Chapter 276
Chapter 276
Liu Ye continued driving. Whenever smoking vehicles blocked the road, the van avoided them by itself.
This convinced Liu Ye that his driving skills were incredible.
“Ma’am, I think I must have talent for driving. This is only my second time, but I’m already this good…”
Bang!
A tremendous crash sounded just after he finished. The van seemed to have struck something.
Liu Ye: “…”
Seeing his expression change, the two Fiends silently covered their mouths.
Liu Ye stormed out and discovered he had hit a tree.
Its trunk was about as thick as a bowl. More remarkably, its patterns formed what resembled a human face.
The Crash-Scam Fiend’s expression darkened at the sight.
It was a Fiend-Face Tree, a peculiar Fiend from the Inner World. Unlike Fiends such as them, it possessed no thoughts and acted solely on instinct, like a plant.
According to legend, one Fiend-Face Tree in the Inner World was as large as an entire country.
Its greatest danger was the seeds it released into the air. Any human or Fiend that touched them became nourishment, eventually turning into a new Fiend-Face Tree.
Despair filled the Crash-Scam Fiend’s face. The seeds were so tiny they were nearly invisible.
They had entered its territory and must already have inhaled them. The seeds would probably sprout soon. Even Liu Ye could not escape.
After all, there was no defense against seeds like these… Hm? What was he doing?
Liu Ye plucked a leaf from the tree, chewed it, and his eyes immediately lit up.
He returned to the van and pulled an ax from his bundle.
“Wait. What are you doing?”
“Cutting down the tree! Who planted trees on a main road? That’s wicked. But these leaves taste good. They’d make fragrant tea. Wait here, ma’am!”
Liu Ye hurried away, looking around for fear someone might compete with him.
He raised the ax and struck the tree.
“Aah!”
The Crash-Scam Fiend heard a scream. The grove of Fiend-Face Trees thrashed wildly. Their normally invisible seeds gathered into a layer of green mist surrounding Liu Ye.
It tried to parasitize him. But…
“Hm? Why does it feel easier to breathe?”
The air seemed fresher to Liu Ye. He felt more energetic, and his arms grew stronger.
After a moment, he realized the trees caused it. The more he chopped, the fresher the air became and the better he felt.
“This… This is good stuff!”
Liu Ye sped up. Soon, he had cleared every tree from the neighborhood.
He stripped the leaves for tea and the bark for medicine, then put every trunk into his bundle for firewood. As he finished, the surrounding fog thinned enough to reveal the road ahead.
Just as he was about to return to the van, a child appeared before him.
The child was astonishingly ugly. His head was pitted as if gnawed by a dog, and bloody marks covered his skin. With his bare bottom exposed, he glared fiercely at Liu Ye.
“Whose child are you? Where are your parents?”
“Give me back my trees!”
The child spoke tearfully.
Oh? So he had come to take advantage? Liu Ye knew someone would covet such valuable things.
If they truly belonged to him, why had he not stopped Liu Ye while he chopped them down? He only wanted to reap the rewards.
“You say they’re yours. Where’s your proof? Show me!”
The humanoid Fiend-Face Tree: “…”
“I planted all of them!”
“You planted them? Aren’t you impressive? Fine, even if you did, who can prove it?”
The child panted heavily. How could anyone be so shameless?
“All right, go home. Your parents will worry. It’s dangerous outside right now.”
Liu Ye turned to leave, but the child clung to his leg and cried,
“You can’t leave! Give me back my trees!”
Liu Ye: “…”
Smack, smack, smack…
Liu Ye laid him across his knee and soundly spanked his bare bottom.
The child wailed. Finally, he huddled on the ground, trembling and clutching his badly swollen rear.
When no family appeared, Liu Ye did not feel comfortable leaving him alone. The child was ugly and unpleasant, but a conscientious person could not abandon him there.
So Liu Ye tossed the child into the van.
The action terrified him. Liu Ye had eaten his seeds, cut down his trees, and beaten him. Was that still not enough? Did Liu Ye want to eat him too?
Only now did he realize how rashly he had shown himself. If the mighty King of the Fiend-Face Trees was eaten by a human, he would become the laughingstock of the entire Inner World.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking you to find your parents.”
The King of the Fiend-Face Trees: “…”
If he remembered correctly, human traffickers in the human world said exactly that to children.
Beside him, the Crash-Scam Fiend whispered to the towering Fiend,
“What did I tell you? Someone like him had to have a side business. Look…”
The towering Fiend nodded vigorously.
Liu Ye: “…”
Morals had truly declined. Why was someone as kind as him constantly misunderstood?
After careful thought, he concluded that declining morals were indeed responsible. Their evil hearts blinded them to the kindness of others.
Whenever someone did anything, they assumed it was meant to harm them. Yes, that had to be it.
But it did not matter. Brother Guiwa had said not to care about others’ opinions. He should remain steadfast and walk his own road. If he persisted, everyone would someday recognize his kindness…
Rumble!
The surrounding buildings suddenly collapsed.
Liu Ye: “…”
Shoddy construction! It had to be shoddy construction. Once this was over, he would report such conduct in the name of justice!
In the back seat, the three Fiends trembled as they watched Liu Ye’s shifting expression. Had they gone too far? Had they angered this lord? Did he think they knew too much and now intend to silence them?
The old, middle-aged, and young Fiends embraced one another and sobbed.