Wizards begin with Occlumency.

"How so?"

Faced with Iris's revelations, Link calmly spoke up and asked questions.

He didn't seem surprised at all.

In truth, he was already suspicious and wondering why Iris had said that.

After all, Iris's special identity as a "stranger" was jointly recognized by the five saints of the Supreme Council.

The Celestial Court of the Immortals and Gods accepted this.

Iris did indeed pass a series of tests, opening a passage between the two universes, fulfilling the prophecy made before the end of Noster.

Now, there must be a reason why Iris suddenly says that she is not a "stranger".

And this reason is very, very important!

Iris didn't keep Link in suspense or let him guess. She gave him a hint directly: "The wizarding civilization can have 'strange guests' whose true spirits come from other civilizations or even other universes. Naturally, some true spirits will also be lost to other civilizations or even other universes, becoming 'strange guests' in those civilizations and universes."

Link seemed to understand something, and tentatively asked, "You mean to say that you were originally a wizard from the wizarding civilization, but accidentally became a 'strange guest' from another universe, and then managed to return to the wizarding civilization?"

"That's exactly right."

Iris nodded and readily admitted it.

It was as if she was admitting to something trivial and insignificant, rather than something that the Celestial Court of the Immortal Civilization and the Supreme Council of the Wizard Civilization were both investigating with great effort.

It was as if returning from another universe to the wizarding civilization's universe was a trivial, basic matter.

Link suppressed the sense of absurdity welling up inside him and then tentatively asked, "So, your true spirit is really something carried within the second beam of light?"

"No."

Iris denied this, then said, "The second beam of light carried what the Supreme Council recognized as a 'special ruin world.' Of course, it has now become my destined world."

Upon hearing this, Link remained silent for a moment, then said frankly, "There are still some things I don't quite understand."

Iris smiled and said, "Which places? Tell me, I'll answer whatever I can today. You won't get another chance like this."

"Two beams of light. According to the information I received, one beam carried my true spirit, and the other carried a special ruined world. The 'outer shell' of the second beam was used by the Heavenly Court and the Supreme Council to bind the fate of Celestial Venerable Michel. So, where did the 'outer shell' of the first beam go? What was it used for?"

With a calm expression and a slightly somber tone, Link asked the question that had been bothering him.

Hmm... or rather, Link already had the answer to this question in his heart, but he came to Iris to confirm it.

Iris took a deep breath, meeting Link's burning gaze, and replied in a low voice, "As you suspected, the 'shell' that carried your true spirit has been used to bind your fate. However..."

"But what?"

Link was very curious about this.

And intuitively, I felt this was extremely important.

"However, something went wrong."

Iris's tone became somewhat strange, sounding like helplessness, anger, heartache, and grievance.

All these emotions mixed together ultimately revealed loneliness and desolation.

"What went wrong?"

Link noticed Iris's behavior but didn't have time to offer any concern; he immediately pressed her for details.

One should have a sense of boundaries.

He is already married to Jasmine and has a daughter, so he can't show too much intimate care to other female friends.

This would be a responsible act towards him, towards Jasmine, and towards his other female friends.

To be honest, Iris was disappointed by the current situation, but that was all she felt.

However, being late is being late.

A friend is a friend.

There's nothing to complain about; just accept it.

Quickly regaining her composure, Iris said, "The will of the Wizarding World is an extremely special existence. Not only in our universe, but also in many other universes, it is a unique existence. The reason is not only that it incorporates the consciousness of five saints and the collective consciousness of five wizarding schools, but also that it has another extremely special aspect."

After a brief pause, Iris said in an extremely solemn tone:

"That is, the origin of the wizarding civilization is not very long, but it has developed to its peak in a short period of time, merging with many civilizations and the world will of many civilizations. Just as people get indigestion from eating too much, so too does the world will."

In order to help the will of the wizarding world digest the situation as quickly as possible, the wizards created the existence of "Strangers".

