Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

“No, we have to compete, we can’t cancel it.” Vaguli was almost crying.

Now he was the one begging for the competition. If he won, the other side would take his harvester blueprints and invest in his next project. If he lost, he would have to pay ransom or sell himself. This was even more unscrupulous than someone selling him and then making him help count the money. Needless to say, it was definitely set up by those ruthless goblin merchants.

Thousands of miles away, the Silver Coin Commerce sneezed.

“The first competition, ploughing. The engineering team with the gear winner Vaguli and his all-purpose seed sowing and harvesting machine will compete against the manual team led by Little Zombie.”

Seeing the Little Zombie fully clad in Soul Armor, looking mysteriously formidable, Vaguli quickly said, “The advantage of machinery is its automatic and durable operation, as we agreed, each of us will plough one hundred acres.”

“Alright, alright, one hundred acres. How about a little bit more? What about two hundred acres?” Negris said generously.

“Okay, two hundred acres.” As Vaguli agreed, he pulled out his machinery from his toolbox. It was a strange mechanism with two big wheels, dragging a large plough blade behind it.

Upon command, the Little Zombie immediately started dog-paddling, the dirt flipping and flying impressively.

Vaguli leisurely started his machine, after setting it, it began to move slowly and straight ahead, the ploughing blade turned the soil deep.

Vaguli then casually set up a reclining chair and a sun umbrella and started boiling milk tea.

A day and night passed, and the idle Vaguli was awakened. Negris announced, “Little Zombie has finished ploughing two hundred acres. The first round, is a victory for the manual team.”

“Impossible!” Vaguli screamed in disbelief. He ran into the field ploughed by Little Zombie and saw it was indeed all turned over. It was obvious from the uneven depths and ragged traces that it was hand-ploughed. It looked like it had been gnawed by a dog, but it was indeed overturned.

His machinery had only ploughed around ninety acres, less than half.

“The second round is sowing. Ange for the manual team, and Vaguli and his machinery for the engineering team will sow one hundred acres each onto their own ploughed fields. Begin now.”

Vaguli hastily changed the back towing struts of his machine from the plough to a seeder. After he started it and let the machine sow by itself, he ran to Ange’s field to observe. But with just one glance, he was in despair.

Ange casually tossed the seeds into the sky, and they dispersed neatly into the soil, as if an invisible hand was controlling them. Then the seeds were covered with soil, and drops of water fell.

Not only had Ange sown the seeds, but he also watered them. In the blink of an eye, he had sown ten acres of land, whereas Vaguli’s machine had just barely finished the first row. Although it could sow six rows at once, it couldn’t compete with Ange’s speed.

After losing two rounds, Vaguli was deeply hit. He had always believed that the advantages of machinery were unbeatable. However powerful a wizard or a swordsman might be, they wouldn’t compare to machinery because machines didn’t get tired, you just added a Demon Crystal and it could run day and night.

Wizards and swordsmen could not possibly farm, but even if they did, Vaguli was not afraid. But he didn’t expect that Ange and Little Zombie also wouldn’t get tired, they could also work day and night.

Ange finished sowing a hundred acres and also finished the remaining hundred acres left. There was no need to compete anymore because Vaguli’s machine had only sown twenty acres just now, which was already fast, but in comparison to Ange, it seemed as slow as a snail.

“Okay, I lost. We don’t need to compete for the last round of harvesting. You can dispose of me however you wish, I don’t have any money for a ransom.” Vaguli said despondently.

“No, how can we not compete? Without finishing the competition, how would we know where the advantages and disadvantages of your machinery lie? Maybe it has exceptionally high harvesting capabilities?” Negris said.

“How do you want to compete? Wait for next year when the crops have grown before we compete?” Vaguli said, annoyed.

“Move away, Ange!” After Vaguli moved out of the radiant range, Negris informed Ange.

Ange stepped down, and the seeds he sowed began to grow wildly.

An all-too-familiar process completed, and three hours later, the crops were ready for harvesting.

Vaguli was dumbfounded, his eyes darting back and forth from Ange to Negris.

