Chapter 218: A Small Social Ecosystem

Without dwelling on it, Jie Ming immediately pulled out his wizard terminal to check his coordinates.

But the moment the location data appeared, his frown deepened.

The terminal showed he was still within the Elosia Plane.

Not only that, he was only about three hundred kilometers from his Golden Garden.

When Jie Ming had applied to Noren Workshop for land on the Elosia main plane, he hadn’t dared ask for much, given how precious main-plane land was.

However, considering his potential and Mentor Clark’s influence, the area allocated to him was substantial.

Beyond the core Golden Garden, where he’d built his laboratory and resource garden, the surrounding region—spanning hundreds of kilometers in diameter—was also under his dominion.

Its size was nearly equivalent to a province from his previous life.

After checking the straight-line distance to his Golden Garden, Jie Ming’s expression turned icy as he realized a startling fact: his current location was just outside the outermost boundary of his territory.

What did this mean?

It meant his spatial teleportation hadn’t been randomly “disrupted” but had been precisely “blocked” by an invisible barrier!

He was barred from returning to his own “home”?!

“Interesting,” Jie Ming’s eyes narrowed.

Far from anger, a surge of intense curiosity rose within him.

He was determined to find out what had happened on his own land!

Stowing his terminal, he surged with mental energy, casting a flight spell and transforming into a streak of light, speeding toward the Golden Garden.

However, as he flew, Jie Ming soon noticed more astonishing sights.

In his memory, his territory—aside from the Golden Garden, where he’d stationed slaves for maintenance—was mostly untouched, consisting of pristine forests and wastelands.

But now, his land was dotted with sprawling villages, their chimneys curling with smoke!

Fields had been neatly reclaimed, connected by simple dirt roads, and he could even see humans working the land!

Most striking of all, ever since entering this area, he could sense faint but continuous streams of

Mortal Dust Qi

rising from the land below!

Recalling the concepts tied to collecting

Mortal Dust Qi

, Jie Ming’s eyes narrowed instinctively.

He realized that in the fifty years he’d been gone, something earth-shattering must have happened in his territory.

As he pressed closer to the core of the Golden Garden, Jie Ming noticed the villages growing larger.

Eventually, these settlements could no longer be called villages—they were towns, or even cities, with populations in the thousands or tens of thousands!

Then, when Jie Ming was just over ten kilometers from the Golden Garden, he encountered the largest city he’d seen since entering his territory.

Built against a mountain, the city boasted crude but sturdy stone walls.

And there, he was stopped.

“Halt! This is the territory of Dragon City. By order of His Majesty the King, no one may fly over the city!”

Jie Ming stared, bewildered, at the human squad riding griffin-like magical beasts that had surrounded him midair.

Their leader was a male warrior in rough iron armor, wielding a longsword. His face was resolute, his eyes wary, exuding the rugged aura of a battle-hardened veteran.

Jie Ming grew even more puzzled.

He had no recollection of imposing such bizarre restrictions on his territory.

Moreover, the strength of this squad wasn’t negligible.

The team members were all at the level of first-tier beings, while the leader’s aura was solid, nearing the threshold of a second-tier being.

“Who issued this order?” Jie Ming asked calmly, suppressing his surprise.

The warrior captain gave Jie Ming an odd look, seemingly surprised that he was unaware of “the king’s law.”

Still, sensing a faint, abyss-like threat from Jie Ming, he recognized the man’s strength and chose his words carefully to avoid making a powerful enemy. “This order comes from His Majesty Otto, the ‘Lion,’ King of Dragon Kingdom.”

He paused, then pointed further ahead, advising, “Beyond lies the warzone between our human kingdom and those damned elves and dwarves! Though you are strong, sir, it’s best not to enter the battlefield carelessly to avoid misunderstandings.”

Elves? Dwarves? A king? A battlefield?

Combining this captain’s words with everything he’d seen on his flight, an absurd yet undeniable conclusion formed in Jie Ming’s mind:

In his prolonged absence, his territory had spontaneously developed a small social ecosystem with the concept of a nation!

