Today's third update: Chapter 3427! 3/4!
"Couldn't this also be a deeper form of 'keeping distance'?"
Zhan Rourou's gentle, slightly husky voice rose through the stifling silence.
Her words were not loud, yet they were like golden dawnlight tearing through heavy storm clouds, instantly illuminating the hearts shrouded in defeat and confusion. Hearts that had been sinking beneath cold reality began to stir and beat anew.
A flash of realization sharpened Yang Yao's beautiful eyes. She immediately caught the subtle implication in Zhan Rourou's words, her thoughts linking scattered fragments like lamps being lit one after another. "I understand... Just like last time, when he, as Lord Huang, openly announced that he wished to marry me!"
Protection was not always about holding a sword and standing before someone to shield them from open and hidden attacks.
A more brilliant form of protection might be to assume a seemingly hostile, even absurd posture—to willingly become the target of all attention, so those potential enemies who had originally been watching you hungrily would lower their guard and shift their focus because of your "new target," "new scandal," or "new threat"!
The previous attempt by the human race to use the Snow Elf Race as an intermediary and forge a strategic alliance with the Huang Race was the best example.
If that gesture of goodwill had truly succeeded, and their intent to ally had been announced to the world, what would the consequences have been?
Aside from the main body of the human race—the core forces firmly following Yang Yao's will—the factional forces already dividing the human race, those harboring ulterior motives, and the powerful factions among the myriad races that had always regarded humanity as a potential threat and stood ready to suppress them would surely have sounded the alarm at