85: Chapter 0085 Misidentification

After all, Zero Degree City was a tourist hub that relied on its Secret Realm to attract visitors, so it had a particularly high transient population.

Faint blue fortitude runes were carved onto the stone buildings lining the streets, and advertisements for flying messages flickered with sorcery light at street corners, looping promotional footage of Secret Realm tours.

Wizards wearing apprentice robes, ordinary tourists carrying backpacks, and vendors pushing small stalls of sorcery crystals crowded the flagstone road.

The air was filled with the aroma of roasted magic mushrooms on skewers and the faint scent of herbal medicine wafting from the apothecary, making the place as lively as a festival.

At night, the rune lamps hanging over the main street brightly illuminated the pavement:

Some were warm yellow illumination runes, and others were induction runes that changed color with every footstep.

The sorcery light sign above the hotel entrance was dazzling, and men and women dressed in gorgeous formal wear laughed as they entered the revolving door, while many young couples walked hand-in-hand toward the rooms.

The sound of a sorcery carriage's bells drifted from the distance, and the voices of wizards discussing the energy concentration in the Secret Realm floated out of a street corner bar; even the wind carried a hint of excitement.

Li Size's Agility and Physique attributes were not low, and his five senses were much sharper than an ordinary person's. Sounds of sensual music occasionally drifted into his ears from the adjacent room.

His gaze swept to a tall, slender elf girl standing at the end of the corridor. Her pointed ears had a faint green tint—this was the first time he had seen a real female elf.

Felina had used Lesser Shapeshifting Spell to transform before, but the appearance of a real person was so beautiful it seemed unreal.

The moment Li Size thought of Felina, his heart warmed, and he quickened his pace back to his own room.

As soon as he pushed the door open, he heard the rushing sound of water from the bathroom; he guessed Gelia had finished her conversation and returned to her own room.

He leaned close to the bathroom's sheer curtain and vaguely saw Felina's graceful figure. His heart heated up, and he knocked on the glass to hurry her.

A moment later, Felina emerged wearing only a bath towel. Her body flashed with a faint blue sorcery light, and she had actually transformed into Gelia's appearance.

A passionate night is worth a thousand pieces of gold!

After a long time, Li Size held Gelia in his arms and said tenderly:

"Silly girl, why did you have to do this?"

Gelia frowned slightly and replied, "I was afraid you would reject me, so..."

Alas, it is truly hard to disappoint a beautiful woman's affections!

Gelia didn't need to say more; Li Size already understood in his heart.

These two girls had sacrificed so much for him; he absolutely could not let them down!

The next morning, Li Size took Felina and Gelia toward the Zero Degree Secret Realm:

Both women looked slightly uncomfortable, considering what had happened the previous night.

This Secret Realm had long stopped producing resources, but the Crimson Soul organization still maintained a Sorcery Array for identity verification at the entrance.

The tickets were made of thick paper pressed with anti-counterfeiting runes, embedding a tiny password rune inside that allowed passage after scanning.

If the verification failed, not only would they be barred from entering the Secret Realm, but the red warning runes on the Array would also be triggered.

Once those runes lit up, nearby patrolling Wizard Police or soldiers equipped with sorcery gear would immediately rush over.

This kind of confidential identity verification Array required knowledge of Sorcery Arrays and Rune Cryptography to understand.

Li Size guessed that if a wizard was proficient in both subjects, they could probably enter freely without a ticket.

However, a Wizard Apprentice capable of mastering such skills would certainly not do something so shameful for a few silver coins.

As the three of them passed through the Secret Realm entrance, they all felt a bit dizzy, as if they had passed through a layer of sticky membrane to get inside.

The books said that if one were traversing between planes, the dizziness would be much more severe, enough to make a wizard vomit directly.

Wizards still hadn't figured out exactly why this dizziness occurred; otherwise, making an anti-dizziness medicine to sell would surely be a huge moneymaker.

Felina took a deep breath and felt the surroundings for a few seconds before speaking first:

"Mmm! The concentration of energy particles in the air is really low, only about one-fiftieth of that on the Niuyah Plane!"

Gelia followed up:

"Last year it was one forty-ninth. If it drops to one-hundredth, this Secret Realm will completely shatter."

This was all knowledge Li Size was supposed to know, so he scratched his head and asked curiously:

"If the Secret Realm shatters, is it completely gone?"

