Chapter 4017 Reluctance It did not take long for the negotiation teams to hash out a final agreement. The resulting treaty largely aligned with the terms that Ves initially proposed. The Larkinsons essentially gained everything they asked for, even if the terms were disproportionately in their favor. The Aducs on the other hand had little choice but to hold back their resentment and give in to the inevitable. They still harbored a lot of hard feelings towards the Larkinsons, but the leaders of the family had issued strict instructions not to do anything that would bring the two parties into a confrontation. Fortunately, none of the Aducs had risen up and tried to pierce the facade that made it easy for the two sides to find common ground with each other. The Aducs were accustomed to obeying instructions from above. None of them dared to engage in any form of rebellion and insubordination, especially when the continued existence of the Old Lady was at stake. One of the more unfortunate consequences of the Larkinson Clan's secret ploy was that most of the Aducs no longer cared about how much they could gain from this partnership. They just wanted the Larkinsons to heal their damned tree! Given all of the unpleasantries surrounding this deal, both sides decided to hold the signing ceremony in a more private setting. They had agreed to make the crucial step in one of the smaller formal ceremonial halls within the Green Dream. Neither side broadcasted the formal occasion nor invited too many dignitaries to witness this important event. There was no need to bring too many people. Any additional person presented one additional risk factor that could blow up the deal. Perhaps there were still plenty of Aducs that couldn't quite stomach this depressing outcome, but Matriarch Erexi Aduc and Kievenar Aduc were absolutely unwilling to accept any other alternatives! Ves grinned as he picked up the autopen and allowed it to draw a signature that was full of flair on the document. The matriarch of the Aduc Family followed suit with a plainer and cleaner signature. Their lawyers did the rest. They submitted the documents to the MTA in order to make everything official. "From now on, we are allies." Ves happily said. "You will not regret this decision. This will be the start of a fruitful cooperation between our two organizations. I hope that in the future, your Aduc Family will become a part of a new galactic order that propagates a better future for humanity." "Do you truly believe in that?" Matriarch Erexi asked with plenty of reserve in her voice. "Why do you sound so surprised? Our clan may be looking to secure a better future for our members, but much of our work is devoted to leading humanity to a better and more prosperous future. I have already shared what I seek to gain from the T Institute. As long as our cooperative venture gains full speed and is able to present one useful application after another, we shall both transform the landscape of the mech community and introduce many more mech pilots and non-mech pilots to the more extraordinary side of reality!"𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚 While Ves painted a grand vision of the future, the Aducs only became more afraid of what might come. They knew quite well that anyone who wished to alter the status quo of human society in any way would make a lot of enemies in the process! The more radical the changes, the greater the amount of interest groups that rose up in opposition! The few Aducs present in the hall shivered even more. What kind of pirate ship had they ended up boarding this time?! How far were these crazy Larkinsons willing to go to realize their grand ambitions!? "Don't worry. We know what we are doing." Ves tried to reassure his new partners and allies. "Humanity is already charting a new direction. The Crown Uprising and the opening of the Red Ocean are only the heralds of what is to come. It is no longer enough to keep your heads and hope that the coming storms will pass you by. The best way to ensure that you will be able to be among the winners in these future times is to be more proactive and fight for a greater place!" His ambitious attitude and his daring approach couldn't help but fascinate a few of the Aducs. They could no longer avoid becoming a part of the Larkinson Clan's great endeavors. Since that was the case, they might as well familiarize themselves with what their new allies wished to accomplish and see if they could play a useful role. Matriarch Erexi still maintained her cool, though. She did not show any obvious reaction towards any of the wild ideas of the Larkinsons. It was far from certain whether the Larkinson Clan would embark on all of these radical plans. If the Larkinsons and their band of misfits ended up provoking way too many enemies, the Aduc Family might be able to slip away without getting involved. This was because they chose to join the Open Consortium instead of becoming a part of the much more restrictive Golden Skull Alliance. Though both organizations were essentially led by the Larkinson Clan, there was a huge world of difference between the two! One of them was mostly a business alliance while the other was overwhelmingly a military alliance! As much as the Aducs accepted the necessity to get in bed with the Larkinsons, there was no way they wanted to get any closer than they had to. The Open Consortium formed a decent platform of cooperation with the Larkinson Clan, and differed from the Golden Skull Alliance in that it did not set any expectations for military cooperation! In other words, if the Larkinsons ever got beat up by a terrible opponent, the Aduc Family had no moral or legal obligation to send their own mech troops! This was the best that Ves could ask from the Aducs considering how they ended up at this junction. Even if the Larkinsons won over the Aducs without resorting to foul play, there was not that much value to obtaining the terraforming family's military aid. The Aducs only reluctantly maintained a security force and never prepared to take any offensive actions. Their ability to fight was limited to defending their expensive terraforming assets, yet in many cases they were forced to contract mercenaries in order to obtain adequate protection. Becoming a permanent member of the Open Consortium was the most suitable outcome all considered. The two leaders did not spend much time on light chatter. The hosts were already growing more and more impatient. Matriarch Erexi finally addressed the elephant in the room. "Are you ready to fulfill one of your promises, patriarch?" "I can begin to do so, yes. I will have to examine the new state of your Old Lady first before I devise a treatment and evolution plan. It will probably take a few days for me to begin the crucial operation." The Aducs reluctantly brought Ves and him alone into the Green Sanctum. This time, the Green Sanctum looked a lot different than before. After the Aducs realized that their precious Old Earth tree had likely suffered an attack without encountering any meaningful resistance, they rapidly upgraded the defensive measures of the Green Sanctum to prevent a possible repeat attack. The condition of the Old Lady had deteriorated so much that an extra disease might rapidly push her over! Extra energy shields, prefab metal shields and even a pair of mechs beefed up the defense of the precious tree! These were extravagant measures, but it showcased how much the Aduc Family cared for just a single tree! The extra defenses completely ruined the natural ambiance of the biome. Ves found that to be a shame as he liked how well the terraformers managed to simulate the environment of humanity's home planet. He wanted to tell them that he had no intentions of blasting the Old Lady with another dose of concentrated death energy, but he figured that the Aducs wouldn't appreciate that piece of news. Once they finally passed through all of the security checkpoints, they reached the low hill at the center where the Old Lady was trying her best to hold on to her remaining vitality. Ves inwardly winced at the sight. Compared to his first encounter with the precious tree, her second state was worse than he imagined! Her physical state already looked quite bad. She looked as if she spent a lot of years in a drought-laden desert while at the same time suffering from a number of nasty diseases. Half of her leaves had already fallen while the rest had grown so yellow and brittle that they were not far from dropping as well. As much as her physical condition looked distressing, her spiritual state was worse! The mysterious attack that completely wasn't launched by the Larkinson Clan not only drained or dissipated a huge amount of the Old Lady's accumulated spiritual energy, but also damaged her spiritual core in a way that broke her in a fundamental way! It would take a lot of effort to heal the cracks and address the trauma that she had suffered, but even then the Old Lady would always bear the scars of the attack. What was most distressing about the attack was that it also changed the proportions of her spiritual attributes, which effectively changed her domain! Previously, her domain consisted of a mix between the attributes of wood, life and earth. The Old Lady's wood attribute was the most prominent while her earth attribute was not as prominent. This time, it looked as if her spiritual makeup was upside down! Her wood attribute energy had dwindled until there was only a fraction left. She heavily drained her life attribute energy in her desperate attempt to negate the opposing attribute that was corroding her spirit. This left her earth attribute energy largely untouched. It was the most resistant element out of the three and it remained stiff even after the Old Lady suffered a lot of damage. Ves gained a lot of interesting insights from this observation. It turned out that death energy was not universally effective against other forms of spiritual energy. It made sense that it more easily negated wood and life energy. Unless these energies were more powerful than the opposing death energy, it was far too difficult for them to hold their ground. He was also able to confirm that earth energy was less susceptible to death energy. It clearly used to be the smallest main attribute of the Old Lady, but it had suddenly become the largest by virtue of its excellent elemental resistance against the power of death! This was the first time that Ves gained a proper introduction to the concepts of attribute restraint and resistance. Just knowing that he could take advantage of certain elements to more effectively defend against specific kinds of spiritual attacks was extremely useful for him to know! The change in the proportions of spiritual attributes was an unpleasant surprise to Ves, but not an insurmountable one. The new design spirit or ancestral spirit that he intended to make only utilized the Old Lady as a source of ingredients. As long as she retained a sufficient amount of wood energy and life energy, Ves had enough of a base to create a new and improved Old Lady! Perhaps he could even take advantage of the altered state of the oak tree to take a few creative liberties with his spiritual design! "Can you do it, Patriarch Larkinson?" The Aduc Matriarch asked. Ves nodded. "No problem. The process will be a bit more convoluted, but I can guarantee you that my success chance is still close to 100 percent. The only variable that you need to worry about is whether the reborn Old Lady closely matches her original nature. My methods are a bit imprecise. Don't worry. What I will make out of her will still be recognizable to your family." "Let us hope that will be the case."