Chapter 3454: Promotion of Blue Gold Coins

————It will be later~~

————

Xia Duo hurried toward that corner. The moment he passed it, the view suddenly opened up. Ahead, visible to the naked eye, was a massive spherical space. Below, there were several relatively flat areas of ground, while above, countless sharp spikes hung down.

Of course, those were not sharp spikes, but stalactites and folds squeezed out by the rock strata. Originally, there should have been some on the ground below as well, but they had likely been cleared away.

The light he had just seen came from a platform below. Although the light emitted from there was not particularly bright, within this limited space, it illuminated almost the entire area.

Without a doubt, that was where the Illuminati's ultimate ritual was located!

Xia Duo did not take any further action but quietly retreated. The reason he was so certain was that he sensed a powerful fluctuation of Time Force coming from below that space.

Previously, during his research into Time Force, although he had failed to find the true source of Time Force and could not reproduce this special power, perhaps because he had also consumed a significant amount of Time Force, he had unexpectedly gained the ability to perceive it.

But it was limited to perception; he could not do more. He felt that if he were given unlimited Time Force to experiment with, perhaps through constant use, he could gain a faint Time bloodline, just as Mages who study Elemental Energy for years gain a faint elemental bloodline.

It was also because he had personally experienced the transition from having no perception of Time Force at the beginning to later developing a faint perception that Xia Duo even suspected that the reason Dafuni possessed such an extraordinary ability might be due to her long-term use of Time Force.

However, all of this had a process of starting from zero, so where did the initial Time Force come from?

If Dafuni truly gained Time Force-related abilities through long-term use of Time Force, that would mean Time Force might be obtainable through conventional Spells.

But there was another possibility: that Dafuni had carried a Time Force source from the very beginning, such as a time-related bloodline, or an Artifact of the Time Domain, which could continuously generate Time Force.

Regardless of which it was, Xia Duo would conduct an in-depth investigation after the war. For now, having witnessed the scene in the Underdark space that was suspected to be the Illuminati ritual, Xia Duo indeed felt the fluctuation of Time Force.

With such a strong presence of Time Force fluctuation, even if it were not the location of the Illuminati's ultimate ritual, it was inevitably a key part of the ritual.

Therefore, Xia Duo did not alert them but quietly retreated. He had Wuta stay there temporarily to monitor, while also ensuring that the search for other suspicious locations did not stop.

As for himself, he immediately returned to the Surface. Because Talafu was acting as the translator for Xia Duo and Wuta, he also learned of the situation below at the first opportunity. Seeing Xia Duo come up, he immediately asked:

"Is it time to start the counterattack?"

"Yes, but not here." Xia Duo glanced toward the southeast, speaking with implication.

……

Meanwhile, on the other side, in Yongle City.

Xia Duo once again requested operational authorization from the representatives of various countries through the Alliance Command Network.

As for information synchronization, it had already been completed during Xia Duo's time "underground." The countries had synchronized all details of the actions taken against all Time-Involving Signal sources within their borders to the Command Network, but they still had not loosened their stance on authorizing Alliance Mages to enter their borders for operations.

In fact, Xia Duo did not necessarily need to obtain authorization from various countries to start the counterattack. The counterattack he was about to carry out was not in the Main Plane's current world, but on the level of the Time Line.

The authorization was not for the upcoming action, but for post-war protection; it was a form of anchoring possibility—the possibility that he would definitely obtain authorization from the countries, thereby avoiding accountability after the war.

Therefore, he had to get it now!

"Everyone, we don't have much time left. Right now, when countries are dealing with the Time-Involving Signal sources within their own borders, if they could handle them perfectly well, then so be it; I wouldn't even bring up such a request.

"But the reality is, even with the support of War Spells, and even with what you all call 'giving your all,' the Time-Involving Signal sources within the borders of various countries have not all been handled properly.

"In this situation, is there really any need to hesitate about allowing Alliance Mages to handle the dangers there that you cannot currently deal with?"

Xia Duo was very puzzled. What exactly were these people thinking? There were some problems they clearly couldn't solve themselves, yet they wouldn't let others help them solve them. If it were just a general problem, Xia Duo wouldn't bother, and would just let it be.

But these problems concerned everyone's interests, yet they were now being held hostage by the narrow-mindedness of individual high-level officials. This also made Xia Duo have even stronger thoughts about improving the Alliance system.

"Consultant Xia Duo, the impact of a few individual Time-Involving Signal sources not being handled well shouldn't be that significant on the final result, right?"

"Whether it's significant or not, you might not believe me if I say it. Why not ask for the opinion of the Time-Related Magic Research Laboratory?"

As he spoke, Xia Duo directly pulled Bangdi from the Time-Related Magic Research Laboratory into this small "meeting room" Sub-network, and then repeated the question from the Alliance representative just now. As Xia Duo had expected, Bangdi immediately expressed opposition:

"Our war with the Illuminati is essentially a struggle for the right to define the past. Every single Time Signal Source Point represents a decisive battle for the right of definition. Losing one means the scales of victory tilt a little toward the Illuminati. Whenever possible, not a single one should be lost."

"See? It's not just me saying this! If you don't even believe the conclusion of the Time-Related Magic Research Laboratory, then what else can you believe?"

After finishing, Xia Duo gave an ultimatum without any politeness, "I'll give you twenty minutes. If you still can't provide authorization, then I will act unilaterally. You should understand that I am capable of doing so. When that time comes, any unnecessary misunderstandings that arise will be the sole responsibility of you Plenipotentiary Representatives!"

Xia Duo did not care what these representatives thought. In any case, after the war, he would inevitably gain prestige and a voice far exceeding what he had now, while some of these Plenipotentiary Representatives were destined to be rotated out.

Moreover, everything he did was in accordance with the Alliance order and occupied the moral high ground. In reality, he didn't need to care about the thoughts of these representatives at all. The reason he insisted on obtaining authorization was mainly because he did not want to leave any stain of procedural non-compliance.

But at the same time, Xia Duo was very clear about the thoughts of these Alliance representatives. On one hand, it was indeed difficult to convince their domestic governments, or rather, they were not confident in convincing their domestic governments themselves. But at the same time, nine out of ten of these representatives likely agreed with giving the authorization in their hearts.

They were just afraid of bearing responsibility. Now that they had his pressure as a step to climb down, it was naturally not difficult for these representatives to accept.

After the war, if everything went smoothly, then of course it was their decisive decision-making; if the situation did not go well, they could also push the responsibility onto Xia Duo.