The Rift Tribe's Magic Array

A Feather Race servant presented a steaming ceramic cup, which Su Ming accepted without ceremony. The cup contained some light red leaves, which had a slightly astringent taste.

"Chloe, we're a bit pressed for time," Zijin said bluntly. "Please tell us, what exactly did we find here?"

Chloe didn't stand on ceremony; she gestured for them to proceed and led them deeper into the cave.

"I have already reported Yinfei's betrayal to His Gelie Ge Lie through the communication array," Lanmo said in a low voice as he followed with heavy steps. "His Majesty is extremely shocked by this."

"The Plundering Clock has actually infiltrated to such an extent." The younger Feather Race beside Chloe spoke up. In the firelight on the cave wall, he had bluish-green hair and a handsome face.

"The scale and nature of this cult are probably far beyond what we previously imagined," Su Ming also said.

"Hello, Bone King, I am a student of Teacher Ashy Drongo." The young Feather Race turned to Su Ming and introduced himself, "My name is Qingling."

"Hello," Su Ming nodded, "Just call me Su Ming."

****

After drifting through an area filled with collapsed boulders, the group entered a new cave space that had been revealed due to the battle of the previous days.

At this moment, a large number of lighting crystals have been installed here, and the soft and stable halo clearly illuminates every corner.

"What a huge magic array!" Su Ming's gaze was immediately drawn to the massive magic array on the ground, composed of various primitive runes. The runes on it were ancient and rugged, completely different from the magic runes commonly seen today.

"Strange!" As a necromancer, Zijin immediately sensed the anomaly. "There are far too many skeletons here!"

If it were a cluster of human tribes, it would be reasonable for there to be a dense accumulation of human remains. However, the remains scattered here mostly belong to various animals.

What's even more puzzling is that the skeletal morphology and characteristics of many of these animals clearly do not belong to the types that should exist at this latitude or in a cold environment.

"I've analyzed it and determined that this is an ancient teleportation array." Chloe began to introduce the results of her research over the past period, and her first sentence shocked everyone.

"Teleportation?" Zijin's eyes widened. In order to study this technology, the Traveling Crow Galio had suffered a lot.

It now appears that Old Humanity made considerable progress ten thousand years ago.

"According to the murals, when the Old Humanity activated this magic circle, animals would be teleported from unknown places," Chloe explained. "Unfortunately, this magic circle is one-way; animals only come randomly, and there's no way to control it in any other way, let alone teleport them in the opposite direction."

"That's amazing!" Su Ming exclaimed in surprise. "And, could it be that the Old Humanity tribes here survived in Northern Ice Island using this method?"

"You guessed right." Chloe nodded. "According to my statistics and analysis, this magic circle provides them with nearly half of their food source."

"It's truly a waste of resources," Su Ming remarked, looking at the massive magic array.

The base material of the magic array felt somewhat familiar to Su Ming. He squatted down, picked up a small pinch, and found it to be a fine, grayish-white powder.

"I haven't found the corresponding material yet," Chloe said. "Logically, the Rift Tribe —oh, that's the name I gave to this old race—shouldn't go too far to collect magic array materials."

Su Ming carefully examined it, and finally remembered where he had seen it before—back in the Northern Lands, when a flashover accident occurred while analyzing samples of otherworldly materials using Raman scattering equipment. During the subsequent cleanup, this type of powder was left on the stage.

"It looks like Rock Core," Su Ming said.

"Rock Core?" Chloe asked, puzzled. "Rock Core don't look like this."

Zijin also crouched down to examine it closely, confirming Su Ming's judgment, "That's right, it's the Rock Core. It turns into this powdery state after its energy is depleted."

"Does the Rock Core also have energy?" Chloe was even more puzzled.

"We discovered it by chance during our experiments; my eyes were even burned by that energy," Zijin explained. "It seems the Rift Tribe is using the energy contained within the Rock Core to power this massive magic array."

Rock Core is abundant in Northern Ice Island. The Rift Tribe uses this mineral, which contains special energy, to power the teleportation array.

Chloe led the group to the central area of the magic circle. "This magic circle has been expanded many times over the centuries since its invention, and the types and numbers of animals it has captured have also increased. The Rift Tribe used this magic circle to even double the size of their population!"

