Chapter 1652: Magic Cannot Save Netheril

To this, Xia Duo's response was—

"The most numerous people in Netheril are commoners, or rather, it is a group of commoners that make up Netheril. Isn't caring for commoners something every Lord should do!"

In his view, these current Spellcasters were more just lucky ones among the commoners, not even counting as geniuses; after all, many geniuses might not even have the chance to come into contact with Magic before being drowned by the endless pressure of survival.

"Yes, that is indeed something every Lord should do!" Eriwen also agreed and said.

In his heart, he actually hid another sentence, and that was—Magic cannot save Netheril!

The more developed Magic becomes, the more alienated Netheril might become.

However, Eriwen saw a shadow of light in Xia Duo, and he always felt that the other party still had some things left unsaid.

"By the way, Lord Xia Duo, has your Territory already implemented the Cooperative mentioned in this Agricultural Book?"

"Not yet, my Territory is still in the development stage, and I will only establish a Cooperative when the relevant conditions are suitable."

After finishing, Xia Duo silently added another sentence in his heart: the day this arrives is not far off!

Eriwen seemed very surprised by this; he had originally thought that Xia Duo's Territory had already implemented the Cooperative, and that what was mentioned in this Agricultural Book should be a suggestion, not just a concept.

This made him somewhat disappointed; he had originally wanted to go to Nan Jing in person to see the effects after the Cooperative was established!

……

Next, Eriwen asked some more questions about the Cooperative, and Xia Duo answered them one by one.

But whether it was because Xia Duo said his own Territory also didn't have a Cooperative, Eriwen's interest was much dimmer than at the beginning, and he didn't talk about any topics related to Ascension to Godhood.

When the east began to turn white, the two ended their conversation.

Zhenna personally saw Xia Duo to the door and revealed: "Master Eriwen has a very good impression of you. Usually, the Master wouldn't chat with someone for so long."

Xia Duo nodded and silently breathed a sigh of relief. Actually, he didn't care about whether he could get benefits from this Master Eriwen; he cared more about the Master's attitude toward him.

After all, if the other party wanted to help him, even with the other party's status and power, they might not be able to help much, at least not more than Iolum.

But if they wanted to cause trouble, it might really just be a matter of one sentence.

With the current result, Xia Duo was already very satisfied. "By the way, I haven't asked President Zhenna, how did you come to know Master Eriwen?"

Mentioning this, the expression on Zhenna's face was a bit subtle, but she didn't refuse to answer, only the answer she gave was somewhat beyond Xia Duo's expectations:

"The Master said he is my great-great-great-grandfather; he can't even say clearly how many generations it is. Even before today, I didn't know I had such an ancestor."

It turned out to be like this!

Xia Duo really didn't expect this turn of events. After all, the two looked too different; one looked almost no different from a Moon Elf, and also had blue hair, which is relatively rare even among Moon Elves.

And what about Zhenna?

A purely human appearance, and she also had a head of bright golden long hair; no matter how you looked at it, the two didn't look like they had a blood relationship.

However, regarding Zhenna's answer, Xia Duo didn't have much doubt. If one really wanted to fabricate something, there was no need to make up such an outrageous lie.

Moreover, according to Xia Duo's understanding, although the family Zhenna came from was not at the very bottom, her father was only a very ordinary Clerk.

The so-called "virtue of a gentleman, cut off after five generations"—perhaps Master Eriwen had many descendants, and those descendants had descendants, and by the generation of Zhenna's father, the Elf bloodline had long been thin, and the kinship had long since faded.

Furthermore, in the era when Master Eriwen lived, the concept of family surnames had not yet risen, and it was truly quite possible that the Master's descendants did not know about their ancestors.

Especially in a situation where Master Eriwen needed to hide.

Even now, the vast majority of Netherese only have one name, and surnames are only deliberately taken by Lords or Archmages who have been famous for a long time and have already branched out.

Without a surname, ordinary people might not know who their ancestors were after two or three generations.

……

Knowing such news, the feelings in Xia Duo's heart were also strange; for a moment, he didn't know what to say. Fortunately, it was time to leave, otherwise, it would have really been an awkward silence.

Returning to Weilan Manor, the sky was already bright. Xia Duo didn't rest again, but hurried to design the two high-quality Magic Items customized by Feiqi and Aoerdelin.

It wasn't until the afternoon that they were all designed; the next step was the process of trial production, testing, and adjustment.

I don't know if it was because the news of the exchange meeting spread, but on the second day after the meeting, good news came from Aiwa's side: a veteran Adventurer team was interested in customizing a high-quality Magic Item of a protective nature.

It's just that their Captain hadn't returned to Seventon yet, so this matter was currently only being inquired about privately by a few teammates.

To this, Xia Duo's reply to Aiwa was—try to negotiate it; even if the other party gives up, there is no need to do any extra remedial, recovery, or even threatening actions.

Although Adventurers have money, there might not really be many Adventurers who can truly save up money and spend a high price to customize high-quality Magic Items.

Xia Duo placed more hope on Jilan Tower; bloodline families are mostly wealthy. As long as a breakthrough can be made, maybe he really could earn back a Floating City!

Xia Duo looked forward to it!

……

Soon, three days passed.

This morning, Xia Duo was having breakfast in the restaurant of the Weilan Garden villa, while Aiwa was reporting the situation he had inquired about over the past two days:

"My Lord, the Agricultural Book has already spread in Seventon. Many Lords are preparing to increase production according to the methods in the book, but today's spring sowing has already passed, so even if they want to try, they can only wait until the autumn sowing."

"No matter, giving them some time to experiment is also fine."

Xia Duo knew very well that unless the Arcane Gardens privately owned by Lords everywhere increased production immediately, the gap caused by two consecutive seasons of grain reduction would be difficult to make up.

But not every Lord has an Arcane Garden built with a Semi-plane like the Tower of Time, which has a large amount of surplus grain for sale from normal production.

Those Lords' Arcane Gardens—if they have any—would likely only be enough for the people in the Mage Tower to eat if they don't undergo spatial expansion.

And for this problem, Xia Duo had no way; even if he let the Tower of Time's Arcane Garden increase production desperately, it might not be able to compensate for the two seasons of reduction in the entire Inner Land.

However, humans as a species always have a certain resilience; if it's only two seasons, they can probably endure it by holding on.

As long as there are no accidents with this year's autumn sowing, it will be fine.

"What about the Cooperative? Are there any Lords preparing to establish one?" Xia Duo asked again.

"I haven't heard any definite news about that, but many people are very curious about what kind of effects will be produced after the Cooperative is established, and there is no lack of nearby Lords among them."

Regarding this result, Xia Duo was not surprised. What virtue or ability did he have to make all the Inner Land Lords follow him just by relying on a book!

If that were really the case, wouldn't it be more convenient to just incorporate them directly!

For Xia Duo, as long as someone is willing to try, it is a good start.