Chapter 3486: Letters from Afar

————It will be later~~

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Since he had collected Time Force while battling Dafuni in Taiweimansa previously, 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 is just a pity that on the local battlefields that had already begun, Xia Duo was unable to collect any Time Force. Although he certainly had not visited every local battlefield that had already started, he had been to quite a few, and it could basically be concluded 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 because he had arrived early?

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

If his guess was correct, he should also be able to collect Time Force at the other few confirmed critical battlefields.

Moreover, verifying this is simple: just wait until the Alliance detects the Time-Involving Signal here. If he can still collect Time Force at that time, then it is highly probable that it is not because he arrived early, but because this war itself possesses 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. It was just like the Illuminati's Time-Involving Magic; if it were truly unsolvable, it should have succeeded long ago and would not have dragged on until now.

It is just that he has not yet seen through what the key to this is, but continuously drawing Time Force from here is certainly not wrong, as Time Force itself is also an extremely important key resource.

As long as he masters more Time Force, he will have the capital to repeatedly reshape the Time Line. In that case, even if he loses this war for a moment, he can reshape the Time Line and then repeatedly come back to "farm" it.

While Dafuni certainly possesses the means to regenerate Time Force, Xia Duo also believes that the opponent's Time Force cannot be infinite; at the very least, the Time Force that can be provided in a short period is likely limited.

As long as he finds a way to make Dafuni's consumption of Time Force greater than her output, forcing the opponent to constantly use her reserves until they are 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 does not lie in how to win on a single Time Line, because both sides can reshape the Time Line, and a momentary victory does not represent anything.

The true key lies in the unconventional, special strategic resource of Time Force. Without Time Force, relying solely on Arcane Magic to reshape the Time Line is extremely difficult.

At least with the Illuminati's strength, they cannot 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 ended up becoming a war of attrition!

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

Because the Illuminati's own strength is very weak relative to the Alliance, they can only use Time-Involving Magic to open up battlefields on the Time Line. While the Alliance's hard power can completely crush the Illuminati, because they are not skilled in Time-Involving Magic, they can only fight passively.

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

Netheril is a land favored by the Lord of Radiance, and the Illuminati likely cannot change the past of Netheril.

In this situation, the best outcome would be for the Elven Nations of the Main Plane to unify into the Ailan Kingdom. However, the Elven Nations of the Main Plane also have gods; the Elven Main God is not dead, and is also located outside the Main Plane.

If the Illuminati succeeded, it might result in a situation of "invincible on earth, enemies coming from the heavens."

From this perspective, Xia Duo seems to be able to lie flat; no matter what the Illuminati does, the sky will not fall, and even if the sky falls, there will always be someone taller to hold it up.

However, he has never been a person who likes to lie flat, and he does not want to pin his hopes on the enemy's failure. What if the Illuminati succeeds brilliantly?

What if the Illuminati can ignore the favor of the Lord of Radiance? Or if some other way to coordinate history appears? Wouldn't he be dumbfounded then?

……

By the Xiangshui River, Xia Duo realized the essence that the Time-line War is a war of attrition. This was still within his understanding, 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 concluded. It was just that, like the previous Time Line, the Alliance lost more and won less.

Only in individual battlefields where Xia Duo actively intervened did they win very easily; in others, even if they won, they paid a significant price. This was still with the help of reinforcements from Beilunuo and Xinnaliya.

If not for that, judging by the situation on this Time Line where the Illuminati decided the battle early and the Alliance was ill-prepared, the price would likely have been 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 reshapes.

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

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

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

Without a doubt, the difficulty of changing the past is far greater than changing the future. As long as one can foresee the future, one does not even need to consume Time Force to change the past.

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

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

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

But if the Illuminati does not want to change the past through Time Force, then they have either abandoned the so-called Ailan Rebirth Project, or it is just a single Time Line action.

As long as the Illuminati is physically eliminated on this Time Line, that counts as winning this war.