Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton - Chapter 997

Chapter 997: Chapter 566: My God, Can Even the Undead Godhood be Cultivated?_2 Chapter 997: Chapter 566: My God, Can Even the Undead Godhood be Cultivated?_2 “`
A sturdy defensive line is required to maximally consume the living forces on both sides. Before this stronghold has solidified, the Sorcerer Alliance did not wish it to be so quickly overrun.

Anthony, of course, understood the other party’s “well-intentioned” motives, which is why the real stronghold was in the mountains within the forest, and these outside were merely for show.

However, even a feint had to look the part; it could not be empty, as anyone could then see the problem. Therefore, Anthony’s method was to reclaim farmlands, on a large scale. The larger the scale of the farmlands, the greater the cost of abandonment, and the less likely the ruse was to be suspected.

But what they did not know was that reclaiming farmlands had a minimal cost to Ange. Even if all the land nearby was cultivated, it would not cost much.

The only problem was that while reclamation was easy, Ange would not be pleased to destroy it; he would have to be told in advance that these fields were reclaimed to be destroyed.

However, after Gonia had reclaimed part of the farmland, she found that the seeds sprinkled had soon withered away and could not sprout at all.

Having nothing better to do, she went to see what the problem was.

Upon checking, there was no issue with the farmlands; the immersion of the breath of death had not reached a severity that would affect the crops’ growth. Similar to the Land of Fallen, as long as the breath of death had not become concentrated enough to form Breathing Soil, it would not impact crop growth.

“If there’s nothing wrong with the soil, then it must be the seeds. Aren’t you using the seeds we provided?” Negris asked, looking at Gonia, puzzled.

“Yes, we are using the seeds you gave us, Magic Rice No.3,” Gonia responded.

Like Saline Demon Rice No.3, Magic Rice No.3 was also a specially cultivated variety that required the ‘blessing’ of Little Sapling to sprout. The only difference was that it did not require saline water for irrigation.

“Bring me the seeds to inspect,” Negris requested.

As soon as the seeds were brought out, Ange sensed the problem and pointed at them, stating, “Holy Light.”

Negris was surprised and asked, “Did you purify it with Holy Light?”

Gonia replied, “Yes, I was afraid there might be insects in them, so I purified them. We always used to sow seeds this way before; the germination rate is much higher than for seeds that haven’t been purified, and they seldom get diseased. Is something wrong?”

Negris couldn’t help but smile wryly, “You not only purified with Holy Light, but you also used Holy Light that is not from the God of Balance, right?”

Gonia, slightly embarrassed, said, “For such a small matter, I didn’t dare to trouble our Lord, so I used my own divine power to cast the Purification.”

“It’s right not to trouble Him, but there’s no need for Purification. The seeds had already been purified when given to you. If you purify them again, the residual Holy Light will conflict with the breath of death here, and once planted, they would be scorched to death,” Negris explained.

“Oh, is that so? I was afraid that there was too much breath of death here and it would contaminate the seeds, so I purified them twice more,” Gonia said, feeling chagrined.

This sort of basic mistake would not be made by a Divine Light Magic User from the Master Plane. People like Gonia who had been frozen three thousand years ago did not recognize the Undead, for the Undead King had not yet come to this world at that time; naturally, they were unaware of their characteristics.

The seeds were taken out and re-purified by Ange, with pure Holy Light removing those with ‘impurities,’ and then planted again.

Since there were people watching from all directions, such as the magicians’ ladders in the sky, Ange did not use the Instant Death Halo and waited a few hours before checking. Surely enough, most of the seeds were showing white and had become viable.

It was already dark by then, with not a speck of light in the night, pitch black all around, and a wind blowing continuously from the direction of the dead line.

Ange, sensing the winds, suddenly tilted his head and said, “The Undead Tide, leave quickly.”

Everyone immediately sprang into action since there was an emergency plan in place. In less than twenty minutes, everyone had retreated up the mountain and into the dense forest.

