Just as the wizards began dividing the spoils from the Hollow City, the dark purple sky rapidly shifted from faint to transparent.

Jie Ming stored away the sealed crystal, raised his head, and looked toward the sky.

The other wizards noticed it as well and quickly finished allocating their loot.

Above the ruins of the Hollow City, the wizards hovered in small groups. No one spoke; everyone was waiting for the final “invitation.” Soon, the sky split open.

A long, narrow black fissure extended from above the clouds all the way into the high skies. It was thousands of meters long, narrowing gradually from both ends toward the middle, with the widest point still exceeding a hundred meters.

It looked as if someone had sliced the firmament with an extremely sharp scalpel.

Austin’s projection condensed from the light within the fissure. Although his gaze seemed unfocused, every person present felt they had been noticed.

The eighth-ring Archwizard first swept his eyes over everyone, confirming the plane’s condition and the state of the wizards on site, then nodded. The motion was light, but every wizard present read an undisguised satisfaction in that nod.

“Thank you all for your efforts.”

Austin’s voice was not loud, yet every word seemed to arrive simultaneously from all directions. “Next, this plane’s society needs stabilization, the environment requires repair, and the anomaly production mechanism also needs readjustment. These tasks are not suitable for external forces to intervene in.” He raised his right hand, palm facing up, fingers slightly spread.

The massive fissure spanning the sky slowly expanded under his gesture, the blackness at its edges becoming even purer.

“So please, take your spoils and leave.”

His tone was calm, but the meaning was clear: time to see the guests off.

Jie Ming hovered in the air, looking at the fissure with no surprise in his heart.

His previous speculation had been correct.

Austin’s lifeform transformation could not be completed overnight. He had only finished the most critical part—the core step of fusing with a large amount of the plane’s anomalies.

What followed was a long process of digestion, absorption, and truly converting those anomalous powers into part of himself.

During this process, Austin was vulnerable. He would devote most of his energy internally and could not attend to the outside.

These wizards had essentially been hired by him as “stabilizers” during his period of weakness, helping him suppress the plane’s backlash and ensure that the civilization within the plane would not collapse during his breakthrough.

Now that the most dangerous step was complete, he no longer needed the stabilizers.

To mitigate the long-term impact of this event on the plane’s anomalous ecosystem and to ensure stable future anomaly production, this plane would likely enter a prolonged state of closure.

After all, the people here were not long-lived species.

Long stretches of time would turn earth-shaking events into legends. After just a few generations, the upheaval and the influence the wizards had on human society in this plane could be smoothed away.

Only when that eighth-ring wizard deemed the time right would the door open again.

After those polite words, Austin’s projection began to fade.

Those deep blue eyes blinked once in the final moment of fading, then vanished along with the entire projection into the sky.

Seeing this, the other wizards obediently stopped what they were doing and flew toward the black fissure in the sky.

The wizards on Jie Ming’s side naturally flew upward as well, with Jie Ming at the rear.

Austin had likely applied some spatial technique. The wizards had not flown for long before they quickly reached the edge of the fissure. The black spatial fissure unfolded before him like a door without panels.

At the spatial fissure, Jie Ming paused for a moment.

As if remembering something, he reached his left hand into the inner side of his robe and took out a black notebook from his internal cave heaven. There were no words on the cover, the edges were worn white, and the spine had obvious creases.

This was the notebook left behind by Professor Victor.

After studying all its contents, Jie Ming had not destroyed it and had carried it with him ever since.

The black notebook floated up from his hand like a leaf falling from a tree. It flipped several times in the air, then ignited spontaneously. Flames licked across the notebook’s cover and every page. The paper curled and blackened in the fire.

Jie Ming watched it burn quietly.

Red flames danced in his pupils, casting shifting light and shadow across his face.

Soon, the final page turned to ash in the flames. The ash lingered in the air for an instant, then scattered silently like snowflakes.

“This plane is about to enter a closed state. Consider it your opportunity,” Jie Ming thought to himself. “I have already planted the seeds. Whether you can seize this chance depends on yourselves.”

He paused, shifting his gaze away from the dispersing ash and looking toward the east.

That was the region where Mist Capital was located.

From this height, Mist Capital appeared only as a blurry gray spot, wrapped in gray-white mist and impossible to see clearly.

“Professor, the favor you asked of me—I have more or less completed it. Rest in peace.”

He did not linger any longer.

Turning around, he followed the many wizards and flew into the pitch-black fissure.

Once all the wizards had left, the fissure slowly closed, its black edges drawing together from both sides.

When the fissure completely vanished, the sky had returned to its normal blue.

Mist Capital, old district, old bookstore.

Afternoon sunlight slanted in through the windows, casting a warm yellow patch of light on the rocking chair.

Eric carried the last metal box up from the underground laboratory to the first-floor bookstore.

The box contained part of the research materials Jie Ming had left behind.

Bent at the waist, he hugged the box with both arms, carefully passed through the narrow door, and placed it on the empty floor beside the bookshelf.

The metal surface of the box caught the sunlight for a moment, then dimmed again.

He straightened up and patted the dust off his hands.

If someone familiar were present, they would notice subtle changes in his appearance compared to a month ago.

