Chapter 2331: Opportunity, Accident

Considering that he would inevitably be able to recruit assistants from Iolorum in a while, Xia Duo had new considerations for the upcoming work arrangements of the Creation Laboratory.

This time, the focus fell on the newly promoted Arcanist Depake; Xia Duo pondered for a moment and decided to give him an opportunity—

"I have heard that every High Mage, after advancing to become an Arcanist, has the opportunity to go to the Arcane Temple to receive the Star-Leaping Ritual; if one is lucky, one can even receive the Baptism of the Blue-White Secret Flame during the ritual."

"I surely don't need to explain the benefits of the Secret Flame Baptism too much! Aiboke is a living example. When he goes to Iolorum in a few days, Depake, you go along with him!"

Hearing Xia Duo mention his name, and with the previous Mithril Baptism as a prelude, Depake immediately realized how rare this opportunity was.

Although the Secret Flame Baptism only appeared in the Star-Leaping Ritual with a certain probability, didn't Aiboke receive a Secret Flame Baptism alone?

At this moment, he had a strong premonition that as long as he went to receive the Star-Leaping Ritual this time, he would definitely be able to enjoy the treatment of the Secret Flame Baptism. Thinking of this, Depake's breathing even became a bit rapid.

A Secret Flame Baptism might not count for much to a young Arcanist, but for someone like him who only became an Arcanist at nearly fifty, it was almost equivalent to a second life.

Although it was impossible to truly restore him to his peak youth, at his current age, it could at least extend his life by forty or fifty years. Originally, he had planned to apply for a Life Extension Spell from the Tower of Time after becoming an Arcanist.

Now it seemed that the Life Extension Spell could be saved for use the next time he grew old.

With such a long life extension, coupled with the increasingly perfect training mechanism of the Tower of Time, Depake was full of confidence in whether he could eventually become a Great Arcanist!

"I—"

At this moment, Depake was also somewhat speechless, but his aphasia was different from Aiboke's speechlessness just now; he was so excited that he couldn't speak at all!

"It's settled then. Let's give the laboratory a break for these two days."

Although he said so, Xia Duo still called out to Saville, who wanted to return to his own No. 2 Spire, "I plan to hold the Inheritance Ritual rewards for the winners of the Locomotive Design Competition these two days. Don't stop your remedial class for Quasi-High Mages!"

"Understood." Saville was not dissatisfied with this; compared to being willing to lose face to ask for people from his teacher, he would rather stay at home and train students.

Next, the Creation Mythallar Laboratory was temporarily at a standstill, but Xia Duo did not get any leisure because of this; instead, he became even busier due to the adjustments in subsequent plans.

First, he presided over a batch of Inheritance Rituals, and then he rushed to the Time Acceleration Zone without stopping to prepare the basic materials for the 【World Incubator】; this aspect mainly involved the specially designed David String Components.

While doing this work, he did not forget to open the Tower Spirit's discovery notification regarding the Projection Plane again. This notification was not only linked to the automatic search results of the Plane Exploration Array but also to the real-time Perception discovery of Dewan, the Astral Mage.

Of course, the latter required Dewan's cooperation, and Xia Duo had also told the other party his requirements; there was only one requirement, which was that the existence time of the Projection Plane must be long enough.

Currently, the Tower of Time's Plane Exploration Array could only record after the fact and could not make predictions in advance. To predict the existence duration of a Projection Plane (Main Plane Perception), one could only rely on the experience of the Astral Mage themselves.

Dewan had already accumulated a certain amount of experience in this regard, and Xia Duo also gave him full trust.

Just like that, when Xia Duo had almost prepared the basic materials needed for the 【World Incubator】 in the Time Acceleration Zone and was considering the site selection for the 【World Incubator】, Depake sent a reminder through the Tower Spirit—

"A new Projection Plane has been discovered, and the expected existence time will exceed one and a half minutes. Do you need to lock it in advance?"

"Lock it!"

After Xia Duo replied, he set off immediately. In fact, locking it was just transferring the result into a fixed program controlled by the Tower Spirit, and it would not have any impact on the newly discovered Projection Plane itself.

The purpose was, of course, to facilitate Xia Duo to descend into it at the fastest speed.

Tower of Time, Plane Exploration Layer, Projection Hall.

After Xia Duo teleported here, he immediately ordered the Tower Spirit to start the projection program, and then he arrived in the boundless silver void amidst a change of light and shadow similar to a Warp Channel.

Of course, according to the projection program, Xia Duo's appearance in the silver void was only for a fleeting moment. The excited spirit that had just broken away from the "Yaoyue" process did not even have time to trigger any ripples of the Astral Wind before the scene changed again.

With just a trance, Xia Duo realized that he had already entered the Projection Plane and incarnated into a certain living being.

But the next moment, an incomparably intense pain surged into his heart from all parts of his body, making him almost unable to think. Accompanying the pain were near-endless illusions drifting before his eyes.

"Before my eyes?"

Xia Duo subconsciously focused his mind, realizing that he might still have vision, but the excruciating pain that kept impacting his soul like a tide made him unable to think at all.

This pain did not only act on the body!

Xia Duo had not been without experience in encountering accidents just after entering a Projection Plane. In 【Projection Plane: Underdark】, the Drow he incarnated into was in a sunlight prison the moment he "logged on."

After countless years of evolution underground, Drow were no longer adapted to sunlight. Normal Surface creatures would not feel any special discomfort when exposed to sunlight, but if a Drow were exposed to sunlight, it would be almost equivalent to being soaked in sulfuric acid.

Although it would not be fatal in a short time, that kind of pain was also incomparably intense. Even if one endured sunlight training, the pain itself would not disappear; one would just become accustomed to it and become numb to it.

Any Drow going to the Surface had to apply "sunscreen" all over their body and wear goggles, otherwise, it would be like being in purgatory.

Besides that unsuccessful incarnation as a Drow, there was another time when incarnating as a human was not very smooth; he "logged on" right at an execution ground. But no matter how unfavorable those two times were, Xia Duo was ultimately able to endure it and find a way out.

But now, the excruciating pain touching his soul left him no time to think. Only occasionally would a residual thought emerge from the depths of his Subconscious, but it would soon be drowned out by the distracting thoughts caused by the massive amount of pain and illusions.

This could be said to be the most dangerous encounter Xia Duo had met since his debut. Now, he couldn't even think about whether these pain sensations or illusions were illusory.

As for leaving, the Projection Plane was quite harmless in his Subconscious, not to mention that this time it was a very rare Projection Plane with a long expected duration, and he did not want to miss it.

So much so that in the endless pain and illusions, he even forgot the most important option of returning to the Main Plane.