The healing pill Leon pulled out from his Worldspace was just one of many tier-1 spirit pills he had in his inventory. There were also tier-2 and a few tier-3 spirit pills he had refined in his spare time when managing the herbal garden.
To an unknowledgeable person, the healing pill wouldn't elicit any reaction from them unless they were explicitly informed of its name and usage, however, it was a different case for the elder tree.
The tree spirit reacted strongly to the healing pill the moment it appeared by uttering a cry of excitement.
As a plant brimming with wood elements, nothing was more sensitive to the wood element and its properties than the plants themselves. It instinctively knew that the healing pill was beneficial to it, no matter how minor the effect was.
The tree spirit wanted to snatch the healing pill from Leon's hand right away, but it resisted the urge as it was afraid of upsetting Leon like a child waiting for permission before it could eat the candy offered to it.
Leon smiled and tossed the pill to the tree spirit.
The tree spirit reacted immediately. It caught the pill by impaling it with the tips of its tree root. Once caught, the pill was absorbed and disappeared within the blink of an eye.
Leon's action naturally caught the other's attention as they saw the tree spirit appearing from inside the elder tree in its spirit form.
It happened within an instance, but everyone saw how the pill shriveled before it disappeared into the tree roots. They felt a certain chill when they thought would happen to them if these tree roots impaled them instead.
They felt weak in the knees at the thought of having all their body fluids sucked dry and transforming into a shriveled bag of bones in an instant. This tree was very dangerous!
While the palace guards stared on in horror, the child-like tree spirit screamed with delight.
"What did you give it? Why does it seem so euphoric?" Lilith asked curiously. The pill didn't seem like anything special.
"Just a normal tier-1 spirit pill for healing. It is feeling relieved."
Leon wore a nonchalant expression as he continues to study the tree spirit. At the same time, Lilith's expression turned weird when she heard this.
"A healing pill used by humans also works on trees?" Glancing back at the ongoing battlefield, the roots didn't seem to have gotten any better and were even getting worse from the continued accumulation of damage caused by the dauntless sea of ants. "I don't think it did anything."
"Although the efficacy of the healing pill is negligible to an enormity like the elder tree and doesn't help it recover much from the ant's harassment, the efficacy still provides some minor soothing effect to elevate its pain," Leon explained.
Perhaps, because Lilith didn't have much knowledge on plants or she never interacted with sentient spirit plants before, she continues to wear a dumbfounded look, while thinking, 'Plants can feel pain?'
Seeing she wasn't understanding, Leon patiently continued to explain, "Naturally, the elder tree like any other plants, also feel pain when they get hurt. The only difference is they don't have a nervous system like us and feels pain quite differently. Their tolerance of pain is also much greater due to this."
Lilith widened her eyes as if she had been enlightened, but at the same time, she wished she didn't. She paled at the thought of people uprooting spirit plants and herbs while unaware that its spirits were screaming in agony and begging for mercy. She felt horrible once she thought that while looking at the adorable tree spirit.
They say women are weak against cute things… Leon smiled and shook his head.
"Relax, they can only feel it after gaining sentience. Before that, they are just semi-sentient and won't be able to feel it..." As if reading her thought, Leon said.
"Or they do feel it, but they are unable to react to it," Leon added evilly to tease.
Lilith's expression turned ugly at once. She did not feel better after hearing that. "Is that true!?"
"Hahaha…"
Leon did not explain himself and just laughed it off.
After the tree spirit finished savoring the last trace of the pill, it began eyeing Leon with a pleading expression, begging him to give it more pills.
Leon pointed at his bound men and said in the ancient language, "Free them."
Under the group's startled expression, the tree spirit glanced at the two men then back at Leon. It shook its head and raised up two fingers with a firm expression.
"Darn brat, even know how to negotiate, huh? Two more healing pills to free my own men… fair enough."
Leon fished out another 2 tier-1 healing pills and was prepared to toss it to the tree spirit, but the tree spirit wore a sulky expression and shook its two fingers. "Rao!"
"Not 2? You want 20?" Leon was taken aback, before asking doubtfully.
The tree spirit nodded.
