Chapter 2997: Agreement Signed, No Precedent Set

The next day, all the Council members gathered in Seventon. Badijiaer informed the members of the existence of Pulitatisi and proposed that all members participate in this massive, even grand, cooperative project.

After a morning of intense discussion, everyone reached a consensus on the cooperation and the matter of temporarily concealing it from the Northland Alliance. In the afternoon, Badijiaer announced the first phase of the Cross-Domain Teleportation Link Project—

"First, we will build a high-specification Plane Exploration Center. Each member can participate personally or send others who are trustworthy and possess a certain foundation in Magic."

"This Plane Exploration Center is tentatively set to be in the Mage Tower in Xin Saiwendun, the Mage Tower we promised as a foothold for Pulitatisi. I hope this Plane Exploration Center can be officially operational by the end of the month."

As soon as Badijiaer finished speaking, a member raised a question, "This is too fast, and we haven't even obtained the Spells of Pulitatisi yet. Isn't it too early to talk about this now?"

"I can answer that question!" Huo En interjected during the testimony. "At noon, I already signed the relevant agreement with Pulitatisi on behalf of the Council. With the Lord of Radiance as witness, those Spell materials are already with me and can be provided to everyone shortly."

"Then I have no problem. The sooner the better; I can't wait to discover new Planes!"

"Xisilai, are you coming to the Plane Exploration Center?"

"Of course. Once things are temporarily settled here on the Main Plane, I will bring my people and join the Plane Exploration Center in full."

After Xisilai finished speaking, several other members from the Tianshui San Plane expressed their stance on the spot. Like Xisilai, they were also prepared to fully commit to the Plane Exploration Center once they were settled on the Main Plane.

Members from the Tianshui San Plane had a different understanding of living environments compared to the native members of the Main Plane. If more Habitable Planes could be discovered, they might not necessarily be willing to stay on the Main Plane.

But regardless, with people taking the lead, the yet-to-be-officially-established Plane Exploration Center was already growing at a visible speed.

"The Tower of Time has been in decline until now and has only just shown some signs of improvement. I really cannot spare many High Mages, and I myself have duties with the Alliance to attend to. I can send at most two people to the Plane Exploration Center in Xin Saiwendun, but I will send more people every year from now on."

Xia Duo also seized the time to explain the situation. The Tower of Time was already supporting its own Plane Exploration Center and truly had no spare capacity to support the work in Xin Saiwendun, but sending additional personnel annually was the proper thing to do.

After all, he could not completely abandon the progress there.

Subsequently, the remaining members also expressed their positions one after another, proposing how many people they would send, or that they would go personally to participate in the relevant research and exploration.

Before long, the matter of the Plane Exploration Center was temporarily settled. Then Badijiaer said—

"Now I have one more thing I would like to seek everyone's opinion on: whether to allow Pulitatisi to participate in our discussions. After all, the Cross-Domain Teleportation Link Project has become the main task for Netheril for the next hundred years, and many things simply cannot bypass Pulitatisi, who is actually in charge of this project. What do you think?"

"I want to know if this is something you thought of yourself, or if Pulitatisi requested it?"

"It is something I thought of myself. Pulitatisi only has eyes for the project, but to avoid trouble in the future, I think bringing him into the Council early is the right choice."

The matter Badijiaer spoke of was neither small nor large. If it were a Great Arcanist of Netheril, they would automatically become a member and enter the Council, or become a lord and also enter the Council, though their voting rights would differ from those of the members.

But Pulitatisi was a complete outsider. Even if he were to join Netheril, he should go through the proper procedures. If he did not follow the normal process, there was a fear that opening this precedent would leave hidden dangers for the future.

Therefore, even though Badijiaer explained repeatedly that this was not proposed by Pulitatisi himself, many members still opposed it, and this naturally included Xia Duo!

"There is no need to set this precedent. Today it is Pulitatisi; if High Mages from the Northland Alliance come tomorrow, should we let them join the Council too?"

"That is definitely not acceptable!"

Mentioning the Northland Alliance made Badijiaer immediately sensitive. Compared to Pulitatisi, who had no connection to the Main Plane or even this domain, the Elves of the Northland Alliance were even more worthy of vigilance.

"There is no need to make an exception for Pulitatisi. Just treat him as a normal foreign guest. If the Council has any resolutions that cannot bypass the Cross-Domain Teleportation Link Project, notify who needs to be notified and negotiate with who needs to be negotiated. The project is set for hundreds of years; are we afraid of this little bit of trouble?"

Xia Duo's heart was unwilling to have Pulitatisi join the Council. Even with the Lord of Radiance as a witness to the oath, it might not necessarily be useful. The other party's home was in the Outer Planes, and now he was single-mindedly focused on going home. How much of a deterrent could the Lord of Radiance's blacklist be to him?

Furthermore, now that the existence of the Outer Planes was known, the threat of the Lord of Radiance's blacklist had actually diminished; at worst, he just wouldn't hang around on the Main Plane anymore.

This was similar to a deadbeat on Earth going abroad; as long as the relevant information and judicial rulings were not synchronized, going abroad was effectively running away or defaulting.

In reality, the witness of the Lord of Radiance might not even be universally applicable on the Main Plane; it only had practical effects in the Northland, the area where Netheril's influence could cover.

Once outside the scope of Netheril's influence, what could happen even if one were on the Lord of Radiance's blacklist?

Others didn't believe in the Lord of Radiance anyway. At worst, they would never deal with Netheril for the rest of their lives, and they would continue living as they always had, without any impact at all.

The Lord of Radiance's witness was just a relatively reliable integrity system, but if no one recognized it, it was nothing more than a niche evaluation, unless the Lord of Radiance directly inflicted Divine Punishment on those on the blacklist.

Otherwise, in many cases, it was really not as useful as the Contract Magic of the Elves.

……

Badijiaer's proposal to let Pulitatisi join the Council, under the opposition of many members, ultimately came to nothing.

Afterwards, they discussed some previously unresolved issues for a while. Against the backdrop of the hundred-year plan for the Cross-Domain Teleportation Link Project, the things everyone had been obsessed with in the past had quietly changed.

Some results that might have taken months or even years to discuss were reached in consensus after just a brief discussion that day.

Soon, the meeting ended. Each member received a copy of the cooperation agreement between the Council and Pulitatisi as well as the relevant Spell materials. After receiving the materials, Xia Duo notified Saville immediately, and then the two returned to the Tower of Time together.

……

Tower of Time, Plane Exploration Center.

Xia Duo first gave the copy of the cooperation agreement to Saville, while he himself opened the Spell materials to quickly flip through them, only handing these materials to Saville afterwards.

While Saville was reviewing the Spell materials, Xia Duo was also reviewing in his mind the brand-new Plane Knowledge he had just seen, especially the description regarding the 【Ether Boundary】.