CHAPTER 101: A Place Of Extreme Forest

The group followed the old forest troll priest cautiously into more remote terrain, stopping after half a day at a river and passing through a fractured section of mountain rock.

There was a river in the background and primitive wooden houses all around. There were also some simple traps and some strange, towering trees. When they arrived, the original demon that had been watching over the dwarves had to return because the distance between Han Shuo and the dwarves had become too great. It circled around the area and began to survey the various nooks and crannies.

Using the increased field of vision with the three original demons, Han Shuo discovered that this was an extremely large area. He roughly calculated that there were several hundred huts here. It looked like this was the lair of the forest trolls. Many green-skinned forest trolls were holding weapons, whether they were children or females, and were being trained by a strong forest troll warrior.

From the elves' description earlier, Han Shuo understood that the forest trolls were born with a natural inclination to raid and pillage. There was no such thing as self-sufficiency in their lives. Whether it was food, drink, or items of daily use, they all naturally thought that these things should be obtained by stealing. They, who worshipped the Demon of Raiding Datara, also treated children and women as training targets, as this would increase their strength during raids.

When the old priest arrived, he used the language of the forest trolls to call out something. All the forest trolls in the tribe, whether children, elders, or women, excitedly ripped off their pouches and waved them in the air, shouting "Datara, Datara!

After this went on for a while, the old priest finally spoke to Han Shuo in the language of the humans, "Come, I will take the great Datara and his consort to the holy grounds.

"Hm, hurry up. The great Datara is impatient." Han Shuo said with a darkened face.

The forest trolls continued to carry the small skeleton and Han Shuo continued on foot. Several troll warriors pushed several wooden rafts from a distance. Han Shuo and the little skeleton walked towards the rafts as the old priest indicated. Then some of the forest trolls paddled their wooden oars and headed out into the river.

The wooden rafts moved slowly forward, docking at a swampy patch of earth after about half an hour. Han Shuo followed the old priest up the bank and discovered that all the trees here were tall and extremely large. The vibrant growth of the grass and shrubs was enough to drown a person, and even the weeds here grew with great vigour.

The plants and trees on all sides seemed to be growing quite well, and a bizarre presence seemed to permeate the air. Pushing past the thick bushes, several troll warriors led the way. The old priest pointed out the way and Han Shuo followed, heading for an even deeper part of the area.

As he made his way deeper into the area, Han Shuo began to get the feeling that something wasn't right, as if he had heard of this place somewhere. Eventually he stopped in front of a tall house that looked as if it was being pulled upwards by a towering, huge tree.

The densely foliated branches of five or six very tall trees were intertwined, with the intertwined branches supporting a large house in the air. The plants around it grew exceptionally well, and there were also some bizarre flowers that bore some strange and exotic fruits.

Looking around and blinking for a long time, Han Shuo's heart trembled and he suddenly exclaimed in amazement, "A place of extreme wood. Haha, this is indeed a place of extreme wood! No wonder all the plants have evolved so perfectly. So this is it!"

A naturally formed place of extreme wood. The presence of the wood element in it was much more dense than in other places. All the plants and trees that grew in a place of extreme wood were naturally much more lush than in other places. Although the forest trolls worshipped the demon of plunder, Datara, legends said that they were a race that had evolved from trees, so they had a natural affinity for wood.

"The air is clearer here than anywhere else. Our ancestors searched for many years before discovering this place, so they built the Sacred Ground Palace here. The stone statue of Datara was erected inside for worship. Tributes are paid to the great Datara every year, in the hope that the great one will ensure our successful raids". The old priest genuflected piously towards the house floating in the air and said all this quietly.

After a moment's thought, the old priest seemed to think this was inappropriate and immediately began to bow down to the little skeleton. He spoke some gibberish to the troll warriors who were lifting the little skeleton's carriage. The troll warriors lowered the carriage and motioned for the little skeleton to step out of the carriage.

At this moment, Han Shuo was incredibly excited at the thought of having his wooden elite zombie at hand. He had actually forgotten to give the little skeleton any more orders. The old priest made a series of sincere requests and discovered that the little skeleton was still sitting motionless in the carriage. His forehead knit tightly together, he sank to his knees in front of Han Shuo. "Liaison, why isn't the great Datara getting out of the carriage? Have we done something wrong?"

The old priest's words immediately jolted Han Shuo out of his daydream. He turned his head to find the little skeleton lying there lazily as if he'd fallen asleep. Han Shuo gave an order and the little skeleton's legs straightened, he stood up abruptly and looked around with his shiny skull, the bone dagger in his hand.

Datara was thinking and didn't hear your calls. Come, we are going up now!" Han Shuo chuckled inwardly but spoke seriously to the old priest.

The old priest nodded timidly, not daring to ask anything more. He walked to the back of one of the towering trees and began to climb up after pulling down a soft ladder woven from tree branches. Han Shuo followed behind the old priest and climbed up, also using the soft ladder.

The little skeleton walked out of the carriage and moved off somewhere in the distance before Han Shuo had a chance to give the little skeleton any orders. What happened next was something everyone hadn't expected, as it used the momentum from its charge to extend both leg bones and fly into the sky as the seven bone spurs on its back flapped around randomly. It landed in front of the door to the great house in the sky before Han Shuo and the old priest reached it.

The small skeleton slowly regained his footing and shook his head as his body swayed in front of the large house. Then he pulled open the door and entered the house, the pilipala sounds of items being rifled through echoing through the air.

"Datara, Datara!" The old priest wore a look of excitement as he began to shout in gibberish.

