The Wizarding Age

Ruijing Garden, floating city.

The situation has become increasingly serious.

The news from the north proves that the floating city of Light of Truth has been attacked by star beasts.

Although the enemies there were dealt with by relying on an incarnation of the Arcane Emperor, the scattered invaders still brought all kinds of unimaginable disasters and losses to the Arcane Empire.

Remote towns and cities fell one after another, and human settlements were slaughtered and burned one after another. There was not much time left for the Morian plane.

The upper echelons of the Arcane Empire naturally knew clearly about the disasters facing the Morian plane, but when the news reached the middle echelons, the relevant content was much simpler and cruder. And when the news reached ordinary arcane masters, the information was so vague that it was difficult to distinguish true from false.

As for the ordinary people at the bottom of the plane, they were all abandoned objects, and naturally they could not know what kind of disaster was about to befall them.

The large-scale selection of arcane apprentices happened abruptly.

It is not the time for the selection of arcane apprentices yet, but the floating cities in various places have already issued mandatory orders to the regions under their jurisdiction to select outstanding arcane apprentices and send them to the floating cities for selection.

A large number of outstanding and talented children have been selected and sent to the floating cities one after another, which has also revitalized this city facing great war risks due to the injection of a large amount of blood.

The empire is retreating... Such news is no longer a secret, but has become a hotly discussed issue among all arcane masters and apprentices.

Most of the arcane masters are naturally included in the retreat list, but the list of arcane apprentices is relatively small.

As the arcane center of the Rui'an Province of the Kentos Continent, the floating city of Ruijing Garden has as many as 30,000 arcane apprentices living, studying and researching here. Together with the newly selected little guys, the number is close to 50,000.

According to authoritative information circulated internally, the number of apprentices that the arcane empire can transfer is at most 4,000.

After all, the entire Arcane Empire has seven continents, more than 20 provinces, and 76 floating cities. Even if each floating city only selects 4,000 people, that is a huge number of nearly 300,000.

What's more, in addition to the future new blood of arcane apprentices, each floating city also needs to transfer a large number of arcane masters, arcane equipment, various precision instruments and equipment, plus a huge amount of resources and materials, as well as various living supplies.

To be honest, even the quota of 4,000 arcane apprentices was squeezed out by the upper echelons of the Arcane Empire after gritting their teeth and abandoning a group of arcane masters with no development potential.

It's just that the good intentions of the upper echelons will never be understood by those at the bottom, and they are still obsessed with simple numerical comparisons.

50,000 vs 4,000...

What a huge disparity between these two numbers!

If the units behind them are gold coins, the huge disparity is enough to make people secretly amazed. But if the units behind them are human lives, the value of their immersion is so huge that it is difficult to estimate in detail.

In recent days, people in the floating city of Ruijing Garden have been in a panic. All arcane masters are busy with resource transfer and material dispatch, which has also caused most arcane institutions and facilities to face suspension and closure. Those arcane apprentices who are at a loss either try to find out about the withdrawal list or know that they have no hope of squeezing into the 4,000-person list, so they can only pack their luggage sadly and prepare to return to their homeland and hometown.

Although it is difficult for them to understand the current situation of the war and the dynamics of the top leaders, the difficulty of the current situation is obvious to all.

Six or seven terrible incidents of foreign invaders openly attacking floating cities have occurred in the territory of the Arcane Empire. Although most of the attacks were repelled and the invaders were eliminated, there are still two floating cities that have become sacrifices of war and fell from the sky amid the wailing of the masses.

The fall of the floating city... Such a thing has almost never happened in the nearly ten thousand years of the development history of the Arcane Empire, so the blow to the confidence of the people of the Arcane is particularly tragic.

The floating city is no longer the sky garden that never falls, nor is it the absolutely safe arcane fortress in the hearts of the arcane people. Many news from all over the world also show that most of the invading monsters take large cities and floating cities as their final attack targets.

Therefore, in this situation where the arcane empire is on the decline, staying in the floating city will not only make people feel unsafe, but more worrying.

Many arcane families who are not qualified to board the retreat fleet can only find another way to build some shelters in the most desolate and hidden places on each continent, preparing to welcome the upcoming arcane dusk.

Therefore, those arcane apprentices who were not selected in the list of 4,000 people are also anxious to return to the family as soon as possible, and strive to occupy some better positions for themselves and their relatives in those safe fortresses. And in order to strengthen the family's momentum and seek greater survival rights, they are also trying their best to win over some helpless high-level apprentices.

