Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

After the Rebirth Altar was abandoned, the cave it was located in was sealed off. Led by an old human named Green Wood, a group of people arrived at the cave which was completely integrated with the mountain and rocks.

“Bronze Dragon Lord, the Rebirth Altar you mentioned is likely here. The demons used to prevent us from coming near, so I cannot be certain. Sir, did you come from Witch City?” Green Wood subtly asked.

“We came from the World Transit Station.” Negris casually replied.

“World Transit Station?” Green Wood was unable to recall where he had heard the somewhat distant name from.

Having confirmed that there indeed was a cave behind the soil layers, they decided to start digging. Green Wood courteously suggested, “Sir, shall I call for help? It’s difficult to dig as this place has been buried for a very long time.”

However, by the time he brought people back, a big hole had been dug. Green

Wood, who had been away for less than five minutes, stood there in a daze. “Wha…what happened?”

There was no need to call for others to dig a hole. Little Zombie was currently a humanoid digger, with two hoes attached to his hands, he could easily dig a large pit to store food within an hour.

But the years-old chunks of soil were too hard to dig. Ange stepped on it several times. After using the Soil Loosening Technique to loosen up the soil, it became easier to dig.

Upon entering, they found a Rebirth Altar that was almost perfectly intact, except for a few broken columns.

The quality of the architecture of the Undead Empire was quite good, including the World Transit Station. The passing of thousands of years had not left many traces. If it were the human world, it wouldn’t need a thousand years, just a hundred or two for it to be so ruined that the original form couldn’t be recognized.

Near the Rebirth Altar, Negris found a small Teleportation Array. Upon careful inspection, he noticed fresh energy fluctuations remained on it. It was evident that this Teleportation Array had been utilized in the near past.

“Yes, this is the place. Those two Black Warriors came from here. They didn’t use the Rebirth Altar, but were delivered here from another plane using the Teleportation Array. This is a fully functional Teleportation Array with a

passive beacon function. As long as you know its location, you can directly send things like the Delivery Magic Circle. Those Black Warriors were very familiar with this place,” said Negris.

After checking the surroundings, he discovered another passageway leading to the outside valley at the top, clearly made forcibly by someone. Moreover, it was fresh. From the fresh traces, Negris could sense some traces of Holy Light.

“The skeleton was that of an Angel who was teleported here? The two Black Warriors followed the Angel? What’s going on? The correlation seems complicated,” Negris deduced from the current information. He immediately felt overwhelmed. How did the Black Warriors and the Angel appear to be allied?

Just as Negris was feeling troubled, a fluctuation came from behind. Turning around, he was shocked and yelled, “Kvada, what are you guys doing?!”

While he was assessing the situation, Ange and the others managed to stand up the broken columns of the Rebirth Altar and even started operating it.

Is this how things were supposed to happen? Isn’t this like a horse breaking a leg, having the leg glued back together, and then continuing to run?

“Have you gone mad? The column is broken, and so is the energy circuit. Standing it up won’t restore it. You must be joking. The energy will not be able to circulate, and it could easily explode… explode… explode.”

Negris’ voice gradually faded as he saw that the column that was stood up was glowing. The magical patterns began to slowly extend upward from the base, crossing the broken position, and reaching the top of the column. Yet, the explosion he had anticipated didn’t occur.

Negris almost bit his own tongue. He couldn’t believe it when he came closer. The broken column was indeed glowing with energy passing through it. When he checked carefully, where was the trace of the break?

“Kvada, automatic repair technology! No wonder the architectures of the Empire have such good quality. I guess they all have the automatic repair technology. Once it operates, it can automatically repair the cracks,” Negris scratched a mark on the empty space above and watched as the mark lightened and disappeared.

“You had known about the automatic repair function of the altar earlier, right?

That’s why you dared to do this,” Negris said, breathing a sigh of relief as he asked Ange.

Ange tilted his head in confusion and continued to input Soul Crystals into the Rebirth Altar.

“Er… I guess he actually didn’t know. He’s just really bold,” Negris scratched his head, seemingly annoyed.

The Rebirth Altar operated on Soul Energy. It didn’t require much energy for a single run. However, it had been abandoned for a thousand years, particularly with a few broken columns and countless unseen cracks, Ange exhausted several times the Soul Energy to make it operate.

A dark blue glow emanated from the center of the altar like ripples spreading to its edge, surging into the six columns. The columns lit up simultaneously, responding to the other columns and interweaving into a hexagram pattern.

The hexagram glowed to its limits, then dimmed. The glow receded from the columns, shrinking from the edges toward the center of the altar, waning and waxing repetitively.

Ange pulled out the soul of the Wraith Warrior he had harvested outside the control room a few days ago and placed it in the altar.

Similar to the Black Warriors, Wraith Warriors were also artificially-created undead. The only distinction was that one type had wisdom, and the other didn’t, much like the difference between zombies and witches.

The ripples spread to the edge and flooded into the six columns. As there was a soul on the altar, the columns reaching their brightest did not fade but each emitted a beam that struck the soul of the Wraith Warrior.

“Quick, take advantage of this opportunity to engrave your Soul Brand.” Negris suggested.

The soul of the Wraith Warrior had already undergone physical form once. It didn’t need to go through the rebirth process again. It only needed to replenish its soul energy to regain its physical form and become a Wraith Warrior.

