Chapter 3121: New Clues

Two days later, Xia Duo walked out of the Laboratory. Over these past two days, he had carefully combed through the series of clues in Aokesi's memory regarding the theft of the Computing Power Pool's secrets.

However, the inside information about the Artifact Project that he had hoped to see did not appear. Aokesi did indeed know of the Artifact's existence and even understood the methods for crafting it, but those things were unrelated to this incident.

From this, Xia Duo also deduced that Aokesi was likely just a minor character in this incident, a pawn being driven, and did not have much understanding of the entire, complete plan.

Of course, there was another possibility: that Kalishi had been lying from beginning to end, that there was no Zhamu Dasi Artifact Project, and that the only thing Zhamu Dasi wanted to do was steal the secrets of the Computing Power Pool.

Kalishi had somehow learned of Zhamu Dasi's intentions and thus wanted to hitch a ride to complete the Psionic Artifact he himself wanted to build.

Xia Duo was more inclined toward the latter of these two possibilities, because a Psionic Master in Zhamu Dasi also belonged to that small group at the very top of the Pyramid, and with teachers, students, relatives, and friends all connected, it was almost impossible for them to be pushed out to die.

In the previous confrontation, the reason Aokesi performed as if he were throwing his life away was perhaps that he had overestimated his own abilities too much, while at the same time knowing nothing of Xia Duo's methods.

On the contrary, regarding Kalishi, Xia Duo could never understand why an Elf would go all the way to the south to receive a Baptism, become a Psionic Mage, and then return to their homeland; perhaps they really did have some grand ambition.

Therefore, this time, they wanted to build an Artifact for themselves.

If spoken of directly, the Northland Alliance would definitely be wary, but it certainly wouldn't have the threat of Zhamu Dasi; the Alliance would definitely agree to cultivate its own Psionic Mages.

"The progress should be considered acceptable. Personnel in the field captured several living Psionic Mages at Leiming Feng on the southwest border of Aokesi, and obtained intelligence after interrogation."

Or was it that the fusion of Arcane and Psionic that Kalishi boasted about was too tempting—tempting enough to make people directly fantasize about the day when Arcane Mages could control the Artifact?

Why not give it a try? In any case, the cost didn't have to be borne by oneself! If it succeeded, one would definitely be able to share in the benefits!

"For example, regarding the identities of those two deceased, one of them was actually a Psionic Master of the Zeqi School in Zhamu Dasi, and the other's identity was also complex; he was the only son of another Psionic Master."

Thinking of this, Xia Shao was even less willing to let Kalishi's plan succeed. Originally, he was against building any Psionic Artifact; even if Psionics might have the potential to expand the boundaries of Arcane Magic, why did one have to build an Artifact?

"There is another situation worth noting, which was also investigated over these two days, regarding Zhamu Dasi's plan to use the Computing Power Pool to build an Artifact."

Regarding this, Dumu replied: "A brand-new team composed of capable investigators from various countries has already headed to Aifuruisi, and even sent people to the south. Currently, they are still investigating, but both sides have also sent back a lot of new intelligence—"

"Yes, Master Kalishi has provided a lot of intelligence to the Alliance, and even those few Psionic Mages being tracked and successfully captured is largely thanks to Master Kalishi."

Xia Shao frowned, discovering that the situation seemed to have already exceeded his expectations, so he hurriedly asked again: "Are those Psionic Mages still alive now?"

"Is it that Kalishi has already contacted the Alliance side?"

Controlling Psionic Mages!

Perfect to the point of masking even the fatal flaws.

Hearing Dumu mention the Artifact Project, Xia Shao immediately became vigilant. He asked calmly: "Is this intelligence accurate? Where was it investigated from?"

Xia Shao could almost predict that Kalishi would use this kind of reason to persuade the Northland leadership to accept his Artifact Project. As long as the Artifact was controlled, the Psionic Mages awakened by the Artifact could be controlled; everything looked so perfect.

What kind of Artifact did that first Psionic Mage use?

Clearly, an Artifact was not a necessary condition for Awakening Psionics; it just happened to meet the conditions for Awakening Psionics. If one knew exactly what the conditions were, then there would be no need at all to possess an Artifact.

The strength of those two teams was limited. Even with the cooperation of the Aokesi side, the information that could be investigated was very limited. It would have to be at the Alliance level working together with Aokesi to investigate the most comprehensive results.

Hiss—

"Living Psionic Mages?"

For a massive plan, the existence of one variable was enough to make the executor of the plan wary. Who knew how many variables this so-called Artifact Project had?

Not to mention the huge cost required for the step of building the Artifact itself, even if the Artifact were successfully built, could it really be controlled by Arcane Mages?

But the fact that the Alliance side could identify them based on the appearance of the corpses in a mere two days truly exceeded Xia Shao's expectations.

Therefore, after organizing Keman's memory, he didn't even think about resting, and immediately turned his consciousness to return to his avatar located in Evereska.

Dumu's pointed words made Xia Shao feel inexplicably uncomfortable. He seemed to have thought of something, so he confirmed with Dumu:

If he hadn't guessed wrong, it must have been using Aokesi's connections in Kaitemier in the south. After all, the relationship between the two countries was still quite good, and they had even built a Permanent Teleportation Portal connecting the two places long ago.

"Dead. They died shortly after undergoing interrogation. However, you can rest assured about the interrogation process; it was conducted with investigators from various countries present, and it was absolutely not subjected to any deliberate guidance or interference from any side."

In this way, his opposition to Kalishi's plan could also be considered as stemming from prejudice, rather than being based on rational judgment.

It was not fully controlling the thoughts and behaviors of Psionic Mages, but it could exert influence. Before becoming a Psionic Master, ordinary Psionic Mages could hardly escape this kind of influence.

Xia Shao had already known this intelligence in advance through Keman's memory, but Dumu was wrong about one point: that middle-aged Psionic Mage was not the only son of a Psionic Master, but a student. It was just that they were close, and to outsiders, it appeared almost like a child.

The Psionic Artifact that Xia Shao saw had only two functions. Awakening Psionics went without saying, but the other function might be what Zhamu Dasi or Kalishi valued even more, and that was—

"Is there more?" Xia Shao asked again.

Besides this, the Artifact could also preserve the Echo of a Psionic Mage's consciousness after death, and then resurrect those dead people when building a New Artifact. This was also a form of indirect control.

Xia Shao could restrain the desires in his own heart, but others might not necessarily be able to.

It was imaginable that Kalishi must have "complained" to others in the Alliance about his prejudice against Psionics.

If the Northland leadership were all very rational, Xia Shao wouldn't be worried about letting Kalishi succeed, but this plan was extremely tempting; even he had wavered in his heart.

Hearing this, Xia Shao couldn't help but gasp. He hadn't expected Kalishi to take action so quickly, and in this matter, he had instead become the one who was wrong.

Afterward, he rushed to the Alliance Headquarters without stopping to ask Dumu about the progress of the investigation over the past two days. Previously, the Gale and Arrow Rain teams had only conducted preliminary investigations.