Chapter 9: The Great Entity from the Azure Star

“Did you see that? From now on, the Internet also has a Magic Academy!” Desowa shouted excitedly while pointing at the Phantom Scroll.

Immediately, the second-year Magic Seals classroom erupted into chaos.

“The Internet has a Magic Academy? Where is it? How do we attend classes?”

“Damn it! My Mithril Ring was confiscated. Who took it? Quick, let’s find out what’s going on!”

“Oh my God, our young mentor has become a Teacher at the Internet Magic Academy?”

“What? The young mentor?”

“Not just her, there are several others too. From their introductions, they’re all Great Archmages!”

“No way! The basic courses are free, and for the advanced ones, you just need to pay with points to audit them. It doesn’t look too expensive. The second-year courses only require 50 points per class. The introduction even says you can use points to apply for one-on-one consultations with the Teachers!”

“50 points isn’t cheap! How many people do you have to refer to earn them? High-quality posts are not easy to create.”

“You don’t know? They just added a sign-in feature that gives you points. You get 1 point for the first day, 2 points for the second day, and so on. If you sign in for seven days in a row, you get 7 points! So in seven days, you can get 28 points; within half a month, you’ll have 50 points.”

The classroom was in complete turmoil.

Countless students began whispering to each other, almost ignoring the ban on discussions.

Bled’s expression turned dark, and he quickly activated his Internet Divine Magic to check.

In the next moment, his body wobbled, his face turned pale, and he didn’t bother rebuking the students; he rushed out of the classroom like he was being chased, heading to the principal to report.

Why did Felix Magic Academy ban Internet Divine Magic?

Because it seriously challenged the Academy’s authority and control over magic! Before the Internet, there were basically only two ways to learn magic: family inheritance or studying at an academy.

The former, to some extent, is just a branch of the latter. They were merely the developed branches of some exceptional students.

So even the magical noble families would send their disciples to study at magic academies.

By apprenticing under accomplished masters, making close friends, and building networks, they could enter the power center of the Kewell Empire after graduation and divide up the magical resources.

The Kewell Empire controls its mages through a network of large and small magic academies, thereby maintaining control of the empire! The Internet had already angered the academy by shaking its right to define magic, leading to a ban. But who could have expected it to establish an online Magic Academy directly? This wasn’t just shaking the foundation of magic academies!

This was like digging up the empire’s ancestral grave!

The Internet God! Such a great strategist!

Before Bled could reach the Ringed Magic Tower, a massive and sharp invisible magical shockwave swept across the entire magic academy.

This was the magical alarm for an emergency meeting at the Magic Tower! ‘It seems Lord Dundar already knows about this!’ Bled sighed and quickened his pace.

When he teleported to the seventh-floor Forbidden God Magic Conference Room, it had already turned into a chaotic marketplace.

Countless mages, either fearful, angry, or grim-faced, gathered together, discussing fervently.

Some even stomped and cursed, disregarding their image!

A storm of elemental energy, stirred by their agitation, swept through the conference room.

Luckily, no one present was weak; otherwise, anyone with lower cultivation might have been injured by the elemental storm!

“Silence! Take your seats!”

Soon, Dundar arrived.

The mages suppressed their inner turmoil, forcing themselves to sit down.

Several seats remained empty, and silhouettes of people began to emerge. Even archmages located far away participated in the meeting.

At the top four seats of the round table, besides Dundar, two figures appeared today as well.

They were two of the four pillars of the Kewell Empire—God of Magic Zimor and God of Magic Besse.

“Everyone, you probably already know what happened. What are your thoughts?” Dundar got straight to the point.

The purpose of this meeting was to gather ideas.

Instantly, the conference room exploded.

“Lord Dundar, the Internet God is provoking our Kewell Empire. We must issue a nationwide ban on Internet Divine Magic, expel the Internet followers, and unite the gods to suppress or even kill the Internet God!”

A hot-headed person immediately shouted for a battle.

“Exactly! The Internet God is preaching! He’s using magic to preach. If we allow the Internet Magic Academy to spread, he will become the God of Magic, and the magical freedom of the Kewell Empire will cease to exist! We must kill it in the cradle.”

The mages yelled angrily, their murderous intent boiling.

You can’t blame them for being so upset.

There are many magic academies in the Kewell Empire, but each has a fixed location, under the thumb of the empire. The number of apprentices they can enroll each year is also limited.

Even though there’s competition and even hatred among them.

