Chapter 3485: Lost in Psionic Paths

————Currently rushing~~

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Since Time Force had been collected during the previous engagement with Dafuni in Taiweimansa, how could Xia Duo not bring the Time Flow Regulator to those various local battlefields to see if he could collect Time Force there as well!

It was just a pity that on the local battlefields that had already begun, Xia Duo had not been able to collect any Time Force. Although he indeed had not been able to visit every local battlefield that had already started, he had been to quite a few, and it could basically be considered that there was none.

But now, he had actually collected Time Force before the Time-Involving Signal erupted at the Xiangshui River battlefield. So, was this the reason for this battlefield, or was it the reason for him arriving early?

If it were elsewhere, he might have thought it was because he arrived early, but here, at the critical location of the Xiangshui River, Xia Duo already had an answer faintly in his heart.

If he had not guessed wrong, Time Force should also be collectable at the other few critical battlefields that had already been determined.

Moreover, verifying this was very simple. As long as he waited for the Alliance to monitor the Time-Involving Signal here, if Time Force could still be collected at that time, then it was highly probable that it was not because he had arrived early, but that this war itself possessed a special nature.

However, Xia Duo could not truly let the Illuminati complete their ritual smoothly, and he also could not sit by and watch the losses of the Alliance Mages. Since he had already come in person, and had even arrived early, he also wanted to try it himself.

He did not believe that this battlefield could never be changed, just like the Illuminati's time-related Magic; if it were truly unsolvable, it should have succeeded long ago and would not have dragged on until now.

It was just that he had not yet seen through what key existed within this, but continuously drawing Time Force from here was, in any case, not wrong; Time Force itself was also an extremely important key resource.

As long as he mastered more Time Force, he would have the capital to repeatedly reshape the Time Line. In this way, even if this war were lost for a moment, he could reshape the Time Line and then repeatedly come back to "grind" it.

Although Dafuni possessed the means to regenerate Time Force, Xia Duo also believed that the opponent's Time Force could not be infinite; at least, the Time Force that could be provided in a short time was highly likely to be limited.

As long as he found a way to make Dafuni's consumption of Time Force greater than her output, forcing the opponent to constantly use her reserves until they were exhausted, then Dafuni would be no different from an ordinary high-level Mage.

Pondering this, Xia Duo seemed to have grasped the key to the Time-line War. The key did not lie in how to win on a single Time Line, because both sides could reshape the Time Line, and a temporary victory did not represent anything.

The true key still lay in the unconventional special strategic resource of Time Force. If there were no Time Force, relying solely on Arcane Magic to reshape the Time Line would be extremely difficult.

At least with the strength of the Illuminati, it was impossible to rely solely on Arcane Magic to reshape the Time Line to achieve the goal of the Ailan Civilization replacing the current world.

Therefore, this war had actually turned into a war of attrition in the end!

Thinking of this, Xia Duo suddenly had an epiphany: the vast majority of wars—as long as a one-sided crushing situation did not appear at the beginning—would likely eventually turn into wars of attrition.

Because the Illuminati's own power was very weak relative to the Alliance, they could only rely on time-related Magic to open up battlefields on the Time Line, while the Alliance, although its hard power could completely crush the Illuminati, could only passively fight because it was not skilled in time-related Magic.

If not for Xia Duo, perhaps the Illuminati would have succeeded. Of course, there was also a high probability of failure, because Xia Duo had received an accurate reply from the Divine Envoy Richi, which was—

Netheril was a land favored by the Lord of Radiance, and the Illuminati would highly likely be unable to change the past of Netheril.

Under these circumstances, the best outcome would be no more than letting the Elven Nations of the Main Plane unify into the Ailan Kingdom, but the Elven Nations of the Main Plane also had gods. The Elven main god was not dead, and was also located outside the Main Plane.

If the Illuminati succeeded, it might be a situation of "invincible in the world, but facing enemies from the heavens."

From this perspective, Xia Duo seemed to be able to lie flat. No matter how the Illuminati messed around, the sky would not collapse, and even if the sky collapsed, there would always be someone taller to hold it up.

However, he had never been a person who liked to lie flat, and he also did not want to pin his hopes on the enemy's failure. What if the Illuminati achieved a great success?

What if the Illuminati could ignore the favor of the Lord of Radiance? Or if other ways to coordinate history appeared, wouldn't he be dumbfounded?

……

On the banks of the Xiangshui River, Xia Duo realized the essence that the Time-line War was a war of attrition. This was still within his cognition to some extent, and for the time being, he could only follow this line of thought.

Soon, an hour passed. The Battle of Tear Drop Lake had long since ended, and even the battles on many other local battlefields had already ended, but it was still like the previous Time Line: the Alliance lost more and won less.

Only individual battlefields where Xia Duo actively intervened were won very easily; others, even if they won, paid a not-insignificant price. This was still with the presence of reinforcements from Beilunuo and Xinnaliya.

If there were none, given the situation on this Time Line where the Illuminati decided the battle early and the Alliance was underprepared, the price would likely be even greater.

As for Xia Duo's side, in just one hour, he had collected enough Time Force for about half a Time Gem, enough to perform several Time Line reshapings.

In this regard, he actually had more of an advantage than the Illuminati.

His method of reshaping the Time Line was not the same as the Illuminati's. Time Force was used more as a Spellcasting Medium or a "catalyst." Although there was consumption, compared to the Illuminati, it should be smaller.

Additionally, his anchor in the current world was set in the "past" of the "history" he wanted to reshape; it was actually more like changing the future, rather than changing the past.

But the Illuminati were changing the past in real-time!

Without a doubt, the difficulty of changing the past was far greater than changing the future. As long as one could foresee the future, one could even change the past without consuming Time Force.

By comparison, even if one knew the already determined past, wanting to change it required paying a huge price.

This was also the key to Xia Duo being able to fight a war of attrition with the Illuminati. Of course, his true trump card was actually the Time Flow Regulator; this key item could continuously "fleece" Time Force from the Illuminati.

As long as the Illuminati still wanted to use Time Force to change the past, they could not escape Xia Duo's "fleece-shearing" behavior.

But if the Illuminati did not want to change the past through Time Force, then they had either abandoned the so-called Ailan Rebirth Project, or it was just a single-Time-Line behavior.