Chapter 337. Lord Stormrider’s Deal With The Life Tree.

Lord Stormrider slowly stood up. His body was hurting terribly, but at least it was getting better by the second. His mount approached and extended the beak to help him up. The movements were gentle and caring. Clearly, while it was a beast, the emotional intelligence was high enough to care for its master. Lord Stormrider smiled faintly and patted its beak. “Don’t worry. I am fine.” 

The words were uttered for both the Life Tree and his mount. After standing on two feet, Lord Stormrider looked toward the Life Tree and smiled. “How is it? Do you trust us now?”

The Life Tree was silent. Did she trust them? She did not. The wariness inside of her heart was too deep to dissipate with a simple show of sincerity. However, while she didn’t trust them, the Life Tree felt that doing a simple trade of materials was not too far-fetched. In her heart, she would love to be carefree and trust everyone. She wanted to care for those who approached her and not enter into any conflict. Yet, she knew reality. Once that bitter taste of reality had spread, getting rid of it was almost impossible.

After hesitating for a few minutes, the Life Tree finally spoke up. “I will let you trade, but 30 units is too much. At most, I can share five.”

Lord Stormrider didn’t show anything on his face, but internally, he was frowning. ‘That’s too little. However, right now, I should prioritize making a breakthrough. The Life Tree has her walls too high up and tight. Still, after poking a small hole, we can work on it and expand it to a spacious door.’

Thinking as such, he made no attempts to haggling with the Life Tree and accepted her terms. “Sure. We can start with five units.”

When the Life Tree heard the man accepting her proposal instead of trying to haggle with her, a sense of calmness slowly trickled into her tense heart. Feeling satisfied, the Life Tree stuttered a bit. “Y-You, it’s good that you understand! Thirty is just too much, after all! Yes, yes. Hehe.”

Lord Stormrider nodded and didn’t contradict her. He asked. “So, what do you think we should do?”

“Um. What do you mean?”

Being patient, Lord Stormrider spoke to the Life Tree with a smile. “How do you think we should do the exchange? What do you want to exchange for the five units of [Blossom Timber]? How do you want us to collect the [Blossom Timber]?”

The Life Tree’s intelligence was not too high, so the consecutive questions made her mind go for a spin. “W-Wait! Speak slowly! So many questions, who can answer all of them!?” Flustered, the Life Tree asked. “Can you start from the beginning?”

Lord Stormrider smiled somewhat wryly. ‘I didn’t expect the difference in intelligence between Life Trees and World Trees to be this large. Not to mention Liu Shu, Fortuna is several times sharper than this tree.’

He cleared his throat and began from the beginning once more. 

The conversation continued for a while, with Lord Stormrider patiently guiding the Life Tree and asking the right questions. Around four hours later, Lord Stormrider had all his questions answered and decided to return.

Outside of the Life Tree’s domain, the group was patiently waiting. While Lord Stormrider was taking a long time answering, they didn’t think that an unexpected accident had occurred. Even a violent Life Tree was not as dangerous as an average World Tree. Their nature was just too gentle.

Verena was resting against a tree with her eyes closed when she felt a faint wind blowing her hair. Opening her eyes and looking upward, Verena noticed Lord Stormrider landing in front of them with his mount. Liu Shu’s gentle and ethereal voice spread around like a soft blanket. “Uncle Stormrider, it is good that you are well! How did the negotiation go?”

Lord Stormrider nodded and smiled. “I’ve managed to make a deal to exchange five units of <Blossom Timber> for two <Resonant Berries>. The Life Tree wanted one for each unit of timber. However, that was clearly too expensive. Even two of them are too expensive as a trade. Still, for the sake of not breaking the small chance that I earned, I decided to take this loss. What do you think, Liu Shu?”

Liu Shu smiled. “That’s good! The importance of those five units is too high to be petty about it. Even if it wanted one for each, I would still exchange it.” Thinking about it, Liu Shu asked. “Uncle Stormrider, do you want to take charge of the future trades with the Life Tree? You’ve seemed to have hit it off.”

Lord Stormrider’s eyes shone with delight. The position of dealing with a plant-life of this level was always greatly valued in any Empire. Hence, even if Liu Shu grows in the future, having this one thing will always secure his position. Controlling his facial expression, Lord Stormrider gave a small bow. “Thank you, Liu Shu. I’ll make sure to make trades that favor both sides.”

“Great! That Life Tree seems to have suffered, so taking care of it is our responsibility. I wonder…” Liu Shu paused and glanced at Verena. “Verena, can we move the Life Tree?”

“Move the Life Tree?” Verena was surprised. “Why do you want to move the Life Tree?”

“This place is too far outside of my domain. If I want to envelop this place with my presence, I probably need to reach Level 50 myself. Once I reach the <Third Energy Cycle>, this area should be easy to control. Until then, several years are left. Hence, I was thinking that we could move the Life Tree to the White Flower Forest. There is no primary flora there.”

