Chapter 1536: Alienation Intensifies, The Real and Fake Buluode

Next, Xia Duo quickened his pace of searching; on one hand, he wanted to find Iolum as soon as possible, and on the other, he also wanted to see if there were any more of those unknown creatures he had just encountered.

If there was only one specimen, it was obviously not enough for research; if there could be more, it was naturally better to have more.

But accidents, or rather luck, were not things one could have just by wanting them; Xia Duo searched for nearly ten minutes without encountering any, and at the same time, searching for nearly ten minutes also made him feel increasingly worried about the situation here.

Originally, this was the core Laboratory area of the Arcane Union, mainly provided to high-level members as a sort of benefit, so the area was actually not large.

After Xia Duo updated his Senior Arcanist information at the Arcane Union previously, he had been assigned one, but for the sake of convenience, he had chosen one closer to his residence, which happened to be outside the range of the dead silence zone created by Iolum.

But others were not so lucky.

Xia Duo had heard Buluode mention before that when Iolum was clearing out the laboratories within the range of the dead silence zone, he had not expected the impact of the dead silence zone to be so great.

This caused most of those laboratories to be abandoned after the dead silence zone was established; if it were just the facilities and equipment provided by the Arcane Union, that would be one thing, but the key was that many of them contained items prepared by the high-level members themselves.

This also matched the scene Xia Duo had seen in the dead silence zone earlier.

And now, the dead silence zone had evolved into a Riot Zone and had overlapped with the Ether Plane, and with the previous Semi-plane accident, various unfavorable factors had stacked together, causing the area here to expand by an unknown amount.

If things went poorly, it would evolve into a "malignant tumor" that would be difficult to clear!

And it was a malignant tumor right at the Arcane Union Headquarters, in Seventon!

Compared to how to deal with this area itself, the impact caused by this matter was even harder to handle!

……

While continuing his search, Xia Duo pondered how Iolum would actually deal with this troublesome alienated area.

Of course, he did not lower his guard; besides keeping his consciousness highly focused, various vigilance and Scrying Spells had never been interrupted.

As he approached a corner, Xia Duo could vaguely recognize that this was one of the Seven Laboratories for Independent Arcane Fire Device research, which was under the charge of Luowei at the time.

Thinking of Luowei, Xia Duo could not help but frown inwardly; from their usual interactions, Luowei was not a cowardly villain, and if his guess was correct, Luowei should not have left this area.

"Where on earth did he go?"

A living person could not just disappear into thin air; when he had left earlier, the alienation of this area had not been as severe as it was now, and Buluode had been searching the whole time.

If he could have been found then, everything would be fine; if he could not be found—

Although it had overlapped with the Ether Plane, the state of the Magic Net here was still violent, and in many cases, it could even directly interfere with Arcane Fire.

It was only because Xia Duo's current Arcane Fire was directly connected to the Inner Plane that it remained unaffected; if it were a Senior Arcanist, they would likely have to disconnect the Arcane Fire from the Magic Net and use only stored Arcane Energy to "survive."

As for stored Arcane Energy, Luowei did not have a Personal Space to "maintain" like Xia Duo, who would fish things out of the laboratory from time to time; Luowei had always followed Iolum and lacked nothing, so he had no concept of "skimming off the top" at all.

At least Xia Duo had never seen Luowei take Arcane Crystals from the laboratory and stuff them into his own pocket.

"I hope you brought enough Arcane Crystals!"

If he had not brought enough and encountered an accident, then the outcome for Luowei would very likely be quite grim.

……

Xia Duo tried his best not to think about those bad things and pulled himself together to continue searching; just then, a string of clearly audible footsteps came from the corner of the corridor ahead, which was shrouded in Ether Mist and vaguely visible.

Tap-tap-tap—tap-tap-tap—

Hearing this sound, Xia Duo immediately became alert; he was somewhat familiar with these footsteps, unlike the vague and indistinguishable familiarity of the Crystal Bead from just before, this time he quickly matched them to multiple memories.

These footsteps sounded like Buluode, but they felt too light; the Ether Mist weakened Xia Duo's Perception, and his understanding of the Ether Mist was too little to restore the true footsteps ahead.

"Buluode, is that you?" Xia Duo shouted loudly.

The next moment, the footsteps stopped, and at the same time, a familiar voice came over, "It's me, why are you here?"

"I came to look for Luowei; have you found him?" Xia Duo continued to ask.

"He has already gone out, let's go out too, it's very dangerous here!" Buluode said while continuing to walk toward Xia Duo, and the tap-tap footsteps sounded again.

Immediately after, Xia Duo saw a familiar figure pass through the mist and appear at the corner; it was indeed Buluode, and although his face was a bit pale, he was generally unharmed.

"Buluode, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, let's get out first; I don't want to stay here for even a moment longer."

As he said this, Buluode had already walked to within ten meters of Xia Duo, and the next moment, a long-awaited Force Cage suddenly descended.

Trapping Buluode inside, at the same time, Xia Duo finally did not need to hide himself and took two steps forward, but he did not get too close; he stared at the "Buluode" in the cage and said with a smile:

"Little thing! Trying to trick me? You're still lacking in skill!"

The other party's disguise was almost flawless; the only thing it had not considered was that Xia Duo was not an ordinary person. Besides the vigilance spells telling him the target was not human, his instinct as a Bloodline User was also warning him that the other party was not human.

At least not a living person!

The Buluode in front of him, although he looked very similar and sounded very similar, and might even have certain memories, compared to the real person, this guy had no breath and no heartbeat.

And even less did he have the special resonance that a living person gave to his bloodline.

Xia Duo remained vigilant and continued to ask: "Can you understand me? Speak, what exactly are you?"

"What are you doing? Let me go, it's very dangerous here, let's talk after we get out!"

A look of panic appeared on "Buluode's" face; if there could be more details like sweating or a heartbeat, it would be even more like the real thing, but a fake is a fake, and it could never become real.

Tsk tsk tsk—

Xia Duo examined the other party with interest; he suddenly wondered if this guy could be the same thing as the twisted Phantom he had just encountered?

"Still acting? Then tell me, what is my name?"

"At a time like this, you're still hung up on this? Getting out quickly is what's important, this place is about to be destroyed!"

"Buluode" continued to avoid Xia Duo's question, and the panicked expression on his face became more and more realistic—no, it should be that the "panic" mental fluctuations it involuntarily emitted were received by Xia Duo.

Could there really be a destruction event?

Xia Duo's heart tightened; he did not want to waste any more time and prepared to try one last time, seeing him take the Multi-faceted Crystal Bead he had obtained earlier out of his Personal Space.

As soon as "Buluode" saw the bead, a look of greed and terror immediately appeared in his eyes; seeing this, Xia Duo immediately shouted: "Tell me! What is this?"