Chapter 3178: Reunion with Kalishi at Cloudtop Tower

After hearing Luodasi's explanation, Xia Duo reacted immediately—if Kalishi was truly carrying the Remains of the First Psionic Mentor, then it must be at the Cloudtop Tower!

During this period, Kalishi had been staying at the Cloudtop Tower in Evereska; previously, Xia Duo had simply assumed the other party was intentionally remaining in public view to establish an alibi, making it convenient to carry out those unspeakable deeds in secret.

For example, spreading rumors or holding private meetings with high-ranking officials of various countries.

But now it seemed that the other party staying at the Cloudtop Tower all this time might be to use the high-energy environment of the Cloudtop Tower to shield the Artifact Projection from detecting the Remains of the First Psionic Mentor.

Thinking of this, Xia Duo decided to go and meet Kalishi again!

Although meeting Kalishi in private now that the Zhamudasi Yushi delegation had arrived might cause unnecessary trouble, he still wanted to confirm whether Kalishi was actually carrying the so-called Remains of the First Mentor.

However, before heading to the Cloudtop Tower, Xia Duo first arrived at the intelligence department, also located at the Alliance Headquarters, and had a meeting with Dumu.

"Is there anything unusual over at the Cloudtop Tower?"

"No. The people from Zhamudasi came under the name of visiting the Northland Alliance. We arranged for them to stay at a villa near the Headquarters. As for the Cloudtop Tower, Kalishi has shown no intention of coming out at all; my people have been watching closely!"

The implication was that the people from Zhamudasi had not forced their way in or snuck into the Cloudtop Tower, or perhaps they simply did not know that Kalishi was currently hiding in the Cloudtop Tower.

"Have the representatives of the various countries already met with the Zhamudasi Yushi delegation? What did they say?" Xia Duo asked again.

For the past two days, he had been racing against time to analyze the four newly captured Psionic Masters, then, based on the key information obtained from analyzing their consciousness, he locked his main target onto Luodasi, after which he created a Consciousness Copy to communicate face-to-face.

He just hadn't expected that news had only just come back from the south a few days ago saying that Zhamudasi was preparing a delegation to come to the Northland, and only two days had passed before they had already sent people over; he didn't know what they were rushing for.

Now Xia Duo could only be certain that Kalishi indeed harbored ill intentions, but whether his entanglements with the south were true or false was hard to determine; what Luodasi said could only serve as a reference.

A single piece of evidence is not enough; unless there was more proof, and it had to be evidence of higher validity, those like Luodasi—who were called Psionic Masters but in reality had not reached the upper echelons within the school—did not count.

"What else could they say? It's just the same words our Special Envoy sent back earlier!"

Dumu was clearly also somewhat angry that the Zhamudasi side had not given the Alliance any time to prepare; almost at the same time the Special Envoy sent the message back, the delegation from there had already set off, and as for now, their attitude was even more arrogant!

"They are demanding that we provide compensation for the incident where we accidentally injured their people, and furthermore, they want us to hand over Kalishi. Which of these two do you think we can agree to?"

"Has their attitude always been this tough?" Xia Duo felt a bit strange. Could it be that the Zhamudasi side wasn't worried about being counterproductive? If the Alliance really handed the person over, what would they do then?

Perhaps this act couldn't be kept up, or perhaps Kalishi's theft of the treasure was true?

Regarding this, Dumu's answer was, "From the current perspective, their attitude is indeed very tough, but there is also a trend of softening. Our internal assessment is that their ultimate goal might simply be for us to hand over Kalishi, and for this, they are even willing to pay a certain price."

"How can you tell?"

"It's very simple. According to our understanding, the Zhamudasi people are not law-abiding, good-natured people, but after they arrived in Evereska, they have stayed in the place we designated for them, and they haven't even sent anyone out to scout for information."

Dumu saw through the cowardice, caution, and even weakness beneath the tough facade of those Zhamudasi people. Of course, if the Alliance didn't care about the other party's face at all, that toughness might become real, and they would hold on even if they were just bluffing.

Otherwise, if they showed weakness here in the Northland, wouldn't it give people the feeling that anyone could step on them?

"That makes sense!"

Xia Duo also didn't think Zhamudasi would be that tough. The current Zhamudasi was already deeply mired in the war with Kaitemier; it was impossible for them to provoke the Northland under such circumstances.

Even if, as Kalishi said, the Anti School had the idea of destroying Zhamudasi first and then rebuilding it, they would still need the opportunity to rebuild. Provoking the Northland while at war with Kaitemier—if the Northland were also dragged into the battlefield, they would likely have no chance to rebuild.

Xia Duo did not believe the Anti School would be so unwise; even if the Anti School were unwise, the Zeqi School, which was currently in the position of Executive, would be more rational.

What's more, according to Luodasi, the reason for the rift between Kalishi and the Anti School was not at all the extreme ideological shift within the Anti School that Kalishi claimed.

Rather, it was because Kalishi believed he had been enlightened by the Mentor Thought Echo and considered himself orthodox, becoming incompatible with the mainstream of the school, which led to the two sides drifting apart.

It hadn't even reached the point of a total break; it was only after Kalishi stole the Remains of the First Mentor preserved by the Anti School that the two sides truly broke apart.

Both Kalishi and Luodasi came from the Anti School, but now they belonged to two different sides and each held their own version of the story. By comparison, Xia Duo was still more willing to believe the words of the prisoner Luodasi, even if Luodasi might not have touched upon the truth either.

At least he was much more credible than Kalishi!

After coming out from Dumu's place, Xia Duo walked all the way out of the Alliance Headquarters. He had originally wanted to stop by the villa where the Zhamudasi Yushi delegation was staying to take a look, but after considering it, he gave up.

Yunding Mountain.

Xia Duo did not summon the city's public transportation, the Flying Disk, to go directly to the Cloudtop Tower, but chose to walk up the mountain.

The reason for doing this, besides setting aside some time to think about what to say after meeting Kalishi, was more importantly to buy time for his main body.

He did not choose to go see Kalishi directly while carrying Luodasi's Focusing Artifact. Although Luodasi repeatedly claimed that Kalishi would not be able to detect it, it was better to be cautious about such things.

Later, at Luodasi's suggestion, Xia Duo had his main body use the Focusing Artifact carrying the Artifact Projection, while his avatar acted as a remote medium, or in other words, a human probe.

As long as he could get close to Kalishi, and as long as Kalishi was indeed carrying the Remains of the First Mentor, then the main body would inevitably be able to discover it.

Of course, this was Luodasi's guarantee; Xia Duo didn't fully believe it, but this was enough to convince him to take action once. Even if he were exposed by Kalishi, what could the other party say?

Say that he didn't have the Remains of the First Mentor? Or say that he did?

The former would differ from what Luodasi described, meaning one side must be lying, or the description did not match the actual situation. Regardless of which side did not match the actual situation, it indicated that there was a greater secret regarding the time the Psionic Mage invaded the Computing Power Pool.

It would be a case of "the thief protesting his innocence."

And if Kalishi said he did have the Remains of the First Mentor, there would only be two outcomes: one was that he obtained it from Zhamudasi through legitimate channels, and the other was illegitimate.

The former would contradict the fact that Zhamudasi was now sending people to inquire, while the latter seemed to prove that what Kalishi had said before was not a lie, but this illegitimate act itself would also undermine his claim of voluntarily sacrificing himself to create an Artifact.

Using illegitimate means to achieve a noble goal—is that possible?