"Impossible? Venerable Xia, are you planning to go back on your word? I already made myself clear: unless I've eaten enough to surpass Venerable Li, this matter is absolutely impossible!" Lord Wanqi snorted, thinking I intended to overturn the decision we had just reached.
In truth, of course I had no intention of overturning my own decision. After all, it had taken considerable effort to lure Lord Wanqi into agreeing to return the hostages. My apparent change of heart was merely a case of luring him in by first giving ground. After all, when dealing with a clever man like Lord Wanqi, if I handed him benefits too easily, he would instead refuse to believe they were real.
I pretended to hesitate for a moment, then said coldly, "If I let you eat half of Venerable Li's territory, who knows whether you'll still return the hostages to me? To be fair, you should of course eat a little first and return some people. At the very least, you'll have to wait until you've eaten enough to become somewhat stronger than Venerable Li before returning everyone to me. Otherwise, once you've eaten your fill but refuse to return them, what could I do to you?"
"Heh heh... So that's how it is. That does sound reasonable. However, I'll first return the immortals who are connected to you but unimportant. As we approach the end, I'll return Master Su and the other female immortals who have important ties to you. What does Venerable Xia think?" Lord Wanqi was not stupid, of course. He was also afraid that I would demand the important hostages first, then simply abandon the rest. If that happened, Li Poxiao, who had lost little territory, could launch another counterattack. Wouldn't he have to spit out everything he had