Chapter 2737: Delaying and Renegotiating the Magic Restriction Treaty

Very quickly, the monthly routine council meeting began.

The fixed agenda remained a continuation of the discussions from the previous few months regarding the council's subordinate agencies, primarily concerning the division of Permission Levels and personnel arrangements.

The council's subordinate agencies are led by the Seven Towers based on executive power, but leadership does not mean that the subordinate agencies must be staffed entirely by the Seven Towers; other council members can also arrange for people to join if they wish, or establish specific hiring standards and selection mechanisms.

In fact, many council members, like Xia Duo, do not have any excess power to send out to join the council's subordinate agencies—or rather, the government—so they are more inclined to establish rules rather than desperately trying to stuff people inside.

Currently, after several months of discussion, more than half of the ten subordinate agencies of the Seventon Council have completed the division of Permission Levels and the formulation of rules.

This includes several departments with real power, such as the Arcane Union, the Diplomatic Affairs Department, the Resource Planning Committee, and the Enforcement Guard; as for the rest, apart from the more controversial Department of Divine Affairs, the others mostly just need to go through the motions.

Regarding the Department of Divine Affairs, on the surface, it is used to manage divine-related matters within Netheril, such as Temples, sects, and Priests, but in reality, this department also relates to the future Ascension Order, or rather, the latter is the key.

Regarding the establishment of this department, most council members voted in favor, and even Xia Duo could not stop it, but regarding the internal distribution of Permission Levels within this department, there were too many points of contention.

One cannot mention the Ascension Order too early, otherwise there would be suspicion of monopoly; even if one could do so, no one is willing to deny that point, because doing so would be almost equivalent to blocking all paths to Ascension left by predecessors.

The path to Ascension cannot be shared; once someone uses a certain order to ascend to godhood, are those who come after expected to kill the god first before ascending themselves? Perhaps it is possible, but that is clearly a very, very high probability.

Of course, this matter is not something that can have a result just by sitting here and discussing it within Netheril; it still needs to be taken to the Northland Alliance for discussion, but at least a consensus can be reached internally first.

During the vote, Xia Duo unhesitatingly supported the provision of aid by council members, or more accurately, by council members from the Main Plane, because the Sweet Water Three Planes have a stable climate and are completely unprepared in that regard.

Counting what was donated in a private capacity, he had already exceeded his aid obligations.

Finally, summarizing, "In the past, I didn't feel much, but now the Magic Restriction Treaty is increasingly affecting us, so we have a need to reconsider the relevant contents of the treaty."

Next, as long as time is dragged out, as long as the possibility of progress in the arcane path can be proven, even if it is just a possibility, it will be enough to persuade most council members to postpone the establishment of the Ascension Order.

Therefore, during this meeting, Xia Duo just watched others discuss without participating; some of these people agreed to provide supplies directly from their own Territory, while others suggested convening the Lord's Conference in advance to call on all lords to support together.

……

Domestically, it was mainly about some lords from the Sweet Water Three Planes who had moved to the Main Plane to pioneer; they sent requests for help to the council through the Pioneers and Lords Affairs Department.

Under these circumstances, Xia Duo hoped that the rules established would be more inclined toward breaking the Ascension Order rather than maintaining it; coupled with the disagreements that naturally arose during the rule-making process, this matter had been under discussion since a few months ago, but until now, no result had been reached.

And in this field, having order is far better than chaotic fighting without order; at least in the initial stage, many disputes can be avoided, and the monopoly problem he worries about most will only manifest in the later stages.

Therefore, Xia Duo expressed his support immediately and put forward his own suggestions for modifying the Magic Restriction Treaty: "The original intention of the Magic Restriction Treaty is good, as it can remind us to properly utilize Magic Net resources, but with the development of Magic technology, the supermagic quotas set in the past are truly out of step with the times; I suggest renegotiating or simply abolishing them."

So he made up his mind that if the Ascension Order was destined to be unstoppable, then at least he must have a certain say in it so that he could make changes in the future.

Therefore, the first batch of council members under the New Covenant must complete the establishment of the Ascension Order as soon as possible; otherwise, the later it is, the greater the variables, and the harder it will be to reach a consensus.

"Good, that clause is passed. Next clause, it concerns everyone here—" Badijiaer's gaze swept across everyone, lingering on Xia Duo for an exceptionally long time.

"Although the Mythallar has not been out for long, the impact it has produced is immense. In the last half-year, the Northland Alliance has repeatedly issued reminders to our country regarding the issue of Mythallar supermagic."

He felt that the Magic Restriction Treaty should focus more on some protective indicators related to the Magic Net, rather than overly rigid records of supermagic events; that way, it could at least be maintained for a longer time, rather than having to be revised every few years.

In Xia Duo's view, the treaty itself should be a consensus, and the objects signing the treaty are countries, not individuals; forcibly stipulating specific indicators that lag behind the development of the era is actually very unreasonable, because even if the limit is exceeded, it is very difficult to impose penalties.

The first half of the meeting was as Xia Duo expected: the discussion on the Department of Divine Affairs made no progress, while the discussions on other departments were passed quickly. Time soon reached the second half, which was the discussion of recent major domestic and foreign affairs.

……

But the groundwork for the Ascension Order must also be laid in advance; otherwise, once the rules of the council and government are clarified in the future, and the council members and lords are familiar with this set of rules, it will not be easy to add private agendas.

This situation is one Xia Duo is happy to see; he knows that many council members actually support the arcane path and do not only favor the progress method of Ascension, it is just that the arcane path truly shows no hope, while the Ascension path already has a ready-made example.

As for how to provide aid and how much to provide, it was basically irrelevant to Xia Duo, because at the meeting before last, while others were still watching, the Great Xia Territory had already claimed part of the aid in advance and had now delivered it all.

Of course, this aspect is a field he is concerned about and cares about; since there happened to be an opportunity for a breakthrough, he naturally invested more energy into it.

Thus, how to provide aid, how much to provide, and whether to provide it had already been discussed at the council meeting before last, and Niya had cast a supporting vote on behalf of Xia Duo at that time.

This is actually one of the reasons why Xia Duo has been burying himself in the study of Order Force recently.

But now, the new discovery in the application of Order Force might be a new direction for the further development of Arcane Magic; even if it is not, at least it can be pretended to be, and then used to delay time.

"Although you do not all currently possess your own Mythallar, you will all possess one sooner or later, so regarding the supermagic issue, you can already start considering it in advance."

Next, Badijiaer focused on introducing the background and main contents of the Northland Alliance's Magic Restriction Treaty to the council members—specifically the twenty-eight from the Sweet Water Three Planes.

As for how to prove it, if it were in the past, Xia Duo might not have had much confidence, as it would require a qualitative breakthrough in relevant Magic Theory.

But Xia Duo was opposed to establishing the Ascension Order and monopolizing the path to Ascension, but he currently had no way to propose a better plan; after all, the pure arcane path he hoped for was still far from touching the God's Domain.