Four-Armed Divine Emperor

There are so many weird sons, but without exception they still maintain absolute obedience to Al.

Some of them have such violent personalities that they seem born to destroy. They have an extraordinary logic of dealing with things that is indifferent to ordinary descendants. Instead, they will do their best to release their power within the framework of ethnic plans and respecting the will of the father, causing extraordinary consequences.

But he has never disobeyed El's will, harmed his own people, or disobeyed the orders of his "brother".

Therefore, Ai'er currently holds a positive attitude towards the distortions that arise during the transformation process. The emergence of a person with predictive ability, even though the Four-Armed Clan has not yet officially utilized some of the prophecies and secrets he described, has indeed brought greater possibilities to the clan.

He discovered that there were talents in his talent tree that specifically enhanced the occurrence of this type of distortion, [Unstable Proliferation], [Secret Treasure]... But because of his limited talent points, he had more important things to do, so he had not yet tried to make any effort in this direction.

.........

In the eyes of others, this "banquet" lasted a little too long.

Alan consultants who were "invited" by their peers went there in the morning and came back late at night.

And many people changed their clothes. If this happened in another situation, such as a wife going out... then it would obviously be a sad story.

But even among the captives, the advisors who are extraordinary beings are unique and will not be treated as normal prisoners. If they are treated in a friendly manner, the victorious party may even allow them to move freely, which is a treatment that even prisoners of war such as princes and nobles do not have.

The camp where they are accommodated is also a separate residence. Because they are from the Alan people, they are more or less accompanied by one or two loyal "mage attendants" to follow and serve them. In fact, they are slaves who are loyal to the mages.

The floating city does not approve of slavery, which is a benevolent policy of the wizards, because enslaving intelligent beings was a major atrocity committed by the wizard kings in the past. In addition, there was a legendary figure among the white-robed wizards who founded the White Tower Order who was born a slave. That legendary figure luckily survived the battle between his master wizard and other extraordinary people. Then, relying on his familiarity with the wizard tower over the years and the wizard's mentality of not being wary of a "tool", he took over the legacy left by his master and embarked on the road to transcendence.

Therefore, the Order of the White Tower declared its opposition to slavery at the beginning of its establishment.

However, most of them only remained at the verbal level, or pretended to oppose. For example, those lucky ones who were fortunate enough to board the floating city and embark on the path of transcendence would later "physically" reject slavery, such as changing the name of slaves to "hired servants" to show that they had not forgotten the teachings of the White Tower and were practicing the attitude passed down by the sages.

It's the same among mortals. The Alan people have been doing their own thing for a long time, and they are still an "empire built on slavery". At most, every year when new wizards graduate, or when there are activities or ceremonies with the floating city, they will announce the return of a group of free slaves as a sign of respect.

These "slaves not called 'slaves'" are death warriors, but they are not loyal to anyone. Instead, whoever obtains the symbol of command authority will have command power, similar to the slaves of the Unsullied in the Song of Killing and Fucking.

During their training, they will be branded with the mark of "master" deep in their hearts through various means. At first, the holder is the instructor, then the slave owner, and then the person who buys them. The condition for transferring ownership is that the previous master personally says that the slaves will be handed over and a mark of the new master is branded on them.

The servants that the mages of Alan like to carry with them the most are these die-hard slaves. This is what the Western mages, such as the Aegean mages and the spellcasters of the Kronos Empire, envy, because there, slavery is at least banned on the surface, and the use of cruel means to train and tame such death warriors is criticized. However, the powerful and wealthy are privately proud of owning high-level slaves from the Alan Empire.

They are loyal to their masters to the death, and will not hesitate even if they are asked to kill their predecessor the next moment after handing over command.

It can keep secrets, remain unwavering in the face of danger... and has its own independent thinking, making it more useful than a stupid magic puppet.

Chapter 121: Mystery of the Astral World

How could such a loyal servant betray his master?

Not to mention any behavioral abnormalities.

Even if the master wizard went back and tore off his human skin coat in front of them, and a monster with an alien appearance came out from it, and then leaked some "the army of the other world is ready and will soon attack the world of Il"

Chapter 254

The secret of "destroying this place or enslaving this race" was given to these slaves. The "Unsullied" who had been trained to "have no thoughts other than obeying orders" were shaken in the slightest when they heard and saw these things, which were a terrifying bolt from the blue for any normal person.

For these slaves whose brains are "broken" in a sense and who have been trained by their masters into their current twisted appearance, but who are considered by the powerful to be "luxury tools" worthy of possession, everything about them is not in their own control. Their life or death depends entirely on the current "master".

In the past they were just a tool, but now they have a new life with infinite possibilities under the great illumination of the Honored Father.

The first thing that the Alan mages who were converted in large numbers did when they returned was to develop all these slaves who were loyal to their masters into their own "descendants".

