Translator: AnubisTL
Spraying Aptitude Transformation Potion was a straightforward task, often assigned to magic puppets or Artificial Lifeforms.
However, Jieming's willingness to heed advice proved to be an asset. Once he confirmed Mentor Clark's lack of ill intent, he accepted the mission without further resistance and set off immediately.
He piloted the academy-provided dispersal vessel, a sleek, compact Airship equipped with an automated spraying system and energy detection sensors.
Following the coordinates provided by his mentor, he flew steadily toward the designated area.
As the Airship descended, he spotted a small welcoming party on the ground, led by a regional lord dressed in opulent robes.
When Jieming recognized the lord's face, he froze, his pupils contracting sharply.
He knew this lord!
They had met several times before. This very lord had been the one who sent him to Noren Academy!
The region he was tasked with transforming was none other than his homeland in this world!
"Hey! Even though he's a bit expressionless, my mentor is actually a good person," Jieming couldn't help but grin after a moment of silence.
It was only at this moment that Jieming truly understood Mentor Clark's purpose in assigning him this mission.
In a year, he would be participating in the Noren Workshop's test, which involved hundreds of academies.
Although the specific reasons and objectives remained unclear, the sudden announcement of the test by the Noren Workshop, coupled with the mandatory return of high-rank wizards and apprentices, suggested that those who passed the test would likely be assigned to other duties.
Despite his humility, Jieming never underestimated himself. While he couldn't guarantee taking first place in the test, passing it was a certainty.
Given the Noren Workshop's aggressive actions, passing the test would likely mean never returning to Noren Plane No. 13, perhaps not even during rest periods.
Even if he could eventually return, it would likely be many years later. By then, his mortal parents would likely have passed away.
That's why Mentor Clark had assigned him this mission, using a seemingly official pretext to give him one last chance to see his family before leaving this plane.
Though Mentor Clark rarely smiled, he occasionally revealed a human touch of care.
Yet upon learning this, Jieming found himself surprisingly calm.
Instead of rushing home, Jieming first formally handed over the mission permit to the local lord, who then insisted on dragging him to the laboratory for an academic exchange.
It wasn't until four or five days after accepting the mission that Jieming finally bid farewell to the lord and followed the potion-spreading progress to the region where his hometown was located.
During a break in the potion-spreading process, he used the excuse of needing to replenish energy to have the Airship land on the outskirts of a town near his home, then went to visit his parents.
The reunion with his family was even more subdued than Jieming had anticipated.
Pushing open the familiar wooden door, he found his parents had aged further, but their bodies remained relatively sturdy.
When they saw Jieming return, a flicker of surprise and joy crossed their faces, though the joy wasn't particularly fervent.
After all, the entire plane was under the deliberate control of the wizards, who, in their pursuit of "optimizing the population," had encouraged residents to procreate diligently.
Even ordinary farmers, supported by ample food supplies and an excellent healthcare system, commonly had five or six children in their families.
Merchant families like Jieming's parents, with access to even greater resources, could raise even more children.
Before Jieming left, his family already had seven or eight siblings.
By the time he returned, that number had skyrocketed to over a dozen.
Thus, when Jieming pushed open the door, his eyes were greeted by a yard teeming with children of all ages playing.
To his parents, who hadn't seen him in years, Jieming was merely one among their many offspring—a child who had "left home to make his own way in the world."
They were pleased that he had "made something of himself," but there was little sorrow at his departure or excitement at his return, and even a hint of an unspoken sense of estrangement.
As for his other siblings, they felt nothing toward this strange brother who liked to play with sticks.
Jieming himself had long possessed the consciousness of an adult. Having been tempered by the transcendent world, his mindset had already detached from any lingering attachment to ordinary familial bonds.
Deep down, he naturally felt gratitude toward the parents who had raised him, but he felt little sorrow at their parting.
Though he had anticipated feeling sadness before the reunion, those emotions vanished completely upon seeing them.
He felt regret, but not deep sorrow—it was like suddenly losing contact with a childhood friend in his previous life, only to remember them again one day.
As for his parents, ever since the lord took Jieming to the academy, their family had suddenly begun receiving generous subsidies from "noble benefactors"—these were stipends and covert support for wizard apprentices.
Thanks to these subsidies, Jieming's father had transformed from a small merchant into one of the town's leading magnates.
The family now lived in prosperity and luxury, and his father had even taken several "mistresses."
Overall, Jieming's sudden return didn't elicit much emotion from his family. In contrast, the young mistresses his father had recently acquired showed clear signs of worry in their eyes.
In the current state of Noren Plane No. 13, transcendent powers were strictly kept secret from ordinary people.
The mistresses assumed Jieming had been favored by a noble and become a retainer (or even a plaything) of the lord, hence their natural reverence for these "noble figures."
Seeing that Jieming had returned without any attendants or carriages, they feared he might have angered the lord and been banished, or perhaps had escaped on his own.
Either scenario would jeopardize their family's comfortable lifestyle.
Shortly after entering the house and settling down, Jieming received an absurd report through his Communicator from a local official: one of the mistresses had reported his movements.
It was at that moment that Jieming truly realized they were no longer people of the same world.
For this reason, Jieming didn't linger at home. He simply exchanged a few words of family news with his parents and siblings, left them some gold coins, and departed.
Afterward, he returned to the airship and completed the remaining potion-spraying mission.
As the airship traced an arc across the sky, evenly dispersing the diluted Aptitude Transformation Potion across the land, Jieming's heart was filled with a complex mix of tranquility and unease.
He knew that under the influence of the wizard civilization's transformative power, this land would gradually evolve toward a radically different future.
Regardless, Jieming was deeply grateful to his mentor, Clark, for giving him this opportunity.
He had already drifted far from his mundane family. His path lay in the depths of the cosmos, on the transcendent shores beyond the mortal realm.
(End of the Chapter)
⚡ 𝟏𝟒 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐬 | 𝟖.𝟓𝐤 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 | 𝟏𝟒.𝟑𝐌 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 [𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐥.𝐜𝐨𝐦]