"Leilin, do you know the origins of the two great
"Er, I believe it stems from the ideological divide between Dark Wizards and Light Wizards, along with more practical factors concerning material interests…" Leilin slowly relayed what he had read, blending it with his own observations.
"Interests! Everything is about interests!!!" Martin threw his hands up, his expression growing intensely agitated.
"The ideological divide is merely the surface. The root cause has always been interests!!! Whose maxim was that again? Next time I find it, I'm copying it down and carving it into my bedroom wall!"
Martin spoke rapidly. "The truth is, whether they're Light Wizards or Dark Wizards, they're all wizards who devote themselves to the pursuit of truth! As long as nobody stands in their way, it doesn't matter whether the Light Wizards liberate some territory or the Dark Wizards carry out some ghastly massacre — none of it will spark even the slightest interest among the wizard community."
"The real reason for the two great Wizard Wars was the competition for resources! The South Coast's meagre magical resources can no longer sustain this many wizards…"
Leilin listened quietly as Martin laid out the truth behind the Wizard Wars.
At this point, a cold smirk appeared at the corner of Martin's mouth.
"In the end, the so-called Wizard Wars are nothing more than a purge of the wizard world — a campaign launched by the higher echelons of both the Light and Dark factions to seize scarce resources. Once the war has run its course and half the Dark and Light Wizards are dead, the remaining resources are enough for the survivors to advance in rank. Generation after generation, the entire South Coast has followed this same cycle…"
As Martin spoke, Leilin saw something rare on the old man's face — a trace of genuine sorrow.
It seemed Martin held this practice in deep contempt, and had very likely suffered from it himself.
But then Leilin thought back to the ancient dynasties of his previous world.
In his former life, any feudal empire's ultimate collapse — if one traced it to the root cause — had nothing to do with corrupt officials or incompetent rulers, who were only partial factors.
What truly drove those empires to ruin, in Leilin's view, was the competition for interests and resources!
In ancient times, land was the foundation of survival. But once a dynasty entered a period of prosperity, the population would experience explosive growth. There was no such thing as family planning back then — on the contrary, producing as many children as possible, as future labourers, was the norm!
The population kept growing while the total area of arable land remained the same. Eventually, there wasn't enough land to feed even a single person, and the empire naturally spiralled into decline.
Of course, during this process, the annexation of land by high-ranking officials and gentry landlords served as one of the key accelerants.
Then came the wars of chaos, which wiped out sixty to seventy percent of the nation's population. The land those people had occupied became surplus, available for the survivors. A new dynasty would then establish itself and enjoy another century or two of stability — before the cycle repeated.
In Leilin's view, the South Coast wizard community was in precisely this kind of situation.
Despite various measures, the total number of wizards kept rising, and the South Coast's resource production capacity could no longer keep pace with their advancement needs.
Countless wizards, lacking the resources to progress, could only watch helplessly as their hopes crumbled!
This resentment accumulated over generation after generation until it finally reached a point where even the ruling wizards felt alarmed!
To address this, several of the South Coast's most powerful wizard factions chose to消耗 each other through open warfare, determined to eliminate the surplus wizards.
So the entire Wizard War — any notion of "victory" was an illusion! The only true victory was survival!
Once this understanding crystallised, Leilin drew in a sharp breath.
Unlike the bloated empires of his previous world, which had long since lost the will to expand, the South Coast was merely a small corner of the entire wizard world — perhaps nothing more than a remote backwater.
But even so, the South Coast's rulers would rather consume themselves through mutual warfare, bleeding their strength and reducing the pressure, than venture beyond their borders to claim new territory. There was only one reason for that: Compared to a Wizard War, further expansion would be an even greater net loss, and the wizard casualties involved were something none of these rulers were willing to bear.
"What kind of dangers lurk beyond the South Coast?!!!" Leilin sighed deeply inwardly. He had resolved to travel the entire wizard world and witness its grandest vistas, but now it seemed leaving the South Coast might not be so easy after all.
"Still, this is the only explanation for why the South Coast has always been so isolated, with very few foreign wizards lingering here. The one exception is the Crimson Grand Wizard!"
A flash of realisation crossed Leilin's eyes.
"Then this war — it's also meant to cull the ranks of official wizards?"