Less than a week after El arrived in Helveys and presided over the post-war "celebration banquet" to transform all the Alan wizards into the four-armed tribe.

All the commanders, big and small, in the entire Northern Expedition Army - at least those Alan officers with the status of officers and minor nobles - became "Romans' own people".

On the contrary, the real core, such as Prince Ahmed or other high-ranking dignitaries of a slightly lower level, are still unaware of what is happening around them. They have no idea that they have only been captured for a few days and all the people under them have become "traitors."

There is no benefit in killing a captive of the Imperial Prince's rank. If he is left alive, unless Alan is kept under house arrest and not released, he will inevitably come into contact with higher-level beings in some situations, such as a "demigod wizard" of the seventh ring.

Although Al has tested it, his strength has now grown to an extremely exaggerated level.

After the sixth-ring wizard Sandy Jerem became Ai'er's new offspring, Ai'er had a confrontation training with this offspring, who was the strongest offspring among all the spellcasters in Thurso except him in terms of level, not counting the power of psychic power but only the ability to cast spells.

And he was able to crush him easily. Later, Al only used one kind of power, such as warlock spells or psychic power, and he could easily defeat Sandy who had both spells and psychic power. According to the latter's analysis, he believed that Al's power dimension might have reached the level of a nine-ring wizard. He was only one step away from being on par with the former White Tower wizards.

Of course, none of the mages who have reached this level will live up to their titles of "mystery seeker" and "knowledge seeker". Nowadays, there are few who are not on the journey of exploring the astral world. According to Sandy Jerem, the strongest people in the floating city of "Palace of Wisdom" where he was born are now only two eighth-ring mages and a ninth-ring mage who is recovering from his injuries after returning from the astral world.

There are quite a few Seven-Ring Mages, probably in the tens. The exact number may be even higher, because no one else can know whether some of the more solitary mages are in the floating city or not.

For example, travelers who explore the astral plane may go straight to their own wizard tower in the demiplane or material world to retreat upon returning. Sandy doesn't know the details.

However, the mages standing at the pinnacle of the mortal world would give lectures and share with the younger generations from time to time according to the rules first formulated by the White Tower Mage, telling them about some knowledge and mysteries among the stars, and their experiences on the road of learning. Therefore, Sandy has a better understanding of the number of real bosses currently in the floating city.

For mages, exploring the stars is not only an ocean of knowledge where they can acquire new knowledge, but also a treasure trove for them to gain more power.

Every mage has the ability to turn knowledge into weapons, which is the basic skill of mages.

Chapter 127: Ardabil (47)

It is hard to imagine what kind of magic and beauty the earliest White Tower wizards who explored the astral world witnessed and what kind of power they mastered after a long journey where time flowed at a far different speed.

The Nine Rings Arcane Magic is just a system of subdividing strength planned by the White Tower mages for future generations, so that later apprentices have a clear direction for advancement. Any spellcaster who can reach the highest point of the Nine Rings has actually already broken away from the scope represented by the framework established by the predecessors.

Their future depends entirely on the opportunities and talents they can obtain.

There was once a wizard who, soon after ascending to the Seventh Aspect, could not wait to explore the Astral Plane. Later, injured and returning to Eir, he wrote a book systematically recounting what he had seen and heard during his relatively short journey. In it, the author lamented the immensity of the stars and the infinite beauty nurtured by the multiverse, and he also lamented with longing:

The infinite possibilities contained in the astral world make even the greatest wisdom imaginable by humans seem so humble in the face of nature;

But looking back, I can't help but sigh: those adventurers from my tribe who were the first to explore the outside world have taken their home world far, far beyond where it was.

He believed that the White Tower wizards who first began to explore the stars might have reached a realm that was unimaginable to the people of the Il world, becoming "transcendents" of a higher dimension. They could no longer be viewed with the mundane concepts of the Il world, and nothing was important to them anymore.

They might even have the ability to create a new world from scratch, and be able to defeat all the extraordinary people remaining in the Il world with their own strength...

Although this is just an excited work by a wizard who has been to the outer space once, it can also be seen from

Chapter 255

Some spots of the outside world can be seen in it.

The mage was injured and had to turn back when he first explored the outside world. This was because there were guides in the White Tower who had already found out some coordinates, which could ensure that those who came after them would not leave Ir blindly and be strangled by danger.

You can imagine how dangerous it is outside the domain, but at the same time, danger also represents opportunity.

Al was always worried that he would stir up trouble and create a lot of noise in the mortal world. As a result, when the star gate opened, an ordinary white-robed wizard came back and cast a forbidden spell or some mysterious power from the outside world, which directly hit him. That's why he had to be cautious and develop in Serso.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be so difficult to deal with an empire composed mainly of mortals.

