Before Todd could react, Eleanor returned to the sofa, crossed her legs, and began to admire the unpredictable expression on his face.

Todd pondered for a moment and said, "How do I know what you're saying isn't a lie?"

Eleanor rested her chin on her right hand and said slowly, "I know you won't believe me, so let me tell you about the necromancy from beginning to end."

Eleanor first asked Todd a question: "Do you know what the average lifespan of the aliens in the Elder Council is?"

Todd shook his head.

Eleanor gave him a surprising answer: "Twenty-nine years old."

Eleanor continued, "While mutants possess supernatural abilities, these abilities also shorten their lifespans. For example, mutants with the Weakening ability will gradually wither and rot; mutants with the Flame Breath ability will eventually die from spontaneous combustion; and mutants with the Berserk ability will die from ruptured blood vessels throughout their bodies..."

Eleanor bowed slightly to Todd as she spoke: “Thank you for your wisdom. We now know that there is something called mutant bacteria in the mutant’s body that slowly poisons their bodies and eventually kills them… But before you, the Elders spent hundreds of years without finding a way to extend the mutant’s lifespan. We always thought it was a curse on the mutants.”

"Therefore, in the past, the Elders have tried many methods to break this curse and prolong the lives of the alien race."

"For example, Eliade dedicated himself to methods of physical repair. Specifically, he would first collect a portion of tissue from the alien's body, cultivate it, and allow this tissue to grow into a complete shell. When the alien's organs failed or became poisoned, organs could be harvested from the cultivated shell to replace them, thus extending the alien's life indefinitely."

Eleanor stared into Todd's eyes and smiled, saying, "Sounds familiar, doesn't it? That's how your little lover, my little puppet—Ratchet—was born."

Todd said in a deep voice, "Ratchet was never your puppet; she has a complete soul."

Eleanor said noncommittally, "Richie comes from my body. She is actually me, or perhaps a part of me."

Todd suppressed his anger: "I don't want to discuss this with you. Let's continue talking about the necromancy."

Eleanor shook her head: "Then let me talk about myself. At that time, in order to prolong the lifespan of the alien species, I promoted the method of selective breeding."

Todd gritted his teeth and asked, "Preferred reproduction?"

Eleanor said, "I've always believed that there are superior and inferior races among the Xenomorphs. Some Xenomorphs can live for a long time, while others die before they even reach adulthood."

"Therefore, I had people classify and identify the alien species based on age, gender, and type of ability, and then selected some outstanding individuals to pair up and breed with, in order to observe whether this could extend the lifespan of the alien population..."

Tode said sarcastically, "What you call pairing and breeding is more like what you do to livestock."

Eleanor showed no sign of shame or anger: "I know that some people may be whispering in your ear, questioning my past actions, but I have never believed that I did anything wrong. When a people is on the verge of extinction, love, kinship, and compassion become the final driving force for their demise. Only by abandoning all moral judgment can one survive in the face of destruction."

Eleanor winked at Todd as she finished speaking: "If I had met you back then and known that you had the ability to save alien races, I would have knelt before you without hesitation and tried everything to please you. I wouldn't have complained even if I had become your slave in bed."

Unable to listen any longer, Meredith interrupted, saying, "Just like countless men you've drained dry..."

A sharp glint flashed in Eleanor's eyes, but she smiled and said, "My Grand Master, listen to those rumors. I have more enemies than feathers on your body."

Todd rubbed his forehead: "Continue talking about the necromancers."

Eleanor said, "Now that I've talked about Elijah and me, there's one more person, Elder Clarence..."

Eleanor tilted her head and looked at Todd, asking, "Do you remember Clarence? That megalomaniac?"

Todd thought for a moment and finally remembered the name.

Clarence, one of the three elders of the Elder Council, was a holder of the Soul Space ability. He once attempted to kidnap Todd, but ultimately died at Todd's hands in the Shadow Kingdom.

"Clarence placed his hopes for saving the Xenomorphs on Sutherland's legacy. This powder, made from Sutherland's ashes, could effectively slow down the onset of the Xenomorphs' illness, thus allowing them to live longer. However, it had a fatal flaw..."

"Those who inhale the legacy of Sutherland are called Inheritors, and they have only two fates. One, to continue absorbing the legacy of Sutherland to prolong their lives; two, to stop absorbing it and go mad, turning into bloodthirsty monsters."

"Clarence believes that the successor is the hope for the continuation of alien life. Only by becoming the successor can the curse within the alien be suppressed."

“However, Eliade and I do not agree with his view. The only fate of the successor is to become a mindless monster. This path is just replacing one curse with another.”

"However, Theodore, the leader of the Relief Society at the time, supported Clarence's view. He believed that the successor could continue the life of the alien species, and the key was how to control the harm caused by the backlash of the Sutherland legacy."

"Through a series of experiments, Theodore discovered that in the case of the Xenomorphs with weaker vitality and poorer constitution, the same dose of Sutherland Legacy did not cause a backlash effect, and the inoculated person could survive for a longer period of time before turning into a monster."

"Theodore speculates that the life force of the alien species is the most crucial factor in triggering the mutation of the inheritors. If the life force of the alien species can be reduced to a certain level, then Sutherland's curse will never be triggered."

Todd began to ponder Eleanor's words.

The short lifespan of these mutant species is caused by the abnormal bacteria in their bodies that constantly damage human functions.

The Sutherland bacteria, an archaea, can encapsulate heterotrophic bacteria within their cell membranes and digest the toxins produced by the latter, thus extending the lifespan of the heterotrophic bacteria.

However, the Sutherland bacteria have extremely demanding reproductive conditions. They are thermophilic and anaerobic, generally active near volcanoes, and cannot reproduce inside the human body. But the continuous proliferation of these mutant bacteria will eventually disrupt the balance between the Sutherland archaea and the Sutherland bacteria, ultimately triggering a Sutherland bacterial backlash that transforms the host into a monster.

Unlike Todd's approach of large-scale cultivation of Sutherland bacteria, Theodore's initial idea was to reduce the body's vital functions, thereby slowing down the reproduction rate of foreign bacteria in the body and ensuring that the bacterial balance was not disrupted.

The idea is correct, but the method is extremely dangerous.