As the dumplings fell into the water, screams of agony erupted one after another.
"Ah!"
"Help! Mom, help me!"
"You clearly said we were playing chess! Why are you doing this?!That's against the rules! This is cheating!"
"Someone like you is going to hell! I curse you in the name of Satan!"
All kinds of curses and insults came from the Red Sea.
But before they could finish cursing him with every insult they'd ever wanted to use in their lives, they had already been devoured by the various predatory worms in the Red Sea.
And at the very moment the bearded man died, the enormous three-masted ship instantly turned back into a tiny black chess piece.
The passengers who had originally been aboard the three-masted ship also knew they couldn't stay on it any longer.
At that moment, everyone who could fly took to the sky.
There were mages riding brooms, members of the elf race with wings, and even some strange-looking creatures with all sorts of oddly shaped wings.
The strangest-looking one was probably a creature that somewhat resembled a jellyfish. That thing practically treated the sky as if it were the sea. It actually managed to float in midair simply by bobbing up and down, though it was a little slow in moving around.
It seemed to be a species that could fly, but at a tortoise's pace.
Who knew what the hell it was?
As for the passengers who couldn't fly, they were in for a miserable end.
One after another, they fell into the Red Sea along with the shrinking three-masted ship, leaving not even their bones behind.
"Phew! One person fighting a whole crowd sure is exhausting."
After returning to his top-tier bamboo raft, Ethan wiped away his sweat and looked at the countless skeletons gradually sinking into the Red Sea, letting out a sigh.
The Eye of Nightmare, however, said speechlessly, "Would you call that one person fighting a whole crowd? You clearly just tricked a whole crowd of people! But speaking of which, those few black mages were pretty tough to deal with. If you hadn't relied on such a dirty trick, it would've been hard to say who would have won in the end."
"Heh! Heh! As the saying goes, all is fair in war. If I can trick the other side into their deaths, why bother fighting them properly?", Ethan sneered, "Besides, didn't I learn this from you?"
"Pah! I'm not nearly as underhanded as you!"
The Eye of Nightmare spat at Ethan, though it was only inside his mind.
Ethan raised an eyebrow and said, "Really? Who was it that wanted to merge with me and eventually make me part of the Nightmare, but pretended to be a reward item so it could follow me out of the Dream World?"
"Th-This... Heh! Heh! Let's not bring up the past!"
The Eye of Nightmare pretended it couldn't remember a thing.
However, while the two of them were trading insults, Ethan suddenly remembered something.
"Right, something's a little strange. Didn't you say before that firing this cannon once would cost a million spirit stones? Why can I easily activate everything on this chessboard today without spending any spirit stones at all?"
"That's the Demon Tree's rule," the Eye of Nightmare explained, "The Demon Tree is essentially a world of its own. All its energy is generated and consumed internally, so none of it is lost."
"It's not like the outside world. No matter what you activate out there, the energy you need is essentially borrowed from heaven and earth. When heaven and earth refuse to lend it to you, you can only replenish it with external resources."
"But inside the Demon Tree, you can think of it as a world filled with energy. The energy used in this world doesn't disappear either. Instead, it turns back into part of the Demon Tree and returns to this Demon Tree world, so..."
Ethan cut off the Eye of Nightmare's endless rambling, "I don't understand. Can you speak like a normal person?"
"No, because I'm not a person in the first place!", The Eye of Nightmare rolled its eyes, "Besides, what does your inability to understand have to do with whether I speak like a normal person? Isn't it simply because you're an idiot?"
"Isn't it just the law of conservation of energy?" Ethan said helplessly, "You rambled on and on for ages. I just didn't want to listen to your nonsense, but I was trying to save you some face!"
"Damn it!"
The Eye of Nightmare immediately decided it didn't want to deal with Ethan anymore.
However, while the man and the eye were busy trading insults, the previously clear, cloudless sky above the Red Sea suddenly turned blood-red.
Beep~ Beep~ Beep~
Immediately afterward, a series of piercing sounds rang in everyone's ears.
Everyone looked up at the blood-red sky in confusion. Then, a strange broadcast announcement rang out throughout the Demon Tree World.
[Due to certain force majeure circumstances, this Demon Tree Climbing Competition must be brought to an early close. We are summoning heroes from all realms back to the Mist World to jointly defend Border City and the various border fortresses adjacent to the Land of Nightmares.]
[The Abyssal Demons are in an uproar, and this year's beast tide has launched an early attack on Border City. After completing the fifth stage, please return to the Demon Tree Hall immediately and await your mission assignments.]
[To compensate all participants for their losses, the rules of this year's climbing competition have been temporarily changed to a speed race.]
[The fifth stage of the Demon Tree will serve as the final stage of this speed race. Rankings will be determined by the order in which participants arrive.]
[The prize money will still be distributed according to the original rules.]
[And...]
[The champion of this year's Demon Tree Climbing Competition will also receive an additional grand prize. Everyone, give it your all!]