Chapter 562: Floating City, A Name Hard to Tell

The first to take the stage were ten Elf Mages from Keman. Their ages could not be determined from their appearance alone, but their spells were limited to below the 8th Circle; judging by previous competitions, they were not necessarily guaranteed an advantage.

But the problem is that the 【Grand Illusion】 is not just an Arcane Competition; it is more like an art performance. And in the realm of art, whether it be humans or Gnomes, it is difficult to compete against those with a long history and deep cultural foundation.

When the ten Elf Mages stood in the center of the Arena, gazes of admiration, disgust, joy, and anticipation were cast upon them.

The spell had not yet begun; the Elves themselves were already a display of the Creator's artistry, and a thin crimson Mist had already permeated the base of the diamond Crystal.

When the spell began, the scene inside the Arena suddenly changed. The night sky was dark, but the surroundings were brightly lit as if it were broad daylight, and one could vaguely hear joyful singing drifting on the wind.

In the distance, tall towers stood in clusters, connected by suspended corridors that either linked directly like bridges or moved freely like ships, with Elves occasionally riding Pegasus back and forth.

Then the perspective zoomed in, landing before a palace on the ground. Countless Elves stood on the plaza in front of the palace, looking forward with reverence; it was a scene of a royal coronation.

But this scene was not fully displayed; the perspective immediately pulled back again, far enough to take in the entire city. Only then did the crowd realize that this was actually a miracle city floating in the sky, overlooking the earth.

Even though Xia Duo had seen the prosperous ancient Elf cities in the 【Projection Plane: Maiyuelita Sukanweisa City】, he had to admit that this Floating City truly shocked him.

If Xia Duo was like this, others who had never even seen what the Elf Kingdom looked like must be even more astonished!

The illusion finally froze on a long-distance view of the Floating City before gradually fading away. The surrounding scene returned to reality, and the Arena fell into silence.

Xia Duo recalled the scene he had just seen; it was somewhat similar to VR footage on Earth. It was indeed quite exquisite, spectacular, and novel, but there was still an inescapable sense of artificiality.

With such a large scene, it was difficult for just ten Mages to construct it perfectly. If used for combat, flaws would be easily discovered, but for a performance, the minor flaws did not obscure the overall brilliance.

Looking again at the diamond Crystal in the center of the Arena, the lower half was almost filled with dense, churning crimson Mist. This was only the first round, and Xia Duo could not tell if this score was good or bad, but after watching the performance, he felt those Gnomes might be in trouble.

……

"What a miracle of a Floating City!"

In the main seat, Princess Xiya did not hesitate to offer praise, but then she said, "This Floating City shouldn't be real, right?"

"Your Highness, although the Floating City they just displayed is not real, ten thousand years ago, the Elves did indeed build a Floating City."

No sooner had Suweilisi finished speaking than it caused displeasure in another Elf. The representative of Yierlan who only arrived on the third day of the Snow Melting Competition, the High Mage Tailun, immediately spoke with sarcasm:

"Keman has been a nation for less than a thousand years, so how would you know what happened ten thousand years ago?"

Keman had indeed been a nation for less than a thousand years, but the existence of many noble families could be traced back ten thousand years. However, Suweilisi did not retort; he knew that Yierlan's history was ten times longer than Keman's, and it had even survived the brutal Crown War.

But history does not equal national strength, and arguing about this was meaningless. Yet, even though he stopped speaking, Mage Tailun still would not let go of any opportunity to strike at Keman:

"Ten thousand years ago, Elves did indeed attempt to build a Floating City, but they did not succeed, eventually only building a Floating Fortress that could barely fly. Suweilisi, do you know who the builder of that Floating Fortress was?"

Suweilisi remained silent because he truly did not know; he only knew that there might have been a Floating City in history.

Princess Xiya, however, was quite interested in this and asked, "Mage Tailun, who was it that built the Floating Fortress back then?"

"I dare not speak their original name. As for their current name, Suweilisi should be very familiar with it. Didn't they just break through one of your defensive lines a while ago?"

——Drow!

Regarding what happened on Keman's side, those who should know already knew. Especially Suweilisi, who was both surprised that Tailun knew the combat situation on the domestic front line and surprised by what Tailun mentioned—that the Drow had once built a Floating Fortress.

He wanted to ask, but could not put down his pride, so he just snorted coldly and ignored the other party.

As for the others, it was not convenient to continue asking in this setting, so they just kept this matter in their minds to inquire about later.

……

On the field, Elkamon cleared the detection records of the diamond Crystal and then announced that the competition would continue. The next to perform were the Yierlan Mages.

After the ten Yierlan Mages stood their ground, they, like the Keman Mages, did not start immediately but paused for a moment. It was this moment that also won them a portion of the crimson Mist in the diamond Crystal.

Moreover, since these ten Yierlan Mages were mostly Moon Elves and the audience in the Arena was mostly human, the fair skin of the Moon Elves was clearly more in line with human aesthetics compared to the pale gold skin of the Keman Gold Elves.

Elves, regardless of gender, were all very handsome in appearance, and humans did not need to distinguish whether they were male or female; they just had to appreciate them.

And the illusion of the Yierlan Mages was, to some extent, also more to the human taste than that of the Keman Mages—

In a forest, a squad of Elf Warriors was advancing rapidly. The perspective pulled back; countless Elf Warriors were rushing to the battlefield, and in the center of the battlefield, the armies of both sides were still fighting incessantly, stepping on the corpses and blood of their own kind.

Swords and Magic, light and shadow intertwined; a cruel, bloody war scene was thus revealed.

And this was not the end. The perspective continued to pull back, and with a flash of dark light, both sides who were fighting fell simultaneously, then slowly stood up again. But after they stood up, they did not continue to fight, but instead joined more of their kind and continued to advance in another direction.

The illusion scene ended there, and the Arena was as silent as it had been after the Keman Mages' performance.

……

Xia Duo wiped the cold sweat from his palms without changing his expression. Compared to the somewhat flamboyant scene of the Floating City, this incomparably realistic scene of slaughter was even more shocking.

On Earth, Xia Duo had seen many strange, magnificent, and gorgeous scenes, but compared to these magical landscapes, the sense of immersion was not strong.

But there was only one kind that was hard to see on Earth, or more accurately, in Xia Duo's hometown: a real scene of slaughter.

Sword slaughter, magic slaughter, countless corpses, blood—it was full of immersion. Even though Xia Duo had traveled to this day and had personally experienced some slaughter, this kind of pure slaughter that seemed to have no other purpose still made his heart race.

"It's probably just missing some plot and sound to be an epic blockbuster!" Xia Duo muttered.

Looking at the "score" again, the scale of the crimson Mist in the diamond Crystal had already exceeded the Floating City scene performed by the Keman Mages earlier.

Sure enough, blood, violence, war, and slaughter are easier to stimulate people's emotions!