Chapter 2666: Joining the Investigation, Striking at the Scene

Not long after Xia Duo left the Northland Alliance Headquarters, he received a Sending from Dumu, who invited him to join the upcoming investigation into the two missing-person incidents that occurred within the borders of Yierlan.

Regarding this, Xia Duo agreed without much hesitation; he did indeed want to go and investigate the site in person, and if he could have a normal entry channel, he would not need to sneak in.

After all, sneaking in still carried risks, and the results obtained might not necessarily be recognized.

……

Returning to Meilong Market once again, in just this short amount of time, a long queue had already formed in front of Shop No. 18, though Xia Duo did not believe these Elves were all capable of purchasing the Void Warehouse service of the Tower of Time.

Most were likely just dragged over to make up the numbers and redeem the free trial quota.

Although he was in an alien world, at this moment, Xia Duo inexplicably felt as if he were in his hometown.

However, this time, he did not enter the shop, but instead sent a message to Aoruipusi to control the distribution of the free trial quotas; after all, the purpose of freebies was to expand influence, not to actually let them use it for free.

Afterwards, Xia Duo found a place to sit in the city garden near Meilong Market; there should be no surprises in joining the investigation next, and as for the specifics of how to investigate, he would have to wait until he saw the scene of the incident to make a judgment, but it would likely not fall outside of those few plans.

Sitting in this city garden that lacked much of a winter atmosphere, Xia Duo waited for the specific departure time from Dumu while pondering the first step of the cooperation plan discussed during his meeting with Laruian earlier.

To build a landmark building in Aifuruisi and then host a New Wind Art Exhibition inside it, guiding the citizens of Aifuruisi to understand Daxia Territory and the Daxia Code.

What Xia Duo was thinking about now was exactly what kind of landmark building to create; to be honest, the buildings of his hometown were superior in grandeur, but when it came to ingenuity, they might not necessarily compare to the Elves here.

And a landmark building, to a large extent, depends on ingenuity, or to put it more bluntly, appearance and function.

The land that Aifuruisi could provide was limited, and the resources provided were also limited; it was impossible for him to be allowed to create some kind of super wonder.

Moreover, this building would not belong to Xia Duo after completion, but to Aifuruisi, so the design concept from the very beginning needed to make the building both fit the style of the New Wind Art Exhibition and be useful to the future Aifuruisi.

A temporary building or a pure ornament was not what Xia Duo wanted to see.

"What on earth should I build?"

At this moment, a map of the Aifuruisi urban area had already spread out in Xia Duo's mind; the building site provided by the Aifuruisi side was in the South District, or rather, the Academy District.

Specifically, it was on a vacant lot near the Tartat Academy of Swordsmanship; currently, it was a lawn that had not been groomed much, and for the Elves, this was actually a semi-abandoned piece of land.

But the Tartat Academy of Swordsmanship had no channel to enter directly from the ground; one could only enter by walking on the Xuan Kong Budao, so this vacant lot was actually only close to Tartat in distance.

Students of the Tartat Academy of Swordsmanship would have to take a very long detour to get to that vacant lot.

However, Xia Duo did not have much feeling for this academy, which was named a Sword Academy but was actually for cultivating Noble children and Mages; if a normal Netherese came here, they might try to find a way to piggyback on the fame of the Sword Academy.

But Xia Duo felt that not getting involved was the best.

Next to that vacant lot were the Magic Academy and the Combat Academy; both of these were academies that could be reached normally from the ground, the former cultivating not Mages but Magic Craftsmen, and the latter cultivating Sword Singers.

These two were the places where ordinary Elves of Aifuruisi were most likely to come into contact with Magic; if one had excellent talent, it was not impossible to be spotted by some Mage and taken as a student, thereby achieving a class transition.

Xia Duo felt that the Aifuruisi side placing the venue for the New Wind Art Exhibition next to these two academies might be with the intention of catering to the middle class represented by these two academies.

As for the very bottom, there were generally only two types: one was ordinary Elves who had never come into contact with Magic at all—the number of this group was actually very small—and the other was the Druid.

Although the main food source of Aifuruisi relied on Druids, the status of Druids had not improved much for a long time.

Based on some Elven historical materials he obtained through various means, Xia Duo speculated that the original Druids were likely the indigenous people of the Main Plane, while the current Elves, the ruling class, were likely all outsiders.

The outsiders had advanced technology, while the indigenous people had backward technology, but the numbers of the two sides were vastly different; in order to better rule the more numerous indigenous people, the outsider Elves chose to suppress the local technology, which was the Natural Druid.

In this process, they also absorbed and modified the local technology, changing the original Natural Druids into Druids who held Faith in the Elven main gods, which was also for better control.

According to Xia Duo's speculation, the Gold Elves and Moon Elves of the Main Plane were all originally immigrant outsiders, the locals were at most Wood Elves, and the Suri Elves, one of the predecessors of the Drow, might also be local Elves.

The current Drow could be said to be a new race, but their predecessors were not just one kind of Elf; it was only because they were cursed and lived in the radiation environment of the Underdark for a long time that they became what they were now.

From this perspective, the so-called "Crown War" was very likely not a power-seizing war within the Elves in the early stages, but a war of the local Elves resisting the outsider Elves.

The result was obvious; the victory of Aryvandaar showed that the outsider Elves won completely, and the subsequent wars were wars within the victors.

Now, in the various Elven nations of the Main Plane, one rarely even hears any discussion about locals or immigrants; almost everyone has unified their rhetoric: the Elves were all outsiders, but now they have become the indigenous people.

They never mention that when the outsider Elves arrived, there were still many local Elves on the Main Plane, and many of those Elves still live on the Main Plane today.

Of course, the Elves did one thing right, and that was to establish themselves on the Main Plane instead of still considering themselves outsiders; and since too much time has passed, in this situation, there is not much meaning in discussing what is an outsider or a local Elf.

The Elves themselves don't care much, and it is difficult for outsiders to stir up the topic again.

Furthermore, at present, Aifuruisi is trying to introduce the Daxia Code; this is a further integration, and even the realization of true equality among the five races within the Elven ethnic group. In this situation, Xia Duo could not possibly undermine them.

With this consideration, Xia Duo roughly thought of what style the new building should be designed in.

It must not only contain Elven elements but also transcend the current mainstream artistic understanding of the Elves; in addition, it must also embody Xia Duo's own thoughts and philosophies.

The new building could actually be seen as the starting point for the true integration of the Northland Alliance, not just the true integration within the Elven ethnic group, but even the integration between completely different races.

Not based on bloodline, but based on a brand new, more advanced cultural integration.