Chapter 1534: Denial, Support

At such a sensitive time, he naturally could not allow the other party to teleport over, so he immediately cast a spell to delay it; this action immediately drew the attention of the surrounding Councilors.

One of the Councilors, whom Xia Duo found somewhat familiar, suddenly spoke up, "Lord Xia Duo, the person currently teleporting over might be from the Seven Towers; I am familiar with the characteristics of their teleportation spells."

"People from the Seven Towers? Are you certain?" Xia Duo asked.

Upon this question, that Councilor fell silent, but Xia Duo did not care how the other party answered; after completing the 【Delayed Teleportation】 spell, he immediately began to shift the teleporter's destination node.

This operation is normally very difficult to complete in the instant after a teleportation spell takes effect; even with 【Delayed Teleportation】, the time is highly likely insufficient, so Xia Duo gave up after just a preliminary attempt.

If it could be confirmed that they were enemies, then causing direct sabotage would be more effective, but in a situation where they might be friendly forces, one could not be so simple and crude.

In a flash, Xia Duo chose to cancel the other party's teleportation; of course, even a relatively safe cancellation of teleportation carries the risk of the teleporter on the other side teleporting into stone.

Because even with a cancelled teleportation, it is impossible for them to appear at the original starting point of the teleportation; there will be some deviation, and as for how much, it depends on luck.

Xia Duo did not subjectively increase the risk; as long as the other party's luck was not too bad, there would likely not be any major problems, at most a deviation of a few dozen centimeters. He hoped the other party was teleporting in a relatively open place.

After finishing this, Xia Duo did not continue to rush toward the experimental area; he had thought it through—the Elf who rushed in was highly likely unable to get out, and by comparison, the outside was more important.

"Who has the Permission Level to lock down this place? Step forward; now is the time to demonstrate your usefulness!"

After Xia Duo asked, there was first a silence, and then a Councilor stepped out hesitantly, saying somewhat reluctantly:

"This area is full of important Laboratories and involves extremely high Permission Levels; to lock it down, Councilor Haichenisi or a Councilor from the Seven Towers must be present."

"……"

No wonder!

Xia Duo glanced back at the Councilor who had spoken to him initially, then began to contact Haichenisi and Bulundesi, with whom his relationship was still decent.

Haichenisi did not reply, but Bulundesi agreed immediately and at the same time brought Xia Duo some relatively good news: they had already begun the lockdown.

Of course, there was bad news as well—

"Because the Dead Zone previously disrupted the Tower Spirit's Perception in this area, the lockdown cannot be completed simultaneously and requires a certain amount of time. We just received news that Feiziban took people and prepared to go to the gap on your side to guard against intruders, and as a result—"

Xia Duo naturally knew what Bulundesi was talking about, but he did not think he was at fault; it was just a misunderstanding caused by different systems and poor communication.

"Are they alright?"

"They are fine; they should be arriving about now. Please, Lord Xia Duo, help keep an eye on them. We have already contacted the Ilfarun side, and they said they did not send any intruders."

After sighing that it was indeed people from the Seven Towers, Xia Duo asked Bulundesi again: "What about the Cormanthor side? Where is that investigator who was sent earlier?"

"The Cormanthor Ambassador also denied that the intruders were sent by them. As for that investigator, it is impossible to determine their whereabouts in the short term, but I think the Cormanthor Elves wouldn't be stupid enough to directly let that investigator barge into the Arcane Union!"

That might not be certain!

However, Xia Duo did not refute Bulundesi's judgment; even for himself, based on rational judgment, the probability that the intruder was not the investigator was indeed higher!

……

After the communication ended, the sound of whistling wind came from the corner of the corridor not far away, and as soon as Xia Duo turned his head, he saw two middle-aged Mages covered in Mage Robes rushing over, shrouded in a storm.

One of them was Councilor Feiziban, whom Xia Duo had seen when he came out of the Dead Zone not long ago; Xia Duo had no impression of the other, but judging from the unique patterns on the other party's Mage Robe that were not concealed, there was no doubt that they were a Mage from Gustav Tower, just like Feiziban.

Upon reaching Xia Duo, Feiziban completely lacked the fierce momentum of flying while shrouded in a storm as he had upon arrival, and instead apologized to Xia Duo, "Apologies, Lord Xia Duo, for disturbing you just now."

"It's fine, don't be so rash next time."

With the other party's attitude being so good, Xia Duo could not say anything; it was just a misunderstanding. After taking advantage of the situation, he immediately asked about the serious matter:

"How is the situation now?"

"The Tower Spirit lockdown will take about half a day; during this period, I will stay here to ensure that no more intruders slip inside!"

Feiziban said the latter sentence in a loud voice, drawing side-glances from the surrounding non-Seven Towers Councilors, but they wanted to refute it yet could say nothing.

"Since that is the case, I will leave this place to you; I am going inside the experimental area to take a look."

To tell the truth, there had been no movement inside, and Xia Duo was quite worried. Beyond the Elf discovering their secrets, he was more worried that Iolum would be unable to control the situation; if this exploded, they would likely be mocked by Cormanthor for a long time!

Before entering the former Dead Zone, now the Magic Web Riot Zone, Xia Duo looked back one last time; he saw Haichenisi appearing at this lockdown gap with more people.

This made him feel more at ease to go and support Iolum.

……

After entering the Riot Zone, Xia Duo should have searched along the normal corridor passages of this area in order, but the rioting Magic Net clearly did not want to let him be so relaxed.

The Ether Mist, which had not appeared before, now began to appear on Xia Duo's path forward; at first, there were only wisps, but later it became increasingly dense.

Contrary to the Astral Mist, the Ether Mist can weaken various sensory abilities, including the most important one, vision, which caused great inconvenience to Xia Duo's search work.

And more crucially, the appearance of the Ether Mist indicates that there is a Plane Overlap between this area and the Ether Plane; if one is not careful, let alone continuing the search, it is possible to end up lost in the Ether Plane.

Besides the risk of getting lost, the Plane Overlap could also bring unknown threats originating from the Ether Plane.

Xia Duo had once encountered an ambush by an Ether Creature while exploring the ruins of the Inosen Mage Tower; those elusive little things left a deep impression on him.

To this day, he still does not know what the Ether Creature that attacked them back then actually was, only that it was a small thing composed of a Force Field, and its attack method focused more on the mental domain.

This is an attack method that Xia Duo is very wary of; no matter how good your external Protection is, they ignore all that and attack the mind directly, which is very difficult to deal with.

Xia Duo really did not want to encounter that kind of thing again.

But reality often does not follow a person's subjective wishes; as he turned a corner in the corridor, considering whether to change his method of searching, a shadow suddenly appeared in the pale Ether Mist.