Chapter 659: Great Plan

"To my descendant: If you can open this Spellbook, then I, in the name of Morien Tower and Jilan Tower, invite you to join a Great Plan. Take this Spellbook and head to Morien Tower! If you are not too far removed from my era! I will be waiting for you there!"

This text was not long, and although it did not reveal things like what his identity was or what the Great Plan was, the various phrasings and descriptions made Xia Duo understand that this Fielder was very likely a student of that Great Arcanist Aoshi in history.

Perhaps it was because of this so-called "Great Plan" that these two, or even more people, went missing inexplicably, to the point where Fielder, despite being an Advanced Rank Mage, left behind no records.

Thinking of this, Xia Duo could not help but glance at Niya. She was still thinking, but Xia Duo associated this with Niya's great-grandfather—that Great Arcanist Saville, who seemed to have gone missing inexplicably as well.

According to Niya, that Great Arcanist Saville was stranded in a foreign realm due to an accident and could not return to the Main Plane; now, it seemed he was about to emerge again. Xia Duo had no way to guess the inside story of this.

But he could likewise speculate that Fielder and Aoshi were very likely still alive now, perhaps hiding in some corner, silently watching everything that had happened in Netheril over these years!

"Sure enough! I knew those fifteen Great Arcanists were unreliable from the start!" Xia Duo thought viciously.

Without a doubt, even without these Great Arcanists hidden in historical mysteries whose life or death was unknown, the Seven Towers should have the ability to allow existing Senior Arcanists to quickly become Great Arcanists; in this way, the statistical data was completely meaningless.

This depended on the overall base of Arcanists, the most important of which was the number of Senior Arcanists, but because this also might have people hidden, it was still a black hole of data that made it impossible for people to see clearly.

Additionally, from this message left by Fielder, it could be seen that this so-called "Great Plan" should have been executed jointly by Morien Tower and Jilan Tower. Morien Tower had a Great Arcanist Aoshi, so would Jilan Tower also have a Great Arcanist participating in it?

Likewise, with Morien and Jilan having such a "Great Plan," would the other Mage Towers of the Seven Towers also have their own "Great Plans"?

Extending this further to other Mage Towers in Netheril that possessed Great Arcanists, would they also have similar plans?

For a moment, Xia Duo thought of many things, and even had some guesses about this so-called "Great Plan." "The descendant who can open the Spellbook" meant that this descendant either possessed a special bloodline or was an Arcanist like Xia Duo or Niya.

No matter how you looked at it, this seemed like a recruitment method; the difference between the former and the latter was probably the difference between a lab rat and a Researcher!

Then, was this so-called "Great Plan" related to bloodline?

Xia Duo speculated wildly and irresponsibly, not noticing that Niya, who was to the side, had a gradually serious expression. She suddenly performed some operations in the Laboratory, and only then did she seem to heave a sigh of relief and say to Xia Duo:

"Fortunately, there were no tracking traces, and no information was transmitted. We had best talk less about this matter in the future; even if we must talk, it is best to choose to talk in the Tower of Time!"

"What's wrong?"

Xia Duo was somewhat puzzled. This time, Niya did not say "I will go ask my teacher," but instead wore a serious face and told him to keep it a secret. This unusual implication made Xia Duo feel that Niya must know something.

Niya did not hide it either; she spoke of some of her own guesses:

"I recalled that there seemed to be Arcanists who went missing inexplicably at Giles Tower as well, likely right after this year's Snow Melting Competition. Originally, that Arcanist was going to appear at an internal exchange meeting within the Seven Towers, but he was inexplicably absent without a single piece of news coming out. Afterward, it seemed someone was deliberately erasing traces of his existence. Now that I think about it, perhaps he participated in some unknown, secret plan."

In all fairness, Niya was unwilling to join any unknown plan. She could not leave this vast Territory unattended. If she had to join once she knew of the plan, that truly did not align with her wishes.

Hearing Niya's guess, Xia Duo also thought of this point. These plans deliberately erased the traces of participants, which clearly meant there was a need for secrecy. If he knew and still went outside asking questions carelessly, perhaps he would be the one whose traces were erased the next moment.

Whether it was truly joining some secret plan or being completely eliminated, neither was what Xia Duo wanted.

At this moment, Xia Duo suddenly thought of the time he searched for Fielder's information in the Arcane Union Library, and he silently thought to himself: "I shouldn't be that unlucky!"

Fortunately, quite some time had passed, and if there were any consequences, they should have happened long ago.

However, this matter also served as a reminder to Xia Duo: do not go outside and ask questions just because you know something. If you accidentally touch some taboo, you might not even know how you died.

This Magic world really was full of pits everywhere!

Of course, this way of putting it was somewhat of a survivor bias. If a Researcher on Earth went everywhere asking about the secrets of other research institutions, they would also be treated as a spy, right?

Inside Niya's Laboratory, the two were silent for a moment, and both reached the decision to keep the secret without prior consultation. Moreover, Xia Duo also prepared to keep this Fielder Spellbook in the Tower of Time.

After all, the Tower of Time had been verified to be able to block the prying eyes of Great Arcanists, while his Personal Space had not. Although he knew the Personal Space was very mysterious and should be able to block others' prying, he was still unwilling to take the risk.

At present, the only thing on him that was slightly sensitive was this Fielder Spellbook.

Even the materials he copied back from the 【Projection Plane: Arcane Empire】 were not considered sensitive items. After all, others did not know what was obtained from the Projection Plane; as long as he was careful to avoid certain trigger-based Scrying when actually using them, there was no need to worry about anything.

He had already learned his lesson from the Paper-making Technique incident.

Before completely researching the Fielder Spellbook thoroughly, Xia Duo did not intend to take it out of the Tower of Time. In any case, for him, the best place for research was the Tower of Time.

Currently, Xia Duo and Niya had only cracked the Outer Structure of the Spellbook. Although they obtained Permission Level for the Spellbook through this, the Magic Net layers involved in the Spellbook itself were deeper than what Xia Duo had come into contact with.

It was unrealistic to want to research it thoroughly in a short time; after all, this was very likely a Spellbook made by a Great Arcanist's own hand.

Although it was a version from over 200 years ago, Netheril had not formed a complete Magic research system, and most of it still relied on the promotion of individual geniuses. The development of Magic over these 200-plus years was not significant.

At least in terms of manufacturing Spellbooks, a Spellbook from 200 years ago was not much behind, and in some places even more advanced than, the version Niya used from a few decades ago.

This was admitted by Niya herself. Although it was impossible for Xia Duo to take Niya's Spellbook to research personally, besides the content, Niya was also happy to communicate about some information regarding the Spellbook itself.

In fact, most of the Knowledge required to produce a high-quality Spellbook was recorded in the Tower of Time, but there was no relatively complete summary version; the maker needed to integrate and master it themselves.

And this was also what Xia Duo needed.