Chapter 1089: Evacuation and Dividing the Spoils, Truly an Elf

Furthermore, the existence of this fire person is not without significance; isn't this a ready-made specimen of a failed Longevity Ritual!

In this day and age, any Spellcaster capable of performing a Longevity Ritual possesses a profound background; even if they fail, it would not be Xia Duo's turn to study it.

Although he is currently uninterested in a Longevity Ritual that transforms one's own self into a non-human, who can guarantee what might happen in the future?

Perhaps one could research an improved version that allows for gradual transformation without affecting one's self-awareness!

Seizing benefits when they appear is, all in all, never a loss.

However, the existence of the fire person was indeed something Xia Duo had not anticipated, and he is now no longer certain whether Luodite and the others can continue to keep the secret.

After all, the fire person is very likely related to a Longevity Ritual, and even if it is not, the state of the fire person itself is highly worthy of study.

This is even more true for the Jilan Tower where Luodite is located.

Who knows if this is the beginning of a brand-new Fire Element Bloodline!

Withdrawing all the way, Xia Duo kept considering whether to inform Greta about the situation here, but the moment he thought about how the Princess had already ascended to godhood and her avatar was about to leave, Greta's status at Giles Tower would become somewhat awkward.

If someone from Jilan Tower were to come forward and forcibly occupy this ruin, Greta would not actually have much say; at most, she could only rely on consuming the favors left by the Princess or the deterrence of the new god.

But if that were the case, would it be worth it?

What kind of price would he have to pay to make Greta make such a sacrifice?

Perhaps if he still wanted this ruin at that time, he would only have the choice of joining Jilan Tower, but for someone with far-reaching ambitions like Xia Duo, there is still a big difference between the Seven Towers Council and joining Jilan Tower.

A mere ruin of a Semi-plane experimental accident is not worth Xia Duo doing such a thing.

……

Thinking along the way, Xia Duo soon exited the Mage Tower, then continued through the Portal provided by Luodite, arriving in the forest outside the ruins.

According to the previous agreement or the general exploration process, this exploration ends here, and it is time to divide the spoils.

Xia Duo released the bookshelves and supplies he had collected from the Mage Tower, along with a large amount of rubble, filling the forest clearing covered in humus where the six of them were located.

"Mage Luodite, these are all the gains. You count them first. We will divide the supplies here, but as for the books, manuscripts, and notes, I will take them back to the Watchtower first; you can send someone or come yourself to the Watchtower to transcribe them."

Luodite glanced at the gains on the ground, exchanged a look with Aibuna, and then said, "If it weren't for Lord Xia Duo this time, we wouldn't have had these gains. The supplies will all belong to Lord Xia Duo. As for these books—"

Speaking of this, Luodite paused, "These books might hide some ancient Mage ingenuity that is still not outdated, and this was also the main purpose of our exploration this time. Let's share them according to the agreement; I will have to trouble Lord Xia Duo later."

"Since there was an agreement, then let's follow the agreement!"

Xia Duo did not accept the half of the supplies that Luodite had intentionally ceded; although it could be worth tens of thousands, failing to abide by the agreement would leave behind hidden dangers.

Who knows if Luodite was saying this on purpose to induce him to abandon the agreement, only to turn around and leak the existence of the ruins and the fire person.

Although agreements between Spellcasters are rarely witnessed by the Lord of Radiance, and often do not even leave behind written contractual text, those who toy with contracts are in the minority, and it is not popular to directly violate contracts, but rather to look for loopholes.

In essence, this is also a game of Wisdom; violating a contract leads to a loss of social reputation and the direct wrath of the other party, but by using loopholes, one can instead win applause.

Even the other party to the contract, while angry, finds it hard to directly lash out, and more often regrets their own lack of foresight.

Although the agreement between Xia Duo and Luodite was a simple oral one, it is precisely because it is simple that some loopholes are not easy to exploit.

On the way out of the ruins, Xia Duo had been thinking about how Luodite and the others would violate the agreement, so when he heard Luodite say he wanted to give up his half of the gains, Xia Duo was extra sensitive.

Perhaps Luodite could give them up on his own, but Xia Duo could not take them, otherwise, there would be a risk of abandoning the agreement himself.

As for taking the books back to the Watchtower, the original agreement did not mention how to share knowledge-based gains, so as long as Xia Duo did not refuse Luodite from coming over to transcribe them, it would not be a breach of contract.

Even if he did something to them in the middle, it would not be a breach of contract, but if he wanted to delay, that would be a direct breach.

The simpler the agreement, the freer it is for both parties, and the less likely it is for "backroom dealings" to occur.

For Luodite, even if he demanded to transcribe them on the spot, Xia Duo could not refuse; after all, sharing knowledge-based gains was part of the agreement.

However, Luodite did not demand to transcribe them on the spot, but instead began to count all the books, manuscripts, notes, and other gains with Aibuna.

As for the remaining three, under the leadership of Weiji, they counted the portion of supplies Xia Duo had brought out from the Mage Tower warehouse.

It is very easy to count ordinary supplies; one just needs to calculate them according to the approximate market price, but counting knowledge-based gains is more troublesome.

If nothing else, one must at least record the quantity and book titles, or be more meticulous and record certain passages from the books to prevent Xia Duo from modifying or swapping them when he takes them back.

Although Xia Duo might not necessarily do this, in a situation where the agreement is not specific and there is no contract binding it, one must naturally fully exercise the freedom of the two parties to the contract.

……

Seeing that the other five were busy, Xia Duo did not want to just wait, so he began to rummage through the books that Luodite and Aibuna had already counted.

Regarding this Mage Tower, regarding "Xierdalanna", and regarding that fire person, Xia Duo had too many doubts. In the process of rummaging, he first excluded the well-crafted original Elven books and specifically picked out the Nether-native Parchment books with less exquisite bindings.

"Nether Scroll Record 02", the name was written quite straightforwardly, but Xia Duo did not want to see this right now.

"The Pros and Cons of Elven Magic", "Advanced Application of Levitation", Xia Duo was quite interested in these, but they did not seem to have much to do with this Mage Tower, so he had to continue skipping them.

Just like that, after flipping through more than twenty books without finding anything directly related to the Mage Tower, Xia Duo began to re-examine the contents of these books.

Flipping through them one by one and then using Memory Retrospection to realize Quick Reading in his consciousness—of course, if he only did this once, he would still miss a lot of information, and it might not be much faster than direct reading.

But if he stretched the time out, the efficiency of Memory Retrospection would be able to manifest.

After flipping through all the counted books, Xia Duo retreated to the side and began to ponder, with countless words swirling and shuttling through his mind.

Finally, he found several names that appeared with high frequency, among which was "Xierdalanna"!

It really was an Elf!

And she was the aunt of the owner of this Mage Tower!