Chapter 657: The Strange Tree and the Mad Sheep

"How much?" He couldn't afford it if it was too expensive.

"I'll give it to you to use." Fang Canran looked at the chain and said, "Back then, I heard from the seller that there are no more than five of these treasures in existence. You'll use it well, won't you?"

Understood. Fang Canran's meaning was that since He Lingchuan couldn't afford it anyway, he might as well give it away for free.

After all, the mission was the priority; making money was secondary.

"Of course," He Lingchuan said earnestly. "By the way, is there any news about the Frost Pill?"

"Several teams have already returned from the Fu Realm, but they didn't bring back any Frost Pills." Fang Canran reached into his robes and took out an object. "But I did manage to get this."

At first glance, He Lingchuan thought what he had taken out was a piece of glass or crystal, transparent and colorless.

"Is this glazed glass?"

"You're missing a word." Fang Canran handed it to him. "This is the Glazed Gold you wanted. Shine it against the light during the day, and the edges will faintly shimmer with gold. By the way, what are you using it for?"

"You actually managed to get it!" He Lingchuan took it with great joy, seeing that it was about the size of a whole roof tile, irregular in shape, and about an inch thick. He had no idea what kind of magic treasure or building it had been dismantled from.

"The eye of the Spirit-Gathering Array is a magic treasure, and the material used is basically Glazed Gold. I have to find a way to break the Glazed Gold to get inside."

Fang Canran flicked his finger against the Glazed Gold twice. "Just that simple?"

"At that time, there will also be a thunder prohibition on the outer shell of the Glazed Gold."

"The Heavenly Gods are truly shameless. The prohibitions they laid down on Mount Xu are layer upon layer, endless."

Was Fang Canran speaking from experience? He Lingchuan smiled; who doesn't like stacking buffs?

Fang Canran sighed. "I don't have high hopes for you. I just hope you won't sell me out after you're captured."

"Rest assured. However, what benefit does my action actually have for Manager Fang?"

Fang Canran smiled slightly. "If you stir up chaos on Mount Xu, I will be deeply grateful."

The next morning, in a residence on Xiangmai Street in the main district of the Lower City of Lingxu.

The weather today was unusually warm. The servants got up as soon as the sky brightened, working while yawning.

This three-acre residence had just changed owners, and the servants had basically all been kept on. The new owner was a fur merchant from out of town who had struggled in Lingxu City for fifteen years before saving enough money to pay the deposit, with the remainder borrowed from a bank, to be paid off in ten years.

Having one's own house in Lingxu City was a tremendous honor.

But the servants were having a hard time because the new mistress of the house was a bit too demanding.

She couldn't tolerate a speck of dust in her eyes, complained that the cook's wages were too high while the food tasted mediocre, and complained that the steward spent too much money when shopping, claiming the goods weren't worth the price.

Of course, what she scolded most fiercely was the servants for being lazy and not working, so she liked to supervise the work in person.

The helper, A-Qing, had heard her complaining to her husband last night: "These poor ghosts, lazy bones—if you don't keep a close eye on them, they won't work properly!"

The fur merchant didn't care about such trifles: "Scold them a little less, or we'll have to hire people all over again!"

"You don't understand. We have to establish our authority as soon as we move in, to let these cheapskates know who the master is! So they don't think we're easy to fool or bully!"

Her husband looked at her sideways: "Who could bully you?"

At dawn, before the masters had risen, the birds in the big tree in the backyard were chirping incessantly.

This oak tree was two hundred years old, lush and leafy, with dozens of bird nests in its canopy. Birds of all sizes quarreled every day over territorial disputes.

The new owner hated them and demanded that the oak canopy be sawed off; the servants couldn't bear to do it, so they hadn't taken action yet.

When A-Qing told the others what she had overheard last night, all the servants were very angry. Someone spat on the ground: "Her family started out doing small-time business; she did all these chores herself every day. How is it that now that she's the mistress, she loves to stand with her hands on her hips and boss people around?"

"What do you know? If she doesn't put on airs, how can she show she's nobler than us?" The cook, sitting in the back picking vegetables, didn't even look up. "I heard the storyteller at Gui Tower say that when a servant becomes a master, they are even more like a master than a real master."

Everyone laughed; these words were truly satisfying to hear.

"The old master was so good; he didn't even appear twice a year." And there weren't so many demands.

Someone said: "The old master wasn't from our Lingxu City; it seems he was particularly short of money recently."

The cook said to A-Qing again: "Didn't the mistress tell you to clear out the old things yesterday? If you don't do it, she'll come to scold you again in a while."

After this residence changed hands, the things left behind by the previous owner were all moved to an empty side room, waiting to be sorted and disposed of.

The new mistress couldn't bear to throw everything away; everything in Lingxu City was expensive, and they were still carrying a debt of forty thousand taels themselves. Oh no, in ten years it would be fifty-five thousand taels.

Lingxu City was a place that was truly prosperous, but it was also truly bloodsucking.

A-Qing curled her lip and stood up, walked to the empty side room in the back, and came out holding several drawers after a while.

Inside were all sorts of odds and ends, of no value whatsoever. She had to throw them away quickly to avoid "wasting the mistress's time."

