Chapter 434: Worship and Betrayal

Just before Xia Duo returned to the Tower of Time, he had sent a message to Niya through the Tower Spirit, telling her that there was a Druid of the Golden Statue Branch Cult in his Territory, and wanted to ask for her opinion. It was just that because they had discovered a Sub-plane, both of them returned to the Tower of Time almost simultaneously, and afterwards, they were both preoccupied with the Sub-plane, so Xia Duo did not bring it up.

In fact, the two of them had spent quite a long time in the Sub-plane; it should be nearly dawn outside now, and they had stayed up all night. This was also the reason why Xia Duo did not mention this matter before he left.

He needed to rest as soon as possible to recover his energy.

However, since Niya had brought it up, Xia Duo certainly wanted to hear what she had to say, "What else do you know about the Golden Statue Branch Cult?"

"I don't know much, but my teacher knew I was inquiring about the situation of the Golden Statue Branch Cult. When I returned, she told me that the people of the Golden Statue Branch Cult had gone to Cormanthor to worship the Elven Main God."

"Worship the Elven Main God?" Xia Duo frowned. He now got a headache whenever he heard anything related to Elves, let alone something related to gods.

"Yes, this is a decision they only made this year; it had never happened in the past!" Niya's expression was somewhat serious. She thought of the attitude her teacher had when speaking about this matter, which made her realize the significance revealed behind it.

Betraying the country, betraying the people.

Thinking of the message he had received before leaving, Niya continued, "The Druid in your Territory should be named Yatewude, right?"

"Yes, how did you know?" When Xia Duo sent the message to Niya, he did not mention the name Yatewude, and Niya's previous reply clearly showed she did not have a deep understanding of the Golden Statue Branch Cult, yet now she even knew Yatewude's name.

It must be because of her teacher, that Princess.

And Niya's answer confirmed his guess, "Teacher mentioned that Yatewude was exiled by the Golden Statue Branch Cult because he was unwilling to go and worship the Elven Main God."

"Then do you know about the situation of Yatewude losing his Holy Power?" Xia Duo asked again.

"I don't know." Niya shook her head, "Teacher only mentioned the name briefly. I only guessed that the Druid who appeared in Daxia Territory was Yatewude because I received your message."

However, she was still very surprised about the fact that Yatewude had lost his Holy Power, because it was truly too rare, and she couldn't help but ask a few more questions:

"Has Yatewude really lost his Holy Power? After a Cleric loses their Holy Power, do they really become an ordinary person?"

"Laidun made the judgment under the Domain of Honesty, so it should be true. As for whether he has really become an ordinary person, it appears so for now, but it remains to be further verified. I will tell you later."

In fact, Xia Duo was no longer worried about the issue of Yatewude. Whether he was an ordinary person or a transcendent, he was now a resident of Daxia Territory.

Skipping the topic of Yatewude, the two chatted about their recent situations and their views on current events. However, when Xia Duo noticed Niya's increasingly exhausted complexion, he stopped the conversation in time:

"I saw your complexion was very poor when you just came back, and then you didn't sleep all night. Go and rest now!"

Mentioning rest, Niya subconsciously yawned. Realizing this, she immediately reached out to cover her mouth, but how could Xia Duo, who had been watching her, not notice? Niya's face instantly flushed red, but she still feigned composure, lowered her hand, and said:

"I know, you go and rest too."

After speaking, without waiting for Xia Duo to react, she immediately teleported away.

Leaving only Xia Duo alone in the Preparation Teleportation Hall, he glanced at the vortex-shaped Portal in the center, smiled slightly, and also left this place.

When Xia Duo woke up again, it was already afternoon. After asking the Tower Spirit, he learned that Niya had woken up before him and had already returned to Seventon to make up for her lessons.

Regarding this, Xia Duo didn't know what to say, only thinking that if nothing unexpected happened, he would also experience such a major make-up session in the future, to bridge the gap between the Tower of Time and the latest Knowledge.

Thinking about it, he was actually quite looking forward to it.

However, the fact that Niya had been making up lessons for several months and still hadn't finished still surprised Xia Duo somewhat, and he also felt that the Tower of Time had been isolated for nearly a hundred years, and had truly fallen behind for too long.

Fortunately, an Arcanist was still an Arcanist, and there had been no changes, which gave Xia Duo a lot of comfort.

This was actually easy to understand. Similar to comparing the college entrance examination on Earth ten years ago with the current one, although scientific theories and technology had advanced quite a bit, this had very little impact on the college entrance examination.

Although the form of the examination might have changed, the essence remained unchanged; what was being tested was still that same level of understanding and Application of Knowledge.

Xia Duo was also not worried about there being a more efficient method for an Advanced Arcanist, because he knew very well what the essence of advancement was, and as for the specific method, it was actually not that important.

It was like calculating 1+2+3 all the way to 100; some people used a formula, some people added them directly, but this did not affect the final calculation result of 5050.

From the perspective of an Advanced Arcanist, Arcane Fire was that result.

Being able to obtain the result was already a very good method.

The existence of a definite, repeatable, and verifiable result—what this meant, the Netherese might not yet understand, but Xia Duo knew very clearly that this was actually the definition of science, and it was also the ladder by which civilization could climb.

When Xia Duo first heard Niya say that as long as one followed the advancement steps completely, and as long as one did not make mistakes, one would definitely succeed, he was almost shocked to the point of being unable to add anything more.

Magic possessed both theoretical and practical attributes; what was related to people was practice, and what was unrelated was theory. Excluding human factors, theory could be repeatedly verified—wasn't this just science! At that time, Xia Duo thought of the vision of universal Arcanists, just like universal college students on Earth. Of course, the actual proportion might not be that exaggerated, and it couldn't reach everyone, but this meant that Knowledge (Magic) could be popularized.

And many of Xia Duo's speculations were also built on this foundation, such as speculating on the changes of the era, the explosion of technology, and the adaptation of production relations to productive forces, etc.

It was hard to imagine what kind of scene it would be if the essence of the Magic Net changed, just like if the fine-structure constant of the Earth's Universe changed; that would definitely be a disaster.

"Matter? Consciousness? What is the connection between them?"

Although Xia Duo knew that he was not yet at the point of considering the essence of the world, he still couldn't help but daydream a bit. This world was truly too wonderful, making one unable to help but daydream.

Returning to reality, Xia Duo was still that ordinary Mage busy with advancement. Just after eating some steamed buns to fill his stomach and wondering what the next new type of food would be, the Tower Spirit suddenly reminded him: "Agent Xia Duo, Arcanist Aiboke is visiting."

As soon as the door opened, Aiboke walked in quickly with the wind, his tone very excited, "In the Plane Exploration Layer, a Portal appeared in the Preparation Teleportation Hall. Was a new Plane discovered?"

"..."

You really are slow to react! Limited by Permission Level, although Aiboke could also go to the Plane Exploration Layer, he did not have the real-time reminders of the Tower Spirit. Xia Duo knew that Aiboke had been studying Knowledge and techniques related to a Plane Scholar during this time, but the discovery of the new Plane was a matter from last night; Aiboke was truly unlucky.

However, seeing him so excited, Xia Duo only answered as such, "Yes, a new Plane was indeed discovered. Both Niya and I have already been there to take a look."

(End of this chapter)