Chapter 2428: Unity of Heaven and Man, the Proposal to Return the Mountain Peak

————It's a bit late, probably another half hour or so~~

————

After finishing his chat with Aiboke about the situation in the Yin Aolemu Territory, Xia Duo once again focused his attention on the design of the spellcasting ritual; the feeling was like that of a person whose mind had been accelerated countless times over.

Any problem he thought of would be instantly solved by his infinitely accelerated and extended thinking; although limited by the scale of his Wisdom brain, it was impossible to truly finish instantly, but the feeling was incomparably real.

Xia Duo was full of anticipation for the future development of the Wisdom brain.

However, this state did not last long; soon he received news that the Snow Melting Competition had concluded successfully, and Yin Aolemu should have freed up some time.

Thus, Xia Duo hurried to Seventon without stopping. Just as he stepped out of the Portal at the Arcane Union Headquarters, he felt an extremely intense source of Magic Net disturbance appearing high above his head.

If nothing went wrong, that must be Xin Saiwendun, where the Snow Melting Competition had just been held!

Xia Duo's visit to see Yin Aolemu this time was largely related to the Xin Saiwendun above his head, but before meeting Yin Aolemu, he also prepared to see with his own eyes the city base rumored to have been made by severing a mountain peak.

……

Xiaoyi was the kind of natural aura felt when wandering in mountain forests and valleys, but compared to pure nature, it lacked a sense of integration that felt as if no one had participated in it.

"It really is a real mountain peak!"

If everyone followed suit, let alone within Netheril, I'm afraid there wouldn't be many low peaks left in the Main Plane; that was the broken window effect, a progenitor-like existence.

"What a bad tea!"

Saiwendunmu was neither an Easterner nor from the same hometown as Xia Duo; the bonus of sentiment might not be that much, but the excellence of the tea was enough to conquer the other party.

"Teacher, this is Bonu Tea, but I used the preparation method from my hometown; the craftsmanship is still a bit rough, please provide your critique, Teacher."

So he needed to listen to the advice of this wise elder, Saiwendunmu.

It was just that Yin Aole was closer to the original, intended to retain the refreshing effects of the Bonu Tea as much as possible, but there was actually still room for improvement in terms of taste.

"What kind of tea is this? It feels like Bonu Original Leaf, but it's also a bit unlike it."

"Sit first, I still have some things to finish." Saiwendunmu gestured for Xia Duo to be at ease, while he continued his own work.

Such a description could also be expressed in the Netherese language, but saying it out loud lacked the nuance of using Elvish. Thanks to the excellence of the tea leaves themselves, the craftsmanship of Xia Duo's first attempt was still not very practiced, but it could fully be called a boutique product; at the very least, it belonged to the top-tier Bonu available on the market.

Regarding the question of how to stop Iolorum from severing mountain peaks, he actually hadn't fully thought it through yet, because this matter was already an established fact; opposing it before it was done and opposing it after it was done were two completely different concepts.

Walking out of the Arcane Union and arriving at the Arcane Plaza outside, Xia Duo looked up at the sky and saw an inverted mountain peak occupying nearly half the space in his field of vision, quietly hovering at an altitude of about five hundred meters.

……

Before coming, he had tasted it himself; it was roughly only slightly worse than the Yin Aole prepared by the Elvish method.

And the room for improvement in Xia Duo's hometown method was even greater. Reaching his stage, the refreshing effect was no longer so important; instead, he focused on the mouthfeel. He believed that after the scale of the tea trees expanded in the future, he would certainly be able to find better tea-making techniques to produce good tea famous throughout the Main Plane and even the heavens.

As long as the first one appeared, if it were not stopped, very soon a second and a third would appear, until they were countless. Later comers would imitate Iolorum's behavior, and even intensify it.

Xia Duo had long regarded the Main Plane as the place where the modern civilization he created would gestate and grow. Since it was his own territory, it naturally required a greater sense of ownership.

Other things, such as the new technology of the Red Heart Alliance, were truly too sensitive and also concerned future strategy, so they were not suitable as gifts to be given away.

Perhaps the official business of the Arcane Union was finished, or perhaps he was attracted by the fragrance of Xia Duo's tea, but Saiwendunmu finally stopped the Mithril Pen in his hand, walked out from behind the desk, and sat directly opposite Xia Duo.

After taking just a small sip, Saiwendunmu's eyes lit up, "Although this tea cannot compare to Bonu Original Leaf in terms of refreshing effect, it is superior in taste and mouthfeel."

……

The vegetation on the mountain peak was clearly visible. At the edge of the inverted base, there were also some scattered stones quietly floating in the air, occasionally blown by the high-altitude wind, appearing to drift slightly in his field of vision, but they would not move too far from the main body.

Behind the desk, Saiwendunmu was pinching his beard with one hand while writing and drawing on paper; he was not surprised by Xia Duo's arrival.

Saiwendunmu's Study.

This was the same logic as his active search for solutions to the Demon Descendant threat and the Dragon Madness Mythallar crisis; if he didn't care about the Main Plane, why bother doing all this extra work?

Although he had already received definite news before coming that the Floating City Base newly built by Iolorum was severed from a mountain peak in the Strait Mountains in the middle of the Narrow Sea, only until he saw it with his own eyes could he understand how crazy Iolorum was.

After simply checking the new floating mountain peak above his head, Xia Duo did not make any further attempts at probing, but instead turned around and returned to the Arcane Union Headquarters.

Having known Saiwendunmu for so long, Xia Duo was long familiar with this teacher's temperament. In fact, he hadn't notified him in advance this time, but the Teleportation Array would display the identity of the visitor.

Saiwendunmu stared curiously at the teapot in front of the two; the tea leaves Xia Duo had just put in were spiraling, flying up and down in the water. This scene alone had more charm than the Yin Aole.

For Xia Duo, it wasn't that the one mountain peak severed by Iolorum was so important, but that the other party had set a bad precedent. If it were not stopped, what would he answer if the children of the Great Xia Territory asked him what a mountain peak was in the future?

After all, his people were currently recruiting talent in Saiwendunmu's territory, so he owed a favor to some extent, not to mention that since the two sides established a relationship, he hadn't given the other party any gifts, while the other party had given him many.

Or rather, at Xia Duo's stage, gift-giving was actually more about the sentiment than the value. The tea leaves he brought this time were all handmade by him using the ancient methods of his hometown, which were somewhat different from the Elvish method; it could be said that each had its own merits.

Saiwendunmu seemed unable to find the right words to describe this feeling for a moment, so he took another sip, closed his eyes to savor it carefully, and only after a long time did he say a sentence in Elvish.

After sitting down, Xia Duo took out the teapot and teacups to start brewing tea; one reason was to soothe his restless mood, and the second was that he was actually preparing to give Saiwendunmu a gift.

The tea leaves could be considered one of the few things he could take out; the first Eastern tea tree in the Tower of Time was already about ready, and it could be considered a stable source of tea leaves for the future. It was currently the time for new buds to sprout, so getting some new tea as a gift was also quite meaningful.

"Teacher, please finish your work first; I'll sit for a while."

"How so?"

Saying this, Xia Duo poured a cup of clear, emerald-green tea for each of them and made a "please" gesture.

To tell the truth, this was not his first time drinking this year's new tea, but every time he saw, smelled, and tasted it, he would have a brand-new feeling. This feeling was hard to describe; it had the effect of the tea itself, but even more so, it had the nostalgia for his hometown surging and interweaving within it.