Chapter 1337

Those familiar with Anthony all know that when speaking with this old charlatan, one must be twelve times more alert, because his words are riddled with traps; one careless moment and you'll be taken in, just like now.

He knows full well that when the Strange Tree spoke of leaving this place, it wasn't just referring to the few of them, but more importantly, the Lord of Stars who had been smashing it into a state of panic with a constant *bang-bang-bang*. Yet, Anthony naturally ignored this point, and his reasoning was quite sound: "How could that guy be one of us when he's so strong?"

The Strange Tree was internally receptive to this logic. Ang is strong and can anchor its consciousness to the location of its main body; the Undead Monarch is also strong, and it didn't even dare to entertain the thought of fighting him. It is difficult for two equally powerful existences to be in the same camp, as neither would submit to the other.

However, it still had a faint feeling of being deceived. But Anthony quickly added, "He isn't here for you; he was lured over by another Star Skeleton." The Strange Tree was instantly enlightened.

That's what it thought! The Undead Monarch had never been to this place before, so why was he able to find its location so accurately? So it was him—the King of Empress Feilie!

The King of Empress Feilie was also an existence it dared not provoke. Of course, it lacked the guts to provoke him openly, but it had plenty of courage to provoke him quietly. Upon discovering that the King of Empress Feilie's subordinates included many Undead Dragon-men, it specifically targeted the Undead Dragon-men, even occupying the ancestral cemetery of the Dragon-men.

If Ang hadn't arrived, these Dragon-men might have truly been driven to extinction by it.

It considered itself to have never provoked the King of Empress Feilie head-on, so why would the King of Empress Feilie lure monsters toward its territory?

You see, some people think that if they play little tricks quietly, others can only play little tricks quietly too. It's not like playing house; the King of Empress Feilie didn't finish it off purely because it was hiding too deeply.

Since the King of Empress Feilie was luring monsters toward it, it shouldn't be blamed for revealing his location. Thinking of this, the Strange Tree said, "The King of Empress Feilie is hiding in the core of the Abyss."

"Pfft..." Anthony and Negris burst out laughing. "Why do you think the King of Empress Feilie lured us toward you? Because we smashed his home in the Abyss core, that's why he ran away. If you don't have the location of his other hiding spots, then forget it. You pay the compensation for the harm done to the Dragon-men, and we will leave. You'll have to deal with the Lord of Stars yourself."

The Strange Tree was silent for a while, then said, "The Dragon race has the problem of stuck eggs. I can solve this problem and increase the Dragon race's fertility rate."

"No need. You don't think we can't even solve the problem of stuck eggs, do you?" Anthony refused.

Negris was even more dismissive: "It wouldn't be by using your method on this dragon egg, would it? If so, I'd rather the Dragon race just went extinct."

The Strange Tree fell silent again, and only after a long while did it say, "I'll send a batch of small trees over for you to kill."

"You..." Negris was so angry he didn't know what to say. "Do you take us for fools? Not to mention the difficulty of breeding plants and animals, your Strange Tree-men are all puppets. What is the point of sending them over to be killed?"

"They aren't Strange Tree-men; they are this kind." After saying this, the Strange Tree opened its mouth wide, making a gesture of spitting something out. Before long, a fruit shell was spat out.

The fruit shell opened, and a very beautiful tree-man sat blankly inside, looking around at its surroundings, at a loss.

Tree-men are generally hard to describe as beautiful. They have thick, rough skin, messy appearances, and ferocious faces; some even grow moss and are slimy. For example, that chatterbox Na Geer, with a height of over a hundred meters, gave a very oppressive feeling. Its bark was hard and thick, and wrinkled like a centuries-old dry corpse; no matter how you looked at it, it had nothing to do with beauty.

The small tree seedling grew very beautifully, but the small tree seedling was not a tree-man; it was just a mimetic sprout. Its main body was the World-Supporting Divine Tree, which looked similar to the main body of a small tree-man, and also had nothing to do with beauty.

But this tree-man was truly beautiful. Its whole body was verdant, plump, and smooth, just like some kind of jade. Small flowers grew on its head, as if it were wearing a floral crown. Its size was also small, about the size of a kitten, and coupled with its blank expression, it was extremely cute.

Intelligent creatures are generally "visual" creatures; they develop a favorable impression at a glance of things that conform to their aesthetics. However, Anthony and Negris still looked toward Ang.

Some things cannot be judged by their appearance. Ang had the ability to see through the appearance of others and determine whether they posed a threat.

Looking at this beautiful small tree-man, Ang neither nodded nor shook his head, but tilted his head instead.

On the contrary, the Star of the Azure God subconsciously let out an "Eh."

Anthony turned to the Star of the Azure God, who nodded: "I recognize it."

"Alright then." Anthony looked at the Strange Tree and said, "We'll take it. For every Dragon-man of ours you killed, you will compensate us with two of these tree-men."

"Two times?" The Strange Tree was stunned. "I don't have that many tree-men."

Anthony had probed out something else: this Strange Tree actually remembered how many Dragon-men it had killed?

"Then how many of these tree-men do you have?" Anthony asked.

"Six hundred and thirty-one," the Strange Tree said.

"Good, send them over. Once we get them, we will leave. Do we need to sign a contract or something?" Anthony asked.

The Strange Tree's several small eyes looked Anthony up and down, and a look of contempt appeared at the corner of its mouth.

Without saying anything, the Strange Tree opened its big mouth and spat out fruit shells one after another. Very quickly, it had spat out six hundred and thirty-one fruit shells.

Ang's group also kept their word, leaving behind a sentence: "Handle the Star Skeleton yourself; we're leaving."

Then, they took the six hundred and thirty-two tree-men and left the Silent Dead Sea.

As soon as they left the Silent Dead Sea, Negris couldn't help but ask, "Old Star, you recognize them? What kind of tree-men are they?"

The Star of the Azure God sighed: "Children of my Guardian Tree."

"Your Guardian Tree? The World-Supporting Divine Tree? How could its children fall into the hands of the Strange Tree?" Anthony asked.

The Star of the Azure God said helplessly, "How would I know? After the Guardian Tree withered, my connection with them was severed. After so many years, it surprises me that they are still alive."

It was mainly because it didn't pay attention. The giant tree was dead; who would care where its leaves fell? It didn't expect to run into them here, and to have them used by the Strange Tree as compensation, given to enemies to kill for fun.

"You don't know anything." Negris rolled his eyes in annoyance and turned to Anthony, asking, "And you, why does it feel like your negotiation went so smoothly? Is it trying to set you up? Letting us walk away with the compensation without signing any contract? What if we turn around and don't honor it?"

Anthony shook his head: "I'm also puzzled. It doesn't seem to care whether we keep our word or not; it only hopes that we leave that place quickly."

"Ah? Then we're still leaving? Not staying to see what kind of conspiracy it's plotting?" Negris said anxiously.

"If we don't leave, it might not plot anything. We have to leave for it to plot. My lord has already left a mark, and His Majesty is already rushing over," Anthony said.

(End of chapter)