Chapter 1272: Destruction Ray, Inspector Landeng

Bypassing the Magic Net Dead Zone, Xia Duo followed the Nether River on the west side of the Research Institute northward, all the way to the Narrow Sea, then followed the coastline eastward.

After flying about three hundred meters, he reached the explorable area not covered by the Magic Net Dead Zone; placed in the Main Plane, this was roughly the location of Giles Tower.

Because the Research Institute covered such a vast area and Xia Duo was unfamiliar with it, he could only adopt a strategy of dividing it into virtual grids and searching them one by one, trying his best not to miss anything of value.

Of course, Xia Duo's search targets were primarily text-based media; if it were merely objects or supplies, he could obtain those in the Main Plane, so there was no need to look for them here.

Bringing back information was the most convenient and cost-effective method.

……

Beneath a collapsed broken wall, Xia Duo controlled his Personal Space to overlap with the current (virtual) Main Plane, continuously drawing the building debris on the ground into his Personal Space.

At the same time, he diverted a portion of his attention to examine the classification of the items collected into his Personal Space using a full-perspective view.

If they were text-based media, such as books, paper, stone tablets, or metal, he left them inside the Personal Space.

If they were non-text-based media, he further judged whether they contained knowledge he did not understand or that could not be obtained in the Main Plane.

If they did, he left them for the time being; if not, he waited until a certain amount had accumulated before clearing them out of the Personal Space.

With the help of the Personal Space, Xia Duo's clearing efficiency was beyond the reach of ordinary people; in just over half an hour, he had finished searching nearly ten thousand square meters of ruins.

Of course, this area was truly insignificant compared to the total area occupied by the Research Institute.

As for the harvest, there was indeed quite a bit, but it was still quite far from Xia Duo's expectations!

Apart from some rather rare wreckage of experimental equipment, there were only some research notes; during the search, Xia Duo had roughly flipped through them, and they recorded the development process of a Destruction Ray with extremely high lethality.

But Xia Duo did not lack lethal spells; there is essentially no difference between killing people with spells and killing people with a kitchen knife—the key is the prerequisite conditions for realizing the process.

At the very least, one must make the enemy unable to resist or too late to resist!

Spells that win solely on lethality are inferior in their initial conception, though Xia Duo had only flipped through it roughly; perhaps if he studied it carefully, he would discover a valuable side to it.

At the very least, the new elements contained within, as well as the train of thought during the development process, were very worth absorbing and drawing lessons from.

……

Just as Xia Duo was preparing to continue his previous search work and clear out all the areas of the Research Institute not covered by the Magic Net Dead Zone, his Huiwei Tanshi Spell suddenly changed—

Someone was casting a Scrying spell on this area!

Scrying spells are not omnipotent; as far as the Scrying spells Xia Duo had mastered were concerned, the casting must have a definite target, whether that target is a person, an object, or a certain area.

Of course, so-called "definite" is merely the limiting condition set for the Scrying target during casting.

For example, if one wants to scry a certain person, one must first know that this person exists, and further, one might need their hair, blood, or an image of them; if one does not even know this person exists, then that is not a Scrying spell, but a Prophecy.

However, in many cases, a Spellcaster generally assumes such a person exists and then uses other conditions to constrain it, such as possible height, weight, or whether they are carrying a Magic Item.

Suppose a Spellcaster has been robbed by a thief; they do not know exactly who the thief is, but they can also cast the spell using the stolen items or the clue that the thief once appeared in the Secret Chamber.

As for Scrying spells targeting a certain area, they are similar to cameras on Earth; ordinary ones can hear sounds and see images, while more advanced ones can even smell odors or perceive the Magic Net environment of the target area.

The Scrying spell Xia Duo was currently encountering belonged to the area-targeted type, and because he was constantly buffed with Invisibility and Misleading Detection spells, the other party would not directly discover his existence.

However, they could discover him through many indirect means, such as the dust kicked up by Xia Duo walking or the sound waves stirred up by his speech.

And in this current Magic Net Riot Zone, the fact that the Magic Net around Xia Duo was not rioting itself revealed an abnormality, which was why Xia Duo had not used Invisibility here.

Because it was too easy to be discovered; any Spellcaster would be able to detect the abnormality.

After all, a calm area approaching human shape appearing in a rioting Magic Net environment, and one that could move, would be hard for even the blindest person to ignore.

Xia Duo realized he had already been discovered, but he was not in the slightest panic; he likewise projected a Perception Field and resonated it with the other party's.

He used the projected Perception Field to cast a Sending spell, allowing the other party to receive it within the resonance of the Perception Field.

Being able to operate in this way indicated that the Spellcaster had deep attainments in the principles of Magic, with a Spellcasting Level of at least Advanced Rank.

This could also be considered an alternative way of identifying oneself.

From the Scrying spell the other party cast, Xia Duo inferred that the other party was highly likely a human, so he asked in the Common Tongue of the Arcane Empire (Netherese):

"How should I address you, Excellency? Why are you spying on me?"

"Level 3 Inspector Landeng of the Imperial Inspectorate greets you, Excellency. I am currently performing a routine patrol mission, and I am responsible for this area of the Research Institute. If I have disturbed you, please forgive me."

Imperial Inspectorate? Level 3 Inspector?

Upon hearing this title, Xia Duo immediately associated it with that powerful department before the destruction of the Empire; could it be that someone from the Imperial Inspectorate had also survived and even established a normal patrol mechanism?

Without a doubt, since there were survivors from the Vengeance Tribunal, it was highly likely that the Imperial Inspectorate had not vanished either; even if it had truly vanished, the survivors would have re-established it.

Just as Xia Duo was pondering how to fish for further information, Landeng sent another message—

"The Expansion Department has already organized multiple excavations of the Research Institute ruins, and the vast majority of valuable things have already been collected; a few omissions are not worth your effort to search for, Excellency.

"At present, the Cormanthor Demon is about to launch a major search of the Empire's major bases. With your ability, you should not waste your time here; the Vengeance Tribunal is where you can truly demonstrate your value, Excellency."

Hearing the other party mention the Vengeance Tribunal, Xia Duo could not help but feel a bit guilty; he was the one who had taken a mission from the Vengeance Tribunal and snuck here.

If his identity were exposed, he would at least have to face a harsh investigation, and he might even be treated as a spy.

Thinking of this, Xia Duo did not continue to fish for information from the other party; fishing for information from the other party was, to a certain extent, also being fished for information by the other party—the more one says, the more mistakes one makes.

In fact, when the other party said they were an Inspector from the Imperial Inspectorate, Xia Duo realized he might have already slipped up.

If he were truly an Archmage from within the system of the post-Empire era, he should not have been unaware that there were patrols in the Imperial ruins, especially during this very sensitive period when Cormanthor was about to sweep the area.

Perhaps he was even being considered an Elf spy.

Consequently, Xia Duo immediately disconnected the resonance with the other party's Perception Field, and afterwards, he simply stopped searching the ruins and instead flew rapidly toward the sky.