Chapter 266: Thirty Years

Time flies like a white horse passing a crack, and thirty years of time passed quietly in the plane expedition.

The airspace plane has now been completely covered by the mark of wizard civilization.

However, the expected resource depletion did not come; the development boom not only did not subside but presented a distorted, near-boiling prosperity.

Thanks to the near-infinite enrichment of wind elements, this plane exhibited various unimaginable characteristics.

The vast space lost the shackles of gravity, and all things floated, allowing the explorable area of the entire plane to suddenly have one more dimension.

And what is even more amazing is that those spatial distortion areas scattered everywhere, like plane scars, are constantly breeding new small spaces inside.

Every new small space is like an independent ecological bubble.

Containing unique resource lineages and strange biological communities, as if they were treasure chests scattered randomly in the universe.

It is precisely this near-"renewable" strange phenomenon that makes wizards, after thirty years of crazy mining, still unable to see the full picture of this plane.

The floating city of the wizard camp is no longer what it was thirty years ago.

It has expanded several times, like a metal giant beast entrenched in the void.

And at the very top of the floating city, the atmosphere is undergoing violent distortion, forming a huge, slowly rotating energy vortex, emitting heart-palpitating spatial fluctuations—the world teleportation array is about to connect!

This should have been a project completed more than ten years later, but under the personal intervention of Level 7 wizard Dionysius Spencer, the progress was forcibly advanced.

So urgent, only because the "richness" of this plane far exceeded expectations, and the piled-up harvest was almost making the forward base unbearable.

The central plaza, which had been expanded countless times, now looks more like a chaotic and huge material distribution center.

Countless creatures of different forms, some curled up gently, some violently hitting the cages.

Colorful mineral stones with different energy reactions are piled up like mountains, and there are some nameless rare resources, emitting strange light or fluctuations.

At the edge of the plaza, thick metal chains extend out, blocking more giant iron cages suspended in the clouds and mist outside the city, filled with living creatures.

Even, looking over the plane rift, one can see that on the land of the opposite ship plane, cages are piled up like new mountain ranges, stretching endlessly.

In order to maintain the vitality of these precious living samples, millions of construct dolls shuttle between the temporarily maintained spatial gates like worker ants every day, carrying precious spatial wizard tools, transporting massive nutritional substances from the rear base, and conducting what might be the most luxurious "feeding" work in this world.

The early opening of the world teleportation array is like opening a floodgate for a blocked river, and a steady stream of resources is efficiently transported back to the core hinterland of wizard civilization, which slightly relieved the storage pressure on the front line.

And the wizards fell into even crazier busyness.

Every wizard is like a machine with a spring, desperately chasing merits and resources.

In this plane without Level 6 life sitting in town, the local power simply cannot organize effective resistance and can only let these "extra-territorial heavenly demons" plunder endlessly like wolves and tigers.

This day, a streamer passed through the thin clouds and approached the floating city.

It is Jie Ming.

Behind him, he dragged a string of giant cages connected by thick iron chains, filled with strange creatures captured in the latest exploration: some shaped like floating jellyfish but flashing with metallic luster, and some like birds composed of pure energy, causing subtle spatial ripples when chirping.

Also thanks to the weightless environment of the airspace plane, he could "roughly" drag this huge harvest back at once. Handing this long string of "war loot" to the alchemy doll that greeted him, Jie Ming was too lazy to go to the market to find buyers slowly.

He left enough research samples and sent them to the warehouse he had rented for a long time, and the rest were sold in batches to the camp official through the magic network terminal in a slightly lower than market price but incomparably fast way.

It must be said that Dionysius Spencer's layout is indeed far-reaching.

This official recycling mechanism, although the profit is not much, greatly improved the efficiency of wizards' actions.

Allowing them to invest in the next round of plunder missions faster, forming an efficient closed loop.

Walking on the streets inside the floating city, which can now be called crowded, Jie Ming slowed down and observed everything around him silently.

Noise filled his ears, wizards of different forms were in a hurry, and energy fluctuations intertwined.

In front of the bulletin board, wizards were constantly accepting missions and recruiting temporary teammates on the spot.

After a simple negotiation, they signed a soul contract, formed a squad, turned into streamers, rushed out of the protective shield of the floating city, and disappeared into the colorful depths of the plane.

The effect of this thirty-plus years of unbridled plunder is obvious.

The terrifying resource digestion and conversion ability of wizard civilization is displayed vividly at this moment.

Jie Ming clearly remembers that at the beginning of the expedition, more than 98% of the team were Level 1 and Level 2 wizards, and Level 3 wizards were rare.

And now, walking on the street, the aura of Level 3 wizards can be seen everywhere; under rough perception, the proportion is afraid to have approached one-third of the total!

At this point, Jie Ming also understands a bit why wizard civilization divides wizard cultivation into two types: logistics department and combat department.

The strength of the logistics department is stronger, but the required aptitude is higher, and the promotion is relatively stable—or can be said to be slow.

And the power of the combat department is not as strong as the logistics department at the same level, but the unique cultivation method makes its digestion and absorption ability for resources strong enough; once there are enough resources, it can quickly improve and obtain immediate combat effectiveness.

It can be said that the logistics department is indeed a proper elite unit, but the combat department is not purely cannon fodder.

Of course, behind the glory is cruel elimination.

In these thirty years, more than 10% of wizards have also fallen into this foreign land forever because of various reasons—spatial traps, violent creatures, and even betrayal by companions.

Although most of these newly promoted Level 3 wizards have insufficient knowledge accumulation and cannot fully exert the strength that their power level should have.

But the huge base and the number of newly promoted ones make

Looking at this bustling scene, full of vitality and greed, a lingering, hard-to-dispel doubt swirled in Jie Ming's heart.

Such a predatory, "draining the pond to catch the fish" method of looting is fundamentally damaging to this airspace plane.

It is no exaggeration to say that even if Wizard Dionysius Spencer had the intention to reintroduce the acquired creatures after the war, the ecology of this plane would never recover its vitality for hundreds or thousands of years.

For a wizard civilization that has always excelled at "sustainable draining of the pond," this behavior, which is akin to killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, appears exceptionally abrupt and wasteful.

"The only explanation," Jie Ming thought to himself, his gaze fixed on the increasingly clear vortex of the world teleportation array at the top of the floating city, "is that the true goal of this expedition by Lord Spencer has a value far exceeding that of a single plane."

Combined with the other party's meaningful remark earlier about an "appetizer," Jie Ming could understand this layer of meaning.

But he still could not imagine what kind of existence or object could have a value that surpasses the long-term benefits of an entire rich plane?

"Even if there were another more valuable plane, there is no reason to completely abandon this one that has already been initially controlled—unless that 'target' is not another plane, but something that, once obtained, makes these 'ordinary' resources no longer worth caring about?" Jie Ming's thoughts surged, but he quickly suppressed them.

He knew well that the planning and vision of a Tier 7 wizard were far beyond what he could currently fathom or question.

Reckless speculation would be of no benefit.

After strolling through the temporary stall area of the plaza a few times and purchasing several rare crystal minerals with peculiar energy structures, as well as biological samples suspected of possessing special abilities, Jie Ming returned to his temporary residence for a short day of rest to sort through his recent gains and insights.

Everyone immediately raised their spirits and advanced cautiously.

Various reconnaissance methods, including Glow Worms, were also spread out without hesitation.

They flew vigilantly for a long time, but there was no enemy or strange aura at all.

Just when Jie Ming was wondering, he suddenly felt that his "Xuan Gang Hong Chen Barrier" had been triggered!

"Enemy attack! Alert!" Jie Ming immediately roared!