Chapter 1553: Return to the Blue Crystal: Third Kind of Contact

Nan Jing, Tower of Time.

A hurried Xia Duo supported Luowei as he appeared in the Teleportation Room; he had neither the time nor the energy to deal with Luowei at this moment, so he simply shoved him into the Stasis Chamber and left it at that.

After meeting with Niya, Xia Duo rushed to the Plane Exploration Layer almost without pause; this layer resembled a "T" structure, with the entrance at the bottom, while the left and right ends were places for conducting Astral Projection and Sub-plane teleportation, respectively.

Although Xia Duo was also interested in Dewan's progress regarding Astral Perception, now was not the time to worry about that; he had to deploy the newly named 【Mythallar】 Independent Arcane Fire Device as soon as possible.

Previously, when in Seventon, Iolum had not asked about the whereabouts of that prototype; perhaps he thought it had been destroyed, or perhaps he had heard from Gawani and the others that Xia Duo had taken it and didn't care.

In any case, this prototype of the 【Mythallar】, the only one currently usable in the world, now belonged to Xia.

However, as the Northland Alliance's negotiations regarding the Magic Restriction Treaty had not yet been finalized, this thing could not be used in the Northland for the time being to avoid unnecessary trouble.

Thus, Xia Duo thought of the 【Blue Crystal Plane】 discovered by the Tower of Time long ago; placing the 【Mythallar】 prototype there would not only avoid unprovoked prying from the Main Plane, but Xia Duo also wanted to try and transform that place.

Entering the Preparatory Projection Hall and opening the Portal, soon, after many years, Xia Duo arrived once again at this Blue Crystal Plane, which was like a piece of pure blue crystal.

Under the blessing of 【Plane Attunement】, Xia Duo felt as if he had transformed into a native species of this plane, flying and roaming freely in a body of water filled with pure, faint light.

Aiboke had once investigated here for a period of time, and Xia Duo had also shared the investigation results, so he was relatively familiar with this place.

This plane had no gravity, nor was there any concept of up or down, but this body of water with its faint light environment did not fill the entire plane; it only occupied about half of it.

The other side was a complete vacuum, and Murloc Island, which Xia Duo had personally observed before, was located on the boundary line between the vacuum and the water body.

If viewed from the vacuum side, Murloc Island floated on a piece of pure, glowing blue crystal; of course, from the perspective of the native murlocs on the island, the water body was more like the sky, while the vacuum beneath the water was an bottomless Abyss.

After recalling the Spellcasting adjustment plan for this plane and trying it out simply, Xia Duo confirmed there were no problems and then cast a spell to teleport to about one or two hundred meters "above" Murloc Island.

Being this close was enough for the murlocs "below" to discover him, and so, two teams rose almost simultaneously from the settlements on both sides of the island.

At the same time, they also sent a murloc toward each other, seemingly wanting to communicate something.

When Xia Duo came last time, these two tribes were still fighting to the death; it had only been a year or two, and they had already made up?

Of course, it would not be that simple; Xia Duo clearly noticed that the outline of the island below had expanded outward compared to when he last visited.

The Blue Crystal Plane seemed quite large, but there were neither water plants nor fish in the water further away, so the murlocs had to rely on farming the island to survive.

When Xia Duo came last time, he saw large fields of kelp and seaweed in the non-combat areas of the island, as well as schools of fish, clam beds, and crab nests within these special fields.

These special fields were a bit like the hair on a green-haired turtle; they had to rely on the island itself to survive and could not survive in the pure water body on the periphery.

And this time, Xia Duo saw the expansion of the island's edge, but the island itself could not grow; only the murlocs, who relied on it as their place of survival, would consciously engage in "land reclamation."

Whether it was Xia Duo's guesses based on what he saw, or the conclusion after Aiboke's long investigation, both pointed to one fact, which was—

The murlocs here were indeed consciously engaging in land reclamation!

And the raw material they used for land reclamation was the corpses left behind after the tribes fought each other; it was cruel, but also very realistic.

Xia Duo did not know which murloc first proposed this idea, which could be called both crazy and great, but it was clear that the subsequent murlocs had persisted in executing this wild idea, and it had been quite effective.

"Truly a resilient race!"

Xia Duo had not yet encountered a normal murloc tribe in the Main Plane; he had only encountered murlocs without Wisdom that were raised artificially, and the deepest impression he had of murlocs was their super-strong reproductive ability; other than that, there didn't seem to be anything else.

But in the Blue Crystal Plane, these murlocs really gave him a great shock.

While his thoughts were wandering, Xia Duo suddenly felt two big guys intrude into his Domain; although the water body was not a habitable environment for humans, his bloodline was special, and this place could basically be considered his home turf.

Moreover, in this water body filled with a faint aura of Positive Energy, Xia Duo felt even more refreshed and comfortable than in the rivers of the Main Plane.

The two big guys who broke into the 【Water Control】 Domain had no fixed form, as if a mass of flowing water had suddenly gained sentience, and they were distinct from the other water in the Domain.

At least in Xia Duo's Perception, this was the case; these two large Water Elements might not have realized the seriousness of the problem and surrounded him from the left and right.

Perhaps because they had never seen a human before, the two teams of murlocs that rose from the two tribes did not start fighting the moment they saw Xia Duo, but instead set up a formation and observed him vigilantly.

Xia Duo wanted to transform this plane, and whether it was the first, second, or third contact, he would certainly have to have contact with these native creatures; if they could reach an effective tacit understanding, it would be a good thing for everyone.

As for wiping out all these murlocs, Xia Duo had never thought about it, whether in the past or now.

Creation is harder than destruction; in the absence of a threat to himself, protecting biodiversity had a higher priority, even though Xia Duo and these murlocs did not belong to the same ecosystem.

Soon, a murloc Envoy—who looked like a Captain, wrapped in water plants and holding a shell blade—"flew" out from each of the two teams.

They stopped two or three meters away from Xia Duo and made several "wawu awu" sounds; seeing this scene, Xia Duo couldn't help but feel a bit novel—this feeling of being treated like an "alien" was quite interesting.

He just didn't know what the murlocs would do next, Xia Duo thought curiously, and then stared wide-eyed at the two murlocs.

"Wawu wawu~"

"Wawu wawu wawu!"

The two murlocs were talking while also gesturing with various hand signs; as for their expressions, Xia Duo had no research on murlocs, so naturally, he couldn't tell.

But based solely on these existing contacts, Xia Duo judged that these murlocs should not have seen humans before; perhaps they had caught a glimpse of Aiboke's figure by chance, but at least they had not seen one before the Tower of Time discovered this plane.

Murlocs in the Main Plane were not so easy to talk to when they saw humans; they almost started fighting on sight, and of course, it was much the same when humans saw murlocs.