Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton-Chapter 958 - 530

"Your integrity reminds me of a horse, but clinging to my leg won’t help, you have to cling to the Undead God," Negris thought smugly to himself, but aloud he said.

The owl’s eyes narrowed into triangles, and it asked earnestly, "Is it really the Undead God?"

"Of course it’s real, that whole long spiel I just gave was all true," Negris said with a waist on his hips and pride in his tail.

Silba stood up, looked at Ange, took a deep breath, and pounced over.

Ange was prepared and met its face with the sole of his foot.

While hugging wasn’t allowed, giving a Giant Dragon’s body was still possible because they were also looking for a suitable soul—a soul capable of driving a fifty-meter Giant Dragon was rare and not easy to come by.

Even a reincarnated Giant Dragon needed a strong consciousness; the consciousness of a little fat sheep couldn’t possibly drive a dragon. If it could, they would have just picked any random little fat sheep from the side of the road.

"The question now is, what price are you willing to pay for the body of a Giant Dragon?" Negris asked. frёewebηovel.cѳm

The owl slapped its sides, fluff scattering as it spoke indifferently, "Apart from the feathers on my body, all I have left is my soul, ready to serve you, my king."

A Fire of Soul Oath rose up.

This was the most fundamental requirement; they couldn’t let a fifty-plus-meter behemoth be out of control. At the very least, they needed a loyalty oath, but Negris originally wanted to wring something else out of Silba. However, he soon realized with Silba’s penniless look that squeezing anything out of something that couldn’t even afford a little fat sheep was futile.

Ange received its Soul Flame.

"So, how do you want to transform? Into a Dragon Sorcerer or into a living Black Dragon?" Negris asked.

"Living, living, I used to be a Dragon Sorcerer, why would I go back to that? It’s boring; I want to become a living one," Silba said excitedly.

"But this Black Dragon’s body is already thousands of years old, and after being sealed for so long, it’s unknown how many more years it can live," Negris said.

Silba rolled its ’yellow’ eyes, "I can just wait until it dies of old age, then I can reincarnate as a sorcerer."

"...Your argument makes a lot of sense. Although there’s a success rate for living creatures’ reincarnation, even if it fails, I guess you have ways to gather the Dragon Soul again. After all, it’s a couple of thousand years for free," Negris said, somewhat annoyed.

Silba nodded its owl head, an expression of ’you’re absolutely right’ on its face.

"Now then..." Negris turned to Anthony.

Transferring a consciousness into a living thing was Anthony’s expertise, something even the Undead Empire couldn’t achieve.

Anthony said, "Now we need to find a reincarnation altar, a large one. If it’s too small, it won’t fit the dragon corpse. And let’s also reincarnate Abuke. Do you know where there is a large reincarnation altar?"

The last question was directed at Silba, who suddenly looked a bit troubled yet relieved, "I do happen to know of one, but it’s probably been desolate for many years, and I don’t know if it can still be used."

"Where is it?"

"In the Hall of the Undead God."

"Which city’s Hall of the Undead God?"

"Of course it’s the one on the Resting Plains."

"..."

...

"Have you forgotten what we came here to do? We came here to test my ability to negate truths, and now you’re telling me we’re going to the Resting Plains? What kind of place is that? That is the domain of death—are we going there to die?" Grey couldn’t understand and began to ramble as soon as she sat in the vehicle.

"Yeah, we’re already dead, right? If you send us over there, isn’t it just ’sending to death’?" Feiti said as he rattled his ribs satisfactorily with his hand, pleased with his line of thinking.

Grey didn’t care that he was the Lord of Mourning, and shot him an annoyed glance, adding, "What you’re talking about is called a funeral, not sending to death. I should just bury you when we get back."

Anthony asked with a smile, "You seem to have a strong aversion to the Resting Plains, are you afraid?"

"Of course, I’m afraid. Aren’t you scared? You’re the Pope of Light. If you’re surrounded by the Undead, they could smash your bones to pieces and slurp the marrow inside, then smacking their lips, say, ’Mm, tastes of Holy Light.’" Grey retorted grumpily.

Anthony promptly wrote something down on a piece of paper.

"What are you writing?" Negris asked curiously.

"Oh, that joke’s good; I’m copying it down," Anthony joked.

Several heads peered over, showing no concept of not peeking at what someone else has written; they saw some words on the paper, and at the newest part, there was ’resistance,’ but not the joke he mentioned.

"What’s this?" Negris asked, puzzled.

"I’m organizing some psychological profiles. After all, we are not from here, and some of our preconceived ideas could be biased and not representative of the local sentiments, leading to misjudgments. Judging from Grey’s reaction, she’s highly resistant to the idea of the Resting Land. Why is that? Could it be an overabundance of negative information, or is it just fear from not understanding?" Anthony explained.

Grey blinked and frowned, then after a long pause, she said, "It’s probably because I’ve heard too many negative things. That detail about slurping bone marrow I just mentioned was something I heard, and even though I know full well the Undead don’t eat anything, I couldn’t help but think that way and used it as a joke to counter you."

She also realized something was off and paused before asking, "What is a psychological profile?"

"As you are a Mage, I’ll explain it in terms of magic. It’s a kind of model for sorcery that helps me analyze people’s psyches, making it easy to categorize them," Anthony clarified.

"Oh? And what does my portrait look like?" Grey curiously asked.

Anthony smiled slightly, "Competitive."

Grey felt like she was sitting on pins and needles. She suddenly felt as if she was stripped naked and seen through, even though she never showed any signs of competitiveness. When she was with them, she always acted like an obedient child. How could he see through her?

