Chapter 28

"Stop!" The words that Zhou Tian had spoken behind him indeed had the desired effect. For the current Skeleton King, the term 'territory' was quite sensitive. As a result, even though the territory was about to be occupied by the orcs, the Skeleton King still called out to his subordinates who were preparing to continue attacking Zhou Tian.

Seeing the Skeleton King's actions, Zhou Tian couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. After composing himself, he continued, "Respected Skeleton King, how about it? Our orc clan is not weak, right?"

"Are you trying to provoke me?" The Skeleton King seemed quite angry after hearing Zhou Tian's words. If not for the effect of Zhou Tian's previous words, and if he hadn't wanted to hear what Zhou Tian had to say next, the Skeleton King might have directly attacked Zhou Tian again.

Seeing the Skeleton King's reaction, although Zhou Tian was nervous inside, he maintained a calm expression and said, "Actually, Skeleton King, you misunderstood. I didn't come here to truly deal with your skeleton clan. I did these things just to prove my strength and to discuss a major matter with you."

"If you want to cooperate, why don't you just come to me directly? What's the meaning of doing all this?"

"If I didn't do these things, would you have met me?" Zhou Tian's words made the Skeleton King pause in surprise.

Although the Skeleton King's intelligence was not high, he was also aware that, as Zhou Tian had said, if he hadn't caused this commotion, he wouldn't have taken Zhou Tian, the orc leader, seriously. In that case, even if Zhou Tian had come to him with something to discuss, he probably wouldn't have paid attention.

Whether it was because of Zhou Tian's words or because the Skeleton King had other plans, when Zhou Tian spoke to that extent, the Skeleton King changed his tone and said to Zhou Tian in a friendly manner, "I can trust you, but you have already proven your strength. I can listen to what you want to propose for our cooperation. However, before that, you must return the territories you have occupied."

"Impossible." Without hesitation, Zhou Tian firmly rejected the Skeleton King's demand. "Respected Skeleton King, although I did these things to prove my strength, do you think I would easily give back the territories I have just occupied, given the current situation?"

"Damn! You dare to deceive me, give me—"

"Wait!" Seeing the Skeleton King's reaction, Zhou Tian quickly raised his hand to stop him. "Respected Skeleton King, your territories have already been occupied by us. Even if you kill me, what can you do? If you kill me, my subordinates, tens of thousands of orcs, will still follow my orders. They will block your skeleton caves according to my orders. In that case, once the outside territory is divided as our territory, the balance of power between our two races will likely shift. Even if I die, my successor will probably not be as easy to negotiate with as I am, and your skeleton clan will face extinction!"

"What do you really want?" After hearing Zhou Tian's words, the Skeleton King finally gave in. After all, Zhou Tian's words were not wrong, and compared to taking revenge on Zhou Tian, the Skeleton King was more concerned about the survival of his race. Therefore, he couldn't ignore Zhou Tian's threat.

Seeing the Skeleton King's reaction, Zhou Tian was secretly pleased but showed no emotion on his face. He calmly looked at the Skeleton King and said, "Respected Skeleton King, I have no intention of targeting your skeleton clan. In fact, I came to you this time with great sincerity. Here's a deal: if you don't trust me, once our clan's strength is sufficient to match yours, I will have my subordinates return part of the territory to you. Then, when our two races are evenly matched, we can discuss cooperation."

"Really? If your orc clan becomes stronger than us, how can I be sure you won't turn on us then?" The Skeleton King, with limited intelligence, didn't think too much about it. After hearing Zhou Tian's words, he felt somewhat pleased and, after easing his attitude towards Zhou Tian, immediately asked his question.

"It's done." Seeing the Skeleton King's reaction, Zhou Tian knew he had successfully convinced him.

"Respected Skeleton King, please rest assured. Look, I, the orc leader, am in your hands. If I don't return part of the territory when our two races are evenly matched, you can directly order your subordinates to kill me."

"Hmm, what you say does make sense." The Skeleton King nodded, finding Zhou Tian's words reasonable. He then waved his hand, ordering his subordinates to step back, giving up the area where he and Zhou Tian were facing off.

"Alright, I won't do anything to you for now. You can tell me your plan now, right?" After acknowledging Zhou Tian's words, the Skeleton King appeared magnanimous and no longer mentioned the issue of their territory. He sat down opposite Zhou Tian and asked about the plan Zhou Tian had mentioned.

"Respected Skeleton King, it's like this. The purpose of my visit is to capture the nearby NPC village."

Hearing Zhou Tian's words, the Skeleton King immediately became angry. "You're playing me! How easy do you think it is to capture an NPC village? We organize people every year to attack them, but we have never succeeded. Instead, we always suffer heavy losses. Now you want to capture that village with the strength of our two races? That's impossible. Come to think of it, were you just deceiving me from the beginning?"

Seeing the Skeleton King's furious expression, Zhou Tian couldn't help but think to himself, "This guy looks stupid but unexpectedly smart this time. However, the cooperation I have in mind is just this. Although it's troublesome, using you skeletons as cannon fodder isn't bad. Maybe we can really capture that NPC village in the end." After a moment of silence, Zhou Tian continued, "Respected Skeleton King, I think you might have misunderstood. In fact, I am confident about this cooperation. When I was still an orc warrior, I led a group of orc warriors to attack that village. If we had been stronger, the village would have already been occupied by our orc clan. Now, seeing their strong defenses, I wanted to share the credit with you, but I didn't expect that the great king of the skeleton clan would be so timid." At this point, Zhou Tian shook his head as if he were very disappointed.