generally herds of beasts that possess instinctive reactions but lack abstract thinking.

The hordes of aberrant beasts released by the Abyss School are among them.

They possess a primal, instinctual "will"—foraging, courtship, and territorial disputes—but lack advanced cognitive abilities.

Creators can indirectly guide the direction of behavior by manipulating instincts.

For example, releasing pheromones in a specific area to attract herds of animals, or creating environmental pressure to force herds to migrate in a target direction.

However, it is impossible to precisely control the specific actions of an individual.

It's no different from herding sheep. You can decide which direction the flock goes, but you can't control what grass each sheep eats along the way.

Bloodline beings are among the very few humanoid species on the public server who possess complete self-will.

They have language, culture, beliefs, and the ability to make independent judgments.

For this type of independent species, the influence that the creator can exert is strictly limited to the level of "indirect suggestion".

Dreams, revelations, omens—these are all forms of intervention permitted by the rules. On a fogged mirror, a few scribbled letters are written with a finger.

Whether they can recognize those letters, understand their meaning, and translate them into action... depends entirely on themselves.

Ultimately, the decision-making power always rests with the species itself.

This is why experiments on humanoid populations on public servers are widely recognized as the most difficult, risky, yet also the most academically valuable type of experiment.

Because you can't make decisions for them.

You can only watch from afar, occasionally sending a faint hint through that fogged-up mirror.

Then pray that your creation is intelligent, resilient, and lucky enough.

"Environmental calibration" is a privilege that each new participant has only once, and it falls under the category of direct intervention within the scope permitted by the rules.

From then on, his only way of influencing his bloodline was through apocalypse.

"You, right now, are essentially doing the same thing as the 'mansion owner' in Hector's story."

“The difference is…” Acelia joked, “You, the owner of this mansion, can only stand outside the door and throw notes in.”

Ron did not refute.

He sat in the observation room, with a wall of real-time data streams in front of him and a stack of draft paper covered with writing on it beside him.

The drafts were filled with various blueprints, including the crystal structure of pyroxene, the light refraction path, and the energy density distribution curve...

They are for those blood-related mediums to see.

To be precise, it's for their dreams to see.

The years underground are different from those on earth.

There are no seasons to measure time, nor sunrise and sunset to mark the passage of time.

Deep within the cave, the only thing that can mark the passage of time is the flickering of pyroxene.

The clusters of crystals embedded in the rock face breathe with an extremely slow rhythm—lighting up, dimming, and then lighting up again.

Each complete cycle of light and shadow is called "one breath" by the bloodline.

Sixty breaths make up one cycle, and three hundred and sixty cycles make up one reign period.

This calendar system was so crude that it could almost be called primitive, yet it was strictly used throughout the long underground years.

Ron was browsing through evolutionary data accumulated over hundreds of years (internal time) in the observation room, his fingertips slowly sliding across the holographic panel.

The amount of data was so large that tools were needed to help with classification. Under the single item "Light Craftsmanship Technology Iteration", more than 300 sub-branches were derived.

"Three generations of technological iterations."

He marked the key points and drew a timeline extending from left to right on his notebook.

The pyroxene focusing lens was the earliest product, and it underwent some improvements after being brought underground.

The light engineers fix the polished pyroxene flakes onto a metal support and use the crystal’s natural refractive properties to focus the dispersed pyroxene resonant light into a directional beam.

Condensing lenses are primarily used for lighting and agriculture.

The descendants of the Bloodline created "Light Fields" in underground caves, using a focusing mirror to project the light energy of pyroxene onto specific areas to cultivate a root crop that can grow under low light conditions.

Those crops had a coarse texture and were not particularly nutritious; they were barely enough to fill one's stomach.

The second generation is the pyroxene resonance network.

This was a true technological leap, and what propelled this leap was Ron's conscious divine revelation.

In addition, the lightsmiths spent three generations to finally figure out the rules of pyroxene resonance.

The resonance conditions between pyroxenes are extremely demanding:

Quality, distance, angle, mineral composition of surrounding rock strata... any deviation of any parameter exceeding a critical value will cause the resonance to break.

Once successfully established, the resonance network can transfer energy.

High-quality pyroxenes can be concentrated in a few hubs, and then the energy can be distributed to every corner of the underground city through a network.

Just as the heart pumps blood, which travels along arteries and capillaries to the fingertips at the farthest point of the body.

The size of underground cities has therefore expanded dramatically.

What began as a cave that could only accommodate a few hundred people has evolved into a vast underground city stretching for tens of kilometers and spanning seven layers of rock.

The bloodline gave it a name – “Deep Sun City”.

"The sun in the depths"—a contradictory yet precise image.

Ron also discovered an interesting detail in the data.

After the resonance network was built, the growth rate of the Echo Tree increased nearly threefold.

The tree roots extend along the path of the resonant link, as if they have found a pre-paved highway.

The light energy of the pyroxene flows through the resonant network, and the roots of the Echo Tree cling to this energy network, absorbing the excess heat that overflows from it.

The two systems spontaneously formed a symbiotic relationship without any external design.

"The self-organizing coupling of technology and life."

That feeling is hard to describe accurately in words.

The program I wrote suddenly started writing new subroutines.

The third generation is the pyroxene pulse bomb.