This aligned perfectly with his earlier realization that he could collect

Mortal Dust Qi

here.

But… in just over fifty years, had these people forgotten who the true master of this land was? Had they forgotten the truth of their existence?

Jie Ming’s gaze swept over the warrior captain, whose life energy was vibrant and full of vigor.

He shook his head.

“Probably in his thirties… a genius by talent alone. But it seems he truly hasn’t lived through the era when I ruled this place.”

Was this the difference in perspective between a higher civilization and a lower one?

Even their sense of time was worlds apart.

For Jie Ming, fifty years was merely a slightly extended trip.

But for these mortals, whose lifespans rarely exceeded a century even as first-tier beings, fifty years spanned two, even three generations!

Jie Ming’s thoughts drifted to the events on the Frostflame Plane.

To low-tier wizards like himself, many of Augustine’s seemingly inexplicable actions were, to high-tier wizards like Viola who knew the truth, perfectly logical strategies.

This was indeed the cognitive gap born of an information disparity.

But on the other hand, the higher a being’s level, the more information they accessed, the longer their “lifespan,” and the greater the divide in perspective from lower beings.

As he looked down on these “natives,” was he not like Augustine gazing down on them back then?

Seeing Jie Ming fall into a strange silence, the guards exchanged glances, unsure of what this mysterious powerhouse intended.

Just as the captain was about to speak again, Jie Ming snapped out of his reverie.

He looked at the captain, his tone calm. “Take me to your king.”

Jie Ming had reasoned it out.

Even after all these years, many of the original slaves under his command likely hadn’t died of old age.

This “king” was very possibly one of them.

The captain hesitated, his expression troubled. “His Majesty is busy with state affairs… Sir, I can pass on a message, but please wait here momentarily.”

But Jie Ming had lost patience.

Ignoring the captain, he vanished in a flash, transforming into a streak of light and speeding toward the grandest, most opulent “castle” in the city’s center.

“Stop him!”

The squad erupted in fury at Jie Ming’s actions, seeing it as a blatant challenge to the king’s authority!

They attacked, weaving a net of magic and arrows to detain him.

Jie Ming was about to casually wave them away, ready to obliterate these reckless “ants” along with their mounts, when a thought struck him.

Strictly speaking, these people were his property.

He restrained his surging power, instead unleashing a gentle but irresistible force that sent the guards and their mounts tumbling far into the forest outside the city—unharmed but unable to rise for a while.

However, the commotion in the sky had already drawn the city’s attention.

As the clash unfolded, piercing alarms blared through the city!

Soldiers rushed from every corner, their armor incomplete, their weapons a chaotic assortment.

Jie Ming’s expression turned strange.

He didn’t even need to act. With a mere thought, he unleashed the formidable mental energy of a peak first-tier wizard.

Buzz—!

As his mental energy stirred the elemental forces, an invisible, mountain-like pressure descended over the entire city!

The charging soldiers, whether infantry or cavalry, buckled under the weight, collapsing to their knees in droves, trembling and unable to lift their heads.

Unimpeded, Jie Ming broke into the crude castle.

In the “shabby” grand hall, he found the “king” seated on the throne, his aged face barely reaching the threshold of a second-tier being.

As Jie Ming had suspected, he recognized this man.

He was one of the more capable managers among his original slaves.

And clearly, this “king” hadn’t forgotten the terror of the wizards who once captured even gods over fifty years ago!

The moment he saw Jie Ming’s youthful, unchanged face at the hall’s entrance, the wrinkled face drained of color!

His eyes widened in terror, his throat emitting incoherent, strangled “

hngh hngh

” sounds.

His body shook violently, wanting to scream or resist, but paralyzed by overwhelming fear, he couldn’t utter a sound!

He wanted to flee, to fight, but in the end, he lacked the courage to act!

Slumped on the throne, he was like a condemned prisoner awaiting judgment.