# Chapter 6: Ancient Call
Nostradamus, who had been expecting to witness Joshua reveal the characteristics of his power, found his curious gaze suddenly frozen. He first looked at the hole in the twisted barrier within the void, blinked, then turned his head to glance at Joshua and the camp that had been nearly flattened by the backlash of his punch. The old mage paused for a long time before finally forcing out these words: "Good work... but try to keep the noise down next time."
*There won't be a next time.* He thought to himself.
Then Nostradamus clapped his hands, signaling for the exploration team members who had been hiding in various awkward positions in the corners of the camp to emerge. He said concisely: "Let's move out quickly."
"As you command!"
Reassembling into a formation, the elite exploration team members selected by the Empire from various legions each possessed Gold-rank strength. Before this, they had all been commanders of their respective units or titled knights, but now, they were merely ordinary members of an exploration team. These team members quickly shook off the chaos brought by Joshua and began to activate the storage rune arrays on their equipment. In the next instant, fifteen fully armed steel knights, completely encased in armor, appeared before everyone.
Because his own strength had increased too rapidly, Joshua had handed over the research and development tasks related to Mana Armor to Winterfell Academy after proposing the concept and manufacturing the first prototype. Winterfell Academy itself had many archmages dispatched by the Imperial Royal Mage Association. With Joshua's tacit approval, Mana Armor had begun to be popularized throughout the Imperial military, and he could receive a substantial patent fee every month to develop his territory.
Each Mana Armor was specially designed. The external forms and internal structures for mages, priests, and warriors were completely different, having undergone special optimization. With a slight engine roar from within the armor, streaks of magical light flared up, and the exploration team members hurriedly took off collectively, as if fleeing from something, flying rapidly toward the massive hole Joshua had punched out.
The distorted space was not far from the edge of the Fairyland. At this moment, the first exploration team from the Sky-Piercing White Tower had already arrived inside the passage created by Barbarossa. They first set up mana relay nodes, then cautiously sent magical puppets in to collect information. Soon, the corresponding data was transmitted to the shared light screen across all four camps.
"Inside the space-time distortion point is stable space. As previously speculated, it is a large-scale demiplane."
Amidst some noisy static, a gray, vast plain appeared on the light screen. Above a black sky, a dim light orb emitted a silver-gray glow. This was the perspective of the magical puppet, and a man calmly analyzed beside it in Common Tongue with a slight Eastern Plains accent: "The plane's properties are completely consistent with the Mycroft Continent. It can be confirmed as an ancient artificial demiplane, a relic from the peak of the Era of Radiance."
"Energy concentration: 9.37 standard Alpha energy levels, nearly ten times that of the Mycroft Continent before the Great Magic Tide. It has been confirmed that this is an effect brought by the Great Magic Tide."
"The demiplane has an atmosphere, 1.21 standard atmospheric pressure. There are no dust particles in the air, but the gray earth is entirely composed of settled dust. Apart from the area around the space-time passage, there are no signs of air circulation. Preliminary speculation suggests it is a completely sealed space, sealed for over nine hundred years."
"Alert! The earth of the demiplane contains Abyss toxins at ultra-hazardous concentrations!"
Suddenly, a slightly flustered voice came through the communication from the Sky-Piercing White Tower exploration team: "Radiation hasn't breached the magical barrier; the team is unharmed... But the concentration is nearly thirty times that of a normal Abyss?! This is already thicker than the Abyss aura contained in the corpse of an average Greater Demon. How can ordinary dust have such terrifying toxicity!"
Hearing this, all the Legendary experts watching the images on the light screen perked up. Notable intelligence had appeared.
However, unlike Nostradamus and the other Legendary experts who were deep in thought, wondering why this demiplane contained Abyss toxins, Joshua was very clear about the current situation.
From what he knew, the Sky-Piercing White Tower exploration team had now arrived at the [Death Plain] on the periphery of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground. That was a land of dust completely leveled by Transcendent power, buried with countless corpses of demons and Abyss monsters. In his past life, no one understood why, but now the warrior knew that this should be the battlefield of the first battle of the Abyss invasion. An uncountable number of demon armies, including even Grand Lords, had been annihilated there by the combined forces of the gods. The mountains of corpses had rotted into ash, leaving behind toxins so potent they hadn't dissipated even after a thousand years.