Just send troops forward and use snowball tactics. How can a mere A Lan withstand the strength of an army of tens or even millions of psychics?

After conquering a place, they can directly carry out collective blood regeneration, and tens of thousands to millions of new extraordinary combat forces will join the army, which can also enhance Ai'er's personal strength.

He would not reveal his abnormality too quickly before he got the specific situation of the star realm and had a rough estimate of the explorers. It would be best to try to "replace" the entire Il world with his own people while the explorers were unaware of the changes that had taken place in their hometown.

122: The Essence of the White Pagoda Master

Elgo developed in Thurso, secretly accumulating strength, infiltrating the surroundings, and achieving fruitful results.

He had always wanted to obtain information about what the mages called "the astral plane", "the multiverse", and "the place between the stars".

However, the threshold for these things to be made by mages is very high, and it is difficult to reach the level below the seventh ring, so there has been no result.

Grace, the first female wizard accepted into the tribe under El, once studied under a sixth-ring wizard of the prophecy system known as "Wise and Foolish", and switched from her original Shaping system to the study of prophecy spells.

The prophecy spells are very difficult to learn, and it is even more difficult to improve. Generally speaking, the "level" is low, and the highest level still active in the Il world is only six rings, because this subject is difficult to learn, but once you get into it, your power will far exceed that of other systems. The ability to predict the future and divine good and bad luck is very important in the astral realm. It is difficult to get started, difficult to advance, and even more difficult to break through, but once you cross that threshold, you will immediately soar into the sky.

All the prophecy mages who had reached the seventh ring and above went directly to the astral realm. Some high-ranking people would even take the initiative to invite them to travel together and take care of each other.

Because of its special nature, it is not like the Transmutation spells. As long as one has the talent for spellcasting, there is no question of whether one can learn it or not, the only question is whether one can master it or not.

Instead, it depends particularly on personal talent and "compatibility".

Grace was chosen by the prophecy wizard to follow her because she had some kind of "potential aura", but after studying for a while, her personal understanding and talent could only be described as average.

Afterwards, seeing that she would not make much progress in the floating city, he simply sent her to the mortal world to gain some experience. After that, she ended up in Thurso...

The wise and foolish man, whose behavior was different from that of ordinary people and who appeared to be "crazy and insane", often made predictions in the astronomical tower. Whenever he saw the results, he would become nervous for a while, which was called "going crazy".

Grace served beside her, and the latter did not treat her as an outsider, or rather, there was no one else in her eyes. No matter whether she was muttering to herself or shouting wildly without any image, she would not avoid Grace. Although the female mage sometimes did not intend to hear some secret news, the voice did reach her ears, and she could not hide from it. Therefore, from the whispers of the six-ring mage, Grace also learned some information that might not seem insignificant at the moment, but was actually of great significance.

There is one passage that Grace remembers most vividly:

At that time, the wise fool seemed to have a deep understanding after the end of a stargazing session, and satirized the great wizards who established the White Tower order and "the people they defeated". After analysis by Ai'er and his descendants, the enemies defeated by the White Tower wizards here should refer to the group of ancient "wizard kings".

They are all birds of a feather, they only see themselves and regard themselves as the world; but the great wizards do not have the power of the wizard king to monopolize everything.

The overthrow of the Witch King's tyranny was a great change in the world. The development of civilization led to a rapid increase in population. The return of the magic tide gave birth to a large number of natural spellcasters in the world. Although they did not have the power of the Witch King to move mountains and fill the sea and call the wind and rain, they should not be underestimated. These "wise men in the opposition" who held power, whether they wanted to continue to climb to the top and gain greater strength, or to seek to be the best, hold power and enjoy their lives, all had conflicts of interest with the Witch King himself and his vassals at the time, such as the "Four-Armed Gods" who were the first to retreat to Thurso and establish a country to survive.

The wizard kings are accustomed to absolute control over their subjects. They can go for years or even decades without issuing an order or communicating with their subjects. But when their will comes, their subjects must obey unconditionally, even if it means ordering them to commit mass suicide!

The natural born spellcasters born in the new era, after gaining power, naturally did not want to continue to be the dogs of the Witch King, or even become the dogs of those who relied on the authority of the Witch King.

The conflict broke out like this, and since the wizard king group really didn't do much, when they were messing around, they were almost a combination of Greek gods and Yahweh in the Old Testament.

Chapter 256

The first person to be served by the Zoroastrian civilization, the Lord of Light and Flame, once felt disappointed because a human sacrifice who voluntarily burned himself to death during a fire prayer ceremony to pay tribute to him screamed in pain from the raging fire. He set fire to the entire city and burned it to the ground. This is a clear example.

