"We don't have enough available forces in the Chi Ban Market…Besides, you were not our member back then, and neither did you let our Chi Ban Mountain force know about the fact that you were hunting for the first time." Song Gu quickly gave the explanation.
"Back then, we only had less than a hundred members gathered in the Chi Ban Market… with this little force, even if they…"
Song Gu attempted do a further explain, but Dragon Pool swung his arm in the air and interrupted him, said, "But my friends, who came to rescue me, there were only four of them. And they are four human kids, but at last, they saved me."
Dragon Pool bent his enormous body forward. His pair of green flame eyes were blazing ragingly in his deeply hollowed eye sockets, that bright green light even lit a big half of the woods up. He stared at that cypress, which now was a replication of Song Gu, then said with a deep yet resonant voice, "They didn't know that I was hunted by bad people either, but they came to me timely. They fought against powerful enemies, they saved me!"
Slapping hard on his own, tree-trunk chest, Dragon Pool continued in that muffled voice, "They are human beings, not of my own kind. But they have a treeman imprint, they are all my friends. Being with them, I feel good."
"Not good!" Song Gu growled in a deep voice, "A treeman should be with the other treemen. We are spirit creatures, while they are human beings. They are not the same kind as us, they will do no good to you but use you… they will never treat you as real friend!"
Song Gu's replication, the cypress reached a branch towards Dragon Pool, tightly hooked Dragon Pool's body and said, "Dragon Pool, join us, come under my command… I will protect you… not only you, I will also protect your friend. We can protect you, and we will never use you, never harm you!"
"Hm!" Dragon Pool snorted, letting out a heavy and frosty breath, and responded, "Under your command?! No!"
Every treeman was a spirit creature of nature. Whether young treemen or elderly treemen, they should be equal beings; they were the children of the forest, produced and nourished by nature itself. They rooted in soil, absorbing the sunlight, starlight, rain and frost, lightheartedly growing.
The yearning for freedom was the most instinctive spirit imprinted in the deepest area of every treeman's heart. Song Gu wanted Dragon Pool to come under his command, how could that even be possible?
Slowly turning around, Dragon Pool then began leaving with big steps. While walking, he murmured, "I like to be with Ji Hao, Man Man, and the other two…especially Man Man, she always remind me of this big cat when he was a little kitten."
Dragon Pool gently knocked the head of the giant leopard with a branch, gave a simple and honest grin, then continued, "As for the others, I don't like them too much. But I like those four little kids. I like to be with them."
"You will be so regretful!" Song Gu roared in anger. Next, he thrust out a few branches, tightly and violently wrapped Dragon Pool around.
The big leopard instantly growled out, he then swung his sharp claws and ripped those branches apart. After that, the leopard showed his shining teeth and let a huge sphere of fiery smoke out of his mouth. Tree bark of Song Gu's replication, that cypress, instantly started burning, and soon, the cypress was entirely turned into an enormous torch.
Tens of thousands of miles away was a thriving, primitive forest. This forest, which had extended for nearly ten-thousand miles, was a rare, infrequent big-scale forest area in this Chi Ban Mountain area, which had quite low vegetation coverage.
In the core area of this forest, tens of over hundred zhang tall treemen had been standing in a circle. Entire bodies of these treemen had been releasing a strong sense of power. At this moment, they were breathing heavily and quickly, while looking at that three-hundred zhang tall, iron-bone dragon-skin pine, who was surrounded in the middle. This thick and thriving ancient tree with luxuriant foliage was Song Gu's real body.
"Bastard! How dare they attack my replication!" Song Gu yelled and bashed his gigantic hand, which looked nothing different from human hands, heavily against the ground.
Boom! The forest vibrated intensely along with a thunderous boom. Countless tall trees shook while innumerable flowers and grass quivered. Dark-green power streams spurted out from all surrounding plants' bodies, swiftly dashing across the air, like the sharpest blades.
"That little one, who showed up abruptly, has rejected my kind invitation." Song Gu put his hand down and said in a deep voice, "Damn it. Those few idiots who met him in the mountain area and told him about the Chi Ban Market, I will dig their eyeballs out."
"How could they didn't recognize that Dragon Pool, how could they not know that he is actually a purple grain dragon sandalwood?! Unforgivable!" Song Gu complained, "We are so many in number, but most of us are ordinary pines or cypresses, willows; our bodies are way too ordinary, can barely make any big achievement."
Song Gu then slowly opened his eyes. That pair of dazzling flame-eyes had been swiftly rotating inside his eye sockets, like two spheres of blazing liquid iron. Song Gu snorted coldly and said, "Purple grain dragon sandalwood…not to mention how valuable his myron an fruits are…"
"But all I want are his myron and fruits." said a cold, silvery voice that came from Song Gu's head. On top of Song Gu's tree-crown, and on a tiny branch, a magnificently beautiful phoenix, whose body was covered in multicolored, shining feathers, was quietly standing there.
Those breathtakingly beautiful feathers slightly shock and next, that phoenix transformed into the phoenix girl, who had talked to the dragon-kind leader in the Chi Ban Market.
Standing on Song Gu's branch, she lowered her head, looking at those treemen, who were standing in a circle, and said seriously, "His myron and fruits are not too useful to the humankind, but to our phoenix-kind, those were extremely valuable treasures."
"But he is now with the humankind!" Song Gu complained, "Feng Qi, although I am…"
"You're the king of all treemen of this Chi Ban Mountain area and all surrounding areas!" Feng Qi interrupted Song Gu's words and said, "But you have to understand, if wasn't for the protection of our phoenix-kind, you would have been captured by those non-humankind and turned into an unconscious battle puppet by them, like the other captured treemen. You would have become a bonded walking corpse."
"Therefore, you have to find a way and get me that little one." Feng Qi smiled, looking at Song Gu and said, "Our phoenix-kind don't like using violence, we prefer to solve problems with our wisdom. Look at those idiots who like using violence, all of them were kicked back, horns were broken and beards were ripped off; but look at me, I am perfectly unharmed, and here I am still talking to you."
"Wisdom?" Song Gu popped out his flame-eyes and murmured. Even though he was the king of all treemen, Song Gu couldn't possibly figure out a plan to deal with Dragon Pool with his wisdom.
Looking at Song Gu, who seemed to be troubled quite seriously, Feng Qi helplessly sighed, then took out a yellow-colored piece of soil.
"Tell Dragon Pool, if he is willing to join you, you would give him a piece of natural soil essence, a genuine treasure that can allow him to grow faster and improve rapidly." Feng Qi said slowly while fiddling with this piece of soil with her hands. The soil piece had been releasing a dense sense of earth power. "Tell him, if he agreed to join you, he could be your deputy commander, and you would also give him a tree-heart, that belonged to the ancient Green God."
Song Gu looked at Feng Qi in shock, and said, "Is he even worth this much?!"
Song Gu was so jealous of Dragon Pool, to an extreme degree.
"To our phoenix kind, a purple grain dragon sandalwood does worth this much." Feng Qi sighed slightly and continued, "It's such a shame, such a big shame. We didn't even know that this Chi Ban Mountain area has such a treasure hidden in here, otherwise, we would made our move long ago."
Tens of thousands of miles away, that burning cypress, Song Gu's replication, said again in a muffled voice, "Dragon Pool, you can have a piece of natural soil essence, and be my deputy commander, the second king of all treeman in this Chi Ban Mountain area and all surrounding areas."
"Abandon the humankind and return to us, I will also give you a tree-heart that belonged to the ancient Green God." Song Gu yelled with an obvious, great jealousy.