Chapter 2187: Reaching a Consensus

————Still about an hour and a half to go~~

————

After Enjier finished speaking as the representative of Dan Zuo, he returned to his role as the temporary Speaker of the assembly and requested the representatives of each country to cast their votes.

Unsurprisingly, this time only Yierlan and Ailan stood firmly together once again, casting opposing votes on whether to begin the work of territorial demarcation as soon as possible.

As for Shaerwen and Siluwende, who had previously abstained from the vote on Yierlan's proposal to cancel the territorial demarcation agenda, they did not continue to abstain this time but clearly expressed their approval.

As for the other countries, without exception, they all voted in favor.

"Boom—"

Enjier picked up the hammer at his feet and struck the ground with it, then announced: "12 votes in favor, 2 votes against; the territorial demarcation agenda proposed by Netheril is passed."

There was no cheering or applause, but Xia Duo could see that many representatives of the small countries wore expressions of relief; even if this agenda was not related to the subsequent restriction of war spells, the small countries would rather have a determined border that was smaller than in the past but unanimously recognized by the Northland Alliance.

……

Next were the specific details regarding territorial demarcation; Netheril's so-called "as soon as possible" actually meant that each country had already been notified before the meeting to submit their own demarcation proposals.

Once the agenda was passed, these proposals needed to be discussed; as long as neighboring countries had no objections to a country's borders, the proposal was considered passed.

Synthesizing all the proposals would result in a territorial division map for the countries of the Northland.

Previously, there were several points of contention among the countries regarding territorial division: one was the issue of the old border between Yierlan and Siluwende, one was the issue of Netheril's territory, and the last was the ambition regarding the Listar Forest in Keman.

But now, the Seven Towers represented by Badijiaer, under Xia Duo's persuasion, had already agreed to designate the Langas Plain and its southern region as a reservation for the Langasi.

And in the past, Yierlan had only held objections to Netheril occupying this area; perhaps it wanted it for itself, but the Langas Plain and its southern region were clearly closer to Netheril, and were separated from Yierlan's own territory by a considerable expanse of ownerless land!

Moreover, the most critical point was that Netheril had long since established long-term settlements in the northern part of the Langas Plain; in terms of ownership of this area, it was definitely more qualified than Yierlan.

As for Keman, the demarcation proposal submitted by Jialanuode, who attended in person as the Mage Leader of Keman, was bound to be extraordinary; when Enjier read it out, the representative of Akaola, as the other involved party, was almost stunned.

Even Xia Duo was stunned for a full few seconds upon hearing Keman's proposal, for no other reason than that Keman had actually abandoned its long-standing plan to unify the Listar Forest, fixing the border with Akaola at the areas currently under their respective actual control; this truly exceeded Xia Duo's expectations.

This kind of decision, this kind of proposal, clearly could not have been thought up by Jialanuode on a whim; it must have received the approval of the Crown King Yilisaier.

But one must know that one of the sources of the legitimacy of the Crown King Yilisaier's rule over Keman stemmed from the ancient prophecy of Ousensi, which predicted that the Sole True King of the Elf World needed to complete the unification of the Listar Forest, and only then the entire Elf World.

Abandoning the unification plan, to a certain extent, meant that the Crown King Yilisaier had abandoned the legitimacy of his own rule; in Keman, where the prophetic myth had been long promoted, this could almost be called a world-shaking event.

Xia Duo could not figure out for a moment why the Crown King Yilisaier would make such a choice, but he also understood that some factor must have made the other party believe that they were doing a correct thing at this moment, even more correct than maintaining the prophetic myth of the past.

After a little thought, Xia Duo knew where his blind spot was; because he had personally experienced the trial of the divine sword in the Projection Plane, and had even become the Crown King of Keman because of it.

Too familiar with that period of history, when thinking about issues related to Keman, he mostly adopted the perspective of the Crown King of Keman; starting from the perspective of the Crown King of Keman, the top priority was undoubtedly to maintain his own rule.

But if one were to adopt the perspective of the entire Keman, a Sole True King on earth, who might also be an Eternal True King, might not necessarily be beneficial to the development of Keman.

Or rather, the best choice for the Crown King of Keman might not necessarily be the best for the country of Keman.

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If Keman did not abandon the unification plan for the Listar Forest—which relied solely on prophecy and actually lacked legal basis—then in the eyes of the countries of the Northland Alliance, it would always be that arrogant image full of "imperial fantasies" and "racial prejudice" from the past.

Almost like the long-extinct Aryvandaar!

This was clearly of no benefit to Keman's development in the Northland or even the entire Main Plane.

Under these circumstances, the Crown King of Keman finally made a decision that damaged his own ruling authority and even legitimacy, just to let Keman appear with a brand-new image and thereby win new development opportunities.

"Sigh—"

Xia Duo sighed in his heart; such a decision was not easy to make even for him, and perhaps he truly could not understand what kind of transformation the power held for a thousand years would undergo.

Suddenly, he thought of a possibility—could it be that the lifespan of the Crown King Yilisaier was about to reach its end!

In his impression, the Kaifumu Yilisaier of the Projection Plane was not an outstanding Mage; the reason he could become a High Mage was likely thanks to the selfless guidance of the Wisdom Gem embedded in the Sword of Ruling, as well as nearly a thousand years of practice time.

In theory, High Mages could already achieve immortality on the Main Plane, but the longer the time, the harder it was to resist the attraction from the Outer Planes.

But it was not as if there hadn't been Elf Mages in past history who lived longer than the Crown King Yilisaier; Yilisaier had been on the throne for a thousand years, and his rich experience in the world surely would not make it difficult for him to live for a few hundred more years.

If one were to speak of the end of life, the only reason would be the Sword of Ruling!

The Sword of Ruling itself could restore the youth of its wielder and delay their lifespan; Xia Duo, who had personally handled the Sword of Ruling, was very clear about this.

Although there were differences between the Projection Plane and the Main Plane, they were mostly just details; since the Sword of Ruling appeared in both, their general functions should be roughly the same.

Since the Sword of Ruling could make the wielder a High Mage with high probability, and High Mages could theoretically achieve immortality on the Main Plane, why go to the trouble of retaining the function of extending life on the Sword of Ruling?

Only then did Xia Duo suddenly realize that perhaps the life-extending function on the Sword of Ruling was not essentially for extending the life of the ruler, but for limiting the ruler's lifespan!

But this conflicted with the prophecy of the Sole True King; unifying the Elf World was clearly not a task that could be completed in a short time, and with even the slightest setback, it might be impossible to complete for thousands or tens of thousands of years.

On one side was the limitation, on the other was the support; Xia Duo now found it very difficult to verify the true thoughts of Ousensi, the last Crown King of Jielunsita.

Was the prophecy true, and he colluded with other High Mages to tamper with the Sword of Ruling, or was the prophecy itself a lie he fabricated?