Eventually, the old priest and Han Shuo had climbed up to the steps in front of the large house. A few other forest trolls stood guard outside and no one else had been allowed up.

Han Shuo followed the excited old priest into the house and immediately saw a huge sculpture of a skeleton in the middle of the room. It was exactly the same as the one Han Shuo had seen on the old priest's ancient scroll earlier, the only difference being that the giant skeleton wearing an eye patch was wielding a weapon that looked similar to the scythe that the Grim Reaper carried in his right hand. In his left hand he held a large satchel, bulging as if it contained many lootings.

It was brightly lit inside, with all sorts of coloured jewels embedded in the wooden walls. Gold and jewellery could be seen everywhere on the floor. The Han Shuo of now was not someone who did not recognise wealth, and he noticed that all the various jewels in the wooden walls were absolutely priceless as they shone and glittered. The cups and cutlery were placed on a jade table, all made of beautiful jade and gold, dazzling Han Shuo's eyes.

The small skeleton raised his bone dagger as he ran his hand over his gleaming skullcap, circling around the huge stone sculpture erected in the centre of the house. He occasionally touched the featherless wings behind the giant stone skeleton sculpture, and ran his hand along its back to touch the seven bone spurs, seeming quite puzzled as to why the large stone sculpture looked so much like him.

Except that the small skeleton was almost half the size of the stone sculpture. See The scene looked rather odd, with a small skeleton standing next to a large skeleton.

When Han Shuo and the old priest entered, they were confused to see the small skeleton circling around the statue of Datara. As Han Shuo watched the small skeleton, he suddenly discovered that the small skeleton's movements were quite human-like. This prevented Han Shuo from giving any commands to the little skeleton, leaving him astonished. Instead, he stared at the little skeleton with a fierce gaze, wanting to see what the little skeleton was up to.

Just as Han Shuo was astonished, he saw the little skeleton suddenly stop in front of the statue of the demon Datara. Its empty eye sockets stared at the patch over Datara's left eye, and then reached out to feel its own left eye socket, as if wondering why it didn't have an eye patch.

The little skeleton suddenly jumped up and reached out to rip off Datara's eye patch. When the little skeleton landed, it did so with an eye patch in its hand. In the left eye socket of the now eye-patch-less Datara, a purple gem was hidden, as if it were an eyeball. The originally lifeless stone sculpture of the demon Datara now seemed to have some traces of life with the addition of a purple eye. It gave Han Shuo the mistaken feeling that the sculpture was looking back at him.

At that moment, the purple eyeball seemed to rotate once and glow faintly with a soft purple light, as if the demon Datara had suddenly come to life.

"Oh, the great Datara has opened the 'Purple Demon Eye', the great Datara has manifested!" The old priest rejoiced as he went mad with excitement, burying his head in the ground and screaming loudly.

The little skeleton, who had been standing there mute, suddenly moved a small table in front of the statue of the demon Datara and jumped on it. He stood on his tiptoes and reached a hand towards the left eye of the demon Datara's statue. As Han Shuo's scalp went numb, the small skeleton firmly ripped out the purple demon eye and lifted it up for a glance before stuffing it into his own left eye socket.

Han Shuo didn't know what to do either, but before he could figure out what to do, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. He looked at the little skeleton and realised that the little skeleton had somehow jammed the purple demon eye into his own eye socket.

However, when the purple demon eye entered his left eye socket, the little skeleton seemed to be in pain as well. His body shuddered and then he grabbed his head to roll on the floor in pain. As the host, Han Shuo shared a mental link with the small skeleton and felt the same agonising pain. An enormous amount of alien energy was emanating from the small skeleton's purple demon eye. Han Shuo could clearly feel that the purple demon eye was trying to enter his body and the small demon's body, as if it was trying to take control of the two bodies.

"Great Datara, liaison, what is happening to you two?" The old forest troll priest lifted his head to see that something was wrong with Han Shuo and the little skeleton, and immediately shouted in question.

"Get out of here! The great Datara has some business to attend to." Han Shuo roared as he struggled under the searing pain.

The old forest troll priest was startled as he ran out of the house in confusion. He stayed outside to observe what was happening inside the holy ground.

Han Shuo immediately grabbed his head as the old priest left and curled up in a ball with the small skeleton. Han Shuo's heart was filled with bewildered fear. If this purple demon eye truly belonged to the demon Datara, then this strange energy that was invading his body would naturally come from Datara. A demon was a type of deity, and its power wasn't something that humans could withstand. This left Han Shuo at a loss as to what to do.

This enormous power was emanating from the purple demon eye in the small skeleton's left eye socket. Han Shuo first gave the order to remove the purple demon eye, but the small skeleton had pushed it into his eye in such a way that no matter how the little skeleton grappled with the purple demon eye, he was unable to remove it.

As the human and the skeleton continued to roll around in pain, the eye patch that the little skeleton had held onto all this time released another miraculous power. As his brain was in extreme pain, Han Shuo's perception increased tremendously and he suddenly recognised the anomaly. In his panic, he grabbed at any possible solution and ordered the little skeleton to put on the eye patch.

It was magical that the mysterious force that was trying to take over their bodies suddenly vanished without a trace after the little skeleton frantically put on the eye patch. The heavily sweating Han Shuo slowly returned to normal.

The eye patch looked quite appropriate on the statue of the demon Datara, but it was noticeably larger on the small skeleton. The patch covered almost the entire left side of his face, making him look a bit comical and odd.

"Never remove the eye patch, no matter when or what." Han Shuo regained his composure and ignored all these bizarre events, giving the little skeleton this order first.