As soon as the words left their mouths, the ground beneath the two gave way. With a scream, they fell straight down—it turned out they had been standing right on top of a trap.
Abraham Lincoln spurred his horse forward a couple of steps and poked his head out to take a look. The pit was really deep—three or four meters at least. The two foreign slaves had fallen and were half-dead, wailing miserably at the bottom.
“Snack time, boys!” Just then, a tiger’s roar mixed with a strange screech echoed out. All around, the forest erupted with a rustling, eerie noise, and a horde of monsters burst forth—tigers, leopards, wolves, snakes, and even a few running trees, all rushing in to surround them.
Abraham Lincoln’s white horse was so startled by the tiger’s roar that its legs gave out and it collapsed, tucking its head in and not daring to move. Abraham Lincoln landed on the ground, looking at the monsters—each several times larger than normal animals—his expression unchanged.
But when his gaze fell on the leader—a burly man with a mouthful of tiger fangs, a face full of bristling beard, and a huge bone club in hand—he finally showed a hint of curiosity.
Did that guy just speak human language?
All these years, Abraham Lincoln had never seen a monster that could talk. This was his first time, so naturally he was very curious. He had already stopped believing that monsters could speak.
Judging by the looks, this must be a tiger demon. When a young girl has two little tiger teeth, it’s cute, but this guy had a whole mouthful, looking like a row of sawteeth—really quite ugly.
That tiger demon usually called himself Richard King. At this moment, he was also sizing up Abraham Lincoln. Over the years, every human he’d met had been so scared they wet themselves, but this bald guy wasn’t afraid at all—instead, he was sizing them up, which made Richard King a bit wary.
Having cultivated a human form, his intelligence was no less than an ordinary person’s. He’d also heard some rumors about powerful cultivators. He was just about to have a little demon test out the bald guy when the bald guy spoke up.
“Hey, you cat monster, you can speak human, right? Say a couple more sentences for me.” Abraham Lincoln looked at the tiger demon and said with a smile.
Richard King’s face darkened. He didn’t really know what a cat monster was, but he instinctively felt the bald guy was mocking him. Angry and even more cautious, he glared at Abraham Lincoln and roared, “Baldy, who are you? How dare you trespass on my territory—aren’t you afraid I’ll eat you?”
The other monsters all chimed in, howling and shrieking, making for a terrifying scene.
“Eat people, huh?” Abraham Lincoln frowned slightly, pointed at the two foreign slaves in the pit, and said with a smirk, “I don’t believe you actually eat people. If you’ve got the guts, eat them right now and show me.”
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Chapter 10: A Pale-faced Girl Falls from the Sky
The tiger demon was the local mountain king—how could he let Abraham Lincoln look down on him? He waved his hand and said, “Come on, bring those two up from the pit for me.”
A tree demon wrapped in black vines stepped forward. The black vines dropped down, coiling around the hands and feet of the two foreign slaves, and hauled them up.
The two foreign slaves were already in a miserable state from the fall. Now, being hoisted up and seeing themselves surrounded by monsters, and having heard what Abraham Lincoln said earlier, they were so scared they wet themselves—there wasn’t a trace of their former fierceness left.
“Richard King, did you get anything good today?” At that moment, a booming voice rang out, and the monsters parted to make way.
Abraham Lincoln turned to look. A burly man covered in black fur and a fat man in green robes walked up. Judging by appearances, these two were also talking monsters. Sure enough, things were different outside the Tang borders.
Richard King turned and, delighted, said with a smile, “So it’s Robert Hill and Edward Miller. I just caught three people.”
Robert Hill looked at the two foreign slaves hanging above and at Abraham Lincoln, his face lighting up. “Edward Miller and I have been eating vegetarian every day lately. Richard King, could you offer these three as a treat?”
“Of course.” Richard King nodded, then stepped closer to the two and lowered his voice, “That bald guy over there is a bit strange. I’m afraid he might be a cultivator. Let’s eat those two first. If he’s a cultivator, he definitely won’t just stand by. If he doesn’t dare make a move, then we’ll eat him too.”
“Alright.” Robert Hill and Edward Miller both nodded in agreement.
“Baldy, you said we wouldn’t dare eat people, so we’ll eat them right in front of you.” Richard King looked at Abraham Lincoln, waved his hand, and said, “Boys, chop those two up and serve them to Robert Hill and Edward Miller.”
“Spare us, great king! Spare us! Our meat is no good—the bald guy’s meat is much better. He’s just a little monk, eats vegetarian and chants all day, his meat must be really tender!” The taller foreign slave’s face changed dramatically as he struggled and shouted.
But the little demons didn’t understand a word he said. With a swipe of a wolf’s claw, two heads rolled to the ground and were presented to Robert Hill and Edward Miller. Then the hearts and livers were taken out and offered up, while the hands and feet were given to Richard King. The rest of the flesh and bones were divided among the little demons.
In an instant, dozens of monsters were gnawing on bones and sucking out brains—a scene both disgusting and horrifying.
Abraham Lincoln watched all this, but didn’t feel afraid—just a bit queasy. Luckily, he hadn’t eaten much that morning, or he’d definitely be throwing up by now.
The two foreign slaves had tried to kill Abraham Lincoln, so seeing them die didn’t make him feel guilty at all.