Chapter 75: The Fountain of Life (Summoning Recommendation Tickets)

  As expected, those tree people not only did not attack, but instead retreated step by step with a heavy and slow pace. However... what was frightening was that behind them, more trees emerged from the snowy ground amidst buzzing sounds, transforming into living creatures...

  Du Wei only felt a chill run down his spine as he gazed out at the vast expanse of forest before him. Within his line of sight, all the trees were pulling out their roots, shaking off the accumulated snow, and then, like a group of stiff wooden puppets, they seemed to be closing in on him...

  "Heavens... how much is this going to cost?!" Dathanil sighed.

  "Who knows! This is a forest! How big is the ice-sealed forest? How many trees are there here? One million? Two million? Dammit...!" Du Wei cursed: "But why aren't they attacking? Instead, they're surrounding us, as if waiting for something..."

  Indeed, these trees are indeed waiting.

  Soon, a dull and heavy footsteps came from afar, Du Wei could feel the heavy vibrations on the ground!

  Suddenly, a road opened up in the midst of the dense forest, and a massive creature slowly emerged from the trees with a low hum.

  Du Wei's first impression was: This guy is really freaking huge!

  If other tree people are like giants... then that biggest one is a giant among giants!

  Judging from the height, this thing is at least as tall as a seven or eight-story building! Its trunk is black and hard, with old tree bark that looks like it's covered in rust. The branches and leaves on its body are extremely lush, and when it moves, all the branches and leaves make a rustling sound...

  Du Wei noticed that this largest tree person... in terms of appearance, is the closest to the shape of a "person"!

  Because of its roots, it has clearly divided into two forks, like a person's two legs, and the trunk on the body is also clearly divided into a shape similar to the English letter "Y", with the branches on both sides resembling two big hands! The branches that fork out from above are like fingers.

  Du Wei saw that in the "hand" of this giant tree man, on his fingers, a large round object was hanging with dense and lush vines entwined around it. From its shape...it seemed to be a...

  Bugle call! ?

  What surprised Du Wei even more was that on the trunk of this big tree, there seemed to be a "face"!

  That sharp protrusion, as if a nose, and below the nose, there is a horizontal mouth that is slightly open. The two sides of the mouth are thickened with curled up tree bark, just like lips...

  All the other tree people, as if they were all afraid of this big guy, retreated to its back... It seems that it might be the leader of the tree people, Du Wei thought so.

  "...You..." The leader of the tree people let out a voice that was almost thick and low, although it was very awkward, but Du Wei could barely recognize that this was human language...

  Good grief! It can actually speak the common language of the Roland continent?

  "You... why... slaughter... my... companions..." Each word echoed in the forest, with a long tail sound, and the thick low voice carried an angry tone.

  Du Wei plucked up his courage and exposed himself outside the rock, looking at this big guy, shouting loudly: "It was you who attacked us first!!"

  "You... haven't... kept... your... promise!!" The leader of the Tree People was furious, its crown quivering with rage: "Evil Eye Tyrant, you promised that every ten years we would be allowed to send someone into the canyon once!"

  Its voice seemed to be questioning: "Today! Is... ten years... of... appointment day! Why... you... want to... massacre... my... tribe people at... the mouth of the valley?! Are... evil eye tyrant, going to... start again... war with... us... Tree People?!"

  Ten years? Appointment day? Evil eye king? War?

  Du Wei immediately understood... This is probably a misunderstanding.

  Just as the leader of the Tree People was about to erupt in anger, Du Wei immediately stood up straight and shouted loudly: "Wait a minute! Can I ask a question first?"

  The leader of the Tree People looked at Du Wei.

  Du Wei took a deep breath and smiled with the most amiable tone he could muster: "Excuse me, but what's this 'Evil Eye Tyrant' you're talking about? I've never heard of it."

  As soon as this was said, the Tree People and the three humans all fell silent. Fortunately, those Tree People didn't have eyes, or it would definitely be a wonderful scene of "big eyes staring at small eyes".

  "Are you...not...underlings of the Evil Eye King?"

  "No. I've never heard of that name."

  "What...are...you?"

  Du Wei jumped out from behind the rock, spread his arms and looked himself up and down before grinning: "Do I need to ask? We're human! Haven't you ever seen a human before?"

  The leader of the tree people was silent for a while, his thick legs took a few steps forward, and then his massive body slightly bent down, the treetop also pressed down, as if carefully sizing up Du Wei for a moment. After that, the leader of the tree people straightened up again, with a hint of joy in his tone:

  "Oh! You... are... human! I... remember... humans... a long, long time ago... a human friend taught me to speak..."

  Du Wei let out a sigh of relief, but the tree person leader, although dull-witted, was not stupid. The joy in his tone suddenly turned to anger: "But... you... hurt... my... companions!!"

  "It was your companion who attacked us first." Du Wei seemed to have made up his mind that these tree people were easy to bully: "We were standing here just fine, and then your companion appeared and started attacking us with stones."

  "Hmm..." The leader of the Tree People let out a thoughtful sigh, as if he was thinking deeply. Then he said loudly, "Alright... it's... my... companion... first..."

  His slow speech was really unbearable for Du Wei, so he took the lead and said: "In that case, can we leave now?"

  "...Compensation!!!"

  Compensation?

