Jialan sat dazedly on the bench, his mind in a complete mess, utterly unaware that the morning dew had once again dampened his dark blue robe of a mage. This robe was quite formidable, capable of performing minor spells at any time such as reading, interpreting, copying, repairing, cleaning, and organizing books.
Jialan began to ponder, "Where am I? How did I get here?"
He suddenly remembered, "Oh yes, I was organizing the bookshelves in the library, and then suddenly the Arcane Tide came. I was too scared to run and got frozen by the 'Ice Coffin' fireproof magic formation..."
"What exactly happened then? Why was the Arcane Tide so intense? Could it be that some grandmaster-level mage from the Wizard's Tower failed a spell experiment? But I was frozen here, so how did I end up in this strange place?"
If a mage had a problem with an experiment and the library's protective magic formation was activated, then rescue should have arrived soon.
But looking at his current physical state, it seemed like he had been frozen for a long time, even his Arcane Energy, which his teacher praised as formidable, was nearly depleted. Normally, Arcane Energy depletes very slowly.
Even without meditation or conditioning, physical decline would take decades, even centuries, to reach this level.
Not to mention that he was inside the 'Ice Coffin', a spell known as "one that can even freeze time", where one's body should remain motionless and Arcane Energy should deplete even slower!
So, he had been frozen inside the 'Ice Coffin' for at least a hundred years!
Jialan was startled. How could this be? He was frozen, but what about the rescuers? Why did they abandon him, letting him freeze for so long?
Also, his teacher couldn't possibly abandon his only disciple, letting him turn into an eternal block of ice, right?
Suddenly, Jialan thought of a terrifying possibility: "Could it be... could the Arcane Tide have destroyed everything outside? And I survived inside the 'Ice Coffin'?"
"No, no, no! That's impossible! My teacher is a grandmaster-level 13th-tier Archmage! With 'Phase Door', 'Planar Shift', or 'Greater Teleportation', he could escape instantly!"
Jialan refused to believe that his teacher, who had worked as a librarian in the library for several thousand years, could be gone because of an experiment.
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"Unless the entire world of Eberron is destroyed!"
Jialan thought this but was immediately frightened by his own thought.
"No, no, no! 'Lian the Bookwyrm' is still hanging in the sky, everyone is doing fine, how could the world be destroyed? What could destroy the world? There must be some mistake somewhere!"
Jialan shook her head vigorously, trying to forget that terrifying thought: "For instance, if I were frozen by the 'Ice Coffin' and my body was too fragile, my teacher might fear injuring me during the thawing process and have to leave me in the ice until it melts by itself..."
"But I've heard that ice frozen by the 'Ice Coffin' has never melted naturally, except through magic?"
Jialan glanced down at the "Catalog Stone" of the Kraneburg Library, which hung on her chest. She had just witnessed the ice melting under the moonlight of "Book Lian," and it was too magical to believe.
If moonlight could dispel the "Ice Coffin," then this spell wouldn't be so popular. Historically, there had never been any mention of moonlight being able to unlock it.
The melting of the ice must have some connection with the moonlight, but it certainly wasn't the main reason.
Jialan decided to wait until daylight to search for clues. He tightened his grip on the "Catalog Stone," the "key" to the library's reading room, which seemed to have changed as well; it had been absorbing the moonlight of "Book Lian" just now.
Jialan hesitated for a moment, then picked up the light blue rhombus-shaped crystal and examined it closely. The "Catalog Stone" was a treasure of the Kraneburg Library, but theoretically, it couldn't store magical power.
The "Catalog Stone" glowed with blue light, and the secret magical runes inside were visible, but it seemed to have something extra... Many small light points like stars?
Jialan shook her head; she didn't understand this. Perhaps only her teacher knew.
After daybreak, Jialan looked around and was surprised to find that she was still near Kraneburg. The "Gem Cape" on the other side of the "Seawall Mountains" was already illuminated!
Looking at the sparkling "Gem Cape," Jialan crouched down, dipped her finger in the dew, and calculated her position.
"Judging by the light of the 'Gem Cape,' I should be about 30° west of it, not 15° from the library... After calculating, it seems I'm in the 'Cape Forest'?"
Jialan looked at the water marks on the ground in disbelief. Wasn't the "Cape Forest" a wetland connected to the mangrove forest? When did it become a city?
Jialan looked around with suspicion: "Did someone rescue me and bring me here? Where is this? The new campus of the library? Why haven't I seen it before?"
But soon he understood. If he had really arrived a hundred years later, then it wouldn't be surprising that the "Cape Forest" had become a city!
Sitting on the bench, Jialan began to ponder once again. The current situation seemed far from promising.
After figuring out where he was, he felt even more uneasy. He sensed that he had been frozen inside the "Ice Coffin" for longer than he had imagined, perhaps even more than the hundred years he had initially guessed.
Why is that?
One look at this mangrove city tells the story; it was once bustling but now looks like this. And those ancient castles, covered in moss and vines, appear to be centuries old.
Jialan could hardly imagine what kind of harsh environment could make a castle less than a hundred years old look so dilapidated. In most cases, the passage of time is something that magic cannot hold back.