Chapter 3182: Zhamudasi Yushi Requests an Audience

Thinking of this, Xia Duo continued to ask, "May I ask which Elders in the Council of Elders had an overly abrupt shift in attitude toward the Kalishi Project?"

Laruian understood what Xia Duo meant, but he had no intention of hiding it, instead explaining to Xia Duo, "Kalishi first made contact with us, and at the time, we were actually quite optimistic about his project."

"But as we learned more about that project, the attitudes of most Elders, including myself, underwent a change. This is likely not the change Consultant Xia Duo wants to know about."

"But a change after a change—that might be what Consultant Xia Duo needs. If you have the time, you might as well meet Ruigeante; perhaps he knows some information."

"Understood. I will pay a visit to Elder Ruigeante later, but we have never had any private interaction before, so visiting so suddenly would be impolite. If possible, I hope Elder Laruian can introduce me."

Xia Duo had actually crossed paths with that Ruigeante, more than once, but they had never had any private interaction, and he didn't even have a way to contact him privately.

Showing up directly in the current situation might lead the other party to think he was there to hold them accountable, which could easily cause unnecessary misunderstandings.

If Laruian were to introduce him, it would be different. Judging by Laruian's willingness to reveal information about the other party, this might also be the intention of the Council of Elders.

Otherwise, in terms of closeness, Laruian and Ruigeante were certainly closer; Laruian really had no reason to reveal Ruigeante's information to him.

As Xia Duo expected, regarding my request to retire, Wuerban did not refuse, but agreed immediately, as if he had long been prepared for this.

"Fine, no problem."

And Ruigeante's assigned responsibility in the Evereska Council of Elders is the agricultural domain, similar to Wuerban's city defense and Ge An Te's construction.

Compared to An'ruite, Xia Duo was more familiar with Ge An Te, after all, the previous cooperative project between Great Xia Territory and Evereska, the Friendship Tower, had Ge An Te as the direct person in charge on the Evereska side.

The information Ruige provided about Dumu'ante's past experiences was quite detailed; from those descriptions, Xia Duo could vaguely see the image of a powerful agricultural tycoon.

"Zhamudasi Yushi?"

Upon hearing this, Xia Duo frowned and sat up straight from his chair. What are they here for?

"My lord, several humans have arrived outside, claiming to be members of the Zhamudasi Yushi delegation. They wish to visit you, and they are accompanied by Alliance staff. I dare not make the decision, so I have come to ask for instructions."

However, considering that he is now considered a high-level member of the Alliance, a direct refusal would be too arrogant, and he was also very curious about what their purpose in seeing him was.

Xia Duo thought and thought but could not figure out what the true relationship between Kalishi and Zhamudasi was, but one thing was certain: as long as he held to the bottom line of controllable risk, no matter what relationship they had, the Northland would be able to handle it.

Aren't Kalishi and Zhamudasi in the same group? Could there really be a so-called "Remains of the First Psionic Mentor"? Could this be a smokescreen?

Because looking at Kalishi's plan, it does not seem like a long-term project, and wanting to gather enough Psionic Energy to build an Artifact in a short time will cause irreversible damage to the sentient beings from whom the Psionic Energy is collected.

Even if it weren't, it is not something that can be easily done to casually bring other uninvited guests when attending a private banquet.

As soon as he returned, Xia Duo went to the intelligence department to find Ruige to get the information related to Elder Dumu'ante, and only after getting the information did he return to his office at the Psionic Network Research Center.

Even if the Northland collectively supported the so-called New Artifact Project and was willing to provide Arcane Wisdom to obtain that sliver of possibility for expanding the Arcane Magic Boundary, they would nineteen-out-of-twenty refuse to collect Psionic Energy in the Northland.

In the last ten years or so, the other party had proposed more than once to improve the treatment of the Elf, and for this, he even spared no reputation to personally try to become an Elf.

As for whether it succeeded in the end, the information provided by Ruige did not mention it, but presumably it did not succeed, or even if it did, it could not be made public, which shows that the other party's proposal was still a failure.

Putting down the information in his hand, Xia Duo leaned back against the chair and closed his eyes to ponder. Dumu'ante is not the key; the key is what the relationship between Kalishi and Zhamudasi really is.

There is a ready-made case in the south.

Are they here to lobby him to let the Alliance hand over Kalishi? Or are they here to demand those who were caught for invading the Computing Power Pool? Or some other purpose?

Therefore, Dumu'ante's attitude toward a certain matter can effectively influence the attitudes of other Elders in the Council of Elders. Wuerban pointing out this person's name is also implying that Dumu'ante is the key figure in the Evereska Council of Elders' support for the Kalishi Project.

Although the status of the Elf in the Elf World is very low, the status in the agricultural domain is not low at all. Dumu'ante's ranking in the Council of Elders is even higher than Wuerban's, not to mention Ge An Te, who is not even as good as the Elf.

Just as he was thinking, Charles suddenly came to knock on the door—

Pushing Xia Duo to come forward to probe is nothing more than harboring a harmonious tacit understanding among the Elders, and also being interested in the reason behind Dumu'ante's successive changes in attitude.

The information provided by Ruige is quite rich, not only about Elder Dumu'ante himself, but also an introduction to his family, including some important family members.

For such an Elf, Xia Duo couldn't say what he felt, but he suddenly had a premonition that the meeting with the other party tonight might not go too smoothly.

And Kalishi's abnormal performance when he noticed his detection seemed to reveal that he and Zhamudasi were actually not in the same group.

Moreover, the Elf and Wuerban have a good relationship. At the moment, the Elf said that Ge An Te has a private banquet tonight, and Xia Duo felt it was very likely that this private banquet was decided by the Elf temporarily.

Some of this information was already known to Xia Duo beforehand, for example, there is only one high-level Mage in the Dumu'ante family, which is Elder Dumu'ante himself.

Just now at the Cloudtop Tower, he did detect that Kalishi was carrying the so-called "Remains of the First Psionic Mentor," but the problem lies right there: why could it be detected?

Where does the gap in Psionic Energy come from?

But what made him curious was that the closer it got to the current point in time, the more gentle Dumu'ante's policies in the agricultural domain became, especially his attitude toward the Elf.

"Ge An Te has a private banquet tonight, and Dumu'ante will also appear. If Consultant Xia Duo has time, you can go with me."

Next, Xia Duo and Wuerban agreed on a time and hurried back to the Alliance Headquarters.

If that were the case, why would Kalishi think the Northland Alliance would definitely protect him? Why would he think that with the support of the Northland, he would definitely be able to build an Artifact?