He cared about Secret Realm knowledge, just in case he encountered an unwanted new Secret Realm in the future.

Felina frowned and thought for a moment, saying uncertainly:

"I read in a book on Geometric Space that it seems to turn into new spatial nutrients and merge into the main plane, nourishing it. That should comply with the law of conservation, right?"

Li Size looked at the strange Secret Realm before him and asked again:

"Then how are Secret Realms generated?"

Felina and Gelia glanced at each other, then both shook their heads:

They couldn't answer that question right now.

The current Zero Degree Secret Realm was about the size of Gray Mist Mountain Town, roughly ten kilometers in circumference. It was rumored to have been more than ten times larger a hundred years ago.

The Secret Realm was mostly composed of rolling hills, with dark green moss covering the slopes, occasionally interspersed with a few stalks of magic grass whose leaf edges glowed with a faint blue fluorescence—this was 'Dew Condensing Grass' that absorbed residual water-attribute energy.

When the wind blew, the fluorescence on the grass leaves swayed like scattered stars. The flagstone path underfoot was carved with faint, ancient runes; it was said to have once been a passage for miners transporting ice crystal Ore.

Li Size squatted down and touched the runes, feeling a faint coolness on his fingertips. He thought:

The terrain of this Secret Realm is indeed similar to the hills of Monte Province. After all, it's a fragment that fell from the main plane; even the texture of the stones carries a shadow of the outside world.

In the center of the Secret Realm was a large freshwater lake, its surface resembling spread-out crushed silver. When sunlight hit it, it refracted a faint purple sorcery light:

That was the residual water-element sorcery energy at the bottom of the lake emitting light.

The deepest part was fifty meters, and it was rumored that fragments of sorcery implements left over from ancient battles were buried at the bottom.

Occasionally, schools of glowing, transparent fish would swim up from the lakebed. Their scales bore fine rune patterns, indicating they were 'Light Scale Fish' mutated by the lake water's energy.

Historical records stated that there was no lake here originally; it was carved out by high-level wizards using the 'Great Flood Spell' during the war between Crimson Soul and Feiting.

After the battle, neither side filled it in; instead, they left it to nurture these mutated fish.

Now that the Secret Realm was nearing collapse and energy was scarce, these small fish could still be seen jumping on the water's surface, their tails whipping up strings of fluorescent water droplets.

However, these resources meant nothing to Li Size and his companions.

The lake was so large that the three of them searching for these scattered, low-level mutated things would be too inefficient.

They wouldn't waste time relying on luck like ordinary adventurers.

This Secret Realm was named 'Zero Degree' not because of the cold weather, but because there used to be a lot of Zero Degree Ice Crystal Ore in the Central Mountain Range.

This type of Ore grew like transparent ice pillars, encasing faint blue water-attribute energy particles.

It emitted a cool mist when held in the hand, and its surface was etched with natural water-pattern runes, allowing it to be used directly as the core Material for sorcery implements without wizard processing.

In the past, miners used rune-inscribed chisels to excavate. The sorcery light inside the mine tunnels made the Ore look like blue stars.

It was said that during its peak, the ice crystal Ore in the vein could glow on its own, and even the air carried a moist, energetic scent.

Now the vein was depleted. Only scattered Ore fragments remained in the caves of the Central Mountain Range, and occasionally a small piece of ice crystal Ore fragment could be picked up.

Holding it in the hand still allowed one to feel a faint trace of energy. Wizards would grind these fragments into powder and add them to water-element sorcery potions to enhance their effects.

Walking up along the hills, one could see some half-collapsed stone houses: these were where the miners used to live.

The runes on the walls had faded, but touching them still revealed a slight residual stabilizing magical energy.

Next to the stone houses grew a few crooked-neck trees, their branches hung with transparent, icicle-shaped fruits—'Ice Crystal Fruits'.

They tasted like shaved ice and could replenish a little water-attribute energy, but the fruits were getting smaller and smaller now.

The entrance to the mine in the Central Mountain Range was sealed by a rusted, rune-inscribed iron gate, engraved with the words 'Crimson Soul Mining'.

The sorcery light on the sign had long since extinguished. Only when the wind occasionally blew would the iron gate emit a creaking sound, as if sighing.

