Chapter 3001: Phantom Patches and Four New Planes

Almost seconds after Saville reminded Xia Duo, the Ether Mist, which had already become dense enough to be nearly a solid color, changed once again.

It was as if it were collapsing inward, revealing a clean void that formed a sharp contrast with the surrounding mist; it was also as if the solid color had suddenly clarified, like a piece of transparent Crystal.

In a very short time, the state of the Ether Mist underwent an unprecedented change. Xia Duo curiously examined the transparent "Crystal" about ten meters ahead, still surrounded by mist at its periphery, and muttered:

"Is this the Ether Boundary?"

"If the data provided by that golden dragon is not fake, this should be the Ether Boundary. Maintaining this state is still quite easy for now." Despite saying this, the expression on Saville's face remained quite serious.

"But if you want it to 'reflect' other Planes around the Main Plane, this current state alone is not enough; you still need to continuously gather Ether Mist."

"Can you continue?" Xia Duo asked.

"Yes, no problem."

Saville responded, then continued Spellcasting. However, at this step, there was no need to start over like before; instead, while maintaining the spell that had just created the Ether Boundary, he continued to gather Ether Mist.

From the beginning of the Spellcasting to the formation of the Ether Boundary, it took less than three minutes, but to make the Ether Boundary go deeper, it took at least double the time.

It was not until six minutes later that Xia Duo saw a light spot glowing with red and white colors from the center of the Ether Boundary, which resembled a transparent Crystal.

As Saville continued the spell, that tiny light spot gradually enlarged into a pale red patch of color, its edges nearly transparent, as if a drop of red ink had been dripped into water and bled outward.

According to the spell data provided by Pulitatisi, that was a new Plane!

Xia Duo walked away from Saville, still maintaining a distance of about ten meters from the Ether Boundary, and circled around it. The pale red patch seen from Saville's direction would disappear bit by bit after the viewing angle deviated to a certain degree, but what subsequently appeared in Xia Duo's field of vision were patches of other colors.

Xia Duo circled around and even flew above the Ether Boundary to look; he discovered a total of four different patches of color, which meant that this first experiment had discovered four different new Planes!

If this were the old him, it would have been simply unimaginable!

……

"Can you still maintain it?" Xia Duo asked Saville.

"I can. As long as we don't continue to increase the ether concentration, maintaining this action itself is not difficult."

Just as Saville finished saying this, Xia Duo saw one of the patches in the Ether Boundary suddenly shrink by a circle, then enlarge again.

At this moment, he and Saville were not at the same viewing angle, but he figured the pale red patch Saville saw must have also gone through such a change process, so Saville's voice sounded a bit urgent next—

"But the Ether Boundary itself is a critical state created artificially; it cannot exist stably in a natural state. Quick! Seize the time to deploy the Beacon Artifact!"

"Understood, I'm coming."

Saying this, Xia Duo expanded his Thought Robe on his left hand into a Private Magic Web state. Although this state could not replace his Spellcasting, it could minimize the damage from a failed spell.

An Arcanist's own Arcane Fire expansion had a similar effect, but it was still not as good as the Thought Robe already woven into a Mythallar. With this guarantee, Xia Duo dared to cast an "unknown" strange spell under unfamiliar circumstances.

——【Aether Boundary Crossing】

This spell could be used not only on the Spellcaster themselves but also on others or other objects, just as a Teleportation Spell could also transport others or other objects. In essence, this was also a Teleportation Spell, just using different Principles than traditional Teleportation Spells.

What Xia Duo was currently transporting were four Plane beacons that had been prepared long before Pulitatisi appeared. After being empowered by the 【Aether Boundary Crossing】 spell, they were thrown directly toward one of the patches in the Ether Boundary.

The four beacons were thrown toward the four patches corresponding to the four Planes—these patches appearing in the Ether Boundary were actually the phantom images of adjacent Planes seen through the Ether Boundary.

……

Xia Duo finished deploying the Plane beacons, and Saville also timely dispelled the spell maintaining the Ether Boundary. That Ether Boundary, which looked like a transparent Crystal, instantly erupted with a large amount of pale Ether Mist after losing external maintenance.

At the same time, Xia Duo had long since locked onto the Floating City Yongle above his head, and before the mist spread to them, he took Saville and flew rapidly toward the Floating City.

During the flight, Xia Duo saw the Black Forest below, which had been clearly visible, now shrouded in a thick layer of Ether Mist with their experimental area as the center.

In the process of the large amount of mist spreading rapidly, it even formed a scene resembling surging sea waves.

Passing through the Ether Protection of the Floating City and returning to the interior, Xia Duo and Saville finally lifted their spiritual states, but neither of them mentioned resting at this moment.

Almost simultaneously, they chose to teleport to the Tower of Time, which was currently docked in the Research Zone.

……

Tower of Time, Plane Exploration Layer, Preparation Teleportation Hall.

Xia Duo let Saville rest for a while, while he personally operated the Plane Exploration Array to search for the four Plane beacons he had just deployed. The result was very gratifying—

Three of the four beacons were found!

As for the one that wasn't found, Xia Duo speculated that either some accident occurred during the teleportation and it was damaged, or that the Plane's environment was special and did not support the normal operation of the Beacon Artifact.

Although they were Plane beacons used to mark Other Planes, one had to consider the cost; it was impossible to make them into an adaptive version like Arcane Fire, so they could only lean as much as possible toward a general-purpose direction while maintaining a low cost.

"We'll talk about the other one later; let's first see what's going on with the three beacons that have already been found!"

As long as it was confirmed to be a new Plane, then this Ether Boundary Exploration would have great potential. Just in half a day, it had exceeded the total discoveries of the Tower of Time over the past few years.

While chatting with Saville, Xia Duo had already activated the Portal function of the Preparation Teleportation Hall and opened a Plane Portal guided by the first beacon.

The "Plane" in the Plane Portal only referred to the energy level invested in opening the portal and the degree of change to the form of the Ether Plane; what it actually connected to could very well be a certain area of the same Plane.

Therefore, after the portal was opened, Xia Duo immediately used the portal as a medium to project a Perception Field into the space on the opposite side of the portal.

"How is it? Is it a new Plane?" Saville was also very concerned about this question at the first moment.

"It looks like a new Plane, but it needs further confirmation."

While synchronizing his Scrying results to Saville, Xia Duo continued to cast spells, using the Perception Field projected to the opposite side of the portal as a medium to detect the state of the Magic Net in the environment and obtain the Plane Coordinate.

A moment later, a look of joy appeared on Xia Duo's face, "It's a new Plane. I didn't expect it to be so easy to discover a new Plane!"