An Astral Portal? Why didn't you say so sooner!

A chill ran down Lin Mo's back, and cold sweat soaked his shirt.

I'm screwed.

This deal is going to fall through.

The elves looked at him as though he were a con artist peddling fake medicine.

"Her Majesty the Queen, I completely understand your disappointment," Lin Mo forced himself to explain.

"We wanted to come and help you directly, too, but we can't cross space and time to get here!"

Yet after hearing him out, Queen Ellari gently shook her head.

"No, there is a way to solve that problem."

Huh?

Lin Mo froze.

What do you mean? You have a way?

Queen Ellari spoke with an air of ancient mystery.

"On the Terra Continent, the Holy Human Race has passed down an ancient teleportation spell-Astral Teleportation."

"Not only can it establish magical portals on the Terra Continent, it can also cross worlds and connect different planes."

"If we can persuade them to help, building an Astral Portal connecting your homeland to Terra... is not entirely impossible."

Lin Mo's mind buzzed, leaving him utterly stunned.

He stood rooted to the spot, his mouth falling open without him realizing it.

An... Astral Portal?

The kind that crosses worlds and connects planes?

Holy shit?

Holy shit!!

Holy fucking shit!!!

Countless centaurs stampeded through his mind!

My dear lady, my big sister, Your Majesty!

Why didn't you say so sooner?!

He had researched and asked around before, so he knew portals existed, but he had never heard of one that could cross planes. Even Princess Fendona had never heard of such a thing.

Yet the Elf Queen had just said they existed!

He forced down the wild joy rising in his throat, his voice trembling with excitement.

"Her Majesty the Queen, forgive my impertinence... this Astral Portal you mentioned, is it stable?"

"Is it one-way or two-way? How difficult is it to build?"

Queen Ellari answered.

"Astral Teleportation is one of the Holy Human Race's most closely guarded legacies."

"In theory, with enough energy, a stable two-way portal can be constructed."

"As for the difficulty... it requires space crystals unique to the Holy Human Race, along with vast quantities of magic power crystals."

"Most importantly, it must be built by someone of High Archbishop rank within the Holy Human Race."

Fucking awesome!

As long as it actually exists, that's enough!

Materials, technology, diplomatic negotiations... none of that is a problem!

Lin Mo drew a breath, then let it out slowly, struggling to keep his voice steady.

"Her Majesty the Queen, this... is far too important."

"Its significance goes far beyond anything we previously imagined."

"I must take this news back immediately!"

He looked at Queen Ellari, his gaze filled with confidence.

"Please believe me. If the portal can truly be built, reclaiming Emerald Leaf City shouldn't be much of a problem. I will do everything I can to bring about cooperation between our two sides!"

"Very well." Queen Ellari rose, hope kindling in her pale blue eyes.

"I await your good news, Sir Lin Mo."

"Fendona, take Sir Lin Mo to rest."

The Ark Underground Base, Bell City.

Lin Mo shot up from his bed. The instant his consciousness returned, his heart pounded wildly in his chest.

He snatched the radio from beside his bed and shouted excitedly.

"Big Brother Zhao! Call all the core personnel together for a meeting, right now! Wait for me in the conference room!"

Lin Mo's voice made Zhao Gang's heart lurch on the other end of the radio. He hurriedly dressed and headed out, a sense of foreboding rising inside him.

A few minutes later, Lin Mo shoved open the conference room door.

Zhao Gang, Qian Zhenhua, Liu Chengen, and the other senior figures were already gathered, their faces grave.

They thought Lin Mo's identity had been exposed in the other world, or that negotiations had completely collapsed. In the worst case, the war had already reached the Elf Royal Capital.

"What happened?" Zhao Gang asked in a heavy voice, his fingers interlaced on the table.

Lin Mo swept his gaze around the room and announced excitedly.

"I don't have to cut myself open to bring back the World Tree Seed anymore!"

Everyone froze, unsure what he meant.

Lin Mo continued.

"They have a way to build... a two-way portal connecting Blue Star and the Terra Continent!"

Clang!

The stainless-steel thermos in Academician Qian Zhenhua's hand crashed onto the marble tabletop with a loud bang.

Scalding goji tea spilled across the table, but he didn't even notice.

The entire conference room fell so quiet that a pin could have been heard dropping.

Everyone stood frozen, their expressions fixed, their brains collectively shutting down.

"C-Commander Lin," Academician Qian Zhenhua stammered, pushing up the reading glasses that had slipped to the tip of his nose, his lips trembling.

"Say that again. What does that portal do?"

"I said!" Lin Mo raised his voice, his eyes blazing.

"They can open a portal!"

"A portal that can let us, our artillery shells, and our armies enter that magical world directly!"

Boom!

Those words instantly set everyone off.

"Impossible! That violates the conservation of mass-energy! This... this isn't scientific!" A physicist sprang to his feet, waving his arms and nearly hitting the colleague beside him in the face.

"How does it work? What's the theory behind it? How does it locate the destination? Is it based on a wormhole model or Dimensional Folding Technology?" Academician Qian Zhenhua rushed up to Lin Mo and seized his shoulders with both hands, bombarding him with questions.

After a brief stupor, Liu Chengen, an academician in biological research, erupted into boundless excitement.

"A portal... an entirely new, complete ecosystem!"

"My God! We can move an entire P4 Laboratory over there!"

"We can collect elf blood samples ourselves, and even samples from dwarves and half-orcs! All of them alive!!"

He rubbed his hands and paced back and forth, muttering to himself as though he could already see countless Nobel Prizes beckoning to him.

The conference room descended into chaos, filled with arguments, exclamations, and rapid breathing.

Zhao Gang's chest heaved. Suddenly, he slammed his hand on the table!

"Everyone, listen!"

Everyone stopped and turned their burning gazes toward him.

Even this perpetually steady presence was visibly struggling to contain his excitement. He took a deep breath.

"We must build that portal, whatever the cost!"

"Humanity... our Great Xia can be saved!"

Academician Qian Zhenhua adjusted his glasses with a trembling hand, his face pale from excitement.

"Exactly!"

"Everyone here knows what our Ark project really is, however grand it sounds!"

"It's a high-tech tomb!"

"We burrow underground, but even if we escape crustal shifts and superstorms, can we escape the death of the planet?"

"Once the atmosphere is completely gone and plants die off en masse, where will our oxygen come from? We could suffocate ourselves underground!"

"As for interstellar migration... let's stop fooling ourselves."

"With our current technology, sending one kilogram of supplies to Mars costs far more than a kilogram of gold!"

"How many people can we send? A company? A platoon? Can those people preserve our science and technology?"

"That's not preserving civilization. That's exile!"

"That's throwing the spark of our civilization into the cold of space and leaving it to fend for itself!"