Chapter 141

"Hmm, that sounds a bit strange when you put it like that……"

Xia Zhi chuckled. However you put it, it makes me sound like I'm the abyss.

Still, looking at Ansel's respectful and reverent demeanor before him, one could also tell the other party was genuinely flattering him.

"Forget it, let's skip this topic." Vivian pondered briefly, not dwelling on it further, and returned to her original intent. "This time, I intend to start governing Britain right now, unifying the Fairy Kingdom……"

"Although the formal founding of the nation won't be announced yet, needing to be delayed for a time, all other affairs can already be put on the agenda. So I summoned you here now to ask about that matter we discussed previously……"

"So——"

"How are you and your clansmen preparing?"

As she spoke, she stared intently at Ansel, quietly awaiting the response of this blind Elder of the Mirror Clan.

"……"

"……"

A brief silence.

A subtle silence and tension seemed to permeate the air.

In this atmosphere, Ansel couldn't help feeling somewhat awkward and unable to speak. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, his expression unspeakably bitter, as if his whole person had turned into a bitter gourd. As if even such a simple inquiry was difficult to answer.

"Thank you for Your Majesty's favor…… regarding my clan…… my clan……"

This Elder hesitated, his voice low and slightly awkward. "Our Mirror Clan's situation…… is truly indescribable."

"……"

"……"

"I knew it……"

Vivian's expression appeared very calm.

She had no surprise or inability to accept it, merely nodding slightly to indicate she was already clear on the matter.

"However, you need not worry excessively. Time is still abundant. Please continue to urge them on, mobilize their enthusiasm…… I hold high hopes for the Mirror Clan. I hope that in the future Fairy Kingdom, you will be able to occupy a place."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Upon hearing this, Ansel hurriedly nodded, his heart filled with gratitude.

As the leader of the Mirror Clan, he was different from ordinary clansmen. He bore the clan's future; a sense of responsibility made him unable to slack off. He had always striven to seek change, hoping to bring a better future to the clan.

However, the status quo left him feeling deeply helpless. The clansmen didn't seem enthusiastic about changing their fate, nor did they wish to cooperate much; many even held a passive attitude toward life, as if passing day after day lying flat, waiting for death.

This atmosphere truly made him deeply anxious.

Although in this foreseen future the Mirror Clan avoided the crisis of destruction by external forces, if they continued maintaining this posture, even if spared external destruction, they would likely find it difficult to maintain long-lasting prosperity.

——After all, they themselves don't want to live anymore……

——Naturally, there is even less "reproduction", "procreation" demand……

Cough cough, this topic is a bit dangerous. Anyway, just know that the Mirror Clan's fairy quantity is relatively always the least. And the rate of offspring increase is also not optimistic; there are even many times when it's simply negative growth.

This makes one very suspect that if nothing is done to change things, external destructive strikes won't even be needed——

The Mirror Clan's fairies will be able to gradually go extinct on their own as time passes.

With a face full of shame, Ansel took his leave and walked away with long sighs and short breaths.

He seemed to also be struggling with how to persuade those salty fish in the clan.

"……"

"……"

Watching the Elder's back recede, Vivian was silently wordless. A moment later, she turned and said to Xia Zhi: "The Mirror Clan is indeed the most suitable choice at present, but it may also be the most unsuitable choice."

"True, this clan's fairies are all a bit too salty fish……"

Xia Zhi thought for a moment, feeling this contradictory evaluation was extraordinarily apt, and couldn't help but retort.

"Not to mention making them the ruling body's base, I'm afraid even if you gave them Celestial Dragon Person privileges, they probably couldn't live that arrogant, domineering Celestial Dragon Person lifestyle. After all, those salty fish don't even have desires."

"……"

"……"

"Celestial Dragon Person?"

The girl recalled slightly, as if she also remembered the meaning of this term.

"Indeed. The Mirror Clan is suitable because they generally have no desires, so there's no worry they might go berserk or undergo Evil Fairy Transformation at any moment; but precisely because they have no desires, they don't even want to live……"

Speaking of this, she also couldn't help but gently sigh.

Although she had decided this time to change strategic direction, to put the Fairy Kingdom on a completely different Orbit.

However, this Lostbelt is just a rotten mess; there actually aren't that many choices.

After all, when it comes down to it, the hand has only so many cards. No matter how you pick and choose, you can only find some that are relatively not that terrible from among them, choose to play them, and the Mirror Clan is that relatively not-so-terrible card.

At least compared to other fairies, they are indeed much better.

If they could be made the Fairy Kingdom's main body, living in peace and contentment, with peaceful times, that would presumably be extremely good.

It's just a pity that even if, intentionally taking advantage of this disaster, the quantities of other inferior species are reduced, forcibly propping up the originally scarce Mirror Clan fairies as the absolute mainstream, it still might not proceed according to their envisioned rehearsal.

"If it really won't work, consider the Northern Fairies. Although it would take a very long wait……"

Xia Zhi pondered for a moment, decisively proposing that B Plan, hoping it could be considered further.

"……"

"……"

"What's wrong?" Seeing the girl not saying a word, he asked.

"Choosing the Northern Fairies would probably be very, very difficult. I of course also know the Northern Fairies are the better choice. They are not descendants of the Original Six Wings, but pure fairies born from the Albion Dragon's corpse. They have no Original Sin, nor were they ever Cursed……"

Vivian's expression was also somewhat helpless. She hesitated a moment, then still shook her head.

