Chapter 3129: Never Make a Concession

"Consultant Xia Duo, your idea is too unrealistic. Even if you successfully obtained an Artifact from the south, it would be a Psionic Artifact, and it wouldn't be of much help to the exploration of Arcane and Psionic fusion."

The implication behind Kalishi's words was to support his New Artifact Project, to forge a new Artifact that fuses Arcane and Psionic power.

However, the more Kalishi acted this way, the more Xia Duo felt the other party was hiding an ulterior secret, because Kalishi had clearly mentioned before that one of the costs of forging the Artifact was his own sacrifice.

Yet now, all of Kalishi's various behaviors made Xia Duo feel that the other party did not want to die, even if the death of a Psionic Master was not the end; the feeling the other party gave him was one of a very strong expectation for the future he was creating.

This expectation was not the kind that could be entrusted to descendants, but an expectation that he must see with his own eyes.

The concepts of life and death were expressed very contradictorily in Kalishi.

Therefore, Xia Duo still expressed his refusal; after all, he had just put forward his own view, "Why can't you entrust Zhamu Dasi or cooperate with Zhamu Dasi to forge the New Artifact you speak of? Or is it that you also want to use the Wisdom of the Northland Mages to inject the rules of Reality into this so-called New Artifact?"

This latter sentence was somewhat malicious. Previously, when at Laruian's home, Kalishi had revealed Zhamu Dasi's plan, led by the Anti School, to use the Northland Computing Power Pool to gather the Wisdom of the Northland Mages to inject the rules of Reality into the New Artifact.

And now, Xia Duo said that Kalishi also wanted the Wisdom of the Northland Mages; the implication was that the two had not parted ways with the Anti School, and were even plotting for the Wisdom of the Northland Mages together, through both positive and negative channels.

Facing Xia Shao's questioning, a flash of grief and indignation crossed Kalishi's eyes, but it quickly turned into hesitation, "Consultant Xia Shao, your misunderstanding of me is truly too deep, but I believe the future will give me a fair judgment."

Mainly because Xia Shao insisted that the Computing Power Pool needed to be temporarily shut down; while the countries of the Alliance were certainly reluctant to part with the related benefits, they would generally agree with Xia Shao's professionalism and make the decision to shut down the Computing Power Pool.

Xia Shao felt that Kalishi should not have judged him to be an avatar through intelligence work, but through the avatar itself, yet he had only met the other party a total of two times in this current avatar.

Of course, someone with a heart could also judge that there were two of him by his simultaneous appearance in Netheril and Evereska, one of whom must be an avatar.

Was this failing to see that he was a Saint Form Avatar and preparing to use that to threaten him? Or was it seeing that he was currently an avatar, which is why he didn't keep him at the underground base?

"Does this count as a concession?"

Even mentioning cooperation with Zhamu Dasi earlier was more to provoke Kalishi, and even he himself might not necessarily approve of such a method.

Of course, he would do his best to issue relevant reports to prove the necessity of shutting down the Computing Power Pool. His judgment had a relatively high weight, but whether to actually shut it down, because it involved the interests of many parties, still required consultation among the countries to give a final result; him saying to shut it down unilaterally was useless.

Xia Shao had initially thought it was just a compliment, but when he returned to the Alliance Headquarters and began to review the process of their meeting, he slowly reacted.

There was even Xia Shao's own hint.

What Kalishi's true thoughts were when he said that, Xia Shao did not know, and it was impossible for him to go back and ask the other party now, but the fact that he was in an avatar state now was something only a handful of people at the Alliance Headquarters could see.

Taking this year's Snow Melting Competition as an example, because it involved the rehearsal of the benefit distribution of the Giant Mithril Mine in the Grey Peak Mountains, the number of observers was countless.

The Northland Alliance could certainly cooperate with Zhamu Dasi, but it definitely wasn't now; it felt like being forced to cooperate, and they should occupy more initiative.

Later, he even saw Xia Shao off all the way until he left the underground base and was about to step onto the Surface, when Kalishi said a meaningful sentence:

For those unverifiable questions, Xia Shao's usual way of handling them was to shelve them temporarily; the current most important task was still to stop Kalishi's Artifact Project.

"Could this be another unique aspect of Psionic power?"

"Consultant Xia Shao, your avatar is truly breathtaking!"

"Let's end today's visit here. I still stand by my words: if you are seeking to cooperate with Zhamu Dasi to forge a New Artifact in the south, then I am willing to support it, but if you set your sights on the Northland, then I will still firmly oppose it."

If you really have mastered it, then were the Psionic Mages who invaded the Alliance Computing Power Pool acting under your Command?

At present, in the eyes of the Alliance, Xia Shao and the Psionic Network Research Center he leads are the ones who understand the Computing Power Pool the best in the entire Northland and even the entire Main Plane.

His statement about pausing the Computing Power Pool at the other party's base was more to provoke the other party; the Computing Power Pool had been operating until now, and it was no longer something he could stop just by saying so.

Kalishi avoided Xia Shao's question again; in Xia Shao's view, this was not just as simple as a default, but a manifestation of never making a concession.

Besides this, there was no other such convenient path.

Whether it was Zhamu Dasi or Kalishi, if they wanted to use the Wisdom of the Northland Mages to forge a New Artifact, the simplest way was to use the Computing Power Pool, a method that ignored spatial distance, to gather the Northland Mages together.

Although Xia Shao privately actually felt that it was not difficult for Kalishi to want to build a Computing Power Pool, and he even had the advantage of Psionic power, the Alliance side would not believe that a Psionic Mage could master the Alliance's top technology.

How often is the Snow Melting Competition held? Yet the Computing Power Pool maintains an online number above the peak period every single moment. If Xia Shao were a Psionic Mage and wanted to forge a New Artifact, it would be impossible to let go of such a shortcut!

Just now, whether Kalishi was grieving, indignant, hesitant, or aggrieved, his overall emotions were quite stable, but as soon as Xia Shao's words about pausing the Computing Power Pool came out, Kalishi suddenly became somewhat uncomposed, questioning Xia Shao in a tone that was almost impatient:

"It is not my Artifact; when the Artifact is forged, I will already be dead. That is the Northland Alliance's Artifact, and even if Consultant Xia Shao is willing, you also have the opportunity to become the Artifact keeper."

"Haven't the Zhamu Dasi people who invaded the Computing Power Pool already been caught? We even caught a few living ones; doesn't this prove that the Alliance side is responding effectively?"

Xia Shao did not want to drag things out too far with the other party, so he spoke of the present, "So you still want to use the Wisdom of the Northland Mages to forge your Artifact?"

But even counting the main venue in Netheril and the broadcasts in other parts of the Northland, the total number of mages watching the competition at the same time could not compare to the online number during the peak period of the Computing Power Pool's stable operation today.

And this was also the situation that Xia Shao felt was the hardest to accept for the mastermind behind this series of events.

"In terms of Psionic power, I am not as good as you, but when it comes to the understanding of the Computing Power Pool, then you are far inferior to me."

After speaking, Xia Shao rose from his seat and walked two steps toward the door of the Reception Room. Only then did Kalishi seem to react belatedly and hurriedly stood up to see him off.

Moreover, the time for each meeting was very limited. Even if Xia Shao faced his current avatar from the perspective of a stranger, it was impossible to discover any clues in such a short time.

But Xia Shao also did not want to make a concession. After a moment of silence, he told Kalishi, "The previous invasion by Zhamu Dasi gave me a warning: the Computing Power Pool is not as safe as imagined. I think that before we are sure we can deal with the next invasion, it is necessary to pause the operation of the Computing Power Pool first."