Chapter 2467: Phase Three

After much thought, Xia Duo felt that the only variable he could think of that might currently arise was Puman; perhaps the external threat of the Elves could also be considered a variable, but now that the Northland Alliance was becoming increasingly stable, this argument clearly lacked sufficient persuasiveness.

Moreover, this incident only involved three Planes and would not completely expose the hidden strength of the Seven Towers; in addition, as the centralization reforms of the various Northland nations continued to advance, Netheril itself could also feel the pressure.

If one did not want to learn from the Elves, then the only option was to put more power out in the open; the Mythallar War Spell Movement Platform was one choice, and a larger population and more top-tier Spellcasters were also choices.

This was actually somewhat similar to an arms race, but it leaned more toward healthy competition; others had already begun, and if you wanted to maintain the status of a Great Power, you had to keep up.

It could be said that whether internally or externally, the return of those three Planes was the general trend.

The only variable with the opportunity to change all of this was Puman, because the source of this topic and these recent events was Puman; as long as Puman said there was no such thing and that he was just messing around, the Seven Towers could then forcefully obstruct it.

As long as they did not want to trigger a civil war on the spot, the attitudes of others might not be so resolute; even Xia Duo, when thinking of that possibility, would feel troubled.

"Then let's just make Puman shut up."

As long as Puman did not appear, regardless of whether those three Planes returned, the Seven Towers would first have no reason to prevent the connection of the three Planes, because to explain that those three Planes did not need to be connected, one would at least have to let people from the Main Plane go over and see the situation.

And as long as people from the Main Plane went over, that was effectively equivalent to a connection; once those Planes were connected, the people inside would want to return, and the Seven Towers would have no more reason to refuse, because the reality had already been revealed beyond doubt.

……

Afterward, Xia Duo continued to perform divination several more times, but no images related to this topic appeared; after ending the divination, he hurried back to the Tower of Time before the afternoon meeting began.

After explaining the ins and outs to Puman, he invited the other party to stay in the 【Stasis Chamber】 for a few days; he did not want to gamble on whether Puman would defect, and Puman did not want to face such a difficult dilemma, so he voluntarily moved into the Stasis Chamber of the Tower of Time, waiting until the dust settled on the incident before coming out.

……

Returning to Seventon again, Xia Duo told Yinaole that Puman might not show up; Yinaole pondered for a moment and still expressed his agreement.

"If he doesn't come, he doesn't come; it might be more troublesome without him, but it won't change the final result."

"Thank you for understanding, Teacher."

"Go to the venue; it's about time."

"Mm."

……

At the afternoon venue, the number of attendees had changed significantly; first, more than half of the observers on the periphery were gone, and second, several Councilors of the Arcane Union were also missing.

Xia Duo could understand these things; after all, the Arcane Union also had normal work to do, and the Councilors were actually the senior management personnel handling these routine affairs; as for the observers, perhaps the Great Arcanists did not want to argue in front of too many irrelevant people.

But what made Xia Duo somewhat unable to understand was—Huo En, who had only looked for him at noon, was actually absent in the afternoon!

He pondered for a while and did not think it was because he had persuaded Huo En, but only felt that perhaps something had happened at Jilan Tower that urgently required Huo En to handle it personally.

Although Huo En's absence could not change the Seven Towers' choice to resist the general trend, it clearly brought some visible influence to the people in the venue.

The most obvious was the rebuttal against the Seven Towers; the attitudes of others became more resolute, and their voices became more severe, while correspondingly, the Seven Towers side seemed to be somewhat lacking in strength.

Sikumu even had a slip of the tongue and said, "Who can prove that those descendants of the Pioneers want to return to the Main Plane?" Did this still need someone to prove it? As long as those present were allowed to go over and take a look, wouldn't they know!

From the moment Sikumu had the slip of the tongue, the Seven Towers side completely fell into a disadvantage; struggling to cope, they were unable to salvage the situation, which was much smoother than the intense debate Xia Duo had anticipated.

"No wonder Teacher said it makes no difference whether Puman is here or not."

……

Soon, the meeting proceeded to the third stage.

The first stage discussed procedural issues, namely whether the topic of accepting the return of Other Plane Pioneers to the Main Plane could be discussed at the Council of Great Arcanists.

In this stage, the Seven Towers could barely maintain the situation, but this issue already had a result from the moment the Seven Towers arrived; any further sophistry by the Seven Towers was just a waste of time.

The second stage was the substantive discussion stage of this meeting's topic, namely whether to accept the return of Other Plane Pioneers to the Main Plane.

This was divided into several smaller stages, from demonstrating the rationality and necessity of the return of Other Plane Pioneers, all the way to confirming the acceptance of the return of Other Plane Pioneers.

In this stage, due to Huo En's absence and Lander's silence, the resistance of the Seven Towers was almost a total failure.

After that was the third stage, and this was the true home field of the Seven Towers.

Regardless of how loud the moral slogans were, it ultimately had to be implemented into specific operations, which meant how to receive the returning Other Plane Pioneers.

There were too many problems here.

First, how to determine who wanted to return was a big problem; furthermore, there was the issue of the Seven Towers' investment in those Planes over these hundreds of years—if too many people were relocated at once, who would pay for this portion of the loss?

Finally, there was the issue of resettlement on the Main Plane; this was actually the simplest, as there was plenty of land and few people within Netheril, and with so much ownerless land, one could just find a place with decent terrain and topography to pioneer.

"Later, we will propose an investigation plan to see how many people actually wish to relocate back to the Main Plane; in addition, those few Planes still contain important data and facilities of the Seven Towers, so we will not consider opening the Plane connection until these are processed."

Just as Xia Duo thought, this stage was indeed the home field of the Seven Towers; Sikumu easily proposed various delaying schemes; if the Planes were not connected and personnel did not move, then all the results discussed previously would lose their meaning.

After all, the Seven Towers had operated those few Planes for hundreds of years, and they could find too many reasons; besides what was proposed at the meeting now, even if they reached a temporary agreement, they could completely find an excuse like "capturing a wanted criminal" to continue blocking the Planes.

Although the discussion in this stage was about more practical problems than before, the degree of bickering was far worse than before.

From the moment he saw Sikumu "arguing with the scholars," Xia Duo understood that this meeting would probably, perhaps, should last for a long time.

This was the last dignity of the Seven Towers; wanting to take it away completely in one go was unrealistic.

……

After the afternoon adjournment, Yinaole called Xia Duo, Kelifu, Bailun, Kangjienio, and Badijiaer to hold a small private meeting; this was when the real bargaining happened.