Chapter 1956: Temporary Rearing, The Siluwende Mutation

Tourists from the Inner Land have revealed that many lords have even begun to form alliances, preparing to demand subsidies and support from the Seventon Council!

After Xia Duo learned of this situation from Jibu, he couldn't help but wonder whether those territories were truly unable to hold on, or if those lords were simply being overly shrewd (greedy).

For Xia Duo, this news was neither particularly good nor particularly bad; regardless of the true motives of those lords, one very realistic problem had to be considered—

Since there has been a decline in production due to the climate for the past two years, will there be a decline next year, the year after, and every year thereafter, and will it be necessary to continue subsidizing the populace?

If not, then the climate anomalies of these past two years can at most be considered a sudden occurrence with a relatively long duration.

But if it is going to be like this in the future, unless the Seventon Council covers the bottom line entirely, I fear many lords will have to consider reducing their population.

And according to Xia Duo's speculation, the climate anomalies of these two years are very likely related to the Dragon Madness Mythallar; that is to say, there is a high probability that things will not improve in the future, and may instead worsen.

As for the Seventon Council, it is itself merely a relatively loose power center that usually does not have much real power over the various territories below, and when things happen, it does not have to bear much responsibility.

The so-called "clear division of power and responsibility" is just like this: only with power comes responsibility; without power, there is naturally no responsibility. The lords of various regions cannot both want the benefits of independence and not want to bear the risks of independence!

Xia Duo estimates that when this matter finally blows up, Seventon might provide a little aid, but the scope of the climate anomaly's impact is extremely wide, and the Seven Towers cannot unilaterally cover the bottom line. In the end, it will either be a transaction or they will ignore it.

But the Seven Towers, after all, holds the title of ruler, and this alone determines that they must do something about it. It's just that from last year until now, Xia Duo knows the Seven Towers has indeed made many efforts, but they haven't even touched the source of the climate anomaly yet!

Perhaps the little aid given in the end might also be a form of compensation for their own incompetence; of course, they won't say that explicitly.

As for the impact of this matter on Xia Duo, it is mainly in two aspects—

One is that the persistent climate anomaly has made the spread of the "Agricultural Book" increasingly widespread, the Cooperative will be more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and it can promote agricultural development as well as the progress of industries such as primary agricultural product processing.

But this also brings about more serious land annexation. Cooperatives initiated by the Netheril Lords of the current era cannot, like what Xia Duo has done in the Daxia Territory, transfer a large amount of wealth to the grassroots. (Daxia Territory has not yet promoted the Cooperative for the time being.)

The efficient production of the Cooperative will eventually lead to the emergence of a large number of landless farmers. Perhaps if the time line is stretched out and viewed from a longer-term perspective, this is beneficial to Netheril.

But in the present, this process will not be as bland as described in future history books; it will always be accompanied by a large number of real tragedies.

To this end, Xia Duo is preparing to use the Weilan Manor as a long-term transit station for recruiting new residents and is arranging for a fleet to widely absorb the population in the Nether River basin.

His main purpose in doing this is not about exactly how many people he wants to recruit; after all, there are still many Inner Land lords currently opening up new lands in the Aibi Hills and the Kelong Plain, and the climate anomaly has not affected the opening up itself.

In fact, because the opening up of these two areas involves the demarcation of the borders of the Nether Territory at the future Northland Alliance meeting, the Seven Towers has provided a great deal of support.

This also includes the population, but the size of those two areas is almost no less than the Nether Core Region, which is to say they can take in as many people as there are.

If it weren't for considering the difficulty of self-sufficiency under the abnormal climate, those two areas would become the largest population-inflow black hole in Netheril.

Xia Duo's last two recruitments of new residents from Seventon both went through special channels. One was requesting people from the Seventon Council in the name of Buluode opening up territory; this is a convention for Great Arcanists opening up land, and the Seven Towers did not want to break it for the time being, just sent someone to remind Xia Duo, and the matter was considered over.

The other was the reward for assisting in the cooperation with Xierdalanna at the request of the Seven Towers; like the time with Buluode, it was also fifty thousand people.

Besides this, there were only some slaves bought sporadically by the Four Chambers of Commerce of Savile. If it were in the past, Xia Duo would have valued this channel very much, because it was almost his only channel for obtaining new residents at that time.

But after experiencing the absorption of tens of thousands of people several times, the sporadic gains from this channel seem ordinary.

But one of the biggest impacts of this climate anomaly on Xia Duo is that, except for those lords with hard opening-up quotas, for ordinary lords, population is no longer wealth, but a negative asset.

As long as one continues to scrape, even a trickle can eventually converge into a large number.

Xia Duo set up the Weilan Manor in Seventon as a transit station and let out word to recruit new residents; besides actually being able to receive people, he also wanted to influence those lords who established Cooperatives to treat their residents well.

This seems somewhat contradictory to Xia Duo's goal, but it is actually not contradictory, because he has already viewed the residents of other lords as his own; now they are just temporarily being raised by those lords.

