Chapter 2083: Alliance Agreement, Returning to the Territory

————Still about two hours left~~

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Just as Xia Duo was feeling suspicious and uncertain in his heart, preparing to ask Badijiaer about the reason, the white-gold flames enveloping Master Eriwen suddenly began to surge upward; almost in the blink of an eye, Master Eriwen's figure had completely vanished.

In his place was only a massive, continuously burning white-gold flame!

The next moment, it felt as if something had violently struck Xia Duo's heart, and then endless sorrow surged over him all at once.

Watching Master Eriwen, whose figure had already been erased within the white-gold flames ahead, the bad premonition in Xia Duo's heart climbed to its peak.

But before he could make any move, a beam of light suddenly descended from the sky above the Arcane Plaza, with faint chants of holy hymns; within those white-gold flames, a light-formed human body, resembling the Saint Form of a high-level Mage, appeared with a serene expression, eyes closed, and hands crossed over its shoulders, slowly ascending along the beam of light that had descended from the heavens.

At this moment, the ordinary people in the plaza could no longer suppress the sorrow in their hearts and began to wail loudly; for a time, an atmosphere of infinite grief permeated the plaza.

Xia Duo could not help but look at Badijiaer, and seeing the other's solemn expression and furrowed brows, he knew that this should not have been within the expectations of the Seven Towers.

If it had been the Princess ascending to godhood, there would already be ripples of Holy Power emanating from the Arcane Plaza by now, with the first batch of naturally called Priests appearing, rather than this deathly stillness.

And the sight of Master Eriwen's Soul ascending along the beam of light also easily made one think of "ascending to Heaven"; perhaps that was indeed the case.

Xia Duo sighed in his heart once more; could this be the final end for Master Eriwen?

However, although this result was not what he wanted to see, from the perspective of the Ascension Order, it was not necessarily a bad thing.

If the Ascension Ritual could succeed every time, it would inevitably trigger a series of imitations; rather than waiting for an Arcane path that might not be opened in the future, occupying a divine position now would likely become a rational consideration for many people.

After all, if one does not occupy it oneself, it is possible for others to take it first!

Yet, the complex psychology of regret mixed with relief that Xia Duo felt had not lasted long before it was shattered by the sudden scene before his eyes.

As Master Eriwen rose higher and higher in the beam of light until he disappeared, a person Xia Duo knew, and with whom he had a fairly good relationship, appeared out of thin air within the beam of light and announced to all the spectators below:

"Master Bernumesis created vitality for the people of Netheril; my Lord, mindful of his sincerity, has specially received him into the Shenguo for eternal life!"

The person in the beam of light was Archmage Greta, whom Xia Duo had not seen for a long time, one of the Princess's followers when she was in the Mortal Plane, and now she had become the Princess's most steadfast believer; and what she represented was naturally that pioneer of mortal ascension—

Princess Xiya, or rather, the God of Exploration and Protection, Xia Aidasi!

Seeing this scene, Xia Duo could hardly suppress his livid complexion; regardless of whether Master Eriwen's failed ascension this time was because of the Princess or had nothing to do with her, this performance would inevitably lead to one result—

From now on, no matter who wants to ascend to godhood, they cannot bypass the Princess, or rather, they cannot bypass the Seven Towers!

If Eriwen's failure was related to the Princess, then wouldn't those who want to ascend later have to "pay their respects" to the Princess first, unless they also want to experience a failure?

If Eriwen's failure was unrelated to the Princess, then the so-called eternal life in the Shenguo could also serve as a final guarantee for a failed ascension, which is also hard to bypass the Princess.

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But no one can be certain of the truth of the matter, so the most correct course of action based on rational consideration is undoubtedly to "surrender" to the Princess!

"What a good scheme!"

Xia Duo had only met the Princess a few times and did not know much about her, mostly hearing about her from Niya, but Niya had not spent much time with the Princess either.

As the saying goes, the human heart is hard to fathom; is the heart and will of a god so easy to guess?

At this moment, besides anger, Xia Duo's heart was filled with confusion and even despair; the Ascension Order, personally led and controlled by the Princess, was clearly more suffocating than one led by the Seven Towers.

The Princess was once a firm practitioner of the Arcane path; now that she has become a god for only a few years, she is about to live into the very image she least wanted to see back then!

For a time, Xia Duo's mind was in chaos; regardless of whether the Princess herself had changed, the current situation would lead to a prospect extremely unfavorable to the opening of the Arcane path and the development of Magic civilization.

"Perhaps I shouldn't have come to Saivendun in the first place!"

Xia Duo wanted to return to Nan Jing immediately and then load up all his subjects to wander the world, but after his mood calmed down slightly, he felt ashamed of his childish thought just now.

At present, his Floating City has become an object of close attention by various countries in the Northland; as long as he is in the Main Plane, it is difficult to escape the attention of various countries, so where could he go even if he wandered?

As for other Planes, the Ether Plane is indeed nearly infinitely vast, but creatures of the normal material world cannot reproduce normally within the Ether Plane; the Shadow Plane is the same, and its area is even smaller, belonging to another dimension of the Material Plane.

Leaving the base of Netheril where one can huddle together for warmth, with only one Floating City, one would eventually fail to escape the fate of becoming fat meat under someone else's knife.

"Plane Exploration! Population! And time!"

There was no need to think quietly in the long night; when he truly reached this nodal moment where future uncertainty had suddenly increased, Xia Duo was calmer than at any other time.

Consistent with his previous judgment, he still needed a Habitable Plane that could serve as a final retreat, and population is the foundation of civilization development; as for time, he now needs to race against time.

Resource accumulation, population growth, and most importantly, the growth of the Mages of the Tower of Time, all require time!

Xia Duo discovered that the plan he had formulated before was still a bit conservative; if he is not aggressive in the current situation, he might not have the chance to be aggressive in the future!

He speculated that as long as two more cases of mortal ascension succeed, the Ascension Order might become unstoppable; by then, perhaps some clever pioneers will have started preparing for "Mian Fa," which would be the nightmare of civilization.

From this perspective, the final golden period of racing against time has arrived!

……

After Greta finished announcing the Oracle, she disappeared along with the receding beam of light; finally, it was Badijiaer who concluded, and Xia Duo did not see anything unusual on his face; there was still a sense of sorrow and regret.

It was as if he had not thought about the impact of this matter on the Ascension Order at all, as he comforted the public as usual, received foreign envoys as usual, and announced the end of the conference as usual.

But the more ordinary it was, the more uneasy it made Xia Duo feel; after the meeting dispersed and he returned to the Arcane Union, he subconsciously walked to the door of the Reception Room where he had met Kelifu and the others before the "Seed Promotion Conference."

Looking at the tightly closed door, Xia Duo smiled self-deprecatingly, and then prepared to bid farewell to Yinaole before returning to Nan Jing.