A few minutes later, a wave of black fog surged through the darkness, overrunning Gonia and others’ simple fences and alert lines, invading the camp. Black Cavaliers charged out of the black fog and then stared dumbfounded at the empty camp: “Nobody’s here?”

“It seems they found out about us and retreated into the forest,” a companion of the Black Cavalier said.

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“Chase them!”

But as they pursued the enemy into the forest, they found themselves going around in circles, soon returning to their starting point, unable to locate the enemy.

“This forest is strange; let’s go in from above.”

The Black Cavaliers advanced through the air, entering the forest from above the treetops, but after dozens of loops, they still couldn’t spot the enemy beneath the thick canopy. Instead, a few who had heard noises and descended into the woods got lost among the trees, and incredibly, they too found themselves back where they started.

Even the slowest among them realized that there was indeed something odd about this forest.

Once everyone had safely retreated into the forest, Anthony received a message from the Sorcerer Alliance, “Be careful, an Undead Tide is forming and heading your way. There are flying units approaching us, and the ladder is about to be activated. Stay alert on your own.”

Annoyed, Anthony cursed, “By the time your warning comes, we’ll all be dead. Have you all been asleep?”

“Ah? The Black Cavaliers have already entered the camp? Oh, sorry, sorry, I didn’t notice; it’s too dark.” The other side hurriedly apologized.

Anthony’s face darkened even further after the apology, and after cutting off communication, he cursed, “Damn it, they did it on purpose.”

Negris was stunned for a moment, “On purpose? What do you mean they did it on purpose? They apologized, didn’t they? Did they purposely not warn us? What good does that do them?”

“There are plenty of benefits. First, they want to test whether we’ve detected the capabilities of these Black Cavaliers, who seem to be the attendants of Arambrough; we’ve seen them on Prison of Death Island and at the Undead Temple. Second, they’re testing the combat strength of Gonia and her companions, to estimate the level of that ‘thirty million-strong Expeditionary Army’ I’ve been talking about.”

“Third, if we can’t handle it, they’ll come down to rescue us and, by doing so, owe us a favor. Fourth…” Anthony analyzed point by point.

Negris, with wide eyes and slack jaw, couldn’t help but remark, “You humans are so complicated.”

“No, this must be Cabrela’s idea, that damn Goblin,” Anthony said.

The Council of the Undead would never stand by as a Church of Light stronghold was established on the edge of the death line; they were bound to attack sooner or later, and everyone was mentally prepared for it. However, the scale of the movement was beyond anyone’s expectation.

Once discovered, the Undead Tide stopped concealing its movements. All night long, they mobilized, and the howling of souls came from the direction of the death line, continuing until dawn.

Ange observed this all night long. The number of souls kept increasing, and from the direction of the death line, he could see countless soul flames, dense as a sea of stars, blanketing the ground.

Such a howling of souls was comforting to Ange, who couldn’t help but feel the urge to respond, scaring Anthony enough to send Gonia away and then have the God of Life isolate them.

Taking a deep breath, exhaling slowly, taking another deep breath, and exhaling again, a dense fog of Breath of Death swiftly diffused around Ange.

As the Mist of Breath of Death thickened, nearby flowers, grasses, and trees began to wither, wilt, and die.

The God of Life looked unconcerned at the Mist of Breath of Death; such things obviously couldn’t harm it. Rather, it looked over at the Little Sapling with a worried gaze.

The Little Sapling, unfazed, waved its True Leaves, drawing over the Mist of Breath of Death and condensing it into black dewdrops on its leaves.

Having coexisted with the Undead God, the Little Sapling was no longer a proper Tree of Life.

With each breath in and out, Ange unexpectedly resonated with the distant soul howls.

Negris was profoundly shocked and approached Anthony, saying, “This Dead Skull, is he cultivating? Is this the method of cultivating Undead Godhood?”

My goodness, can Undead Godhood also be cultivated?