Chapter 3301: Two Major Passages, Decompilation and Cracking

In normal times, Xia Duo might not have such worries about an accidentally discovered Underground Passage, but in the current situation, it is clearly the Illuminati playing tricks.

If the Illuminati have colluded with the Drow, even if it is only a possibility, it is enough to plunge the entire Northland into panic; the last Drow War ended only a few years ago, and even though the Drow were defeated last time, they still had room to fight back.

Otherwise, given the dread and hatred the Surface Elven Nations hold for the Drow, they would have had to completely annihilate the Drow; the reality, of course, is that they failed to do so, instead forcing the Drow to retreat into the deeper Underdark.

This is enough to show that the Drow still have the strength to fight; if they were incited by the Illuminati, it is not impossible for them to rush to the surface once more, though it is hard to say which area they would emerge from this time.

There are also passages connecting to the Underdark within Netheril; Xia Duo knows of two of them alone. One is east of Daxia Territory, but one must go nearly a hundred meters deep underground to discover it. However, this distance is practically nothing for the Drow who have traveled the Underdark for years. That underground passage was also only found after Xia Duo searched for a long time because it was located beneath the surface.

As for the other one, it is in the basin lake south of Daxia Territory and south of Wolf God Mountain. According to Xia Duo's actual exploration, it connects to an Underdark Sea. Compared to other passages, a passage with water is undoubtedly relatively safer.

At the very least, Xia Duo has never seen any records regarding the Underdark Sea in the Archives from the Alliance side. In other words, the Underground Passage by the basin lake is highly likely to connect to a completely unfamiliar Underdark.

But if the Alliance has no records, it is equivalent to the Drow having no records either. If the Drow definitely choose to rush to the surface from the water passage, then Netheril would bear the brunt of it.

To be more specific, it is not just Nan Jing or Xia Ling; if the Drow truly rushed to the surface from the basin lake, judging by the situation of the last Drow War, the entire Nan Jing could be destroyed in the flames of war.

……

Following this, Xia Duo cast a spell to manually remove an inconspicuous Spell Element within the Magic Artifact; without any accidents, the external bridging component successfully replaced that element!

Time Acceleration Array is still more suitable for pure thinking or calculation; it is best to be cautious with anything involving reality elements.

Next, he carefully took out the Excited State Magic Artifact, which had been stripped down to only a small portion of its core components—though, of course, it is somewhat inappropriate to call it an Excited State Magic Artifact now.

However, Xia Duo still chose to leave the Time Acceleration Array. No matter how one avoids it, there are ultimately differences between the environment inside and outside the array, and in the end, one must return to the normal environment for verification. Now, it is just taking a step further to conduct experiments directly in a normal environment.

This process might also involve encryption, which makes it even more complex, but the logic is the same; as long as one is willing to put in the effort, it can always be cracked.

At the thought that he could find a way to counter the Darkness Society's Time-Involving Ritual through this Magic Artifact, Xia Duo's breathing became a bit hurried, but the more critical the moment, the more one must handle it calmly.

And now, he truly has no way to gamble on whether the Darkness Society knows, so he can only set up Warning Magic there. Even if this behavior might conversely alert the Darkness Society, it at least counts as a precautionary measure.

Once restored, it becomes a complete program (spell or Magic Artifact).

In this world, there almost does not exist a spell or Magic Artifact that cannot be cracked.

The Darkness Society's Magic Artifact is, of course, no exception. The only shortcoming is the lack of sample size; if Xia Duo were given ten or twenty identical Magic Artifacts, he could completely shorten the time by more than ten times.

"It is exactly as I predicted!"

Yongle City.

The remaining half is still on the Time-Involving Ritual, and as for this, since it involves the Abyss, the Divine Envoy might not be able to help, requiring the mortals of the Main Plane to handle it themselves.

Xia Duo had prepared all the materials needed for the experiment within the Time Acceleration Array before pausing the array and returning to the real spacetime of the Laboratory.

Because the Magic Artifact is no longer in an excited state at this moment, if Xia Duo, having analyzed it to this point, could not even do this, then it would be too much of a failure; the year or more spent in the Time Acceleration Array was not in vain.

If he could truly find the core of the Darkness Society through the Moonshadow Family, or at least deal a heavy blow to their core members, then this final decisive battle would be at least half won.

And this also makes Xia Duo increasingly look forward to the arrival of the Divine Envoy Waiqi.

From binary code (changes in Magic Net String) that is impossible to hide under normal circumstances, to readable instructions (Spell Elements), and then deducing the specific flow, variables, functions, etc., of the program (combination of Spell Elements) from the instructions.

The specific functions still need further testing to be determined, but the hardest work has already been completed; testing the functions is just a matter of convenience.

Of course, this is under the condition of only using the Magic Net's functions; if the researcher can provide energy themselves, or even conduct experiments without relying on the Magic Net, then there is no impact at all.

The method Xia Duo used when he first started cracking the Magic Artifact is this one; its advantage is being able to find all the Spell Elements involved in the target Magic Artifact, like peeling silk from a cocoon.

It is just that there is one last chain-encryption component that connects almost all Spell Elements, affecting the whole body with a single pull; as soon as this last lock is undone, the true face of this Darkness Society Magic Artifact will be revealed completely.

And the disadvantage is also very obvious; this is almost a brute-force crack, similar to the decompilation process of programs on Earth—

The isolated sample limited too many available means, but fortunately, it is all in the past; the true face of this Magic Artifact is destined to be exposed before Xia Duo.

The most troublesome thing now is not what the Darkness Society has specifically done, but that they have always been in hiding; as long as they dare to show their heads, the Alliance itself is enough to deal with them, without even needing Xia Duo to take action.

Having reached this point, Xia Duo could even say he understands this Magic Artifact better than the Darkness Society member who originally created it—of course, limited to the element composition of the Magic Artifact, not its specific functions.

……

Because the Time Acceleration Array can only affect a limited area, and the energy density of the Magic Net is also limited, this makes most spell experiments impossible to conduct within the Time Acceleration Array, as accelerating time will decrease the energy density of the Magic Net.

Originally, he had not set up any Warning Magic for those two Underground Passages; after all, Warning Magic itself is a flaw, and in the absence of other knowledgeable people, acting as if nothing had happened is the best choice.

Xia Duo, who was meditating with his eyes closed in the Time Acceleration Array, suddenly smoothed his brow, having thought of a way to crack the last chain-encryption component of the Darkness Society's Excited State Magic Artifact.

Fortunately, no Drow traces were found for the time being, which made him breathe a sigh of relief while also generating a stronger sense of urgency; only after setting up Warning Magic for the two passages did he let his avatar return to Evereska.

Once something happens, he will also be able to know in time.

Upon learning of the discovery of a new Underground Passage, Xia Duo's vigilance and sense of crisis were raised almost to the peak; after hesitating for a moment, he still dispatched his avatar to return to the Territory and repeatedly check the two nearby passages.

He took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled; his eyes had become incomparably calm, and at the same time, his hands began to move, performing external component bridging on this last part of the Magic Artifact—this is a common method when cracking Magic Artifacts.