Chapter 128: Sowing Seeds Throughout the Realm

Alexandre Dumas possessed an astonishing talent for arcane formations. Yet, compared to his status as the last emperor, this gift drew far less attention. Having once sat upon the throne, he gained access to the vast majority of the arcane formation knowledge accumulated by the Arcane Empire. Coupled with the tutelage of his sister Charlotte, Dumas’s mastery of formations deepened continuously.

Over a millennium, he synthesized the emerging sorcerous formations of the wizarding world with the arcane techniques, forging a unique theory of sorcerous formations that stunned all who witnessed it.

Within the dimensional crystal walls of the Academy Plane, he established an unparalleled grand formation. At its core lay the Endless Secret Stele base, held in his hands as the heart of the array. Then, sacrificing his very soul and life through a death-defying sorcery, he activated the great formation.

As the formation pulsed to life, Dumas’s life essence began to disperse throughout the air of the entire Academy Plane. Soon, the dimension entered an unprecedented state.

Merely breathing would cause pregnancy.

At that time, the Academy Plane was filled with prodigies and elites from various planes, many of whom were esteemed students or daughters of great powers. Overnight, every woman among them found herself with child.

The wizarding world was shaken to its core. Furious sorcerers swiftly traced the formation’s origin to Dumas’s location. Yet by then, he had expended his life force entirely, leaving behind only messages for the wizarding world.

These messages were soon banned by the upper echelons of the wizarding council, and much of their content remains unknown to the public. However, one couplet he left on site spread rapidly:

“The glory of the Arcane Empire shall endure eternally, the bloodline of Augustus shall never cease!”

And the banner boldly proclaimed: “Seeds Sown Across the World!”

Dumas’s words were not empty boasts. At that moment, the Academy Plane housed roughly three hundred million souls, with women numbering just over a hundred million—and all of them bore his children.

The Wizard Council was alarmed. A senior member revealed that, years ago, to hasten the fall of the Arcane Empire, he had secretly cursed the last emperor, Alexandre Dumas Augustus, robbing him of fertility after his disappearance from the Sky City. After Dumas vanished, he’d forgotten about the matter—never expecting such radical action.

The council convened an emergency meeting, gathering billions of abortion potions from nearby planes and distributing them throughout the Academy Plane. Except for a few who foolishly resisted, most women took the potions intending to terminate their pregnancies.

But it was far more complicated—these children could not be aborted.

Unbeknownst to all, Dumas had triggered the Endless Secret Stele’s power, imbuing his life essence with a mysterious factor beyond the comprehension of the wizarding world. This unknown element prevented the pregnancies from being terminated.

The revelation ignited a hornet’s nest. The Academy Plane nearly fell to the wrathful sorcerers. Only the intervention of several high-ranking council members averted catastrophe, though most of that cohort of young women withdrew from their studies and returned to their home planes. Countless male students were affected as well, their lovers implicated in the upheaval.

These women endured endless scorn and ridicule, sporadic kindness and warmth, passionate love and bitter betrayal, helplessness and sorrow—all stories lost amid the mists of history.

Yet one truth remained immutable: those children were born, and their arrival shocked the world far beyond the original Dumas incident.

Some infants were cruelly slain upon birth, others perished young, but over half of the one hundred million survived and began integrating into the wizarding world.

They astonished all, for they were born with innate soul talents—the first generation of prodigies in the wizarding realm.

Among these children, a select few grew at an astonishing pace, their rapid ascent leaving many breathless. Conservative factions sought to suppress them, only to discover that persecution only fueled their rise. The harder they pushed, the stronger these prodigies became. By the time the conservatives pondered intensifying their efforts, these youths had long left them in the dust, turning back to confront their oppressors.

Their meteoric growth threw the wizarding world into chaos, much to the amusement of rival factions who watched the upheaval unfold. Yet soon they witnessed the true might of these prodigies, who had already mastered minor dimensional trials and begun exploring new realms. The dimensional battlegrounds drew the attention of countless rising talents.

After countless heroes emerged and countless tales of valor and tragedy, the wizarding world finally halted its decline on the dimensional battlefield.

By then, the existence of soul talents had spread throughout the wizarding world. Conservative elements within the council resisted these gifted individuals fervently, much like society’s fear of mutants. Yet they found themselves unable to define a clear target for their resistance.

That first generation had dispersed across multiple planes, many marrying and bearing children. Some offspring retained the soul talents; others did not. The gifts themselves varied wildly—some modest, others extraordinary.

Moreover, many first-generation prodigies had grown powerful, becoming leaders within major factions. Even among council members, their presence was undeniable. The conservatives, unable to suppress them, had to relent, comforted only by the fact these prodigies greatly bolstered the wizarding world’s strength.

A millennium later, the wizarding world began gaining the upper hand against the League of Gods, reclaiming lost territories.

By this time, those with soul talents were fully integrated into society. Countless aspiring sorcerers envied and desired such gifts. Yet a faction of traditionalists persisted in rejecting them, calling themselves Purebloods. They formed secret societies within the wizarding world, relentlessly plotting against soul-talented sorcerers.

After suffering defeats in confrontations with prodigies, they retreated into the shadows. As their space shrank under the prodigies’ relentless advance, they feverishly studied fragments of the Endless Secret Stele—the source energy crystals discovered across planes—eventually uncovering the secret to synthesizing mystical treasures.

Henceforth, these so-called Pureblood sorcerers became a new breed of prodigies through their treasured artifacts. Their discovery quickly spread, giving rise to yet another wave of prodigies.

The rune civilization of the wizarding world entered its first golden age. The name of this prodigy-filled realm soon grated on the teeth of the League of Gods, who spoke it with clenched jaws and bitter curses.