Chapter 765: Delivering a Book, the Time Anchoring of a Semi-plane

"Niya, don't worry. I know Her Highness the Princess told me not to leave the Tower of Time to guard against that potential attack, but going to Seventon doesn't necessarily mean I'll be leaving Giles Tower! In Giles Tower, do I really need to worry about an attack from that person?"

Xia Duo himself didn't actually worry much; didn't the old and new generations of lords of the Rodney Territory hide in Jilan Tower, and nothing happened to them?

And even if he stepped out of Giles Tower, Xia Duo didn't believe anyone would dare to organize a group attack on him in Seventon. As for one-on-one, unless a Great Arcanist took action personally, they simply couldn't block him.

Of course, Xia Duo wouldn't bet his life on whether a Great Arcanist would take action personally; he had no intention of leaving Giles Tower at all during this trip to Seventon.

If someone could truly kill him—the excellent Pioneer designated by the Princess and the husband of her beloved student—inside Giles Tower, then he would accept his fate!

That would mean the Seven Towers no longer had the slightest ability to protect members within their camp, and unless he hid in the Tower of Time for the rest of his life, he would still likely be killed.

Xia Duo's explanation put Niya slightly at ease, but she was still somewhat uneasy, so she suggested she go along: "Then I'll go with you. It will be more convenient if I go, and I can also visit my teacher."

"Good!" Xia Duo agreed readily.

In fact, even if Niya hadn't brought it up, he would have invited her to go together. He had two main things to do on this trip to Seventon, and it would indeed be much more convenient with Niya there.

Soon, Niya asked about Xia Duo's purpose, and Xia Duo didn't hide much, telling her straight. After all, these were things to be done in Seventon, and informing her in advance would allow her to be prepared.

"I wrote a book and want to put it up for sale at the Arcane Union. Besides that, I want to visit the library in Seventon."

The latter was something Xia Duo had planned after discovering he possessed the ability of Memory Retrospection, which was similar to a photographic memory, but he had been busy lately and it had been delayed.

As for the former, it had also been planned for a long time, just brought forward a bit to now.

Niya had seen Xia Duo "flipping through books" in the Tower of Time Library before, but she didn't know much about what new book Xia Duo had written, so she asked: "What book did you write? Why do you want to put it up for sale at the Arcane Union?"

Xia Duo didn't answer directly, but took out a copy of *Principles* and handed it to Niya, "It's this one. You can help me look at it too, to see if I have any omissions."

"Some Thoughts on the Netheril Arcane Magic System?"

Niya saw the cover at first glance. This strange title reminded her of the paper on field interference that Xia Duo had given her before. The style was somewhat similar, but the topic was so grand, and it was titled *Principles*; what exactly was written inside?

With a hint of inquiry, Niya opened the *Principles* book. When she saw "What is Magic?" written on the very first inner page, Niya looked up at Xia Duo in confusion.

Xia Duo smiled slightly. He hadn't put a table of contents in the *Principles* book; on one hand, he wanted his readers to have the surprise of exploration while reading, and on the other hand, it was a practical consideration.

If he had written a table of contents, the Arcane Union might not necessarily accept his book, and even if they did, they might not arrange the book's placement according to his wishes.

Therefore, he simply didn't write a table of contents, wanting to muddle through. In any case, the Arcane Union was just one of the distribution channels he had chosen; it would be best if he could muddle through, and if not, he had other backup plans.

Xia Duo signaled for Niya to continue reading, and Niya did exactly that. She was now piqued by a hint of curiosity—

Could this just be an Enlightenment Book introducing magic? Although it looked very different in style from other Enlightenment Books in the Tower of Time, was it necessary to send such a book to the Arcane Union?

Niya continued flipping through the book. Although she didn't have the monstrous memory ability of Xia Duo, she had mastered skimming techniques, and what's more, she didn't even need to skim now; she just needed to flip through it roughly.

When she saw "How to Cast Spells," noticing that she had only flipped through less than a quarter of the book and there was still a large portion left, she had some guesses about the content that followed.

Flipping further, it was indeed the Arcane Geometry content she had imagined, though it was different from the Arcane Geometry textbooks currently used by the New Apprentices in the Tower of Time; it seemed to have been specially compiled.

Niya didn't look closely but flipped quickly toward the back. It wasn't until she reached content like "Equivalent Transformation of Magic Net Strings" and "Definition and Derivation of Single-String Five-Rule Operations" that she subconsciously slowed down her flipping speed. She would only turn a page after a long time, occasionally flipping back, seemingly to memorize or verify something.

Seeing Niya gradually fall into a state of reading as if no one else were around, Xia Duo couldn't help but laugh, but now was not the time for Niya to read!

He reached out to block Niya's view, which annoyed her. She immediately looked up and glared ahead. When she saw it was Xia Duo, Niya's anger vanished instantly, and a faint blush climbed onto her cheeks. She hurriedly closed the book and said to Xia Duo:

"I know. Let's go to Seventon tomorrow or the day after. I have something to do now, I'm leaving first!"

After saying that, she teleported away directly, which left Xia Duo somewhat dumbfounded. He hadn't finished saying what he needed to say! And, did the remaining Spell Practice Room still need to be renovated?

Leaving behind a wry smile, Xia Duo had no choice but to continue working alone.

For the next two days, Niya did not appear, and Xia Duo also threw in the towel when only the last Spell Practice Room remained to be renovated.

The remaining one could just be used by Depake, who had recently achieved Advanced Rank, to practice his skills. Anyway, with Aiboke's guidance, it wouldn't cause any trouble.

As for himself, after contacting Niya several times and being told to wait a bit longer, he simply went to the Plane Exploration Layer. Taking advantage of this spare time while waiting for Niya, he prepared to conduct a few more plane searches; he wouldn't have such good conditions to use once he reached Seventon.

……

Plane Exploration Layer.

Even though he had been here many times, Xia Duo was still amazed by the vast, complex, and exquisitely crafted Exploration Array here.

If an ordinary person came here, they might only feel that this place was very large, but a Mage could see the layers upon layers, dense and packed, connected into one piece, breathing-like Magic Aura!

Coming here was like being in a shimmering world of magic, which no one could ignore, and Xia Duo was certainly no exception.

Arriving here again, Xia Duo didn't rush to the Operation Room to conduct plane searches, but came to the Preparation Teleportation Hall and opened a Semi-plane portal.

During the Snow Melting Competition, the Tower of Time had searched for a Semi-plane, which had recently completed Time Anchoring and would no longer be lost due to the Semi-plane's autonomous movement.

Only at this point could this Semi-plane be considered to truly belong to the Tower of Time. If the lock on the Semi-plane had been lost before, then a Semi-plane might have been lost.

Small-scale planes like Semi-planes easily moved within the Ether Interlayer; even without human influence, they would move on their own.

Therefore, before completing Time Anchoring, it was necessary to continuously send out active searches to lock onto the target, somewhat similar to continuous-wave illumination radar on Earth.

Of course, plane movement and human movement were completely different things; the actual frequency of locking searches was actually not high, but it could not be interrupted.