Chapter 974: Special Magic, Background Fluctuation

The sudden arrival of Princess Xiya immediately caused quite a stir in the square.

Seeing this, those few Pioneers who were still lagging behind slowly immediately dropped their reserve and trotted all the way to the center of the square, blending into the crowd; the scene was truly somewhat disheveled.

Of course, for Xiya herself, this little interlude was not taken to heart at all; after scanning the crowd and seeing that all the Pioneers had arrived, she nodded slightly at Greta.

Greta immediately understood and said to everyone, "Her Highness the Princess is personally inspecting your rehearsal, so please show your best state!"

After speaking, she stepped aside, signaling for the rehearsal to begin.

……

Other than the Pioneers, the other participants of the Green Field Plane War had long since left this Semi-plane, so this rehearsal started from the Commendation Ceremony.

Having gone through the previous individual rehearsals and the more formal collective rehearsals, the group of Pioneers was long familiar with the ceremony process.

The rehearsal was proceeding in an orderly manner, and everything appeared normal.

But Xia Duo did not think so in his heart; if it were just for proficiency, wouldn't it have been enough to practice a few more times during the previous collective drills with everyone else!

Was it worth specifically keeping the Pioneers behind?

Not to mention that the Princess was personally present; with the official New Year Festival only a few days away, was she really that free?

Taking advantage of the fact that it was not yet his turn, Xia Duo secretly sized up the Princess, and he did so using Magic Vision in a focused state.

One look and he saw the abnormality!

The Princess was not as calm as she appeared; she was not inspecting, but casting some kind of special Magic.

With her as the center, a Micro Magic Net was gradually unfolding and gradually fitting into the normal Magic Net environment outside, but if it were just this, that would be fine; it was merely a way for Arcane Fire to unfold.

But the surrounding Magic Net had undergone subtle changes because of this; such changes were difficult to see with the naked eye alone, but Xia Duo intuitively felt that there was a change.

For Xia Duo, who could interpret Subconscious Information, intuition was also a type of information that could be traced, but he was currently in the middle of the rehearsal process and needed to maintain his attention on the outside world, unable to fully devote himself to analysis.

But basic tracing was still possible; he carefully savored the feeling of this intuition, tracing the specific source of this intuition bit by bit.

"Right, the Boundless Wilderness!" Xia Duo's heart shook violently.

He remembered that not long ago, during his strange journey to an exotic land, in that Boundless Wilderness, the Magic Net had also changed subtly in this way, appearing similar yet different from the normal Magic Net environment, making it very difficult to see the difference.

The reason for this was that the normal Magic Net environment itself was in a state of constant change, and although this change did not show any obvious patterns, it was relatively stable on the whole.

This state of change was also known as the Magic Web Background Fluctuation.

The so-called 【Magic Net Background Communication】 utilized the spontaneous state of change of the Magic Net; as long as this background fluctuation did not change significantly, it could be used to transmit messages to almost infinitely distant places.

After Niya completed the basic courses on the Princess's side, the research direction she chose was Magic Web Background Fluctuation analysis; it was conceivable that this was actually a relatively unknown frontier field.

Of course, as long as any change existed, it could definitely be detected.

Even the Change of Change could be.

But this required time; at that time in the Boundless Wilderness, the frequency at which the Magic Web Background Fluctuation changed was significantly higher than the frequency of Xia Duo's detection.

Every time he had just started to detect a little, it would change again, and then the previous effort would be wasted.

If there were many people, or if the detection efficiency were improved, perhaps one could find what exactly the Magic Net of the Boundless Wilderness had in common with or differed from the Main Plane.

And now, Xia Duo had once again seen this subtle state of the Change of Change in the Magic Web Background Fluctuation; how could he not be shocked!

But now he was in the middle of a rehearsal, and it was impossible for him to stop and check any Magic Net state.

……

Xia Duo did not dare to let his gaze linger on the Princess for long, and soon turned to observe others, though he did not think anyone else could see such an abnormality.

Even the only Archmage among the Pioneers had a normal expression at this moment, with not the slightest unusual movement, and did not even have the slightest eye contact with anyone else.

Of course, it was also possible that person was deep-thinking and had discovered it but did not show it.

As for the others, there were not even many High Mages, so it was even more impossible for them to discover any abnormalities.

Xia Duo felt that he had very likely discovered the true secret of the New Year Festival; of course, to say how afraid he was, that was not necessarily the case.

Any Magic, if it wanted to produce an actual effect, must be reduced to a specific combination of Magic Net Strings, and this degree of distortion was very difficult to hide within the Magic Web Background Fluctuation.

To use an analogy, if one wanted to kill a bacterium, no matter how many surgeries were performed macroscopically, it would be meaningless; in the end, one still had to rely on specific drug molecules or antibodies secreted by immune cells.

If viewed from the perspective of a bacterium, this level of movement was very difficult to hide.

It was about the same when used in a Mythallar; some Mythallars could disguise themselves as a normal Magic Net, and normal Magic Vision could not see any abnormalities, but the moment the effect occurred, the relevant Magic Net Strings would definitely undergo changes far exceeding the background fluctuation.

At that time, the Spellcaster would be able to adapt accordingly.

Of course, whether one could resist or escape was another matter.

Xia Duo had confidence that he could at least escape into his Personal Space, but in fact, even if the Princess had any malice at the New Year Festival, it would not manifest during the rehearsal.

Not to mention, the probability of the Princess overturning her consistent style of conduct and going crazy at the New Year Festival was not much higher than choking to death while breathing.

Compared to persecution mania, Xia Duo was more curious about what exactly this special Magic, which had not yet shown its specific effect, was used for!

Just as he was constantly observing the surrounding Magic Net while pondering, Greta suddenly called his name—"Southern Border Hero Pioneer Land, Daxia Territory, Lord Xia Duo!"

It's my turn so soon?

Xia Duo's heart tightened; according to the process, he was the last one, and also the one with the most important role, but he did not expect it to be his turn so soon!

He hurriedly collected his chaotic thoughts and, according to the festival process, walked out of the queue, came to the Princess's side, turned to face the crowd, and began to accept the commendation.

If it were the official festival, there would be countless eyes on the square staring at him, but now there were only the dozens of Pioneers present, as well as Greta.

As for the Princess, she was naturally also facing the crowd and would not deliberately stare at Xia Duo.

Otherwise, Xia Duo would really be under immense pressure, especially when close to the Princess; he could more clearly feel the mysterious fluctuations spreading outward, centered on the Princess's Micro Magic Net.

This made him unable to help wanting to delve deeper, but these mysterious fluctuations were mixed in the Magic Web Background Fluctuation and were not obvious; if it weren't for Xia Duo having preconceived notions and also possessing Arcane Fire, and being very familiar with the Micro Magic Net.

Otherwise, even being this close, he might not have been able to detect it!