Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

Negris exclaimed silently, returning his thoughts to the Temple of Rest quickly, controlling his Bronze Book to fly back to the farms.

Sure enough, just as he had suspected, the fields were filled with a type of grain never seen before. They were in full bloom, each stalk tall and robust, and the panicles thick and long, indicating a high-yielding variety.

A name flashed through Negris’s mind: Magic Rice!

“Kvada, you’ve been restoring the Bone Dragon these days, but your other hand never stopped. So, you were actually planting Magic Rice!” Negris said irritably.

They had only found a small bag of Magic Rice on the Spring Breeze Druid Loui, insufficient for such a large area. It was clear that Ange had already harvested and planted a second batch.

“Can you not give me a heads up next time!?” Ange always managed to conjure up an array of things without warning, not giving Negris, his strategist, a chance to prepare.

“Oh.” Ange responded, carefully transferring the pollen collected from outside onto several Magic Rice plants.

Negris realized that Ange had divided the fields of Magic Rice into small plots. Each plot containing only four plants, and pollen from the same wild grass plant was used solely on these four Magic Rice plants. Excess pollen was discarded, to avoid cross-contamination with other plots.

Looking at tens of thousands of small plots in the farm, Negris asked nervously, “You’re not planning to crossbreed these plants with ten thousand different kinds of wild grass, are you?”

“No,” Ange shook his head.

Just as Negris was about to sigh in relief, Ange responded, “Ten thousand plants per batch.”

“Puff!” Are there really going to be second and third batches? Thinking of Ange’s unyielding nature to plant crops for a thousand years, if he couldn’t breed a good seed, would he repeat this for a thousand years?

“Please, we’re just here to dig some fertilizer. It’s time to go back now,” said Negris in exasperation. He found Ange’s casual approach frustrating.

Originally, they just wanted to dig some dragon soil. But when they saw bird droppings, they dug for those too. Encountering Magic Rice, he began planting it, and upon finding Bone Dragon, he unearthed bones. Now, he wanted to invest time and energy in cultivation without any planning. They initially planned to meet with the undead of Dark City, but now that the time was approaching, he seemed uninterested in returning.

Ange didn’t respond.

Having figured out Ange’s nature, Negris understood ‘no response’ was not due to him not hearing but a sign of his ‘rejection’. Negris quickly tried to coax him, “The people from Dark City are almost here. Let’s go back and greet them first, and then return to breed the crops, okay?”

“Okay, when I’m finished,” Ange responded quickly this time.

After collecting all the pollen from the grass plants in this cultivated wetland, Ange took flight, landing on the back of the still-hovering Bone Dragon, and directed it to fly towards Hope Oasis.

Without the Bone Dragon, they could have used the Teleportation Array to return. But now that they had a Bone Dragon, they had to fly back. It wasn’t that far, according to the information from John, Hope Oasis was about two hundred kilometers away.

Owing to the vast amount of Soul Flame that the villagers had devoted, Ange left behind about twenty tons of food; enough for everyone to eat for a while.

Negris even taught them a few ways to process reeds, encouraging them to produce more reed products for the Oasis in exchange for food. In the future, a road might be built to connect the Oasis to Fallen Dragon Lake, making it easier to transport bird manure and goods.

If they had the power to clear out the Fishman Water Monsters in the Fallen Dragon Lake, the fishing resources alone would be enough to feed a lot of people.

By the time they flew back, evening had arrived, and it was pitch-dark before they even reached the Oasis. But this was the time when the undead were most active, the Bone Dragon included, which seemed to flap its wings with more vigor.

Brooks noticed this and couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t the undead supposed to fear sunlight? Why do you all seem unaffected?”

Negris shrugged, “We have someone covering for us.”

He had already noticed this anomaly and even had Ange pull a regular skeleton from inside the Temple of Rest to expose it to sunlight. It didn’t last long under the sun before it started to fall apart and begin frantically burrowing into the sand.