Passing under the old oak tree, A-Qing suddenly heard a burst of noisy, shrill bird cries. Before she could see what was happening, two balls of feathers slammed into her face:

It turned out to be a red-billed blue magpie and a cuckoo fighting fiercely, from the tree down to the ground, using both sharp beaks and sharp claws.

It was probably the cuckoo trying to borrow the nest to lay eggs, only to be discovered by the magpie, which chased it and gave it a fierce beating.

A-Qing was unfortunately caught in the crossfire, her face stinging for a moment, and she didn't know how many times she had been pecked. Fortunately, she closed her eyes in time, otherwise, her eyeballs might have been scratched out.

Startled, she screamed and raised her hands to block.

The drawers were flung away, and the bottles and jars inside smashed against the tree roots, shattering with a few clangs.

The two fighting birds flew away noisily. Others gathered around and asked: "Are you okay?"

A-Qing was still shaken, her face scratched with a few cuts, but fortunately, the wounds weren't deep.

She looked at the drawers on the ground and cursed "damn birds"; she still had to clean up the mess.

However, before she could bend down, the ground two feet away suddenly moved, and something drilled out, long and thick.

She jumped back in fright, thinking there was a snake underground, but when she looked closely, it was actually a tree root? But this tree root was also rapidly thickening and lengthening, growing in all directions, and sprouting one huge tumor after another.

A-Qing screamed and fled backward.

It was fortunate she ran fast, because the change in the trunk was the most terrifying:

One huge branch after another broke out of the trunk, growing into new trunks within a dozen breaths, repeating the cycle over and over.

"Master, Master..." A-Qing pointed at the fur merchant's main building, her voice trembling.

The large tree was also growing horizontally. It was originally not far from the master and mistress's bedroom, and as it grew sideways, the sturdy building was quickly crushed.

Everyone heard inhuman screams coming from inside.

Save them? Or not?

Several long-term laborers had the heart to help, but they truly lacked the courage to approach the mutated giant tree.

After just a few breaths, the entire small building was crushed as if it had entered a millstone, and the screaming vanished.

The witnesses all turned and fled; no one dared to linger.

By the time they escaped to the main gate and looked back, everyone was dumbfounded: this old tree had turned into a rather bloated and fat wooden lump, not only reaching an astonishing height of ten zhang, but also five zhang in width.

The birds' home was destroyed, and they chirped and screamed in terror, which could be heard from three or five miles away.

With people screaming, birds chirping, and houses collapsing, it was far too noisy.

This was a bustling downtown area, and neighbors came out one after another to see. They originally wanted to complain a bit, but upon seeing the strange sight, their words stuck in their throats, unable to come out.

The strange tree continued to grow, beginning to advance toward the neighbors' homes.

Neighbors came over aggressively to ask what was going on, and A Qing and the others were also full of confusion. Someone shouted angrily: "Where is your master? Call them out to talk!" Prepare to pay until you're bankrupt! "They're dead." A Qing pointed at the strange tree, "The building was pushed over by it, and the master and mistress are both inside."

"......"

After such a strange incident occurred, the servants ran quickly to report to the authorities.

However, at this very moment, several screams also came from the neighbor's house, and several people rushed out the door, shouting: "The sheep is eating people, run!"

Before everyone could figure out what was happening, a hole was smashed into the courtyard wall with a bang, and a massive figure charged toward the onlookers.

This was a sheep, or rather, it used to be a sheep.

But its body size was now comparable to the wild ox demon He Lingchuan had seen in the Hanhe camp; its muscles were bulging and protruding, and all its veins were raised.

A huge lump on its neck was growing, and with a "pop," it exploded.

Everyone thought it was about to die, but who knew that a second head had grown out!

This sheep's eyes were blood-red, and blood was also spurting from its nose, yet it carried a pair of sharp horns, goring people everywhere.

It is worth mentioning that these sharp horns were originally only a short section, round and blunt, but now they were a foot long and spiraled, with tips like awls. A single gore into a person meant two bloody holes! A young man who was slow to escape was gored by it, the sharp horns entering from the back and exiting the front, piercing him through.

The giant sheep threw him against the wall with a smack, and he slid down, leaving the wall covered in blood.

It did not stop and continued to hunt down others.

The crowd scattered like birds and beasts, and the residents closed their doors tightly. But the wooden doors couldn't stop this brute; it could smash them to pieces with a bang and charge in to start a massacre! After it killed seven people in a row, two bear demons rushed out from nearby, wanting to join forces to subdue it.

Who knew this thing had terrifying strength; even the bear demons were knocked down.

It rampaged through two streets before the government office sent people rushing over.

But the expected bloody battle did not occur, because after this sheep demon pushed over a row of courtyard walls, it suddenly fell to the ground without warning, twitching all over.

The tumors and blood vessels on its body burst one after another, and after a dozen breaths, it breathed its last.

What the government officials saw was the chaos of two streets and the mess all over the ground.

There was blood everywhere, destroyed buildings everywhere, and a strange tree not far away.

This morning, Xiangmaijie was thoroughly lively.

The government office immediately summoned the relevant people for questioning. The neighbor said that after the old oak tree mutated, the sheep demon in the house was foolish enough to go over and take a bite of the leaves.

(End of chapter)