Meanwhile, the exploration teams from other factions had also successfully arrived inside the space-time distortion point. Continuous streams of images and sounds were transmitted. After checking them one by one, Joshua found that all exploration teams were located on the periphery of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground. The Sky-Piercing White Tower and the Empire's teams were at opposite ends of the Death Plain, while the Sage of the Eastern Sea and the Fishman's teams were respectively at the [Glass Ruins] and the [Forest of Stone Pillars]. The former was an ancient ruin completely vitrified by ultra-high temperatures, while the latter was a forest that had turned to rock over the long passage of time.
In his past life, the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground was a Legendary-rank public dungeon. Its exploration difficulty far exceeded most people's imagination. Even Joshua hadn't fully explored it back then. And from what he knew, aside from the completely destroyed ancient battlefield ruins on the periphery, some ancient alchemical constructs deep within the Sacrificial Ground were still operating. For example, the nearly kilometer-high obelisk in the core area was an alchemical construct responsible for supplying energy to the 'gray sun' above the demiplane. Besides that, there were several wandering ancient alchemical puppets, the lowest of which were Ultimate Peak-rank super war machines called [Giant Divine Soldiers].
But for now, no one with demon bloodline had entered the ruins to activate those Giant Divine Soldiers that were originally in a dormant state. So the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground should still be relatively safe. Recalling those sturdy machines that glowed with a blue light all over, Joshua still felt a slight ache in his hands.
For the next half day, there was no more special information worth alarming. As areas on the periphery of the plane—[Death Plain], [Glass Ruins], [Forest of Stone Pillars], [Dried Salt Sea], and [Silent Hills]—were discovered and explored one by one, the exploration teams had mostly collected the internal information of the demiplane and reported it to the Legendary experts. This allowed these powerful beings to fine-tune their power through this information so that it wouldn't conflict with this artificial plane. Besides this, they also discovered a large amount of precious resources.
In the Death Plain, buried within the toxic dust, were 'Soul Stones' that only condensed after a Greater Demon died. Around the Silent Hills were large quantities of anti-magic crystals. Deep within the Dried Salt Sea were immortal stone flowers... These resources could only be born under extreme conditions and were extremely rare on the Mycroft Continent. This was also one of the greatest driving forces for major factions to explore unknown worlds and demiplanes—after all, no one would do a losing business.
"The periphery of this demiplane has been roughly confirmed. The exploration teams' tasks are almost complete."
Slowly rising, releasing a deep blue mana light around him, Nostradamus, who had finished his adjustments, came outside the camp. Joshua also walked out with Ying, who had a light orb on her head, and Lin. Facing the void, the old mage spread his arms and said with a smile: "It's our turn to act."
"Indeed it is."
Joshua nodded in agreement. The facts were just as Nostradamus said. The depths of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground were not places those Gold-rank exploration team members could casually enter. Most of the complex and intricate situations would be tricky even for Legendary experts. Whether it was the ancient alchemical ruins or the space-time mystic lock formed by the war a thousand years ago, they could easily trap them all inside.
So, in the next instant, a deep blue space-time gate opened, a crimson streak of light soared, and a vast pressure spread. The two Legendary experts moved without hesitation toward the demiplane passage. At the same time, three other streams of light, each different in form, also rose from the other three camps.
In a few breaths, Joshua brought the Divine Mechanism siblings and the light orb to the fist-shaped hole he had created. He passed through it without hesitation, crossed the barrier inside the demiplane used to prevent air leakage, and arrived inside the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground at the same time as Nostradamus, who had just stepped out of the space-time gate.
"Indeed, the Abyss aura is very strong, and it is indeed almost identical to the Mycroft Continent. With just a little adjustment, my power won't be restricted."
Standing on the gray earth of the Death Plain, the old mage sensed the surroundings with great interest. Because of the fine-tuning, his power could be used without any stagnation even in this unfamiliar demiplane. But at this moment, Joshua did not answer Nostradamus. Because upon arriving in this demiplane, he felt a power that seemed to come from ancient times.
It was as if it was calling out to him.