Chapter 687: The Suddenly Appearing Lord Rodney

The experiment proceeded quite smoothly; aside from conflicts caused by incompatibility with other structures in the Spellbook, there were no issues with the design logic. This was consistent with what Xia Duo had anticipated; essentially, he had foreseen it from the very beginning of the design. As for the conflicts caused by incompatibility with other structures, they were not actually major problems; he just needed to run a few more experiments to smooth them out.

In short, this test experiment was quite successful.

After tidying up the traces of the experiment and some remaining materials, Xia Duo returned to his residence. At this moment, if not for the reminder from his stomach, he would not have realized that the time had already reached night.

Working for oneself, no matter how late, is not tiring.

After finding some food in his Personal Space to fill his stomach, Xia Duo threw himself back into the analysis of today's test experiment.

It was not until all the compatibility issues that appeared in the experiment were resolved that he took out the Spell Notes where he had recorded the Petrification Magic that morning and began to study them.

The Spellbook was indeed important, but it was no longer suitable to continue experiments tonight; he had to maintain a good state to deal with various accidents.

……

Just as Xia Duo was feeling excited about such a new Spell, and even a new Domain, as Petrification, and was immersed in it, in the temporary supply point east of Savile Territory and further east, in the newly opened Territory of Rodney Territory in the Green Pearl Forest.

Archmage Niuman was gripping a Document scroll in his hand so tightly that his hand even began to tremble uncontrollably.

As an Archmage of esteemed status, Niuman naturally had no need to bicker with a scroll, but the content on it truly made him lose control of his emotions:

"How long has it been? You tell me that the grain that could last a year is now less than three days' worth? How exactly are you acting as this Grain Supervisor?!"

Opposite the furious Archmage, a middle-aged man who looked quite shrewd was looking at the Archmage with eager eyes, saying aggrievedly: "My lord, I did everything according to your instructions. It's all the fault of those Elves for consuming so much grain!"

"Elves?" Niuman remembered that some time ago he had indeed approved a Document regarding whether to accept Elf refugees.

If not for being reminded again, Niuman would have almost forgotten about this matter. He was unwilling to be just an Archmage for his whole life, so as long as he had time, he would hole up in his room studying Magic.

Anyway, the lord did not send him here to do any manual labor himself.

His existence was the meaning of him being here.

If he could supervise the work of the people below by the way, that was already considered him working overtime.

"What about the Elves? Aren't they just a bunch of refugees? Do they dare to snatch our grain?" Niuman stared fixedly at the Grain Supervisor in front of him, wanting to see what kind of reason he could come up with!

"My lord—"

The Grain Supervisor had a bitter face and was almost about to cry, "Those Elves consume grain in a way that is even more terrifying than snatching. If there was really no other way, I wouldn't dare to disturb you, my lord!"

Mentioning the disturbance, Niuman's already cold face dropped a few more degrees in temperature, "Tell me exactly what is going on!"

He had already realized that there might be a problem with the Pioneer Territory, but Niuman was an Archmage after all; he was not worried about what kind of harsh punishment he would receive, but this matter was ultimately somewhat disgraceful if it got out.

"My lord, there are quite a few Mages among those Elves who know a strange Cooking Magic that can directly convert grain into food, but the loss is too severe. I tried to reason with them, and they even blamed us for providing poor-quality grain!"

"……"

Hearing this, Niuman wished he could kill the Grain Supervisor in front of him, "What were you doing earlier when this happened? Why didn't you notify me in advance?"

"I, I—"

The Grain Supervisor stammered. Niuman understood as soon as he thought about it; he had indeed told his subordinates not to disturb him at will, but he never expected that this guy would wait until this moment to come over.

With this situation, even if he was an Archmage, could he conjure grain out of thin air? As for personally using Teleportation to return to Rodney Territory to transport grain with a Dimensional Bag, Niuman had not even thought about it. He would rather accept the lord's punishment and return alone than do something that was no different from manual labor.

Furthermore, even if he were willing, he could not transport much by himself. If the fundamental problem was not solved, would he have to specialize in transporting grain in the future? "You—"

Niuman's expression suddenly returned to calm, the change so fast that it was as if the person who had been furious just now was not him, "I will handle this matter. You go out first and do your own work."

The Grain Supervisor was a bit confused by this turn of events, but he was not so thick-skinned as to think that this matter would just pass so simply. He looked at Niuman with a pleading expression, "My lord—"

However, the answer to him was an "Out!" devoid of any emotional color.

The Grain Supervisor felt a jolt in his heart, realizing that the person in front of him was not the ordinary people or even ordinary Mages he could bargain with, but an Archmage who possessed powerful strength and whom he usually could not even see.

At once, he dared not say another word, lowered his head, and retreated from the room in fear.

And after the Grain Supervisor left, Niuman suddenly changed his expression again, becoming somewhat cautious, and even somewhat fearful. The emotions that had appeared on the Grain Supervisor just now appeared once again on an Archmage.

He bowed slightly toward an empty space in the room, "Lord, why have you come?"

In the empty space, a handsome and upright figure appeared abruptly. He glanced at Niuman, walked to a chair in the room, sat down, and said with a smile:

"If I don't come to check, the people of Rodney Territory will soon be starved to death!"

"My lord, it is my fault!"

"It's not your fault. No one would have thought that so many Elf refugees would flood into the Nether territory." Aozikaer Rodney was quite open-minded, and he could not really punish an important Archmage.

"Then my lord, coming this time—is there any solution?"

Niuman did not doubt that the lord, who was far away in the Rodney Territory in the north, would be unaware of the situation here. However, when he asked this question, it drew a sigh from Lord Aozikaer: "What solution could I have? Should I go back and transport grain myself? I only came to negotiate peace with Savile Territory and, by the way, buy some grain from them. Before I came, the fleet transporting the territory's people had already set off. Just hold on for a while longer."

"My lord?!"

Niuman was full of suspicion and shock. Listening to the lord's words, it seemed he wanted to abandon this New Expansion Land that had already had so much invested in it. Even though Niuman did not usually manage things, he still had some feelings for this land he had personally led the pioneering of.

And what made him even more unable to understand was that opening up new land in the Green Pearl Forest was an important decision that Rodney Territory had planned for a long time; how could it change just like that!

(End of chapter)