Chapter 987: Hiding in the Crowd, Suppressing the Ambassador

"Xia Duo! Xia Duo!"

"Xia Duo! Xia Duo!"

……

The Arcane Plaza is not small; even with nearly half of it partitioned off for the ceremony site and the viewing gallery, the remaining area can accommodate at least tens of thousands of people.

Listening to the continuous, rising and falling shouts from behind him, Xia Duo was truly dazed for a moment; he was even a bit distracted right in front of the Princess.

How should one describe this feeling? Unlike the cheers from his own people, these sounds coming from strangers were more capable of stirring Xia Duo's emotions.

"Lord Xia Duo, I hope you continue to work hard and never forget your original intention!"

Hearing the Princess's voice, Xia Duo finally came back to his senses and hurriedly bowed in salute before returning to the formation; he knew the main event was yet to come.

……

In a normal celebration, there is either a considerable interval between different ceremonies, such as the Sun Rising Ceremony and the Prayer Ceremony of the Midsummer Festival, with one in the early morning and the other at noon.

Or there would be performances interspersed, such as magic demonstrations, plays, songs, or even various juggling acts, but this New Year Festival is clearly extraordinary.

Following the award ceremony, the commendation ceremony for the Pioneers began immediately; on the surface, it is to commend the pioneering achievements made by Netheril since restoring the pioneering tradition over the past two years.

But in reality—

As the emcee announced the start of the commendation ceremony, Xia Duo noticed that the Princess had once again begun the special magic she had performed during the rehearsals.

"Todd Weisili, performed excellently in the Nanjing Sawier Ling Arcane Competition in the year 834 of the Netheril Calendar, was granted the title of 【Pioneer】, and subsequently opened up new land in the Kangqi Plain. In the process of pioneering, he—"

Accompanied by the introduction in a clear female voice, the air above the ceremony site also began to "play" every detail of Todd's pioneering of the territory.

There were smooth moments and difficult ones, positive aspects and negative ones, but regardless, the theme remained centered on the motif of pioneering.

This film-like form of expression might be novel to ordinary Netherese, but for the Pioneers who had rehearsed and watched it many times in the Semi-plane, especially for Xia Duo, there was not much novelty left.

Therefore, when the crowd on the field quieted down slightly and their gazes were no longer chasing him, he was able to spare the mood to observe the Princess and the situation of the other Great Arcanists.

This is not a rehearsal; just like the "kill the Elf" sound from before, anything could happen at this time.

……

Starting with Todd, whom Xia Duo is familiar with, the Pioneers began one after another to face the gaze and discussion of the crowd in the plaza.

Of course, this does not include Diwoge and Aierpafu, who were screened out during the previous rehearsals; these two did not die, and they even participated in the award ceremony, as they had also participated in the Green Field Plane War.

However, after the award ceremony, they consciously withdrew along with other non-pioneer participants.

Xia Duo is also unclear about the specific situation of these two; he has not heard of any Pioneer being stripped of their status in the past few days, but it is indeed strange that they could not participate in the commendation ceremony as Pioneers.

And this further proves that this New Year Festival and the so-called Pioneer commendation ceremony are not as simple as they appear on the surface.

……

Time passed bit by bit, and soon, the introduction and commendation of the Pioneers reached the halfway point.

In fact, by this point, more than two full hours had passed since the start of the award ceremony, and in these two-plus hours, Xia Duo had not been able to discover any abnormalities.

Everything was proceeding according to the rehearsal, and the changes in the Magic Web Background Fluctuation spreading from the Princess as the source had already exceeded his range of Perception.

If he does not use Scrying spells, this is all Xia Duo can see.

However, unexpectedly, he saw Master Bailun in the crowd of onlookers outside the viewing gallery, but that figure was almost a flash; the moment his gaze turned over and he looked again, it had disappeared.

If it were an ordinary person, they might suspect they had seen wrong, but Xia Duo possesses the ability to trace memories; by tracing past memories, he is very clear that he did not see wrong.

If it were just a resemblance in appearance, it could still be a different person, but with the face and clothing being almost exactly the same, how could there be such a coincidence.

Other than it being the person himself, Xia Duo makes no other judgment.

Combined with this festival, there are only nine Great Arcanists appearing publicly on the Netheril side (the seven from the Seven Towers + Kangjienio and Iolum).

He has reason to suspect that other Great Arcanists might also be mixed into the crowd of onlookers outside the viewing gallery at this moment.

With such a suspicion, Xia Duo became even more vigilant; he was only a step away from staring at the expression on the face of the Ambassador from Cormanthor at all times.

If there were any accident, the greatest possibility would be the Elves of Cormanthor.

But from the moment he appeared, Xia Duo had been keeping an eye on the Cormanthor Ambassador; except for the moment at the very beginning when the crowd collectively shouted "kill the Elf" and that guy's expression changed abruptly, he had been wearing an indifferent face ever since.

If one were to say that Cormanthor had some decision and would keep it hidden from the Ambassador alone, Xia Duo does not quite believe it.

After all, the status of an Ambassador is no small matter, and the Permission Level they possess is also no small matter; would it not be easy to make a misjudgment and affect the overall situation if they were not informed in advance?

And from another perspective, if Cormanthor were truly to take any action, the Ambassador's opinion would also be a very important reference.

Xia Duo believes that this Cormanthor Ambassador must know something, but it is a pity that he does not have the superpower to guess what is in someone's mind just by looking at their face.

Otherwise, he could have caused a major incident in minutes!

……

Because the number of Pioneers is small, only a few dozen, even without the feat of one person monopolizing three badges earlier, Xia Duo would still be watched by many pairs of eyes.

Occasionally, if one's gaze shifts, others might not notice anything, but if one squints their eyes and looks up and down, that could be called an accident scene.

Therefore, Cloud Qi Vision cannot be used, and Xia Duo can only try his best to watch for potential abnormalities in the field from the perspective of magic.

And as time passed bit by bit, the abnormality finally began to show a clue—

As the ceremony reached its final stage, the Micro Magic Net that the Princess had originally deployed and integrated into the surrounding normal Magic Web environment gradually began to radiate an unusual light.

This was a situation that had never occurred in the previous rehearsals; Xia Duo noticed this almost immediately. The feeling that ray of light gave him was very familiar, but he could not recall it for a moment.

He had the intention to trace the memory in his Subconscious, but he was worried about missing the subsequent movements; for a moment, he was truly in a dilemma.

However, soon, Xia Duo did not need to make the decision himself; in the viewing gallery, the Cormanthor Ambassador suddenly stood up, his expression furious, wanting to say something, yet unable to say anything at all.

But Xia Duo noticed that the Great Arcanist Kangjienio next to the Cormanthor Ambassador was calmly explaining something to the Eaerlann Ambassador, and the Danzo Ambassador on the side also chimed in from time to time.

As for the Yierlan Ambassador, he, like the envoys of other surrounding small countries, was bowing his head in silence.

At this moment, Xia Duo hated himself for not having learned to read lips, but judging by the situation, it seemed that the Cormanthor Ambassador wanted to stir up trouble, but was suppressed by someone unknown.

Even the expression on his face when he sat back down was so painful, so unnatural.