Chapter 556: Pledge Allegiance, I See Through Your “Performance”!
The process of meeting the ent’s king was much more straightforward than Su Mo had imagined.
There were neither overwhelming security checkpoints like in a TV series when meeting the emperor nor brainless villains doing stupid things.
The whole process was as the ent had described their nature as.
They desired peace and harmony within the world.
Zhu Ling’s voice sounded gentle. Zhu Xia nodded respectfully and stepped forward to open the door.
“Our guests, please come this way!” He waved at Sun Di and the others.
Sun Di took the lead, and the group of five did not linger around any longer, quickly stepping into the small building.
With the pure natural decoration, the exterior of the building looked as gentle as a water town in the south of Huaxia.
Inside, it had become an expo garden of various plants.
Various vines bloomed with beautiful flowers, climbed up on the pillar of the stable building until they reached the top, and then hung down naturally, sprinkling the air with bursts of floral fragrance.
“Welcome, honored guests from the Heavenly Court!”
As the previous voice spoke again, the plans seemed to have been given life and began to move.
It took three to five seconds to reveal the obscured scene.
Behind a simple desk that seemed similar to a study or office desk sat a handsome-looking ent.
There were splendid buds on his branches, and his main trunk was embedded with dazzling emeralds.
Even if every branch of his was scattered and faced the ground, it could not hide his brilliance.
The most eye-catching thing was the crown on the top of his head, which was made of golden plants that sparkled breathtakingly.
This was a very elegant and very fashionable ent.
The moment he saw Zhu Ling, Su Ma unconsciously came to this conclusion.
Unlike the towering ents seen in the holographic letter, although the current Zhu Ling had become a few times smaller, his temperament remained the same.
Any creature that came in close contact with him would inevitably feel close to him.
“Lord of the ents, Zhu Ling. My name is Sun Di, and I am under the command of Su Mo, the human lord of the Heavenly Court.
“It is an honor for you to spare us some time from your busy schedule!”
Sun Di took two steps forward, stretched out his right hand, and clasped the branch tightly.
It was exactly the same as what Su Mo had predicted in his plans. Zhu Ling did not despise him and gave him really good treatment, even though he was an ordinary human being.
A few exchanges of flattery and the two easily opened up a more intimate conversation.
Su Mo listened carefully to the conversation between the two for a while and noticed that Sun Di was completely capable of dealing with Zhu Ling’s overwhelming questions. He felt assured and focused his attention on summoning the system.
According to the rules that he had previously figured out before, an item without ownership rights or creatures whose life level had yet reached a certain level could not be analyzed by the system’s properties panel.
However, this rule was not applicable in every situation.
Su Mo gave it a try and started the first analysis on Zhu Ling, the king of the ents, who sat behind the desk talking eloquently.
Whoosh!
The green light derived from the system and shot toward the ground wildly covered in plants, gradually tracing toward Zhu Ling’s foot. The light circled around him and quickly returned back to the system.
‘Hmm? It might’ve worked?’
Seeing that the light had a different reaction when returning from an unsuccessful scan, Su Mo took a deep breath and quickly suppressed the joy in his heart.
The next moment, a detailed attribute panel was revealed as the flash of light returned.
[King of the Ancient Ents – Zhu Ling (Lord)]
[Description: This is a strange creature from plant planet number B-31. Compared to ordinary plants, the trunk of this strange creature has blood similar to that of a normal being, thus giving them the ability to think, detach from the ground and move around freely on the ground.]
[Age of tree: 39 years old]
[Height of tree: Reduced form: 1.82 meters; Normal form: 19 meters; Peak form: 29 meters]
[Widsom level: 119 (analogous to human IQ)]
[Companion plant: Golden Thread Spirea (A plant with simple IQ, which can be freely woven into various forms such as armor, weapons, etc.)]
[Special Ability:]
Lord’s Wisdom (After becoming the ents’ lord, IQ will increase by 10 points)
Plant Affinity (The unique biological characteristics increase the chances of gaining other creatures’ favor when in contact)
Vitality (The tree body will absorb the nutrients from the land and heal all damage and wounds when rooted in the land.)
[Weakness:]
Fire (Ents have a natural fear of fire similar to an ordinary plant. Once they catch fire, their strength will drop by 50% and above)
Cold (When the temperature drops below -30 degrees, the ents have to be rooted in the ground to maintain blood flow. Otherwiseise, there will be a risk of blood-freezing and death.)
Physical Attack (Blood flows from the trunk of the ents, which gives them extraordinary magic power but also becomes their weakness. Once their trunk is severely damaged, they will likely die due to heavy bleeding.)
[Evaluation: Wisdom is a double-edged sword. While bringing creativity, it also takes away the body’s power!]
The attributes of Zhu Ling, the ents’ king, were not exceptional and a little bit inferior compared to the God he met.