In the end, these conflicts arise only from different magical philosophies and resource distribution.

But what about the Internet Magic Academy?

It’s not part of the empire, not under the empire’s control, but it can still recruit magical talents. This shakes the empire’s foundation of control! Imagine, those who can’t join magic academies will inevitably enroll in the Internet Magic Academy, driven by their instinct to pursue power.

And the key is, the Internet Magic Academy has no territorial limits. One Teacher could instruct tens of thousands of apprentices. This is like cheating; who can compete with that?

When these people grow up, they will resent the Kewell Empire’s magic academies and be grateful to the Internet Magic Academy for giving them the chance to learn magic! In the long run, the empire is bound to collapse! “It’s too late. No one can ban the Internet now.”

A faint sigh, like cold water from a basin, doused the boiling conference room.

Everyone turned, stunned, to see the youngest Great Archmage, Lucien, facing the three Pillars of Magic. “My Lords, I suggest we contact the Internet God as soon as possible to discuss this matter.”

“That blasted heretical god has already bullied us to our doorstep, and you still want to negotiate?”

“Lucien, you traitor! Apologize!” someone cursed.

“Why do you say that, Lucien?” Dundar, the God of Magic, ignored the curses, addressing Lucien instead.

Lucien glanced at everyone, then raised his right hand. On his pinky finger was a delicate Mithril Ring, engraved with Internet Divine Magic.

In front of everyone, he removed the ring and crushed it, then began to pray in a low voice: “O mighty being from the Azure Star, you are the Lord of Languages and Words, the Founder of the Internet. Under your protection, I shall connect with all living beings.”

As his prayer ended, a Phantom Scroll unfurled slowly.

The conference room fell into a deathly, unnerving silence; countless pupils dilated, and only the rhythmic thumping of their hearts filled the air.

Lucien’s words were a prayer.

Prayers are incantations that only a god with a unique Divine Spark can create and use.

They point directly to a specific deity.

This is the only way most believers can communicate with their god.

Of course, whether the god responds is another matter.

But no one expected the Internet God to respond actively, and even less, in such an unusual and… efficient manner.

Lucien slowly scanned the faces of his colleagues and asked, “How can we ban this?”

The conference room was dead silent.

If Internet Divine Magic required a magical device, it couldn’t be entirely banned, but at least most of it could be.

Those in control of the empire’s forces could enforce decrees, making it extremely difficult for Internet Divine Magic to survive under the ‘informant chain’ system.

In that case, only a small number of magical devices would circulate on the black market.

Most commoners wouldn’t even know Internet Divine Magic existed, and some might even consider it a dark art under official propaganda! But now?

You can access the Internet through prayers. How could it be banned?

Internet Divine Magic doesn’t grant power to its users directly; on the contrary, it continuously consumes soul energy.

But it indirectly allows the user to gain power that can be legally used in the light.

No one could resist such temptation!

It’s easy to imagine that many would secretly log in to study magic.

If they fail, so be it. But if they succeed, they could easily make up a story: they found a magic book, met a wandering mage… There’d be so many excuses. Is the empire going to take up the sword against them?

If the empire did so, it could disintegrate within days.

“We could have people monitor the Forum…” one archmage instinctively suggested, but he stopped halfway, realizing the futility.

Lucien sighed, “Even if we monitor it, at most, people wouldn’t post. In fact, the Internet God has already closed this loophole.”

Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, Lucien opened his soul imprint and navigated to the ‘Settings’ option, clearly displaying the ‘Anonymous Mode’ option.

This final blow shattered the psychological defenses of all the mages in the conference room!

“How could this be?”

“Is the empire just going to let him do whatever he wants?”

“Kill him. We must kill him. Only by killing him can we solve all these problems!”

Some people shouted, but more instinctively looked towards the Three Pillars of the Empire—Dundar, Zimor, Besse.

They knew that slaying a god was no easy feat. Not to mention whether they could even find the Internet God;

Even if they did, the empire would have to pay a heavy price.

Losing any one of the Four Pillars would be an unbearable loss; the empire might collapse because of it.

The Five Prime Gods wouldn’t miss the opportunity to strike at a weakening empire!

The Three Pillars clearly understood this too, and they fell into silence.

God of Magic Zimor’s white beard trembled: “Such an extraordinary and bizarre method and power. It’s unheard of. I’m very concerned… Is the Internet God truly a god of our world?”

His words made everyone turn pale!

Could it be… a planar invasion?