"However, as the scale of the magic circle expanded," Chloe pointed to the massive dragon skeleton gleaming like crystal in the distance, "They eventually attracted this behemoth. An extremely fierce battle ensued; the creature was already severely wounded during the teleportation. Even so, it still caused devastating destruction. The Rift Tribe lost most of their able-bodied men in this accident, and most importantly, the teleportation magic circle was completely destroyed."

"It's a rather poignant story," Stacy said with a touch of melancholy after listening.

"In short," Chloe concluded, "I know that Bone King and Bay Owl are researching teleportation-related technologies, so I felt that you absolutely had to see these discoveries for yourselves. While the Rift Tribe's technology is primitive, the underlying ideas will surely provide you with a great deal of inspiration!"

"Thank you so much!" Su Ming sincerely expressed his gratitude to Chloe.

The value of this trip far exceeded expectations.

****

Stacy spread her magical wings and flew over, landing lightly above the massive dragon skeleton as she carefully examined the awe-inspiring remains. Soon, a look of utter shock appeared on her face.

"This dragon—it doesn't belong to the Taya Plane at all!"

Chloe was somewhat surprised by this conclusion. "Are you sure? I'm still comparing it with local biographies to see if it's some kind of extinct ancient group."

"Absolutely impossible!" Stacy stated firmly. She raised her hand, pointing to the strangely shaped, cluster-like crystal structures on the spine of the skeleton. "These crystalline magic-storing structures have appeared on small creatures in some special regions. But such a large scale could only form in high-magic areas with Magic Power concentrations far exceeding those of the Taya Plane!"

Upon hearing this, Chloe put down the notebook she had been taking notes in, and stared blankly around at the space occupied by the giant dragon bone. "Could it be—this is actually—an interdimensional teleportation array connecting to other planes!" Her voice was filled with disbelief and shock.

Su Ming also gasped in astonishment, "These Rift Tribe —they're too powerful!"

Even though it was a one-way, and passive, reception array, the Old Humanity were still able to achieve this level of technology under such harsh conditions.

Zijin picked up a piece of weathered animal bone from the ground, and a flash of light appeared in her hand.

"Reverse Object Reversion!"

As the spell took effect, the originally gray and withered skeleton instantly became lustrous and warm, as if time had reversed, restoring it to its original appearance ten thousand years ago when it had just died. Su Ming knew nothing about biological morphology, but the other three, Stacy, Chloe, and Qingling, all saw the clues very clearly from this restored form.

The spell's effect ended, and the phantom vanished. The bone fragment shattered completely into sand, falling softly from between the Zige's fingers.

"Stacy's conclusion is confirmed." She patted the ashes in her hand, her tone resolute. "The retrospective analysis shows that many of the small animals here have morphological characteristics not found in any known creatures in the Taya Plane."

Chloe nodded, her voice filled with deep regret, "The Rift Tribe —it's truly such a pity."

It is truly regrettable that such advanced technology was lost for various reasons.

****

"Using your rewind spell, we should be able to try and recreate the original complete structure and runes of the magic circle," Chloe said to Zijin. "Perhaps, we can then analyze how it works!"

Although some remnants of the original runes can still be seen on the ground, tens of thousands of years of erosion have long since blurred and altered everything beyond recognition.

"That's exactly what I was thinking!" said Zijin.

The two quickly began their work, carefully casting spells and tentatively exploring the intermittent, varying depths of the engravings on the ground.

"To cast the ' Reverse Object Reversion ' spell, you must directly touch the target object." Zijin explained the spell to Chloe while demonstrating it. "Furthermore, energy manipulation must be extremely precise, maintaining an absolutely stable output; otherwise, the target object can easily disintegrate prematurely."

The magic circle covered a vast area, and the extent of its erosion was extremely complex. Zijin and Chloe studied how to deal with the engravings made of different materials and with varying degrees of weathering, constantly adjusting the energy intensity and output of the spells, and modifying the casting details.

They worked tirelessly until the next morning before finally finding a method to relatively clearly reconstruct the original form of the ancient magic circle and draw and record it for later analysis.

Zijin finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The group found a relatively clean spot to rest, drink water to replenish their energy, and discuss their current situation.

"The entire magic circle is just too large," Chloe estimated. "If we process it piece by piece, it will probably take about two months to complete the entire analysis."

It's clear that Zijin and Su Ming can't stay here for such a long time.

Fortunately, Chloe had already mastered the "Reverse Object Reversion" spell. She could continue to analyze and study it in depth with her students, while Zijin and Su Ming headed to Dragon Valley as planned.