Chapter 532 |
Benson never walked out of the Academy Department. After conveying Clarke’s intentions to Adam, he killed himself right in front of Adam—without even waiting for an answer.
Whether Adam agreed or not, Benson could not be allowed to leave alive.
If Adam agreed, Clarke would need buffer time to quietly extract all parts of his industry that were entangled with the consortiums and other Free Super-Dimensional Mages.
And if Adam refused, Clarke could simply claim that Benson had acted without authorization. He would still lose credibility, but at least retain a foothold for survival.
“Looks like their days haven’t been very easy lately.”
After Benson’s death, a voice sounded beside Adam—Nehem had returned to the Mage World, bringing Adam’s main body back with him.
“Your Excellency.”
Nehem waved his hand. “Don’t call me that—I’m not used to it. Just use my name.”
Adam smiled slightly but didn’t respond. To him, “Your Excellency” was a form of respect for higher knowledge—something indispensable.
Nehem seemed in a good mood and more talkative than usual.
“The Academy Continent, the Aether-Chain Fission, the Virtual World, Personal Chips—these things caused the value of many previously important resources to plummet. And the Cataclysm Zone War made them realize that opposing the Holy Tower brings them no benefit. In future wars of this scale, only by following the Holy Tower can they maximize their gains.”
Mages are war-profiteers.
The Free Faction would never stop waging war because of fear of losses. The Cataclysm Zone War had huge costs, yes—but the profits were enormous. And the Free Faction had barely tasted the crumbs of that massive pie.
“The reason I could establish a Holy Tower immediately upon promotion is because of my special identity—you should already know this.”
Adam nodded.
“But all other True Spirits in the Free Faction—they may own Tier-9 Starships, they may launch large-scale external wars—but they can never establish a Holy Tower. Do you know why?”
Adam thought for a moment.
“Because every Holy Tower must be linked to the Source and the Arcane Formation that maintains the Mage World?”
“Exactly. A Holy Tower is a top-tier war weapon, yes—but its symbolic and defensive significance is even greater. Every Holy Tower is a crucial component of the Mage World, second only to the Origin Mage Net. I find the Immortal Dao saying quite interesting—in their view, the Towers ‘suppress the world’s destiny.’”
“The Free True Spirits have always been dissatisfied with this. Luckily, Prometheus wasn’t foolish enough to compromise on this point. But with the appearance of the Heterogeneous Tower System, some Free Mages now see a new opportunity.”
Adam frowned. “I don’t quite understand.”
“They want to support the construction of more Heterogeneous Towers—towers that are nominally foreign, but secretly under their control.”
“But… what’s the point?”
“There is no point yet, because in reality there’s only one such tower—the First Immortal Spirit Heterogeneous Tower—and it hasn’t even been built. But in the future, we will have to offer these Heterogeneous Towers certain benefits—for example, resurrection compensation. Otherwise, they would never willingly fight for the Mages.”
Adam understood.
Even within the Free Faction, opinions were diverging. Because building more Heterogeneous Towers and covertly infiltrating them would take a very long time. Some were willing to wait; others weren’t.
“But why are they in such a hurry? Aren’t they normally the best at waiting and watching?”
Nehem said, “Prometheus, Randolph, Maxison, and I jointly resisted the Exploration Robots. Once the Free True Spirits learned what those robots can do, they immediately realized that the pace of the Mage World’s exploration and conquest of the Void would accelerate drastically. The coming era will be full of large-scale wars. Some don’t want to miss out on the immense profits by waiting too long.”
Adam didn’t care who was credited as the inventor of the Exploration Robots—he simply found it strange that these scattered factors could cause a full split so quickly.
Nehem smiled. “These matters aren’t suitable for you to handle personally. I’ll spread the news myself. The Academy Department will also leave an avatar behind. Leave the rest to me.”
As Nehem predicted, the sixty-seven problematic Mage Towers began secretly defecting to the Academy Department one after another. Outside the Academy Department, defections and realignments were also happening continuously.
But Adam did not involve himself. Instead, his focus was on the mortal war that was nearing its end.
The plan to destroy the Basic and Intermediate Academies did not stop because Clarke and others reported it.
On the contrary, the Anti-Mages and the towers that were driven into desperation launched their attacks even faster.
Almost all Anti-Mages, many mortals and apprentices consumed by desire, along with Free Mages who had secretly infiltrated the Academy Continent—all struck simultaneously. They attacked two thousand Basic Academies and five hundred Intermediate Academies, believing the timing to be flawlessly concealed.
But everything they did was already within Adam’s grasp.
The standby High-Grade Law-Enforcement Robots, together with the Watchers and Guardians, effortlessly blocked the assaults.
The Anti-Mages were uprooted completely.
And whatever the towers had promised their Formal Mages, the instant these attackers were captured, they all chose suicide without exception—hoping their deaths could shield the figures behind them.
But that was only their wishful thinking.
The Council already had evidence. And even if they didn’t—so what?
From the moment the attacks began, the Watchers and Guardians had already begun infiltrating the locations of those towers. They were only waiting for the command to begin the arrests.
Meanwhile, ordinary graduates and apprentices were no longer able to resist Nicholas V’s Scepter Empire. Their nations began collapsing from within. Betrayers were countless. Many even fled to the Academy City, begging the Academy Department to shelter them—and to destroy the “false-god nation.”
Adam ignored them all and drove them away.
In his eyes, these people were already dead.
They casually started wars—and when defeat approached, they wanted the Mages to dispense justice? There is no such cheap deal in the world.
Seeing the Mages unmoved, the Scepter Empire struck even more aggressively and ruthlessly.
Like a scythe through grass, they swept away all opposition and their forces. The war that engulfed the entire Academy Continent calmed within just two short years.