Chapter 3299: The Drow Traces Reappear

Just as Xia Duo was withdrawing his consciousness to his main body to study the Illuminati's Excited State Magic Artifact in seclusion, waves were made in the outside world: traces of Drow activity were discovered within the borders of Cormanthor. This was the first time such traces had been found since the last Drow War.

Such a discovery made everyone in Cormanthor extremely nervous; everyone knew that the Drow hated surface Elves the most, especially the Cormanthor Elves.

Only five or six years had passed since the last war, and almost every Cormanthor Elf could clearly remember the heavy price Cormanthor had paid in that conflict.

And now, the newly discovered Drow traces immediately became a matter of concern for the vast majority of Cormanthor Elves; they urgently hoped that Yilisier Mianwang would provide an answer that would put their minds at ease.

One must know that in the last war, the Underground Passage through which the Drow had surged to the surface in the Dragonspine Mountains had already been destroyed. Now that Drow traces had been discovered again, the greatest possibility was that another Underground Passage had appeared within Cormanthor.

And if such a conjecture were true, then once a war broke out, it would be the Cormanthor Elves who would be hurt the most again.

Consequently, Cormanthor began to consolidate its forces to conduct a thorough search within the country while simultaneously notifying the various nations of the Alliance. Upon learning of this, almost every Alliance representative could not help but sigh—

"As expected!"

First the internal strife in Yierlan, and then the discovery of Drow traces in Cormanthor; it was hard not to suspect that the Illuminati was behind it. In fact, at previous Alliance meetings, representatives from various countries had already reached such a judgment.

Now, it had merely been confirmed.

The Northland Alliance currently has fourteen member states. Now that Yierlan and Cormanthor have both been interfered with by the Illuminati, what about the other countries?

It is conceivable that the discovery of Drow traces in Cormanthor is definitely just a beginning; it is just unknown which country will be next.

……

In Yongle City, Xia Duo, who was in seclusion analyzing the Illuminati's Excited State Magic Artifact, was also promptly updated with this news. However, he did not change his previous thoughts and still decided to complete the analysis of the Illuminati's magic artifact before summoning the Divine Envoy.

The more critical the moment, the more one must remain calm and not be led by the nose by the Illuminati.

He was almost one hundred percent certain that this type of Excited State Magic Artifact was part of the Illuminati's plan. Even if it were truly unrelated to the Illuminati's plan, under the current circumstances, he could not risk leaving it unattended.

Therefore, he immediately sent a Sending to Tili'ao, requesting that the other party must persuade Cormanthor not to overly consolidate their forces, and at least maintain the rapid response list. This was the key to eventually counterattacking and even completely eliminating the Illuminati.

Although various countries held this view, that was before they had fallen into trouble. Once a country fell into unprecedentedly great trouble, could they still make such rational judgments then?

So, Xia Duo reminded them once again.

Besides Tili'ao, who was working at the Alliance Headquarters, he also sent a Sending to Iolum, asking this former beast-slaying hero to return to the country immediately and, with the help of the Council, conduct a round of rapid reconnaissance around Netheril.

Compared to Xia Duo and Tili'ao, Iolum undoubtedly had a much greater understanding of Orc tribes.

After receiving Xia Duo's Sending, Iolum did not hesitate and immediately stated that he would do his best to eliminate hidden dangers, while also providing a piece of information that was very critical to Xia Duo:

"I remember that south of the Wolf God Mountain in the Nan Jing, there are still significant hidden dangers around the Wanjun Mountains to the east of the Basin Lake and the Secret Lake to the west."

"It is certain that large Orc tribes exist in the Wanjun Mountains, and there are quite a few Trolls around the Secret Lake. If the Illuminati really wants to stir up trouble within Netheril, those two places can be said to be the easiest to achieve."

South of the Wolf God Mountain?

Xia Duo was stunned upon hearing such news, but at the same time, he felt fortunate. Fortunately, he had sent most of his territory's residents away in advance, otherwise, he might really have been tied down.

Currently, his judgment of the Daxia Territory's borders did not include the Wolf God Mountain; to the south, it reached at most the north side of the Wolf God Mountain, let alone the Wanjun Mountains further south, which were actually closer to Cormanthor.

However, in the broad, Netheril-claimed territorial division, the Wanjun Mountains belonged to the Nether Territory.

It was not just the Wanjun Mountains; from Cormanthor to the west, from the Asikeer-Aifuruisi line to the east, the vast region south of the Narrow Sea, including the Langas Plain, all belonged to the Nether Territory.

This area included the Noble Plain, which had already been fully developed—that is, from the Narrow Sea coast in the far north to the south, the place where Netheril started, all the way to the Kangqi Plain in the southwest, as well as the Kelong Plain in the south.

The Noble Plain belonged to the core area of Netheril, and outside the Noble Plain were the traditional pioneering areas of the Kangqi Plain, the Langas enclave, and the new pioneering areas—from the Kelong Plain all the way to the Nan Jing where the Xia Ling was located.

In addition, there were the Yellow Maple Hills, promised to the Gnomes for independent state-building, located at the southernmost part of the Kangqi Plain, almost level with the Daxia Territory in the east-west direction, slightly to the north.

It is conceivable that the entire so-called Nether Territory still had more than half of its area undeveloped, or rather, not yet brought under direct rule.

This included the Langas Plain, which occupied almost a small half of the Nether Territory. Currently, Netheril only controlled a few enclaves along the (Narrow) Sea there, the most famous of which was the Zhenisi Peninsula.

This Nether Territory had an Underground Passage leading directly to the Dwarf city of Asikeer, which could be considered the largest trading port between Netheril and Danzo. Besides taking the Underground Passage, one could also travel by sea, which was faster but carried higher risks.

But for the connection between those enclaves and Seventon, the advantage of the sea route was even greater, because the land route would pass through large areas of undeveloped territory, which was more dangerous than the sea.

On the sea, as long as one did not encounter sea monsters or extreme bad weather, it was actually relatively safe.

As for Portals, ordinary trade routes did not include Portals; after all, the maintenance cost of a Portal was truly too high, and it was simply not cost-effective for ordinary commercial exchanges.

However, after Xia Duo made the Airship blueprints public, the Airship became the best long-distance travel method that balanced safety, low cost, and efficiency, and it was also widely applied in the commercial field.

The biggest factor limiting the number of Airships previously lay in the core component of the Airship—the Endless Gas Bottle. The manufacturer needed to possess at least one Wind Elemental Plane rich in light gases.

In the past, even Xia Duo did not possess such a Plane; the only owner was Kelifu. It is conceivable how easy it was to do a monopoly business, which also kept the price of the Endless Gas Bottle high.

Yet, it happened to be cheaper than other alternative means, which forced major merchant guilds and lords to grit their teeth and purchase from Kelifu.

But after Pulitatisi appeared, the efficiency of Netheril's exploration of new Planes suddenly increased by who knows how many times. Although Wind Elemental Planes rich in light gases were still rare, the most critical point was that the new Planes discovered based on the new method were shared by Council members, and the production of the Endless Gas Bottle did not require consuming an entire Plane, but only needed to maintain a gas channel.

This caused the price of the Endless Gas Bottle to approach the cost price, and accordingly, the price of Airships was directly slashed by more than half.