Law of the Devil

Sure enough, the Treants did not attack. Instead, they slowly retreated backwards by taking heavy individual steps. Instead of relief, something much more terrifying was happening further behind them. The oscillating sound in the air was awakening even more trees, turning the gigantic bodies into living creatures….

Du-Wei could only shivers from looking at the large tracts of forest in front of him. Within his eyes could see, all the trees are pulling out their roots from the ground and shaking off any clinging snow and ice on them. Like puppets, the dull looking Treants were coming over to surround them……

“My God…… How many do they have?” Dadaneier sighed.

“God knows…… This is a forest, how big is the frozen forest? How many trees are there? 100,000 trees? 200,000? Hell……”Du-Wei cursed, “But why didn’t they attack instead of standing there? What are they waiting for……”

Indeed, these Treants are waiting for something.

Soon, a heavy tremor like foot step sound was coming closer from further away. Du-Wei could even feel a heavy oscillation on the ground. Suddenly, the large group of Treants separated apart and formed an opening like a road. A gigantic being was walking in a low speed towards them within the crowd of trees.

Du-Wei’s first impression was “This thing is so fucking BIG!”

If the other Treants were considered giants….. Then this guy is a giant among giants.

From Du-Wei’s visual assessment, this thing is at least seven to eight-stories-high. The whole body torso was dark and hard, covered in dry and old bark, it was like rusty metal. As it walked, the branches produced a rustling sound due to the lush foliage on its body.

Du-Wei noticed, this biggest tree in appearance was very close to a “human” because its roots has been clearly divided into two branch forks like that of a person’s leg. As for its body’s trunk, it was clearly like that of the English letter “Y” shape and the side branches were forked out like a human’s finger.

Du-Wei saw the Treants “hand”, on the finger hung a large round vine shape thing…… As if it was a horn?

The most surprising thing was actually on the trunk of the tree; there is a “face”!

There’s a sharp bump like that of a nose, below it was an opening curving sideways. The bark around that area was very thick, like that of a lip….

All other Treants acted as if they are afraid of this big guy, putting themselves up behind it. “Seems like this guy is the leader of the Treants.” Du-Wei thought.

“Y-o-u….” This chief of the Treants sent out a rich and deep voice, although very jerky, Du-Wei still managed to make out the words of the human language……

Heck, it could actually speak the common language of the Roland continent?

“What… Is… Your… Reason… To… Kill… My… Companions…” The sound of each word echoed in the forest while the deep and rich voice still carried the taste of anger.

Du-Wei steeled his nerve and ventured out of the rock cover. Watching the big guy, he shouted. “It was you who attacked us first!”

“You … … Did … … Not… … Follow … … The … … Agreement!” The Treant leader was very angry, even the tree Crown was shaking. Evil … … Eye … … Tyrant … … Promised … … … … Each … … Ten years … … Will … … Allow … … Us … … To … … Enter … … The … … Valley … … One time … … !”

It sounds as if they are interrogating him. “Today is … The … Ten years … … … … Agreement date, why … Do … You want to … … Massacre … … My … … Tribal men … …. At … The Canyon … … Entrance? Can it be … … Evil Eye Tyrant … … Again … Want… To … Stir up … … War … … With … … … … The … … Treants!”

Ten years? Agreement date? Evil Eye Tyrant? War?

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

Seeing the leader of the Treants about to start raging, Du-Wei immediately stood up straight and shouted. “Wait, can I ask a question?”

The Treant Leader looked at Du-Wei.

Du-Wei took a deep breath and then laughed in the mildest tone. “Excuse me, you said the Evil Eye Tyrant, what is it? I’m not familiar with such a thing.”

Once said, the Treants and the three men were silent. Luckily the Treants had no eyes, or else it would have been a wonderful “wide eyes staring scene.

“You … Are … Not … Men’s … Of … The … Evil Eye Tyrant?”

“No, I’ve never heard of this name.” Du-Wei replied.

“That … … You … … Is … … I’m sorry?”

Du-Wei jumped out from behind the rock with open arms. Then, with a smile, he tidied his body before speaking. ”You have to ask? We’re humans; you’ve never seen a human?”

The Treant leader was silent for a while before taking a few steps forward with its sturdy and thick legs, then bending its body slightly down to carefully inspect Du-Wei. After a moment, the Treant leader once again stood up straight and spoke with a hint of joy in its voice. “Oh, you … … Are … … Human! I … … Remember … … Humans … … From a long time … … Ago … … A … … Human … … Friend … … Taught … … Me … … Speech……”

The Treant leader may be slow, but from the tone of its voice, Du-Wei could tell it was not stupid. In a quick turnaround, the Treant leader’s voice changed from joy, back to anger as it spoke. “But … … You … … Hurt … … My … … Companion!”

“It was your companions who attacked us first.” Du-Wei seemed to believe the Treants could be easily bullied, “We were just standing here. Then your allies appeared and started throwing stones at us.”

“Hmmm … …” The Treant leader muttered some low sounding words, seemingly in thought. Afterwards, it cried out in a loud voice, “Very well … … It … … was … My … Companions … … First … …”

His slow speaking style caused Du-Wei to feel impatient and annoyed. “In that case, can we go now?”

“No … …” The Treant leader was inadequate in his word, but soon found the most suitable words to express his meaning. “Compensation!!”

