Chapter 351 – Difficult Transaction Pt. 2
To the Giant Icebear King, honey was like a drug. Having eaten it so heartily this whole time, wasn’t its sudden disappearance basically equivalent to killing it? For a moment, the Giant Icebear King couldn’t help but anxiously wander around outside the valley entrance, not knowing what to think.
Amidst its panic, Suo Jia’s figure appeared not far from it. Seeing the familiar shadow of a human, the Giant Icebear King knew that the appearance of this person that had given it honey for nearly a week meant that there was definitely more honey to be eaten! While thinking this, the Giant Icebear King couldn’t help but close its eyes happily.
Suo Jia involuntarily swallowed hard at the sight of the distant Giant Icebear King. Although from a typical nurturing standpoint, magical beasts wouldn’t harm their trainers, this wasn’t an absolute guarantee either. Moreover…Suo Jia had only been feeding this guy for a few days!
But, despite the danger, Suo Jia couldn’t delay any longer. Time was precious, and he couldn’t waste all his time here. This matter had to end as soon as possible!
Suo Jia gathered his courage and walked towards the Giant Icebear King. Shaking with fear, he stood right next to the bear. The Giant Icebear King didn’t attack Suo Jia; rather, it just looked at Suo Jia longingly, hoping for him to hand over some honey.
At the sight of the Giant Icebear King, Suo Jia automatically began to pray to God to give this beast enough intelligence. Otherwise, there was no way they’d be able to communicate! A casual swat from this creature’s paw was enough to crush Suo Jia into pulp; he had absolutely no countering ability.
Suo Jia nervously cleared his throat, gesturing as he spoke, “Respected Giant Icebear King, I can no longer continue to give you honey for free. If you still want honey, give me something in exchange!”
“Mmm?” The Giant Icebear King looked at Suo Jia suspiciously. Although it didn’t understand Suo Jia’s words, his gestures could be understood for the most part. After all…these signs were the masterpiece their party of four had come up with after researching for a week. The Diamond Dragon could understand it with a single glance; as long as the Giant Icebear King wasn’t inferior in intelligence compared to the Diamond Dragon, it would be able to understand.
“Roar!” Under Suo Jia’s concerned gaze, the Giant Icebear King suddenly tilted its head back and roared at the sky. It fiercely crouched down, its bright, enormous, and extremely sharp teeth facing Suo Jia as it let out a low roar. Its meaning was clear: Hurry up and hand over the honey, or else I’ll bite you to death!
From this, Suo Jia could tell that they’d encountered a bandit. It was clear to see that magical beasts didn’t like trading, and would rather use force to resolve matters. Fortunately…Suo Jia had made plans for this a while ago, and didn’t bother staying in a deadlock with the Giant Icebear King. Instead, he directly pulled out a barrel of honey, and turned around to make his exit, leaving the Giant Icebear King happier than ever.
Although it was happy this time, the Giant Icebear King couldn’t find Suo Jia’s figure no matter how hard it searched when it arrived at the valley entrance the next day. Only now did the Giant Icebear King suddenly realize that relying on force would indeed pressure the other party to hand the honey over, but the other party could also just turn around and walk away. This meant that it would no longer receive honey to eat. Suo Jia was the source of honey; the Giant Icebear King would only be able to get a chance to eat it if Suo Jia was willing to hand it over. If the Icebear King made Suo Jia unhappy, he would leave without ever providing honey again.
The Giant Icebear King paced back and forth at the entrance anxiously for an entire day, but Suo Jia still didn’t appear. Another day passed, and another after that, but there was still no trace of Suo Jia. When the Giant Icebear King thought back to the heavenly sweet taste of honey, it couldn’t help but drool. However, there was nothing it could do.
Finally, the morning of the fourth day, Suo Jia appeared once more. Expressionlessly facing the Giant Icebear King, Suo Jia once again gestured as he spoke, “Alright, I’ll give you one more chance. If you want to eat honey, hand over something in exchange!”
The Giant Icebear King still refused to compromise; it was just too hungry, and it viciously crouched down once more, letting out a fierce roar. No matter what, the honey had to be handed over as quickly as possible!
Suo Jia didn’t panic at this. Either way, he did have the honey; it was really cheap, cheaper than Blazing Liquor, so it didn’t matter how much the bear wanted to drink. This stupid bear still needed to be trained slowly! While thinking this, Suo Jia took out a new barrel of honey, and turned around to leave.
The Giant Icebear King’s eyes lit up at the sight of the honey barrel, and swallowed its contents in one gulp. It had finally gotten the chance to taste the sweet honey once more. That rich flavor was enough to nearly bring the Giant Icebear King to tears.
However, while it was happily enjoying the honey, it suddenly noticed Suo Jia’s figure slowly disappearing. Just then, it remembered: if Suo Jia left, who knew when he’d come again? What would it do about honey then?
With this, the Giant Icebear King first stamped once on the ground, successfully making Suo Jia dizzy. It then bounded up to Suo Jia, hoisted him up in its mouth, and turned around to run back into Icebound Valley.
Seeing this, the others’ expressions couldn’t help but change into ones of horror, and they wildly chased after the Giant Icebear King back towards Icebound Valley. It was a pity that…before they’d progressed very far, they were scared witless by the other Giant Icebears and chased back out.
Facing this unexpected situation, the three of them surprisingly didn’t solely panic. Instead, they sent the Diamond Dragon out to scout the situation. Only after confirming Suo Jia’s life wasn’t in danger would they be able to relax. No matter what happened, there was always hope as long as he didn’t actually die.
The Giant Icebear King had run back to its own den–which was really in front of the prehistoric ruins–with Suo Jia in its mouth. It casually dropped him on the ground, and lazily laid down to sleep.
Suo Jia couldn’t help but let loose a breath of relief at the sight of the Giant Icebear King before him. During the instant it had first moved just now, Suo Jia had thought he’d die for sure. Fortunately, the creature’s intelligence didn’t seem low after all. It had captured Suo Jia only for the sake of honey.
Suo Jia automatically turned his head to look around at his surroundings. The first thing he saw was the scene of densely packed Giant Icebears hundreds of meters away. Suo Jia knew very well that fleeing this place was just a pipe dream. The only way to enter or leave was by being carried in the Giant Icebear King’s mouth.
Suo Jia turned around and looked behind him. The first thing that met his eyes was a huge shrine. At the moment…the entire shrine was covered in frost. Entering it required breaking through sturdy layers of ice dozens of meters thick. Otherwise, one could only look at it without ever going in.
As he was looking around, the sound of flapping wings could be heard from the air. Suo Jia doubtfully turned around and saw the Diamond Dragon’s figure slowly flying over from the distance. Suo Jia pulled out a pen and paper and wrote a note for the Diamond Dragon to deliver back, telling Xiang Yun, Roger, and Nicole that he was perfectly fine, and that they should patiently wait outside for a few days.