Chapter 3025: Magic Mark, Beware of the One-Wave Flow

In the days that followed, Xia Duo continued to monitor the progress of the Northland-wide inspection from time to time; although it had been over a month, it was still very difficult to test every single resident of the Northland.

After all, the Northland had a total population of over one hundred million, and given that the control capabilities of the Classical Era were far inferior to the modern day, they had likely not even tested half of them yet.

The true confidence supporting the Northland Alliance in initiating and subsequently completing this plan was Magic; the Northland Alliance had designed a highly efficient marking and verification system, where everyone who had participated in the comprehensive inspection was marked and could be quickly verified through a simple spell.

Recently, banquets of all sizes had been constant across the Northland countries; besides the genuine celebration of the breakthrough results in the comprehensive inspection and the Snow Melting Competition, a more critical purpose was to gather the middle and upper classes of the Northland to see who had not been tested.

Imagine a scenario where an Elf attends a banquet, and the conversation inevitably turns to Demon Descendants and the topic of the comprehensive inspection, and then a guest casually casts a 【Detect Magic Mark】 spell.

All the guests who had participated in the comprehensive inspection would show no abnormalities, but an exceptionally conspicuous red light would immediately erupt from the guest who had not participated in the Demon Descendant inspection, drawing side-glances from everyone present.

Although the Alliance had decided to be lenient toward Demon Descendants, most Northland residents were still influenced by long-held concepts and maintained a vigilant or even hostile attitude toward Elves suspected of being Demon Descendants.

The Alliance side utilized this point, widely deploying the 【Detect Magic Mark】 spell so that every Spellcaster had neither the ability nor the opportunity to participate in the retreat, and they also installed Magic Artifacts for detection in most public places and key thoroughfares.

It did not require a Spellcaster to control; as long as someone passing by did not carry the 【Magic Mark】—the mark that could only be obtained by accepting the comprehensive inspection—it would issue a reminder, urging the target to complete the inspection as soon as possible to obtain the mark.

If one were reminded by the spell multiple times, then the next time, the local law enforcement officers would arrive; consistently refusing to accept the inspection would lead to being considered a suspected Demon Descendant and being prioritized for scrutiny.

After all, the spellcasting window period does not appear or disappear abruptly, but rather moves backward at key nodes; the earlier the better, and at the same time, the closer one is to the location of the node event, the higher the requirements for the ritual.

If such a situation were to truly occur, it would be an unmitigated disaster for any country in the Northland.

As for the long term, Xia Shao believes that the development of the Alliance and his own is sufficient to deal with the long-dormant Darkness Society in the future.

The further it is dragged out, the greater the difficulty of spellcasting, and at the same time, the greater the commotion will be; in this way, the success rate of the spellcasting will become increasingly lower.

In other words, the Darkness Society should be in a very difficult position right now; they must perform an unprecedented Time-Involving Ritual near Ailan as soon as possible, so that they might make up for the several rituals previously destroyed by the Alliance in one go, and at the same time, to avoid subsequent rituals being destroyed as well, it is best to concentrate the effect into a single ritual.

It is truly that the Saint Form is too buggy; as long as one is not afraid of death, one can almost 100% take the opponent with them. Back on the day the Northland Alliance was founded, the Cormanthor remnants adjusted the Wuweilun Crown King precisely because the latter dared not risk his life, which allowed the former to seize the opportunity to win.

Through various similar measures, the Alliance has firmly controlled the progress of the comprehensive inspection; judging from the news Xia Shao has received, it is expected that all residents of the Northland countries will have been processed by after the Midsummer Festival.

The specific time might be at the end of this year, or it might be next year.

Therefore, the judgment regarding this window period is very critical; according to the memory of the Pafen diviner, Xia Shao speculates that the effective window period can last at least until the end of the year.

It is the so-called "one-wave flow"!

Such a threat is less a matter of the Darkness Society and more a matter of potential dissenters within the Alliance; even without the existence of the Darkness Society, these potential dissenters might create scenes that are difficult to clean up.

So Xia Shao speculates that the Darkness Society might get stuck at the end of the window period—that is, before the stage where the spellcasting success rate drops to a certain degree but is still possible—and directly pull off a big one in the Ailan region!

That Cormanthor Guardian actually had not fully ascended to the Saint Form, but if he did not die, the Wuweilun Crown King clearly would not be at ease, so he died.

This is also the main reason why the Northland Alliance is optimistic about the Darkness Society problem.

At present, the window period for the Darkness Society's Time-Involving Ritual has not completely passed, and there is still a chance to pull off a big one; only when this window period is completely missed will the Darkness Society possibly quiet down.

But at present, the Northland Alliance is in its most vigilant state precisely because it cannot catch the Darkness Society; acting under such circumstances, while the spellcasting difficulty is indeed reduced and the commotion would be relatively smaller, the success rate is the lowest.

Afterward, there will most likely be a second or third inspection, until the basic situation of Demon Descendants in the Northland is thoroughly clarified.

Compared to ordinary high-level Mages, diviners are even harder to deal with; they might understand the opponent better than the opponent themselves, which is already a huge advantage, and if one adds the point of daring to risk their life, they can almost walk sideways across the Main Plane.

However, nine out of ten diviners of the Darkness Society are high-level Mages; if high-level Mages want to carry out suicide attacks, that is still very difficult, and impossible to guard against.

After missing these few years, Xia Shao will probably be as optimistic as the others in the Alliance; by then, if the Darkness Society has not yet been wiped out, it will likely not pose any threat to the Time Line of the Main Plane.

In short, not relaxing vigilance for the next few years is the best choice; one must deal with Time-Involving Signals that may appear in the Northland and even the entire Main Plane at the first opportunity.

As for the Darkness Society, it is best if they can be caught; if they really cannot be caught, as long as the Time-related Research does not stop, it will only become increasingly difficult for the other party to cause trouble again.

Xia Shao also has confidence in the development of the Alliance, but out of his understanding of the Darkness Society, he feels that the Darkness Society does not seem like it will quiet down so easily.

As long as there are signs or indications, if they are nipped in the bud in time, the Darkness Society will not be worth fearing.

From now on, Wuweilun's rule over the Cormanthor ancestral land will no longer have any hidden dangers in terms of legitimacy; this is actually the main reason why the Cormanthor remnants were suppressed in Wuweilun. (Worrying that they would restore their country, the land has actually already been occupied by Wuweilun~)

Correspondingly, the further it is dragged out, the further away it is from the location of the node event—that is, the Ailan region—the higher the requirements for the ritual, and the less likely it is to succeed.

Xia Shao is not sure whether the members of the Darkness Society dare to risk their lives, but at the very least, one must be prepared—when there is absolutely no hope for the Time-Involving Ritual, prevent them from making a "final madness."

But the current Alliance still has the confidence to deal with it.

Compared to the Darkness Society jumping out directly to cause trouble, the Alliance is actually more worried about them mixing into the interior to carry out peaceful evolution; but in this regard, as long as the relevant systems are perfected, it will not lead to the entire vast Alliance being completely destroyed overnight.

It is just a pity that the last Guardian of Cormanthor chose to sacrifice himself for the sake of other Cormanthor remnants, and even handed over the Cormanthor legitimacy to Wuweilun in front of the representatives of the Northland countries.

Even for Xia Shao, it is quite difficult to deal with.