Ever since she was young, more than one person had said this about her, but those were her relatives and friends who had been around for many years. It was normal for them to see through her. But how long had she known Anthony? Could he read minds?

Grey couldn’t help but scoot away a little.

As soon as she scooted away, others crowded around her. Feiti raised his hand and asked, "What about me? Me? What does my portrait look like?"

The Little Angel also asked, "Ao!"

The Little Zombie also asked, "Ao ao!"

The Giant Cat also asked, "Ao woo!"

Amidst the clamor, it took quite an effort to calm down these creatures who didn’t need portraits to be transparent, and only then did Anthony say, "So, someone deliberately made up quite a few rumors about the Undead, letting them spread unchecked to damage the reputation of the Undead."

Negris frowned, "The Sorcerer Alliance?"

Anthony shook his head, "It’s not necessarily their doing. You see, sentient creatures have a strong inclination to make up, denigrate, and intimidate others to satisfy their own inner needs. Old John under the village tree can make up a rumor about Skeletons eating people just to scare kids, and then after it’s passed from mouth to mouth, it easily spreads across the Plane."

"That makes sense." Negris instantly understood since he himself took great pleasure in playing pranks on others: "So what’s the real situation in the Resting Plains? Is it dangerous for us to go there?"

Silba responded, "Dangerous my foot, it would be our good fortune to find something moving if we go there."

"Half a Plane is so vast, and there may not even be tens of thousands of sentient Undead, mostly clustered around a few key strongholds. The mindless skeletons and remains also consolidate in a few spots. The more there are, the thicker the Breathing Soil becomes. They generally don’t stray on their own, or they decay easily, so it’s tough to run into one that’s active."

Negris said, "That’s true, and even if we encounter any, it’s no big deal. Just let Feiti show his face and scare them away."

"Uh, if Feiti shows his face, the whole Undead Empire would be alerted, and then we’d be the ones running, or we’d be surrounded by onlookers," Anthony said.

"Feiti can just wear some Soul Armor, scare them with his soul, hehe," Negris’s malicious enjoyment was back again.

"Let’s go, with so many Undead Souls, the Resting Plains should rightly be our home. Nothing to be afraid of, but Grey, you don’t need to go. You can look around here and see if there’s any field that validates the negation of truth," Anthony said.

Grey insisted, unconvincingly, "No, I want to go too. I want to see for myself if the Resting Plains are as terrifying as the legends say.

After finishing talking, she saw everyone’s peculiar gazes turned toward her, and she suddenly realized with a start – wasn’t this her competitive nature revealing itself without her knowing?

...

Beyond the deathline, on the road to the Resting Plains, an Undead Warhorse was cursing as it dragged a cart: "You called me out just to pull a cart? What do you think I am? What do you think I am?"

Anthony, leading the Warhorse, had an apologetic smile. He was wearing Soul Armor and bore no resemblance to the Pope of Light.

The Little Zombie, Ange, Abuke, Feiti, and others, all had their Soul Armor on, walking beside the cart shrouded in dark miasma, while the Little Angel, Negris, and Silba, who were inconvenient to disguise, were sitting inside the cart.

Travelling like this on the road, no one could deny they looked like Undead creatures.

Indeed, after walking for two or three days beyond the deathline, they hadn’t encountered any ’living’ Undead creatures, only occasionally some Ghost Tourers floating by in the sky. Instead, they passed a few human towns.

"Why are there human towns on this side of the deathline?" Negris asked, puzzled.

"Because no one here collects taxes, so those who can’t survive elsewhere flee to this side," Silba said.

"Ah, just like the Bridgehead Town of Serene in the Land of Fallen. Giant Cat, do you still remember your Divine Master?"

"Ao woo~" The Giant Cat lazily responded.

Human towns disappeared after entering the Resting Plains. Occasionally, they could see Skeleton Zombies wandering and Breathing Soil patches appearing sporadically on the ground, like mottled spots on the earth.

"Didn’t you say it was hard to encounter ’living’ ones on the road? Didn’t you say that low-level Skeleton Zombies all gathered in a few places? Why are there so many here?" Negris smacked Silba on the head, annoyed.

Silba wore a look of innocence, "I don’t know either. Look how thick this Breathing Soil is. When did this place become a hub? It wasn’t like this six hundred years ago; back then it was grassland."

"Kvada, how many years has it been since you came back?"

"Uh, even if I did come back, I wouldn’t run around everywhere, where would I get the energy to wander aimlessly?" Silba wanted to cry.

However, they were only low-level Skeleton Zombies lacking intelligence. Upon seeing Ange and the others, they scattered in a panicked rush, allowing the group to reach the Hall of the Undead God without incident.

But all that was left was a pile of ruins; the main hall of the Undead Temple had collapsed ten years ago, though it had been abandoned for centuries before that.

Just as they thought there were no living creatures around, a whooshing sound suddenly started.

From behind a collapsed pillar, a Silver Skeleton emerged, carrying a broom and sweeping toward them. The whooshing sound came from the broom. On seeing Ange and the group, it cocked its head.

"A Bone Priest? No, that’s not the aura of a Bone Priest. Why does Your Majesty always like to use Skeletons as temple Priests? Aren’t you afraid they’ll bring the temple to ruin? Uh— Oh, it’s already collapsed, never mind then." Negris rambled on.

The Silver Skeleton tilted its head as it observed Ange and the others and then slowly turned the broom upside down, transforming the brush into a blade.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆novelkiss