Negotiating Terms

"Are you... serious?"

Kolun's gaze froze. The look in his eyes when he looked at Xilos was so complicated that even Xilos herself did not want to meet it.

If there had been even a one-in-ten-thousand chance, she would never have chosen to follow Shen Yi to another world. Unfortunately, there was not even that slightest possibility.

Having remained at the Bottom of the Rock Prison for so long, even with the Pure Spirit driving away the Black Fog's erosion within her body, her lifespan had been drastically reduced. She simply could not lead the Elf race as it was now toward recovery or growth.

Doing her utmost merely to preserve the Elf race as it currently existed was already the very limit of what she could barely manage.

No one knew—not even Kolun—that whenever she fully exerted her power, the Black Fog's erosion within her grew deeper. At that level of erosion, it was impossible to resolve it unless her soul was separated from her body and a new body was recreated.

Moreover, before her body was rebuilt, her strength would plummet, perhaps even falling below Kolun's.

For her to undergo such a process in the Shadow World would undoubtedly push the entire Elf race into certain death. She could not, and she was unwilling to do that.

"Alright. I understand."

After waiting for a long time, Xilos still did not answer Kolun's earlier question. Kolun immediately understood that what she had just said was a decision she had pondered for a long time and made only with extreme difficulty.

If even the current ruler of the Elf race had no solution, then no matter how unwilling he was, he had no ability to change anything.

Besides, given all that Xilos had sacrificed for the Elf race, even if