Chapter 3240: Smuggling Clues

————It will be later~~

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Given this topic, and the hesitant expression on Dumu's face, how could Xia Duo not guess what Dumu was thinking? So, he spoke openly:

"Are you trying to say that the Tower of Time has also engaged in smuggling here in Ailan?"

"The intelligence provided by Yierlan says so, and we have confirmed this point. However, according to what we understand, the Tower of Time's smuggling of grain in Ailan has been over for some time; at the very least, it stopped after the Ailan factories were built. Yierlan admits this as well, but they have still discovered traces of smuggling now, so—"

Dumu did not continue, but Xia Duo knew what Dumu meant. He told the other party clearly: "I know you are worried that starting an investigation from the Ailan smuggling will eventually lead back to me, and that you will have neither found the Darkness Society nor saved any time.

"So I am telling you now: after I reached a cooperation agreement with Yierlan regarding the development of Ailan, I have not smuggled anything into Ailan since.

"Perhaps the Tower of Time's Void Warehouse has been utilized, but that is the personal behavior of the Void Warehouse user. If you find clues related to the Darkness Society, I can cooperate with the investigation."

In fact, regarding the recent smuggling, Yierlan had already spoken with Xia Duo, and Xia Duo had responded clearly. Now that Yierlan is reporting this situation to the Alliance, it seems they may have truly discovered some clues, rather than just looking for trouble for him.

As for Xia Duo himself, he did indeed discover suspected Excited State Magic Artifacts or, in other words, Ritual Components stored by the Darkness Society within the Tower of Time's Void Warehouse, but he has no conclusive evidence to indicate it was the work of the Darkness Society.

Currently, the Alliance is generally determined to clear out the Darkness Society, and the secrecy, the recent Dumu attack incident, and the smuggling issues are all clues that can be followed up on.

But he also made a promise to cooperate with the investigation; as long as the Alliance has any directional clues, he will cooperate unhesitatingly and to the maximum extent.

Moreover, the most critical point is that no matter what, the Darkness Society cannot destroy the entire Magic Net of the Main Plane in an instant, and Xia Duo is even looking forward to the Darkness Society doing something even crazier!

In other words, the amount he can apply for reimbursement could also be half of Yierlan's!

This is reality.

As the final window for the Time-Involving Ritual approaches, the actions of the Darkness Society will become more frequent. This feeling is like prey caught in a spider web; the more it struggles, the faster it dies.

As for whether doing so will lead to missing the best opportunity to find the Darkness Society, that is not something Xia Duo needs to worry about. No one can take care of every aspect; he simply made the choice that was relatively more favorable to him.

But the concern regarding user trust in the Void Warehouse still exists, so Xia Duo still has not disclosed to Ailan the two suspected Excited State Magic Artifacts he discovered that were stored by the Darkness Society.

The reason the Darkness Society is difficult to deal with lies in its ultra-strong secrecy and its intricate connections with the Elf upper echelons.

Judging from the acquisition of Divine Grace and the on-site detection data, the contribution of the student assignments he invested is roughly half of those Old Magic Artifacts invested by Yierlan.

The most critical point is that Xia Duo does not need to worry about the Alliance being unable to pay that sum, because the Alliance's largest source of income right now—the Computing Power Pool—is managed by him.

For this, he is perfectly willing to bear a little more risk.

If it threatened something else, there would be absolutely no reason to inspect it; after all, Magic Items are inherently very dangerous, especially to ordinary people.

One can imagine the temptation of those tens of millions to Xia Duo!

In this way, on one hand, it can make the Alliance's determination to clear out the Darkness Society at any cost even firmer, and on the other hand, frequent actions will also cause the Darkness Society to expose more clues that can be followed up on.

Because from the perspective of absolute hard power, the Darkness Society is far inferior to the Alliance; even if the Darkness Society dared to stand out and fight head-on, Xia Duo himself, or any country in the Alliance (except Irusk), could wipe them all out.

Now, Xia Duo has raised his assessment of the Alliance's investigative capabilities; it is mainly because the determination is greater, so the ability will naturally improve. Previously, the determination was not great, so even if they had the ability, they would not necessarily use it.

……

And he also has selfish motives. On one hand, it is a lack of trust in the Alliance's (past) investigative capabilities, and on the other hand, he does not want this matter to be something he actively disclosed, so as to avoid causing users to lose trust in the Tower of Time's Void Warehouse.

A small portion of it was collected on-site from Evereska, but the majority actually came from Yierlan, which had long been prepared; it is just that the cost of this experiment will be borne by the Alliance.

After communicating with Ailan for a while about information related to the Darkness Society, the materials the Alliance used for the sacrificial experiment had already arrived at the camp. Like the sacrificial objects chosen during Yierlan's experiment, the Alliance also used Old Magic Artifacts for the experiment.

Or to put it more vividly, the cost of a Floating City might only be ten million or so; tens of millions in cash is several Floating Cities!

What he worries about most is precisely the Darkness Society doing nothing, enduring it, and acting like a poisonous snake lurking in the dark; that is what makes people unable to sleep or eat in peace!

This even includes the Old Magic Artifacts invested by Yierlan previously; most of the costs can be reimbursed by the Alliance. Someone even came to ask about the cost of the student assignments Xia Duo invested previously, which made Xia Duo's heart jump fiercely.

This makes it very difficult for him to keep his mood calm. Yierlan claimed to have invested Old Magic Artifacts worth over one hundred million, and Xia Duo had handled those artifacts as well; there was not much water in that claim.

If one were to conduct safety inspections on items inside the Void Warehouse based on standards for ordinary people, then perhaps the vast majority of Magic Items could not be stored inside.

Therefore, the safety inspection reason Xia Duo gave was only targeted at the Void Warehouse itself. In this way, others could accept it; after all, if you use my warehouse, you cannot cause damage to my warehouse, right?

Even if the Alliance ultimately does not consider Iolum's repair plan, but instead adopts the plan of investing Magic Items to let the Magic Net heal itself, then the follow-up might not just be a matter of tens of millions, but hundreds of millions, billions, or even more!

After all, those two Excited State Magic Artifacts are stored in the Stasis Space Warehouse; even if they are dangerous, it has nothing to do with the Void Warehouse. The so-called safety inspection is more aimed at dangerous goods that can threaten the Void Warehouse.

But the Tower of Time has too many places where it needs money; in reality, it cannot save much money at all. Given the Tower of Time's current net income situation, tens of millions in cash might take at least ten years to accumulate.

Furthermore, even if the Darkness Society started destroying the Magic Net crazily right now, it would only increase the cost of using the Magic Net in the future and lower efficiency; it would not have too much of an impact on the upper limit of power that a Spellcaster can reach.

Taking the current Tower of Time as an example, including everything from mass-produced Magic Items, Communication Mythallars, Void Warehouses, and Computing Power Pool orders, the annual income is no more than ten million.

Even for the recycling of Old Magic Artifacts, Yierlan's actual cost must be at least tens of millions. Although the purchasing power of Gold Coins is continuously declining due to the Giant Mithril Mine in the Grey Peak Mountains being able to produce large amounts of gold and silver, tens of millions of Gold Coins is still not a small number.