Chapter 457: CH
Kallus stood up and pulled Valoria up from her bowed position. "You don’t have to bow like that in front of me, Empress Valoria. Please, mind your image as the empress of an entire race and empire!" he said calmly.
Hearing this, Valoria didn’t feel relieved. Instead, her face paled further, and she looked at him pitifully, thinking his words meant he wouldn’t be helping her!
Kallus was thoroughly puzzled by her reaction, but he quickly realized what was happening. She had once again cooked something up inside her head, and whatever she had cooked up had caused her to completely misunderstand him.
He shook his head and said with a chuckle, "Empress Valoria, you really like to overthink things when you shouldn’t be!"
"My intentions were nothing but to make you mind your position and act like an empress—nothing else! You have already shown more humility than needed by recognizing your situation and keeping a clear head," Kallus said with genuine sincerity. He continued, "For not once did I say I reject helping you, directly or indirectly. It’s just that you have a powerful imagination and a knack for overthinking, cooking something out of absolutely nothing."
Hearing this, Valoria’s mouth twitched involuntarily as she blushed and bowed her head downward. She didn’t dare look at Kallus out of sheer shame and embarrassment for being caught overthinking, and for realizing she was completely mistaken.
Kallus just shook his head seeing her act like that, while the Red Empress rolled her eyes, finding it unbelievable that an old witch like Valoria was still acting like an innocent girl who had no idea how the world worked. What a b— cough, witch, the Red Empress thought internally, keeping her eyes locked on Valoria the entire time.
Kallus, having no idea what the Red Empress was thinking, pressed on. "Since I have found your problem, I will definitely help you get rid of it without being discovered by the people who planted it in the first place, ensuring we don’t set things into motion in a disastrous way."
Valoria’s eyes sparked hearing this. The blush and shame instantly vanished from her face as she quickly looked up at Kallus with a grateful expression. "Wh-what about helping me deal with the internal trouble? And cleansing my empire?" she asked with hesitation once again.
Seeing Kallus remain silent for a moment, she quickly added, "I am not asking for your help for free—I’ll pay you!"
In reality, Kallus was just pondering his strategy. How should I go about this? How should I provide her direct help while not directly letting her know about the intentions of the Cosmic Tree elder? The time isn’t right yet. But Valoria, once again mistaking his silence for a rejection, anxiously spoke up before he could answer.
Oh? Kallus became interested, realizing he might not need to overthink this himself. He smiled and asked, "And what would that payment be, if I might ask, Empress Valoria?"
Valoria?"
Hearing this, Valoria became excited again, seeing that he wasn’t outright refusing to lend a direct helping hand. She instantly racked her brain for something she could use as a worthy price, and a legendary location came to mind: the Life and Death Realm!!
This was a secret realm belonging to the Elven Empire. It contained two distinct areas: one was a lush green domain of life, and the other was its exact opposite. Legends said this realm was a fragment of a higher domain, and that the elves had originally originated from it.
Even the current Elven Empire had never fully explored it—hell, they hadn’t even mapped 5 percent of it completely!! The troubles within were simply too immense, and the dangers were terrifying. From Tree Daemons of life and death to powerful guarding beasts, it was a death trap!!
However, rumors whispered that the inheritance of a Tier 8 Ancient Elven Empire lay hidden deep inside. A Tier 8 power was a legendary force—a power capable of ranking among the 108 Great Factions of the galaxy, sitting just below the 12 Supreme Powers and the 4 Transcendent Factions!
This was a place the Elven Empire was already having massive trouble managing; in fact, they were actively losing ground there!! Yet, being stubborn, they had never dared to let other factions enter this secret realm, bearing the entire burden alone.
They guarded it because, despite the extreme danger and trouble, the resources gained still outweighed the cost, if only by a small margin. Furthermore, the resources found inside were Tier 4 and above—something they were fiercely unwilling to let outsiders claim and use to grow more powerful.
Thankfully, this realm was one of the few places that hadn’t fallen into the hands of the unseen manipulators yet, as its entrances were strictly controlled by the Supreme Ancestors of the empire!! Currently, those Ancestors had blocked entry entirely, because the Elven Empire had completely lost control of the realme a few hundred years ago and after numerous tries they were not able to gain entry within it and were constantly obliterated. leaving no choice but of sealing it.
As this was the only way to avoid a cataclysmic beast tide from escaping the realm and invading their territories—a harsh reality everyone had been forced to accept!
But now, Valoria saw an opportunity!! Not only could she ask for Kallus’s help in exchange for joint exploration rights to this realm, but through this, the Elven Empire could once again enter the Life and Death Realm and gain a foothold to continue gathering high-tier resources. She could then use those resources to fuel the growth of her empire after the grand cleanup, quickly filling the gaps in strength that would inevitably appear once the traitors at home were purged.
However, she didn’t want to be underhanded about the deal. So, while explaining the nature of the Life and Death Realm, she added, "I can grant your empire the right to move around this realm with complete freedom. Whatever you take is yours, with no questions asked and zero taxes or charges levied on them!!"
Hearing this, Kallus became interested, for he already knew about this realm. But then he frowned, because he alsoknew about its current state, and realized Valoria wasn’t being completely transparent yet. If that’s the case...Kallus thought, but before his musings could go any further, Valoria said something that calmed him down and earned her some major positive points in his book.
She admitted, "But there is one major trouble... currently, we ourselves have no foothold within the realm itself! We encountered severe problems a couple of thousand years ago, which eventually led to our complete pullout—or rather, the annihilation of our forces within by the beasts of the realm.
Currently, to protect ourselves, we had no choice but to seal it. The only fortunate thing is that this place is still under the control of people whose loyalty is bound to the empire and cannot be broken. Thus, it hasn’t suffered any influence from those hidden groups."
Hearing this, Kallus paused for a moment before letting out a chuckle. "You are funny, Empress Valoria. You are paying me with something that you can’t even access yourself! Hahaha, but no worries. I understand the true value of that realm and the resources within—it’s something my people will definitely need at any stage. So, let’s forget about the negative stuff, because a sealed realm isn’t something my forces can’t handle."
He smiled, his gaze turning sharp and regal. "But I also won’t be unfair to you. This will be a partnership between our two domains, and I don’t want it to sour before it even begins. Therefore, I will still grant the Elven Empire 5 percent of whatever we discover within the realm as an entrance fee!!"
"There’s no need for that!" Valoria quickly tried to reject the offer, but Kallus was firm and didn’t budge at all. In the end, Valoria accepted it, as much as she initially didn’t want to. However, she was deeply moved to see the sincerity in Kallus’s character and felt quite glad about it.
Kallus only smiled seeing her acceptance and the look of pure gratitude on her face. To achieve the elder’s request, he knew he needed to get the elves on familiar, close terms with his forces. It was a bit of a cumbersome task, but sigh, he had to do it. Besides, elves were generally on good terms with humans anyway, so establishing a close relationship with them was by no means a bad thing.
Pushing aside these thoughts, Kallus snapped his fingers. A bottle containing a transparent liquid appeared, radiating a pure, holy attribute, and he passed it to Valoria.
She caught hold of it, looking at it with confusion.
Kallus explained, "This is Holy Curse-Destroyer Water. Drink this, and it will completely get rid of that red gas. And don’t worry—using it won’t trigger any negative side effects, nor will it alert the enemy to any detected abnormalities.
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