Xia Duo's demand for population is never satisfied. In the future, the Nan Jing will continue to absorb the population. Where will the population come from? A considerable portion will certainly come from the Inner Land and those few newly opened areas.

Since they are his future residents, Xia Duo can plan for them now. This might increase the cost of introducing the population to the territory in the future, but Xia Duo's vision has long since jumped out of the scope of general monetary interests and is more focused on the overall situation and the future.

……

As time passed bit by bit, Xia Duo, leading Niya and Aiboke, finally completed the last bit of construction on the Floating City. At the same time, the number of tourists coming from the Northland to the Nan Jing also began to plummet.

Although it still hasn't completely cut off, it has temporarily lost its potential for growth.

Xia Duo knows this is because the current Nan Jing really doesn't have much worth making a special trip for. He originally thought the more mature Savile Territory might become an important money-attracting point.

But post-event statistics revealed that Inner Land tourists generally did not have the idea of going to stay in the Savile Territory; at most, they would go over to take a look and then choose to take a large airship back, or continue to take the free Portal back.

The real big money-attractor was instead the Daxia Territory!

And the profits were mainly concentrated in catering and accommodation. Of course, the current Daxia Territory has no other industries that can be operated externally.

It can only provide food and lodging for tourists.

As for the Daxia Order, according to some information collected by the security officers under Jibu, it has indeed become a beautiful landscape in the eyes of Inner Land tourists.

But whether this is out of curiosity or a true understanding of the charm of order, Xia Duo has to put a big question mark in his heart.

……

It was on the second day after Xia Duo came out of the Weilan Crystal Plane that news suddenly came from Seventon: Siluwende, which had been in a state of eerie silence recently, suddenly issued invitations to the various countries of the Northland Alliance.

Inviting various countries to jointly develop the newly discovered Ancient Fortress!

Upon learning this news, Xia Duo was shocked. He didn't know what hidden circumstances were involved, but when he went to Seventon last time, he heard Yiaole mention that Yierlan was making preparations for war.

How could Siluwende suddenly want to invite various countries to jointly develop it?

Was this at the suggestion of Yierlan, or was it decided on its own for some reason?

"Demon Descendant?"

The image of a Demon Descendant Elf could not help but appear in Xia Duo's mind. Ever since the assassination of the Evereska Elder Ankalita, the Demon Descendants had been very quiet; even after one secret base was taken out, there was no movement.

If he hadn't already seen the Demon Descendants with his own eyes at that secret base, Xia Duo would have doubted their actual existence!

Consequently, he immediately decided to go to Seventon again. Besides inquiring about the latest situation in Siluwende, he wanted to urge the progress on Yiaole's side.

Now Xia Duo has completed the main functional construction of the Floating City (the internal facilities are still empty for the time being, but it does not affect its own offensive and defensive capabilities), and all that is missing is the strategic weapon that is the trump card: War Spell.

If this drags on until the end of the Siluwende incident, then he might as well not fly the Floating City to Siluwende. Without a strategic weapon, the deterrent power of the Floating City itself is still slightly insufficient.

Especially in the situation where Yierlan has already made preparations for war, if it were to be shot down, Xia Duo would be heartbroken, and more realistically—

The Tower of Time does not have extra resources for him to build another Floating City in a short time, not to mention that the construction itself also takes time.

……

At the very moment Xia Duo was heading to Seventon, far away in Siluwende, the high-level members of the 【Ecliptic Contract】 organization rarely gathered together to discuss the next course of action.

"Is there still no reaction from Yierlan?" one of the leaders asked in a deep voice.

Another leader, who perhaps possessed secret intelligence, gave his own answer: "Yes, up to this point, they still have no reaction at all."

But his answer made the other leaders feel heavy-hearted; in their original projections, Yierlan would have jumped with rage because they invited various nations to jointly develop the Ancient Fortress, and then immediately started a war.

In that case, the rhythm of the war would largely be in their hands, but now the silence from Yierlan's side perhaps indicates that the coming blow will exceed the endurance limit of the 【Ecliptic Covenant】 and even all of Siluwende.

Perhaps because the silent atmosphere in this situation was too oppressive, one commander could not help but speak up:

"Regardless of whether they have a reaction, in the end, it is just a matter of speaking with strength. We have those War Magic Artifacts that General Kelusi brought out from the fortress; the scales of victory are tipped in our favor!"

His words were perhaps the consensus of many members within the organization, but in such an occasion, the few leaders all appeared so cautious that the other commanders did not dare to express their stance lightly.

"Let's talk about the Demon Descendants!"

One leader tried to break the deadlock, but it only caused the atmosphere to sink further into a freezing point; if it could be said that the large and wealthy Yierlan might eventually choose to give up "supervising" Siluwende because it could not bear the losses of war.

Those Demon Descendants hiding in the shadows were the biggest variable!

During the previous "Unified Opinion" operation, the 【Ecliptic】 organization discovered quite a few Demon Descendants, some of whom had even mixed their way into the position of Participating Elder!

If the matter of the Demon Descendants is not handled well, then even if Siluwende successfully shakes off Yierlan's "supervision," what it might ultimately have to face is an Abyss that is difficult to escape.