635: Dune Base and Drought-Resistant magic plant: Desert Rose
Wizard Ciss flew in mid-air and said: "In this Dune Plane, many research groups from Golden Crown Mountain are conducting studies, not just my Group 2. There are also some research groups from Wizard organizations that cooperate with Golden Crown Mountain, or some that have paid to rent space."
"The Dune Plane is quite famous in the Yunze Wetland. After all, having spent so many magic stone resources to transform this world, we naturally can't just use it for our own experiments; that would be a waste."
"Only by cooperating with other Wizard organizations can we recoup some of the costs."
After flying for about an hour, Locke and the others saw an oasis experimental base in the vast sea of sand, hanging the sign of the Seven-Colored Nursery.
That seemed to be a Research Institute of the Seven-Colored Nursery in this world.
At the same time, 50km after passing this Research Institute, Locke and the others saw the academy emblem of Magic Hub City on a sand dune.
Then, behind this sand dune, they saw a large ecological base.
It seems this Dune Plane is also a good asset for Golden Crown Mountain. There are major Wizard organizations willing to pay to purchase a research site in this world.
Wizard Ciss led Locke and the others to continue flying, finally arriving at an oasis.
This oasis was not only located on the surface of the desert but also continued downward, digging through the rock layer, with agricultural zones layer by layer.
A rough look showed at least thirty levels.
At the same time, the entire oasis was covered by a layer of invisible membranous material. The magic energy and moisture escaping from within the oasis would be intercepted by this membrane material covering the sky above the oasis, and then kept inside.
Wizard Ciss pointed to this transparent membrane material and said: "This is an ecological membrane, a masterpiece of the Alchemists of Golden Crown Mountain. It can intercept magic energy and moisture, but it will not block the internal and external transport of other substances."
"Without this ecological membrane, the magic energy in our Research Institute could not be preserved for more than 24 hours; it would immediately change from a magic-rich area to a magic-less area. Then most of the magic plants in our Research Institute would die completely within a few days."
"In fact, this process is also a part of the history that once happened in this Plane."
Wizard Ciss said: "Besides the ecological membrane, you see, there is a flying vehicle above the Research Institute."
Locke, Witch Mason, and the others looked up and saw a void battleship shaped like a giant porcelain tree above this ecological base.
Countless gears and hot steam were being emitted from those giant porcelain trees.
There seemed to be Wizards researching inside as well.
The entire giant tree was a huge piece of witch porcelain; the scorching sun shone on it, and its thermal energy was absorbed, converted, and then stored as energy.
Locke pointed to that huge piece of porcelain and asked: "What is that?"
Wizard Ciss said: "That is a City of witch porcelain, a type of building invented by Magic Hub City. However, this one is a replica created by our Golden Crown Mountain itself; you can consider this as produced by Golden Crown Mountain."
"The City of witch porcelain is composed of witch porcelain and can absorb solar energy, turning it into magic energy. These magic energies are then conducted into our Research Institute, becoming the energy for various Magic items in our Research Institute, as well as the energy for creating magic tides."
"Look, there are thirty Cities of witch porcelain in the sky. These cities are absorbing solar energy every moment, converting it into magic tides to maintain the magic tide concentration gradient in our Research Institute."
"This Plane itself is already done for; if not for this, this Plane would not be able to grow any magic plants at all."
Wizard Ciss said: "The ridiculous thing is that the solar energy that turned this Plane into such a purgatory scene has, under our Wizard technology, become something that endows this Plane with new life."
"This Plane lacks everything, but it is not lacking in energy."
"This is an important research site for Solar witch porcelain, and the City of witch porcelain is a milestone product of Solar witch porcelain. Since Magic Hub City had most of its bases in this world cancelled by us ten years ago, only that ecological base remains in this world."
"They apply for another base to research Solar witch porcelain every year."
Locke asked: "Golden Crown Mountain probably won't agree, right?"
Wizard Ciss laughed: "If they could disclose the technology of the Solar witch porcelain in their hands, Golden Crown Mountain should be able to agree. But I guess they won't disclose it."
"Since that's the case, they can only go and discover a Colonial Plane that meets the conditions themselves and use a large amount of resources to transform it. The Senate and the Academic Committee do not want to let the Planes we worked hard to transform become tools for their Magic Hub City to research brand new technologies."
"That way, we would suffer too much of a loss. It is clearly we, Golden Crown Mountain, who invested a large amount of resources. But Golden Crown Mountain does indeed have an objective gap with Magic Hub City in terms of witch porcelain. Therefore, we had to kick them out."
