Chapter 695: Cautious Handling, Re-acceptance

Even Badijiaer had no objections to this, but Princess Xiya flatly refused, and at the same time, she gave Haruisi a deep look and said in a calm tone:

"I have improved the Ascension Ritual!"

She certainly had selfish motives, but her selfish motives were highly consistent with the overall interests of Netheril.

In fact, when considering bringing other Great Arcanists into this secret chamber, she had already prepared to confess, and now this was the situation.

After hearing Xiya's words, the others let out an exclamation in unison, their eyes filled with disbelief, "What?!"

They found it hard to believe that Xiya had actually improved the Ascension Ritual; after all, they had received the same data themselves, yet they had failed to research anything.

"The acceleration of the Faith Carrier's Sanctification was not an accident, but the result of your improved ritual?" This was not hard to guess, and someone reacted immediately.

However, at this moment, Xiya became somewhat confused, "I am also not sure if it is the consequence of my improved ritual; God's Domain is truly too distant for mortals."

Next, Xiya apologized to everyone for her behavior of concealing the experimental progress, and the others readily forgave her and shifted the topic to how to improve the ritual.

As for the question of whether to support Xiya in conducting active faith collection, it had already been temporarily cast to the back of their minds.

However, everyone existed in this secret chamber in the form of Perception carriers and could not perform any actual experimental operations. Princess Xiya soon finished explaining her improvement ideas, and the others also began to have thoughts of leaving.

"Since that is the case, then I think it is not impossible to conduct active faith collection within a small scope." Someone relented.

"I think we should still be cautious." Someone was still relatively cautious.

"Agreed!"

The group of Great Arcanists had already made up their minds, and since they knew each other quite well, they reached a new agreement before long—

The matter of improving the Ascension Ritual is limited to the interior of the Seven Towers and must not be disclosed to the outside, especially to the Elves; active collection of faith is allowed, but it must be cautious, low-key, and conducted in a small scope, trying to limit the influence to a controllable range.

Returning to the previous conference room, everyone tacitly did not mention what happened in the secret chamber, and Badijiaer even bluntly stated he wanted to leave, "Since there is nothing else, I will go first; there is a pile of things over there waiting for me!"

Princess Xiya had obtained the answer she wanted and naturally would not block others from leaving, but Huo En suddenly spoke up to stop them, "Wait a moment, since everyone is here, I also have a matter I would like to seek everyone's opinion on."

"What is it? Speak quickly! Don't tell me you've taken a fancy to someone's Apprentice again; you really have disgraced our Seven Towers!" Badijiaer said impatiently.

Huo En glared fiercely at Badijiaer, then said to the others: "The Rodney Territory in the south; the first-generation Lord came from our Jilan Tower. Now the current Rodney Lord wants to have the Rodney Territory return to the Seven Towers Group. What do you think?"

"Rodney Lord?"

Hearing this name, which he still had some impression of, Badijiaer immediately began to mock again, "That big stallion who is the same as you?"

However, it was ultimately not good to say such things in front of a lady. Xiya really couldn't help it and said, "Badijiaer, can you have some manners!"

"Oh, sorry, I can't. Ever since this guy Huo En hooked up with two of my exceptionally talented Apprentices, I swore never to give him a good look again!"

"Just for this?!" Xiya was furious.

"And Huo En, can you stop finding lovers within the Seven Towers in the future? Regardless of anything else, finding an outsider can at least increase some strength for the Seven Towers Group."

Being named by Princess Xiya, Huo En couldn't help but blush and hurriedly changed the subject, "I will try my best. Let's talk about the real business; should we accept the Rodney Territory or not?"

The reason for saying accepting the Rodney Territory, rather than the Rodney Lord, is because the Seven Towers Group is essentially a Territory alliance, originating from the initial Seven Cities Alliance.

It is just that, in the process of Netheril's development, there are always some people who are unwilling to be under the Seven Towers and want to open up another force to dominate their own destiny.

Regarding this, the Seven Towers is happy to see it, but the premise is not to engage in independence and to join the relatively loose governing body, the 【Seven Cities Council】.

The initial Rodney Territory and Savile Territory are such examples; besides them, there are more.

Returning to the Seven Towers Group means that the Territory and the Lord must be consistent with the will of the Seven Towers in all aspects, including but not limited to, cooperating with various proposals of the Seven Towers in the Seven Cities Council, accepting the direct leadership of the Seven Towers in the actual governance process of the Territory, and completing private tasks issued by the Seven Towers Great Arcanists, etc.

Of course, under normal circumstances, the Territory is still self-governing, but once you are needed, you must respond immediately.

If one only joins the Seven Cities Council, there would not be so much trouble. "Self-governing" can no longer describe it; basically, as long as it does not hinder other Territories, one can do whatever one wants.

Therefore, Huo En himself held a positive attitude toward whether to accept the Rodney Territory; after all, increasing the faction's power is always a good thing.

It is just that this also involves other Great Arcanists outside the Seven Towers; he alone cannot replace the Seven Towers in making such a decision and needs to discuss it with others.

Next, Huo En briefly introduced the issues involved behind the Rodney Territory and then waited for the reactions of others.

"Weide? Is it him?" Xiya said in surprise.

Weide Grand Arcanist does not have a prominent reputation in Netheril, and he himself is not a Lord, so there is no talk of joining the Seven Cities Council.

However, one of his students is a Lord, and Weide's Mage Tower is built in that student's Territory.

In the Arcane Union, Weide also has no sense of presence and is mostly in a wavering state regarding various issues; he stands on whichever side has more people.

Even if Huo En hadn't specifically mentioned it today, Xiya would never have thought of this person normally!

"There's more!"

Huo En also had a look of obvious surprise on his face, even though he had known about it beforehand; this further illustrated the surprise Weide brought him.

"After receiving the intention from Aozikaer, I went to investigate Weide briefly. Can you guess what happened to Weide recently?"

"How would we know that? If you want to say it, be quick! Don't play these games! I don't like it!" Badijiaer said impatiently.

Seeing that the others also had expressions of curiosity mixed with impatience, Huo En knew he had made himself unwelcome and hurriedly began to speak:

"Weide has been blocked in his Mage Tower by Braun, who said he wouldn't leave until he gave him a satisfactory explanation!"

Speaking of this, Xiya suddenly interjected, "Braun? What does it have to do with him again?"

"I quietly asked Braun's student, and that student said that Braun believes his performance at the recent Council of Great Arcanists of the Arcane Union was interfered with by Weide, so he went directly to his door."