Chapter 207 The Flower Fairy's Choice: Humanity's Flexible Moral Bottom Line...
"How come you're alright!" Shu Xin covered the lower half of her face and glared angrily at Xi.
Xi also really liked the taste of salted eggs. While Shu Xin was eating them with gusto, he ate quite a bit too, but he was fine. When he saw Shu Xin's rosy cheeks, he looked at her with a surprised expression, which made Shu Xin angry and embarrassed. Bangbang punched him twice and then covered her face.
In a split second, he switched from a handsome black-haired man to a blond-haired pretty boy. Xi innocently widened his big, blue eyes and said, "Maybe it's because I'm a demon, not an elf~"
Shu Xin punched him again.
After casting a healing spell on herself, Shu Xin felt a little better. She rubbed her face and said, "I'm still hesitating about how to deal with those gray birds..."
While Nana was brewing potions with the children in a large pot, Shu Xin gathered up the strange gray birds that carried the "source of infection." After all the flower fairies who had been infected recovered, Shu Xin took the time to start studying these strange gray birds.
With the guidance and explanation of the Tree of Life, Shu Xin quickly understood the origin of this "new type of fever"—
This small group of gray birds, transformed into alchemical golems, each carry a small, activated magical rune within them. The sole purpose of these runes is to cause the runic chains within the flower fairies to collapse.
Shu Xin felt that this was like knitting a sweater. It was painstaking and laborious to knit, but quite simple to unravel. These magical runes were very similar to the rune chains inside the flower fairy's body, but they were much rougher and simpler. If you put the two together for comparison, one was a mud house made by a three-year-old child, and the other was an iron castle built by a great architect. The difference was so great that Shu Xin could see it at a glance.
This reassured Shu Xin considerably. If the level of human mages was only this, she felt that the Kingdom of Ganar wouldn't be in such dire straits.
Shu Xin was a little troubled about how to deal with these gray bird puppets.
Destroying them directly would be the easiest and quickest way to deal with them, but thinking about the rune chains inside the flower fairy's body, Shu Xin wondered if she could make use of these gray birds.
Just like in her original world, where newborns are vaccinated to boost their immunity, Shu Xin felt she could use the damage this new fever caused to the rune chains to completely remove the shackles on the flower fairy.
The Tree of Life can erase the crumbling rune chains immediately. The problem is that different flower fairies have different magical states. Therefore, the process from contracting the fever to the rune chains starting to crumble and then to the complete erasure of the rune chains takes different amounts of time. During this time, the flower fairies still have to endure the pain caused by the new fever.
Ordinary flower fairies and commoners don't have the same level of magic as nobles, let alone flower fairy slaves—if they can't survive, they'll die!
Shu Xin's main goal wasn't just to take this opportunity to remove the rune chains from the flower fairies in the Land of Sin; she wanted to liberate all the flower fairies in the entire Kingdom of Ganar from their rune chains.
This time, the human mage released the "source of infection" outside the gates of the Land of Sin, so Shu Xin was able to control the situation immediately. But what if the human mage finds that this doesn't work and tries to release the "source of infection" to other territories instead?
Even if the rune skills of human mages are far inferior to those of their ancestors, they can still learn and improve. What if the new fever spread by the gray bird puppets breaks out more rapidly and severely next time?
She could indeed detect the anomaly immediately through the Tree of Life, but whether it was mobilizing manpower or concocting potions, it would take time. By then, every minute and every second, an innocent flower fairy might die from the illness.
If there were enough magic power, the Tree of Life could silently erase all the runic chains from the bodies of all the flower fairies on the entire Garnar Plain. However, the total number of flower fairies in the Land of Sin is already over ten thousand, and the number of flower fairy civilians in the Kingdom of Garnar is in the hundreds of millions. This does not even include the number of flower fairy slaves, since the Tree of Life cannot currently detect the existence of flower fairy slaves.
