Chapter 758 Negotiating VII


    After about seven hours, Liasas finally opened her eyes and began speaking.


    “The Xor’Vak have agreed to all of your demands. However, they added that if you fail to back up your arrogance, you will pay the price for daring to invoke their leader’s name without the strength to justify it,” she said as soon as she noticed Aron was already listening to her.


    “We don’t have a problem with that. What about the others?” Aron responded without hesitation, his voice steady and decisive. A smile crept across his face—one he didn’t bother hiding—making his satisfaction unmistakably clear.


    “As for the others, your demands can be agreed upon, but many require additional clauses and modifications,” Liasas repeated, pausing to gauge Aron’s reaction.


    “Let’s hear what their modification demands are and see if we can accommodate them,” Aron responded calmly, his tone steady. He wasn’t rushing the discussion, knowing that every detail had to be considered before deciding.


    “The Valthorins” Liasas began, “request that their knowledge must not be sold or revealed to any other civilization without their permission.”


    She continued systematically, listing each group’s demands. Some wanted to offer outdated knowledge, reasoning that it would still hold value while safeguarding their most recent advances. Others demanded stricter conditions regarding how the knowledge could be used, limiting its scope to specific fields or forbidding certain applications entirely.


    Aron remained silent, mentally noting every condition, assessing whether each demand was feasible or whether he would need to push back. His expression stayed calm, betraying none of the calculations going on behind his eyes.


    Without missing a beat, she turned her gaze toward his after receiving a response from the mental network, her expression calm but laced with subtle intrigue as she said “The civilizations that requested the clause preventing their knowledge from being sold or shared without their permission have agreed to your counterproposal,” her voice measured.


    “What about the rest?” Aron asked, his tone steady but expectant.


    Liasas didn’t respond immediately. Instead, she closed her eyes, signaling that she was listening intently to the incoming replies from the other factions. Only after gathering their responses would she be able to provide him with an answer.


    After about thirty minutes of silence, Liasas finally opened her eyes. “Eight of the members have chosen to withdraw their demands and will be opting for the basic agreement,” she said calmly. “The rest have agreed to your terms, including the mutual clause requiring permission to sell or share information with other civilizations.”


    Her tone remained as steady as ever, but there was a subtle hint of disappointment in her expression. It looked like she had hoped for a different outcome. It looked like the empire had gained the upper hand by leveraging the prestige and respect the civilizations needed to uphold in the eyes of their peers—a clever move that ensured they wouldn’t compromise their soft power in the long run.


    But Aron recognized that her expression was merely a fac?ade. With those eight withdrawals, it had become impossible for the empire to secure a majority by defeating only the twelfth to twenty-third ranked competitors, even if they lost all their battles against the top ten. The count had now dwindled from twenty-three to fifteen, and the top ten civilizations effectively included eleven members, with the Elara and Feryn tied for the tenth position. It was a smart move from the Conclave.


    Not only that, but they had also promised the eight who withdrew from the normal agreement that they would buy the mana stones at mining price from the empire and sell them to the eight at the same price after they won. This was a significant incentive for their withdrawal, as it allowed them to reap the rewards of victory without having to fight at all.


    As for the other four who chose not to withdraw, even in light of these conditions, they were equally confident in their chances of winning the fight. This meant they would also benefit from purchasing mana stones at mining price while simultaneously gaining access to the blackhole technology.


    Aron just smiled and said “We accept. Let’s proceed to sign the agreements before discussing the format of the face-off and the conditions under which it will take place.”