Chapter 2213: The Dawn of Automation

Kelifu did not refuse Xia Duo's request for project outsourcing, but he did specifically mention that he was not prepared to conduct any research consuming Divine Grace in the near future.

Xia Duo certainly understood what Kelifu meant; it meant he could only conduct research in the pure field of arcane magic. He could not say much about this, as he was, after all, asking someone for a favor.

As for Yinaole and Saville, Xia Duo just mentioned it. Both knew of his feud with Zhamu Dasi, and Saville was even an eyewitness, so they did not refuse either.

In fact, not long after Xia Duo ended the communication, Yinaole sent someone to deliver a set of his own personal schemes for the Avoidance of Detection, which included a series of spells, rituals, items, and even some psionic apparatuses, which moved Xia Duo somewhat.

……

After finishing the distribution of the outsourced Avoidance of Detection spells, Xia Duo breathed a slight sigh of relief, but immediately afterward, he rubbed the sapphire ring on his left index finger and arrived at the Midi of the Mairide Family located in the Wind Elemental Plane.

Of course, this place now belonged to Xia, and Xia Duo named it "Kuangfeng Baolei."

This was a white fortress built amidst the howling winds, possessing the typical pointed-arch dome style of Calimshan. Although it could not move on its own, that did not prevent it from wandering about, carried by the endless gales of this primitive Wind Elemental Plane.

Standing on the small platform at the entrance of the fortress, not even a single strand of Xia Duo's hair swayed; the endless gales outside the fortress automatically dissipated into nothingness once they approached a certain range of the fortress.

This was not magic, but the instinctive drive of the Elemental Essence hanging in the fortress hall.

Casting a Scrying spell to look further into this eye of the storm, one saw a scene of peace, a clear space similar to the water bodies of the 【Blue Crystal Plane】, with only an occasional cloud blown by a light breeze, transforming into various shapes.

And looking at the eye of the storm where Kuangfeng Baolei was located from afar, it was indeed the shape of an eye, hollow inside, with lightning bolts occasionally streaking through the middle, while the periphery was extremely vast. Judging from the activity level of the wind elements, it was like a huge ink mark spreading out after a drop of ink fell into water.

Around the huge "outer eye contour" of the storm eye, there appeared less water vapor; following the rotation of the storm eye, it would sometimes gather into rain and sometimes dissipate into gas.

Similar phenomena of gas-cloud-rain transformation could be observed in the Main Plane, but they would not be as intense or as rapid as in the Elemental Plane.

This plane was not considered large overall, though it was not small either; it was about the size of the 【Blue Crystal Plane】. The entire plane was empty, and the most conspicuous thing was the storm eye in the center.

After observing for about two laps, Xia Duo discovered with some surprise that there did not seem to be any Elemental Creatures in this plane; perhaps the Mairide Family had already cleared it out long ago, and none had had the chance to be born yet.

He had seen quite a few Wind Elemental Mounts when he was in Calimshan before; furthermore, since there was a family Midi here, the Mairide Family might have already performed a cleanup, or even regular cleanups.

Of course, there was another possibility: that the necessary conditions for the birth of elemental life were lacking here, though this possibility was extremely low.

Elemental life was different from flesh-and-blood life; as long as the corresponding element was concentrated to a certain degree, elemental life would be born. The Main Plane could even give birth to an Elemental Plane, so this primitive Wind Elemental Plane was even more suitable.

"At least leave me one or two elemental mounts!"

The platform outside Kuangfeng Baolei was almost identical to the wind elemental docking platform of the Yungong in Calimshan; one could imagine that Wind Elemental Mounts had very likely docked here in the past.

And since Elemental Creatures did not need to eat, leaving one or two behind would not have been any trouble.

Of course, Xia Duo was just complaining casually; he was still very fond of the Mairide Family's gift, or rather, their repayment. If he had need in the future, he could also ask them to send someone over to help him ranch and tame wind elements.

……

After standing outside the fortress for a while, Xia Duo returned to the fortress hall. The Elemental Essence hanging above was shining brightly; it could be said that the reason this fortress could stay here stably was all thanks to it!

Or rather, setting aside the Knowledge in the Library, most of the value of this fortress might be this Elemental Essence.

This thing only existed in the Elemental Plane; it was the essence condensation of an Elemental Creature. Killing an Elemental Creature made it possible to obtain its essence, similar to a human Soul.

But unlike a human Soul, as long as the Elemental Essence came into contact with the corresponding element, it would gradually revive. Although it might not necessarily be the same Elemental Creature as before, this ability still greatly enhanced the survival capability of Elemental Creatures.

That is to say, as long as the restrictions on the Elemental Essence above the hall were lifted and it was thrown outside, a powerful Wind Elemental Creature could be created very quickly.

Of course, "very quickly" here was from the perspective of an Elemental Creature; for humans, it was calculated in at least months or years.

For now, this Kuangfeng Baolei was still useful to Xia Duo, and he would not abandon it just to see the rebirth of an Elemental Creature; his curiosity was not that intense.

If he really wanted to see it, some of the Gemstones originally stored here contained Elemental Essences; he could just take them out of the warehouse upon returning to the Tower of Time, remove the seals, and throw them into the Element Pool.

Besides Gemstones, there were other valuable items such as gold and refined Magic Artifacts, which had all been sent to the Tower of Time for storage. Currently, only artworks like paintings, sculptures, and tapestries that might be precious but were not suitable for sending to the Tower of Time remained here; Xia Duo kept them, preparing to decorate the Floating City.

As for the purpose of his trip—the Library—it remained in its original state because he had not yet had time to organize it. Once he finished organizing it, it would also be sent to the Tower of Time for archiving or reprinting.

……

Going up to the second floor from the left side of the "T"-shaped staircase at the very back of the hall, the first doorway was the Library. Although the area was not large, it was almost packed with books.

There were three main forms of books: one was the regular books bound with Elven Paper or Parchment that Xia Duo was most familiar with, one was the more primitive leather, and the final one was Scrolls distinguished by ribbons of different colors.

Looking at this room full of books, Xia Duo suddenly thought of a problem: he seemed, should, possibly—not know Calimshani!

Although he had also discovered some Elvish text labels, they were a minority after all; there were still more Calimshani texts.

"This is when you see the good in Qin Shi Huang!"

After a casual complaint, Xia Duo began to flip through the collection here one by one. Although he did not recognize or understand most of the text, he could Trace Memory, "download" it first, and then slowly compare and translate it.

Saying "slowly" was actually not that time-consuming; Mohawi, that Zhamu Dasi person who caused trouble in Calimshan, knew Calimshani.

And although Xia Duo had not tracked Mohawi's consciousness using Calimshani as a clue when he parsed it previously, he had inevitably come into contact with a large amount of information related to Calimshani during the investigation process, and of course, Zhamu Dasi language as well.

Once he finished "downloading" the books here and returned to the Main Plane, he could reorganize the parsed information of Mohawi's consciousness using Calimshani as a clue, and he would be able to quickly get started with Calimshani.

That was how he learned Elvish; without the experience of being a Projection Plane Avatar as an Elf, it would have been impossible for him to get started and even master Elvish so quickly.

Mohawi was still somewhat different from the Elf he had previously incarnated as.

Elvish was the mother tongue of the Elves, and they spoke it more like an instinct; whereas Mohawi's mother tongue was not Calimshani, but something learned later.

If Xia Duo wanted to master Calimshani through this, it might not be possible, but if it was just to get started, what could be better than learning from this first-person perspective?