Chapter 2290: Revenge Plan

————Reserve Member~~

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Much as Xia Duo had anticipated, Prince Aben did not refuse his proposal to trade one thousand Arcane Crystals for the preparation methods of two types of inexpensive Energy-Conducting Materials.

Since the details of the transaction were settled, the subsequent trade itself was very simple: it was just a matter of handing over the payment and receiving the goods.

Considering he had already stayed in Yinnupulasi for over ten days—meeting the time frame for gathering Arcane Crystals he had previously mentioned to the other party—Xia Duo did not bother with any installment payments and provided one hundred thousand Arcane Crystals in a single transaction.

In return, the other party provided the preparation methods for the two inexpensive Energy-Conducting Materials labeled 1402 and 598, as well as approximately one-tenth of a cubic meter of 208-class Spirit Material (100,000 Arcane Crystals is roughly equivalent to 0.1 cubic meters).

To be honest, Xia Duo was extremely satisfied with this trade; if the people in Netheril knew that Yimaska had such cheap Spirit Material, they would likely go crazy with joy.

Xia Duo still remembered the price of purchasing a Twisted Phantom Core back then: 100,000 Gold Coins for a single piece, which was not much larger in volume than an Arcane Crystal; its only advantage was that it could be divided into smaller units.

However, the 208-class Spirit Material could not be divided, or rather, this material was only similar to Spirit Quality in its properties and still differed from true Spirit Quality.

But it could also be used to create a Wisdom Brain; Xia Duo had already verified this point. As for a Mage Tower's Tower Spirit, Xia Duo had not yet tested it, so he could not make a definitive statement, but he felt there was no essential difference between a Wisdom Brain and a Tower Spirit, so it should also be possible.

Taking a step back, even if it could not be used to create a Tower Spirit, it would be enough just for making Wisdom Brains. Xia Duo now wanted to know what would happen if a Wisdom Brain were expanded infinitely.

True infinite deduction?

Perhaps not, but it would definitely be much more useful than the current Wisdom Brain!

……

After the trade was completed, Xia Duo had originally wanted to depart immediately to catch up with Poche's Magic Ship. Of course, this was not his true purpose; his relationship with Cormanthyr was not as good as outsiders appeared to think. His true goal was actually to experience the Teleportation Hub of the Purple Star Tower.

However, Prince Aben warmly urged him to stay, and news arrived from Guleben saying that the origin of the Meow-Woos had been found, and his subordinates were on their way back with a large number of Meow-Woos and the related Mulan people.

Thus, Xia Duo stayed in Yinnupulasi for a few more days. Of course, for him now, it did not matter where he was, as the Floating City was right by his side.

In fact, he had spent far more time in the Floating City over these past few days than he had outside.

……

Time Acceleration Zone.

While crafting a Wisdom Brain, Xia Duo pondered the preparation methods for the two inexpensive Energy-Conducting Materials he had traded for. It was almost exactly as he had expected: the Yimaska side did not provide methods for mass production via Arcane Devices, but rather methods for purely manual crafting by artisans without the assistance of Arcane Devices that could Control Creation Power.

What was even more infuriating was that both materials were composite materials with a high proportion of matrix, and one of them even contained Mithril!

He roughly estimated that if crafted purely by hand, even with a one hundred percent success rate, the cost would be several times higher than Mithril of the same quality; only by using Arcane Devices for mass production could the price be driven down.

But the problem was that the level of secrecy Yimaska maintained regarding the crafting methods for Arcane Devices was quite high. Xia Duo had asked Prince Aben directly several times, only to be politely declined on grounds such as it being unsuitable for a beginner to be exposed to them or that they were state secrets.

If he had not already found a new direction for the Creation Mythallar, he might have even wanted to pull a job before leaving; if official trading did not work, underhanded methods might not necessarily fail.

Additionally, based on the analysis of the matrix materials mentioned in the creation formulas of the two known Energy-Conducting Materials, Xia Duo speculated that Yimaska definitely possessed higher-level Creation Principles.

Otherwise, with such precise material ratios as in label 1402, how could it have been researched within a few days!

There must be some guiding principle, such as which matrix to choose when specific energy-conducting properties were needed, similar to the "monarch, minister, assistant, and envoy" combinations in the ancient pharmacopoeia of Xia Duo's homeland.

Without such high-level guidance, with the thousands upon thousands of materials in the world and nearly infinite crafting techniques, it would not be strange at all to have no results even after several years, let alone a few days.

The moment he returned to the Floating City, Xia Duo had attempted to prepare these two materials using Creation Power. Although the matrix contained Mithril, it was not scarce, and the Tower of Time's warehouse had some.

But without the assistance of relevant Arcane Devices, it was extremely difficult to control the precise application of Creation Power. Xia Duo tried more than ten times and failed every time. In the end, he had to admit that even with the creation formula right in front of him, he could not even verify its Reality!

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So, he could only look forward to the performance after the Creation Mythallar was completed.

He was working overtime to craft the Wisdom Brain now with this consideration in mind. The Wisdom Brain mimicked Xia Duo's own thinking patterns; in terms of Wisdom, its upper limit was only so high, but in terms of calculation speed, it could be improved almost infinitely.

This was the significance of expansion.

If a purely computational problem that did not require experimentation could yield a result immediately just by thinking about it, it would undoubtedly save the user a great deal of time.

Xia Duo was not a god and could not obtain results just by glancing at data; he even felt that gods might not necessarily be able to do so, because some complex problems could not be solved by simple calculation alone and required the cooperation of relevant algorithms.

But regardless, the expansion of the Wisdom Brain was already on the right track.

……

One day later in the outside world, Xia Duo received news that Guleben requested an audience. He immediately put down his work, walked out of the Floating City, and arrived in Yinnupulasi.

It was still outside the temporary residence, but this time Guleben had brought a group of people. Xia Duo saw dozens of bald heads with sorrowful expressions among them; with such obvious characteristics, they were clearly Mulan.

Furthermore, in the distance, there was a metal cage larger than the previous one. Perhaps because it was too large, it was not covered with black cloth. Inside, the sound of cats meowing was continuous—miserable and mournful, terrified and sorrowful.

Xia Duo frowned, bypassed Guleben who was bowing to him, walked to the metal cage first, and sent the cage along with the cats inside to the Floating City.

He did not count them in detail, but estimated there were about a hundred or so. Among them, the pure black ones were likely less than one-tenth; more had black and white spotted patterns on their bodies, and other colors were rare. Among them, the orange cats Xia Duo most wanted to see were, at a glance, only one or two.

Seeing Xia Duo make the cage disappear, Guleben came before Xia Duo again to explain what was happening: "My men tracked them to a Mulan settlement near the southern mountains. It can be confirmed that the pure black Meow-Woos near Yinnupulasi all come from there."

"Then those people you brought back are—"

"They are the ones responsible for breeding Meow-Woos in that settlement. I thought Mage Asuosi might find them useful, so I ordered my men to bring them back," Guleben replied stiffly.