Chapter 786 Quite Courteous & Courageous

Chapter 786: Quite Courteous & Courageous

Seeing the people riding the Skyrend Eagles on the verge of falling, Leo lightly tapped the ground with his foot.

"Howl, are you getting naughty? Rein in your aura a bit."

Leo chuckled and instructed. Howl had been constantly radiating his presence in the surroundings since he woke up.

But soon after Leo said that, the pressure in the surroundings lifted, and the eagles barely maintained their flight. Even so, those beasts refused to get any closer to Howl.

Lily, who had been sitting calmly on top of Howl’s head, glanced toward the incoming party.

Ba-dump!!

Jialou and the others felt as if their souls had left their bodies the moment that happened.

"W-what the fuck was that?" Jialou muttered, beads of sweat beading on his forehead even as the strong wind rustled past him.

He immediately averted his gaze from Lily and looked elsewhere.

"What was that?" Even Lily was confused about what she had done without meaning to.

The people riding the eagles were still a few kilometres away when Leo simply took a step forward into thin air.

Whooosh!

Then, a second step.

Whooosh!

And Leo was already floating in front of them.

"What business do you have?" he asked calmly while surveying the group.

Excluding the 3 ferrymen, there were 30 people. Sensing their strength averaged around 2 stars, Leo’s gaze fell on the two people sitting on the eagle at the front.

The first was Jialou, a robust man with black hair, while the second was a petite woman with black hair.

They were both Pseudo 3-star and Peak 2-star, respectively.

"Sir Leo!!" Jialou’s pupils contracted when Leo suddenly appeared before him.

He quickly scrambled to his feet and tried to calm his racing heart.

"W-we have arrived here to talk about possible recruitment into your territory..." Jialou’s gaze landed on the Ancient Savage Beast carrying Leo’s territory on its back.

"If it’s still there..."

Jialou could hardly believe someone could build a territory on it, so he ruled out the possibility, assuming Leo might have built it there unknowingly. A few similar cases had happened before.

The woman sitting beside Jialou jabbed him with her elbow.

"Please forgive my husband, Sir Leo. His tongue is a bit crude," she said with a respectful bow.

It turned out that the woman was Jialou’s wife.

Leo ignored the unnecessary talk and got straight to the point.

"You said you wanted to be recruited into my territory... but from what I can see," Leo swept his gaze across the group once again to make his point clear, "you have come to attack."

Jialou immediately panicked.

If Leo attacked them under this pretext, they would surely be wiped out and end up dirt poor when the temple charged them 100,000 AC.

100,000 AC was no joke!

"S-sir, you must be joking. With our measly strength, do we even stand a chance?" He’d been flustered the moment Lily’s gaze landed on them, and now Leo was making it worse.

Leo remained expressionless.

"Who knows? You might have come to attack after seeing the migrating status of our territory."

"No!" The woman beside Jialou cried out.

"Sir, it’s really just a bad coincidence! We simply took the air ride after we saw that your territory’s teleportation array was shut down. We only came to know about it just now, after our subordinate informed us."

Leo narrowed his eyes. So far, he hadn’t spotted a single lie.

"We have even brought gifts!"

At that moment, the woman realised that she had forgotten a very important step in their panic.

"We are sorry for being rude. I am Alena, a 2nd-term student ranked 711th," she introduced herself before immediately gesturing towards Jialou.

"I am Jialou! A 2nd-term student ranked 420th! And the others behind us are our territory members who wish to join Sir Leo’s territory alongside us!"

"Sir, please," Alena said, quickly gesturing towards the goods behind them. "Accept these gifts that we prepared while looking forward to meeting you."

Leo’s gaze shifted momentarily to the items behind them.

Neatly stored were magic fruits, small natural treasures, some mana-enriching plants, and a few bottles of potions from various categories, including healing, strength, and agility.

All in all, the gifts were worth around 250,000 AC.

"Quite courteous..." Leo muttered.

He was even impressed by how quickly the woman in front of him had composed herself, given that they could be swatted away at any moment.

Even though the goods held little value for him, he was impressed by the gesture. After all, these people might be the very first to do so.

Not to mention, judging by their strength, they must have bled quite a bit to prepare these gifts.

It showed Leo that they were genuinely sincere.

"Hmm, since you went through all this trouble, I will entertain you for a bit."

He gave a small wave, storing all the gifts in his spiritual space. If they were being courteous, he couldn’t be so rude as to refuse their gifts.

"Sir, does that mean...?" Jialou asked with hopeful eyes.

"No, you cannot join the territory unless you agree to the conditions. First, show me your worth by climbing the territory."

The gifts were clearly a gesture of goodwill, not a payment or bribe that would let them join the territory. Leo could still refuse them.

With that, Leo disappeared, leaving the people hanging.

Jialou’s people trembled at the sight of Howl standing motionless, his gargantuan eyes staring straight ahead.

"Alright, calm down, calm down. We got a chance!" Jialou and Alena both felt relieved they had at least been given the chance to talk.

"But... how do we get up there?" Alena looked at the frightened Skyrend Eagles and realised they couldn’t approach through the air.

Then she looked at Howl and realised again that climbing those tree-trunk-like legs seemed just as impossible.

Back in the territory, Leo had already discussed the matter with Lily.

"They prepared gifts? Interesting..." Even Lily was amazed. Though they were weak, their character seemed decent enough based on their first impression.

"If they climb up, I’ll handle the talk. You focus on building the structures," Lily said.

Leo still needed to work on the preliminary designs for the city gates and make the walls look good, so he got busy while Howl finally finished stretching his limbs.

With that, Howl took its first steps.

Grrrrr!

A single step covered more than 200 meters!

Hmmmmmmm~

Surprisingly, Howl’s first step didn’t damage the vegetation beneath its feet much. Invisible energy distributed its weight, letting its foot float a certain height above the ground.

However, the pressure was still immense. Some tall trees broke in half under it, while others’ branches bent under the crushing weight the invisible energy pressed down with.

"It started to walk!" Alena exclaimed.

"And it floats!" Jialou was even more shocked. This made their climb even more difficult if they wanted to use its legs as a ladder.