Chapter 2433: Perceiving the Time Line

Regarding prophecy spells, Xia Duo was once extremely dismissive, not even believing such techniques truly existed, but after experiencing more, countless facts told him that the authenticity of prophecy spells could not be questioned.

However, being able to prophesy is one thing, and whether the prophecy is accurate is another; in reality, anyone, even without mastering prophecy spells, can make judgments about the future based on their own experience and knowledge.

Such judgments based on reason and experience might even be more accurate!

But regardless, ever since determining that prophecy was different from conventional Scrying spells, Xia Duo had very much wanted to obtain his own Prophecy Inheritance.

In 【Projection Plane: Evereska Independent】, he had once found clues to prophecy spells, but limited by the resources he could mobilize and the few bargaining chips he had, he missed out on the Prophecy Inheritance.

Yet in the 【Projection Plane: Red Heart Alliance】 not long ago, he obtained the Prophecy Inheritance he had previously sought in vain without paying almost any price; one has to say that fate is sometimes just that bizarre.

Since returning from the Red Heart Alliance, he had made various preparations for prophecy, and the most important of these was the mark for the present world, or in other words, an anchor.

Because the purpose of prophecy is to peek into the future, then what exactly is the future?

It certainly requires a definition, which is the so-called "mark" or "anchor."

……

Inside the Arcane Union Headquarters laboratory.

Xia Duo took out an altar about one meter wide from his Personal Space, using gold and Adamantine as the base, with a large number of complex yet orderly fine grooves carved into the surface, filled with high-purity Mithril to serve as Energy-Conducting Material.

Originally in the Red Heart Alliance, this part could directly utilize specific components of the Alliance Mishuo, but in the Main Plane, there was no Red Heart Alliance, let alone a ready-made Alliance Mishuo, so these were things Xia Duo had to prepare himself.

In the days since returning from the Red Heart Alliance, he had mainly been busy with two things: one was the New Floating City project, including the Spellcasting ritual design for the New Floating City, and officially completing the construction of the 【World Incubator】 that was being arranged before entering the Projection Plane.

The other thing was the preparation for the prophecy ritual.

In fact, these two things corresponded to the same goal, which was the Demon Descendant threat, just from different angles of approach.

Inside the laboratory, Xia Duo took out the Present World Anchor Altar necessary for the prophecy ritual and placed it properly, then after a simple inspection, he activated it directly.

In a sense, the Present World Anchor Altar was actually the same thing as the Magic Array used by the Astral Plane Eternal Holy Spirit to descend into the Material Plane!

Or to put it another way, Xia Duo had actually come into contact with prophecy spells very early on, only he might not have thought of it in that regard at the time.

The matter goes back to when the Akaola Crown King sought help from Netheril; Xia Duo was invited to extend the life of the Akaola Crown King, and he traveled through the channel of Astral Plane descent.

At that time, he saw the evolution of the Time Line in the Astral Plane and experienced the concept of time felt by the Astral Plane Eternal Holy Spirit from a first-person perspective, but at the time he only thought he could use this to descend into the future, and did not think of using it for prophecy.

The reason for this was that the observation, or rather Perception, at that time was very blurry, only able to determine some possibility, but unable to know exactly what had happened.

Of course, he now understood what was going on; using the terminology of the Red Heart Alliance, it was the "Uncertainty Principle of the Time Line"—either determine the state of the Time Line, which is commonly referred to as whether it is the past, present, or future.

Or determine the historical details of a certain moment, while being unable to determine whether this moment belongs to the past, present, or future.

This is in reference to the same prophecy; one effective prophecy includes multiple specific acts of prophecy, or in other words, multiple specific acts of perceiving the Time Line.

One can first determine whether it is the past, present, or future—Present World Anchoring was born for this—and then perceive the details of the Time Line for a limited moment; if it is aimed at the past, then of course it is history.

If it is aimed at the future, then it is the infinite possibilities of the future.

The current moment does not exist; the current moment has already been anchored and belongs to an existence in the conceptual sense, only able to move forward or backward.

For prophecy or Scrying of the past, Xia Duo did not need to do it this way, because there are many specific Scrying spells that can achieve this.

Prophecy spells truly face the infinite future, which is something conventional Scrying spells can never do.

……

With all preparations complete, Xia Duo took a deep breath and began his first prophecy action in the Main Plane; as the Spellcasting proceeded, his Perception passed through the barrier of the Material Plane via the Present World Anchoring Altar and entered a silver Void.

But at this moment, his feeling was completely different from when he usually came to the Astral Plane; at this moment, he was like a complete outsider.

Even the occasionally rising Astral Wind could not cause the slightest ripple in his spiritual consciousness, which should have formed a solid entity in this special world.

That spiritual storm mixed with countless intentions was, to him at this moment, truly as illusory as flowers in a mirror or the moon in the water.

Subsequently, Xia Duo began to trace the source of this consciousness of his; the source point projected through the Present World Anchoring Altar became incomparably clear at this moment, far exceeding the signal of the Magic Array he had sought when going to Akaola previously.

In his pure, unassisted spiritual Perception, that source point was like a spring constantly gushing water outward.

Each drop of water was a possibility of the future, and that one possibility continued to differentiate into countless possibilities, thus converging into a water surface constantly expanding outward.

If there were no Prophecy Inheritance, this step would be the limit of what most Spellcasters could achieve; perhaps some people with outstanding Perception could perceive the blurry direction of the flow of time from it.

Xia Duo had perceived it this way before, but now, having obtained the Prophecy Inheritance, he could conduct more detailed observations and see more details.

At this moment, Xia Duo's consciousness—or rather his attention or Perception—was divided into two parts: one part was in the Astral Plane, in a special state of Void observation, and the other part was in the Main Plane, continuing the ritual.

As the ritual progressed, the part of Xia Duo's Perception projected into the Astral Plane was rapidly modulated; the next moment, the water-surface-like Time Line he had just been able to perceive collapsed instantly, followed by countless fragmented images flooding into Xia Duo's Perception.

For a moment, he could not even maintain the ritual itself; he stumbled backward four or five steps, only stopping when he hit the laboratory bench against the wall.

"Hoo—"

Xia Duo supported the laboratory bench with one hand and rubbed his brow with the other, while panting heavily; even at this moment, he still had lingering fears.

On one hand, a large number of fragmented future images flooded into his Perception all at once, but his acceptance and processing speed were limited, giving him a feeling of being overstuffed.

And on the other hand, it was those future images!