Chapter 2299: Leaving Yimaska

While waiting for the Prophet's followers to bring the Eastern relics, Xia Duo chatted with the Prophet about what he had heard of the Eastern World; Xia Duo was not truly a person from the Eastern World, and his so-called knowledge mostly came from the Elves.

But clearly, the Cormanthor Elves had not revealed the situation of Easterners in the country or even the Main Plane to the Prophet; hearing Xia Duo mention even a little bit of the legends of the Eastern World, the old woman could not help but show a look of yearning on her face.

Of course, Xia Duo also obtained some information from the Prophet that he had not known before, such as the strange bald look of the Mulan.

Its essence was a sign of devotion to the gods back in their homeland; ordinary Mulan could only remove their hair, while Priests or Nobles could further remove their eyebrows and all other hair on their bodies to manifest absolute purity before the gods.

The Mulan were located in a remote part of the Eastern World, a civilization in the desert, but even so, they had developed extraordinary achievements in engineering, art, medicine, and more.

What the Prophet said was much more detailed than what Xia Duo had learned from the consciousnesses of Sainide, Busouganglaisi, and others; the winding Mother River, the elegant Sun Boat, and the magnificent Pyramids all deepened Xia Duo's desire to explore the Eastern World.

……

Soon, a burst of hurried yet exceptionally steady footsteps came from outside the tent, and immediately after, a Mulan youth walked in carrying a cloth bag.

He placed the cloth bag on the tent floor in front of the Prophet and left silently without opening it.

Xia Duo had Sainide open the package; there were four items inside in total—a handled pottery pot with a bottom scorched pitch-black, an Eagle-headed Human Wood Carving polished to a shine, a fish-shaped turquoise Amulet, and a pottery Amulet that was also fish-shaped.

"Is this all there is?" Xia Duo asked with some unwillingness.

"Only these have the clearest heritage; there might be others, but they are nearly lost and cannot be confirmed."

"Alright."

Xia Duo also understood that it was unrealistic to collect everything suspected to be a relic of the Eastern World; having these four pieces now was already an unexpected joy.

He actually hadn't held much hope at the beginning; after all, it had been hundreds of years since the original Mulan, and as Slaves, they had no way to preserve relics well; being scattered, lost, or even plundered meant that there wouldn't be many ancient objects surviving today.

"Perhaps I can ask the Easterners!" Xia Duo thought that since the Easterners had not been reduced to Slaves, perhaps they would preserve more relics of their homeland.

In fact, Xia Duo also possessed Eastern relics, which could even be called treasures, but the Eastern relics he possessed came from the Projection Plane; he had previously tried to find the Eastern World based on them, but the Scrying Spell showed that those items he possessed had appeared out of thin air entirely within the recent period, without a shred of past history.

As for exploration within the Projection Plane, the Elves had done more than him; if the Projection Plane was like this, the Main Plane would not be much different.

Perhaps it was because the Eastern World had an exceptionally strict shielding and tracking mechanism for the items of Easterners, which was why Xia Duo had been so excited when he learned that the Mulan were also very likely from the Eastern World.

If a frontal breakthrough wouldn't work, he could try a detour; hadn't Yimaska abducted the Mulan? Although they were now out of contact, it was at least a glimmer of hope.

……

After obtaining the Eastern World relics, Xia Duo continued to chat with the Prophet for a while before manipulating Sainide to leave the settlement; by the time he retracted the Magic Mark, Sainide was still a bit dazed, not knowing why he had suddenly returned just after arriving.

But Xia Duo clearly would not explain anything to him; after sending the other party into the Floating City, he called Niya and Jiamu onto the Magic Ship.

And his avatar returned to Yinnupulasi through the city's teleportation channel, settled the order with the Absolu Chamber of Commerce, and obtained the series of Imaskar Secret Devices he had customized, as well as the Humanoid Puppet he valued most, which was very likely a masterpiece of Imaskar Secret Device technology.

Afterward, the Magic Ship carrying his avatar left the city and sped eastward; Xia Duo stood at the bow of the ship, facing the gentle breeze filtered by the ship's Jieti, and looked into the distance; his gaze seemed to pierce through layers of Plane Barriers to see the wondrous scenery of the Eastern World.

After a long time, he withdrew his gaze and sighed silently, knowing in his heart that the Eastern World was not so easy to find; for now, he could only fantasize, and when he truly found it later, it might be completely different from what he expected!

……

During the subsequent voyage, Xia Duo no longer thought about the Eastern World, but instead chatted with Niya while using his avatar to organize the artisan heritage preserved by the Mulan in the Floating City.

When the Magic Ship was about to reach the eastern border of Yimaska, he turned to Jiamu and said:

"Thank you, Tax Official Jiamu, for your company during this time; this trip has been satisfying, and I intend to leave Yimaska now; please express my gratitude to Prince Aben."

Then, he looked at the Elf Tuoon in the control room at the stern of the ship and sent a Sending: "Please express my gratitude to Councilor Poche and Crown King Yilise'er."

Only then was Tuoon finally not a mute, but he only replied "I will" and said nothing more.

As they spoke, the Magic Ship had already stopped before the border line; there were entry inspections and registration procedures when entering, but there was no need for such trouble when leaving, otherwise, what would be the point of the accompanying Tax Official?

However, considering that re-entering with the Magic Ship might be troublesome, Xia Duo had Tuoon park the ship inside the border; he directly took Niya in his arms and flew out of the Magic Ship's Jieti range, then turned and waved, crossing the border line directly.

Watching the Purple Star that had been hanging in the sky for nearly a month suddenly disappear, and returning to the familiar Magic Net environment, Xia Duo truly felt as if a lifetime had passed.

Afterward, he didn't care whether Jiamu on the Magic Ship or others in Yimaska were still observing, and directly took Niya into the Floating City.

Of course, he did not expand the Floating City into other forms, but continued to maintain the external form of an Empty Bubble; before this trip to Yimaska, Xia Duo had never tried anything similar, but after trying it this time, he discovered that this form was actually the most suitable for sightseeing.

The distorted space presented everything outside to any space inside the Floating City; from the outside, the Floating City looked like a small Empty Bubble, but looking outside from within, the Floating City seemed to be situated outside the Plane, overlooking everything in the Plane.

And because it was a continuous space, its Reality was far beyond what a virtual live Projection could compare to.

In addition, the current external Empty Bubble form was not eye-catching at all, flying in the sky and blending into the background sky, unlike the main body of the Floating City which was so ostentatious.

This also fit Xia Duo's low-profile personality.

……

Continuing east from Yimaska, there was first a large mountain range distributed in a "T" shape from south to north and west to east, blocking Yimaska from the more distant East.