Chapter 3218: Crossing the Border in Secret

————Still about 40 minutes to go~~

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Next, Xia Duo and Mages like Feilifa continued to inspect and record the state of the Magic Net at the attack sites until the sun sank in the west; they hadn't even managed to finish the inspection records for this single site.

Elves do not like working overtime, so Feilifa requested to seal the site early. To show fairness, Xia Duo and even the Alliance Observation Group participated in the sealing work, and afterwards, they went one by one to the other six sites, all of which were sealed up as well.

Afterwards, the group returned to the first site they inspected and stayed in the temporary Military Camp outside. Xia Duo was assigned an exclusive tent, and after arranging his avatar, he returned his consciousness to his main body.

It was already too late for today's Prayer Ceremony, and he had even missed the Locomotive Design Competition and the recruitment exam he valued highly; now, he could only understand the situation at the time from subsequent reports.

But it was only evening now; whether it was Laidun or his few secretaries, they were all still out. Xia Duo returned to the Study and didn't see any reports; he was afraid he would have to wait until at least tomorrow.

As for Niya, the moment he returned, she had no heart to continue staying at the celebration. She found an opportunity and slipped back to the Tower of Time. As soon as she saw Xia Duo, she asked impatiently:

"What exactly happened that was so urgent that you couldn't even attend to the celebration?"

"The Illuminati attacked several Magic Artifact Factories over in Ailan. The scene was very tragic, and the problem is very serious!"

"The Magic Artifact Factories in Ailan? What does that have to do with you?" Niya replied subconsciously, but the next moment she reacted and hurriedly asked again, "Could it be that the Illuminati attacked the factories that the Tower of Time invested in and built?"

"Yes, the Illuminati attacked a total of seven factories this time, including two that were already built and in trial production, and five that were under construction."

Hearing that their own factories were destroyed, a look of anger appeared on Niya's face. She couldn't help but complain: "How has this Illuminati still not been dealt with by now! Did you fail to catch the culprit again this time?"

"Don't even talk about catching the culprit; right now, we haven't even figured out the situation left behind at the scene!"

"What's wrong with the scene?"

"The Illuminati used some kind of seemingly normal weapon, yet it caused a phenomenon that is impossible to understand."

Xia Duo briefly described the inspection results of the blue light flames in the deep pits at the factory ruins in Ailan. Niya was stunned for a few seconds upon hearing it, then she said subconsciously:

"How is this possible!"

"Indeed, according to common sense, this is an impossible situation, but it just happened. If you don't believe it, you can go to Ailan and see for yourself."

"So what kind of weapon did the Illuminati use? Is there really not even a single guess?"

"I don't know what weapon they used either, but there is one guess that might be the most likely explanation: their attack inadvertently coincided with a certain trend of the Dragon Madness Mythallar's collapse, and then, under mutual influence, it led to the current situation."

Speaking of this, Xia Duo could not help but worry. The reminder he gave Feilifa over in Ailan earlier was not deliberately targeting the Illuminati; just as he said to Feilifa—the mere existence of that probability was enough!

Now he was most worried that the Illuminati would discover their weapon could trigger that eerie blue light flame, and then use this weapon to threaten the Alliance or achieve some other goal. In short, this was a huge trouble.

Now his greatest hope was that the blue light flame was just a coincidence and had absolutely nothing to do with the Illuminati, whether directly or indirectly—though this had already been deemed impossible by all parties.

Because the blue light flame appeared at every attack site, it was truly hard to explain as a coincidence.

"Is that kind of blue light flame really unsolvable?" Niya also asked with concern.

"Based on what we know so far, that is indeed the case. It can devour matter, energy, and the Magic Items that connect the two; it seems no means can escape the devouring of that eerie light flame."

"No, if that blue light flame were truly that unsolvable, then the Main Plane would have already been devoured by them by now. Why haven't I seen that kind of blue light flame in Netheril?"

Niya keenly sensed the loophole in Xia Duo's words. Indeed, if that blue light flame could devour everything, it would have devoured the entire Main Plane from the moment they appeared.

"This question is indeed one I didn't explain clearly. Although that blue light flame has currently shown the characteristic of devouring everything, they are still bound to the destruction sites caused by the Illuminati and have not spread."

"Then why is that?" Niya asked again.

"I would very much like to know that too! If we could figure out this problem, perhaps we wouldn't have to worry about the threat of that blue light flame, and could even conduct further research on it."

Regarding why the blue light flame that could devour everything was bound within the deep pits, Xia Duo actually already had his own guess—

He felt it might be related to the Magic Net, and perhaps that blue light flame was not the direct cause of the Magic Net's damage, but rather a result of the Magic Net breaking!

This guess of his could perfectly explain why the blue light flame didn't spread, because although the Magic Net outside the deep pits in Ailan rioted and some tangled into clumps, it was not damaged in its macroscopic structure.

However, this guess also brought up a new problem: the situation of Magic Net damage was not something discovered for the first time; whether it was the collapse of a Mythallar or a Mage advancing to an Advanced Arcanist, both would cause damage to the Magic Net.

Why were there no records of that blue light flame in the past?

Looking purely at the scope of influence, the impact of a Mythallar collapse is the greatest; many Mythallars even cause irreparable damage to the Magic Net when they collapse.

But even so, the Elf World had never had records of the current blue light flame, and even in the Projection Plane, Xia Duo had not seen any relevant records.

To answer this question, perhaps the finger must be pointed at the Dragon Madness Mythallar again. The scale of those past Mythallars was too small; even if they collapsed, it was unlikely they could produce much impact, at least not to the point of destroying the world.

But the Dragon Madness Mythallar—now, just a bit of the aftermath during its collapse process had triggered climate anomalies in the Northland and an even wider range. If it collapsed completely, world destruction (the extinction of life) would be almost inevitable.

Perhaps only the collapse of a Mythallar at the level of the Dragon Madness Mythallar could cause enough damage to the Magic Net to produce that kind of blue light flame.

Following this line of reasoning, the possibility that the blue light flame was caused by the Dragon Madness Mythallar increased by a few points!

"The world is difficult!" Xia Duo couldn't help but sigh.

If the final collapse of the Dragon Madness Mythallar resulted in a cleansing by that blue light flame, then this ending would be too miserable!

This would not just be the extinction of life; even the Main Plane itself might disintegrate as a result and then be completely annihilated within the Void of the Ether Interlayer.

If one were lucky, perhaps a brilliant Plane Crystal might remain. If one were unlucky, then there would be nothing at all!