Chapter 3300: Bad News Follows One After Another

————Working on it, still need about 20 minutes~

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Just as Xia Duo's consciousness returned to his physical body to seclude himself and study the Illuminati's Excited State Magic Artifact, waves were stirred up in the outside world: traces of Drow activity were discovered within the borders of Cormanthor, 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 Cormanthor Elves.

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

Now, the newly discovered Drow traces immediately became a matter of concern for the vast majority of Cormanthor Elves, and 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 were discovered again, the greatest possibility was that another Underground Passage had appeared within Cormanthor.

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

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

"As expected!"

……

"You remember that to the south of Wolf God Mountain in the Nan Jing, and around the Wanjun Mountains east of the basin lake and the Secret Lake to the west, there still exist major hidden dangers."

It is not just the Wanjun Mountains; from the west of Langasi, from the Asikeer-Evereska line to the east, and the vast region south of the Narrow Sea including the Cormanthor Plain, all belong to the Nether Territory.

Although every country holds such a view, that is only before they fall into trouble; once one's own country falls into unprecedented major trouble, can they still make such rational judgments then?

This Nether Territory has an Underground Passage leading directly to the Dwarf city of Asikeer, which can be considered the largest trade port for the Nether Drow and Danzo; besides taking the Underground Passage, one can also travel by sea, which is faster but carries higher risks.

"The Wanjun Mountains side can confirm the existence of small Orc tribes, while around the Secret Lake there exist a number of Trolls; if the Darkness Society really wants to stir up trouble within the Nether Drow territory, these two places can be said to be the easiest to achieve."

This area includes the Noble Plain, which has already been fully developed, that is, from the Narrow Sea coast in the far north to the south, the place where the Nether Drow started, all the way to the Kangqi Plain in the southwest, and the Kelong Plain in the south.

Currently, his judgment of the territory of Great Xia Ling does not include Wolf God Mountain; at most, it reaches the north side of Wolf God Mountain to the south, let alone the further southern Wanjun Mountains, which are actually closer to Cormanthor.

This includes the Cormanthor Plain, which occupies almost half of the Nether Territory; currently, the Nether Drow only control a few enclaves along the (Narrow) Sea there, the most famous of which is the Zhenisi Peninsula.

So Xia Duo reminded them again.

It is conceivable that the entire so-called Nether Territory actually still has a large area that has not been developed, or rather, has not been brought under direct rule.

And in the past, such a Plane was something even Xia Duo had never possessed; the only possessor was Kelifu. It is conceivable how profitable a monopoly business is, which also kept the price of the Infinite Gas Bottle high.

First the Yierlan civil strife, then Cormanthor discovering Drow traces; it is hard not to suspect that the Illuminati is behind it. In fact, at the previous Alliance meeting, representatives from various countries had already made such a judgment.

But after Pulitatisi appeared, the efficiency of the Nether Drow in exploring new Planes increased by an unknown number of times. Although the Wind Elemental Plane rich in heavy gas is still rare, the most critical thing is that the new Planes discovered based on the new method are shared by the Council members, and the production of the Infinite Gas Bottle does not require consuming an entire Plane, only maintaining a gas channel.

Yet it happens to be cheaper than other alternative means, which makes major merchant guilds and lords hold their noses and buy from Kelifu.

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

Compared to Xia Duo and Tiao, Iolum undoubtedly knows much more about Orc tribes.

It is just that in the broad, Nether Drow-claimed territorial division, the Wanjun Mountains belong to the Nether Territory.

The Northland Alliance currently has twelve member states; now Yierlan and Langasi have been interfered with by the Darkness Society, so what about the other countries?

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

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

In addition, there are 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 Great Xia Ling in the east-west direction, slightly to the north.

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

And besides Tiao, who is 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 then, with the help of the Council's power, conduct a round of rapid exploration around the Nether Drow territory.

Xia Duo was stunned upon hearing such news, and at the same time felt fortunate; it was a good thing he had already sent away the vast majority of his subjects, otherwise he might really have been tied down.

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

At sea, as long as one does not encounter sea monsters or extremely bad weather, it is actually relatively safe.

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

The biggest factor regarding the number of Airships previously lay in the core component of the Airship—the Infinite Gas Bottle; the manufacturer needs to possess at least one Wind Elemental Plane rich in heavy gas.

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

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

So he immediately sent a Sending to Tiao, requesting that the other party must persuade the Langasi side not to excessively consolidate their forces, and at least maintain the rapid response list; this is the key to finally being able to counterattack and even completely eliminate the Darkness Society.

South of Wolf God Mountain?

The Noble Plain belongs to the core area of the Nether Drow, and outside the Noble Plain are the traditional development zones of the Kangqi Plain, the Cormanthor enclaves, and the new development areas—from the Kelong Plain all the way to the Nan Jing where Xia Duo's territory is located.

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

Now it is just confirmed.