Moreover, after focusing on a few key data, Su Mo’s heart let his guard down.
The ents with a height of more than 300 meters in the holographic projection were indeed fake. He used some unknown means to shock and fool his allies.
Right now, even though his peak height was nearly 30 meters, every move was terrifying, like a giant.
However, these three weaknesses had severely restricted his capabilities, so the ent’s combat power was weakened by at least 70%!
‘It’s no wonder these ents that stood ten meters tall seemed to be amazing in combat but never took the initiative to launch an attack first. Instead, they formed an alliance against others under the slogan of peace.
‘Even if they were to win the war after a battle, it’s likely most of them won’t even survive!
‘It wasn’t worth it to fight!’
Su Mo came to the conclusion and had a slight understanding of why these ents invited the humans to enter the territory to develop together.
The current weakness of the ents could be overcome.
Once these towering ents wore heavy armor to protect the weaker parts of their bodies, it would basically be difficult to break through their defense without a certain level of attack power.
Their fear of fire could also be solved by carrying high-power fire extinguishers in battle. They could quickly reduce the damage caused by flames.
They could also have more auxiliary companion plants if they could induce artificial plant mutations. The strength of the ents would also increase by leaps and bounds.
‘Wait. In that case…’
Su Mo closed the attribute panel and focused his attention on listening to the conversation happening behind the desk.
After the initial stage of the first interaction, the human and tree no longer had their precious courtesy and began to discuss specifics.
Zhu Ling had an IQ of 119 which was the starting point of highly intelligent people. However, it did not mean that his intelligence was the same of humans.
Sun Di simply tested the waters, and Zhu Ling was already anxious.
“Mr. Sun, I’ve already expressed my sincerity to cooperate with the Heavenly Court. The ancient ents are very sincere in working with humans.
“Zhu Chuan had already made it clear to us the benefits of the heavenly fruits when he returned last time. We believe that once a long-term cooperative contract is established, the ents will become the eternal ally of Heavenly Court and humankind!”
“Since Lord Su Mo trusts you enough to send you here, you shouldn’t delay the decision of the agreement between us. What do you think about it?”
Sun Di pushed aside the specific details about the trade again and changed the topic to the impact on the surrounding situation after the alliance was formed between the two parties.
Zhu Ling could not suppress his sense of urgency and directly threw out his urgent needs.
This time, Sun Di could not drag it out anymore, so he continued the conversation.
“What would you like to trade in exchange for the heavenly fruit?”
“Rice leaves!
“We’ll provide two hundred people’s worth of rice leaves in exchange for one heavenly fruit!
“We could also use other rare plant resources in the ents’ territory. We’ll give you 10,000 rice leaves and several kinds of fruits that can improve one’s physical fitness if you can sign the agreement on behalf of Lord Su Mo!”
Zhu Ling seemed to be familiar with the twists and indirect turns of humans when negotiating, so he stated his requirement and provided a considerable amount in exchange!
A heavenly fruit could be exchanged for 200 servings of rice leaves. It could basically feed a person for 27 years, and the extra rare fruits were enough to make people feel excited!
“You’re very generous!
“You sure are very generous, Lord Zhu Ling.”
Seeing that Zhu Ling had put his pawns on the table and Sun Di on a fence, Su Mo immediately smiled and stepped out of the group.
“Hmm? Who is this?”
“I’m the supervisor of this mission. Lord Zhu Ling can address me as Hou Liangping.”
Su Mo casually threw out a name and watched as Zhu Ling’s expression flashed with a hint of uncertainty.
“There is no need for Lord Zhuling to use such low-level tactics to deceive us. Although our Heavenly Court does not have many resources right now, we have enough to eat. What’s more, if he takes these things and Lord Su Mo finds out, it wouldn’t be carried out even if we signed the agreement.”
“It seems that I’ve lacked consideration. The subordinates of Lord Su Mo are indeed different from other humans,” Zhu Ling replied after hearing this.
“However…the agreement is not impossible.”
“Oh?”
Seeing Su Mo’s confidence and the way he cut straight to the point, unlike Sun Di who kept changing the topic, Zhu Ling was immediately interested and tapped the ground twice with a brach, summoning another wooden chair across the table.
Meanwhile, Sun Di did not have any discontent, quickly stood up and returned to the group.
Su Mo sat down and leaned back.
“Assuming Lord Zhu Ling has some knowledge of the habits and traditions of our human beings, I will not beat around the bush.
“There won’t be a problem with trade, and even caravans won’t be a problem. Our territories should definitely communicate with each other.
“However, according to Lord Su Mo’s request, he is willing to trade heavenly fruits for rice leaves, but it cannot be the lowest grade rice leaves. It has to be at least… dark green!”
Whoa!