By taking advantage of the fact that multiple parallel universes are not always in a parallel state, special true spirits are attracted from other civilizations or even other universes to create "exotic guests," thereby promoting the overall and diversified development of wizard civilization and using the improvement of "hardware" to promote the evolution of "software."

In this process, the will of the wizarding world gradually developed into its current unique form.

It's hard to explain in just a few words or a short time, but that's the gist of it.

After listening to Iris's long-winded explanation, Link wasn't confused. He understood Iris's implied meaning and asked directly, "You mean, the will of the wizarding world with a special appearance interfered with 'your' arrangements? And that it interfered intentionally?"

Instead of answering, Iris asked, "Do you remember what I said before about the circumstances under which I was born?"

"Remember."

Link nodded and replied, "I remember you said that you were born on the battlefield and that many of your ailments were congenital."

"This is what the will of the wizarding world does."

Iris said indifferently.

Upon hearing this, Link remained silent for a long time.

The more information you get, the more doubts arise in your mind.

Link felt he needed to sort things out.

If the information he receives is accurate and complete, some things can be confirmed, and some questions will arise.

According to the Celestial Master, two beams of light traveled from the source of time in other universes, through the universe of immortals and gods, and then to the universe of wizards.

First, the first beam of light carried Link Grand's true spirit, and the "shell" was used to bind Link Grand's fate, pushing him to face his current situation, whether actively or passively.

So here's the question: Link Grand's previous life was clearly an extremely ordinary mortal, so why did he receive such treatment?

Not only did they hitch a ride across the universe, but they also received differential treatment?

Secondly, the second beam of light carries a "special ruined world".

This also explains a phenomenon that Link couldn't understand after arriving in the special ruins world twice.

Why did humanity, which should have been engaged in a large-scale war affecting the entire world, suddenly and collectively disappear, leaving only traces of the war and intelligent machines?

The most likely reason is that it was chosen by the second beam of light, and then turned to ashes under the influence of a force that technology could not resist.

Just like in a movie from a past life, where someone puts on a glove studded with five gems and snaps their fingers to wipe out half of all life in the universe.

The question is, when exactly did the two beams of light arrive at the wizarding civilization?

After all, the origin of the Omnic Wizards is suspected to be from the special ruins world, but they have been elevated to a level of technology that is beyond the reach of the special ruins world.

The Mechanized Saints had already reached the pinnacle of sainthood before the epic war between the Wizard Civilization and the God Civilization.

From this perspective, the two beams of light must have arrived in this universe before the origins of the Omnic Wizarding school.

Furthermore, considering that there was a beastmaster named Iris Mesia who was born in the North hundreds of years before Iris Clark, can we conclude that the two beams of light had already "awakened" and started to become active at least hundreds of years ago?

Or, the two beams of light are just two beams of light, and "Iris" is just "Iris".

It is not the two beams of light that are driving Iris's activity, but rather Iris who is manipulating the two beams of light.

After all, one of the beams of light carried Link's true spirit, and the other carried the special ruined world.

This is the last thing Link needs to clarify.

Finally, how did Iris's true spirit return to the wizarding universe?

Lacking the necessary qualifications and experience, Link struggled for a while but couldn't come up with anything.

Instead, it created more problems in my mind.

Slowly closing his eyes, Link used the Brain Occupation Technique, a version of the Wisdom Sword, which he hadn't used in a long time, to cut off his distracting thoughts.

My mind instantly cleared, and I grasped the core issue.

Once you grasp the core issue, all other problems become irrelevant.

"Why me?"

Link opened his eyes, stared into Iris's eyes, and asked in a deep voice.

"Why you? Why is it you?"

Iris countered calmly, "Why did you bring your true spirit through the universe to the wizarding civilization? Why didn't you try to be born hundreds of years ago? Why bind your destiny?"

"Um."

Link nodded, awaiting Iris's answer.

"No reason."

Iris said softly, "What happened happened, and there's no reason why."

To be honest, Link wasn't entirely unprepared for this answer.

Whether it was anticipated or not is another matter.

Even if one can accept it, whether one can accept it happily is another matter entirely.

