Chapter 2121: The Wizard Grandfather

————Still about an hour and a half left.

————

Of course, Xia Duo did not think that Shaerwen could be bullied; in fact, he had never felt that any small Elf nation could be bullied at will, not only out of personal morality, but also due to realistic considerations.

Even Akaola, which was recognized as declining and weak, had been able to resist Kemansuoer's ambition to unify the Listar Forest for nearly a thousand years just by closing its borders.

Thinking about it, it was not that simple.

And then there was the Small Nations Alliance, both before and now; he had indeed mentioned it in passing at Evereska, but if those small nations lacked even a shred of foundation, it would be difficult for them to have a voice to contend with the great powers, no matter how many of them came.

In this world of Reality and Magic, even small nations cannot be underestimated, especially these wealthy Elves who possess such vast fortunes that they could not squander them in thousands of years—who knows what kind of ultimate weapons they might have hidden away.

……

During the second half of the night, the enthusiasm of Xia Duo and Niya had clearly diminished; with these super-sized trees before them, Taiweimansa was actually not very interesting.

After all, they were not true Elves, and it was difficult for them to participate in the nocturnal entertainment of the Elves.

Niya mainly spent her time taking a more detailed look at the places that had interested her during their earlier rough tour, while Xia Duo focused his attention on the oak grove that supported this city.

But unfortunately, until they finished their tour and returned to the Floating City, and even until the Floating City set off again, he had not discovered any signs of awakening in those Grandfather Oaks, nor did the absurd thing he had fantasized about—a treant unable to bear the loneliness and seeking him out for a chat—ever happen.

……

For the third stop, Xia Duo and Niya had originally planned to head directly south to Calimshan, but Niya, feeling somewhat disappointed after seeing Taiweimansa, changed her mind at the last minute and wanted to visit Ailintar first.

This temporary change in the travel route did not alter the essence of the trip, and Xia Duo would certainly not refuse; in fact, while he was in Taiweimansa, he had already received invitations from Yierlan and even from Dan Zuo, who was far away in the Underdark.

It was just that it was somewhat inconvenient for the Floating City to travel to the Underdark, so he could only politely decline the invitation from Dan Zuo's side; now that Niya intended to visit Ailintar, he would simply accept the invitation from Yierlan.

Traveling from Taiweimansa to Ailintar required him to first raise the Floating City to an extremely high altitude and then head to Yierlan, due to the restrictions Yierlan had placed on the airspace (the concept had not yet appeared, but they had already refused Xia Duo's activities outside the vicinity of Taiweimansa).

The so-called "extremely high altitude" was merely Xia Duo's own definition, at least 1000 New Li away from the ground; in reality, this altitude was still far from reaching the Plane Barrier.

Once the Plane Barrier was touched, it would be impossible to continue flying upward; of course, the barrier here was not a concrete obstacle, but a spatial concept—once a certain limit was reached, a phenomenon similar to "the ends of the earth" would appear.

No matter how much power you had, even at full throttle, you could not ascend a single bit further; in fact, Xia Duo had experienced this phenomenon in the Arcane Garden of the Tower of Time long ago, though he had not yet had the chance to do so in the Main Plane.

1000 New Li was not a short distance, and Xia Duo did not want to accelerate the Floating City to too high a speed, as it was dangerous; if some bad guy were to summon a meteorite in his path, he might not be able to react in time.

Therefore, he always controlled the maximum actual flight speed of the Floating City as much as possible, ensuring that he could deal with any sudden unexpected events.

If it were low-altitude flight, there would be ground scenery to look at, so it wouldn't be boring, but pure ascent was too dull, and teleportation could be used instead.

When they were about a hundred New Li away from Taiweimansa, he began to drive the Floating City to teleport upward until it reached the extremely high altitude.

But in reality, the actual range of influence of the Taiweimansa Mythallar likely did not reach an altitude of over a hundred New Li; there might be some hidden Perception Fields projected to such a height or higher, but that was limited to perception.

The functions of the Mythallar itself were difficult to radiate that high.

Xia Duo was not really doing nothing in Taiweimansa, just accompanying Niya to go shopping; he had also consciously examined the state of the Taiweimansa Mythallar.

Although he was not sure if the Mythallar used those nearly a hundred Grandfather Oaks as core Nodes, he was certain that it was not a Node-less Mythallar.

As long as it was not a Node-less Mythallar, the range of effect would not be too exaggerated, and a Node-less Mythallar could actually load very few functions.

A Node-less Mythallar with complex and powerful functions that could cover an entire plane, like the Dragon Madness Mythallar, was almost unique.

In fact, Xia Duo highly doubted whether the Dragon Madness Mythallar was even a Node-less Mythallar, but unfortunately, the Dragon Madness Secret Scrolls had not yet been fully collected, and the ones he had found were still lacking, otherwise this question could have been answered in the scrolls.

……

The trip to Yierlan, although an unexpected journey decided on the spur of the moment, was something Xia Duo had anticipated, especially after visiting two Elven Kingdom capitals; he had almost no high expectations for the upcoming trip to Ailintar.

First, there would definitely be an informal meeting, and then it would be accompanying Niya shopping. The former would likely not escape the topic of Demon Descendants, and as for the latter, he had been to Ailintar before, so he had less anticipation.

Just like that, about two days later, the Floating City flew from the border of Yierlan to the sky above Ailintar; of course, during this period, Xia Duo contacted the Seven Towers to synchronize relevant information, not to mention that many matters within the Tower of Time were also arranged accordingly.

For example, reviewing the applicants for the second batch of the Inheritance Ritual, arranging for Saixili to increase the procurement of Mithril, and so on.

……

In the Public Zone of the Floating City, at Hengchun Square, Niya looked at the full view of the city visible to the naked eye below and couldn't help but exclaim:

"So this is Ailintar! It feels completely different from watching a Magic Image; it's somewhat similar to the feeling of Kemansuoer, but it appears more grand and solemn."

Niya did not mention Taiweimansa; in fact, the reputation of Taiweimansa was built on the point of being a "city on trees," and as for the city itself, to be blunt, Xia Duo would say it might not even be as good as most Elven cities.

Of course, it was even less comparable to Kemansuoer or Ailintar.

"This is the Aryvandaar style; in fact, this is not the most representative one. Taier'annuo, the capital of Sluwen, is the city closest to the Aryvandaar style."

"Oh, if I had known, we should have gone there first two days ago; it wouldn't have been much of a detour anyway," Niya said with some regret.

Xia Duo smiled and comforted her: "There is nothing in this world that always goes exactly as one wishes. If you want to see it, we can take a detour to have a look after we leave Ailintar."