Ciss said: "The City of witch porcelain not only gathers magic tides for us but also shields the sun. Otherwise, the high temperature would easily turn all the magic plants in our Research Institute into charcoal, or burn through a corner of the ecological membrane."
"The ecological membrane is damaged every moment. Once damaged, it will leak moisture and magic tides. You see, many Wizards are repairing the ecological membrane; this is a common task for our Group 2."
Locke asked Wizard Ciss: "Teacher Ciss, do all the Research Institutes in this world have ecological membranes and Cities of witch porcelain?"
"The two ecological bases we just encountered seem to have these two large pieces of equipment as well."
Wizard Ciss said: "Of course. Otherwise, how would one maintain the magic tide concentration gradient and humidity in the base, as well as control the light intensity."
"So the ecological membrane and the City of witch porcelain are both necessary. Of course, the ecological membrane must be there, but some Wizard organizations in this world do not use the City of witch porcelain to shield the sunlight; they might use other things. For example, Magic items and the like, but using witch porcelain has an advantage, which is that it can produce energy while shielding the sunlight."
Wizard Ciss walked directly through the ecological membrane.
Locke hesitated for a moment, then steered the Four-Winged Great Green Leaf Dragon Finch and also bumped into the ecological membrane.
Unlike what he imagined would happen—colliding with something—Locke passed through the ecological membrane as if passing through air.
He curiously glanced at the ecological membrane behind him. "This thing is truly magical. It is worthy of being a masterpiece of the Alchemists."
The magic tide concentration gradient inside and outside the membrane, and even the weather conditions, were indeed completely different.
Outside the membrane was an extreme temperature of over a hundred degrees Celsius, while inside the membrane, the temperature was only about forty degrees Celsius, and there was plenty of moisture.
The most important thing was that the magic tide concentration gradient was very high, about the level of the Southeast Corner Region.
This resulted in the ground being covered with magic plants growing under the water pipe magic fields.
There were many Wizard Apprentices on the ground working.
Wizard Ciss said: "In this Dune Plane, the least valuable thing is energy, because there is solar energy anyway."
"Using witch porcelain can convert it into magic tides. So, it might be different from what you thought before. In this Plane, we are really not lacking in magic power."
"But we are lacking in other things, which is also the big crisis our Group 2 has encountered recently."
Locke, Witch Mason, and the others looked at Ciss.
Wizard Ciss landed on the ground, and the four also landed on the ground.
At the same time, the various Wizard Apprentices on the ground immediately came over to greet them upon seeing Wizard Ciss and the others.
"Hello, Master Ciss..."
"Hello, Teacher Augustine, hello, Teacher Mason..."
"Ah, I didn't expect Teacher Augustine to come to our base as well."
Because of the Spell Fighting Competition, many Wizard Apprentices of Golden Crown Mountain knew Locke somewhat.
At this moment, a First-Class Wizard Apprentice witch with 700 magic pressure covered her mouth, as if she had seen her idol.
She was holding a grafting knife in a magic field, grafting a variety of Desert Rose.
She whispered to another female First-Class Wizard Apprentice: "I have wanted to attend Teacher Augustine's open class for a long time. It's a pity that Teacher Augustine has never held any open classes."
The other Wizard Apprentice witch whispered: "Even if he held an open class, we wouldn't be able to grab a spot. There would definitely be a lot of people signing up, and we are in this Dune Plane, so our time to return to the Main Material Plane is limited."
"Teacher Augustine is the champion of the Spell Fighting Competition; if he were to hold a class, I guess it would be full immediately."
Wizard Ciss led Locke and the others towards the suspension ladder in the center of this Research Institute; the five walked up and followed the suspension ladder into the underground.
Wizard Ciss glanced at Locke and smiled: "It seems some of us have become big celebrities; even in my Group 2 base, there are admirers."
Locke coughed.
The Spell Fighting Competition and the Cloud Marsh Cup had indeed brought him quite a bit of fame.
Witch Mason and Witch Freya secretly chuckled.
Wizard Ciss said: "You have also seen it. My Research Institute needs a great many Wizard Apprentices who can work, but the Dune Plane itself is not suitable for apprentice-level Wizards to come to. Therefore, without this ecological membrane, the safety of those students could not be guaranteed at all."
"However, even with it, it is actually quite dangerous."
"Because this world has many sandstorms that cannot stop..."