Link's current situation is acceptable, but not pleasant.

"Any more questions?"

Iris then took another small sip of her brown sugar deer yogurt milk tea and asked softly.

"have."

Link nodded, then glanced at the milk tea in Iris's hand.

After thinking for a moment, Link also picked up his brown sugar deer roe milk tea and took a sip.

For a long time, Link had been drinking green tea and black tea, and hadn't had milk tea in a while, so he couldn't get used to the sweetness.

His brow furrowed slightly, almost unconsciously.

Iris keenly noticed this and considerately said, "If you don't like it, you don't have to drink it."

"I used to like it quite a bit."

Link replied casually.

"Just in the past?"

Iris seems to care a lot about this.

"That was in the past."

Link paused for a moment, without pretense or deception.

"What about Jasmine? Does she still like it?"

Iris then asked this question.

"It's alright, I drink it occasionally."

Link continued to answer truthfully.

Iris took a deep breath and grinned. "Let's get down to business. What other questions do you have?"

Meeting Iris's somewhat complicated gaze, Link remained calm and asked without changing his expression, "Why must you bind my destiny?"

"It's not really about restricting, it's about defining a scope."

Iris first corrected one of Link's statements, and then said, "Fate is a mysterious and contradictory thing. It exists, but you can't blindly believe in it, nor can you completely deny it. I can tell you a few things frankly now. Listen to them, think about them, and if you still have questions, don't ask me yet. Discover and understand them yourself."

"it is good."

Link nodded in agreement.

Iris continued:

"The two beams of light were like skis, and my true spirit rode on them, gliding from the river of time of the universe I was reincarnated into to the source of the river of time of the wizarding civilization universe."

That universe is quite far from the wizard civilization universe, and it passes through several universes in between, including the immortal and god civilization universe.

Before I passed through the universe of immortals and gods, several unexpected things happened to me.

One is that you were accidentally taken along in a parallel universe of a civilization of immortals and gods;

Secondly, in the mirror parallel universe of your parallel universe, it carries the special ruined world that the Supreme Council later identified;

Third, at the source of a certain cosmic timeline, he fought a great being.

Fourth, when passing through the universe of immortals and gods, due to his unstable state, he formed a bond with them;

Fifth, after returning to the wizarding civilization universe, his injuries flared up, and he fell into a near-death slumber.

Sixth, the contingency plan for reincarnation, laid out in preparation, began to spiral out of control due to a series of unexpected events.

After a pause to allow Link time to process what she had said, Iris continued:

"The one whose surname is Ai Ruisi is not my previous incarnation, but a dream I had when I was in a near-death sleep."

This dream is related to you, to the special ruined world, and even more so to the fact that the special ruined world is a mirror world of the world you lived in in your previous life.

It took a lot of effort for me to break free from the endless dream and struggle to wake up.

The bond that already existed between us has become even deeper.

Initially, I was unwilling to reincarnate into the wizard civilization with lingering ties, as that would hinder my return to the top.

Thus came the beast-taming wizard Iris Mesiah from hundreds of years ago.

Faced with a failed reincarnation, I had to change my strategy and stop running away from my bond with you.

So I completely abandoned the skateboard that had already revealed its existence, attracting the attention of the wizarding world's will and the beings who had vaguely discovered my existence at that time.

This led to the prophecy of the Sage Nostrodam.

Then use another skateboard to define your destiny, and use your destiny as an anchor point for reincarnation.

Unsurprisingly, another unexpected incident occurred.

The will of the Wizarding World had a backup plan, intervening in my reincarnation at the last moment.

What happened next was not part of "my" plan.

After listening to this heartfelt talk, Link understood many of his doubts, but as Iris had predicted, some new questions arose.

But since Iris told him not to rush to ask, Link didn't rush to ask either.

Keep it in your heart, observe it slowly, and think about it gradually.

For example, what is the difference between the "I" that Iris is referring to and the "me"?

For example, is he the anchor point, or just a decoy? (End of Chapter)