Chapter 2337 The Gap
As for why Fang Heng focused solely on the Wood tribe…
On one hand, it was to consolidate strength, but more importantly, it was to stoke friction between the Wood tribe and the Leaf tribe.
Moreover, Fang Heng was more eager now to meet with the Root tribe.
The Federation had dealings with all four major tribes, including the tree spirits, using spatial ores for material exchanges.
Compared to the other two tribes, cooperation with the Root tribe has been relatively pleasant.
In the dense forest of the Inner World’ agreed upon in advance, Fang Heng met with the Wood tribe elder, Pavao.
A few days earlier, upon hearing that Fang Heng needed branches from the sacred tree, the Root tribe had expressed a desire to meet Fang Heng in person and discuss cooperation.
“Fang Heng.”
Pavao saw the figure emerge from the forest and looked cautiously around.
A few days earlier, the Wood and Leaf tribes clashed heavily, reportedly due to someone using the power of pollution to destroy their carefully cultivated sacred tree saplings.
The Wood tribe insisted that the Leaf tribe was manipulating everything from behind the scenes, while the Leaf tribe claimed that their sacred tree saplings had also been destroyed.
They pushed the blame onto the Human Federation.
The conflict escalated between the two tribes, resulting in casualties among several elders, until the Soul tribe intervened to temporarily halt the dispute.
It was not until the Great Elder of the Soul tribe confirmed through a special secret method that the sacred tree saplings of both the Wood and Leaf tribes had been destroyed that the Wood tribe reluctantly began to show some trust in the Leaf tribe, willing to listen to their explanation.
In summary, the Wood tribe believed that this incident was inseparable from the actions of the Leaf tribe.
Perhaps, to put it another way, it was initially a conspiracy by the Leaf tribe, but somehow, they ended up losing a lot as well.
Anyway, the two despairing clans had completely lost their eligibility to compete for the next leader of the Tree Spirit Tribe, and they must face the dilemma of a significant overall decline in clan strength.
Currently, Fang Heng was the key to unraveling the entire mystery of the incident.
Therefore, the entire tree spirit tribe was searching for Fang Heng.
Due to the involvement of pollution in the incident, the tree spirit tribe had to handle it cautiously.
“I came alone,” Fang Heng said to Pavao, asking, “It’s just a simple cooperative transaction. There’s no need to be so cautious and arrange a meeting in such a ghostly place, right?”
“Now the entire tree spirit tribe is looking for you, and we prefer not to have too close contact with you. We hope you can understand,” Pavao nodded at Fang Heng and continued, “I’m curious. You’re willing to trade five branches of the sacred tree for three of ours, clearly taking a loss. What’s the reason?”
“No reason, just call it a hobby of mine.”
During this period, he also tested that after the dimensional energy of the world was depleted, it could indeed slowly recover on its own, but the recovery rate was too slow to be almost negligible.
So he simply had Carl and the Federation spread the word and see if other tribes were willing to trade.
After all, the branches of the sacred tree were real. The only issue was a minor glitch in the world they were transported into.
Pavao didn’t believe Fang Heng’s explanation. He saw his hesitation, and didn’t push it, only saying, “Our Root tribe wants to use your strength to help us secure the position of inheriting the leadership of the tree spirit tribe.”
The Root tribe’s thinking was clear: no matter how the process went, the result was that the Leaf and Wood tribes, who were less than fond of Fang Heng, were now defeated, leaving only his tribe and the Soul tribe to vie for leadership of the next tribe.
The Soul tribe had relied on the inheritance of the previous generation and if they were able to smooth over the differences between the Wood and Leaf tribes and help them take revenge on Fang Heng, the Wood and Leaf tribes were likely to defer to the Soul tribe.
At that time, they would only be the Root tribe.
Three against one? That’s a joke!
Might as well surrender early.
Therefore, what the Soul tribe needs to do, the Root tribe must find a way to stop.
After much thought, taking advantage of the relatively stable trade between the Federation and them, they seized the opportunity to strive for cooperation with Fang Heng, utilizing his strength to restrain and deal with the three major tribes.
At the very least, don’t let the three major tribes easily take down Fang Heng.
To the Root tribe, Fang Heng’s ability to manipulate the Wood tribe and the Leaf tribe into this state was probably largely due to luck, but his capability was undoubtedly there.
The challenge was that Fang Heng was extremely difficult to control, and reportedly had a voracious appetite.
Pavao’s visit this time was to try and see if he could persuade Fang Heng to cooperate.
“Not a bad proposal.”
Fang Heng shrugged, putting on a casual demeanor while inwardly chuckling.
Help the Root tribe become leaders?
Perhaps the Root tribe didn’t even know yet that the vampires were also strong contenders for leadership of the tree spirit tribe.
“I agree,” Fang Heng said without much thought.
It was an empty promise.
With more interactions with the tree spirit tribe, he had become adept at such smooth-talking.
Fang Heng could not be bothered to determine whether the Root tribe really wanted to cooperate.
He would wait until the transaction was completed and the sacred tree branches were in hand, then he would return and make another power boost.
If the Root tribe was willing to submit by then, he would consider keeping them…
Otherwise, they would be taken out together.
Fang Heng asked, “How do you plan to proceed? Are we going to team up directly and take out the Soul tribe? Then we’ll divide up their resources?”
“It’s not that simple, Fang Heng. The Soul tribe itself isn’t strong, but they possess various mysterious abilities. We’ll need some time to prepare for how exactly we’ll deal with the Soul tribe.”
“Alright, can we proceed with the trade now?”
“You should understand that I would not bring such a valuable item with me when we meet for the first time. Besides, we are not in a hurry for this transaction. We already have enough branches of the sacred tree within our clan.”
Fang Heng’s expression immediately darkened.
After all this time, he was not agreeing to trade the branches?
Then why did he call him over?
To waste time?
Having this time, he might as well have gone for a direct grab.
Pavao noticed Fang Heng’s unusual expression and continued to explain, “If our cooperation goes smoothly, we will gladly offer all sacred tree branches.”
“Your promises are too grand for my appetite,” Fang Heng shook his head. “Let’s be practical. How about setting a KPI? I’ll go kill a few Soul tribe elders, and you give me a few sacred tree branches.”
Pavao didn’t understand KPI at first but quickly grasped its meaning. He looked at Fang Heng, who casually mentioned killing Soul tribe elders, and couldn’t help feeling intimidated.
Truly, he was the ruthless one who destroyed the sacred tree saplings of both the Wood tribe and the Leaf tribe without hesitation.
“Cooperation doesn’t work like that, Fang Heng.”
Pavao shook his head and continued, “We know you used pollution to destroy the sacred tree saplings of the Wood tribe and the Leaf tribe. If you can tell us how you obtained and controlled that power, we’re willing to offer some compensation, including sacred tree branches.”
“You still want to tamper with pollution?” Fang Heng gave Pavao a meaningful look and waved his hand, saying, “I advise you not to. That kind of power is not something you should meddle with.”
Pavao didn’t press further and continued, “Alright, Fang Heng. My advice is not to rush. The Soul tribe is different from the other two tribes. They’re not easy to deal with.”