Chapter 1270: Entering the Empire Ruins, Digging One's Own Grave

The so-called Empire ruins are, more accurately, the Magic Net Riot Zone resulting from the collapse of the Border Barrier back in the day.

Nearly a hundred years later, it has still not calmed down; it is just that a considerable portion of the area has become a Magic Net Dead Zone, where spellcasters who are not Arcanists are like fish out of water, possessing not a shred of spellcasting ability.

Xia Duo is now a Senior Arcanist, so after entering the Projection Plane, he is just an ordinary Archmage; wanting to create Arcane Fire is basically impossible.

Therefore, after entering the Magic Net Riot Zone, he carefully flies close to the ground to avoid moving too fast and accidentally rushing into a Magic Net Dead Zone and being unable to stop, falling to his death.

But even so, he still feels deep resistance.

Unlike the Mythallar Ruins within his Territory in the Main Plane, where a mere 5th-ring level Suppression Field is enough to shape an environment suitable for personal spellcasting—and if one is very familiar with the operating mechanism of the Magic Net Strings, one can even directly smooth out the rioting Magic Net by will alone, which, although temporary, is sufficient for use.

But here—

He is advancing while bearing an 8th-ring 【Anti-Magic Domain】; this spell is essentially a Suppression Field as well, but in terms of both energy level and adaptability, it far exceeds a 5th-ring level Spell Suppression Field.

Once this spell is gone, he will be unable to move an inch.

……

Not long after entering the Magic Net Riot Zone, Xia Duo stops; he discovers that in his current state, wanting to fly to Seventon within ten days is simply unrealistic.

What's more, he cannot possibly spend all ten days on the journey.

After a moment of thought, he chooses to fly upward; if he encounters a Magic Net Dead Zone, he can just fall and continue flying, only changing direction.

And if he does not encounter a Magic Net Dead Zone, he will fly straight out of the Magic Net Riot Zone.

As he flies, Xia Duo discovers the pattern of the Magic Net Riot Zone—the higher one goes, the lower the degree of riot; up to an altitude of nearly a thousand meters, the degree of Magic Net riot is only about the same as the Magic Web Background Fluctuation.

Reaching this point, Xia Duo knows he can quickly reach Seventon.

He has long known the coordinates of Seventon; he only needs to slightly change the parameters to set the teleportation destination to over a thousand meters above Seventon.

This is very simple, not even requiring much calculation, and Xia Duo completes the teleportation very quickly.

Looking down, he indeed sees the sprawling coastline below, as well as the Strait Mountains that span the center of the Narrow Sea, dividing it in two.

As for Seventon, under the cover of countless chaotic magics, it is not very distinct from high altitude, but one can still make out its desolate, ruined appearance.

Xia Duo descends very slowly; unlike the ascent where he could ignore Magic Net Dead Zones, he must be careful during the descent.

One must know that he currently has absolutely no way to deal with a Magic Net Dead Zone; if he fails to decelerate in time and crashes directly into the ground, that would be too ridiculous.

It would truly be "dying before achieving success"!

In fact, Xia Duo's caution is not wasted; Seventon in the Main Plane possesses a large number of Magic Facilities, and it is even more so here in the Arcane Empire, making the resulting Magic Net riots more severe than in other areas.

And correspondingly, Magic Net Dead Zones appear here more frequently than in other regions!

Of course, for a spellcaster, judging a Magic Net Dead Zone is almost effortless.

If one compares a normal Magic Net environment to water, then the Magic Net Strings are the water molecules within it, while specific spells, Magic Items, or Magic Facilities are the ice crystals mixed within.

And a Mythallar is a large block of ice.

As long as one knows the concepts of these things and masters the techniques of observation, it is not difficult to discover their existence and their differences.

In Xia Duo's eyes (Magic Vision), the Magic Net glows with a faint, water-like light blue; the Magic Net Riot Zone is deeper in color, more chaotic, and changes faster, while the Dead Zone has almost no light at all.

……

Avoiding the last Magic Net Dead Zone, which is only twenty-some meters high, Xia Duo quickly reaches the ground; the feeling of his feet touching the earth makes him feel very at ease.

However, now is not the time to be truly at ease, and this is not a place of peace.

In the Magic Net Riot Zone, invisibility is useless; Xia Duo only makes a slight disguise, transforming into the appearance of Laidun, and heads straight for the Second Magic Academy he is most familiar with.

……

Arriving outside the Second Magic Academy, one can vaguely identify some of the original traces here; Magic Facilities are the most severely damaged by the Magic Net riots, while as for ordinary facilities, if they were not hit by chaotic magic, they could still be preserved.

Xia Duo is currently standing in front of a stone tablet with only half the text remaining; if this tablet were intact, it should have the words "Empire Second Magic Academy" written on it, but now one can barely recognize a Netherese character representing "two".

Seeing this, Xia Duo truly feels as if a lifetime has passed; suddenly, as if thinking of something, he does not explore the interior of the academy but walks in the direction away from it.

While walking, he traces the memories of his past entry into the 【Projection Plane: Arcane Empire】.

"Today it is here, if nothing unexpected happens—"

Walking past a corner that has become a ruin, Xia Duo stops his steps and casts a large-scale Gravity Reversal; in an instant, a large amount of dust and stones begin to slowly "fall" upward.

Seeing this scene, Xia Duo's expression is calm and unmoved, but the next moment, when he sees that familiar mage robe, a complex expression of both lament and sorrow immediately appears on his face.

The next moment, the Anti-Gravity Field disappears, and the dust and stones, along with the skeleton wrapped in the familiar mage robe, crash down, and everything is buried once again.

"The feeling of digging one's own grave is really strange!"

Xia Duo shakes his head, seemingly wanting to shake all those complex emotions out of his mind; he really did not expect to actually find Aidi's remains here.

Aidi was his avatar the last time he entered the 【Projection Plane: Arcane Empire】.

This also means that this Projection Plane is the sequel to the last one, and it can be confirmed that the starting point of the Time Loop is after Aidi's death, not before.

If it were before, then Aidi's remains would not appear here, because this is the location where Xia Duo's body last stayed when he returned to the Main Plane.

That is to say, after his consciousness left, Aidi died, either crushed to death by stones or killed by some chaotic magic, but these are no longer important.

Xia Duo takes one last look at Aidi's burial place and then turns and leaves quickly.

……

Returning to the entrance of the Second Academy, Xia Duo enters directly and heads straight for the Library; last time he was here, for various reasons, he was unable to finish reading all the books.

He is certain that among the books here, there exists Knowledge that is also very precious to him now.