"But they have already been massacred by Britain's fairies. Pure Northern Fairies have almost completely gone extinct…… Waiting two thousand years isn't the problem. The problem lies in how to recreate a true Northern Fairy clan."

The so-called Northern Fairies, and the later-appearing King's Clan——

Actually, it's not the same thing; they are two concepts that must be viewed separately.

True Northern Fairies are practically extinct; it would take another two thousand years before a Queen Mab, who gathers the power of the former Northern Fairies and possesses "Albion's Protection" — that is, the last Northern Fairy — would be born again.

And Queen Mab, utilizing her own Fairy Domain, through the rules of "Dominion and Prosperity," drew other Fairies to join under her banner, thereby forming the clan organizational form that later became the King's Clan.

The King's Clan is a Northern Fairy clan, yet it is not Northern Fairies.

This is the crux of the problem.

Vivian already understands just how terrible those local nasty breeds are, and she would not think that Fairies of Britain joining the King's Clan would turn them into good Fairies, so she definitely would not acknowledge this point.

And wanting to rely on Queen Mab alone to recreate the Northern Fairy race... that would be a bit too much to ask.

"I see, this world really has problem after problem..."

Xia Zhi pinched his chin and fell into contemplation.

This Lostbelt is truly troublesome enough; he frowned, thinking and thinking, when suddenly he seemed to have thought of something, raised his eyes, and stared straight at the girl before him—

"Vivian."

"Hmm, what is it?" The girl responded indifferently.

"That, can humans and Fairies have children?" The youth asked this question very seriously, wanting to confirm. "There's no reproductive isolation or anything, right?"

"..."

"..."

"You... why did you suddenly ask this?" Vivian visibly froze for a moment; she gently pursed her lips, her gaze wandering, and a flush born of embarrassment instantly surfaced on her fair face.

"I was thinking, this world actually still has humans, although they indeed have no presence to speak of... but perhaps they could also provide an option."

Xia Zhi spoke with a straight face, seriously discussing the existence of another possibility for solving the problem.

"..."

"..."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing..." Vivian withdrew her gaze; she gently took a breath, her gaze turning toward the far distance, staring at the World Tree at the horizon's end.

The next moment—

"This isn't very realistic either." The girl spoke in an abnormally calm tone, simultaneously stating the reason, "The Fairy Kingdom actually has no humans at all; those humans you see have never been true humans..."

"Their essence is actually all Clone Humans; after the Primordial Six Fairies killed the gods, they further dismembered the gods' Shrine Maiden while she was still alive, cutting her into countless pieces, and using the Shrine Maiden's cells supplemented by secret techniques, cultivated the results..."

"So to speak, the humans of the Fairy Kingdom are actually not true humans at all; their lifespans are extremely short, they also have no reproductive capacity, from beginning to end they were merely tools created by Fairies for amusement..."

Xia Zhi pulled at the corner of his mouth; so magical is it.

No wonder the native Fairies can act so arrogantly; turns out they really have no competitors left.

"Forget it, let's not mind this then; let's see if the Mirror Clan puts up a fight or not, if it still doesn't work, we'll hand the problem to time." He also waved his hand quite decisively, "When the boat reaches the bridge it will naturally sink; there will always be a way."

"Believe in the wisdom of posterity?" The girl looked at him coldly.

"Cough cough, that's not something to say... but it's not wrong either." The youth coughed lightly, "Later there may not be other people, but later there will definitely still be us; problems unsolvable now don't mean they'll be unsolvable later."

"Perhaps..."

Vivian looked somewhat bored, as if she didn't want to say more to him, turned around, and prepared to leave.

"Let's leave it at that; if there's nothing else, I'll go back and rest for a bit."

"Go on, go on!" Xia Zhi nodded compliantly, "You're definitely tired too; you should rest well. Right, I'm preparing to go out for a trip; these next two days I might be outside, but I'll still keep an eye on things here..."

"Go out for a trip? Where to?"

The girl who had just turned and stepped forward halted her steps, turned back, and looked at him doubtfully.

"Outside the Island... I know only the Sea of Nothingness remains outside, but that's all just hearsay, right? No one has actually fully explored it. So since there's time now, I'm preparing to go out and take a look."

He gave a matter-of-course answer.

"Have you misunderstood something? The Lostbelt's domain is limited; you actually can't leave the Island too far, or you'll be blocked by the Dimensional Rift Storm..."

Vivian frowned as she spoke, but then immediately thought of something, and cast a shocked and uncertain gaze at him.

"Wait, you don't mean you no longer have this restriction, do you?"

"Seems like it; my perception has no restrictions, and there's no Dimensional Rift Storm beyond the Island either... the planetary surface is a vast blank, only emptiness; all this can be roughly sensed."

The youth smiled faintly, revealing very white teeth.

"Is it the change brought by the Fantasy Tree?" Vivian's eyes shifted slightly, and she asked directly.

"Uncertain, but my intuition feels it's not too like that."

"Speaking of Fantasy Trees, I can actually sense them too, although they don't seem to like me much. Besides this one in the Britain Lostbelt, there are several others, their branches connecting with each other to form some kind of network..."

Xia Zhi couldn't give a definite answer for the moment; he sensed carefully and couldn't help but become interested.

"Mm, the others are all fine to speak of, just the one in the South American Lostbelt is strange; I feel that Fantasy Tree... is alive?"

Or rather, it came to life?

Could it be that the Alien God has descended there, directly replacing the Fantasy Tree's existence like myself?

(Chapter End)