And Lucia, as a great beauty with the title of senior apprentice in alchemy and puppet refining, naturally received the most olive branches. Unfortunately, Lucia remained unmoved and rejected everyone flatly. She continued to travel between the Arcane Research Laboratory, the Library and the Arcane Academy every day as usual.

On this day, Lucia was still walking hurriedly on the familiar moon-white path with a thick stack of arcane books in her arms, surrounded by apprentices who were in a hurry. There were no smiles on everyone's faces, and there were no young people relaxing beside the soft sandy beaches and beautiful fountains. The entire floating city seemed to be trapped in a low pressure, depressing and painful.

Lucia walked silently with her head lowered.

It wasn't until she saw a familiar corner of a cloth robe and a pair of exquisite arcane leather boots that she stopped in surprise and raised her head.

What appeared in front of him was the heroic, handsome young apprentice Sauron.

And his brows were frowned, his face was haggard, and he looked like he was tormented by something on his mind.

"Soren, you...haven't left yet?" Lucia covered her mouth in surprise.

Looking at Lucia's pretty and bright eyes, Sauron's dry mouth opened several times and finally spoke.

"My grandpa has decided to evacuate today..."

"Congratulations! I will bless you..." A sincere smile appeared on Lucia's face.

Sauron's painful gaze carefully examined Lucia's face, but he could not find any trace of falsehood or pretense in her smile.

"Grandpa has already urged me to leave... I just came here to ask you one last question. Are you... really not willing to go with me?"

Lucia slowly put away her smile and shook her head solemnly again.

"Lucia...I...I take back what I said before. I will not use this quota to force you to do anything anymore. You...you are free...come with me, I will not force you anymore. Do anything you don't want to do, just ask you to come with me... okay?" Sauron said sternly, with a painful and twisted expression on his face. It was obvious that he made this decision with a lot of thought. determination.

Lucia was stunned at first, and then a beautiful smile slowly bloomed on her face.

She took a step forward, held Soran's face in her hands, and willingly gave her her first kiss.

However, just when Sauron was wild with surprise and wanted to hold her in his arms, Lucia suddenly took a step back and broke away from his arms.

"Soren, leave!" Lucia's little face was still bright red from the kiss just now, full of stunning brilliance: "This kiss is our farewell gift. We may never see each other again. So... I hope you can leave without worries and continue to work hard for the future of the empire and the inheritance of arcane civilization!"

"No...Lucia, I...I can't leave you here!" Falling from the peak of joy into the deep valley, Sauron obviously couldn't accept the reality in front of him, and his voice was almost hoarse when he spoke.

"I will not leave!" The shyness on Lucia's face faded away, but because of the strange look in her eyes, it was cast with another layer of divine brilliance: "My life belongs to the arcane! Even the next moment Even if I face death, I will not stop. This is the oath I made when I was elected as an arcane apprentice, and it is also the belief I pursue throughout my life. Therefore, even without this disaster, we are destined not to be together. ! I hope you can understand what I mean..."

Sauron looked painful and sad.

After a long time, he finally made way to the Arcane Academy.

Lucia stared at him deeply and hurriedly embarked on her journey again.

Looking at that pretty and resolute figure, feeling his heart as if cut by a knife, Sauron finally shed tears.

At some point, an old arcanist figure appeared next to Sauron. He also silently looked at the direction where Lucia disappeared, his eyes full of unconcealable loneliness and pain.

"She is a good girl... It's a pity that she doesn't belong to you!" The old man said bleakly: "If I was as carefree as her, maybe I would make the same choice as her. It's a pity... …”

After lowering his head and pondering to adjust his mentality, the old man raised his head again.

"Let's go, Sauron! There is no hope here... The task of rebuilding a new Arcane Empire in another world is not easy. Your future is not here, but in the distance. The glory of Arcane, the glory of your family, we We are all old, and we can only rely on you to inherit and carry forward these things. So, cheer up, grit your teeth, and live strong for the sake of the Arcane Empire and the Jonas family!"

Sauron's body trembled slightly.

After a long time, he finally wiped away his tears, turned to face his grandfather, nodded and said: "I understand... let's go, grandpa..."

Then, in a burst of white light, the two people suddenly disappeared.