At this point, both Martin and Leilin instinctively lowered their voices, switching to sound-transmission speech. Leilin also secretly deployed several sound-isolation spells.
"That's — actually not quite it!" Martin slapped his forehead. "I was just getting sentimental about the previous Wizard Wars just now!"
The old man acted his age, and Leilin felt a sudden urge to punch him.
"Haha…" Martin laughed heartily at Leilin's expression.
"My apologies. I have a bad habit — when things get tense, I like to crack a joke or two. It helps me manage the nerves…" Martin apologised with a smile, but in Leilin's eyes, the old man looked thoroughly annoying no matter how you looked at him.
"Anyway, back to business. The reason for this war is still all about the tangled web of interests!"
Martin's expression softened considerably this time, though Leilin still listened with rapt attention.
"Roughly two days ago, an exploratory wizard team discovered a wizard's secret realm in the Ganges Great Plains!"
Martin relayed the intelligence he had received.
Adventuring teams stumbling upon ruins, accidentally activating a secret realm, leaking the information, and ultimately sparking a war — such stories were practically commonplace on the South Coast.
But for one to trigger such enormous upheaval that even an old hand like Martin believed a Third Great Wizard War was imminent — that was truly unprecedented.
"A secret realm? It should be resource-based, right? How large is it?" Leilin immediately seized on the critical details.
"No one knows for certain! But according to the wizards who entered the realm, it covers at least ten million mu, with an elemental concentration at the top-tier A-rank standard…"
Hearing Martin's account, Leilin couldn't help but sigh.
Even the
With stakes this enormous, even the Light Wizards, who were devoted to research and comparatively peaceable, would be driven to kill for it.
"What makes matters worse is that this massive secret realm has more than one entrance. After the exploration team opened one of them, the remaining entrances began activating on their own in succession! From what I've gathered, at least seven entrances have opened…"
Martin adopted a mysterious tone.
Leilin, however, let out a heavy sigh. "The Ganges Plains sit right on the border between Dark Wizard and Light Wizard territories. The fluctuation from a super-massive secret realm's entrance would be detected by official wizards from over a thousand li away, no question…"
He now understood the cause of the war. It wasn't the worst-case scenario, but it was hardly better.
"Exactly! The first Dark and Light Wizard factions to arrive fought over the secret realm on the spot — and nobody came out ahead. So they reported what they'd heard to their parent organisations. This chain reaction escalated until all factions were embroiled in open conflict…"
"In the end, the Dark Wizards seized three entrances and the Light Wizards took four. Inside the vast secret realm, bloody battles erupted over rare resources and strategic territory. So this Wizard War will be fought primarily within the secret realm, with each faction's wizards clashing inside — the main objective being control of the realm's land…"
Leilin breathed a small sigh of relief.
Compared to the two previous wars that engulfed the entire South Coast, this conflict would have the least impact on the wizard world and cause the fewest mortal casualties. For a wizard like him, as long as he didn't choose to enter the secret realm, nothing should happen to him.
At most, the potion supply workload would become slightly heavier.
Of course, if the later stages saw devastating casualties among the organisation's wizards inside the realm, he might eventually be called upon to fight.
But if it truly came to that, Leilin would simply flee immediately — there was no way he would let himself get dragged in.
Just as Leilin was about to ask Martin a few more questions, a crisp chime echoed through the great hall.
The multicolored curtains overhead stirred without any breeze and began to shimmer with iridescent light.
A clear, melodic tune rang out across the entire hall.
"The group leader has arrived! Stand and pay your respects!"
Martin tugged at Leilin.
Leilin rolled his eyes and stood up with some reluctance.
Tigate, the group leader of the Four Seasons Garden's Apothecary Division, was unquestionably powerful. He had already reached the pinnacle of First-rank Wizard and was capable of attempting the breakthrough to Second-rank at any time.
Moreover, his mastery of potionology was extraordinary — he was widely regarded as a grand master of the field.
However, this particular lord was not only stuffy and rigid, but also fanatically fond of all things lavish and grandiose.
As such, he insisted on holding dinner with his subordinates in this solemn, imposing hall while conversing and issuing assignments, and he tolerated not the slightest hint of discourtesy from anyone beneath him.
Several wizards had already been punished for precisely this reason.