“Stop looking and get to work. You harvest this hundred acres and Ange handles the other two hundred acres. Let’s see who’s faster.”

“Okay!” Vaguli suddenly replied energetically.

As a result, it didn’t take a glance to see that Ange was running around with a sickle and soon harvested all two hundred acres. Meanwhile, Vaguli’s machinery had only managed to cover ten acres.

However, at this moment, the previous look of disappointment had disappeared from his face, replaced by a mix of excitement and suppressed agitation.

Negris said to him, “Well, the three competitions are over, and you’ve lost 3 to 0. Will you pay the ransom or accept the employment?”

“Employment, employment, I have no money, I accept employment.” Vaguli hurriedly replied.

“Oh, your attitude has changed. Have you become proactive?” Negris asked curiously.

“With a simple step, crops instantly mature. If such great figures want to employ me, I’d be mad to refuse. My Lord, you should have shown this trick earlier, there would have been no need for a competition.”

Negris remarked, “You misunderstood. The primary goal of the competition was to evaluate the level of your engineering equipment. Although it’s not as efficient as Ange, the full automation is pretty impressive. Make a few dozen more machines and your efficiency could catch up. Since you’ve accepted employment, the blueprint for the harvester will be considered an invention for official duties, belonging to the Silver Coin Commerce.”

“What? I’ve accepted employment, and the blueprints still go to you? Didn’t you say that if I lost, the harvester would be useless?” Vaguli was dumbfounded again.

“Well, it’s not completely useless. It still has a bit of use.”

While Negris bullied the simple Goblin Engineer, Ange again began to plow the land, then dug a trench and directed the water of the distant lake into it.

The lake water was saline. For the previous crop, Ange directly magic-watered them. Now that he led saline lake water, could it be?

Negris flew over, shocked, and asked, “Ange, has saline Demon Rice been successfully bred?”

After three months and tens of thousands of experiments, Ange successfully cultivated a dozen species of rice varieties that could grow in saline-alkali soil. Based on Magic Rice, they crossbred with saline grass plants.

However, Ange was still unable to determine which one could be considered the real saline Demon Rice. It had to be grown to find out.

If it could merely grow in saline water, that wouldn’t count as a success. It needed to have high yield and resistance to salinity, like Magic Rice and be able to be watered with saline water.

If it could resist salinity and grow in saline-alkali soil but had to be watered with freshwater, that also would be acceptable. It could be grown in saline-alkali fields with freshwater sources, such as the estuary areas of the two rivers in the northwest.

By habit, Ange divided the paddy fields into dozens of plots, directed the lake water into them, sowed the rice seeds, stepped down, and the crops grew up competitively.

After repetitive experiments and comparisons, Ange got three kinds of rice varieties. The first was Saline Demon Rice No.1 with the highest yield, comparable to regular Magic Rice, reaching a yield of 700 catties per acre.

Saline Demon Rice No.2 had the lowest yield of 500 catties per acre, but it was the most resistant to salinity and saline water, was sturdy against lodging and flood-resistant and drought-resistant, with the most tenacious vitality.

Saline Demon Rice No.3 yielded 600 catties per acre. All aspects were moderate, neither good nor bad, but it had a characteristic that couldn’t be judged as good or bad. Its seeds could only germinate after being “blessed” by Little Sapling, and the harvested seeds couldn’t germinate again.

These were the distinct rice varieties that had been screened out, but the other varieties also had their advantages, so Ange planned to continue in-depth research.

For the sake of these researches, the notes left by Spring Breeze Druid Loui had been thoroughly reviewed by Ange, who had learned several Druid Secret Techniques.

At a time when Ange was happily farming, a top-level Teleportation Array communication meeting of the Prime Material Plane was taking place. The attendees included the Truth Mage of the humans, the Dragon Clan Chief, Elf Queen, Pope, two Archbishops, Dwarven God of War…

Just from the attendees, it could be seen how high-level the meeting was, and surprisingly, the meeting mentioned a force that suddenly appeared in the desert oasis, referring to them as Abyss Migrants.

In the meeting, some proposed to expel or annihilate this force that had wandered from the abyss.