Chapter 253: Silver Thread

In fact, Xia Duo should have returned last month, but he had not finished reading the books in Gelada's home, or rather, had not memorized them well.

Now that the hope of becoming an Intermediate Mage had fallen through again, Xia Duo had to face a fact—it was very likely impossible to level up in the Projection Plane at all.

Now that he had almost finished reading the books at Gelada's home, and the Void was already closing in on his residence, he did not want to personally verify if stepping into the Void could really return him directly.

Time to go back!

He quickly returned to the study and sent all the borrowed books as well as the "home" books into his Personal Space; although he knew the probability of being able to bring them back was extremely low, he did it anyway.

——【Message】

——No target.

Xia Duo shook his head and revealed a bitter smile. He had originally intended to say goodbye to Gelada before leaving, but he had not expected that someone he had just seen while borrowing books at his home would now be nowhere to be found, off playing somewhere.

The Void had already closed in to the vicinity of "Asuosi's" home, which was of course also near Gelada's home; once Gelada entered the Void, Xia Duo naturally could no longer contact him.

At least, he could no longer contact him directly via 【Message】.

At this moment, the Projection Plane was like a display screen gradually darkening from the edges, and Xia Duo, being within it, could do nothing about it, yet he still wanted his first projection journey to end on a complete note.

He collected everything in the house that could be stored into his Personal Space, then went to Gelada's home, chatting casually about daily life with Keluo Na, as if he were a dying person who had seen through life.

By noon, Gelada, tired from playing, finally returned. After lunch, Xia Duo said goodbye calmly, and under the surprised gazes of Gelada and Keluo Na, he concentrated all his spirit and issued a call from the bottom of his heart—

"Return!"

In an instant, Xia Duo's consciousness seemed to be completely stripped away from the surrounding world. At this moment, he noticed that there had always been a faint Silver Thread above his head pointing toward his true body!

When the intention to return was issued, the Silver Thread responded automatically, carrying his consciousness as it shot into the sky. The last thing Xia Duo "saw" was the endless Void that had already swallowed "Asuosi's" home and was surging toward Gelada's home.

The next instant, Xia Duo entered the silver void he had only seen for a moment when he arrived, followed immediately by a scene similar to sci-fi Yaoyue.

Unlike when he arrived, there was a Silver Thread leading the way upon his return.

This Silver Thread was perhaps his consciousness itself; his consciousness had always been in his body, only it had been extended into the Astral Plane through some kind of Spell, allowing the terminal of his Perception to be in the Projection Plane.

When Xia Duo's consciousness underwent Yaoyue, besides the Silver Thread, he also noticed that his Personal Space still existed, but the items stored within it almost all disintegrated the moment they left the silver void.

Whatever books or notes, whatever tableware or home decorations, all were gone.

Only the dozen or so Magic Items within remained, but as Xia Duo got closer and closer to the Main Plane, these Magic Items also became increasingly illusory!

If nothing went wrong, these things would eventually disappear without a trace.

Having gone through so much trouble to come here, and having happened to project into an Elf, Xia Duo was naturally unwilling to return empty-handed. When this thought arose, the dozen or so remaining Magic Items in his Personal Space immediately stopped their trend of becoming illusory.

But accompanying this was the shrinking of the Personal Space. Originally, this space was about 100 cubic meters, but as the thought of wanting to save these dozen Magic Items arose in Xia Duo, the space shrank rapidly.

In the blink of an eye, it was not even half its size, and it was still shrinking.

Yet these dozen Magic Items had only stopped the trend of becoming illusory; they were not truly saved. If this continued, perhaps even the space itself would not be preserved.

In a flash of lightning, Xia Duo made a choice: except for one sword, the other Magic Items disintegrated instantly, and that sword immediately solidified.

The trend of the space shrinking also weakened. Xia Duo felt neither joy nor sorrow, silently "watching" all of this, until his consciousness suddenly went black, then bright.

He had returned to the hall where he had begun his projection journey at the Arcane Union, beneath that bright ball of light.

The moment his consciousness returned, Xia Duo felt the heaviness of his own body, which was distinctly different from the nimble, light Elven body.

For a moment, he even forgot how to walk.

"Xia Duo, you're back. Go outside and take a rest!" A very unfamiliar voice suddenly came.

Xia Duo recalled for a moment before he remembered who was sending the message: it was Aiboke. Although for Aiboke, Xia Duo had only gone under the ball of light and then looked strange a few seconds later.

But for Xia Duo, he had truly spent over a year in Sukanweisa City in the Projection Plane, and it would still be nearly a month before he had been in the Tower of Time for a year!

His contact with Aiboke had been minimal, and with over a year in the Projection Plane in between, if Xia Duo hadn't remembered the time he, Niya, and Aiboke went to the Arcane Union to read the 【Nether Scroll】, he probably wouldn't have thought of Aiboke at all.

Time really is a good medicine for smoothing out memories!

Xia Duo immediately left from under the ball of light and, on the periphery, tried to distinguish who Aiboke was without drawing attention; his impression of him was indeed a bit blurred.

Perhaps noticing Xia Duo's confusion, Aiboke called out to remind him, "Xia Duo, over here."

"Master Aiboke." Xia Duo hurried forward.

"Mm, let's go!"

Xia Duo followed behind Aiboke and, along with other Mages who had finished their projection journeys, left the Projection Hall.

……

Once outside, Aiboke left behind a sentence, "Find a Xiu Xi Shi yourself, and gather at the Teleportation Room tomorrow."

Then he drifted away.

At this time, Xia Duo also felt extreme mental exhaustion; even though his body still felt energetic, he just wanted to find a place to sleep.

However, before sleeping, there was one more thing that had to be done.

Under the guidance of the Tower Spirit, Xia Duo endured his sleepiness and went to the Arcane Union's Magic Item exchange, where he purchased a Dimensional Bag.

It was said to be a masterpiece by a certain Master of the Arcane Union, priced at 2000 Gold Coins, no bargaining allowed. In such a seller's market, what else could Xia Duo say?

He could only grit his teeth and buy it.

The Exchange Voucher from the Wier Lingzhu was not useful here; he had to first find a Merchant to exchange it for an Arcane Union voucher, and this exchange caused a direct 20% loss.

And with this purchase of the Dimensional Bag, plus the cash he had spent on buying Slaves earlier, Xia Duo had less than 1000 Gold Coins in cash left.

Sigh—

Sighing inwardly at how difficult life was, Xia Duo casually tucked the clearly not-brand-new Dimensional Bag into his bosom and left the exchange.

Spending a huge sum of money to buy this thing was purely to cover up the existence of his Personal Space; a 2000 Gold Coin accessory was truly too extravagant.

……

Inside the Xiu Xi Shi.

Xia Duo tried to use Elven Meditation to replace sleep, but the Meditation that could be easily achieved in the Projection Plane was impossible in the Main Plane.

As sleepiness struck, Xia Duo had no choice but to give up this attempt. He took one last look at the Standard Magic Sword from Sukanweisa City inside his Personal Space and fell into a deep sleep.