Chapter 534: Exchange Meeting, Scrying

Giles Tower, Xia Duo's temporary residence.

Originally, after organizing the relevant details of the Spell Duel, Xia Duo was prepared to go find the Adventurer who sold him the "Mithril Ornament," but he did not expect Niya to come find him carrying a Magic Scroll.

"The 【Arcane Maze】 originally scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed. Someone from the Seven Towers organized a small exchange meeting, and I also received an invitation. Are you going? The invitation doesn't limit the number of people; the only restriction is that you must teleport there yourself."

"Teleport there yourself?" Xia Duo became interested in this method of travel. Come to think of it, he hadn't been in Seventon for a short time, yet he had never heard of any exchange meeting. If they all used this invitation-by-teleportation method, it was certainly secretive enough, and naturally, the caliber was high enough as well.

After all, those capable of teleporting themselves were at least Advanced Rank Mages.

Niya stirred up a breeze, sending the Magic Scroll to Xia Duo, and explained: "The theme of this exchange meeting is 【Teleportation】. Teleporting yourself counts as a hidden verification; you can't have people who don't even know Teleportation sneaking in. Exchange meetings with other themes generally have various relevant verifications to ensure that the participants all have a similar level."

"I see!" Xia Duo held the Magic Scroll in front of him. At first glance, it seemed a bit like a Teleportation Scroll, but it also seemed not quite right. With nothing else to do, Xia Duo simply dove into studying it.

While studying, he simultaneously demonstrated it within the Reception Room. A moment later, Xia Duo looked up and saw Niya, who was quietly reading. "Apologies, I got carried away and forgot you were still here."

"It's fine, reading is reading wherever you are. Are you going to this exchange meeting?"

"I am! How could I not?" Xia Duo had long been looking forward to a clash of ideas with other Spellcasters, but he was unfamiliar with Seventon and had never heard of any exchange meetings. It wasn't until Niya came today that he realized it wasn't that there were no exchange meetings, but that they were almost all internal in nature.

Without connections, ordinary Spellcasters couldn't even find the door.

Perhaps one could find them at the Arcane Union, but the threshold for the Arcane Union was very low; perhaps it was just a few incompetent wandering Mages exchanging some common Spells, and that could also be called an exchange meeting.

The quality could be imagined. To find suitable exchange partners, one still needed an experienced guide.

The one Niya introduced this time was an internal exchange meeting of the Seven Towers. Even if they weren't Arcanists, they were at least some Advanced Rank Mages seeking self-improvement. Even if the content of the exchange was limited to the 【Teleportation】 Domain, there would at least be some gains.

Exchange promotes thinking; exchange makes people progress.

If the exchange meeting weren't tomorrow, Xia Duo wouldn't be able to wait to go. He wanted to see what exactly the Seven Towers' exchange meeting was like—whether it was truly open exchange, or just a stingy operation selling dog meat under a sheep's head.

"By the way, let me copy this Magic Scroll. This should be the Arcane Geometry mapping of the teleportation coordinates for the exchange meeting's location, and I haven't deciphered it yet."

"You can just take it; I have more over there."

"..."

Xia Duo thought about it and understood. If he were organizing an exchange meeting, he would of course hope for as many people as possible. This invitation that looked like a Magic Scroll wasn't actually a real Magic Scroll and couldn't trigger a Spell. Things that were cheap and effective were, of course, the more the better.

If an invitee were to be ruthless, they could openly put a price on these invitations and sell them to outsiders, but doing so might result in being excluded from the invitation list next time.

"Since that's the case, I won't disturb you while you decipher the coordinates. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

Xia Duo saw Niya out, but he didn't immediately go back to decipher the exchange meeting coordinates. He hadn't forgotten the matter that had just been delayed; he figured that Adventurer must be "getting impatient."

After leaving Giles Tower, Xia Duo walked to the plaza in front of the Nether Palace.

Within the city of Seventon, different areas had different lists of restricted Spells, especially for flight, Invisibility, and teleportation, with restrictions increasing incrementally. There were not many places in the city where one could teleport freely.

Of course, teleporting at will wouldn't cause any major issues, just questioning and fines afterward. But in the plaza in front of the Nether Palace, there were no such troubles.

The Old City District was always quiet, and there was basically no one in the plaza. Xia Duo was happy with that. Before teleporting, he performed a Detection Spell as usual to check the situation on the other side first.

If it were a trap, it would be too foolish to just charge in blindly. Although it was unlikely that a trap targeting an Advanced Rank Mage would appear within Seventon, one still had to be on guard.

With that "Mithril Ornament," Xia Duo wasn't worried about not finding the other party, and he could incidentally obtain more accurate teleportation coordinates.

—【Scrying】!

This time, because he was casting the Detection Spell in a public place, Xia Duo did not project the image he detected, but instead transmitted it to his own senses—or rather, he extended his senses through the Detection Spell to where the target was—

This seemed to be a dilapidated small workshop. A middle-aged man was holding a small hammer and continuously tapping a silvery-white metal wire under the guidance of an old man. It looked like this was the true origin of the "Mithril Ornament" Xia Duo had bought earlier.

As expected, it wasn't found in ruins. Come to think of it, if it weren't Mithril, how could it survive the long passage of time in ruins without being eroded?

However, since these two could imitate the equivalent mapping of the fifth-layer Magic Net String's double-overlap elements in Mithril Components, they must have had a reference. The key was that old man.

Perhaps he had explored ruins when he was young and obtained remnants of Ancient Magic Artifacts, or perhaps even intact Magic Items.

Xia Duo shifted his perspective, looking back and forth within this small workshop, focusing on checking for any Magic Aura. If there were any, then he would have experimental subjects for the Mithril Component bridging he was practicing with Niya.

Aside from the family assets that Lord Epps privately passed to Niya, Xia Duo was very familiar with the Tower of Time's economic situation. If they really consumed intact Magic Items for practice, that would be too wasteful.

After a careful inspection, Xia Duo did not find any Magic Aura in the small workshop, though on that old man, there seemed to be an intact Magic Item hidden.

Adjusting his perspective, Xia Duo saw the body of the Magic Item from the old man's collar: a bead-shaped pendant emitting a faintly visible red light.

He couldn't analyze the specific function of this pendant in a short time, but seeing the increasing amount of sweat on the old man's forehead, Xia Duo understood something.

Smiling, he stopped the Detection Spell and then cast Teleportation, targeting that small workshop.

Having obtained relatively accurate teleportation coordinates through the Detection Spell, Xia Duo performed a perfect Teleportation again, standing steadily in the position he wanted to appear.

However, just as he appeared, he heard an irritable voice scolding, "You idiot! I told you to look closely at the person before selling! Now look, you've brought disaster upon us!"

Along with the scolding, there was the crisp sound of a slap, as well as the faint thud of a small hammer hitting the ground.