O43novel Chapter 737: Invitation
Chapter 737: Invitation
**Chapter 737: Invitation**
Under Jie Ming’s hospitality, David took a seat in the chair opposite the workbench, and Jie Ming sat down as well.
The two were separated by half a workbench’s distance, with several uncleansed Dragonman bloodline rune crystal shards still scattered across the surface.
The Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror automatically pushed the crystals aside, clearing a clean section of the desktop. Cold blue rune light flowed quietly across the metal surface.
Jie Ming raised his eyes to observe David.
After several hundred years apart, the other party’s appearance had not changed much.
His golden hair was still neatly combed back, his features retained that standard elite look, and his expression appeared the same as before.
Yet something more subtle had changed.
Jie Ming could not quite pinpoint what it was for a moment.
He simply felt, at first glance, that the person before him was gentler than the young wizard he remembered—the one who had fought shoulder to shoulder with him. “Long time no see. You look quite different,” Jie Ming spoke first.
“So do you,” David smiled. The smile was almost identical to the one in Jie Ming’s memory, yet after the smile faded, a very faint line appeared at the corner of his eye. “But your changes are for the better. Word has spread outside—how you single-handedly held the Reflection Dimension passage, how Broadleaf personally named you as the one they wanted, and how you joined forces to seal an eighth-tier peak Dragon. Do you know what they’re calling you now?”
His tone carried a hint of envious teasing:
“They say you’re the strongest new-generation wizard to emerge from Noren Workshop in the last few millennia.”
“Exaggerated rumors,” Jie Ming waved his hand casually, brushing it off.
His gaze, however, moved past David’s shoulder to the female wizard who had followed quietly behind him since entering. She stood just inside the laboratory doorway and did not sit down with David at the workbench, maintaining a perfectly appropriate distance—neither distant nor intrusive.
Her features were exquisitely beautiful to the point of seeming unreal. It was not the kind of perfection achieved through later modification, but a natural embodiment of aesthetic ideals.
Her pale silver hair fell to her shoulders, reflecting a faint metallic sheen under the laboratory’s cold blue lighting.
The aura of her law solidification domain was as quiet and restrained as she was, like a thin mist that had not yet fully unfurled.
Judging from the fluctuations, she had also broken through to the sixth tier not long ago. The law patterns at the edge of her domain were still slowly adjusting themselves. Noticing Jie Ming’s gaze, she gave a slight bow in greeting.
The movement was small, but the etiquette was impeccable.
“Who is this?” Jie Ming withdrew his gaze and looked at David.
“I was just about to introduce her,” David turned slightly and extended his hand toward the female wizard.
She stepped forward naturally and stood beside David.
“Irene,” David said. “My fiancée. I brought her this time so she could meet some of my old friends.” He took out an invitation tied with a silver ribbon from his sleeve, placed it on the workbench, and pushed it toward Jie Ming.
“Also, to deliver this. I’m getting married and would like to invite you to the wedding.”
Jie Ming lowered his head to look at the invitation.
The silver ribbon shimmered with a soft luster under the cold blue light. On the cover, his name was written in standard wizard ceremonial script.
He picked it up. The invitation felt slightly heavy in his hand. He opened it, glanced at the date and location inside, then gently closed it again.
Only then did he belatedly realize why he had felt that David had changed.
There was nothing wrong with what David said. It was perfectly normal for friends to visit one another.
But the tone in which he spoke was completely different from the young wizard who used to charge at the forefront on the battlefield.
Back then, David’s eyes had held a spark, his voice would rise slightly with excitement, and every sentence felt like a charge toward some goal. Now, David spoke gently, appropriately, even with a touch of careful deliberation.
Rather than introducing his wife to a friend, it felt more like laying groundwork for future connections.
Accumulating contacts for the next generation.
Paving relationships for his family.
This was indeed the most common social logic within sixth-tier wizard circles.
But for Jie Ming, it meant David had changed.
Though he still looked like that outgoing, cheerful golden-haired youth on the outside, the sharp, spirited young genius who had been full of vigor upon their first meeting was truly gone.
He had sheathed his own edge.
Jie Ming picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip, pressing down the subtle emotion in his chest.
He knew he had no right to feel regret.
David’s choice was rational—perhaps even wise.
Not every genius could remain a genius all the way through.
On the increasingly narrow heavenly ladder of wizard civilization, those who could calmly assess their limits after hitting a wall and decisively choose another path forward often lived much longer than those who refused to accept fate and ended up crashing headfirst into ruin.
David had simply chosen to live on and to continue forward in a steadier way.
There was nothing wrong with that.
Yet Jie Ming still felt a touch of regret.
He could not quite say what exactly he regretted.
Perhaps it was for that golden-haired youth who had once fought beside him, or perhaps for something more universal.
Or maybe it was simply because he had gone too long without such a purely social meeting and suddenly did not know what to say.
“Congratulations.”
He put the invitation away, raised his eyes, and this time his tone was sincere.
“Wizard Irene, right? Nice to meet you. I’m Jie Ming.”
“I know,” Irene smiled faintly. Her voice was as ethereal as she appeared. “David often mentions you. He says you are the peer he admires the most.”
“He never used to say things like that,” Jie Ming glanced at David.
“I was too embarrassed back then,” David replied with a smile, a trace of awkwardness still lingering in his expression.
The three chatted for a while longer.
David and Irene sat across the workbench, their postures natural and relaxed. They occasionally exchanged glances, looking quite well-matched.
At the end of the conversation, David stood up, and Irene rose with him.
“We still need to deliver invitations to the others, so we won’t disturb you any longer.” David reached out and shook Jie Ming’s hand. “You must come on the wedding day.”
“I will.”
Jie Ming smiled as he saw them to the laboratory door, watching their figures disappear into the light of the teleportation array.
The laboratory door closed automatically, and the cold blue lighting once again filled the entire room.
He sat back down in his chair, leaned against the backrest, and stared at the ceiling for a long time.
What should he give as a wedding gift?
Something too expensive would be inappropriate, but something too ordinary would be unimpressive.
Moreover, since David was now taking the family route, the gift’s standard could not consider only David himself—it also had to take his entire family’s feelings into account. Jie Ming scratched his hair and temporarily tossed the question into the pending items in his spiritual sea.
After that, he immersed himself once more in the research of the All-Heavens Star Grand Array.