Chapter 2440: Puman Requests an Audience

Just like that, Xia Duo temporarily settled down in Seventon, though he did not stay at the Arcane Union Headquarters, but instead moved to his own Weilan Manor.

If he had no property of his own, he would certainly have preferred to stay at the Arcane Union, but now that he had a house, it was definitely more convenient to stay in his own home.

It was just a pity that with the proliferation of Mythallars and the example of Chang'an City, it was inevitable that Floating Cities would become a trend in Netheril in the future; the Weilan Manor here in Seventon would likely never see the day its value rose.

During this period, Xia Duo had also visited Xin Saiwendun, which was hovering above Seventon; it was simply the perfect embodiment of the will of the Seven Towers—

In the very center was a plaza, with seven tall Mage Towers that were not yet fully completed encircling the edge of the plaza, followed by the New City District that constantly expanded outward.

Of course, it was currently just a superficial facade piled up using shaping spells; only the Great Arena located in the south had undergone magical modification and could be called a magical building.

It was also the only completed magical building in Xin Saiwendun at present.

Just by looking at the urban design of Xin Saiwendun once, Xia Duo discovered the disadvantage of intercepting mountain peaks as the foundation for a Floating City: if the city wanted to expand in the future, it would basically have to switch to a larger mountain peak.

It was truly not as good as using entirely synthetic or transformed materials, so that later expansion would not be a problem; even a sphere like Chang'an City, which seemed to have a limited volume, still left room for future physical expansion.

The simplest method was to add new spherical shells outside the sphere.

Moreover, because everything was designed from scratch, all entities were incorporated into the same system for unified management, and the subsequently expanded parts could also be perfectly integrated.

Intercepting mountain peaks had many drawbacks; apart from the superficial grandeur that ordinary people could understand, it had no other significance.

Xia Duo had only been to Xin Saiwendun once and never went again, and since both the internal deliberations of the Seven Towers and Zhenna's collection of Plane Crystals required time, he stayed completely holed up in Weilan Manor.

Because he was here, Niya would occasionally come over to look around, but she would soon return to Nan Jing.

……

Time flew by, and half a month passed.

On this day, Xia Duo received a message from Niya—Aiboke had returned, and he had brought back twelve High Mages along with their families.

In addition, there were quite a few High Mages who, although they had not yet agreed to officially join the Tower of Time, had followed along to Nan Jing, preparing to conduct an on-site inspection before deciding whether to join.

It could be said that Aiboke had almost swept up all the "free" High Mages in the Iolorum Territory and the surrounding areas in this one trip.

And not long after Xia Duo received the Sending from Niya, Yinaole also sent him a message, not about the latest news from the Seven Towers, but about Aiboke:

"Good fellow, that kid quietly took so many people away from me; if he comes a few more times, my meager family assets will be plucked clean by him."

Although Yinaole complained, he was not angry; after all, without his consent, Aiboke could not have taken so many people away. In Niya's description, among those High Mages who officially joined the Tower of Time, several still had contracts with Yinaole's Mage Tower, yet Yinaole still let them go.

The others were likely not much different; no matter how nicely Aiboke spoke or how attractive the Daxia Order was, it could not change the fact that those High Mages were effectively eating from Yinaole's bowl.

It was not that easy to change one's rice bowl.

It was called recruiting in the Iolorum Territory, but in reality, it was recruiting inside someone else's Mage Tower. Not to mention others, take Xia Duo himself: even before the restructuring of the Tower of Time, if someone came to recruit members of the Tower of Time who did not have fixed contracts, he would not have let them go easily.

As for after the restructuring, he would do so even less; having paid such a high price to cultivate them, were they meant to be cultivated for other Mage Tower organizations?

This could actually be compared to modern enterprises on Earth; occasional talent exchange was fine, but a situation where one party went inside another to recruit was almost impossible to occur.

From this, one could also see Yinaole's tolerance and regard for Xia Duo.

After expressing his gratitude to Yinaole multiple times, Xia Duo interrupted the communication; he prepared to return to Nan Jing to see the people Aiboke had brought back—not for an inspection, but just to understand the situation.

But before he could even walk out of the Study, an unexpected person suddenly sent a message requesting to meet, and that person had already arrived in the small woods on the outskirts of the manor.

The other party's identity caused Xia Duo to have many associations; for a moment, he was not even sure if he should meet the other party. If he did not meet them, he might miss the truth, but if he did, he worried that this act itself would cause variables.

But soon, he made a decision, because the existence of Magic meant that from the moment the other party decided to come find him, the future had already changed.

Having personally experienced the complex future landscapes in the Prophecy Ritual, Xia Duo always had more considerations for various decisions in the present, which made him appear somewhat constrained.

But he actually knew very well in his heart that a prophecy was merely one possibility; what the future would actually be like depended to a large extent on the decisions made in the present. If one were troubled by some possibility in the future, one would actually lose the meaning of the prophecy itself.

Therefore, Xia Duo decided to follow his heart's decision—whether to meet or not, it was still me; at this moment, I decide to meet.

……

After making the decision, Xia Duo immediately relaxed the restrictions of the protection system within the manor, allowing the other party to truly enter the interior of the manor, and he himself walked out of the villa in the center of the manor.

Before long, a peddler with his upper body bare, pushing a small cart loaded with goods, appeared before Xia Duo, which surprised him, "You are—Puman?"

Xia Duo had once raided a Demon Descendant base together with Puman, so they could be considered to have some friendship, but the Puman in his impression was a taciturn, stiff-mannered middle-aged man; in any case, he would definitely not be the carefree peddler in front of him.

This made him realize that the previous prophecy might truly have some basis in reality!

"It is me. I am very sorry to appear in this image, but now the Seven Towers guard against me even more than they guard against Demon Descendants; I have no choice but to use this disguise."

Puman said with a bitter smile a fact that the former him would likely have found hard to imagine. At this moment, his expressions were much richer, and Xia Duo also sensed something unusual; he noticed Puman mentioned guarding against Demon Descendants.

Because of the terrorist attack by Demon Descendants at Master Eriwen's Ascension Ritual previously, the degree to which the Seven Towers guarded against Demon Descendants could almost be said to have reached the extreme in every aspect; this was something Xia Duo understood.

To be able to use "even more than guarding against Demon Descendants" to describe the Seven Towers' attitude toward him, Puman had definitely gone through an experience unimaginable to outsiders.

Considering Puman's identity, what kind of experience it was was already self-evident; if nothing unexpected happened, the signs of infighting or even armed conflict within the Seven Towers had already appeared!

However, whether the other party was truly Puman was still up for debate. Xia Duo invited the other party into the villa's Study, which was the place with the strongest Avoidance of Detection in the entire manor; during this time at Weilan Manor, he had even specifically performed an upgrade on it.

"You don't have to worry about the Seven Towers' search and peeping here; you can rest assured and restore your true appearance."