Chapter 1790: Cleanup and Recrimination

In fact, after "seeing" the Nether Scroll, Badijiaer had the intention to withdraw; hearing Xia Duo's reminder at this moment, he immediately reacted:

"Understood, I will cast the teleportation spell, you continue to handle the cleanup."

While cleanup was indeed rather tedious, teleportation at this moment was not a simple matter either, as they had to bring along that Prince of Cormanthor who was some distance away from them while teleporting the two of them.

As for Xierdalanna, the two did not need to bring her along; both sides had agreed to withdraw separately before taking action, needing only to give each other a signal when retreating.

As for how to withdraw, Xia Duo was not actually worried; at worst, he could use his Personal Space to carry Badijiaer and that Prince of Cormanthor, while he himself would merge with the world, erase his physical form, and then perform a Soul Transition to the Outer Planes.

He was certain no one could catch him.

Only when returning, because of the lack of guidance from a physical body, might it be somewhat troublesome, but it was still a safe fallback.

As for the cleanup he had to do now, it was relatively complex.

Xia Duo did not possess the means of the mysterious organization to erase all traces of existence (including others' memories); the only traces he could erase were Spell Residue and Scrying traces.

But this operation had one huge flaw: initially, both Xia Duo and Badijiaer thought they were coming here for negotiations, not expecting it to be the actual site of the operation, so they had arrived in their true forms.

In the Jiaodouchang alone, at least two Dwarves had seen them.

Memory is a tightly integrated dynamic whole; even the memories in his own Consciousness Copy were not fully understood by Xia Duo yet, let alone manipulating the memories of others.

Thus, the best method for secrecy was naturally the destruction of the physical bodies.

But this operation never had much of a mindset for secrecy to begin with; the disguise at the start and the cleanup now were merely to delay the time it would take for the Cormanthor side to discover the truth.

If true secrecy were possible, Xia Duo might have hardened his heart and killed the two witnesses, but in a situation like this where even killing them would not ensure true secrecy, why sacrifice the lives of two innocent people?

After a moment of thought, Xia Duo ultimately only used a Suggestion spell to set a misdirection in the consciousness of those two Dwarves regarding his and Badijiaer's identities; when someone asked about the others, they would not say they were humans, but would automatically associate them with the Gold Elves that Xia Duo and Badijiaer were currently disguised as.

Spell-based questioning would yield the same result.

Of course, "whatever exists, leaves a trace"; if someone skilled in mental spells or interrogation techniques were to ask, they might discover some clues and eventually find the truth.

But by then, Xia Duo's goal would have been achieved, and he would not care.

……

Due to the complex actual teleportation environment, Badijiaer used a Pre-teleportation technique, which meant—when the spell was completed, it was equivalent to the teleportation being completed, with only a process of inevitable success remaining.

If the teleportation were to fail, it would fail during the spellcasting phase, which avoided the Spellcaster using themselves to verify the teleportation result.

Such a technique had been used by Xia Duo before; he had even invented a Pre-teleportation spell for it—Teleportation Mark, where leaving a mark was equivalent to the teleportation being completed.

Although such a technique was not completely impossible to crack, it would require being prepared in advance, or using great power to forcibly seal all elements related to teleportation in the Magic Net to make it possible.

Otherwise, like the instant spellcasting now, it was basically impossible to block.

After the spell was completed, Badijiaer's mood was clearly much more relaxed; he reminded Xierdalanna, and then disappeared within the Jiaodouchang with Xia Duo and that Prince of Cormanthor who was controlled by Xia Duo.

Afterwards, Xierdalanna did not linger either, shaking off the Holy Hammer Warriors of the Courage Arena and leaving quickly.

……

"Boom—"

When the giant hammer smashed through the Protection magic that was gradually returning to normal and broke into the viewing stand where the Prince of Cormanthor was located, only two Sword Singer guards remained on the stand, maintaining their sword-drawing postures while standing motionless.

"Hmph—"

Gelu let out a cold snort, and a wisp of electric arc appeared out of thin air, striking one of the guards with a "crack" sound, then immediately jumping to the other guard, making the same sound.

The two guards' bodies trembled, then they recovered, subconsciously drawing the long swords at their waists and shouting: "Protect the Prince!"

Gelu understood Elvish, and the moment he heard the two guards shout "Protect the Prince," a feeling of unease suddenly welled up in his heart.

The next moment, the magic Protection that was recovering in the Jiaodouchang was again interfered with by an external force, and at the same time, the Magic Net around the scene of the incident vibrated violently, the Magic Net Strings involuntarily twisting into a specific structure.

Gelu's feeling of unease grew even stronger; he glared fiercely at the Elf guards who had already sheathed their swords and were showing expressions of terror, his will permeating his voice as he demanded:

"Tell me! Which Prince is your master?"

But before the two guards could speak, an anxious-looking Elf Mage had already broken through space and arrived at this viewing stand.

Upon arriving, he first looked around, only to find that there were only two guards and one Dwarf at the scene, and no sign of the missing Prince Saier.

"What happened? Where is Prince Saier?" Jielinisi questioned.

The two guards moved their lips, not knowing how to speak; they had not reacted to anything that happened before and had lost consciousness, and when they regained consciousness, there was only a Dwarf who looked very formidable in front of them, and the Prince had long since disappeared.

Right, the Dwarf!

The two guards seemed to have grasped at a final straw, hurriedly pointing at the Dwarf nearby and explaining anxiously: "We suddenly lost consciousness just now, and when we woke up, there was only this Dwarf in front of us; the Prince's disappearance must have something to do with him!"

Hearing this, Jielinisi had not yet reacted, but Gelu was almost bursting with anger; he had kindly rescued the other party, and this was how they repaid him?

However, this incident had occurred in the Courage Arena after all, and at the same time, he recognized the identity of the Elf Mage who had just appeared—

Regardless of the specific power, just the fact that the other party came from Cormanthor made Gelu feel gloomy; in that case, the missing Prince was one of the Princes of Cormanthor!

The Cormanthor of the past had always given people a strong, arrogant impression; whether facing a human kingdom like Netheril, or Elves or Dwarves, it was as if only they were the true masters ruling this land.

Now that a Prince of Cormanthor had disappeared in the Courage Arena, this was simply a massive disaster for Gelu.

The most critical point was—if it weren't for Oscar of the Stone Axe Clan wanting to challenge a demon in the Jiaodouchang this time, he would never have come here at all.

Thinking of this, Gelu felt even more regret; how could he have been fooled into coming here by Old Shihu!

He could not bear this matter alone; he had to report to King Baside as soon as possible, as the true master of this Jiaodouchang was the King, not him.

Of course, before that, he had to appease the Cormanthor Mage who might fly into a rage at any moment.