Chapter 1088: Morphological Transformation, Smuggling into the Future

Seeing this, Xia Duo naturally dared not lower his guard; while signaling for Luodite and the others to retreat quickly, he summoned a large volume of water, which surged toward the fire man rushing at him, attempting to block the other's path.

During this process, he also attempted to communicate with the other, but the only thing the other ever transmitted into the Mind Link was a roar:

"Xierdalanna, bitch! Xierdalanna, whore!"

Xierdalanna seemed to be the name of a female Elf; Xia Duo had never heard this name anywhere before, so what kind of relationship could she have with this fire man before him?

Xia Duo could not help but imagine a scenario of love and mutual destruction between a human and an Elf; in the past, when Yierlan and Netheril had close relations, there were indeed many humans and Elves who fell in love, and it was not uncommon for them to successfully produce offspring.

Of course, because there was an extremely exaggerated gap in the natural lifespans of humans and Elves, even if those loves had once been incomparably fiery, they would eventually become dull or even completely extinguished as the human side continuously aged.

As for the descendants born to those humans and Elves, even if a small number were taken into Elven society, they eventually returned to Netheril, either voluntarily or involuntarily.

Could this fire man be a Half-Elf who had been banished from Elven society, or a human victim whose feelings had been toyed with by an Elf?

Then why did he turn into this current appearance, and how had he lived until now?

Doubts popped up in Xia Duo's mind one after another, but now was not the time to investigate these; the urgent priority was how to deal with this fire man.

He had never expected that exploring the ruins of a Mage Tower from several hundred years ago would lead to encountering a survivor who had lived from that time until now, even if this survivor's state was somewhat abnormal.

But it had to be said, this was truly astonishing.

"Lord Xia Duo, is that fire man some kind of monster? Or is he a surviving member of this Mage Tower? What should we do now?"

Although Luodite and the others had quickly retreated at Xia Duo's request, it was impossible not to be curious when encountering such a situation.

Moreover, Luodite had also "heard" the fire man "burst" into the Mind Link with repeated roars, which made him even more curious; he was not only curious about what "Xierdalanna" had done to make the fire man so angry, but also curious about the true identity of this fire man—could he be a survivor of this Mage Tower?

"There are no more areas worth searching in the ruins; let's retreat first."

Xia Duo answered Luodite while maneuvering around the fire man, "As for this fire man, I suspect he is a survivor of this Mage Tower, and very likely the only survivor. It is just a pity that for some reason, his brain seems to be not quite right."

"Could it be caused by this form of his? I have heard that after some Longevity Rituals fail, they can transform people into certain special forms and cause them to lose their sanity. Do you think he used an imperfect Longevity Ritual in order to survive?"

Luodite's father was a Senior Arcanist, and he himself had studied at Jilan Tower for many years; on many issues, he was even more sensitive than Xia Duo, a Senior Arcanist.

Reminded by Luodite, Xia Duo also felt a sudden realization. Survival could be said to be the most basic pursuit of every living being; from the moment they came into contact with Elves and learned of such long-lived beings, the Netherese began to pursue longevity.

It was just a pity that the threshold for a Life Extension Spell was not low; as far as Xia Duo knew, even the simplest Life Extension Spell was at least an 8 Ring Transmutation Spell.

This blocked the vast majority of Spellcasters; only the very top minority had the possibility of coming into contact with, and the ability to cast, such spells.

As for the Longevity Ritual, which could grant a near-eternal lifespan, the threshold was even higher; besides the spell level, there were other taboos, both explicit and implicit.

In this regard, Xia Duo did not know much; the Tower of Time only had two Life Extension Spells and no Longevity Ritual.

Several hundred years ago, the degree of information sharing might have been very high, but this Mage Tower could not necessarily have had a dozen Archmages. (The Tower Master protected over a dozen areas)

Xia Duo felt that this survivor was likely only under the special protection of the Tower Master because of a special status; perhaps a student, or perhaps an offspring.

It was difficult for Xia Duo to fully reconstruct the state of the various areas of the Mage Tower when the accident occurred, but from the fact that no news had spread for the past several hundred years, he could roughly guess that those dozen or so areas under special protection were likely in a sealed state.

So much so that the people inside, after escaping the direct damage of the accident, fell into the endless despair of being unable to escape their shelter.

Of course, it was also possible that the sealed state was the true protection, just like the Stasis Chamber of the Tower of Time; although initially used to imprison powerful enemies, it was also a good method for preservation in special circumstances.

Just like Niya's father, Lord Aipusi, who, because of the curse of an Elven High Mage, had his life force on the verge of exhaustion and obtained a long-term state of stasis through the Stasis Chamber, in the hope of receiving help in the future.

The owner of this Mage Tower might have made such a choice at the time, paying special attention to a dozen or so important areas; perhaps they were "time capsules" left for the future.

But judging from the current situation, either the "time capsule" had failed, or something had gone wrong somewhere; in any case, the people inside had neither received good protection nor had the opportunity to escape.

Under such circumstances, attempting a Longevity Ritual and transforming oneself into a non-human state was the only way to wait for the day of seeing the light of day again.

It was just a pity that the only survivor, while indeed having lived, was not much better off than if they had died directly.

With this, Xia Duo began to doubt the identity of "Xierdalanna" again; perhaps this "Xierdalanna" was not some Elf, but could even be the Tower Master themselves.

At that time, although Netherese Mages had abandoned Elven Magic, Elven culture was still popular, and taking an Elven name was quite normal.

And those who survived in the dozen or so specially protected areas, although they did not die on the spot or end up in another Plane during the Semi-plane experiment accident due to the Tower Master's special protection, would very likely have accumulated endless resentment from being unable to leave their areas for a long time.

Put into the present, that was why the fire man, even though he had long since lost normal reasoning, still could not stop thinking about "Xierdalanna," who was very likely the owner of this Mage Tower.

Of course, what the Reality actually was would require further investigation.

Whether it was because of fear of the water impact or because the brain itself was unreasonable, after chasing Xia Duo for a distance, the fire man suddenly gave up the chase and chose to wander aimlessly in the Mage Tower Ruins.

This made Xia Duo breathe a sigh of relief; although this fire man was nearly unsolvable for ordinary people, he was not difficult for him to deal with. What he was truly worried about was that a fierce battle might completely destroy these ruins.

Although there were no more treasures worth looting in the ruins, the ruins themselves were a priceless treasure for an Arcanist who aspired to deep exploration in the Plane Domain.