Chapter 933: Deactivation Difficulty, Mythallar Mysteries

"Regardless of what the Elves think, this matter has occurred within Netheril, and we have no choice but to mitigate the impact as quickly as possible!" Bailun's Sending revealed helplessness, as well as deep dissatisfaction.

"Alright, let's continue discussing the Mythallar issue. I have already found the core node of this Mythallar on the material plane; destroying this node should be enough to break the Mythallar."

"That's great!" Xia Duo suddenly felt a joy like seeing the clouds part to reveal the sun. As long as the Mythallar here could be resolved, the source of the Murloc Tide could be cut off, and the previous cleanup would then just be a matter of time.

However, compared to his optimism, Bailun's expression was quite flat, and within that flatness, a hint of irritability was revealed. "Do you know what the core of the Mythallar here is? It is this entire Maihete Lake!"

"The entire Maihete Lake?!" Xia Duo was very surprised.

Among all the information he knew about Mythallars, the core was either a movable artifact, a fixed ancient tree, or some kind of building; even pools were rare.

There had never been a Mythallar like this one, using an entire lake as its core, and a large lake with a diameter of four or five kilometers at that.

This was simply beyond his imagination.

And what was more troublesome was that to make the Mythallar here disappear, unless someone could be proficient in the knowledge and techniques of Mythallars and perform a technical deactivation, the only other option was to destroy the entire Maihete Lake.

This really was a headache-inducing matter!

Xia Duo also knew why Bailun was so indifferent; destroying a small core of a Mythallar was easy, but how could one destroy such a large lake!

Not to mention the impact after destruction, which might be too great. In a more serious scenario, Nan Jing might be lost because of it; without water route connections, it would be difficult for Nan Jing to receive support from the Nether Core Region.

Relying solely on Portals or Teleportation Arrays, it was difficult to sustain development.

The definition of the Nether Territory, in a sense, relied on border towns like Savile Territory and Konnifila City, which was equivalent to pre-emptive land enclosure.

The Nether Territory in a broad sense actually referred to the large expanse of land enclosed by various border towns, while in the narrow sense, or as the Elves believed, it naturally only counted human settlements.

Many disputes between humans and Elves stemmed from this, but only in the last few decades, as Netheril had grown stronger, did the Elves seem to have tacitly accepted it without voicing objections.

But if Nan Jing were to naturally wither, the Elves might not necessarily refrain from making an issue of it here, and it was not impossible for them to even expand the border to this side.

And the Elves here mainly referred to Cormanthor!

Could it be that the Elves created the Murloc Tide just to cut off non-magical communication between Nan Jing and the Nether Core Region, and then compress the size of the Nether Territory?

Xia Duo denied this speculation after a moment of thought. The cost of setting up a Mythallar was high, and given the scale of the Mythallar here, it was impossible for a single Elven high mage to preside over it.

It must have required multiple high mages leading even more senior mages to have any possibility of successful setup.

Going to such great lengths, could it really be just to compress the size of the Nether Territory?

In reality, even north of Maihete Lake, all the way to the Core Area, there were still large, large areas of undeveloped land; such compression would not show results for a very long time.

Could the Elves be considering things so far ahead, hundreds or even thousands of years into the future?

It was possible, but unnecessary.

Thinking of this, Xia Duo couldn't help but feel a headache. Regardless, his foundation was in Nan Jing; people in the Inner Land could abandon it, but he could not.

He looked at Bailun full of expectation and asked, "Master Bailun, is it possible to deactivate the Mythallar without destroying Maihete Lake?"

"Of course it's possible, but I may not be able to do it, and there might not even be anyone in all of Netheril who can!"

Regarding this, Bailun was also very helpless; Mythallars were not a field he was proficient in, but he still said, "We can try. Let me send you out of the Mythallar's range first!"

"No, Master, I want to stay and help!" Xia Duo said hurriedly, "The south is my Territory; in terms of reason and emotion, I cannot just ignore it!"

He could not miss such a good opportunity to come into contact with a Mythallar. Since Master Bailun was so easy to talk to, he certainly had to seize it.

Hearing Xia Duo's answer, Bailun couldn't help but be a bit surprised. He had initially thought Xia Duo was just asking casually; now it seemed this young man truly wanted to attempt a deactivation method that didn't involve destroying the core.

This was somewhat unrealistic.

But his original intention in bringing Xia Duo here to investigate the Mythallar was to let the young man learn something by his side—not necessarily about Mythallars, but it could be.

Especially after just witnessing Xia Duo's extraordinary insight and analytical ability, he was full of expectations for this young man's future.

Thus, he did not refuse and gave a reminder:

"Then you must think clearly. Although this Mythallar has no Spellcaster presiding over it, the creator may not have failed to set up corresponding counter-mechanisms. Once started, it will be an unknown battle, and even I cannot guarantee your safety."

"Rest assured, Master, I have thought it through. Please, Master, feel free to give orders!"

With his Personal Space, the worst-case scenario for Xia Duo was to stay inside until Maihete Lake was destroyed and then come out; mere Mythallar Ruins could not stop him now.

……

Since a decision had been made, Bailun began to explain the basic Principles of Mythallars to Xia Duo, so that Xia Duo could truly be of help rather than a hindrance.

Although Bailun himself did not favor such an attempt, there was still a glimmer of hope, however small.

At the same time, he did not want to discourage such a promising young man, nor his determination to refuse to give up and to be brave enough to try, even if such determination seemed to lack practical support and appeared somewhat illusory to him.

But this also reminded him of his teacher's teachings when he was young; if not for his teacher's encouragement back then, how could he be who he was today!

It was just a pity that his teacher's talent was limited, and in the end, he never managed to learn a Life Extension Spell, passing away not long after introducing him to Master Kangjienio.

Thinking of the past, Bailun couldn't help but feel a bit sentimental. Such emotions rarely appeared in him, and he hadn't expected them to be triggered during a trip to Nan Jing.

While silently experiencing this rare emotion, Bailun spoke to Xia Duo with a serious expression, explaining the mysteries of the Mythallar:

"The reason the Mythallar can become the highest art of Elven Magic lies in its ability to change the macroscopic structure of the Magic Net.

"What we change when we cast spells normally is merely the partial state of the Magic Net Strings that compose the Magic Net; the impact on the macroscopic Magic Net is almost negligible!

"It is just like how we can disturb a small amount of water underwater, but it is very difficult to manipulate the undercurrents of a river, let alone the direction of the entire riverbed. The Mythallar is a technology that operates on undercurrents and influences the direction of the riverbed!"