Chapter 210 — A Way Out in the Magic Tide

"No, those are merely two casting professions—they are users of power. I believe the way out lies in the essence of power itself, or rather... the essence of this material world of ours."

Seeing Hetty sink into thought at these words, Gao Yang could not help laughing. "It's far too early to be thinking about such things. With our current strength—even with the entire mortal world's current level—we don't yet qualify to ponder these questions. Rather than dwell on them, go back and rest, and think about how to organize the personnel selection in a couple of days."

Yes, now was not the time to think about such things—at the very least, not the time for Hetty to be thinking about them.

Gao Yang comforted Hetty and sent her back to her room to rest. At the same time, he focused his mind and called out to the surveillance satellite in space.

A "magical imaging top-down view" resembling a thermal image appeared in his mind. Centered on his current location, the mana distribution map and the terrain map of the surrounding several hundred kilometers were overlaid together; the swirling mana breath shifted and changed upon the top-down view, and the most recent几条 reports from the gas giant monitoring system leapt into his mind:

"Gas giant energy level declining, entering low-alert state."

"Gas giant energy level declining to low position, confirming gas giant has entered a calm period, alert lifted."

"All systems entering low-power self-check mode."

At the very least, there were for now no signs of an imminent magic tide eruption.

And at that same moment, on the western frontier of the Kingdom of Ansu, at the border of the Duchy of Franklin, where it met the Mosswood Forest.

The Augury Tribal State, which bordered Ansu, was a loosely structured confederate kingdom. Seven hundred years ago, the human westward expeditionary forces, upon entering this land covered in towering mountains and dense forests, had chosen peaceful coexistence with the local powers, and through forging pacts and drawing alliances had secured a firm foothold in the west of the continent. After seven hundred years of fusion and evolution, many of the races originally inhabiting this land had together formed a new power. More than a dozen intelligent races had long resided here, among which the spirit race, the gray elves, the fairies, the orcs, and humans were the strongest and most influential. The hereditary habitats of these races were their respective chief cities; through a governing structure called the "Council of Five Kings," they jointly ruled this vast territory.

Unlike Typhon, which was now at daggers drawn with Ansu, the Augury Tribal State had maintained good diplomatic relations with Ansu throughout the seven hundred years, and the Franklin family of Ansu's western frontier deserved no small credit for this: this calculating, trade-savvy family had always been glad to deal with the races of the towering mountains and dense forests, and had long-standing trade ties with the gray elves. At the border of the gray elves' main settlement, the Mosswood Forest, the Franklin family had also built a large trading town and several dedicated settlements for the convenience of traveling merchants. Though in the process they amassed wealth by every means, and even devised a "decree" forcing merchants to convert one-third of their goods into Franklin silver coins and stipulating that only Franklin silver coins could be used for transactions to travel within their territory, compared with the nobles of other regions—who dug pits in the roads to rob peddlers, or hired bandits to plunder marketplaces outright—the Franklin family were already rare wise men.

But today, the wise Duke Franklin found himself beset by troubles.

Goldwood Town, a trading settlement on the edge of the Mosswald.

Blazing torches lit the night, and a great host of soldiers had sealed off every route in and out of the town, throwing a tight cordon around the largest trading house in the settlement.