Chapter 2946: The Competition and Progress of Gods

This is the theoretical lifespan limit of a Netherese Mage, approximately one thousand years or so.

Of course, this is only theoretical; in actual execution, different methods of Longevity may require different auxiliary conditions, and none are easy to achieve; being able to reach half of the limit is already quite remarkable.

Furthermore, not all Netherese Mages wish to obtain a long lifespan, including some Great Arcanists; some are influenced by the early Doctrine of the Lord of the End of All Things and refuse to resist death, while others simply do not care.

The current Doctrine of the Lord of the End of All Things does not restrict resisting death; instead, it encourages Mages to live their lives more fully through Longevity, so that they may enter the Domain of Death in a more fulfilled state.

Such a change in doctrine actually reflects the process of the Mage class becoming the true rulers of Netheril, and at the same time, it implies the cognitive bias of human Priests regarding death.

Such a vastly different change in doctrine did not cause resentment from the Lord of the End of All Things, which is enough to say that all human understanding of death might be contained within death itself; of course, it could also be the tacit approval and cooperation of the God of Death.

After all, gods are not omnipotent; even within their own Domain, they are happy to accept new Knowledge, new insights, and new changes that are more beneficial to them, provided there are no competitors.

If there are competitors, one must first eliminate the competitors; any changes that appear during this period must be branded as heresy, and the winner takes all.

Or rather, based solely on a brand-new understanding of death, the Netherese humans of the past actually had no chance of birthing a new god in the Domain of Death, but that understanding was immediately accepted by the Lord of the End of All Things.

If no one else had wanted to ascend to godhood based on that Domain before, this would not be directly offending the Lord of the End of All Things.

"What is the detection efficiency? Is it tested one by one? Or can it not be batch-tested?" a councilor continued to ask.

Just from the revelation of the Princess, one can glimpse the cruelty of the Ascension Race; the same path is basically not first-come, first-served—if you have it, he doesn't!

Once there is a successful predecessor, it is hard to say; perhaps Xia Shao will also have to occupy a spot first!

When I was in the Projection Plane, I even served as a leader of the Demon Descendants! Overall, I hold a sympathetic attitude toward the Demon Descendants themselves; it is mainly about causing trouble—everyone should just live their own lives well!

In the remote conference hall, Xia Shao listened to the speeches of other councilors, his thoughts already drifting far away; the situation at hand made him realize that there would likely be significant variables in the future regarding how to deal with the Demon Descendants.

"Councilor Xia Shao, we only have you here who has had direct contact with the Demon Descendants. I want to know if the Demon Descendants can really be detected? If they can, what should we do?"

This can at least ensure one's own survival, and only then will there be the qualifications to talk about other things.

These are not Xia Shao's guesses alone, but the revelations, or rather warnings, left behind after the Princess's Ascension to Godhood, forbidding Netherese Mages from ascending in the Domain of Death so as not to offend the Lord of the End of All Things.

"The detection efficiency is actually quite high; the main point is that mixed testing is possible, collecting blood from an area and testing it all at once. The key to detecting Demon Descendants lies in detecting the Abyssal Aura within it."

As long as the Demon Descendants do not come to provoke me and do not engage in indiscriminate attacks outside, I can fully accept the existence of the Demon Descendants.

A civilization led by a god and a civilization led by ordinary people are two completely different concepts in terms of efficiency, and the difficulty is also completely different.

Just as Xia Shao was deep in thought, he suddenly heard someone calling his name—

"Of course it can be detected, but it is limited to the bloodline itself. If a person is human, but their thoughts lean toward the Demon Descendants, then this method cannot detect it; even if their will is firm, even mind-affecting Spells may not necessarily be able to judge it."

"If you want to conduct comprehensive testing, establish a specialized detection Laboratory, or send the collected blood samples to the Northland Alliance for inspection."

Fortunately, Netheril at the current stage has not developed to that extent; at least before the next successful case of Ascension to Godhood appears, there will not be too cruel an Ascension Race.

The Darkness Society must be eliminated, as well as comprehensive inspections.

If it weren't for the limited understanding of the state of gods now, and not being sure if the process of Ascension to Godhood is reversible, or knowing if gods have any unspeakable drawbacks, Xia Shao would actually want to level up first and then develop the civilization.

On this point, Xia Shao has even more say than Badijiaer; being asked at this moment, he recalled a little, and then told everyone:

As for how to deal with the detected Demon Descendants, it requires the Northland countries to make a decision together; Xia Shao himself actually does not have too many thoughts.

But in any case, at least two points are certain, which the Northland countries, including Netheril, can reach a consensus on, and that is—

"However, considering that the blood itself also has uses other than detecting Demon Descendants, my suggestion is to introduce technology from the Northland Alliance and then build our own detection Laboratory."

Xia Shao is certainly more inclined to advance through the pure Arcane path, but if he can foresee the impending threat of a new god, he is not so inflexible that he wouldn't find a way to ascend first, or let someone he trusts ascend first.

"In short, at the practical level, this is completely achievable."

Xia Shao does not deny the limitations of the existing detection technology, but for comprehensive testing, detecting the bloodline is enough; one cannot conduct a thought review on everyone, that is unrealistic.

In this regard, the Elf countries are one step ahead of Netheril; after all, the Elves previously had the necessity to detect Demon Descendants, while humans did not.

It is not like a nuclear race, where if others succeed, you might not necessarily fail, and others' experience can even accelerate your own success; but in the Ascension Race, if others succeed, it is almost impossible for other Ascended Gods in the same Domain to succeed.

"If the total sample in an area detects an Abyssal Aura, then we can conduct re-testing on that area, dividing it into multiple blocks, and locking onto the source of the Abyssal Aura step by step."

"For Netheril, the ideal situation might be that it only takes one time to complete the detection; of course, this only happens if there are no Demon Descendants within the borders of Netheril."

Many of these people may have never understood the situation related to Demon Descendant detection before today, and now they can only ask Xia Shao, who is already working in the Northland Alliance.

Blood, especially blood involving the entire population, certainly cannot be handed over to untrusted hands; even for the sake of testing, one needs to find people who can be trusted to do it.

"This point can be completed during the blood collection stage, dividing one person's blood into multiple parts for subsequent testing. What is tedious about this matter is not the detection process, but the backtracking and positioning process, as well as the blood collection process."

"Afterward, for Territory screening, follow this method until the Demon Descendant target is found."

"If the blood collected initially is not enough, continue to collect repeatedly after narrowing down the target area."

"But the existing detection methods cannot judge whether a target is a Demon Descendant based on a single Spell, or rather, there are, but the cost is too high and it is not suitable for comprehensive testing."

"If there are Demon Descendants, the actual number of tests will not be many; test the total once first, then test half once, and within a few times, you can locate the specific Territory."

If god-level power is compared to nuclear weapons, then if others have it, it is best to have it yourself, otherwise, wouldn't you always be bullied? What is more terrifying is that if the enemy has it, even if there are constraints on the use of such power, you will still be restless.

From this perspective, the Ascension Race will be more cruel than the nuclear arms race on Earth, because in addition to the absolute power capable of crushing everything, the uniqueness of the path and the huge advantage of the first mover also make everyone have to exhaust everything to gamble on the possibility of being the first mover.