"Oi, oi, your appetite is not small. Greedy little thing… Ahem, not little." Leon corrected himself. If the elder tree was small, then nothing was big. "Fine, 20 it is. You have a deal."
Whether it was 2 or 20, Leon didn't care much. He could refine as many tier-1 healing pills as he wants. His tier-1 spirit herbs were growing in abundance.
Seeing how readily Leon accepted, the tree spirit became skeptical whether its asking price was too low. It instantly changed its mind and made a firm decision.
"Rao!"
Leon froze when the tree spirit suddenly cried out before his eyes gradually widened at the five fingers raised by the tree spirit.
Mother fucker… Are you kidding me? They came to an agreement, but it went back on its word and increased the price. Does it think he was a pushover just because he readily agrees to its previous price? How was this a negotiation? This was daylight robbery!
"Forget it, you can keep my two men."
Leon waved his hand and stowed away the pills.
The tree spirit panicked and immediately released Damir and Lutheran from their bindings without the payment. It regretted being too greedy, causing Leon to call the deal off. It began looking at him with an imploring expression.
"Hmph," Leon grunted to show his annoyance.
Seeing it had no effect, it turned its eyes to Lilith, hoping she pleaded on its behalf. It even brought over one of its damaged roots to show her and appeared very pitiful. "Raoo…"
Being weak to cute things, Lilith's heart instantly melted. She turned to Leon asked, "Um, can you help it, Leon? Look how pitiful it is..."
Looking at this scene, Leon thought it quite comical. He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders with a smile, before tossing out the full fifty pills to the tree spirit.
He was only faking a hard stance to teach the tree spirit how precious the spirit pills were. After all, if it cost so much tier-1 spirit herbs just to free his two men, how would he be able to ask it to share some wood element with him later even if he has tier-3 spirit herbs?
Leon began to question if the tree spirit met anyone before them. It showed the naïve mentality of a 5yr old, but it was surprisingly crafty.
The 50 pills were quickly gobbled by the roots of the elder tree and contrary to the first time, the damaged root looked like it had been watered by the spring of life as it recovered at a visible rate.
The pills only manage to recover a single tree root, but it was brimming with vitality as it rejoined the battlefield, slightly changing the tide in the elder tree's favor.
"Look! The ants are retreating! They must have given up!"
A palace guard suddenly pointed out. The others glanced over and also noticed this sudden change. The ants seemed to have received some sort of command that resulted in the battle ending prematurely.
Leon frowned as he thought it wasn't as simple as the palace guard had said. He asked the tree spirit, "Do the ants usually end their attack this quickly?"
The tree spirit shook its head. It got harassed all the time, but none ended this quickly.
Leon frown deepened. He felt that he was at the center of this sudden change. By supplying the tree spirit with recovery pills, he had broken the balance of the battle. However, the ants reacted too quickly and decisively to cut their losses…
"What is that thing!?"
Another palace guard exclaimed horrifically and interrupted Leon's thoughts.
In the distant edges of the open space not far from the crevice they enter from, an unknown creature was seen standing on a nearby cliff proudly and overseeing the ant's retreat.
Everyone felt a piercing chill when the creature laid its cold eyes upon. They instinctively knew that this creature wasn't something the current them had any hopes of defeating. It was possibly at the Transcendent level.
With Leon's superior vision, he could make out the creature's appearance in great detail. The creature greatly resembled the ants, but at the same time, it was different.
Unlike the low-class soldier ants that crawled on all six legs, this one stood on two and only had another two limbs as its arm. A mutated variant? Or an evolved specie? It was humanoid, but it retained its distinctive black shell exoskeleton.
A powerful and dangerous aura was emitted by it, while its cold eyes flickered with great intelligence as it had its gaze locked onto Leon.
To Leon's knowledge, an ant like this had never existed before. It did not seem like the ant queen, but its standing didn't seem inferior to one either as all the ants seemed to obey it. Behind the humanoid ant, there were also another two ants of similar similar figures but less powerful.
Leon's expression turned grim when he realized that they had been marked and they could possibly lose their lives if they leave the protection of the elder tree.