Chapter 683

"This... is this for me?" Looking at those three big bags of grain, Aisilisi felt like she was dreaming. This was the first time someone who had been driven away had returned to offer her tribute.

Anthony was a bit stunned: "The first time? This is the first time? Has it never happened before? But your approach essentially continued the species of Void Elves, taking care of them through their most dangerous juvenile stage. Don't they appreciate you? Even if most don't, surely one or two would? Why is it the first time?"

"It is the first time, it hasn't happened before." Aisilisi didn't know why either.

"What did you say when you drove them away?" Anthony asked.

"I just said it directly: there isn't much grain left, I can't afford to raise you, leave on your own to find a new habitat, and so on," Aisilisi said.

Anthony was between laughter and tears: "Couldn't you have used a more tactful way of saying it? You could have said: 'You have grown up, it is time to leave the nest to experience the wind and rain, and grow into true Void Elves. I will pray for you here.'"

"Or perhaps: 'The Forbidden Land has fallen into disrepair and needs you to save it. Bringing back more supplies will strengthen the Forbidden Land and let more juvenile elves grow up healthily. The future of the Void Elves depends on you.'"

"If you want a closer connection, you can do it this way. If you don't want to take on too much responsibility, you can do it that way. With this and that, the entire Void Elf tribe would be tightly bound to you as one. Even if they left here, they would pray to you or offer tribute from time to time. Wouldn't the grain and soul flames come then?"

Anthony had never understood why a Lich who had lived for 300,000 years, had ignited a divine fire, and possessed a tribe of intelligent beings that might number 500,000, had divine power so weak that it couldn't even block one of Ang's punches. Now he finally understood.

Aisilisi listened, dumbfounded. It could be done like this?

Changing the way of saying it would indeed make the driven-away elves feel less resentment. At least after listening, she also felt that the Forbidden Land driving her away was for her own good, not because there wasn't enough food.

Seeing that she had taken it in, Anthony couldn't help but say a few more words: "With enough grain and soul flames, you have the ability to perform 'miracles' that are incredible to them but easy for you, strengthening their faith. Why would you need to use rotting tree monsters to scare them?"

"If you had the divine power of my master Ang, I could conquer a plane in less than a year and develop all the intelligent beings into believers of my master. Yet you spent hundreds of thousands of years and ended up like this." Anthony was "heartbroken."

Aisilisi was lectured until she was stunned, and finally asked shamefully: "Then what should I do now?"

"What to do? Of course, win them over with all your might! To be driven away so rudely by you and still think about coming back to offer you tribute, these are the most devout fanatics. Of course, you must win them over with all your might, give them everything you can, and then set them up as an example, telling others that they are the darlings of the Great Elf, and that offering tribute to the Great Elf may lead to obtaining all of this." Anthony was speechless. Did this even need to be asked?

But Aisilisi said distressingly: "I don't know what to do. I don't have anything to give them either."

Anthony held his forehead. It seemed it was too difficult to train a dead-brained creature of hundreds of thousands of years into a true deity. Sometimes a single divine scroll could make people throw themselves into danger, yet this dead-brained creature had lived for so many years in vain and couldn't even take anything out?

"Forget it, you stand aside. Lightning, Lightning, you come over." Anthony called out.

Lightning trotted over and asked cheekily: "What do you want with me, Lord Lightning?"

"Pretend to be an envoy of the God Tree. Can you pretend?" Anthony asked.

Lightning glanced at him sideways: "Are you looking down on me? Human, do you want to endure the wrath of thunder?"

Amidst the questioning, Lightning's single horn brewed electric light, with a feeling that it would strike if things didn't go well.

Anthony slapped his thigh and said: "That's the posture, it's too similar, just pretend like that."

Lightning immediately flicked its tongue proudly and asked cheekily: "It's similar, right? What's the reward for pretending well?"

Anthony smiled sinisterly: "You still want a reward? Alright, I'll ask the master to take back all the Life Fruits, dried beets, Titan massages, and so on, and reward you one by one after you complete the task. Do you want that?"

Lightning shook its head hurriedly: "No, no, it's my honor to serve the master, how can I want a reward? Watch how I fool them. To what extent should I fool them?"

Anthony said: "Make them acknowledge that you are the God Tree envoy, that the Great Elf is very satisfied with their tribute, ask them what difficulties they have, and then shout for the master to save them, showing them a miracle."

Lightning immediately rolled its eyes: "This is too easy, right? I'll just shout for the master to save them and show a miracle, and they'll believe whatever I say. There's no difficulty at all. You could just call any piece of wood to do it. Do you need me, Lord Lightning, to take action?"

While complaining that there was no difficulty, Lightning trotted over to the three elves. No one knew what it said, but the three elves didn't listen for long before they knelt down and kowtowed, their eyes filled with tears.

Aisilisi watched, stunned, and then turned back and asked incredulously: "What did that horse say? Why did so many soul flames appear on those three elves? Very intense soul flames."

Anthony spread his hands and said indifferently: "Whatever it said, it's just a basic operation. Lightning is best at cursing people; it's not very professional at fooling people, but it's enough."

The others were the same. Even Naigelis wasn't curious about what Lightning had said. If it couldn't even fool a few elves who hadn't seen much of the world, would it still be Lightning?

Just then, Lightning suddenly shouted loudly: "You have a devout heart, the God Tree protects you, dispelling all your pain, Master!"

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Lightning shouted for the master to save them, but the "save me" was shouted in its heart. Its single horn lit up with holy light and then touched one of the Void Elves.

That Void Elf opened her coat in shock, only to see a hideous wound healing rapidly.

The other two elves also saw this scene and were moved beyond words, kneeling down and kowtowing again.

Aisilisi continued to watch, dumbfounded, as waves of surging soul flames were cast toward her.

Naigelis quietly approached, nudged Anthony with its small elbow, and teased: "Didn't you say it had nothing to do with us? Then why are you doing this? We don't have time to stay here for too long, you know."

Anthony sighed: "If these few elves came to offer tribute with a heart of gratitude but received no feedback, they would probably be very disappointed. I am a kind-hearted person and cannot bear to see devout people disappointed. I'll help if I can, and try to get it done before the big cat recovers."

Naigelis looked at Anthony in surprise. It felt that Anthony's words seemed sincere and not just made up to fool it. Was it really just to not let devout people be disappointed?