Chapter 2533: Cocoon of Fate

Arcane Plaza.

The lords from all over Netheril had all arrived, and on the periphery were a large number of Spellcaster representatives and commoner representatives observing; observant people had already discovered that there were nearly half as many Lord Seats as they had known of in the past!

Associating this with the Plane Connection Ceremony from not long ago, many realized that those were Netheril Lords from Other Planes, and at the same time, they realized that a brand-new era had arrived.

Soon, Badijiaer walked out of the Council Building with 51 councilors, stood on the steps, and waved to the crowd in the plaza; in an instant, deafening cheers erupted from the entire venue.

The names of Xia Duo and other Main Plane councilors were called out incessantly; seeing this scene, even though Xia Duo was already well-informed and experienced, he could not help but feel his breath hitch—this peak of power was truly intoxicating.

But he quickly sobered up, took Niya's hand, followed behind the other councilors, descended the steps, walked slowly toward the plaza, and took his seat in the councilor section in the middle of the venue.

During this process, the cheers and shouts in the plaza gradually subsided.

"Everyone, the first plenary session of the Netheril Seventon Council now begins!"

Under the effect of a Spell, Badijiaer's steady voice spread throughout the entire plaza, and even further out to the periphery.

After announcing the start of the meeting, Badijiaer first cited the relevant principles regarding the organization of the Council in the New Covenant to characterize this meeting, so as to manifest its legality, and afterwards, he read out the rules of procedure and the main topics again.

Xia Duo and the other councilors had already heard Badijiaer explain these contents once before coming to the venue; this repeated explanation was mainly aimed at the participating lords and the representatives from all walks of life observing on the periphery.

Of course, this was also a necessary practice for standardized procedures.

While Xia Duo listened patiently, a strange feeling arose in his heart; he had previously made a Prophecy regarding the Seventon Council at the Arcane Union.

The scene was in the new council hall that was still under renovation, but the number of lords and councilors was almost exactly the same; the only difference was the Speaker in the Lord Seat.

The Speaker in the Prophecy was Yinaole, but in reality, it had become Badijiaer; this feeling of illusion and reality intertwining gave Xia Duo another layer of understanding of Prophecy.

"Right, it seems something is still missing!"

Xia Duo took the Pioneer Scepter out of his Personal Space and let it hover by his left hand; this scene was exactly the same as the image of himself he had seen in the Prophecy vision.

Just this single action caused the realization that had been stuck at a bottleneck to instantly rise to a new level; at this moment, he felt as if he were placed in a torrent of time, watching time lines constantly branching out before him, forming an incomparably long and dense web of fate.

"Witness Prophecy!"

A brand-new insight welled up; Xia Duo suddenly understood a little why those famous prophets in history were always so cryptic.

On one hand, they had indeed seen too many possibilities of the future, but on the other hand, they were very likely actively pushing for a certain possible future in the prophecy in order to obtain the insight of "witnessing the future."

As long as he witnessed the future enough times, Xia Duo had no doubt that he would obtain the passive ability called "Prophecy," and would no longer need to use Spells to see future scenes.

But thinking of the fates of those famous prophets in history, Xia Duo felt that doing so might not be a good thing; even if one's state of mind was sufficiently resilient, it was hard to avoid being influenced by the endless illusion of controlling fate, thereby falling into a situation of being controlled by false fate.

In a flash, Xia Duo could not help but feel a trace of alarm regarding Prophecy Spells; no wonder the inheritance of Prophecy had always been intermittent since ancient times and had never become an established discipline.

I am afraid that the wise men of old had long ago seen that this Spell called "Transcend Fate" was actually a poison of "binding oneself in a cocoon," thereby limiting its inheritance.

Even if individual prophets could resist this poison, there was no guarantee what choices other prophets would make; with too much inheritance, it was simply a source of chaos.

Thinking this way, Xia Duo still did not give up the idea of using Prophecy Spells to probe the Demon Descendant after this grand meeting; regardless of the final outcome for prophets, it would not have much impact on him in the short term.

As long as he held firm to the idea that "the future is changeable," using a mere Prophecy Spell was fine; he just needed to pay attention to changes in this regard during his daily Meditation Training, and if any signs of unexpected changes in mentality appeared, he would immediately terminate the relevant prophecy plan.

……

On the field.

"Although the New Covenant grants lords almost arbitrary freedom, true freedom has boundaries; for this reason, we need to place limits on the boundaries of the lords' power, and this limit applies universally to everyone in Netheril, including councilors!"

Subsequently, Badijiaer began to put various restrictions to a vote one by one; this part had actually been discussed long ago, and it generally followed the taboo contents of the past Netheril.

For example, large-scale creation of Undead, large-scale slaughter of Netheril citizens, and so on.

"The first item: prohibit the large-scale creation of Undead."

Badijiaer called the 51 councilors one by one to ask for their opinions, whether they were in favor, opposed, or abstaining.

Without a doubt, not a single person expressed opposition to this kind of pre-arranged matter, not even an abstention; everyone cast a vote in favor.

The reason why these things still had to be brought out for a vote now was mainly to form definite norms; the subordinate institutions of the Council established after the grand meeting would formulate more detailed definitions and punishment measures for these taboo behaviors.

Such as the large-scale creation of Undead: what exactly constitutes large-scale, what the standards are, and what punishment measures are taken when such standards are reached.

What the grand meeting was doing now was more of a supplement, perfection, and interpretation of the New Covenant; under the Covenant, there were more specific laws and regulations.

……

As one taboo behavior after another was voted upon and restricted, the meeting process soon reached the second topic, which was authorizing the permanent subordinate institutions of the Council.

The second topic was also divided into several steps; first, it was necessary to determine how many subordinate permanent institutions to establish, and only then could specific Permission Levels be determined for these permanent institutions.

As for the personnel arrangements and division of positions within these institutions, they would not be discussed at this grand meeting, but would be nominated by Speaker Badijiaer and voted on by the councilors at the next meeting to determine whether to pass them.

The laws and regulations regarding the specific definitions and punishment measures for taboo behaviors followed the same process; they would be formulated by the subordinate institutions of the Council and then submitted to the Council for a vote.

If the councilor meeting could not reach a result, a plenary session would be convened to let the lords vote, and the result of the lords' vote would have higher validity.

If the lords' vote also could not reach a result (less than two-thirds in favor), then it obviously meant that this law or some other proposal could not be recognized by the majority, and it would be returned to its original state.