Chapter 2464: Puman Arrives

From Sikumu's two rebuttals, it can be seen that the Seven Towers were absolutely prepared this time, but Yinaole was not entirely without preparations either.

There was no need for Yinaole to even speak; as soon as Sikumu finished stating his reasons, Keluosi immediately proposed:

"Back then, it was to avoid risks that the existence of the Other Planes was kept hidden, and this is also the fundamental reason why the Seven Towers have been able to control those Other Planes for hundreds of years. How can the current Seven Towers use this to prove our tacit consent?"

This is actually an axiom; if the Seven Towers want to gain everyone's recognition of their ownership of the Other Planes, they must at least let everyone know of the Other Planes' existence first. If they occupy them without even informing anyone, it is effectively equivalent to encroaching upon the collective property of Netheril from five hundred years ago.

Because at that time, the Seven Towers possessed all the Netherese Mages and could represent the entirety of Netheril, or were even equivalent to it. But the current Seven Towers, while still able to represent it, do so only symbolically, and are far from reaching the point of being equivalent.

The territory of the Keluosi family is far to the south of the Nether Core Region. Before Saville pioneered the Nan Jing, that place was the southernmost part of Netheril, or it could be considered the most marginal area.

But even in such a marginal place, tracing the source still leads back to the Seven Towers of five hundred years ago. Now that Sikumu says everyone tacitly consented to the Other Planes belonging to the Seven Towers, Keluosi stood up to say the Seven Towers encroached upon public assets.

Xia Duo was somewhat surprised by Keluosi's reaction. Previously, he had suspected that Keluosi was a pawn pushed out by the Seven Towers to carry out centralized reforms. Now that he has suddenly turned against them, it at least shows that Keluosi and the Seven Towers are not of one mind.

Of course, if he were a pawn, it would also be explainable. The Seven Towers are currently facing a crucial historical turning point; if they pass it, they remain the rulers of Netheril, and if they don't, it goes without saying.

Although they would still be a powerful Mage Tower organization, they would lose the halo of legitimacy and face the possibility of decline.

Xia Duo suddenly realized that regardless of whether he concealed it, the other Great Arcanists were not fools. Although they might not have thought of revising the Seville Covenant, they certainly had intentions to further reduce the authority of the Seven Towers.

By whittling it down bit by bit, they could eventually reach a state of revising the Seville Covenant. However, merely reducing authority would inevitably make the Seven Towers harbor wishful thinking, unwilling to give up their Executive status.

Coupled with the proliferation of the Nether Core, the risk of future civil war is actually even greater.

It is far better to take advantage of the return of the descendants of the Other Plane Pioneers to directly amend the Seville Covenant. Although this might cause significant turbulence in the short term, it is more beneficial in the long run.

Of course, Xia Duo still does not intend to reveal this in advance. It is best if someone can guess it; if he were to reveal it early, those people might worry about a falling out with the Seven Towers and would not put much effort into the issue of the return of the Other Plane Pioneers' descendants.

A struggle over interests versus a struggle over power—the intensity of the two is completely different.

Xia Duo has every reason to believe that the Seven Towers would rather directly abandon those few Habitable Planes than lose their legitimate Executive status.

But that is not up to them.

……

After Keluosi, Weide, an old rival of the Seven Towers, was not to be outdone and immediately proposed—

The current Seven Towers are merely a union of lords. The Controllers of the Seven Towers can represent this collective to a certain extent, but they cannot represent every decision of every lord in this collective, especially on core issues concerning territorial ownership.

This rebuttal is more fatal than Keluosi's, because in a sense, it directly denies the legitimacy of the Controllers of the Seven Towers, and even the rationality of the Seven Towers' existence.

If the Controllers of the Seven Towers—those seven Great Arcanists—could decide everything for every lord within the Seven Towers' sphere of influence, then are those lords within the Seven Towers' sphere of influence still lords under the principle of independence of the Seville Covenant?

Whether from a legal perspective or a practical level, they are; otherwise, there would be no territories outside the Seven Towers.

Even for lords currently within the Seven Towers, they can withdraw at any time if they are willing. However, people are social beings; they will consider the gains and losses, and only when the benefits of withdrawing are greater than staying in the Seven Towers will they withdraw.

For example, Saville: in his era, there was not much ownerless land left in the Nether Core Region. To establish a territory in the Inner Land, one basically had to choose to join the Seven Towers.

But for Saville, how much territory he had, or even whether he had a territory, was not important; what mattered was whether he could be independent. So he chose to stay far away from the Core Area and pioneer new land in the current Nan Jing.

Additionally, some lords who have been marginalized within the Seven Towers for various reasons might band together to withdraw.

Of course, for every withdrawal, there is an addition. Xia Duo had received multiple invitations from the Jilan Tower previously, which was such a case. However, in the last hundred years, the Seven Towers have had few new lords joining, and more have been continuously withdrawing.

The reason for this can perhaps be explained by the "Matthew Effect" from Earth: the strong within the Seven Towers occupy more and more resources, while the weak can only leave the circle of the Seven Towers to find other opportunities.

And this is actually inseparable from the Seville Covenant. The Seville Covenant guarantees the independent status of lords, and very few lords lose their territory due to the interruption of their Magic heritage.

The simplest example: the Rodney Territory, which had caused trouble in the Nan Jing previously, had its lord controlled by Weide. If this matter had not been exposed, perhaps no one would have cared, but once exposed, the result was that Weide was sanctioned by the Seven Towers and many other parties.

As the Seven Towers possess legitimate Executive status, they are absolutely uncompromising in upholding the Seville Covenant.

Now, with the Seven Towers' legitimacy questioned by Weide, Sikumu was suddenly filled with anger. From his perspective, the existence of the Seven Towers is absolutely necessary, and his control over the interior of the Seven Towers is also beyond question.

Just as he was about to speak, he was stopped by Badijiaer. Sikumu might not be able to answer this question well, nor should he be the one to answer it. As the Chief Controller of the Seven Towers, Badijiaer is duty-bound to respond to challenges regarding the Seven Towers' legitimacy.

With Badijiaer stepping in, Sikumu calmed down slightly and sat back down, somewhat unwillingly. Although debating with others on behalf of the Seven Towers helps to increase his voice within the Seven Towers, this topic is very sensitive. If handled poorly, let alone him, even Badijiaer would likely lose a great deal of prestige.

Just as Sikumu was deep in thought, Badijiaer had already spoken in a dignified tone:

"The Executive status of the Seven Towers comes from the Seville Covenant; this is indisputable. And we Controllers represent the Seven Towers based on the election of the internal lords, which is reasonable, legal, and logical."

"As for the Other Planes pioneered over the past five hundred years, they did not all come from the accidental discoveries of the original Seven Towers members, but from constant exploration and discovery over hundreds of years. The Seven Towers have paid a huge price for this!"

"Is it reasonable to deny the current Seven Towers' ownership of those Planes now just by saying 'the current Seven Towers are not the Seven Towers of the past'?"