The lines at the corners of his eyes had become shallower, the texture of his skin finer, and the lines of his jaw slightly softer.

The most obvious change was in his eyes. His pupils had shifted from deep gray to light gray, carrying a silvery-white luster in the sunlight like moonlight on a lake surface.

These changes in appearance were proof of Eric’s increased control over the five anomalies within his body.

His younger-looking face was not reverse aging, but optimization.

The marks time had left on his face were being smoothed away bit by bit by the power of flesh distortion.

His features had become clearer because superior traits hidden deep in his genes had been activated.

Even his resemblance to Jie Ming was not deliberate imitation. As his control over the anomalies deepened, his lifeform was unconsciously evolving toward a more optimal direction.

And among all the lifeforms he had seen, the most optimal one was Jie Ming.

Eric walked to the bookshelf, squatted down, and reached into the lowest gap.

There was a wooden board there that looked no different from the surrounding ones, but he knew it was movable.

His fingers hooked into the hidden groove at the edge of the board and pried gently. The board popped up.

Beneath the board was a rectangular recess containing a black metal box roughly the size of two thick dictionaries placed side by side.

Eric took the black box out of the recess and placed it on his knees.

“Teacher…” Eric looked at the black box and couldn’t help murmuring.

Ding…

The copper bell installed at the bookstore entrance was triggered by the push of the door, emitting a clear, lingering chime.

The sudden doorbell interrupted Eric’s thoughts.

Eric instinctively placed the black box on the top shelf, covered it with a large map atlas, then turned around. His face had already switched to business mode.

A woman stood at the entrance.

Eric was momentarily stunned upon seeing her.

She wore a well-tailored dark gray trench coat. Her hair was long, black, and straight, hanging behind her shoulders.

She was about 1.7 meters tall. Standing at the bookstore entrance, sunlight shone from behind her, plating her silhouette with a soft golden halo. Eric had seen many beautiful people.

Receptionists at the Association headquarters, nurses in hospitals, and those powerful Spirit Mediums who had become exceptionally alluring due to anomalous power. But he had to admit that this woman’s appearance was among the very top tier he had encountered in all these years.

Without exaggeration, her looks were even close to the inhumanly perfect face Jie Ming revealed in his true form.

“Hello,” the woman’s voice was slightly lower than Eric had expected. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Her gaze swept across the bookstore, paused briefly on the rocking chair, then settled on Eric.

“Is Mr. Jie Ming here?”

Hearing this, Eric shook his head and put away the polite smile of his business mode.

“Teacher has left.” Eric’s voice was calm; he had already accepted this fact during this period. “He probably won’t return for a short time. If you have any matters, you can tell me. I’ll see if I can help.”

The woman looked somewhat surprised.

Her lips pressed together, then relaxed.

“What a shame.” Her voice carried undisguised disappointment.

Then her gaze fell on Eric’s face again, lingering longer this time.

Her eyes narrowed slightly, and something flickered in her pupils.

“Since you are Mr. Jie Ming’s disciple…” The woman took a step forward and entered the bookstore.

Sunlight shifted from behind her to her side, turning her silhouette from gold to silver-gray. “Then your skills must be excellent as well. Could you help? After all, this is a matter of life and death for me.”

Eric looked at her.

His gaze lingered on her eyes for two seconds, then moved to her hands.

Her right hand hung naturally at her side, while her left hand carried what looked like a medical equipment case.

Faint blue fluorescence flickered at the seams of the case—some kind of active energy circuit.

“A Spirit Medium skilled in healing…”

Eric thought silently. He withdrew his gaze from the case and returned it to the woman’s face.

“I can,” Eric replied after a moment of thought.

Since his teacher was no longer here, there was no need for him to stay in this place any longer. Going out to see more people and things would be good too.

More importantly, Eric still remembered the plan his mentor had once spoken to him about—fusing humans and anomalies.

If he wanted to successfully promote this technology, he needed to accumulate enough connections beforehand.

And a Spirit Medium skilled in healing… should be able to introduce him to quite a few useful contacts.

“Wonderful!” A delighted smile bloomed on the woman’s face. “Then when can we depart? Do you need to prepare anything?!”

“We can leave now.”

Eric walked to the bookshelf, picked up the black box from beneath the map atlas.

He tucked the box under his left arm, took the bookstore key from his pocket with his right hand, and handed it to the woman.

“Hold this for me.”

The woman took the key. Eric bent down, pulled a canvas bag from a drawer, stuffed the black box inside, and slung it over his shoulder.

“Let’s go.”

He walked to the door, took the key back from the woman, and locked it.

The copper bell chimed once.

Eric turned around and looked at the gray, hazy sky of the old district.

The mist had thinned somewhat compared to yesterday, allowing the faint outlines of distant factory chimneys to be seen.

The woman stood beside him, carrying the glowing case in her left hand.

Her gaze shifted from Eric’s face to the end of the alley. “My driver is waiting there.”

“Alright, let’s go.” Eric stepped down from the threshold.

The woman immediately followed. “Regarding this commission, I wanted to…”

Their voices gradually faded into the distance as their two shadows stretched long across the stone-paved road.