Chapter 2017: Dragon Spine Anomaly, Confirmed

The topic was steered toward Xia Duo, and specifically the Floating City, which all the representatives were very concerned about. Xia Duo felt somewhat displeased, and only said, "The era is developing, and magic is progressing," before offering no further explanation.

As for the technique of changing the subject, he was far better than the awkwardly transitioning Adalier; he didn't even need words, simply silently pulling up the results of the 【Wide-Area Detection】 tracking the Demon Descendant's teleportation traces.

While listening to Adalier's nonsense, he had already tracked four teleportation points, but at the fifth, all traces vanished.

And this was precisely when Adalier steered the topic toward him. Xia Duo, while activating the Floating City's Jump System, explained to the representatives:

"I have discovered Demon Descendant traces. If you are all interested, you may come and take a look together."

"Very well!"

……

Seeing no one object, Xia Duo decisively drove the Floating City to perform a medium-range teleportation. As space-time shifted, the scene above Hengchun Square changed from the original Adofeier Fortress to an unfamiliar mountain forest.

No, it was only unfamiliar to most representatives; there were those who were very familiar with this place, such as the Cormanthor representative this time, Sovereign Suweilisi, who exclaimed:

"This is Cormanthor!"

As soon as the words fell, ribbons of faint blue radiance appeared in the sky above Hengchun Square. Seeing this, Xia Duo could not help but narrow his eyes.

Earlier, he had been very certain that this area was not covered by the Cormanthor Mythallar. He had not expected that in less than a year, a layer of hidden Mythallar had been added. Just now, because he had focused entirely on tracking the Demon Descendant's traces, he had missed the factor of the Mythallar.

As for trespassing into Cormanthor territory, that was a minor matter. In the current era, there was no clear concept of territorial airspace; the sky was interconnected and shared by all, as long as one did not go to someone else's doorstep to provoke them.

At this moment, there was a Cormanthor representative on the Floating City's Hengchun Square. Although Suweilisi was surprised that Demon Descendant traces had appeared in Cormanthor, or that the Floating City had arrived in Cormanthor so suddenly, he felt no resentment toward the Floating City's arrival.

However, Xia Duo believed that after this time, every nation would likely consider the concept of territorial airspace. But because the sky was interconnected, the final result would likely be like on Earth, only regulating a certain altitude of territory rather than extending infinitely upward.

Xia Duo did not need to worry about the Floating City's passage at high altitudes. In fact, as long as one flew high enough, the distance from the surface would far exceed the normal limits of land territory.

If even high altitudes were to be restricted, then land boundaries would require a "Near-at-Hand World's End" Jieti.

However, although Xia Duo was not technically trespassing at the moment, he had indeed "bumped" into the Mythallar Cormanthor had set up here. If Cormanthor really insisted on holding him accountable, it would inevitably lead to complications.

Noticing that teleportation signals had already appeared in the distance, Xia Duo hesitated for a moment, then decisively stopped the other party, and explained to Suweilisi:

"That side might be Cormanthor patrollers wanting to come over to check the situation, but to avoid them destroying the Demon Descendant traces, I have temporarily blocked them. I would ask Your Excellency Suweilisi to help explain later."

"No problem."

Suweilisi did not care about these minor details and agreed readily, then asked: "I wonder where the Demon Descendant traces Lord Xia Duo mentioned are?"

"Right there—"

Xia Duo controlled the Floating City to descend slowly, finally stopping about a hundred meters above a bare little hill, and then he pointed to the mountaintop almost right above everyone's heads, saying:

"That area is where I last tracked the Demon Descendant traces!"

"That area?"

Many of the representatives present were peak existences within their respective magical systems. Even without being there in person, it was not difficult to judge the specific situation over there.

Soon, a representative raised a question, "I wonder what Demon Descendant traces Lord Xia Duo is referring to? I haven't discovered anything!"

"Me neither!"

Where there was one, there were two. After multiple representatives verified with each other, they raised questions one after another.

But Xia Duo was not flustered, reminding them: "Everyone, check again carefully. Don't you think that area is too 'clean'?"

"Too clean?"

With that reminder, Kelusi was the first to react, "The scene where Elder Ankalita was assassinated near Adofeier Fortress had this exact feeling!"

But because the scene of Ankalita's assassination had been destroyed in the war, Kelusi's statement did not receive unanimous approval from the other representatives.

Only Badijiaer, because the Seven Towers had participated in the raid on the Demon-born Secret Base and had obtained much information from Xierdalanna regarding the Demon Descendants' methods of erasing traces, stood up to express his agreement at this time.

But because he also belonged to Netheril like Xia Duo, his agreement was mostly seen as mutual cover between the same faction.

"Commander Adalier, do you not have anything you wish to say?"

Xia Duo's thought was simple: Xierdalanna had seen and personally experienced the Demon Descendants' methods of erasing traces. Even if Xierdalanna and the Crown King did not belong to the same political faction, the Crown King's faction should still have some understanding of these things.

At the very least, after Elder Ankalita was assassinated, relic scholars from Yierlan were among the first to arrive at the scene. They should know this!

This information was not insignificant, and at the same time, Adalier did not want to provoke Xia Duo too much, so he also spoke up to express his agreement with Xia Duo's previous judgment.

With representatives from Netheril, Yierlan, and Siluwende—three parties that were almost impossible to collude—speaking up, the other representatives gradually began to believe it.

And at this time, the Aifuruisi representative, who had not had a chance to speak, finally found an opportunity to state their own view: "The current situation is very similar to the report sent back by the investigators our side sent to Siluwende. It should indeed be the work of the Demon Descendants!"

Aifuruisi was currently reshaping the Small Nations Alliance, and coupled with the political legacy left by the death of Elder Ankalita, the Aifuruisi representative's words carried significant weight, almost no less than that of a major power's representative.

"Having no traces" was the trace of the Demon Descendants. Having received the approval of representatives from multiple nations, there was ultimately no substantive evidence, which would inevitably give people a suspicion of self-directed drama.

Of course, this did not mean that the death of Elder Ankalita was also the product of some plan, or that the recent Dark Raid event was fake, but only that at the present moment—Xia Duo's judgment on the Demon Descendant traces remained in doubt.

Just at this moment, Xia Duo received feedback from 【Wide-Area Detection】 that more teleportation signals had appeared, and in the distance, Pegasus knights were attempting to approach by flying.

This time, the teleportation signals were not near the Floating City (the Demon Descendant traces below). Xia Duo judged that there was a high probability they would not contaminate the scene, so he did not stop them.

At the same time, he thought of one point: Cormanthor had set up a Mythallar here. The Demon Descendants erasing traces would always have some impact on the Mythallar!

This was somewhat similar to deleting posts on the internet on Earth. Because the internet was interconnected and even had multiple server copies, the deletion itself would leave records in the servers; it wasn't that once deleted, everything was gone.

In areas not covered by a Mythallar, this method of the Demon Descendants might be very effective, but in areas covered by a Mythallar, because they could not modify the entire Mythallar, flaws would always exist and would be incomparably obvious to the Controller of the Mythallar.

And if they modified the Mythallar as well, that would be like hacking a server on Earth. Unless there was a Redundant System, there really wasn't any good way to deal with it.

So now, had the Demon Descendants modified the entire Mythallar, or had they merely erased the traces in the current area, thereby leaving behind an incomparably obvious flaw?

If a long time had passed since the incident, Xia Duo might suspect the former, but now, from the time the incident occurred until now, it had only been a short while, and Xia Duo was more inclined toward the latter.

If they truly had the ability to modify the entire Mythallar in an instant, they wouldn't be hiding in dark corners to carry out sneak attacks!