Verena chuckled. “Primary flora… Are you referring to World Trees and Life Trees?” 

Liu Shu giggled. “Isn’t it a nice label? I was initially thinking Primordial, but it somehow sounds too… imposing? I can’t really explain it, but I wouldn’t like to call myself Primordial!”

Harmonixia smiled widely. “As expected, my Liu Shu is the best, even when giving names.” Everyone else rolled their eyes.

Lord Stormrider brought everyone back onto topic. “I will be the one delivering the second fruit. I must use podding scissors to get the five units of [Blossom Timber], and I must do it myself. After that, I will need to give her healing salves. Completing these steps, I can take the timber away.”

Verena chuckled and glanced at him. “You really made yourself self-important with these steps. As expected of you, I must say.”

Lord Stormrider didn’t deny it. The people gathered were strong and intelligent enough to see through it. “I have indeed done so. However, only because I have the ability to do so. I would like to see all of you try to get hit by that Life Tree once. I thought I’d die.”

Wert burst into laughter. “Brother Stormrider, did you really get hit?”

Lord Stormrider humphed. “Straight to the chest. Try to guess how much damage she did with just the physical attack.”

Wert hummed and commented. “Since you are so upset, it must’ve been a heavy hit. Two hundred thousand!”

“Heh.” Lord Stormrider sneered. “Add one million to that number so that you are closer to the value.”

Everyone listening was stupefied. If the sturdy body of a Third Energy Cycle received so much damage, wouldn’t the Life Tree be able to one-shot people below Level 50 with relative ease?”

That fact was slightly scary, but thinking that the owner of such strength was a Life Tree, they felt better. Liu Shu asked curiously. “Has she told you why she is so wary of everyone?”

Lord Stormrider shook his head. “I’ll get answers eventually. But until then, I’d rather not push the matter. Anyway, I am going to go inside and do what I was asked to do.”

Verena asked him. “Do we wait, or are you going to return with your flying mount after the fact?”

After giving it a thought, he shook his head. “It’s safer to return with all of you. While I don’t mind flying out of this place, we are in the <Wall Forest>. There can always be ugly surprises that put me at risk.”

Verena clicked her tongue and answered rather exaggeratedly. “Yes, Your Majesty. Since you are afraid, we shall wait and grab you by the hand when you return.”

The man rolled his eyes and mounted the Stormbird once more, flying into the Life Tree’s domain. Liu Shu sighed and grumbled. “I couldn’t convince the Life Tree without using my auras to suppress her. Isn’t that a failure as a World Tree?”

Wert chuckled. “Only you do things as complicated as getting the other party’s consent. If it were another World Tree, they would’ve already started tearing apart the Life Tree’s outer roots.”

Liu Shu humphed. “Fortuna and Lakeborn were taken in by speaking to them! I will always do it that way!”

Verena asked with curiosity. “And if you can’t? Will you force them to submit or eliminate them altogether?”

Liu Shu snorted. “What do I do with flora that doesn’t want to submit? Kill a few and submit the rest! These rebellious World Trees will be the same. If I find an annoying one, it will naturally be eliminated.”

The rest clicked their tongues. ‘As expected, World Trees are not creatures you can easily mess with.’

Six hours later, Lord Stormrider returned, carrying a large stack of branches. This tree was not of the Willow Family, so he just needed to prune five main branches. When he arrived, he saw a few corpses of beasts lying in the surroundings. “Hmm? Did we have company?”

Verena snorted. “We’ve been outside and at the same place for almost an entire day. Naturally, some beasts will catch onto our scent and presence.” Looking at the large branches, Verena smiled. “Still, it seems that it was worth it.”

Lord Stormrider nodded. “Five [Blossom Timber] from a Level 63 Life Tree. Their quality goes without saying.”

Liu Shu giggled. “I wonder how the Temple will be affected?”

Harmonixia asked, curious. “Do your structures get affected by different materials?”

“Of course! Isn’t that normal?”

“Not at all.” Harmonixia laughed. “I’ve met a few World Trees that can also build houses with their skills. However, those trees need to follow a very strict mix of materials. Any deviation, and the building collapses.”

“I see!” Liu Shu was not that interested, so she didn’t ask further. 

The branches made it back to the city without problems since anyone who wanted to cause trouble was in for a rude awakening. The bandits were literally unqualified even to challenge. Verena, Lord Stormrider, Liu Shu, and other very powerful people. The fauna and flora of the <Wall Forest> were also not too complicated to deal with because they were on the outskirts. 

Liu Shu looked at the materials being settled in her <Lignified Vault> and felt a sense of anticipation. “Finally, I’ll start building the temple and complete the mission!”

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