The magical power required to directly erase the runic chains within hundreds of millions of flower fairies was extremely vast, so Shu Xin naturally thought of the snow dragon fruit, which contained pure magical power—
Veranika had previously mentioned that they had enough snow dragon fruit to feed several thousand snow elephants, but the Snow Clan always gave them very generously when the Land of Sin asked for snow dragon fruit. In addition, the snow elephants' growth also required a lot of snow dragon fruit. Unlike wheat on the Garnar Plains, which can be harvested three times a year, snow dragon fruit, a magical plant, is harvested only once a year. According to the calendar of this magical world, Shu Xin has only been here for a little over a year.
The Tree of Life's answer was that the Snow Clan's current stockpile of Snow Dragon Fruit could barely cover this magic shortage, but this also meant that the Snow Clan's Snow Dragon Fruit inventory would be completely depleted.
Finally, before another harvest month arrived, Shu Xin decided to see what the flower fairies thought before making a decision.
The Tree of Life can use her brain as a database, so it wouldn't be a problem for the flower fairies to have a dream they'll forget as soon as they wake up. In this dream bestowed by the "Flower Goddess," the existence of the rune chains will be explained in detail, and then three options will be presented to the flower fairies:
One option is to accept the new fever brought by the Graybird Puppet, which does not require much magic to break the rune chains, but at the cost of suffering from the pain caused by the collapse of the rune chains, and they may even die as a result;
Another option is to accept the Snow Clan's aid, consume the Snow Clan's enormous magical power stored up to date, and thus break the rune chains. The flower fairies do not need to pay any price; the one who will bear the cost is their Snow Clan friends whom they have never met.
The last option is a compromise: accept the new fever brought by the Gray Bird Puppet, and at the same time seek the help of the Snow Clan. The Flower Fairy will still have to endure the pain, but will not die, and the Snow Clan will still have to consume a lot of magic, but will not deplete their reserves.
Shu Xin didn't think the flower fairies would choose the second option, but she was also a little curious about the percentages of the first and third options.
After receiving the data compiled from the Tree of Life, Shu Xin fell silent.
The percentage of people who chose the first option was 100%, while the percentage who chose the third option was zero.
As the harvest month drew nearer, the concentration of magic in the air slowly increased again. Perhaps nature's regulatory ability finally took effect, as the high temperature began to drop. In addition, with the presence of the Sky Sea, there were noticeably more clouds in the sky, casting more shade on the ground. More and more flower fairies left the underground city and came to the surface during their free time. Shu Xin, standing by the window, once again saw the flower fairies flying around.
The fields were barren, devoid of any crops. It was clear that the last harvest month of the year would yield no harvest. However, the flower fairies did not seem too distressed. They would occasionally land on the cracked earth and then fly up again, gathering in twos and threes to discuss something. Shu Xin did not even need to use her invisibility magic to get closer and listen. She knew that they were definitely talking about the cultivation, sowing, and irrigation after the harvest month ended—the same things were being discussed in the meeting room of the Flower Castle.
These little creatures, who have suffered so much yet remain so positive and optimistic, truly fit Shu Xin's stereotype of elves. They are hardworking, diligent, kind, gentle, brave, and strong... every adjective can be used to describe them. So it's not surprising that they chose to bear the full cost of breaking the rune chains themselves.
Letting out a long breath, Shu Xin raised her voice: "Xi—"
A demon with the appearance of a handsome blond boy appeared beside the flower fairy, holding a large bowl full of moss syrup: "What's wrong, darling?"
Shu Xin looked up at the bright sunlight filtering through the branches and leaves of the Tree of Life. She squinted slightly and said, "Go to the Snow Clan for me. Take our moss products with you and see if they like any of them. If they do, exchange them for more snow dragon fruit. If they're not very interested in the moss products, then we can bring back some snow dragon fruit on credit."
She is not a real fairy. Inside her beautiful flower fairy shell is a human soul with a flexible moral bottom line. She has to remove the rune chains from all the flower fairies' bodies, and she also has to protect the lives of all the flower fairies. Adults have to have both!
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