At this mont, the spatial rune-locking array fully manifested. Chains upon chains wrapped around every single entity, layer after layer, before all of them entwined around the divine creature’s Martial Core and its skull.
Then, an almost tangible projection of will descended. Adam could not make out the face of Archmage Randolph, True Spirit, from the projection, but he could see the magic circle contracting, the entire void shrinking little by little until it was gathered into his palm.
“What lies beyond the void?” Adam curiously asked the Archmages beside him.
Archmage Timothy shook his head. “We don’t know.”
“You don’t know? No one has ever gone inside?”
“The True Spirit Mages once tried. But inside, there is nothing—no ti, no space, no matter. Pure emptiness. Its extent unknown. Not even energy can take form there.”
Adam pointed toward a large patch of disjointed blankness in front. “Then what will happen to this place?”
“The void will automatically heal. After it recovers, it will be exactly as before. Perhaps in hundreds of thousands of years, a new plane might even be born.”
What Adam truly wanted to ask wasn’t simply what was behind the void—he wanted to know what the mages understood of the birth of the Aetheric Void, and before that, whether there had ever been a singularity, and if so, where it resided.
The question was a mouthful, but it was of extraordinary importance.
Unfortunately, it seed even the mages hadn’t figured it out. Then again, that was only natural. If they truly knew the answer, they wouldn’t be so concerned about Epochal Residue or the Catastrophe of Dissolution.
That was the equivalent of truth itself—the superposition of both the question and the answer to all things. Just imagine how powerful a mage who truly knew it would be.
Adam suddenly felt that his own imagination and calculating capacity had beco insufficient.
Protheus and Kratos, the two True Spirits, returned to the Mage World through the magic circle. After Randolph handed over the palm-sized sealing sphere to True Spirit Laura, he too departed.
Imdiately afterward, all the starships mobilized, jointly constructing the dinsional nexus and leaving the region.
Though this mission had not required the power of the Archmages, no one thought the ti wasted. Those who could participate were senior mages aware of deeper secrets. They knew very well how precious a living, observable, experintal Third Epoch specin was.
Even aside from unraveling its mysteries, any progress in the study of Vital Energy would thin the fog that veiled the mages’ future. More crucially, it could dramatically increase the survival rate of explorers venturing outward.
Every exploration mage was an elite. And the loss of even a single elite was a trendous waste.
Once the capture operation concluded, the follow-up no longer required Adam’s involvent. Unlike him, who lacked a proper vessel, the other Archmages had long since purchased template Mage Towers upon ascension. At Maggie’s insistence, Adam accompanied her back to the Mage World.
Though Adam had spent over a century in the Qianyuan Realm, only about a year had passed in the Mage World. Nothing much had changed. The Atomic Energy Institute remained closed. He heard that so mages whose souls had shattered were successfully revived, while those who weren’t had entered the Mage Net for self-adjustnt.
“Of course, they needed to be taught a lesson,” said Lady Laura, seated in the Origin Space, her tone one of disappointnt. “Every one of them has lived tens of thousands of years, yet they can’t even accept an experintal result? If they can’t be revived after this lesson, let them stay in the Mage Net. I’ve already prepared a special promotion pathway for them—they can spend the rest of eternity as administrators.”
Lord Croft added: “Aside from the initial shock of seeing the results, there’s no need for panic. Regardless, we must believe we are real. Even if observers exist—even if, in their eyes, we are nothing but illusion or data—that is a matter for the future. If they cannot even affirm their own existence, then their temperant is unfit for further advancent.”
Adam agreed with this reasoning. At least up until now, everything he had done was born of his own subjective will. Was he to believe he was being controlled at all tis, his very consciousness manipulated?
That kind of thinking was too foolish—nothing more than frightening oneself.
Still, the Institute could not be allowed to stagnate. New personnel needed to be recruited. The studies of quantum chanics and particle physics were indispensable for unveiling deeper knowledge. Adam’s own path of further advancent was closely tied to the Institute’s research.
Lord Protheus addressed Adam: “Your Mage Tower—”
Adam looked a bit embarrassed. The cost was astronomical.
“My lord, I’m not in a hurry.”
“Haste won’t help anyway—it’s far too difficult to construct. But your ideas are excellent, and they’ve inspired us greatly. Once conditions are right, they can be spread more widely.”
After so idle talk, Protheus asked: “Following this mission, what are your thoughts on the Third Epoch system?”
Adam replied: “The ability of Vital Energy to continually ascend from the lowest level is terrifying—but extrely unstable. I’ve seen Entropy-Beast races in the Aethric Void that devour species like the Dilus, but compared to the Third Epoch, they’re nothing. The Vital Energy system, once it reaches its peak, inevitably leads to annihilation.
“The Qianyuan Realm likely no longer holds a complete inheritance. Even so, its divine creatures could still fight Lord Kratos head-on. Remarkable, to say the least.
“Besides Vital Energy, the only notable aspect was the Craft Sect’s inheritance. Their energy converters were imaginative, though I didn’t have enough ti to grasp their true principles.
“As for everything else—their martial techniques and potions—none are worth ntioning. Worst of all, they are too closed off. Their evolutionary pace is nearly zero. In an environnt like the Mage World, the Fourth Epoch would likely have already ended.”
True Spirit Laura shook her head. “The converters’ principles will be given to the Seventh Sacred Tower to unravel. As for your hypothesis—it doesn’t hold. A system determines its path of developnt. If the mages had inherited the Vital Energy system, we too would hoard it jealously.
“Think of the ancient mages. To them, resources and energy were limited, non-renewable. When every strand of energy could only sustain oneself, who would choose to make others stronger?
“But enough of that. This mission was the only compulsory task after your ascension to Archmage. Whether you venture outward again is now your own decision. What I am more interested in is the new project you recently submitted.”
Adam was not surprised that she was the one to ask. If successful, the project would completely change the current War Mage trial system and selection standards—an area under her jurisdiction.
After so thought, Adam said, “This project—I call it Virtual Reality Technology.”
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