However, this was a process of full transformation with a chance of failure. Even if successful, its memory would be reset.

But this didn’t matter to Wraith Warriors since they originally didn’t possess wisdom. It wasn’t significant whether their memories were retained or not. The moment their memories were reset was also when their souls were the most vulnerable, an ideal moment to imprint the Soul Brand.

At Negris’ urging, Ange cast a Soul Brand. The Wraith Warrior instantly fell with a “plop”, rolled a few times after hitting the ground, and then started emitting thick black smoke.

The black smoke twisted and swung, materializing into a shadow wielding dual blades. It was the Wraith Warrior Ange had seen before.

The Wraith Warrior lacked intelligence and even its memories had been wiped clean. As a result, it stood hazily in its place, oblivious to its previous mission.

Negris chuckled, “Well, we’ve got a Wraith Warrior for free, let me show you how to make the most of it — Armorization.

Following Negris’s instructions, Ange instructed the Wraith Warrior to attach itself to his body and proceeded to adjust it, transforming it into an armor.

Both Wraith Warrior and Black Warrior possess the ability to materialize. Once they materialize and attach to the surface of the body, they become armor.

However, no one would use a Black Warrior for armorization, as it has intellect and attaching it to the body feels strange. The Wraith Warrior, without these concerns, makes an ideal choice.

After some adjustments, Ange now bore an armor that looked exceedingly ugly, as if globs of mud were smeared and solidified onto his body.

Negris covered his face, “Do you have no sense of aesthetics at all? This is so ugly, adjust it a bit, make it appear more appealing.”

Ange tilted his head, it doesn’t look good?

“Stop, have you ever seen anyone wear armor? Adjust it based on the ones you’ve seen which should all look better than this ‘mud mess’ of yours.”

Adjust it based on others? Ange tilted his head and began to recall the people he’d seen in armor while manipulating spectral motions of the Wraith Warrior to adjust it.

The Wraith Warrior then began sprouting spikes which clung onto Angel s body, layer after layer, covering his entire body. Especially around the shoulders and underarms, which looked substantially rigid. Lastly, on Ange’s head, the Wraith Warrior materialized into… a straw hat.

“Kvada, what kind of armor is this!? This looks like a scarecrow’s raincoat! A raincoat!” The straw hat instantly changed Negris’s perception about the armor.

“I’ve seen it before.” Ange stated, the implication being ‘you told me to model it after what I’ve seen’.

“What about the heavy armor of a swordsman? or even the heavy armor of a shield bearer would do too.”

Ange tilted his head again: “Not attractive.”

“Huh, not attractive? Your raincoat and straw hat could be more… attractive?” Negris’s voice trailed off as he struggled to believe his own words.

A raincoat is essentially straw bound together and draped over the body, appearing yellowish-black and bristly. Definitely not pleasing to the eye.

However, Angel s raincoat had actually been formed by the armorization of the Wraith Warrior. The spectral straw melded into his body to form a single entity after attachment and did not bristle. Its uniform black appearance combined with the scale-like pattern did make it look quite handsome.

Negris hesitated for a moment, then suggested Ange remove the hideous straw hat and don the Demon Steel Helmet that Lan had previously given him, which instantly brought a unifying style to the armor.

“This looks much better now.” Negris praised.

Ange also found it pretty good. He fiddled around the ribbed area of the chest, no longer worried about being too close to the Angel Skeleton or the Bronze Dragon, and having their wings get stuck in his armor.

The Little Zombie came over, poked Ange with his finger, and then pointed to himself: “Aou.

Ange nodded, then reactivated the Reincarnation Altar and extracted the soul of the Black Warrior.

However, as soon as the soul was tossed into the altar, it screamed and fled,

“Don’t, don’t refine me, I surrender, I surrender!”

Surrender? Ange tilted his head, which was unneeded as he just wanted to get an armor for the Little Zombie. He then grabbed the fleeing soul of the Black Warrior and tossed it back in.

“Don’t refine me! I agree to whatever terms you have, please, I present you with the Soul Oath, don’t refine me!” The Black Warrior wailed as it tried to escape from the altar again. A flame representing a Soul Oath promptly appeared.

Seeing how pitifully the Black Warrior cried out, Negris couldn’t bear it any longer and suggested, “Alright, accept his soul. It’s just like inscribing a soul brand. It doesn’t make much of a difference anyway if he is a Black Warrior.

Whether you refine it in the altar or not.”

“Yes, yes, there’s no difference, accept my soul, let me armorize or dematerialize, whatever pose you want.” The Black Warrior’s tone was pitifully humble.

No difference? Alright then, Ange accepted the Soul Oath.

The Black Warrior sighed in relief and began to complain, “Are all prisoners treated this ruthlessly now? No chance for surrender? Not even thinking about extracting some valuable information before trying to refine it immediately?”

Negris chuckled, “Are you privy to information related to gardening? If not, I don’t think it’s worth much.”

The Black Warrior paused and stared at Negris, “Gardening? Are you serious?”

Negris nodded. He now understood Ange’s traits. If it wasn’t related to gardening, Ange wouldn’t consider it valuable. Information about the

Reincarnation Altar isn’t even as valuable as a sack of fertilizer to him.

Although slightly skeptical, the Black Warrior said, “Speaking of gardening, I indeed have some valuable information..