Chapter 1083: The Half-Ruined Library and the Mysterious Tower Master

"If you come with me, you will need to listen to my commands and perform auxiliary operations while I attempt this; if you choose to retreat outside and wait, it will not affect the distribution of the final harvest, but it will be safer."

Xia Duo was more inclined for Luodite and the others to accompany him; after all, the situation here was extremely complex, and having a few High Mages to assist would be more beneficial to his decryption work.

As for the distribution and such, he had an agreement with Luodite: both parties would share text and Knowledge-type items, while he would take half of the material goods.

If he had not come in person, this agreement would have been considered relatively fair, but when he arrived himself, the situation changed.

Because the knowledge shared by both parties only included the physical knowledge carriers obtained from the ruins, and did not include knowledge that Xia Duo obtained on his own through academic knowledge and experience that exceeded theirs.

Placing the strong and the weak on the same playing field with the same rules seems fair, but in reality, it is always the strong who can harvest more; on Earth, this situation is often called the "Matthew Effect, where the strong get stronger."

Therefore, the strong are actually more willing to maintain order and fairness than the weak, because this order and this fairness are inherently more favorable to them. (There is not even a need to deliberately formulate rules favorable to the strong; as long as it is fair, the strong will become stronger and stronger; there are occasional exceptions, but they do not affect the general trend.)

Since Xia Duo had arrived in person, he naturally did not mind showing more tolerance and generosity; after all, no matter what treasures this ruin could eventually yield, he had already obtained most of what he should have.

……

After hearing Xia Duo's explanation, Luodite was immediately tempted, but in the end, he could not let go of the opportunity for on-site teaching from a Senior Arcanist, even though his father was also a Senior Arcanist; sometimes people just care more about outsiders than their own kin.

Since Luodite wanted to follow Xia Duo, the others naturally could not refuse, especially Aibuna and Fulanke, who were essentially nannies hired for him by Luodite's father and would never separate from Luodite.

After the group made their decision, Xia Duo did not delay any longer and quickly passed through the Force Field Channel that Luodite and the others had previously left to isolate unknown Ether Creatures, heading toward the next Element Pool fusion area.

Thus, one after another, Xia Duo quickly finished inspecting all six unexplored areas previously left behind by Leikesi and his group, with the Element Pool fusion situation in four of those areas being relatively normal.

In the other two, the Protection system there had already tended toward chaos and collapse, and its fusion with the Element Pool was also in an unstable state; it seemed that an elemental discharge accident could occur at any moment.

And besides these six unexplored areas left by Relic Hunters like Leikesi, this time, with Xia Duo coming in person, he also discovered several areas hidden within the Ether Mist.

And in those areas, he found chaotic scenes where the Element Pool and the Protection system had collapsed after fusion.

It looked like, after the experimental accident back then, the owner here had also attempted self-rescue, using some means unknown to Xia Duo to fuse the Element Pool with the Protection systems of several important areas.

But unfortunately, the owner here did not manage to wait for rescue; hundreds of years passed, and in the end, only four of those fusion areas remained.

Besides the suspected warehouse area fused with the Fire Elemental Pool and the suspected Library area fused with the Water Element, the remaining two of these four areas were private residences.

Most of the other fusion areas that were close to collapse or had already collapsed were also private residences.

"I wonder if any ancient Netherese Mages are still alive in those two private residence areas?"

……

After some investigation, Xia Duo and the others finally arrived at the fusion area suspected to be a Library; the reason for judging this area as a Library, rather than anything else, was naturally because it was semi-open.

Passing through a corridor hall that had collapsed by nearly half, one could already be considered to have entered the Library, where six rows of double-sided, twelve bookshelves were clearly visible.

But unfortunately, only the four bookshelves near the entrance were still intact; the further in one went, the more the collapsed stone blocks above had almost completely buried those eight bookshelves.

Further away, besides piles of stones, there was only the increasingly thick Ether Mist; in such a situation, Xia Duo also quickly judged whether there would be more bookshelves deeper inside.

Of course, even if there were, it would actually be very difficult to excavate them.

The four bookshelves near the entrance, however, could still be salvaged.

……

"Lord Xia Duo, what do you need us to do?" Luodite asked.

"Let me think."

After seeing more than a dozen Element Pool fusion areas that were either relatively stable, nearly collapsed, or already completely collapsed, Xia Duo became even more curious about this Mage Tower and its owner at the time.

He had originally thought that the Element Pool was fused individually with the Protection system of a certain area, such as the single Fire Elemental Pool being fused separately with the Protection system of the warehouse area.

But after actually seeing it, he discovered that the facts were not as he had assumed.

The warehouse, the Library, and the other two private residence areas for Mages of the Mage Tower did indeed show a certain elemental tendency, but after a comprehensive analysis of the state of the Element Pool and the Magic Net in these four areas, Xia Duo easily reached a conclusion—

The Four Elements Pool of this Mage Tower was still very complete; what was called relatively stable, nearly collapsed, or completely collapsed, was merely the state of fusion, not the Element Pool itself.

If it were in an intact state, none of the fusion areas should show any elemental tendency, nor would there be any elemental leakage.

And this, to a certain extent, made Xia Duo's previous speculation about the fusion state of the Element Pool lean more toward a special structure in space, as well as some unknown method of energy transmission.

Rather than a Reality Projection of the Element Pool.

If it were just a single Element Pool projection fusion, it would be difficult to explain the very close connection behind these four stable fusion areas.

Xia Duo could roughly infer—

After a serious Semi-plane experimental accident, the owner of the Mage Tower, considering that the main body of the Element Pool was far from the various areas that needed key protection and that there were more variables in an accident state, used some means to connect the location of the Element Pool to more than a dozen important areas simultaneously, and let the Element Pool directly provide energy for the Protection systems of these areas.

And this series of operations all needed to be completed within a short time after the experimental accident occurred.

Xia Duo was truly curious about who the owner of this Mage Tower was; his ability was definitely no less than that of a Senior Arcanist.

But why was there no record of him at all?

And the Folded Space inside the Mage Tower; Xia Duo remembered seeing in the Giles Tower Library that the appearance of Folded Space was earlier than the Mage Tower, but applying it to a Mage Tower had only been a matter of the last three or four hundred years.

Moreover, because it must be continuously maintained, this required a more powerful and stable Element Pool to provide energy; even in this day and age, there are not many Mage Towers that possess large-scale Folded Space.

Most are just expansions for a few specific rooms, rather than being everywhere.

As of now, Mage Towers that can possess large-scale Folded Space are basically only those left behind by Great Arcanists.