Chapter 467: Victory and Shadows

Subsequent developments fell far short of Xia Duo's expectations.

Very quickly, a tense atmosphere permeated the Judgment Division; Aosike's official position was Internal Affairs Clerk, responsible for handling cases transferred from the Supervision Division concerning the internal affairs of the Judgment Division.

This mainly involved reviews and judgments; the Judgment Division showed no mercy to outsiders, and naturally, they were not polite to their own people either. The Internal Affairs Department was just such a department that connected the upper and lower levels, as well as the inside and outside.

Of course, in actual terms, Aosike did not have much work, and usually, much of his work was handled by Xia Duo on his behalf.

Because of this, Xia Duo was able to learn more inside information.

However, recently, there had been too many things going on.

Due to the Arcane Empire achieving a victory that could be called a turning point on the front lines some time ago, the number of incidents where "demons" broke through the Border Barrier recently had increased by who knows how many times compared to the past.

"Demons" certainly didn't come over for sightseeing; winning over and corrupting, raiding and destroying, or even revealing their true forms to develop Faith among the lower classes—although such incidents were common in the past, they were far less frequent than they had been recently.

The Great Sage had already delivered a speech, saying that the critical moment in history had arrived, and if they could endure this wave, they would achieve final victory.

Therefore, whether it was the Judgment Division or other departments, everyone was pushing themselves to the limit, setting the organizational machine in full motion to quell domestic unrest and allow the front lines to achieve more victories without any worries.

Inside the Internal Affairs Department office of the Judgment Division, Xia Duo threw the documents in his hand onto the table as if deflated, then leaned back and closed his eyes.

Although he only did some clerical work, after the whole day, he had almost never been idle; if it weren't for the fact that a few files with Magic Aura appeared from time to time, he would have thought he was still working 996 on Earth.

Although the documents sent over were classified, one could still glimpse some movements in the outside world from the snippets of information within them.

The biggest movement among them was probably that the border fortress city of Salanduo was attacked by multiple "High-level Demons"; although they were eventually driven away by the Garrison stationed there, the Salanduo Mage, an important Node of the Border Barrier, was successfully destroyed by the opponent.

The chain reaction brought about by this was not only the emergency retreat of the front-line troops but also an unknown number of scattered "demons" sneaking in.

Now, in addition to emergency repairs, they also had to guard against further sabotage by "demons."

Even a Clerk like Xia Duo received a special task—anyone who could propose suggestions useful for improving the Border Barrier, even if only a tiny bit, could immediately join the Research Institute and receive the full support of the Empire.

Along with the task, relevant information on the first-generation barrier was also issued; to be honest, Xia Duo could not quite understand it, but it clearly carried an Elven style and should have been researched from the Elven Mythallar.

The Arcane Empire did not know what means it had used to obtain the technology of the Mythallar, but in the field of Mythallar, Elves were the experts, and the magic systems of the two sides were completely different; it was not an easy task to fully absorb and apply it.

The Main Plane did not block knowledge about Elves, and Xia Duo also knew that a major characteristic of the Mythallar was its permanent change to the Magic Net; even if the carrier disappeared, the Mythallar still existed, although it existed in the form of ruins and could still be utilized, but the Border Barrier here in the Arcane Empire could not do this.

This was probably the so-called core technology.

For some reason, Xia Duo suddenly had a bad premonition; on the surface, the Arcane Empire had already gained the upper hand on the scales of war, but the Border Barrier was a major problem.

The so-called Border Barrier actually had no direct defensive effect; it was more for monitoring and restriction. Today, the Arcane Empire's Border Barrier, with a large number of Mage Towers as Nodes, could monitor the traces of any unauthorized persons and restrict flight, teleportation, and Invisibility.

Named the Border Barrier, it actually covered the entire territory, and it was only named because most of the Nodes were located at the border.

Once the barrier failed, "High-level Demons" could drive straight in, and there would be no more obstacles.

In the past, "High-level Demons" had also attacked, but every time such an incident occurred, the Arcane Empire would spare no cost to annihilate them; in addition, whenever a Great Arcanist was near the end of their life, they would also enter the Demon Barrier to launch a suicide attack.

Only after joining the Judgment Division could Xia Duo learn such inside information; every time he saw such records, he had to sigh that the Arcane Empire was truly tough!

In addition, the number of Great Arcanists in the Empire was not the twenty-plus that appeared on the surface, but more than forty; most of them were in the Research Institute, and only when their lives were coming to an end would they go outside to become a deterrent on the surface.

In other words, the final outcome for the twenty-plus Great Arcanists currently on the surface would be to die in the battle against "demons."

At the same time, Xia Duo also understood why the Arcane Empire did not have Life Extension Spells; if they could extend their lives, how could they be so tough? They would definitely seek peace, but if they were in a state of peace for a thousand years, could the Arcane Empire still develop like this?

He even speculated that the Arcane Empire might not lack Life Extension Spells, but that they had been artificially destroyed, and whoever dared to research them would be a public enemy; after generations, it had become a taboo.

At this moment, Xia Duo could not help but feel immense curiosity about the Great Sages of past generations; what kind of person could make a group of Great Arcanists willing to become followers, even to the point of giving up their lives?

Xia Duo knew most of "Aidi's" memories, but he could never empathize with that imperial sentiment, nor could he understand what these Imperial Mages were pursuing.

But the longer he stayed here and the more he understood, the less Xia Duo held prejudices against this Empire like he did at the beginning; even that almost perverted birth policy might just be to cope with the consumption of war.

……

The Judgment Division was busy, and during this time Xia Duo almost ate and lived here; as time went on, he felt exhausted from body to mind, but everyone else was like they had been injected with stimulants, so he didn't want to appear different.

This day, Aosike called Xia Duo out alone, "Aidi, I have seen your performance during this time, but the war between humans and demons is long and lasting. The higher-ups have also discovered that the recent atmosphere is not right and have begun to call a halt to this state. Go back and have a good rest for two days; there will be even more cruel wars ahead!"

When saying this, Aosike turned his gaze to the distance, as if a war was happening there.

Xia Duo followed the other's gaze and looked over; there was nothing there, but he still liked the holiday; he did need a good rest.

Returning to the office, Xia Duo saw several Clerks like him starting to pack their things, while others still looked busy; it seemed that even holidays were taken in batches.

Returning to his residence, Xia Duo first applied for access to the academy Library for the next day, then fell asleep.

……

The next day, arriving at the Library, Xia Duo found that there were many more people inside than when he came last time, most of whom were gathered in a corner of the Spell area, and some were even reading the same book together.

In the crowd, he saw a familiar figure—his colleague in the Judgment Division, also a Clerk, Jialin.

At this time, Jialin was holding a book and staring at one of the pages with a frown. Xia Duo walked over and called out softly, "Jialin!"

"Ah, it's Aidi! Are you also here to look up information on the Border Barrier?"

"You could say that."

Xia Duo did not expect that the other person was here to see this; it was true that the other person was an Advanced Rank Mage, but Xia Duo was also an Advanced Rank Mage. As for the information issued by the higher-ups earlier, he wouldn't say he couldn't understand it at all, but at least he couldn't understand more than half of it. Xia Duo was not optimistic that the other person could put forward any constructive suggestions.

After chatting for a few sentences, Xia Duo casually picked up a book related to the Jieti and went around to the Meditation side. Compared to the Border Barrier, or even the survival of the Arcane Empire, he was more interested in the so-called Meditation Method.