Hearing the first half of the sentence, Zhu Ling nodded happily, but after the second half, when the word “dark green” came out, his expression was suffocated and rose from the ground with huge momentum.
As the foundation of the ent’s lives, the grades of rice leaves were not a major secret, but it was not information that ordinary people would be able to obtain.
He immediately suspected that Zhu Chuan had leaked the information to them and given the opponent a handle.
He glanced at Su Mo’s smiling face and could only temporarily suppress his thoughts, loudly replying to his request.
“I don’t know how Lord Su Mo learned about dark green rice leaves, the fundamental source…”
“That’s not nice, Lord Zhu Ling. You’re being rather disrespectful. As allies, there is nothing wrong with having secrets, but to deceive your allies like this is wrong!
“The grades of your rice leaves are divided into…
“Don’t worry. The news didn’t come from your territory, but our Lord Su Mo obtained it through other means.”
Su Mo stopped Zhu Ling from replying and gave a full explanation of the different classification and attributes of the rice leaves.
“Even if you wanted to exchange the dark green rice leaves now, I’m afraid we won’t agree…”
“Are you toying with me?”
Zhu Ling realized that he had been deceived by Su Mo and stood up abruptly, his branches and leaves spread out in the air like a net, giving off the feeling of being captured.
His tyrannical aura on him before increased to a higher level.
At the same time, there were footsteps outside the hut, making people shudder.
In the face of this sudden burst of suppression, Sun Di, who had just stepped down, was fine. Apart from his pale face, he was able to maintain his composure.
However, the other villagers trembled in fear, obviously taken aback by the situation.
“No, no, no. Lord Zhu Ling, you’ve misunderstood my words. Although we are allies, there was a reason to exchange our family backgrounds as soon as we met, right?
“What’s more, our territory lord not only possesses good things like the heavenly fruit, but we also have a lot of things that would benefit the ents!”
Looking at Zhu Ling’s face the whole time, Su Mo was completely unbothered by the sudden scene.
Su Mo’s voice calmed Zhu Ling, who burst with a suppressing aura and sat back again as if nothing had happened.
‘The countless capable people in the Heavenly Court were much stronger than normal humans!’
It was not a pleasant feeling to have your cards read by your opponent.
After realizing that Su Mo knew that it was absolutely impossible that he would attack and had already understood his real bottom line, Zhu Ling stopped pretending and said calmly:
“Tell me what Lord Su Mo had to say!”
“First, the purpose of our cooperation is for the two territories to forge communication between ourselves, fight against the surrounding enemies, and become stronger, so before the official agreement, we need to train to pledge allegiance!”
“Pledge allegiance?”
“Yes. Words are empty without action. A simple trade could easily be broken with a single poke. Once the enemy really attacks, it is inevitable that there will be contradictions in our cooperation, so we need to join forces to attack the enemy once. The enemy can be the Light Empire, Demon clan, or the dwarves.
“In short, we need the outside territories to know the ents and Heavenly Court are allies, and that we would have each other’s back when the other is in trouble!”
Zhu Ling also began to think about Su Mo’s well-founded remarks after hearing the serious words.
After a while, he nodded.
“Yes, there’s no problem with agreeing to this requirement. As the original intention of our cooperation, we need to pledge allegiance to ensure successful cooperation!
“We could use the opportunity to witness the opponent’s strength!”
“Very well. Since Lord Zhu Ling agrees, then we shall decide our trade cooperation after this battle to pledge our allegiance!” said Su Mo.
“We need rice leaves, and we need other plants as well.
“In addition to the heavenly fruit, our territory has other things that the ents will need.”
“Oh? For example?” asked Zhu Ling.
“For example, Lord Zhu Ling, your companion plant, the Golden Thread Spirea, we have induced it to become strong and have more abilities!”
Boom!
It was different from the feigned act of anger that Zhu Ling put on previously.
This time, when he heard the words “Golden Thread Spirea,” he was stunned, and then he directly revealed a murderous intent.
The sudden revelation of this information exceeded his bottom line, so his intention of killing the people in front of him was triggered.
However, he gave it a thought for a second.
He reluctantly sat back on the chair again, and the murderous aura completely dissipated.
“Could you tell me how Lord Su Mo got this information?”
“Oh? Does Lord Zhu Ling think Lord Su Mo doesn’t have to know?”
Su Mo was instantly thrilled and laughed gently as he watched Zhu Ling pretend to not comprehend and stunned expression after being replied with a question.
“What do you think, Lord Zhu Ling? Are you interested in the further details of our cooperation?”
“Am I in a position to say no?”
Zhu Ling glanced at the disguised face of Su Mo and stretched out his branches, waving away the table in front of them.
“Since Lord Su Mo already knows so much, it’s useless to hide it.
“Let’s go. Before our alliance is established, I’ll take you to see the true heritage of the ancient ents!”