Chapter 2434: Prophecy Analysis, Reversals

In those fragmented images, Xia Duo saw a large number of Floating Cities made from intercepted mountain peaks engaged in battle; the sky was a dark red, and the earth had become shattered and broken.

It was just that these images were too incomplete, to the point where it was impossible to tell whether the fighting was occurring between Floating Cities or against other enemies.

Or more accurately, Xia Duo did not see a single sentient being in those fragmented images, whether human or Elf; there was only a large amount of chaotic, incomplete, and brutal combat.

Perhaps with careful analysis, more specific conclusions could be drawn from the use of Spells on the battlefield, the few characteristics preserved by the shattered earth, and other details that could be unearthed.

But this was, after all, just one possibility of the future; it did not mean it would definitely happen, especially now that Xia Duo knew about it, making it even less likely to occur.

What Xia Duo was more concerned about were the Floating Cities made from intercepted mountain peaks; if nothing went wrong, this should be the handiwork of Netheril, and what he truly wanted to predict was not some future war, but the attitude of the Seven Towers toward Sustainable Development.

The deviation was so great, but it also illustrated a point: this proposal would likely not go as smoothly as he had imagined when he was tallying votes earlier.

Otherwise, there wouldn't be Floating Cities with the inverted mountain peak design; they should have been varied, without a specific shape. This indicated that in the future represented by these images, Netheril was intercepting mountain peaks in large numbers.

Of course, it was also possible that those mountain peaks were man-made; after all, everything is possible in the future, and if Xia Duo had the mind to, he could even deliberately shape such a future.

This is the regrettable aspect of divination Spells; no matter how accurate your divination is, the moment you know the prophecy, the Reality of the future has already changed silently.

Xia Duo's view was that no matter how gratifying or hateful the result of a prophecy might be, it should only be treated as a reference and not taken for granted, otherwise one would fall into the trap of divination Spells.

……

Next, Xia Duo rested for a moment before proceeding with the next divination without stopping, and he did this several times in a row until he reached the Spellcasting safety limit before stopping.

In total, he performed seven divinations. Although the goal of the divinations was to understand the Seven Towers' attitude toward Sustainable Development, much like the first time, most of the divination images obtained in the subsequent attempts were not directly related to the goal.

He needed to perform secondary analysis on the fragmented images.

For example, in the second divination, the image he obtained was similar to an overhead view, and the duration was extremely short. The only thing he could analyze was that Netheril's expansion progress was gratifying; it was hard to know anything else.

In addition, war scenes were not only present in the first divination; they appeared later as well, but no specific humans or Elves appeared. However, through specific scene analysis, it could be judged that it was likely a civil war of the Northland Alliance.

The only time a human appeared was in the final divination, where Xia Duo saw Yinaole arguing with Badijiaer about something; they seemed to be in a dispute, with neither side willing to give in.

And this also made Xia Duo understand that divination images might not even have sound, only visuals; some images were dynamic, while others were actually static.

From this, it can be seen that the discipline of divination is indeed profound. Chixin Alliance University has a specialized major for divination analysis, but divination itself is a niche field, and there are even fewer people studying divination analysis.

This is actually influenced by ideology; members of the Red Heart Alliance have extremely firm beliefs about how the future should develop and are more willing to use their own hands to change the future rather than pinning their hopes on divination Spells.

Furthermore, Xia Duo did not like those mysterious analyses, so when he was in the Red Heart Alliance, he only had a rough understanding of them, focusing more on learning the Principles of divination Spells.

In the final divination just now, although there was no sound, there were dynamic images of characters speaking and arguing, which could be understood by reading lips.

Xia Duo himself, of course, could not read lips, but he knew who could, and they were his own people: one was his follower, the High-level Rogue Aiwa, and the other was Lawrence, the Chief Official of the Education Department in his Territory and a High-level Bard.

The former was currently traveling in the Inner Land of Netheril, naturally having accepted Xia Duo's mission to inspect the situation in various places; while the latter had finished his exchange studies in Akaola and only needed to complete some finishing work before returning to Netheril.

And those finishing tasks were largely various social engagements, banquets, exchange meetings, and the like.

Xia Duo decided to recall Lawrence early to interpret the lip-reading information in the divination images for him; as for Aiwa, he would let him continue his travels.

……

The next day.

Yinaole had not yet returned from the Seven Towers. Knowing the situation from the divination images where Yinaole and Badijiaer were arguing, Xia Duo was certain that Yinaole in reality would definitely have a dispute with Badijiaer.

But at least he could judge that Yinaole's trip had not gone smoothly.

Near noon, Yinaole returned to the Arcane Union. Xia Duo received the news immediately. When he arrived at Yinaole's Study, he saw a weary-looking Yinaole, which made his heart sink.

"Teacher, did the Seven Towers not agree?"

"No, they agreed, but the process was not smooth, and I feel they might still go back on their word." Yinaole rubbed his brow, a trace of worry involuntarily revealing itself in his eyes.

"What exactly did they say?" Xia Duo asked again.

"Except for Lander, none of them were easy to talk to, especially Sikumu; I didn't even see him in person. Most of the time, I was negotiating with Badijiaer."

As he spoke, Yinaole explained further, "They put forward a few requirements that I think you might not agree to. For example, even if Sustainable Development is promoted, it cannot be applied retroactively; the Seven Towers need to retain the main body of Xin Saiwendun for at least one hundred years.

"Even when I proposed trading with a Floating City, they were hard to budge. I never expected that—perhaps your previous performance was too conservative—they are very confident in Xin Saiwendun and do not want a simple trade.

"However, they did propose a plan, which is to exchange the main body of Xin Saiwendun for the Mythallar of your Chang'an City; I certainly cannot agree to this."

Just from this part of what Yinaole said, Xia Duo could see the difficulty of the negotiation; the conflict between the two sides was almost irreconcilable, which made him curious: how did Yinaole finally convince them?

"Teacher, since even trading doesn't work, how did they finally agree?"

"Lander proposed a compromise: they could agree to the Sustainable Development proposal, with everything else temporarily shelved, and this proposal requires you to provide a detailed explanation and submit it to them before convening the Council of Great Arcanists."

"This can be called an agreement?"

Xia Duo was surprised at first, but then he understood; being able to negotiate to this point was already not bad. The Seven Towers underestimated the value of the Adaptive Mythallar and also overestimated their own foundation.

There was a significant information gap between the two sides, and in such a situation, it is most difficult to reach a consensus.