Chapter 1005: Deception Penalty, Discovering Characteristics

Seeing that he was about to find the Projection Plane, how could Xia Duo possibly interrupt at this moment? However, Niya's words also caught his attention, and he couldn't help but ask:

"What exactly happened over in Seventon? How could even Lady Greta be undergoing a trial for so long?"

"She didn't say, but with the teacher away, Giles Tower must have many matters requiring Lady Greta's attention. As you said, we should just wait for the results!"

After saying this, Niya revealed another situation, "These past few days, due to the high-frequency use of the Plane Exploration Array, the Tower of Time's energy reserves are already insufficient."

"Energy is insufficient?" Xia Duo carefully recalled the number of times he had used it these past few days. In the beginning, because he lacked experience, he had to exit and start over whenever he made any Movement in the Astral Plane.

But later on, he had already been able to exist stably in the Astral Plane for a long time. Could it really be that he had used it too many times?

Xia Duo couldn't help but feel some suspicion, but he didn't show it on his face. Instead, he secretly sent an inquiry to the Tower Spirit. The Tower Spirit's answer was—

Energy insufficient!

Ever since the Elemental Channel at the edge of the Mythallar Ruins was built, Xia Duo hadn't heard the term "energy insufficient" for a long time.

But for a moment, he couldn't be sure of the frequency at which Dewan had used the Plane Exploration Array in the past, yet his rational instinct told him that there was a problem here.

So, he tentatively stared into Niya's eyes and asked in a suspicious tone, "Really?"

"It's true!" Niya nodded forcefully, seemingly emphasizing the truth of the matter.

But from the ear tips that were gradually turning red, Xia Duo discovered the clue, so he teased, "I don't believe it, unless your ears aren't red!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Niya's ear tips flashed and turned even redder, and her gaze was no longer firm, becoming evasive. At the same time, the blush on her ear tips gradually spread to her cheeks.

Seeing Niya's shy appearance, even though they were already an old married couple, Xia Duo's heart still jumped wildly. He leaned in close, suppressed the Protective Field of the Mage Robe that was stirring on Niya's body, and whispered in her ear:

"You lied to me; I'm going to punish you properly tonight!"

These words were quite ambiguous. Niya understood immediately, her complexion instantly becoming even more flushed, and she lowered her head, almost not daring to look directly at Xia Duo.

"Alright, I understand everything!" Xia Duo hugged Niya and stroked her back gently.

After this little interlude, Xia Duo, whose rhythm had been interrupted, had already realized where his problem lay.

The state of Astral Perception requires not only the focus of a Mage's concentration but also the need to relax as much as possible and diffuse one's Perception while maintaining such focus. At the same time, the passage of time in the Astral Plane is also very difficult to grasp.

Although it seemed that only ten-plus days had passed in the Main Plane since his exploration began, in the Astral Plane, he had long since forgotten the specific time.

Especially after he became skilled later on, he would often stay in the Astral Plane until he was mentally exhausted before exiting.

At this moment, feeling Niya's soft body, Xia Duo's mind relaxed, and he almost couldn't help but fall asleep while standing. He pulled himself together, let go of Niya, and said to her:

"I'm going to rest; wake me up when it's evening!"

"Mm."

Niya lowered her head and replied, her voice like a mosquito's hum.

……

Afterwards, Xia Duo adjusted the opening hours of the Plane Exploration Layer, from the original continuous opening to now only opening during the day, and even then, only every other day.

After this adjustment, not only did it not affect his normal exploration progress, but it actually led to more discoveries, and even Dewan's mental state improved quite a bit.

Regarding this, Xia Duo was almost one hundred percent certain that the Seven Towers, which had been operating the Plane Exploration Array for who knows how long, might have long since accumulated a vast amount of experience in this area, only they wouldn't easily let outsiders know.

Of course, compared to Mage Towers (organizations) that didn't even have a Plane Exploration Array, the Tower of Time could be considered to be at the forefront.

This day, as usual, after Xia Duo finished discussing the suspected points where a Projection Plane might exist in the locked area with Dewan, he began his first Perception Projection of the day as normal.

The process of entering the Astral Plane needs no elaboration; it was just as usual. After entering the Astral Plane, Xia Duo habitually calmed his mind to avoid stirring up the Astral Wind and causing his consciousness to move.

Only then did he relax his mind and diffuse his Perception.

By this time, the silver void that had previously been unchanging gradually revealed its true face. This feeling was like an incomparably smooth silver mirror; at first glance, one could see nothing, only one's own reflection.

But if one increased the precision, all the way down to the molecular or atomic level, one could discover that this mirror was not necessarily as smooth and clear as it first appeared, as if it were nothing at all.

It was covered with uneven, irregular structures, and there were even foreign objects stuck to it, making it incomparably dirty.

Now, when Xia Duo looked at the Astral Plane, he didn't feel it was dirty; he just felt it was incomparably novel, as if he had discovered an inner world hidden beneath the surface world.

When his diffused Perception spread out, the Astral Plane gradually changed its appearance in Xia Duo's eyes, becoming unlike it was at the beginning, no longer an absolutely perfect, empty silver void.

Instead, it was a chaotic field filled with all kinds of primitive mental information, like a pot of turbid, boiling water!

The mental information within it was not necessarily emitted by life; there was also non-life, and even information about Planes contained within it, only everything manifested in a mental form.

Xia Duo didn't dwell too much on the essence of the Astral Plane. After all, he hadn't even clearly studied the normal Planes, so for such a special Plane as the Astral Plane, he was even less able to get a handle on it.

And now, what he had to do was search for a Projection Plane.

Some relatively basic but relatively reliable characteristics of Projection Planes had already been pre-set in the Plane Exploration Array; otherwise, there wouldn't be any talk of automatic searching.

But compared to searching for Sub-planes in the Ether Interlayer, the difficulty of searching for Projection Planes in the Astral Plane was even greater.

This was determined by the very nature of the Astral Plane itself—

The rules of the Ether Interlayer are relatively clear; basically, one is one and two is two;

But the Astral Plane is a mental world, complex, changeable, and elusive. Even if one explored it one second, it wouldn't be strange at all if it disappeared the next.

Likewise, because the Astral Plane is a mental world, the explorer's will can be manifested more significantly. If an Astral Mage is skilled in their craft, the speed at which they discover Projection Planes might far exceed that of Sub-planes.

Of course, this is not to say that Astral Mages are more useful than Plane Scholars; it's just that each has their own focus!

In the discovery of Projection Planes, the bonus from human factors might be even greater.

……

Xia Duo's search this time was actually nearing its end; he and Dewan had already ruled out the vast majority of suspected points in this locked area.

However, the Astral Plane is just that full of surprises!

After checking the last batch of suspected points, Xia Duo had a sudden whim. He didn't know the specific source of this inspiration, and there was no time to investigate it at the moment.

He simply followed his inner intuition and re-focused the center of his Perception on a suspected area that had already been searched and confirmed to have no Projection Plane previously.

In the Astral Plane, intuition is perhaps more useful than experience—

In that curled-up, constantly changing information cluster, he actually discovered several characteristics of a Projection Plane!

"I found it just like that?!"

Xia Duo felt it was somewhat unbelievable. If it were really this simple, then what had he been doing for the past ten-plus or twenty days!

However, the necessary procedures still had to be followed; Xia Duo quickly calmed his mood, repeatedly checking that special cluster of information while mentally organizing the operations for returning to the Main Plane later.

After confirming once more the existence of the Projection Plane's characteristics, he no longer hesitated and immediately chose to leave the Astral Plane.