Chapter 1735: Heartbeat

Feisu Chinese.

As for how to seek help from Psionic Magic, Xia Duo thought of the Kalishari Psionic Hut in Evereska; perhaps he could go through the Golden Maple Family's channels to seek their help, or of course, go there in person.

As for the psionic nation in the south, Xia Duo did not have any thoughts of making contact there for the time being; if he were to truly attract their attention from the south, the loss would outweigh the gain.

"I understand, Teacher. If possible, I would like to ask for your help with this matter."

Xia Duo knew that Iolum had connections with the psionic mages of Evereska and had once attempted to send Luowei to the southern psionic nation of Zhamu Dasi to receive Psionic Enlightenment, but was dissuaded by Xia Duo.

Today, Luowei is still staying in the Stasis Chamber of the Tower of Time!

Thinking of this, Xia Duo felt that when he had time one day, he would definitely release Luowei and cure him; although Iolum rarely asked him about Luowei's situation, worry was certainly inevitable.

Curing him early would mean everyone could put a burden of the heart to rest.

Regarding Xia Duo's request, Iolum did not refuse, but he also dared not guarantee that Psionic Magic could necessarily do things that he himself could not; after all, in his heart, he actually looked down on Psionic Magic somewhat.

"I will give you an answer by the end of the month, but do not hold too high expectations. If Psionic Magic were truly that omnipotent, it would not be popular only in the single nation of Zhamu Dasi."

"I understand. No matter the result, I can accept it. Sorry to trouble you, Teacher."

After finishing these private matters, Xia Duo quickly turned the topic to his true intention for coming to see Iolum this time, asking: "Teacher, do you know about the Warp Beasts at the Ether Forward Base?"

"I know, what about them?"

"I think we could build a Warp Beast Farm within the base to carry out Sustainable Development; otherwise, once this current group of migrating Warp Beasts is hunted to extinction, we might never find so many Warp Beasts again."

Because it was Iolum, Xia Duo did not use too much padding and stated his thoughts directly; if the Arcane Union or the Seven Towers were unwilling to invest, he hoped to be able to build a small farm himself.

"A farm? Specifically for raising Warp Beasts?"

Iolum was clearly shocked by this idea of Xia Duo's, "Do you know the living habits of Warp Beasts? What do they usually eat? How much do they eat?"

"I don't know, but since they chose to migrate near the Ether Forward Base, there must be an environment there suitable for their production; we just need to make use of it."

"Let me consider it."

At this moment, what Iolum was thinking about was not whether a Warp Beast farm could be built, but what the significance of building such a farm would be; a mere nominal "Sustainable Development" could not move him.

Iolum's hesitation was seen by Xia Duo; he was not sure what his teacher was hesitating about, but he had quite a few reasons prepared:

"Warp Beasts are treasures from head to toe; their blood can be used to make Starry Sky Ink, their meat is delicious and edible, and their leather is a natural Protective Field and a material for mental spells. Of course, what I value more is their bone structure."

"What about their bone structure?" Iolum asked curiously.

In fact, when it came to knowledge of Warp Beasts, he knew far more than Xia Duo, but since Xia Duo deliberately mentioned the bones, could there be some fact he was unaware of?

"Warp Beast bones can be made into Magic Items after simple processing. It is not even limited to the spell-like abilities the Warp Beast itself possesses; I believe there is a high probability they can become carriers for most spells."

Pausing, Xia Duo continued: "If Warp Beast bones can be used in the manufacture of low-end Magic Items, firstly, this would help promote the spread of Magic, and even the improvement of national strength; secondly, it could save this portion of Mithril to be used in more important domains."

"Is that what you think?"

Iolum was thoughtful. He was noncommittal about the former point; the resistance to spreading or even popularizing Magic did not lie in how many low-end Magic Items there were, but in that group of conservative forces that were growing stronger day by day.

However, the point about saving Mithril made him very tempted.

One must know that the refining of High-Grade Mithril is not a lossless process; theoretically, even if technology advances to the extreme, there will still be a considerable degree of loss.

If Netheril Magic wants to develop to a higher level, High-Grade Mithril is an almost indispensable and important resource. Although the domestic Mithril is no longer restricted by the Tri-Nation Mithral Agreement to be exported, processing it oneself actually results in even greater losses.

Therefore, in fact, the current Netheril still needs to import a large amount of High-Grade Mithril from the Elves.

If there were a low-end substitute material, it would indeed relieve quite a bit of pressure. At the very least, with less low-end consumption, the country could attempt more trials, thereby having more opportunities to research High-Grade Mithril Refining Technology that is closer to the efficiency of the Elves.

Now the only problem is—

Can Warp Beast bones really replace Mithril?

This question was extremely important. Iolum could not move the Seven Towers to make a strategic adjustment in the general direction based solely on Xia Duo's word; he had to see concrete evidence, so he asked:

"What have you discovered? Can those bones really be used that way?"

"I haven't verified it in practice yet, but Teacher, don't you think the properties of Warp Beast bones are somewhat similar to Conductive Crystal?" Xia Duo asked in return.

He had originally thought this question would be easy for Iolum to figure out, but he hadn't expected that the other party had no similar thoughts at all; even when he explicitly mentioned it at this moment, Iolum's reaction was a bit too slow.

"Conductive Crystal?"

Iolum's expression changed, as if he had thought of something, and he hurriedly asked Xia Duo: "Do you have any Warp Beast bones on you now?"

"I do."

Xia Duo immediately took out a large bone with strands of snow-white flesh attached and handed it to his teacher, then asked curiously: "Could it be that Teacher has never seen Warp Beast bones before?"

"I have not. Did you think I was so idle that I would personally examine even mere Warp Beast bones?"

After saying this, Iolum added, "My understanding of Warp Beasts mostly comes from information shared by the Seven Towers. Of course, I have seen Warp Beasts, but I just didn't expect their bones to be like this!"

At this moment, Iolum had already performed a simple inspection of the Warp Beast bone Xia Duo had taken out, and he discovered that the properties of this kind of bone were indeed somewhat similar to Conductive Crystal.

Both rely on the special structure of the material itself to form various energy conduction channels. The properties of Warp Beast bones themselves might lean more towards Force Field and mental spell construction, making them less versatile than Conductive Crystal.

But compared to Conductive Crystal, which has very unstable properties and can only be stored in 【extreme cold vacuum fields with low elemental activity】, Warp Beast bones derived from biological bodies are undoubtedly much more stable.

Although Xia Duo did not mention that this bone could still be used for Magic Item production after being boiled for soup, Iolum could roughly infer a thing or two from its own state of existence.

If this biological material could be deeply processed to make its conductive properties approach those of Conductive Crystal, then it would have the potential to completely replace Mithril.

But on second thought, the refining of natural materials like Mithril is already so difficult; the deep processing of biological materials like Warp Beast bones would likely be even more complex.

But at least it is a glimmer of hope!