"Leilin, do you know what caused the two great Wizard Wars in recent times?"
Martin suddenly asked.
"Well, it seems to be due to the ideological differences between Dark Wizards and White Wizards, along with more practical factors regarding interests..." Leilin slowly laid out what he'd read in the books, combined with his own views.
"Interests! Everything is for the sake of interests!!!"
Martin waved his hand, his expression growing extremely agitated.
"The ideological divide is only surface-level — the root cause is always interests!!! Whose maxim was that, again? I need to write it down next time and engrave it on the wall of my bedroom!"
Martin spoke rapidly: "In truth, whether they're White Wizards or Dark Wizards, they're all wizards who dedicate themselves to the pursuit of truth! As long as nobody stands in their way, it doesn't matter if the White Wizards liberated some territory or the Dark Wizards committed some horrifying massacre — none of that interests wizards in the slightest."
"The real reason behind both Wizard Wars was the struggle for resources! The South Coast's wizard resources are too meager to support so many wizards..."
Leilin listened quietly as Martin explained the truth behind the Wizard Wars.
At this point, a cold sneer appeared at the corner of Martin's mouth.
"At the end of the day, the so-called Wizard Wars were nothing more than a purge of the wizarding world, orchestrated by the higher-ups of both the White and Dark factions to compete for scarce resources. Once the wars were over and half the wizards on both sides were dead, the remaining resources were sufficient for those who survived to advance. The entire South Coast has gone through this cycle, generation after generation..."
As Martin spoke, Leilin very rarely caught a glimpse of something like pain on the old man's face.
It seemed Martin deeply disapproved of this practice — and had very likely suffered from it himself.
But then Leilin thought of the ancient dynasties from his previous world.
In his previous life, whenever a feudal empire finally collapsed, if you traced the root cause, the corrupt officials and incompetent rulers were really only part of the equation.
In Leilin's view, the true driving force behind those empires' collapse was interests and resources!
In ancient times, land was the foundation of survival. But once a dynasty achieved great prosperity, the population would explode with growth — there was no concept of birth planning back then; on the contrary, having as many children as possible to serve as future labor was the norm!
The population kept growing, but the total amount of land stayed the same. Eventually, there wasn't enough land to feed even a single person, and the entire empire naturally entered decline.
Of course, during this process, the consolidation of land by officials and gentry landlords greatly accelerated this decline.
Then came the chaos of war, which wiped out sixty or seventy percent of the nation's population. The land those people had occupied became surplus and available for the survivors. The new dynasty could then stabilize for another century or two before the cycle repeated...
In Leilin's eyes, the South Coast's wizarding world was in exactly this situation.
Despite various measures, the total number of wizards kept rising, and the South Coast's resource production capacity could no longer keep up with the pace of wizard advancement.
Countless wizards, lacking resources, could only watch helplessly as the hopes they pursued crumbled before their eyes!
This resentment accumulated generation after generation, until finally it reached a point where even the ruling wizards felt afraid!
To address this, several of the South Coast's top wizard factions did not hesitate to wear each other down, launching a great war determined to eliminate the excess wizards.
So the entire Wizard Wars — every claim of victory was a lie! Surviving was the only true victory!
Once this realization struck him, Leilin inhaled sharply.
Unlike the massive empire from his previous world that had long since lost the will to expand, the South Coast was only a small part of the entire wizarding world — perhaps nothing more than a remote backwater.
But even so, the powers ruling the South Coast would rather keep fighting among themselves, depleting their strength to reduce risk and resentment, than venture outward to conquer new territory — for one reason alone!
Because compared to the Wizard Wars, expanding outward would be even more counterproductive. The wizards lost in such an endeavor would be a price none of those rulers were willing to bear.
"What kind of dangers lurk around the South Coast!!!"
Leilin sighed deeply. He had resolved to travel the entire wizarding world and climb to greater heights, but it now seemed that leaving the South Coast might not be so simple.
"Still, only this can explain why the South Coast has always been so isolated, with very few foreign wizards staying here. The one exception was the Crimson Great Wizard!"
A look of sudden understanding flashed in Leilin's eyes.
"So you're saying this war, too, is meant to cull the officially-ranked wizards?"
At this point, both Martin and Leilin instinctively lowered their voices and switched to telepathic communication. Leilin also secretly deployed several spells to block sound waves.
"Not exactly!" Martin patted his head.