Chapter 2494: Ambush, Time Barrier

It is not difficult for Xia Duo to guess the Elf's behavior; it is nothing more than wanting to use this to influence the group of elite Spellcasters below the level of Great Arcanist in Netheril. Although these people may not necessarily have much decision-making power, their indirect influence is by no means small.

Take Xia Duo for example: if Aiboke were to strongly urge him to agree to the Elves joining the New Covenant now, although he still would not change his own mind, he would at least give more consideration to Aiboke's attitude.

Aiboke alone would be one thing, but if the people around him were all persuading him, especially Niya and Saville—whose opinions Xia Duo values very much—he is not even sure if he would eventually compromise.

If this is true for Xia Duo himself, then extending this to others, it is impossible for other Great Arcanists to live in a vacuum. As long as they live in the real world, they cannot escape the various relationships between people.

You can choose not to listen to a friend's advice, but what about the advice of your blood relatives?

Xia Duo can almost imagine that the Elves' methods are certainly not limited to just the Arcane Plaza; they may already exist in other places as well.

Thinking this way, Xia Duo is even more certain of the disadvantages of Yierlan joining the New Covenant.

At this moment, the Elf host in the distance has already introduced a sculpture from the early days of the Old Covenant. Its creator was surprisingly not an Elf, but a human, and it has been preserved to this day as a symbol of the friendship between the two countries.

Seeing this scene, Xia Duo really does not know what to say. He is very clear that this kind of "recalling the bitterness of the past to appreciate the sweetness of the present" is very easy to stir up empathy among humans.

Compared to the friendship that has lasted for hundreds of years without ever being completely broken, what does a little friction over the last hundred years count for? Perhaps a small portion of Netherese would think so.

The next moment, spiritual light scattered across the plaza, the original spatial expansion effect suddenly failed, and the crowd that had only looked bustling before suddenly became truly crowded.

It must be said that Xia Shao, this outsider, has worried himself to death for Netheril.

Where there is a spear, there will be a shield; where there is a shield, the spear will also be upgraded. Therefore, what Xia Shao chose was not to upgrade the defensive strength of the shield itself, because no matter how it is upgraded, it is only at the level of when the spell was finalized. Once it encounters a spell that exceeds the defensive strength of that time, it is definitely "shield-breaking."

Almost instantly, panic spread.

And Xia Shao, who was inside the halo, only then reacted, looking at the nearly stagnant spiritual light at the edge of the halo, and the similarly nearly stagnant crowd in the outer circle that had already become blurry and indistinct.

The Jieti expands rapidly; the outer circle is a 【Contact Zone】 where time is decelerated to near-stagnation, used to obstruct various tangible and intangible spells, foreign objects, and even influence.

Xia Shao sighed unhurriedly. This spell was only completed after he drew on the strengths of many others while in the Red Heart Alliance Projection Plane; it can almost be said to condense his deep understanding of the domains of time, matter, elements, and space.

Of course, for this attack before his eyes, he did not need to spend much time thinking or analyzing at all. With just a light glance, he easily severed the connection between the incoming spell and himself.

But Xia Shao does not blame those Netherese for their shallow vision; it is truly because the timing of the Elves' appearance was too perfect, and they have always disguised themselves too well.

Asking them to actively eliminate Elven influence is truly too difficult, and one careless move could lead to sliding into another extreme—that is, extreme arrogance, believing that non-humans, or more accurately, everything that is not Netherese, is inferior.

But all of this was within Xia Shao's expectations. The next moment, the space in the area on the north side of the plaza shifted. Before others could react, the space expanded again, and it was not just an expansion; a large area suddenly cleared around the Elf who attacked Xia Shao. First is the triggering of the spell, which can be actively activated or passively triggered; when encountering a directional spell lock, it will automatically activate the Time Protection Barrier.

With Xia Shao's current status, unless it is a very small number of special circumstances, it can be said that all directional spells cast on him, whether good or bad, can be regarded as a provocation against him.

Xia Shao chose to use time deceleration and time acceleration to turn the original real-time combat into "turn-based" combat that is more suitable for him, once the Time Protection Barrier is triggered.

When a directional spell has not yet substantively arrived, its influence on the target, similar to "quantum entanglement," has already occurred, and once this influence is detected, the Time Protection will automatically trigger.

In the hearts of the vast majority of Netherese, Elves represent strength, wealth, mystery, beauty, purity, kindness, and all other positive vocabulary.

Just as Xia Shao was about to completely leave the area affected by the exhibition stand, a dazzling spiritual light suddenly shot out from the crowd, accompanied by a sharp shout as it rushed toward him—

Yet at this moment, there was the Spell Suppression Field that Xia Shao had cast. Even though most of the onlookers were Spellcasters, they had no way to cast spells in a magic environment that was controlled and suppressed.

In order not to completely tear their faces with the Elves, the upper echelons naturally would not deliberately propagate negative news about the Elves. Xia Shao even feels it is hard to say whether the upper echelons of Netheril in the current era even have the concept of ideological infiltration.

Moving a little further away from the exhibition stand, the crowd that had been somewhat dense just now became sparse again.

"【Time Protection Barrier】 is indeed powerful!"

After all, although Netheril is a bit small now, it is indeed an "international metropolis." Many countries in the Northland Alliance have Permanent Teleportation Portals leading to Aiboke.

And when Xia Shao's Time Protection Barrier monitors an interaction based on "pointing," it will automatically trigger, similar to how observation on Earth leads to wave function collapse.

Most spells that defend against directional spells have this design principle, such as the most famous Spell Reversal.

That incoming spiritual light, upon touching the outer halo, seemed to have been pressed on a pause button; the spiritual light flickered but could not advance a single step further.

At the same time, he also locked onto the attacker in the crowd, an Elf figure. It is also normal for Elves to observe when Arcanists hold exhibitions.

Just like the attack he is suffering now, as long as he is willing, he could even take out a chair, sit down, and think and analyze slowly until he finds a way to crack the incoming directional spell.

Naturally, having confirmed the attacker was an Elf, Xia Shao would naturally not hold back at all. He adjusted the Time Protection Barrier slightly and calmly cast a Spell Suppression Field over the area where the Elf was located.

In the eyes of many, Elves are angels who are satisfied just by drinking dew; how could the ugliness of the mortal world possibly be associated with Elves!

And the "pointing" of a directional spell can basically be regarded as "locking" or "positioning," or even "observation," which will inevitably interact with the target to a certain degree.

"Xia Shao, die!"

【Xiaoxiang App search "Spring Gift" for new users to receive 500 book coins, old users receive 200 book coins】 If one does not deeply understand the essence of Elven society, many people will be blinded by the exquisite and wealthy appearance displayed by Elves in foreign lands, thereby falling into blind worship of the Elves.

Although there are not many Elves in Netheril, they are definitely not few, especially since the exhibits in this exhibition held by the Arcanist at the Arcane Plaza are almost all fine pieces—of course, excluding a portion of historical artifacts related to Netheril.

Almost simultaneously, even Xia Shao himself had not reacted, when an invisible halo seemed to be stimulated and suddenly expanded from Xia Shao's body.

The inner layer, generally within a range of about one step around Xia Shao, is a time acceleration of dozens or hundreds of times, allowing Xia Shao to make decisions calmly and respond appropriately.

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