The background to the emergence of this technology is completely different from that of the previous two generations.

The focusing lens is for survival, and the resonant network is for life.

The pyroxene pulse bomb, from the very first day of its conception, was designed for war.

Data shows that the development of this technology began with a mining accident.

The explosion destroyed half of the mine tunnel, killing three miners instantly.

The Echoing Tree faithfully recorded all of this.

The explosive power, the range of destruction, the energy release pattern... all this information is stored deep within the tree roots.

Later, when the lightsmiths obtained this memory through a medium, their first reaction was to calculate its usability.

"What if such an uncontrollable explosion could be guided and controlled by humans?"

The research and development process is lengthy and dangerous.

Nearly a hundred years (internal time) of repeated trial and error, dozens of lightsmiths were injured or killed in the experiments.

Their experiences and lessons were all preserved by the Echo Tree, so that successors could learn from them, improve upon them, and avoid repeating the same mistakes.

This method of intergenerational knowledge transfer is far more efficient than any traditional method.

Every new lightsmith starts at a point where their predecessors paid the ultimate price with their lives, ultimately creating terrifying weapons of mass destruction.

"Hopefully they can use this to fight back against the ground. If they stay any longer, they'll really become a caveman race."

Cave dwellers—this has absolutely nothing to do with the evolutionary path they set for themselves.

Ron closed his notebook and looked down at the planet's surface.

The green wall still stands there, like an overwhelming emerald screen.

But directly beneath that green wall, a tunnel deep underground has already been quietly laid out.

The end of each tunnel is precisely aligned with the roots of a spine tree.

Hundreds of pyroxene pulse bombs lay quietly at their designated detonation points, awaiting the moment they would be activated.

"The date they chose, if I remember correctly, should be..."

The dragon soul, who had been observing the whole thing, began to silently recall.

"First dawn."

The First Dawn, the most sacred day in the bloodline calendar, the day the first Echoing Tree awakens.

In the collective memory of the bloodline, that day represents "the birth of light from darkness".

And now, they have chosen this day to launch their counterattack.

Reclaim light from darkness, declare war from the earth to the sky.

Its meaning does not require any medium to interpret; every bloodline understands it.

………………

The way signals are transmitted reflects the application of resonant networks in the military field.

Now the ninth generation leader, he placed his palm on the Echoing Tree in the center of Deep Sun City.

A silent pulse originates from the main hub and travels at the speed of light along the resonant link to every terminal node.

Each terminal node is connected to the fuse slot of a pyroxene pulse bomb.

The time between the signal being sent and all the bombs detonating was less than a breath.

In the silent explosion, hundreds of dazzling golden-white beams of light shot up from the depths of the earth almost simultaneously.

They penetrated rock layers tens of meters thick, the intricate root system of the spine tree, and layers upon layers of humus and mycelial networks.

Ultimately, it shattered the foundation of the green wall.

The spine tree rapidly carbonizes from its roots, resembling giant candles lit from the bottom.

After adjusting to a high-altitude perspective, Ron felt that this was probably the biggest birthday cake he had ever seen.

The charred, broken pieces of wood were piled up haphazardly, and the scorched vines curled up on the ground.

The remains of the Pioneer Vine were still wriggling weakly, trying to take root again from the ashes.

However, the burning effect left by the pyroxene pulse completely changed the chemical composition of that soil in a short period of time.

The pH value was severely off, and the organic matter content plummeted to almost zero.

For any plant, that land had become a barren wasteland.

This will be true, at least for the next few years.

Sunlight streamed in through the gap.

Soldiers poured out of the underground passage, one team after another, in an orderly fashion.

They were clad in the latest version of the pyroxene armor.

The armor plates refracted tiny sparkles in the sunlight, enveloping each warrior wearing them in a layer of flowing fire.

The ninth leader stood in the very center of the gap, holding a sapphire spear in his hand.

He raised his spear high.

Without needing any words, all the bloodline that emerged from the ground shouted in unison upon seeing the sunlight.

His voice was rough and hoarse, carrying the pent-up frustration that had been building up deep underground for too long.

Ron watched this scene from the observation room, his fingers unconsciously gripping the armrests.

"pretty."

Then, I quickly composed myself and switched back to analytical mode.

"But this is just the beginning."

He pulled up Green Tide's real-time repair data.

The numbers are jumping, jumping very fast.

The remnants of the pioneer vines at the edge of the gap could not take root in the scorched area, but healthy vegetation slightly further away from the scorched area had begun to extend rapidly toward the gap.

The seeds of the spine tree are being continuously transported here by wind and mycelial networks.

Based on the current repair rate:

"If no follow-up action is taken, the gap will be filled again in about a month."

The repair mechanism of Green Tide is essentially a decentralized self-healing system.

There is no single brain directing the repair process.

Each pioneer vine, each spine tree, and each mother nest flower independently executes its own "growth instructions."

You can destroy any part of it, but as long as the remaining vegetation density exceeds a critical value, the entire system will automatically start a repair process.

It's like cutting off a section of an earthworm's body; the remaining part will regenerate on its own and eventually return to its original state.

"unless……"

Ron shifted his gaze from the data repair to the red arrows on the battlefield map that were moving toward the north and south flanks.

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

"It seems I don't need to send the leader a dream anymore." (End of Chapter)