Chapter 3209: Revisiting Feilifa, Bridging the Gap

Ailan, Kapeiya.

Xia Duo met the investigators from Yierlan in this small city famous for its agriculture, and the Elf leading the team could be considered an acquaintance of Xia Duo—it was Feilifa, with whom he had dealt during the Meitelier incident.

After exchanging greetings, Xia Duo exclaimed, "I didn't expect Crown King Helien to have sent you!"

"Didn't you come here yourself?" Feilifa did not feel surprised by Xia Duo's arrival.

Following this, both sides began to discuss business, and Feilifa asked Xia Duo, "Has the Alliance reached out to you? They said they were preparing to send Observers over to investigate together?"

When asking this, Feilifa specifically observed Xia Duo's expression carefully, and only after Xia Duo gave an affirmative answer and mentioned that he had already agreed to let the Alliance send Observers did he let out a sigh of relief that was almost imperceptible.

"Yierlan has also agreed, so let us wait for them here for a while; if Consultant Xia Duo is interested, you may also let my people take you to tour Kapeiya's agricultural transformation."

"Is that so! Then I must take a good look!" Considering that it would likely take some time for the Alliance to discuss their choice of Observer, Xia Duo accepted Feilifa's invitation.

The so-called agricultural transformation was actually a project that Yierlan was independently responsible for after he and the Yierlan side had finalized the Ailan development plan; Xia Duo felt that there might be two intentions behind Feilifa inviting him to tour it now—

One was to demonstrate Yierlan's effectiveness in protecting Ailan; previously Ailan lacked grain, so Yierlan transformed their agriculture, which could be considered protecting their food security.

The other actually had to do with the choice of this meeting location; the agricultural transformation project in Kapiela also had a very large impact on Ailan.

The Yierlan side might not have discovered the Illuminati's special desire for control over Ailan, but from the fact that these attacks were all on key projects of the Ailan development plan, it could be inferred that the attackers were highly likely to strike at other projects in the plan.

While heading to the Kapiela agricultural transformation demonstration area, Xia Duo noticed a large group of fully armed Yierlan soldiers patrolling and guarding the area, showing that the Yierlan side had indeed noticed the security issues of the Ailan development plan itself.

Previously, Yierlan's garrison was basically in the large cities of the Ailan region; for a small city like Kapiela that focused on agriculture, they only stationed a mobile squad in the outskirts.

But now, the level of defense had clearly increased by more than one notch.

"Consultant Xia Duo has also seen it; the targets of the attacks that just occurred were very clear, destroying all the Magic Artifact Factory projects in the Ailan development plan. Under these circumstances, we have no choice but to be strictly on guard."

"Then does the Yierlan side have any suspicions about the mastermind behind this attack? Is it convenient for Lord Feilifa to disclose them?" Xia Duo took the opportunity to ask.

"What is there to be inconvenient about? This time, Consultant Xia Duo has also suffered huge losses, so you deserve to know our judgment. Currently, our main suspect is the Illuminati! As for why they would attack the Ailan development plan, we haven't figured that out yet."

Feilifa's expression was stern and serious, and his first impression was often that he was difficult to get along with, but when facing Xia Duo, Feilifa still appeared quite modest.

"Besides the Illuminati, we actually also suspect Zhamu Dasi!" Feilifa suddenly said something shocking.

Xia Duo was not surprised by this, because although the Yierlan side was now starting to support Kalishi, they might not necessarily know the true relationship between Kalishi and Zhamu Dasi.

Under these circumstances, the Yierlan leadership might indeed believe that Zhamu Dasi deliberately caused this vicious incident to warn them against cooperating with Kalishi.

If that were truly the case, then things would actually be simpler; with a target as obvious as the nation of Zhamu Dasi placed there, once it was confirmed that they were the ones who did it, the rest would just be retaliation.

But Xia Duo knew that the possibility of this attack being done by Zhamu Dasi was not high; just a short while ago, he had met with the school leader of Zhamu Dasi with the help of a Scrying spell, and the other party even hoped that the Northland would help deal with Kalishi!

At such a critical moment, to suddenly carry out such an attack—even if Psionic Mages were sometimes not quite right in the head, they wouldn't all go crazy at the same time.

However, Xia Duo did not immediately tell Feilifa his own speculation, but instead changed the subject, asking about the reason for Yierlan's sudden change in attitude to support Kalishi:

"I am very puzzled; the risks of Kalishi's so-called New Artifact Project are clearly so high, it is impossible for the Taiweimansa side not to see it, so why did they change their minds in the end? What conditions did Kalishi offer to make you ignore all the people of the Northland, including the citizens of Yierlan, and make such a decision?"

"Consultant Xia Duo, we can talk about this topic another day in a different setting; today is truly not appropriate." Feilifa also wanted to change the subject.

But perhaps because he himself was also dissatisfied with that decision of Yierlan, Feilifa's attitude in changing the subject was not firm, clearly implying that he could be questioned further.

Thus, Xia Duo directly pointed out Kalishi's trump card: "Is it that Kalishi promised immortality to Crown King Helien or even the various Elders of the High Tree Elder Council?"

Upon hearing this, Feilifa was silent for a while, and then only as if realizing it belatedly, he began to defend: "That is not entirely true; the most important thing is that the Crown King and the Council saw in Kalishi the hope for Arcane Magic to advance further."

"Is it the so-called trick of returning from the dead?" Xia Duo pushed further.

This time Feilifa did not answer at all, but instead asked Xia Duo in return: "Does this have anything to do with today's attack?"

"It does, of course it does!"

Xia Duo had previously promised to help Zhamu Dasi bridge the gap, while at the same time not causing Kalishi's suspicion; if it were any other country that opposed Kalishi's New Artifact Project, as long as he took precautions when speaking, there shouldn't be much difficulty.

But for a place like Yierlan that had already gotten together with Kalishi, perhaps he would say it one moment, and Yierlan would tell Kalishi the next; what would be the point of keeping it secret then!

So, upon sensing that Feilifa seemed to harbor dissatisfaction with Yierlan's previous decision, Xia Duo decided to reveal the news to Feilifa.

It wasn't that he was one hundred percent sure of his judgment, but there didn't seem to be any other choice; he had to mention it to someone in the Yierlan leadership, and unless the other party was willing to let him check their consciousness, how could he be one hundred percent sure the other party wasn't colluding with Kalishi!

Besides, Xia Duo had never guaranteed to Zhamu Dasi that he would absolutely not be discovered by Kalishi; he only promised to try his best to help bridge the gap, and whether it succeeded or not, he believed Zhamu Dasi would have already prepared various contingency plans.

……

Thus, after taking various precautions for Avoidance of Detection and avoiding psionic detection, Xia Duo told Feilifa about Zhamu Dasi's request for cooperation.

Feilifa was silent for a long while after listening, and only then asked Xia Duo hesitantly: "Have you—already cooperated with Zhamu Dasi?"

"Not at all, they actually hope to cooperate with the various countries of the Northland!" Xia Duo said very casually.

And even if he were willing to cooperate with Zhamu Dasi, and even help smuggle some Psionic Mages into Evereska, it would not be a difficult task, but wanting to take action inside the city of Evereska could not bypass the countries of the Alliance at all.

As long as Xia Duo still wanted to continue in the Northland, it was impossible for him to act while ignoring the rules of the Alliance.