If one went inside, the tunnel contained scattered rune-inscribed mine carts, and the tracks were overgrown with mutated moss.

Stepping on it would emit a faint green light. Traces left by the miners' chisels remained on the cave walls, and occasionally a small piece of ice crystal Ore fragment embedded in the rock could be seen, flashing a faint blue light.

There was a legend passed down by an old miner about the Zero Degree Ice Crystal Ore:

The purest ice crystal Ore housed water element spirits. If one could find a fist-sized piece of pure ice crystal Ore, the spirit would emerge and grant one wish.

However, this was just a story; now even small pieces were hard to find.

Li Size squatted at the mine entrance and picked up a fragment, rubbing it in his hand...

The fragment dissolved into a puddle of water, carrying a faint blue sorcery light, which quickly evaporated, leaving only a trace of coolness.

The air in the Secret Realm grew thinner and thinner, and even the wind carried a dry scent. Transparent cracks could be seen on the distant hills.

That was a sign that the Secret Realm was about to collapse. Light from the outside main plane occasionally seeped through the cracks, like broken glass.

Felina pointed at the cracks and said:

"If we wait a few more decades, this Secret Realm might be completely gone. By then, these cracks will grow larger and larger, and eventually, the entire Secret Realm will dissolve into energy and merge with the main plane."

Gelia squatted down and plucked a stalk of Dew Condensing Grass. The fluorescence on the leaves clung to her hand like a coat of faint blue nail polish.

She smiled and said:

"It must have been very lively here before, right?

Miners digging with sorcery chisels, wizards testing energy at the mine entrance, and they probably roasted magic meat in the stone houses at night."

Li Size nodded, imagining that scene, feeling a bit regretful:

Such a magical Secret Realm was about to vanish.

The Light Scale Fish in the lake suddenly leaped out of the water, forming a glowing arc that broke the lake's tranquility.

Felina said:

"These fish survive on the residual energy at the bottom of the lake. If the Secret Realm shatters, they will disappear too."

Li Size looked at the small fish and felt a little sad, but then he thought:

If the Secret Realm disappears and turns into energy to nourish the main plane, it can be considered a kind of cycle.

They walked along the lake shore and saw a blurry shadow at the bottom, resembling a sunken ship.

Felina said, "That's a ship that used to transport ice crystal Ore. It sank during the war. There might still be residual treasures inside the hull."

However, they weren't interested in diving down to look; after all, those treasures were less useful to them now than a loaf of bread.

When they reached the edge of the Secret Realm, they could see a transparent barrier—the boundary between the Secret Realm and the main plane. Faint purple runes occasionally flashed across the barrier; these were the Sorcery Arrays maintaining the Secret Realm's existence.

Behind the barrier were the hills of Monte Province, with terrain almost identical to that inside the Secret Realm.

Gelia leaned against Li Size, looking at the distant cracks, and said:

"If only we had come sooner, perhaps we could have seen the entire cave glowing with ice crystal Ore."

Li Size smiled and replied:

"It's not bad now, at least we can see this nearly vanishing Secret Realm, and we can still pick up ice crystal Ore fragments."

Felina also nodded:

"Being able to witness the final appearance of the Secret Realm firsthand is a rare experience."

The sun slowly set, and the sorcery light within the Secret Realm grew brighter. The fluorescence of the Dew Condensing Grass, the light from the Light Scale Fish, and the rune light on the barrier intertwined, creating a dreamlike world.

Li Size felt that even if this Secret Realm disappeared tomorrow, the sights he saw today would be enough for him to remember for a lifetime.

It was a pity that after running for so many years, the Ore vein was long gone.

Occasionally, there were reports of 'sporadic discoveries' on the market, which Li Size believed were publicity stunts staged by the cultural tourism division of the Duchy's Ministry of Education and the Monte Provincial Government, simply to keep people visiting the Secret Realm.

He never thought the officials were particularly moral: in their eyes, profit was far more important than the truth.

To Li Size, the most attractive aspect of this Secret Realm wasn't the remaining resources or the rumored minerals, but the peculiar spatio-temporal scenery at the junction where the Secret Realm met the main plane.

This strange view of intertwined planes could only be seen by actually entering the Secret Realm.

He stood on a low hill, hand shading his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the lake toward the slightly distorted light in the distance, feeling an urge to explore.