Lord Autumn Wind left the elven camp in high spirits. He knew only too well what kind of creatures these elves were: proud, arrogant, convinced they were the noblest beings in the universe—yet their very bones were steeped in hypocrisy and chaotic evil. They were a race utterly rotten, utterly fallen.
As long as these elves remained surrounded by his metal warriors, they could forget about gaining any advantage from him. Lord Autumn Wind smiled smugly. A billion souls—was that a lot? With the elves' methods, they could easily slaughter a billion subjects from their vassal races, then obediently present those souls before him with both hands.
Elves valued their own lives immensely, but as for the lives of non-elven races, they regarded them as nothing more than roadside weeds, fit to be burned clean away with a single fire. Even if ten million outsiders had to be sacrificed, their own fingernails could not be allowed to suffer the slightest damage. That was what elves were like!
Smiling brilliantly, Lord Autumn Wind slowly walked out of the elven camp. Three elven princesses and ten thousand elven maidens? Lord Autumn Wind could not understand why humans took such an interest in the beauties of the elven race. In any case, he had no interest in elven women. To Lord Autumn Wind, heavy metal was the most perfect thing in existence.
As for the next few conditions, since the elves had already agreed to the first two harsh terms, all that remained was for them to contribute a few insignificant rare minerals. For example, the demonic green crystal ore enriched by gall fungi parasitic upon the roots of the elven Mother Tree—that was a rare thing known as "life crystal."
Lord Autumn Wind had extorted three thousand jin of demonic green crystal