  Du Wei was stunned... How to compensate for the 70 or 80 tree people that Hussein had scattered? How to compensate? With gold coins? Good heavens, what use do tree people have for gold coins?

  Must one pay with his life?

  Cut down a few trees and you want to sentence them to death? What kind of logic is that?!

  Moreover, no matter how you put it, Du Wei felt that he was the one who was in the right. After all, the three of them were standing there innocently, and it was these tree people who had thrown stones at them first - stones that could smash a person into pulp. Then, their side had only counterattacked in self-defense... Were the three humans supposed to just stand there and let themselves be beaten to death by a group of trees?

  However, it is clear that reasoning with this dull and stubborn tree man is futile.

  Du Wei thought for a moment and remembered what the guy had said before, he immediately had an idea.

  "Respected Tree Person, may I ask, what's this about the Evil Eye King you mentioned earlier? And...I heard you mention...war?"

  ……

  The Tree Man is not a qualified narrator, his slow and low voice is like the kind of old-fashioned and severely scratched record player that Du Wei had seen in his past life. A simple matter, he dragged on until sunset before barely making things clear.

  Similar to Du Wei's guess:

  On this land, if the Tree People's leader is to be believed, the entire Icebound Forest belongs to the domain of the Tree People... This statement made Du Wei think that he was bragging. Because Du Wei had been in this forest for many days, and before that, he had never seen a tree that could survive.

  Tree Person Leader - Oh, by the way, this clumsy big fellow introduced himself, and he has a name that suits his identity: Wood. (Duvie: WOOD???)

  In Wood's words, it was born on this land, lived on this land, and is a standard, pure-blooded Tree Person - as for whether Tree People also have something called "bloodlines", Du Wei doesn't care. But Wood's words revealed two messages that Du Wei found very interesting:

  First of all, the numerous tree people standing in front... are not real tree people. The only true tree person is Wood alone. Wood claims that it is also the last remaining member of the Tree People tribe on this land. As for its companions by its side, they were awakened by the horn wrapped with vines in its hand as "companions".

  Du Wei guessed that the so-called companion probably meant "subordinate".

  That horn has a name that Du Wei finds quite fantastical: "Nature's Horn". This is the treeman tribe's heirloom, passed down through generations. When blown, it can awaken the surrounding trees, turning them into companions that listen to one's commands.

  The inheritance of the Tree People was also a surprise for Du Wei. They had no distinction between sexes, and their inheritance was also through "natural horn".

  Roughly speaking, the way is: using natural horn to wake up "companions" who have no intelligence and self-awareness at first, they will only act according to the true tree person's command, simple actions.

  "But why did they attack us?" Du Wei asked.

  Old Wood's answer made Du Wei feel regretful: because the evil Evil Eye Tyrant had been harming this forest, all the trees hated that guy, and everyone thought that the three humans standing at the entrance of the valley were the Evil Eye Tyrant's subordinates... Forgive these tree people "companions" who didn't understand how to distinguish between humans.

  The awakened "companions" initially had little self-awareness, but as the years passed, they would slowly cultivate self-awareness - and only a very small probability, a very small part of them could develop self-awareness. At that time, they could become real "tree people", rather than being "companions" in Wood's mouth.

  Originally, in this forest, according to Wood's words, there were only a few real Tree People. The number was not many, probably around three or five. Tree People had always been a sparse population - err, this statement made Duwei feel very helpless, obviously there were trees everywhere here, but those who could become real Tree People were really too few. The vast majority could only stay at the level of unconscious "companions".

  In the original three to five tree people, Wood was the oldest. According to Old Wood's words, they lived happily in this forest, and they had no natural enemies... because neither monsters nor anything else would pose a threat to them.

  Until that day...

  This "beautiful, harmonious" (Old Wood's words) place was invaded by an evil and powerful being called "Evil Eye Tyrant", which brutally plundered the most precious treasure of the Tree People: this valley!

  Although this forest is infinitely vast, this small canyon is the most indispensable thing for the Tree People!

  Because... in this canyon, there is a treasure that determines whether the Tree People can be passed down from generation to generation! Unfortunately, that treasure has been taken over by the evil Evil Eye Tyrant!

  Unfortunately, when the angry Treant tribe came to reason with this evil guy along with their "companions", this guy's strength caused heavy losses for the Treants. The Evil Eye Tyrant possessed powerful magical abilities and even brutally killed some of Wood's tribesmen! Originally, there were three to five true Treants, but now only Wood was left. Those few others had been killed by the Evil Eye Tyrant, who also used their bodies to build his own palace right in this canyon.

  Enraged Wood sounded the Nature's Horn, gathering a large number of companions to attack the valley, but the powerful Evil Eye Tyrant was too strong for the Tree People to defeat. The evil and powerful being could even use magic to command the demonic beasts around the nearby valleys! Even corpses and spirits crawled out from underground! Faced with these monsters, Wood lost many, many "companions".

  Fortunately, this is a forest, and Wood can summon endless "companions" to come out. The evil eye tyrant also has some scruples. In the end, under the stalemate, both sides barely reached an agreement: ceasefire.

  Wudu asked for the return of this valley, but Xie Yan Bao Jun disagreed. In the end, an agreement was reached between the two parties that every ten years, a tree person would be allowed to enter the valley once.

  "What's actually in the canyon?" After hearing this story, Du Wei was most interested in this.

  "Life... is a spring!" Old Wood replied.