Chapter 259: Leaked Information
Regardless, Ferrier had been dealt with. The envoy mission only made a round in her town before heading to Count Solari’s territory, who also passed without a hitch.
This was not surprising, as these two were the only Counts in the Northland. If they did not qualify, the Imperial envoy mission might as well just read from the script in their hands; there would be no need to continue the act.
After learning this news, Owen guessed that it was because the three parties in the envoy mission were entangled with each other, so no one could act arbitrarily. Apart from handling matters impartially, there was no other way. Otherwise, once someone caught them with a minor offense, it would not be as simple as being reprimanded by the Emperor, but losing the right to intervene in the Northland.
Guessing was one thing, but Owen would not be careless or even arrogant enough to offend anyone because of it. Even if matters were handled impartially, it was too easy to make things difficult for someone through official means.
In his previous life, going through procedures with dozens of stamps and running around for a couple of months was not just a joke; making a dead person withdraw money was not an isolated case. It could only be said that anything was possible within the rules.
As the envoy mission needed to travel all over the Northland, Hydra, located at the northernmost end, would definitely be the last stop. It would take at least two to three months for them to arrive, so Owen decided to continue accumulating Progress Value to see what he could exchange for fifty points.
In fact, Owen had long wanted to enhance himself again but found that he did not know where to start.
Because he had not yet fully digested the previous enhancements. For example, he had not yet broken through to the Advanced level to become a Puppet Master, let alone the Mage system, the Warlock system, the Alchemy system, and the newly acquired Druid system.
As for bloodlines, although he had only enhanced the Ancient Bloodline, he had not yet fully mastered the Time and Space Travel ability it brought, let alone tapped into its full potential.
In this case, simply stacking enhancements, while not entirely meaningless, was not of much significance because he could not use them flexibly.
For ordinary people, there was not much difference between holding a butcher knife or a dragon-slaying knife. They could injure others and hurt themselves, that was all.
Owen was very distressed about this but could not do much.
For Owen, who possessed Intelligence Enhancement and had Flame Empress’ assistance, simply accumulating knowledge was no longer a problem. The only problem was that there was too much knowledge.
If Owen’s professions were all written out, one line would not be enough, and each profession involved multiple branches.
In this case, unless it was a ridiculously talented genius like Shen Gunde, anyone else, even Iron Man, would have to sacrifice half their hair to master it.
Owen’s Intelligence attribute was not low, and he had Intelligence Enhancement to help him cheat. Theoretically, he was also a genius at the peak of humanity. However, he was always lacking something indescribable in some aspects, which made him like a mouse that had fallen into a rice jar. It seemed like he had a mountain of gold and silver, but in reality, there was only so much he could eat.
So Owen understood that simply stacking enhancements, unless it was an exceptional existence like Superman who could overcome all obstacles with brute force, was not of much significance to him.
Since he could not figure it out himself, Owen went to ask Maya, Bryan, Emily, Ai Mi Er, and Professor McGonagall.
They could be said to be the smartest and most learned people in the territory and might be able to provide him with some ideas.
As a result, they all gave the same suggestion: to specialize in one area first and then spend a few years settling down. After growing up, he could then integrate other systems as nutrients for the main body.
Maya, Bryan, and Ai Mi Er also suggested that Owen go to the Imperial Academy to study for a period.
The history of the Imperial Academy was as long as the history of the Empire. After nearly a thousand years of development, the academy had been expanded into an independent city.
The Imperial Academy was not only vast in area, but it also had the most abundant collection of books and the most outstanding scholars in the Empire. The most important thing was that it had the best talents. It could not be said to have monopolized all the top talents in the Empire, but it was the most comprehensive.
However, not everyone could go to the Imperial Academy. Apart from a small number of commoner geniuses who were specially recruited, most students were from noble or merchant families, and the age requirement was no more than twenty years old.
Logically, Owen did not meet the requirements, as he was already over twenty, but because he had integrated the Ancient Bloodline, it was not wrong to say that he was an elf.
As long-lived species, elves had a longer growth cycle, so the academy had a different set of standards.
“A special and pure High Elf bloodline might add more credibility to the unique background I design for myself,” Owen thought.
In fact, he was already tempted. Compared to the complex and cruel Imperial Capital, the Imperial Academy, with its stronger learning atmosphere, might be more suitable as his foothold after entering the Empire.
While Owen was thinking about how to break through the bottleneck, his information was placed in the hands of the three members of the envoy mission, and it was Little Finger who delivered this information.
Little Finger’s departure was not because he had sensed something but because he had received news of the Empire’s policy changes towards the Northland. So he rushed back to the Empire. Only in the Empire could he closely grasp the pulse of this vast Empire and make correct responses in a timely manner.
Thanks to the network he had laid out in the Northland, he had made a lot of money in the process of the Empire transporting resources to the Northland. He had also sent a lot of relevant information to the Imperial envoy mission before they arrived in the Northland, all for free.
Little Finger was not just an information broker. As one of the Fingers of the Black Hand, his overall view was not bad. If he was not young and lacked some experience, he would not have been sent to the Northland.
According to normal development, Little Finger would need to accumulate experience in the Northland for at least ten years before he could truly grasp the power of the Black Hand’s Little Finger.
The reason was simple: power was not given by others but taken by oneself. Without one’s territory and followers, even if power was given, one could not hold onto it.
But Little Finger did not want to wait that long, so he needed to do something to speed up the process.
Sending information about the Northland to the Imperial envoy mission for free was just a stepping stone. The real jade was his bargaining chip. As for whether the Hydra family, treated as the jade, was willing or not, who cared?
From the departure of the Hydra family’s Matriarch to their rapid rise during the chaos of the refugees, the information about Hydra was quite detailed. However, no matter how you looked at it, it felt like something important was missing.
Little Finger knew this, and so did the people who received the information, but it did not matter because they did not care.
“Interesting,” Marquis Bergasos / Count Dekla / Ninth Princess. Different people, but they gave the same evaluation after seeing the information.
Although interesting, it was not enough to make the three of them change the itinerary of the envoy mission, because it was just interesting.
It was like the inspection team from the Imperial Capital hearing about the miraculous rise of the richest man in a certain county. What kind of evaluation did you expect them to give? Or would they make a special trip?