Wizard Ciss's words had just fallen when a City of witch porcelain above the ecological membrane suddenly fired a magic energy cannon toward the distance, dispersing a huge sandstorm approaching from afar.
Wizard Ciss said: "Just talking about this, I didn't expect it to happen. If a sandstorm approaches our Research Institute, it may increase the leakage problem of the ecological membrane and also affect the operation of the City of witch porcelain..."
"If the ecological membrane has a serious problem, it may cause our entire base to be completely scrapped."
"Therefore, those Cities of witch porcelain in the sky also have another function: to monitor the movements of nearby sandstorms and disperse them before those sandstorms approach."
Wizard Ciss said: "However, before that, this world once had a super sandstorm that swept through half the Plane due to core tremors."
"My Research Institute also suffered serious damage in that natural disaster, and the economic losses were heavy. However, fortunately, only one Second-Class Wizard Apprentice died. These talents are our academy's most precious assets."
"So, our academy's asset losses were not that serious. This is the reason why we moved the Research Institute location before."
Wizard Ciss looked at Locke and said: "But in the end, these are just small troubles."
"The real trouble is elsewhere."
Locke followed the words of the Group 2 leader, Wizard Ciss, and asked: "Teacher Ciss, may I ask what trouble you have encountered?"
Wizard Ciss stood on the suspension ladder, pointed to the surrounding magic fields, and asked: "Locke, tell me, what crops are planted inside those magic fields?"
Locke hesitated for a moment, and after observing, confirmed: "Most of them are rose-type magic plants."
Wizard Ciss nodded and said: "In this world, my Research Institute is not short of energy. But it lacks two things: first, water sources. Second, excellent soil."
"Therefore, in this Dune Plane, three problems need to be solved. First is the source of water, second is the source of soil, and third is the source of gas elements."
"There were originally four problems, including the magic tide issue, but because of the emergence of City of witch porcelain technology, magic tides are not lacking at all in this world; on the contrary, they are very abundant. We have mastered the Solar witch porcelain technology that converts high temperature into magic energy."
Wizard Ciss said: "And as for gas elements, we also have a large number of magic plants here that can produce gas elements. As long as the number of plants is large enough, at least within the ecological membrane, the gas elements are sufficient."
"So, it is actually just two problems."
"First, water; second, soil."
Locke nodded slightly. In fact, the first moment the four entered this Plane, they discovered that the atmospheric composition was different from the Wizard World.
It was just that the four were all Official Wizards, and their bodies had undergone certain transformations, so they were not like ordinary life forms that could not leave gas elements for even a moment.
Moreover, there was still a certain content of gas elements in the air in this Plane, so breathing was not a problem.
As for why there was still gas element content, this might be related to the fact that the overall elemental barrier of this Plane was still intact; at least no terrible gas escape had occurred.
It was just that magic tides were a rarer resource than gas, so the problem of all magic tides flowing away had occurred.
Moreover, Locke had previously observed that a large amount of gas elements were emerging from the ground itself; this might be the last attempt of the world will of this world to save the life of this world.
The core of this world should still retain some ability to produce substances necessary for life—gas elements.
This might be the last stubbornness of this Plane.
In a sense, the sudden arrival of the Wizard Civilization on this Plane was like the arrival of a savior.
No wonder when he came to this Plane, he didn't feel any hostility or malice; instead, he felt the remaining world will sending him an invitation and cheering.
Wizard Ciss said: "Soil has been desertified due to lack of nutrition and high temperature. However, after controlling the temperature with the City of witch porcelain, as long as there is enough water and magic plants (humus), or fertilizer, sand can also slowly turn into soil."
"The difference between sand and soil lies in humus, a bunch of microorganisms, and other trace elements."
"Therefore, the final problem is water. And the problem I am encountering now is the lack of water. As for why there is a lack of water..."
A trace of anger appeared on Wizard Ciss's face. "This has to do with the damn Rose Council and the treacherous Storm Tower."
"Our Group 2 was originally advancing triumphantly, with new research breakthroughs every year, and many first district journal papers published every year!"
"Moreover, through planting Desert Roses, we have established a cooperation with the Rose Council. Desert Roses have very low water requirements, high economic value, are drought-resistant, and can produce humus after death, turning sand into soil."
"It is truly a high-return, good method."
"Sand control is water control. Plants with lower water demand and higher economic value are the plants our Group 2 needs most."
"We were developing very well. However, there were Wizards in the Rose Council who suddenly took a fancy to the meager profits generated by our planting of various Desert Roses..."
"They even united with the Storm Tower to restrict me!"