Chapter 3037: Active and Passive

After crossing the border line, Poson and his group never encountered any more obstructions. Ailan was simply unable to organize a protection system covering the entire border; the area around Terminus No. 4 was completely wide open to the Ailan side, without the slightest bit of protection.

Of course, if Siluwende truly believed the border did not exist and invaded in force, then Yierlan would have to step in—or perhaps Yierlan was just waiting for Siluwende to "make a mistake" in this regard!

Not long after entering Ailan territory, Poson and Yisiluoda separated from the caravan and, following the guidance of the Key Artifact, headed toward the meeting point agreed upon with the Ailan returnee faction.

The handover process went without any surprises. Poson adjusted the key configuration of the Key Artifact, linked to the storage space the Illuminati had prepared for him in advance, took out the supplies, and then had them collected by the so-called contact person from the Ailan returnee faction.

As for the supplies, Xia Duo had also confirmed them through Poson's perspective and even his casual inspections; they were just normal food and a small amount of Magic Equipment, which indeed looked like they were intended to support some organization.

Afterward, Poson even had a long, detailed conversation with that contact person, ranging from the philosophy of returning to the current state of the organization; it really looked like the real deal.

During this process, Xia Duo had specifically withdrawn his attention from other areas to focus on it, but to be honest, he did not see anything unusual, let alone Poson, who knew even less about the Illuminati.

Regarding the existence of this returnee faction, Xia Duo remained skeptical for the time being, but Poson truly believed it. Although this guy did not fully trust the Illuminati yet, he already believed in this returnee faction almost entirely.

The existence of such an organization simply struck at the most genuine desire in Poson's heart; he didn't even need Yisiluoda to egg him on, as he had already convinced himself to believe it.

……

Afterward, Xia Duo reviewed the entire process of Poson's mission and summarized two major points of suspicion—

One was whether the Ailan returnee faction was real; was it a disguise for an Illuminati peripheral force, or did such a faction that had not yet been exposed to the Alliance's view really exist?

The other was Poson's mission itself!

Poson himself had doubts about this mission, but he was dismissed by Yisiluoda with reasons like "destiny's guidance" and "orders from above," but Xia Duo was not so easily convinced.

This mission was indeed somewhat inexplicable. In Xia Duo's view, rather than calling it a mission, it was more like a script the Illuminati had arranged for Poson.

He suspected that the Illuminati might have already sensed his existence—not that they had discovered he had found clues to the true identities of the Illuminati's upper echelons, but that they had sensed someone might be behind Poson.

Either the Alliance, or some other unknown existence.

Thus, the Illuminati wanted to use this to do something. If the Alliance were behind Poson, in order to catch the big fish of the Illuminati, they would not immediately arrest or encircle the matters Poson was involved in.

It was somewhat similar to how police on Earth arrange for an undercover agent; the undercover agent also needs to collect evidence or lock onto key crime scenes (or ringleaders) as much as possible before formal arrest operations begin.

It was just that Poson, this undercover agent, did not know his own undercover status.

The Illuminati perhaps believed that the Alliance was behind Poson, and then prepared to use Poson's "undercover" status to have the Alliance facilitate them on some key event.

It was similar to a fish being fished that only eats the bait but doesn't bite the hook.

If some other existence were behind Poson, the Illuminati would not lose out by doing this either; keeping Poson could still help them find the mastermind. Besides the Alliance, the Illuminati feared no mastermind in the Northland; they themselves were the greatest masterminds.

……

Upon realizing that the Illuminati might be suspicious of Poson, Xia Duo knew that while he appeared to be acting proactively, he had actually already fallen into a passive position. Although both sides were currently hiding in the shadows, only Poson, a pawn that both sides could manipulate, was placed in the open.

But one must know that in the current round of exchanges, the Illuminati belonged to the active offensive side. Although this offensive had a time limit, it was active nonetheless, and this point alone was enough to occupy a huge advantage.

Like before, the several important actions the Alliance took against the Illuminati were where the Alliance occupied the initiative; in such situations, the Illuminati, responding passively, had almost no power to resist.

Of course, the one on the defensive on the surface was not Xia Duo, but the Alliance. However, Xia Duo's interests were highly aligned with the Alliance, so he had to stand on the Alliance's side, and thus was correspondingly in a defensive position.

Now the only thing they could use to hold the Illuminati in check was that they had mastered the Time-Involving Ritual and could monitor Time-Involving Signals within the Northland and even the entire Main Plane around the clock.

This forced the Illuminati to adopt other means to bypass this restriction, which undoubtedly increased the difficulty of the Illuminati's operations, but on the other hand, it also increased the possibility of the Illuminati acting like a cornered dog and retaliating randomly.

And the latter might even be to cover for some carefully designed special Time-Involving Ritual—that is, first use random terrorist attacks to tie up the energy of the various Alliance nations, and then launch the Time-Involving Ritual in one fell swoop.

Yet the biggest problem now was that Xia Duo knew of this risk but could not warn the Alliance, because a warning would be equivalent to a prophet exposing themselves.

The Illuminati certainly could not immediately kill Xia Duo himself, but other targeting methods were also impossible to guard against.

The violent approach could be to choose Daxia Territory as a target for terrorist attacks; the milder approach could be to use their massive influence in the Elf World to advocate the Mythallar threat, thereby isolating Xia Duo and even Netheril.

In the entire Northland Alliance, humans were a minority after all. If they were truly isolated, not to mention whether they would perish, at the very least the general trend of their development would be cut off at the waist. Whether for Netheril or Daxia Territory, the impact would be very significant.

……

After thinking it over seriously, Xia Duo decided to do something to cause some trouble for the Illuminati; he could not let them continue to have their presence in the Alliance become lower and lower like invisible people.

Illuminati members were not necessarily Demon Descendants; comprehensive testing could only detect Demon Descendants, not the Illuminati.

With the continuous advancement of comprehensive testing, the situation in the Alliance was excellent, but correspondingly, this also made the Alliance's vigilance against the Illuminati become weaker and weaker, which was not a good thing.

Xia Duo not only wanted to cause some trouble for the Illuminati but also wanted to give the Alliance something to do, so as to avoid them losing vigilance and being taken advantage of by the Illuminati.

As for what to do, he hadn't thought it through yet, but he was already considering pushing Pulitatisi out.

The Cross-Domain Teleportation Link project was simply too massive; it was not something Netheril could afford on its own. Such a large expenditure was not easy to hide from the Alliance. Rather than having disputes after being discovered later, it was better to inform everyone in advance and have them share the burden.

The Holy Golden Dragon Empire was not just an opportunity, but also carried immense risks. Netheril could not shoulder it alone, and even with the Alliance, it wouldn't be enough, but at least it would be a bit stronger.

With such risks present, it would be enough to twist the various Northland nations into a single rope. No matter how great the interest disputes within the Plane were, could they be greater than the risks from an alien domain?

Once the Holy Golden Dragon Empire arrived, everything else would be hollow.

Humans wouldn't mind being second-class citizens in the Holy Golden Dragon Empire, but the elves of the Main Plane certainly could not accept such a situation. By then, the backbone of the Main Plane would instead have to become the elves.