Abyss Sequence-Chapter 409 - 66: Negotiations

If human students come to Frein City, would they openly share most of their knowledge with those students?

No, of course not!

Even though the relations between humans and elves seem quite good now, they are, at the core, still two different races.

Even more than eight thousand years ago, during a time when human-elf marriages were common and elves became concubines of saints, elves and humans never opened their hearts to each other to let the other learn all of their knowledge.

Moreover, the concept of freely and openly sharing knowledge greatly shocked the Lord of Frein City.

Elf culture, although revering peace with rare conflicts between elf cities, also practices a culture of ’group separation’.

Each city is an independent entity that does not need to be accountable to other cities. If one city is attacked by a powerful demon and sends a call for help, other cities might come to the rescue, or they might not.

Elves are not as united as they appear; they are forced by the wilderness demons into separate cities. Elves from each city are usually only friendly to those from their own city, treating those from other cities with indifference or, at times, conflict.

Therefore, Pirie City does not openly share its techniques with elves from other cities, and Frein City does not either.

Each city has more or less its own things—those pieces of secret knowledge that they would never share with other cities.

And what about humans?

They see themselves as one collective, so they make knowledge public for everyone.

Under such circumstances, it is easy for Frein City to imagine the human technological progress must be rapid, because when facing a problem, elves usually have only a few people discussing it together, but humans? 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Perhaps there are hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of people discussing it together!

Elves may send a few students to the human world to learn something, but human students, after coming to Alfheim, will take the knowledge back and put it online for more people to study and research.

It won’t be long before the technologically advanced elves are overtaken by humans.

At this thought, the Lord of Frein City couldn’t help but feel suffocated, then began coughing violently.

Those around and the elves were quite frightened, and the attendants hurriedly squatted down to use healing magic on the lord.

[Don’t worry about me...]

The lord pressed down the attendant’s hand, took a breath, and looked up at Yan Luo, sighing: [I’m sorry, Lord Yan Luo, just forget about the previous proposal. We can continue with trade, but academic exchange... let’s leave it out.]

Undeniably, the lord was scared.

He feared that after learning their techniques, humans would research and create faster than them, and soon surpass them.

At this moment, Sasa stood out, "Lord, may I say a few words?"

The Lord of Frein City turned his head to look at Sasa, thought for a moment, then nodded.

"Are you aware of the ’Evil God’?" asked Sasa to the lord.

The lord nodded to indicate he knew.

Sasa smiled slightly, "Good, since you are aware of the Evil God’s existence, then what I’m about to say next, you should understand—humans cut off contact with the Secret Realm because our ancestors heard about the Evil God from a life form from another world and even fought against those life forms influenced by the Evil God, suffering heavy losses. After cutting off contact with the Secret Realm, our ancestors found merely severing the connection was useless, so they also isolated magic power, causing engravers and saints to disappear from human history."

Upon hearing this, the elves following the Lord of Frein City couldn’t help but discuss animatedly.

They couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose magic power.

"Our ancestors might have been stronger than today’s Alfheim, yet even they were forced to sever the connection with the Abyss and isolate magic power from our world. You can imagine how powerful the existence of the Evil God truly is."

Listening to Sasa’s words, the Lord of Frein City had no expression.

[What do you want to say?]

Yan Luo helped translate this sentence for Sasa.

Sasa smiled and replied, "I think it’s time to elevate the communication and exchange between our two worlds to a higher level. We have already helped Gass City, Mayin City, and other cities improve their productivity, and now I think the time has come for academic and technological exchanges.

"Lord, currently elves don’t have a clear leader, so we can negotiate with each city individually. Even if you deny this matter, we can propose it to other cities. This is no longer communication between one city and an organization; it has expanded to communication between two worlds. I hope you will consider this carefully."

Why did Sasa say those things?

The Lord of Frein City knew well; she was warning them that Alfheim is not actually safe.

Why did their Great Monarch, Saints stop elves from exploring outward and choose conservatism?

Wasn’t it because they had already seen what happened in Midgard?

Humans are an ambitious and desirous race, much like the young elves. Even when they grow old and become conservative, they still harbor hopes for expansion.

The Lord of Frein City’s grandfather was an elf who witnessed humanity firsthand, and in his dying words, he couldn’t hide his approval of the human cultural background. The choices of the Great Monarch and Saints might be right, but they could also be wrong.

Trapped in one world, unable to reach other worlds, elves have no potential for growth and will slowly bleed out to death from their own culture and the Secret Realm over a long time.

Seeing the Lord of Frein City still deep in thought, Sasa decided to drop a bombshell.

Sasa patted Yan Luo’s arm and softly said, "Lord, Yan Luo is a saint."

"What?!"

The elves across from Yan Luo in Frein City were all shocked, and even the lord was no exception.

Ignoring their surprise, Sasa continued, "Not long ago, we humans encountered a Secret Realm called the ’Forbidden Demon Abyss.’ Yan Luo fought bravely in that Secret Realm and, by defeating two Masters of the Secret Realm, he acquired a legacy known as the ’Evil God’s Mark.’ From it, he gained some knowledge, learning that the Abyss, Secret Realms, are all remade from an Evil God by a powerful interstellar civilization, and the Secret Realm is actually a ’trial grounds’ they provided to lower civilizations like us.

"The Secret Realm itself is part of an Evil God, only heavily modified by that advanced civilization, losing much of its capabilities, posing no threat to ordinary people.

"At this point, Lord, you should understand that this world has never been safe; even our powerful ancestors had no choice but to cut off contact with the Secret Realm, sealing our world to preserve our civilization. How about the current elves? Are they stronger than our ancestors?"

The Lord of Frein City fell into silence, difficult to answer.

He couldn’t deny that today’s elves are indeed not as strong as humans eight thousand years ago.

Eight thousand years ago, most human saints were of the sage rank, or rather, the sage rank was established with reference to saints.

At that time, humanity also had many Great Monarchs, and both engravers and samurais were incredibly strong.

Even humans of such levels were forced to seal the world and magic power; if it were Alfheim?

[...What do you want?]

Through Yan Luo’s translation, Sasa understood what the Lord of Frein City wanted to say.

She then smiled and said, "It’s simple! Exchange and communication, allowing humans and elves to grow together, to stride hand in hand towards the stars and a future far away! For this, Yan Luo is willing to pay some ’Saint’s Blood’!"

Yan Luo nodded and said, "Saints have a very strong regenerative ability. Basically, as long as I consume a city-breaking level demon, which is a level-four demon in your words, I can produce blood equal to a quarter of its weight. As long as there’s enough demons, I might produce enough for all elves to have ’Saint’s Blood.’

The Lord of Frein City was frightened.

Saint’s Blood... turned out to be so cheap?!