Chapter 222: Shelved

In Queen Gale’s court, the three types of birdfolk were represented almost equally in number. However, it was only the harpy priestesses who could truly voice their opinions. The harpy warriors and the endearing penguin folk seemed to be there just to attend, rarely offering any input.

As Wu Qingsong discreetly observed them, he noticed one penguin also sneaking glances at them. Their eyes met briefly, leading to a moment of mutual surprise and then awkward smiles.

At this point, both sides had introduced their general situations and were beginning to discuss more significant matters. Notably, both Red Moon and Ram, when describing the mainland’s situation and their backgrounds, had deliberately avoided mentioning the elven rule, instead, glossing over that detail.

“You can help us eliminate those damn sea tribes?” Mia translated a harpy warrior’s incredulous question, her face also showing surprise.

The recent repelling of the sea tribe’s attack had proven the strangers’ strength, but everyone knew there was a vast difference between repelling and eliminating.

Ram spoke up before Red Moon could, “Lord Tagraedi is the leader of Orgrimmar and a powerful mage. He can control the sea monsters he has killed, turning them against the sea tribes.”

After Mia translated her words, the court quickly descended into an excited chatter.

This concept was too unbelievable for the isolated birdfolk, yet they had witnessed Wu Qingsong controlling one of the giant octopus corpses with their own eyes.

“Necromancy?” Queen Gale asked at this moment.

“You’re aware of it?” Ram was slightly surprised.

Queen Gale didn’t answer directly but nodded slowly. “What kind of price would we need to pay?”

Red Moon opened her mouth to speak, but Wu Qingsong, having snapped out of his distraction, gently patted her from behind to stop her.

“We need to build a dock on the beach to repair our ship. We’ll also need you to provide trees for the materials,” Ram said. “We’ll need about three to four trees.”

The birdfolk began another round of heated discussions, frequently glancing back at them. An elderly harpy priestess was loudly arguing, seemingly trying to convince the others, while a harpy warrior was debating with her, their rapid squawking sounding almost like a song.

Ram and Red Moon looked to Mia, trying to gauge the outcome from her expression.

“Your Majesty,” Red Moon said, “while the Dark Moon cannot provide immediate aid, we can restore your connection to the mainland. We can bring you food, meat, metal weapons, and tools to improve your lives significantly.”

“Is that so?” Queen Gale asked with a smile. “But as you can see, our island doesn’t have much in the way of notable resources. I fear it would be difficult to sustain such an exchange.”

“The pearls, coral, beautiful shells, and delicacies from the sea can be used as trade goods,” Red Moon, who had spent the entire night considering this issue, spoke confidently. “The fruits you grow can also be exchanged. Many would appreciate their deliciousness. This sea’s bounty is quite rich and can certainly support a trade route.”

Queen Gale looked at her and nodded slightly but didn’t give a direct response.

“Please go and rest for now,” she said with a smile. “I hope you understand that Gale Kingdom hasn’t experienced anything like this in a long time, and we need some time to make a decision.”

Red Moon felt a bit disappointed with this outcome.

Not being able to directly communicate with the ministers and having to rely on Mia to relay messages significantly weakened her influence. Otherwise, these relatively inexperienced natives would have been persuaded by now.

With nothing better to do, they wandered around the island. Wu Qingsong wanted to turn the sea monster corpses into undead creatures first, but when they reached the coast, they found that the penguin people had already dragged the bodies ashore and were in the process of dismembering them. The two giant mantis shrimps were no exception. It wasn’t clear how they managed it, but the penguin people had painstakingly created openings in the creatures’ natural armor. Many penguin people surrounded the massive bodies, looking very excited.

Wu Qingsong speculated that, for this impoverished island, the fishmen corpses washed up on the shore after each battle might be a crucial food source. Seeing their eager eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to ask them to stop.

“Mia,” he said after thinking for a moment, addressing the harpy who was assigned to accompany them. “Those two mantis shrimps, uh, the ones with the hard shells—could you ask them to try not to damage their body structure too much when they take the meat?”

Mia nodded slightly, a bit confused, and flew over to the seaside.

“Wu?” Ram asked, puzzled.

“These shells should be their exoskeletons. I hope they’ll be able to move like skeleton soldiers after the meat is removed,” Wu Qingsong said helplessly.

The only gain was the collection of a large number of soul fragments. Although many of them were of low quality, purifying them required less effort and pain. Wu Qingsong gathered and merged them into relatively strong soul fragments for future use. For the giant octopus corpse, which obediently stayed on the reef as per his command, he carefully separated a piece from his own soul fire and integrated it into the octopus’s soul fire, adding more soul fragments to make its movements more agile.

However, in the hot climate, it started to emit a foul odor, which made Wu Qingsong worry. In a few days, would it turn into a large mass of rotting flesh?

Some harpies circled over the open sea, both monitoring the sea tribe’s activities and looking for prey, while some penguins fished in the relatively safe bays.

The sailors, who had been hungry for a day, cautiously followed the penguins into the water to fish. But this skill had become rusty for these sailors who were used to life on a ship, making it difficult to catch anything. On the contrary, Liuli, who was searching for shellfish on the reef, encouraged Ling to use her abilities to catch several large fish.

“Wu! Ram! Look at this,” Liuli excitedly called out to them from the rocks, holding a fish in her arms. “Aren’t we awesome?!”

“Looks like we’re having a good meal today,” Wu Qingsong said with a smile. “You two are amazing.”

“It’s all thanks to Ling,” Liuli exclaimed joyfully. “Wait here, we’ll definitely catch more fish! Daryl, Beck, you two idiots, hurry up and help.”

The shadow cast by Bernar’s death seemed to be significantly lightened by her carefree demeanor. Daryl glanced at Ram and eventually ran over to join her.

“I don’t understand,” Red Moon said, unaffected by the scene. “We’ve offered such good terms, what are they still considering?”

“No matter how good the terms are, people have the freedom to accept or reject them,” Wu Qingsong said calmly. “What you think is good might not be seen as good by others. You think you have good intentions, but others aren’t obliged to accept them. Maybe they just don’t want to feel indebted to you. Forcing your ideas on others and making them agree with you is the biggest problem with Dark Moon, or rather, with you.”