Chapter 849: Druid Shadowing, High-Level Confrontation

The elemental energy affinity of the Green Field Plane generally leans toward positive energy, yet it is not excessively strong, making it a place very suitable for life to survive.

During this time in the Green Field Plane, whether it was the introduction from Archmage Fusitemu, the descriptions in the Combat Manual, or what Xia Duo himself had observed—

Due to the absence of animals, the distribution of vegetation in the Green Field Plane is extremely balanced; unless there is human interference, there are no areas with significant deviations.

But what about now?

He saw a "junction"!

In a forest, there is of course no such thing as a junction, as there are junctions everywhere, but at this moment, this "junction" was a concept formed after various pieces of information were fed back into Xia Duo's consciousness and processed by his subconscious.

If he were alone, he might not necessarily have been able to tell that this was an area where the vegetation distribution was slightly abnormal.

But as it happened, the ten-plus people were in a state of Mind Link, and everyone's perception information was aggregated to Xia Duo, similar to a superposition of perception and even the ability to analyze that perception.

Invisibly, the extremely faint, generally imperceptible, and discordant sense of incongruity that had been present along the way converged here to a critical point, becoming obvious and giving rise to the concept of a "junction" in one's mind.

The Netherese do not have the habit of changing the forest; if they did, perhaps indiscriminate logging would be the first thing they would want to do.

In this pristine forest plane, there is no doubt that only Elves would make such subtle changes to the forest.

And only they could make such subtle changes; if Netherese Mages were to do this, it would be difficult to perfectly integrate the moved plants with the surrounding environment.

As for the purpose, Xia Duo would not think that these Elves were just idling about and purely here to engage in some landscaping.

Perhaps it was to interfere with their judgment and lead them toward some unknown ambush area.

It could also be a requirement for setting up a Mythallar.

But regardless of which it was, he had to respond, because the target their team needed to destroy was right ahead!

After some thought, Xia Duo ultimately decided to remain calm and only issued an instruction through the Mind Link: "Have your Spellbooks ready, prepare to resonate at any time!"

Then, he continued to advance along this "road" planned in advance by the Elves.

Of course, Xia Duo would not go so far as to disregard his own safety or the safety of the team just to lull the enemy into a false sense of security; as he continued to advance, he adjusted the sharing range and depth of the perception information.

While retaining his conscious mind to make autonomous judgments and choices, he involved the vast majority of his subconscious in the work of analyzing and processing the shared perception information.

Although doing this carried some risks, it allowed him to make the greatest possible use of the sensory information shared by others, and even some of their subconscious thought processes.

In this situation, after others occasionally entered a focused state to gain the extra perception of Magic Vision, Xia Duo's own perception ability also reached an unprecedented, near-omniscient state!

Everything around him, including the sound of the wind, scents, temperature, lighting, vegetation, and the Magic Net environment—multiple perceptions, multiple angles, everything—was fed back into Xia Duo's perception.

Such information almost created a constantly updating micro-information world in Xia Duo's consciousness, centered on Xia Duo and the others.

In this state, Xia Duo was incomparably sensitive to everything around him; the slightest disturbance would trigger waves of intertwined collective perception and collective thought, subsequently updating that virtual micro-information world to its latest state!

In this state, let alone an ambush, even the slightest identifiable trace left behind by the Elves would be exposed without exception.

Suddenly, Xia Duo received this piece of information from his subconscious: "The tree with blue-patterned spots on its trunk to the front-left might be hiding an Elf Druid!"

Such information was not enough to move him; he had already received such information many times along the way. Following standard practice, Xia Duo's conscious mind followed this information to track it down.

It was traced all the way to when Wensen inadvertently looked over and saw an image of that tree; while this image did not leave any trace in Wensen's subconscious, during the sharing process, Niya noticed a hint of abnormality.

Afterward, this process of subconscious thought and judgment was shared out again, circulating among the others' subconscious minds, and finally gathered back to Xia Duo.

Xia Duo's subconscious synthesized this entire information processing chain, and the final result was that an Elf Druid was lurking on that tree!

And this result was finally passed to Xia Duo's conscious mind for subjective judgment.

Throughout this entire process, the others did not even notice a thing; everything was completed silently under the Mind Link!

Afterward, Xia Duo deliberately adjusted his pace and controlled the timing to influence the others' movement speed, and even their observation angles and types of perception.

Almost instantly, he obtained more information about the tree with "blue-patterned spots on its trunk," and after experiencing an entire information processing cycle similar to the previous one, Xia Duo finally judged—

There was indeed an Elf lurking on that tree.

Although it was difficult for a single person to notice the abnormality, the multi-person, multi-angle, and multi-layered perception caused that tiny abnormality to be continuously magnified until it could be confirmed by Xia Duo!

This time, he still remained calm, because he knew that the appearance of an Elf meant that a battle was imminent; with the advantage of information, they could wait for a better opportunity.

Otherwise, killing just one Druid would instead alert the enemy.

Thus, Xia Duo continued to advance, only guiding his team members to passively increase their vigilance in his subconscious.

……

At the same time, in another place imperceptible to ordinary people, four Netherese Great Arcanists and one Cormanthor High Mage were silently confronting each other.

At their level, battle was no longer a necessity, although the several Great Arcanists were very clear that if they were determined, they could keep this Elf High Mage here.

But that would be meaningless and would instead trigger a greater degree of conflict, or even a full-scale war on the Main Plane.

Therefore, this battle in the Green Field Plane was only to dispel the Netherese's invisible awe of the Elves, and as for the Green Field Plane itself, it was more than what the current Netheril could bear.

"Jielinisi, you attempted to steal the Green Field Plane through a Mythallar, yet you did not know that your plan had long been seen through by us. Withdraw now, and you will still retain your dignity! Otherwise, you will be immersed in today's failure for the next several hundred years."

"Badijiaer, there is no need for superfluous words. Whether it is the organization or the Crown King, both are very interested in this plane. If it weren't for those damned Drow, how could there be this current situation of confrontation!"

"Robber! Thief! How dare you be so arrogant in front of your masters!"

"The ownership of the plane has not yet been determined; how do you know that you won't be the robber or the thief?"

"Hmph—"