So the mortals united together, overthrew the "Old Kings" from the altar, shattered the "Binding Law of the Old Days", and brought in a new generation where "everyone can be like a dragon".

However, in the mouth of the prophet, the "White Tower Wizards" who are considered to be in charge of all this, are tall and righteous, and whose names alone represent wisdom and blessings, are no different in essence from those evil wizard kings who have committed many evil things and deserve to be trampled on by ten thousand feet after being knocked off the altar and never be able to stand up again.

However, the White Pagoda mages are not as powerful as the latter, and they do not have the ability to have the final say and control the world.

So they gave full play to their intelligence and talents, and as the proverb goes, "Solve a princess's riddle and you can become a prince's consort, and gain 1% of the country's wealth and power." As a result, the elites of the entire kingdom became addicted to solving puzzles and solving puzzles, and were no longer belligerent like in the past. Like the kings who stabilized the throne for themselves and their descendants, they used some means to restrain the heroes of the world and finally achieved their goals in another way.

And based on what the White Pagoda mages did later, this method is naturally clear at a glance:

He created the White Tower, raised the floating city, and fought two wars with the secular kingdom that held powerful supernatural powers. In the end, all things returned to their origin, and the secret magic came from the sky and never fell into the mortal world.

After this, the White Tower mages took the initiative to launch a long-term copy of "Exploring the Star Realm", and took the lead in firing the first shot of "opening up the stars and colonizing other worlds" in the world of Il. Of course, this qualification is limited to extraordinary people.

The White Tower continuously cultivates talents, but most of the mages among them cannot reach the threshold of the Seven Rings. They can only choose to live out their extraordinary yet ordinary lives in the secular world, serving the mortal dignitaries, or live their own lives behind closed doors in spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Most of the people who reached the seventh ring had been to the star realm at least once. Some went there and came back, and never seemed to go there again. Some simply plunged into the star gate and were never heard from again, and no one knew whether they were dead or alive.

According to Al's judgment, the so-called "endless possibilities of the stars" of the White Tower mages, which attracted talented people who pursued knowledge with the infinite treasures contained in the vast world, and regarded the "star realm" as the goal of life pursuit, was somewhat questionable.

Especially after he already had so many "native" extraordinary people under his command, he still had not obtained any reliable intelligence about the star realm, which was a bit abnormal.

No matter how aloof the mages are, or how little they identify with their country or region, they can still return home empty-handed after a long journey. Moreover, they have been exploring for so many years, it is impossible that they have not visited other civilized worlds. Their worlds must be very different from the world of Il. Just bringing back some technology, history, etc. can have a huge impact on the world.

But just talking about Tartarus, it seems that there is no mention of the impact of the outer realm behind the "Star Gate".

The descriptions of the astral realm are mostly what are mentioned in the books of mages. It is magnificent, mysterious, and incredible... But it seems that if you don't cross that threshold that can be touched, you can only be separated by a thick screen, and you will know nothing about the details inside, like seeing flowers in the fog.

Chapter 127: Ardabil (48)

123: Southern Strategy

Of course, Al will not fall into the quagmire of skepticism that "I haven't seen it = it doesn't exist".

It is simply a reasonable assumption and hypothesis about something that must have a great secret behind it.

For example, those legendary "White Tower Wizards" are actually old monsters who rely on eating humans to prolong their lives or increase their "cultivation".

After gathering all the dharmas, they fabricated the lie of the "Astral Realm" to legitimately lure those rising stars who had reached a certain level of realm into exploring the "outer realm," in fact, to "devour" them all...

Because "going abroad" is not an option, one must "leave the ball" to disappear reasonably.

As we all know, the speed of time flows differently in different worlds, so the speed in the Il world might be considered slow. It is normal for those mages to not come back for dozens or hundreds of years after leaving. Not many people will remember them after a while. Extraordinary people are generally not a group that cares about family and bloodlines. Even if they are still staying in the floating city, they may forget that they left bloodlines in the secular world.

Besides, astral exploration is not without dangers. If you are not careful, you might get stuck somewhere. It is normal. It depends on time and fate...

.......

This is of course just a possible guess. It's weird and a bit fantasy-like, but it's not completely impossible.

Everything about the astral realm can only be solved after Al actually catches someone who has been to the astral realm.

What is more important now is to solve the current problems:

Regarding the strategic issues of the Alan Empire.

This is what he has been mainly focusing on these days.

He instigated a rebellion in the five northern provinces and wiped out the 300,000-strong imperial army led by Prince Ahmed in one fell swoop.

This is not only a devastating loss for any country, but also an unforgettable humiliation!

If it is a war of equals between empires, it would be fine if you lose. It is a fair competition and there is still honor in losing.

But the Alan people lost miserably, at least on the surface, because they were betrayed by internal traitors and had no honor.

Chapter 257