Volume 1 Chapter 139 Last chance
After learning from Vivian that she got this from an elder female elf, Xu Yi immediately had Vivian bring him to find that female elf.
The answer Xu Yi received from that female elf made him very happy.
Because elves had the good relationship with plants, they had a very good understanding of how to use the characteristics of the plant. The toy made of resin was just to entertain the elves when they were bored, it wasn’t something rare at all.
This answer made Xu Yi instantly think of countless possibilities, so he went to look for elder Illusia again without any hesitation.
Xu Yi wanted to ask elder Illusia to learn the elves’ method for refining the resin, but he was told that the method they used was a magic that only the elves could use and humans couldn’t learn itk at all.
After Xu Yi tried, he learned that the magic did conform to the specialties of the elf race and humans couldn’t learn it at all, so he could only give up.
After considering it, Xu Yi decided to take a step back. He hoped that the Night Song Elf Tribe that elder Illusia was in charge of could help the Frestech Chamber of Commerce make magic machines that could be used to refine resin.
The outer layer of the magic machines wasn’t hard to make, but the most important core which was the Magic Array used to refine resin could only be made by the elves, so he needed help from the elves.
Actually it had to be said that Xu Yi had another choice, which was to follow the method from earth, putting in additives and coagulants to create a synthetic resin. But Xu Yi wasn’t familiar with making plastic and he didn’t know how to make the additives, or how much to put in. Secondly, this method had a strong polluting factor that Xu Yi didn’t like. Moreover, by using the magic of the elves, he didn’t need to add high temperatures or use complicated methods, he just simply needed to add magic. The resin would then melt into a liquid and could be freely formed.
The more important thing was that although the elves currently used this to refine small toys, Xu Yi could see that this meant the elves could research new magic that would turn the resin into different shapes.
So Xu Yi hoped that the Night Song Tribe would help the Frestech Chamber of Commerce research a series of resin forming magic. It was best if they could form different Magic Arrays based on different requirements for the form.
For Xu Yi’s request, elder Illusia just considered it before agreeing.
The elves lived in the forest and it was quite boring other than hunting for food each day. Helping Xu Yi complete this research would give their tribe something to do, while it could also be considered repayment to Xu Yi.
“Elder Illusia, it isn’t enough if it is just this.” Hearing elder Illusia say that this was considered repayment, Xu Yi shook his head and laughed, “As a human merchant, I’m not that interested in the word repayment. If I had the choice, I like cooperation better.”
“Cooperation?” Elder Illusia looked at Xu Yi in a confused manner, “How can we elves cooperate with you humans?”
“Of course there’s a way. The so called cooperation is both sides working as per their ability and as per their needs. Look, your Night Song Tribe needs our power to change your river and solve your water problem and I also want something from you. Of the current things you have, other than the value that Agnes has, only this resing has value. Perhaps to you this resin is something that can be casually found and doesn’t have any value, but to me, this resin has a very high value. If it wasn’t for the power of your tribe, it would be very hard for me to display this value. So, we can cooperate.” Xu Yi paused before saying with a serious expression, “Elder Illusia, I sincerely hope that we can maintain a long term cooperation relationship. My goal is for both of us to profit, so whether it is me or your Night Song Tribe, we will both receive benefits from this cooperation.”
“Long term?” Elder Illusia looked at Xu Yi with a bit of interest, “Chairman Xu, do you know what long term means to us elves? We elves have long lives, perhaps it can be considered a lifetime for you human.”
“Then I’ll work hard to cooperate until the day I die, what do you think?” Xu Yi said.
“The problem is that our tribe only needs to solve the problem of our water source.” Elder Illusia said with a faint smile, “Not to mention that we have already connected to the underground water, so we are not in a rush to solve this problem. To put it a bit more extreme, we can even leave the Falling Rain Forest and find another place to live. The Sines Continent is very big, we can easily find a new place to live.”
“Then if you meet the same water problem or another problem, will you move again?” Xu Yi asked back without any politeness, “Although the Sines Continent is very big, honourable elder, if you may allow me to be frank, the places you elves can live is already getting smaller and smaller. Could it be that you are planning to keep going like this?”
Elder Illusia fell silent and calmly looked at Xu Yi.
Xu Yi didn’t show any weakness and met her gaze, not looking away at all.
After a while, elder Illusia revealed an awkward smile, which was like a flower in full bloom.
“Chairman Xu, do you know why I agreed to Agnes going to look for you?”
Xu Yi was stunned, “Could it be that it isn’t because I came up with a method to solve your problem?”
“That is the reason on the surface, but the deeper reason is that on the blueprint you gave Agnes, I saw a possibility. I hoped to grab this possibility and to turn this possibility into reality.”
“What possibility?” Xu Yi curiously asked.
“Elves and humans living together in peace, the possibility of living together.” Elder Illusia said, “Just like you said, the places for us elves to live are getting smaller and smaller on the continent. In these hundred years, the elf tribes I’ve known of have been disappearing one by one. Compared to when I was young, there is already less than half of the elves left. If another few hundred years pa.s.s, all the elves on the continent will disappear and the elves will have completely vanished.”
“As the elder of the Night Song Tribe, I have no way to change the fate of all the elves, but I want to try to change the fate of our tribe. Since the continent is now controlled by you humans, it is time for us to recognize this fact and put down the rules of thousands of years to try and cooperate with you humans, try to live together. It has been several thousand years since the race wars and the hatred between humans and elves have long dissipated. This is now a good chance and the final chance for us elves, so I very much want to grab it and had Agnes contact you.”
“So you’re not against Agnes working for our company?” Xu Yi asked.
“Yes. I want Agnes to be the first step out for our tribe. If she can live a normal life in your human world, it means the other elves can also have the same lives.” Elder Illusia revealed a bitter smile and said with a soft sigh, “I don’t know if this is the right choice, but perhaps it is our final chance. We elves have always disliked change, but if we don’t make any changes, there is only the destiny of destruction that awaits us.”
Xu Yi looked at elder Illusia in a daze. From the young girl’s face in her early twenties, he could see all kinds of vicissitudes and exhaustion.
It seemed like the survival of the elves have bothered her for a long time and even this elegant elder of the elves couldn’t handle this load.
“Elder Illusia, if you think like this, I think that I should change my proposition from before and not let Agnes be my slave.” Xu Yi said.
“Oh? Why?”
“If you desire humans and elves living in peace and living together, we can’t have the elves have a lower status than the humans from the moment they appear again in front of them. If Agnes appears in front of the other humans as my slave, the other humans will treat the elves as those from thousands of years ago who were turned into slaves after being defeated. It will not change their view of you elves at all.” Xu Yi replied.
Elder Illusia considered this before asking, “Then what difference will there be if you don’t have Agnes as your slave?”
“It’s a very large difference.” Xu Yi said in a certain voice, “I hope that Agnes can work for our company completely because of her artistic talent, making me want her as our company’s designer. If she appears as a normal elf and not my slave, the other humans will pay more attention to her ident.i.ty as a designer and will more easily recognize her value. We humans are a race that cares about facts, as long as you have value, we will place importance on you and seriously take you in.”
Elder Illusia considered this for a long time before slowly saying, “Chairman Xu, I think you’ve given me a very good lesson this time. Yes, it is because humans are a race that cares about facts that they rose up among the various races of the continent and finally took control from us elves who were too arrogant and proud to see the facts. It we want to keep surviving now, we can only become like you humans. We need to show our value other than our beauty, that is what we should do.”
After saying this, elder Illusia suddenly stood up and gave Xu Yi a deep bow.
“Chairman Xu, thank you. You have allowed me to understand the truth.”