Chapter 727: New Advanced Rank, Who Is In Favor and Who Is Opposed

Excavating ruins is not something that can be completed in a single day or night; it involves specific surveying and actual digging, so Xia Duo did not overly urge Jiabasi to complete the task immediately.

At the same time, he was prepared to continue his research into the Petrification Spell; if he could find a spell capable of moving rapidly underground, or a spell to quickly search for underground targets, it would be a huge boost to the entire excavation effort.

Currently, Xia Duo's Scrying spell cannot function underground; more accurately, it cannot directly scry beyond a distance of two palms into the ground.

Perhaps the Drow's Black Ball Detector could, but that would require collecting a large amount of infrasonic return data to establish a standard comparison Ziliaoku before any practically useful detection activities could be conducted.

In this regard, the Tower of Time already had people working on it, and Xia Duo did not intend to do redundant work; furthermore, collecting information to build a Ziliaoku, or even data analysis, did not currently require an Arcanist like him.

Theoretically, even an Apprentice could do it, and he should focus his energy on more important matters.

Currently, the transformation of the Tower of Time had only just progressed to the Apprentice stage, and Xia Duo could not fully control the research direction of all Intermediate Mages; for instance, the research on that Black Ball Detector was something Leonard had taken on his own initiative.

If the Tower of Time could be integrated into a tight-knit whole, then many things would not require him to do them personally, and even breaking down tasks or conducting joint research would not be impossible.

It was just that in this process, it required not only mutual trust but also common interests, and even a certain shared ideal.

Xia Duo's idea was actually to cultivate from among the Apprentices and gradually replace the existing Intermediate Mages of the Tower of Time; of course, if these existing Intermediate Mages could actively embrace the transformation, he would certainly be even happier!

……

Putting the Statue away again, Xia Duo cleaned up the traces in the Laboratory slightly and was just preparing to return to Linshui Village when Niya suddenly sent a Sending:

"Come quickly! You guessed right, Depake has indeed become a High Mage!"

"Ah?!"

Hearing this news suddenly, although he had long suspected it, Xia Duo still couldn't help but worry; the weight of a High Mage was extraordinary, and currently, the Tower of Time only had himself, Niya, and Aiboke as High Mages.

And of course, Arcanists.

Now there was suddenly one more, Depake; even if he had previously supported Niya and was relatively supportive of the Tower of Time's transformation, who knew if there would be any variables after he became a High Mage!

Of course, if Depake continued to support Niya and the transformation as always, the benefits would be too numerous; not to mention being able to lead other Intermediate Mages to support the transformation, at the very least, it could change the income ratio of the dissenting groups currently in the Tower of Time.

If those who embraced the transformation were already enough to maintain the normal operation of the Tower of Time, then Xia Duo could ignore the others who resisted the transformation and simply force the transformation through directly.

……

Hiding a trace of worry in his heart, Xia Duo quickly arrived at the ground floor hall of the Tower of Time; just as he stepped out of the Elevator and into the hall, he heard a burst of low but intense discussion.

Xia Duo's appearance caused the hall to suddenly fall silent, and immediately after, Niya's greeting came, "Xia Duo, come here!"

It was roughly in the center of the hall; Xia Duo walked over and discovered that Depake was chatting with Aiboke and Niya with a glowing face, and the four Apprentices surrounding them also had glowing faces, as if they were the ones who had just advanced.

"Mage Depake, congratulations on finally getting your wish!"

"Haha! Mage Xia Duo, you're here!" Seeing Xia Duo, Depake's eyes lit up; he hurriedly walked out of the crowd and gave a solemn bow to Xia Duo, "Many thanks to Mage Xia Duo for your guidance, only then could I achieve Advanced Rank so quickly!"

"No need for courtesy; if you yourself did not have the aspiration in this regard, then even if others gave guidance, it would not have any effect!"

In front of everyone, Xia Duo was naturally very humble, but no one would look down on him because of it; instead, under Depake's reminder, everyone stared at Xia Duo with burning eyes.

This made Xia Duo feel somewhat uncomfortable, but at the same time, he understood that Depake should still support the transformation; otherwise, he would likely have avoided him at all costs.

Walking to the center, Niya leaned toward Xia Duo's side very naturally, their arms almost touching; this was a level of closeness that was hard to imagine between Mages.

And with Xia Duo's arrival, the distribution of the crowd in the hall also underwent slight changes; members of the Progress Society began to gather toward Xia Duo, and some Intermediate Mages who had already leaned toward Xia Duo changed expressions, subsequently bringing their own Apprentices to lean over as well.

The remaining people were interesting; except for Sanduer who stood alone with two Apprentices, the others had quickly gathered together.

However, those two Apprentices of Sanduer struggled with their expressions for a moment, then gritted their teeth and moved away from Sanduer, standing together with the members of the Progress Society.

Seeing this scene, Xia Duo couldn't help but be stunned; he didn't remember telling the people of the Progress Society to stir up any trouble at this time, and this was clearly somewhat beyond his expectations.

It had suddenly brought to light the contradictions and opposition that could still be covered up during the transformation process of the Tower of Time, which did not fit Xia Duo's plan.

Although this move seemingly isolated Sanduer, it was hard to say whether others might develop even deeper prejudices.

But since things had reached this point, and coupled with Depake's attitude, Xia Duo made a prompt decision to step out and announce to everyone:

"Everyone, the transformation of the Tower of Time has achieved considerable results; in just a short time, two Official Mages have been produced, which is a result that the Tower of Time could only reach in a year or two in the past, and under the new system, Official Mages will emerge in an endless stream!

"And in order to build a good and stable system for Mage cultivation and development, we need to further deepen the transformation and elevate the transformation to the level of Official Mages; now I propose renaming the Apprentice Management Office to the Academic Affairs Office, and bringing all low-rank Mages under the unified management of the Academic Affairs Office—who is in favor! Who is opposed!"

After finishing, Xia Duo began to observe the reactions of the crowd; the low-rank Mages mostly had happy expressions, because they knew what the existing Apprentices were doing every day, and they were overjoyed to be able to receive the active cultivation of the Tower of Time!

As for the Intermediate Mages, every single one of them had their brows furrowed and were hesitant to speak; low-rank Mages were both their Spell Battery and their common laborers—how could they not have any opinions when they were all taken away at once!

However, Xia Duo was determined to change all of this; he did not oppose Intermediate Mages using the remaining energy of low-rank Mages through Synergistic Resonance Spellcasting, as this was, after all, a way of selling individual labor.

But at the very least, some talented low-rank Mages had to be allowed to escape this fate of being human batteries.

Even on Earth, there were people who sold individual labor; the key lay in choice, and low-rank Mages needed to be given more choices.

This kind of giving might seem very unnecessary now, but it was indeed an important factor for a civilization to endure for a long time.