Upon further analysis, Negris realized that all the undead who were unaffected by the sun all had a soul connection to Ange. Without this connection, they would indeed be destroyed by sun exposure.

The normal undead typically were highly susceptible to sunlight. Only they, the unconventional undead, would be running about under the bright sun.

Upon hearing ‘someone’s got your back,’ Brooks instinctively glanced at Ange.

Just then, a brief whistling sound resonated, evidently a warning signal.

Ange and the others looked out, only to see a long convoy moving between the dunes in the darkness, the warning signal was emitted by them.

The whole convoy was instantly in motion, all well-trained, they collapsed on the spot, then rolled away in all directions, with one quick push, they squeezed into the loose sand and gravel. Only some vehicles and horses, which could not hide, remained on the ground. There was no sign of the long convoy that was there just a few seconds ago.

Everyone was stunned, and even Brooks couldn’t help but exclaim, “How professional! what are they hiding from? Are they being pursued by enemies?”

Everyone exchanged glances. Only the whooshing sound of the Bone Dragon’s wings, echoing far away in the silent darkness, was left.

At that point, everyone snaps back. Negris remarked, “Eh, they’re hiding from us.”

“Who are these people? Travelling wee hours of the morning.” A mildly embarrassed Negris asked, “Did we scare them? Maybe we should go down…”

Before he finished speaking, Ange suddenly yelled, and the Bone Dragon instantly lurched to one side, flipping sideways. A strong arrow, as thick as a forearm, pierced through the dragon’s wings, ripping a large hole. If the dragon hadn’t swerved slightly, the arrow might have lodged in its bone.

Only after the arrow flew past did they hear the sound of a bowstring being tightly stretched; this arrow was faster than sound.

“How dare they shoot at us?” Brooks erupted in anger and instantly jumped down, heavily landing on the sandy ground.

Sand whooshed out in all directions due to the impact.

But the sand, like being in a liquid, dramatically slowed down and stopped in a short while.

“A Delaying Technique?” Brooks blinked, his pupils contracted.

The type of magic wasn’t important, what was important was the mage who cast the Delaying Technique. Such subtle skill in casting magic wasn’t something an ordinary magician could achieve. However, Brooks hadn’t sensed any magic waves. Could it be that a magician had cast a spell under his very eyes, completely unnoticed?

Just as Brooks’ eyes contracted, a Shadow Long Blade emerged from the ground, aiming straight for between his legs.

“Ha!” Brooks yelled, and the entire ground exploded in a shower, his body rocketing up into the sky as if blown up by the explosion.

A shadow, wielding a Shadow Long Blade, was knocked from the ground. The blade twirled in his hands, clinking against the airborne sand and rocks.

A weird scene, that defied the laws of physics, unfolded. The shadow, as if stepping on an invisible stairway, swiftly pursued Brooks with the force created by repelling the flying sandstone.

Brooks had committed a big taboo for wizards, letting a melee might guy, who was perhaps just a level behind, get close without any followers around.

In long-range encounters, a Magic Tutor could beat ten high-level Sword Saints, but in a close combat situation, a Magic Tutor was as vulnerable as a chicken in the hands of a high-level Sword Saint.

Luckily, Brooks was not a helpless, weak wizard but a Gold Dragon equally formidable in close combat, who instantly reached out with a claw.

Brooks’ fingers suddenly grew bigger and longer, revealing sharp dragon claws, which startled the shadow. With one foot stepping on thin air, he twisted his body agilely in mid-air. His Long Blade avoided Brooks’ claw and, without changing its trajectory, aimed for Brooks’ neck.

The pitch-black Shadow Long Blade created sizzling sounds as it cut through the air.

Ange swooped down, slashing with the Scythe of Death.

Upon seeing the Scythe of Death, the shadowy enemy hesitated a bit.

Just then, Negris’ voice rang out in a timely manner, “Hold back for now, it’s a Black Warrior of the Emperor level, possibly from the Dark City.”