Chapter 2586: Plane Attraction, Exploring New Paths

Returning to the Floating City, Xia Duo immediately checked the Semi-Plane Anchoring Device in the Laboratory, and only after confirming that the semi-plane's trajectory remained stable did he breathe a slight sigh of relief.

He then continued to check the Semi-Plane Detection Equipment; observing the semi-plane from the perspective of the Ether Interlayer, it was indeed different from being inside the plane, and the difference was not small.

Xia Duo had just been inside the semi-plane and personally experienced the process of the plane's gravity changing; in the absence of external interference, if a plane experienced such a situation, it could basically be determined that the Plane Root, or rather the plane's basic structure and material circulation, had undergone huge changes in a short period of time.

And now that this semi-plane had received repulsive force between planes, Xia Duo was not sure whether the change in the state inside the plane caused by this repulsive force was permanent or temporary.

But the space-time state of this semi-plane itself, as manifested in the Ether Interlayer, was still the same as before, without any changes; at most, its position had changed, but its own attributes were still the same as before.

"Is it a feedback delay? Or is this just a temporary change from the plane contact?"

Xia Duo could not yet conclude, but if there were no accidents, there would soon be a result; he counted the delayed time of the Spell remaining in the semi-plane in his heart, staring expectantly at the readings of the two pieces of equipment.

He hoped more that the readings reflected the latter, so that he could complete this series of experiments with one semi-plane.

Although the World Incubator could mass-produce semi-planes, time cost was also a cost, and maintenance costs could not be ignored; if he could complete the experiment with one semi-plane, that would be best.

However, Xia Duo's idea was soon dashed; the Semi-Plane Anchoring Device suddenly issued an alarm, and the movement trajectory of Demiplane 1, used for the plane contact experiment, suddenly deviated from the preset path with a huge change.

At the same time, regarding the monitoring of the semi-plane's state in the Ether Interlayer, the space-time state of Demiplane 1 in the Ether Interlayer became as if it were nothing, and a thought occurred to Xia Duo almost instantly—

The Plane Barrier had disappeared!

Only the disappearance of such a boundary between existence and non-existence in the Plane Barrier could produce such a change in the space-time state in the Ether Interlayer.

Subsequently, Xia Duo adjusted the detection direction and detection layer of the Detection Array, attempting to search for specific traces where the semi-plane had disappeared, and this look made Xia Duo feel even more surprised.

It was a scene of plane collapse that was almost visible to the naked eye; various elements and substances were completely dissolved as if by the invisible force of the Ether Interlayer, and the speed was so fast that even though Xia Duo had not delayed anything, he could only see the tail end—

Everything returned to the Void, leaving behind only a tiny object that also had a weak influence on the Ether Interlayer!

"Am I that lucky? This produced a Plane Crystal just like that?"

Xia Duo could hardly believe his eyes; this was completely different from the Plane Crystal obtained by the crystallization method; this was a true Plane Crystal born from the natural destruction of a plane!

The attributes of the former were determined by the pre-buried "Crystal Seed," while the latter was only related to the attributes of the destroyed plane, and plane attributes could be changed arbitrarily by creating different semi-planes.

It was just that Xia Duo's purpose in wanting to obtain Plane Crystals of different attributes was to create semi-planes of different attributes; now, reversing it was somewhat ridiculous.

However, these Plane Crystals with new attributes could be obtained by destroying some Minor Sub-Planes, and then semi-planes could be manufactured through these Plane Crystals.

But this was also like taking off one's pants to fart—a pointless effort that did more harm than good.

And the most critical thing was that he was still not sure whether the appearance of this Plane Crystal was just good luck, or if a Plane Crystal would be produced as long as the repulsion limit was broken and it collapsed?

If it were the former, everything was in vain, and even if it were the latter, it was just an additional way to obtain Plane Crystals that was not actually practical at all.

"It's a pity that this Plane Crystal cannot be obtained!"

The Plane Crystal existed in the Ether Interlayer; of course, more specifically, it existed within the range of the Main Plane's Plane Barrier close to the Ether Interlayer, where the proportion of "nothing" was much greater than "something," which was why that semi-plane was so easy to perish.

But that was still a forbidden zone that Xia Duo could reach; he could interfere with the Plane Barrier, which was essentially a boundary between existence and non-existence, but he could not interfere with the Plane Crystal, which was essentially already "something."

Or rather, he could interfere, but the degree of interference was extremely small; after all, the Plane Crystal could also affect the space-time state of the Ether Interlayer, but this influence was far less than its predecessor, which possessed a Plane Barrier.

Xia Duo tried to "fish" for it, but found that the Plane Crystal only moved slightly toward the direction of the Main Plane body, and it was not even as strong as the attraction of the Main Plane itself to it.

Yes, Xia Duo had once again discovered a phenomenon that predecessors might have never discovered or never published, which was the attraction of the Main Plane to existing things.

In other words, if one wanted to go from the Main Plane through the Plane Barrier to the Ether Interlayer and then explore the Other Plane, one not only needed the ability to survive in the near-void ground-state space-time of the Ether Interlayer, but also the ability to resist the attraction of the Main Plane.

The former could use a semi-plane vehicle, as long as one found a way for the semi-plane to move autonomously, or if one only explored "near-Earth," Xia Duo could do it now.

But if one started directly from the Main Plane and passed through the Plane Barrier into the Ether Interlayer, using a semi-plane vehicle would not be feasible, because at such a close distance, the moment one entered the Plane Barrier, it might be crushed and collapse.

Unless this Plane Barrier could be opened and closed at will, and even then, one would still have to be able to overcome the Main Plane's attraction to existing things.

"No wonder when I tried to enter the Plane Barrier at the edge of the plane before, I could only stick to its surface and could not go deep!"

Xia Duo realized instantly; perhaps it was caused by the Main Plane's attraction to the existing thing that was his body!

Future exploration of the Ether Interlayer might need to be done by building a semi-plane base near the Main Plane, similar to building a space base on Earth, and then other semi-plane vehicles would set out from that base to continuously explore outward.

If one did not use a semi-plane vehicle, at least the exploration device must have the characteristics of a Plane Barrier to resist the ubiquitous ground-state space-time void force in the Ether Interlayer.

Previously, Xia Duo had also fantasized about driving the Floating City to explore the Other Plane directly; now, after this experiment, he knew how naive that idea was.

However, this could be treated as a long-term goal, and it did not necessarily have to be the Floating City; it could also be various probes.

There was only one reason: the efficiency of discovering Other Planes through the Plane Exploration array within the plane was really too low; of course, these two methods could be combined.

On one hand, explore the Ether Interlayer and study the properties of the Ether Interlayer to try to improve the brand-new Exploration Array; on the other hand, increase the construction of the Exploration Array; one was not enough, so build more and use more.

The discovery of new planes by the Exploration Array could also become an important reference for studying the Ether Interlayer; Xia Duo instinctively felt that these two methods, or two paths, should be complementary!

"Sure enough, practice is the source of true knowledge!"