Chapter 2329: The Difference in Plane Exploration

The current Plane Exploration Array of the Tower of Time is still the semi-finished product built before Saville was exiled; it was only considered fully completed after two generations, yet it still lacked the most critical part—the Plane Crystal.

It was not until the generation of Niya's father, Aipusi, that the Plane Crystal was found, truly activating the Plane Exploration Array. Of course, the price paid for this was that Aipusi suffered heavy injuries and remains lying in the Stasis Chamber to this day, unable to find relief.

Although a huge price was paid and it took several generations to be completely finished, this does not mean the Tower of Time's Plane Exploration Array is particularly advanced.

On the contrary, perhaps in the era when Saville lived, this Plane Exploration Array could be considered relatively advanced, but after nearly a hundred years, the Seven Towers and the Arcane Union must have made significant progress.

Not to mention the Plane Scholars and Astral Mages that complement the Plane Exploration Array; the Tower of Time had not begun training any of them until Xia Duo took over, and even then, it was limited to Astral Mages.

There is still no sign of Plane Scholars! I can only temporarily substitute myself or press-gang LS Weier, Aiboke, and others into service.

Therefore, in addition to the overt accumulation of detection data, Xia Duo will also secretly observe the interest and talent of the relevant personnel in the Plane Exploration Center regarding Plane Exploration.

This batch of twelve Advanced Rank or Quasi-High Mage mages was directly conscripted rather than volunteering, but if he can discover a few, or even just one good seedling among them, Xia Duo will be overjoyed and will not be stingy with their training.

Or one could say, as long as one of these twelve is favored by him, he will fully support that person in developing toward the path of a Plane Scholar.

In addition to observing the relevant personnel, what Xia Duo needs to do next is to organize and analyze the large amount of data that the continuously operating Plane Exploration Center has rapidly accumulated in a short period of time.

On one hand, it is to summarize new laws of plane existence through this data; on the other hand, it is to discover areas for improvement in the Plane Exploration Array during the summarization process and make corresponding improvements.

Both points serve only one purpose: to continuously increase the discovery efficiency of new planes. As long as one Habitable Plane can be discovered, his various actions in the Main Plane can be slightly bolder.

……

Sub-planes, or rather the exploration of Material Planes other than the Main Plane, will be the primary task of the Plane Exploration Array, but besides Material Planes, the exploration of Projection Planes will not stop either.

It is just that in this regard, the role that Dewan, an Astral Mage, can play has already exceeded the data accumulation from the constant detection of the Plane Exploration Array itself.

This is actually a reality in the field of Plane Exploration—before a key breakthrough in related technology appears, the influence of Astral Mages on Projection Plane exploration is far greater than the influence of Plane Scholars on Material Plane exploration.

The reason is simple: Projection Planes are located in the Astral Plane, and the Astral Plane is a purely spiritual world. The role of the Plane Exploration Array in this aspect is itself to amplify the user's Perception; otherwise, one can only use general Perception Magic Arrays.

The Tower of Time could not discover even a few Projection Planes in the past year, but once Dewan was there—who was just a novice Astral Mage at the time—over a hundred Projection Planes were discovered in just a year or two.

Exploring Projection Planes is essentially exploring the Astral Plane. No matter how advanced the equipment itself is, it belongs to the material level and has limited influence on the spiritual world.

Adding the human factor into it is the current mainstream exploration method, and Xia Duo also agrees with this. No matter how much technology is improved, it may not compare to a single extraordinary performance by the explorer themselves when exploring the Astral Plane.

But the exploration of Material Planes is different. The Ether Interlayer is more inclined toward material properties (material relative to spirit, rather than material relative to energy), so it can be detected twenty-four hours a day without interruption by the Exploration Array.

An experienced Plane Scholar can certainly play a very important role, but Plane Scholars also need to rest; it is impossible for them to be in a state of detection twenty-four hours a day.

Not to mention that Plane Scholars, as the name "Scholar" implies, are likely more adept at analyzing the results of equipment detection than at using their own power to detect Ether.

From this perspective, the training of Plane Scholars is actually not the most urgent task at present, and it is difficult to see results in a short time. After all, no matter how they are trained, they cannot surpass or even approach Xia Duo in a short time.

This should be considered a long-term task. Only when the number of people increases and the accumulated data grows will Xia Duo possibly be unable to keep up, or encounter cognitive blind spots. If it is only a few people, it is not very meaningful.

Astral Mages are just the opposite; every additional one means the efficiency of exploring the Astral Plane is nearly doubled, and a few more means it doubles several times over.

It is just a pity that Astral Mages, despite being called mages, cannot be fast-tracked through an Inheritance Ritual like normal mages, because the Inheritance Ritual can only allow the user to obtain Knowledge, but cannot obtain changes in physical Perception.

Like Dewan, he was only favored by Xia Duo and trained as an Astral Mage after first perceiving Holy Power. Xia Duo cannot reverse this process and force someone who does not want to be a Priest to go and be a Priest.

Instead, he can only choose from Priests who have perceived Holy Power. From this point of view, Aiboke is also a perfect candidate for an Astral Mage, because he also perceived Holy Power.

It is just that between him and Dewan, one perceived the Holy Power of the Lady of Mysteries, and the other perceived the Holy Power of the Lord of Radiance.

"If only Aiboke could be cut into several pieces, that would be even better!" Xia Duo often sighed like this.

It can be said that if not for Aiboke, too many things would require him to do them personally; in that case, no matter which plan it was, it would be delayed compared to now.

Considering that many of his plans are stuck at critical Nodes, the consequences of delay might be more serious than Xia Duo imagines.

To say "I have Aiboke, like a fish in water," is truly not wrong at all!

It is just a pity that Aiboke is not a robot and cannot be copied and used directly. Right now, Aiboke has more important things to do; the priority of the Creation Mythallar project is higher than that of Projection Plane exploration.

Speaking of Projection Planes, Xia Duo once again thought of the Demon-blood Crisis. Although news of Demon Descendants has often leaked from the Northland Alliance over the past few months, big news regarding Demon Descendants has not appeared for a long time.

Xia Duo absolutely does not believe that the Demon Descendants would be so well-behaved. This can also be seen from the recent actions of a "meat chicken" he obtained in Terminos; the Demon Descendants are acting frantically.

It is just that many activities are hidden in the dark, and the Northland Alliance cannot know everything. As for Xia Duo, because he needs to cast a long line to catch a big fish, he cannot reveal overly sensitive information to the Northland Alliance.

This makes him feel that the Demon Descendant problem has a latent risk of spiraling out of control.