Standing behind Bai Xiaowen as his personal guard, Li Shuyi felt a steady drumbeat of nerves.
Bai Xiaowen's attitude toward the matriarch of an entire tribe seemed... a little too arrogant.
It was unlike his usual style. In Li Shuyi's experience, Bai Xiaowen cared little for appearances and focused on practical gains. Angering a key figure in the Spirit Realm just to show off, and risking unforeseen changes to the unfolding story, was not the sort of foolish thing he would do.
But Bai Xiaowen had thought a step further.
In Drow Elf society, women ruled and men held an abysmally low status. Bai Xiaowen knew the matriarch would look down on him from the outset of their negotiations.
If he kept giving ground, she would only think less of him and his side. That would do nothing to help him secure favorable terms.
His arrogance left her with two possible reactions. She might lose her temper and attack, ending the negotiations, or she might recognize that he intended to bargain from a position of strength and set aside the way Drow Elves usually treated men.
The first possibility could all but be ruled out. Unless Matriarch Cynthia was a complete fool, she would not gamble her tribe's future on a fit of pique...
Bai Xiaowen folded his arms and watched Matriarch Cynthia with interest.
Her expression shifted back and forth.
"Human, you have a way to help my tribe? Tell me."
"The Knosolis Tribe is struggling with the Necrotic Plague right now. First, I want to confirm something... Are your existing countermeasures completely ineffective, or do they help to some extent? What exactly is happening?"
Matriarch Cynthia answered with strained patience. "They only suppress it. This outbreak of the Necrotic Plague is exceptionally aggressive... Some test subjects did not