Chapter 896: Returning to the Territory, Natural Druid

After taking a turn inside the Tower of Time, Xia Duo finally remembered there was still a territory waiting for him to inspect, so without delay, he skipped lunch and went straight out of the Tower of Time.

A month's time is neither long nor short; stepping onto this familiar land once again, Xia Duo tried hard to find scenery that was different from when he left.

But no matter how he looked, apart from the trees having mostly shed their withered yellow leaves, even the Magic Net environment had not changed much.

"The Mythallar Ruins are still short of people!" Xia Duo sighed.

However, he was unwilling to stay here for a long time to repair the Magic Net without doing anything else, and as for tricking Arcanists from Seventon into working here for free, that could only be thought about in his heart.

Besides those fishing for Divine Grace, who would be willing to work for someone for free!

With a stir in his heart, the next moment Xia Duo rose on clouds and flew into the sky; only then did he see more scenery that was different from before.

Especially in the southwest direction, that large area of additional wooden houses—it looked like that was the settlement for the new residents who arrived last month.

And outside the residential area was a more expansive open space; one could still see traces of plowing closer to the settlement, as if autumn sowing had already been carried out.

And further away, most of the land was still scorched black, not even leveled, let alone sown.

Currently, the territory's population is relatively stable; Xia Duo knew that to achieve self-sufficiency next, he must clear the remaining tree roots on the scorched earth as soon as possible, then level the land and complete the sowing.

However, outward expansion cannot stop; he had already made the decision to introduce a new population, so the larger the arable area, the better.

How to balance these two aspects would require long-term consideration.

……

Returning to the Lord's Villa by the Altar Square, Xia Duo immediately issued a summons, and in the gap while waiting for the heads of the territory's various departments to arrive, he casually flipped through the territory's regular meeting records placed in the conference room.

While flipping through them, he built a schematic diagram of the territory's development status in his mind, and combined with the appearance of the territory he saw while flying in the sky earlier, he gradually had a handle on things.

A moment later, Laidun arrived first.

As Xia Duo's personally appointed spokesperson and the official Administrator of Daxia Territory, as soon as Laidun arrived, he began to introduce the territory's development status over the past month to Xia Duo.

However, Xia Duo interrupted him after hearing a few paragraphs, "I have read the meeting records and have a general understanding of the situation; just tell me about the new residents!"

"Yes, my Lord!"

Having his work report interrupted, Laidun did not mind at all and instead began to introduce the situation of the new residents—

"The batches of new residents from last month were the same as before; they are all farmers who lost their land in the northern territories, or some so-called free men. They no longer had space to survive locally, or were dissatisfied with the status quo, so they responded to the recruitment of the Seven Cities Council. Of course, your reputation, my Lord, was also an attractive factor."

"Oh?"

Hearing such an answer, Xia Duo was quite surprised; he did not expect that even some ordinary people had heard of his reputation and approved of it.

You must know that in Netheril, although Spellcasters are not mysterious, untouchable existences, it is almost impossible for ordinary people to come into contact with information about Spellcasters, especially information that guides their own actions.

At most, they might hear some rural legends in a tavern, perhaps true, perhaps false, but it is almost impossible for an ordinary person to abandon their current situation and go off to chase an unpredictable fate because of a distant Spellcaster who has nothing to do with them.

Xia Duo guessed that this might be the Seven Towers endorsing or influencing something behind the scenes again.

"Then, are these new residents well-behaved within the territory?"

"My Lord, most of the new residents migrated here with their whole families. Compared to their past lives of suffering, Daxia Territory has provided them with unprecedented opportunities; what reason would they have to be ill-behaved?"

After finishing, a trace of coldness appeared in Laidun's eyes, and he said firmly: "Those who do not abide by the territory's laws have the noose and shackles waiting for them!"

"That is fine, but also pay attention to moderation!" Xia Duo reminded.

He knew that Laidun was a devout believer in the order aspect of the Lord of Radiance, who advocated the rule of law, respected authority, and did not hesitate to kill for it.

But in Xia Duo's view, overemphasizing laws and dogmas would inevitably lead to extremes, not to mention that the doctrine Laidun followed was basically to obey orders from above, and he did not care much about the fairness of the law.

This is certainly beneficial to his own rule as a lord, but Xia Duo already has the awareness of a Chang Sheng Zhe; the long river of time flows on, and respecting others is naturally respecting oneself.

He hopes more that his authority is built on progress, not on harsh laws.

At the same time, he also hopes to pass on the concepts of the golden mean and harmony to Laidun, rather than him being a robot that strictly adheres to laws and dogmas.

"By the way, the information on the northern territories I asked you to collect before, is it ready?"

"The residents who arrived earlier have all been investigated; the new residents who arrived last month haven't started yet, but since there were so many residents before, the information shouldn't be much different. It is unlikely these people would know information that is too secret."

"Then send the information over after the meeting!"

"Yes, my Lord!"

……

As the two were talking, the former Druid Yatewude came over. Xia Duo's heart stirred, thinking of the Elf Druids he met in the Green Field Plane not long ago, and he couldn't help but ask:

"Elder Yatewude, long time no see, have you perceived Natural Holy Power now?"

"Lord, stop calling me Elder. I have long since ceased to be a Secret Text Elder of the Golden Oak Branch Order; I am now just an ordinary Commoner of Daxia Territory."

"Elder Yatewude, no need to be humble. I know you are not a Secret Text Elder of the Golden Oak Branch Order, but you are now the guide for the New Druids of Daxia Territory; calling you Elder is not excessive."

"My Lord, you joke."

Yatewude said this, but his expression was still very honest. Xia Duo did not take it to heart; he had always respected talent, and what was a mere title anyway.

If this former Druid could truly produce a purely natural Natural Druid unrelated to gods, he wouldn't care if he was called Master every day.

"Elder Yatewude, you haven't answered yet? Have you perceived Natural Holy Power?"

"Lord, not yet, but—"

Speaking of this, Yatewude deliberately kept him in suspense, seemingly wanting to see the Lord's surprised expression, and as for Xia Duo, he was indeed very concerned about Yatewude's progress in Natural Druidry.

So he cooperatively acted surprised and asked: "But what?"

"I have already received a response from Nature!"