Compensation? Du-Wei thought and thought… … Compensation for the seventy to eighty Treants that were blown into pieces by Hussein? How or what can he compensate with? With gold coins? But what would a Treant need gold for?

Do we have to pay life with life? Chop down a few trees and we get sentenced to death? Where in the world is there such logic?

Anyways, no matter how Du-Wei thought about it, he felt his side was in the right. After all, their group was just standing here before the Treants appeared. Without provocation, the Treants first started throwing huge stones capable of mashing a person to death. They only retaliated in self-defense….. How can they just stand here and let the group of Treants kill them?

However, it is clear, the slow and stubborn Treant leader was not speaking logical and fair. Du-Wei spent a moment in thought and recalled the topic from before. Immediately, Du-Wei had an idea. “Dear Treant Sir. Excuse me, did you say Evil Eye Tyrant, could you explain what is going on? I heard you mention war?”

……

The Treant is not an eligible and qualified speaker. Its slow and deep voice was like the old fashioned folks from Du-Wei’s past life. These kinds of folks could cause a simple and short subject to take so long that the sun would go down before making things clear.

Du-Wei speculated.

From the Treant leader’s word, this land and the whole frozen forest territory belonged to the Treant tribe. This knowledge made him think the Treant leader was only bragging because they have already been in the forest for a few days and he has never seen a tree able to survive in this place.

Oh, by the way, the heavy guy introduced himself and it had a name that is commensurate with its status, “Greenwood.”

In Greenwood’s words, it was born in this land, living in this land; it is a standard and pure Treant.

Du-Wei did not care whether there is any so-called “pedigree” in the Treants lineage, but what Greenwood (Treant Leader) said did intrigue him.

First of all, the large groups of Treants standing in front of them are not real Treants. The only real Treant is Greenwood and he claimed the only real Treant left on this land was him. As for the companions around him, they were all awakened by the horn wrapped around his tree vine hand.

Du-Wei speculated that the so-called companions actually mean subordinates.

The horn’s name “natural horn”, gave Du-Wei a magical sense of feeling. The heirloom of the Treants, passed on from generation to generation. Once blown, the horns sound will awaken all the surrounding trees and make them into “Companions” that will wait for commands.

And the Treants tribal heritage surprised Du-Wei. They had no gender distinctions, and their heritage was through the “natural horn.”

The probable case is using the “natural Horn” to awaken the “Companions” at the beginning with no intelligence or self-awareness. At this stage, they would only act by the orders of the real Treant and perform only simple actions.

“But why did they attack us?” Du-Wei questioned.

Old Greenwood’s answer to Du-Wei’s question made him regret asking. The Evil Eye Tyrant has been destroying the forest, so the trees all hated this guy, and they all thought the three of you stationed at the valley entrance were subordinates of the Evil Eye Tyrant. They are not able to distinguish what is a human….. So forgive these non-consciousness Treants?

When first awakened, a Treant wouldn’t have any self-consciousness. In a small chance, with years of growth, they will slowly develop self-consciousness. Such occurrences are very rare and only a small number of “Companions” would truly become a real “Treant”.

According to what he said, there was originally a few real Treant in this forest. The numbers of this tribal race wasn’t much, only around 3 to 5. The saying that Treants are a sparsely populated race, made Du-Wei feel helpless and annoyed. There are clearly trees everywhere, but the numbers that could truly become real Treants are simply too little. Most of these will forever remain in the stage of lacking self-awareness.

Originally out of the 3 to 5 Treants, Greenwood was the oldest. According to his words, they have been happily living in this forest because they had no natural enemies. Whether it was magical beasts, or simply something else entirely, they were no threat to them.

Until one day…..

A power and evil existence came to this “beautiful, harmonious” place. (Old Greenwood’s words) That guy is called “evil eye tyrant”, he robbed the most valuable asset belonging to the Treants and that is this Canyon!

Although this forest has an infinite expanse of land, this small Canyon is indispensable to the Treant race!

Because… … In this Canyon, there is an heirloom treasure related to the Treant family, passed on from one generation to the next. It is a pity that this treasure has been confiscated by the Evil Eye Tyrant.

What’s more maddening is that when the angry Treants came with their “Companions” to find the evil guy and argue with him, the Evil Eye Tyrant used his strong magical powers to kill Old Greenwoods peers. Out of the original 3 to 5 real Treants, only one was left and the rest was killed by the Evil Eye tyrant. What’s even worse was that this guy used the body remains to erect his own palace inside this very Canyon.

Angry Old Greenwood blew the “natural Horn” and gathered a large number of his “Companions” together in an attack on the Canyon, but the Treants weren’t able to win against the powerful Evil Eye Tyrant. The strong presence of this evil used his magic to drive around the magical beasts in the Canyon! Even undead ghouls and spirits would crawl out from the ground! Faced with such monsters, Old Greenwood lost many of his “Companions”.

Fortunately, this is the forest, and Old Greenwood can call forth an endless number of “Companions”. No matter what, the Evil Eye Tyrant still had a doubt of hesitation. Finally, under a stalemate, the two sides managed to reach a truce agreement.

Old Greenwood requested the return of the Canyon, but the Evil Eye Tyrant refused. Finally, under the agreement by both sides, the Treants will be allowed to enter the Canyon once each ten years.

“What is there at the end of the Canyon?” Du-Wei was even more interested in this after listening to the story.

“The Fountain of…. Life” Old Greenwood replied, “Source….. of the Treant race’s continuation!”