Chapter 453: Sage Inheritance

This reminded Xia Duo of a way to select holy children in his hometown in the West; the so-called "Sage" relies neither on magical attainments nor on military or political achievements, and the Empire has a specialized department dedicated to finding Sages.

As for the specific method, it was not in the memory of "Aidi," whom Xia Duo is projecting into; he only knew that a Sage does not refer to one specific person, but rather there are many of them.

Yet every Sage actively guides the Empire in magic, seeks benefits, and plans for the future. The Arcane Empire has been established for nearly a thousand years; there have been turmoils during this period, but the long-term vision of the Sages was ultimately proven, thereby establishing the current Sage succession system.

How exactly the next generation of Sages is determined is known only to the contemporary Sages. Including "Aidi," no one knows how many people have fantasized about being approached one day by someone from the Imperial Sage Selection Division to become a Sage candidate.

However, everyone who had such thoughts ultimately failed to realize them, because no one knew what the criteria for the Selection Department were, let alone how a Sage would choose.

Only a Sage knows who the other Sage is.

Although many people have claimed to be Sages, attempting to muddle through, the vast majority cannot even pass the Selection Department's screening, let alone face a real Sage in person.

Some have speculated that there has only ever been one Sage from beginning to end, and that the so-called selection is just a trick played by the Sage, but this argument is hard to sustain.

After all, to make such a vast Empire and countless Mages play along with a succession game—even a Sage might not have that much influence.

After leaving the graduation ceremony venue, Xia Duo walked toward the Library while scraping useful information from "Aidi's" memory; the Sage succession system looked suspicious no matter how one viewed it.

For a normal country to choose its successors and leaders in such a fantasy-like way is truly too much of a farce. Regardless of how many contributions the Sages in history have made, this uncertain selection method truly goes against the normal rationality of a normal country.

There must be key information here that he does not know, because this system is able to gain the approval of a group of Great Arcanists, so it must have a certain rationality; it is just that he does not know where that rationality lies.

At the same time, Xia Duo also discovered that the script used by this Arcane Empire is actually Netheril script, and even the magic system is basically the same, also having Arcanists and Great Arcanists.

It is just that there are no Temples or Clerics here. Since the projection began, Xia Duo has not heard a single word related to the Lord of Radiance; what he has heard most is actually a slogan that almost everyone shouts a few times whether they have something to do or not.

"Arcane Supreme."

It truly lives up to the name of Arcane Empire. Perhaps this is a certain possibility of the Main Plane, only in the real Main Plane, history did not develop into the shape of this Arcane Empire.

He is now truly impatient to learn everything about the Empire.

Arriving at the Library, there were not many people here, only a sparse few.

Regarding this phenomenon, Xia Duo also understood; it was very clear in "Aidi's" memory, because the School provides textbooks, experimental venues, experimental equipment, and teachers for lectures, so the students' reliance on the Library is very small.

In "Aidi's" memory, he had only been to the Library twice in these four years: once when he first arrived, and the other time was to look for information about the Sages.

Since "Aidi" is currently a graduate, Xia Duo was told by the administrator that this was his last time entering the Library; after today, he would only be able to apply in advance.

According to the hints in the "memory," Xia Duo came to the history section. The first thing that caught his eye was a whole row of shelves of "General History of the Empire." He casually took one down and flipped through it; the handwriting was fine and very neat, likely mass-produced.

After flipping through only one, his interest greatly diminished. He did not know how long it would take to look through this entire row of shelves, so he could only look for the table of contents first, focusing on finding the section on the origin of the Empire.

Fortunately, the book editing here is already very similar to that on Earth, and soon, Xia Duo found his target—

"General History of the Empire, Volume II: Seven Cities Alliance"! "It really is Netheril!"

No, it should be the counterpart of the Main Plane's Netheril in the Astral Plane's Projection Plane! If that is the case, then the so-called "demons" could very well be Elves! Xia Duo flipped through it quickly, and after a short while, he suddenly raised his head, closed the book with a "snap," and thought, "So that's how it is!"

The book contained no commentary on history, just records, and in a very neutral tone, giving the feeling that the merits and faults are left for later generations to judge.

The Seven Cities Alliance is indeed real; it was a village alliance initiated by a person named Nether, but later Nether wanted to establish a dictatorship, and the Sage guided the various villages to reunite and overthrow Nether's rule.

Under the leadership of the Sage, the newborn Seven Cities Alliance grew sturdily. Later, the Second Generation Great Sage appeared; he taught magic to the people and led the people to expand their land.

Afterward, Sages appeared like rain, one wave after another, and there was even a period with several Sages in one generation, until the Seven Cities Alliance reached its peak, which was the founding of the Arcane Empire.

Although the text was very plain, Xia Duo could feel the magnificent history described between the lines, but at the same time, he also discovered something awkward.

Not to mention where these successive Sages popped out from, the mere fact that the Sage taught magic is very suspicious. The Netheril Magic System of the Main Plane was obtained through studying the 【Nether Scroll】.

The researchers themselves were already Mages, only they had previously studied Elven Magic.

But in this Projection Plane, the Sage, who initially had no extraordinary power, taught it just like that; the appearance of this magic is truly too abrupt, and not even a 【Nether Scroll】 or similar item has appeared.

Or could it be that the 【Nether Scroll】 has already been discovered and has been monopolized by the Sages? This possibility is extremely small. Xia Duo had a bolder idea—

Perhaps the so-called Sages are all like him, projected from the Main Plane, and it is an organized, premeditated collective projection.

Once a person has doubts, they view everything through colored glasses. Re-examining the process of the Sages' emergence, Xia Duo realized that he is currently in a "Sage state"!

If the contemporary Sage of the Arcane Empire is a member of the Tower of Time, then he only needs to go over and exchange some information about the Main Plane with him to confirm each other's identities.

As for confirmation, it is truly just a matter of a sentence or two.

But at the same time, there is another problem: it is obviously impossible for all Sages to be projected by Great Arcanists from the Main Plane. If they really did that, where would they get so much lifespan to consume?

Besides, the existence time of a Projection Plane is extremely short; how could they suddenly organize so many Great Arcanists to come and play at Astral Projection?

The Arcane Empire has Great Arcanists; why would they accept the leadership of a group of so-called "Sages" who are clearly inferior to them? Is it because the Empire's education is good, or is it the inertia of history, or does some secret relationship exist?

Of course, it is also possible that Xia Duo is wrong, and the so-called Sage is truly a feature of the Projection Plane, a special kind of existence.

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Everyone is welcome to come and chat~~

(End of this chapter)