Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

Negris actually didn’t want this news to spread, because the Fallen Dragon Lake was the first to discover the insect. If the news spread, it would attract the attention of all planes to the Fallen Dragon Lake, and Ange’s actions there would all be known to others.

Whoever it was, knowing that Ange had cultivated a kind of Magic Rice that could be planted in salt water, the first thought would be to claim it for themselves, especially those coastal countries or those with many salt-alkali lands. This is a Divine Artifact that can rewrite the strength of all forces in the entire continent. It’s a hundred times better than any weapon.

He had hoped to solve this problem by himself, but now, it was too late to resolve. You can’t keep this news secret because of a little concern. It could lead to heavy casualties among humans and elves.

Using the Soul Contact method to notify Lisa and Anthony, instructing them to inform the elves and humans. Then Ange simply stopped caring and started happily collecting insect bodies and burning them to ashes.

Behind the stone door is a large underground space, about tens of thousands of square meters, divided into many sealed small compartments, each enclosure harboring a different species of insects, much like an insect breeding and cultivation base.

In the largest of these spaces, there was a statue of a god. The base of the statue had been wrecked, surrounded by insect corpses. It must have been the insect nest that was destroyed by the female mage.

After searching around, apart from the insect corpses, there wasn’t even a single ghost, the only one who could talk was the slain warrior of the Canopy tribe.

Negris walked around, couldn’t help but ask: “Is this all there is? Where is Hermorthos?”

They came to kill Hermorthos. Ange even brought Titan farmers with him, all tucked away in the Resting Camp. The divine warrior Petersburg was also filled with energy, ready to fight at any time. Is this all they’ve got to face?

At this moment, Ange and Little Angel, Little Zombie, were all gathered in front of the statue, looking up at the statue. Upon hearing Negris’s words, Ange pointed with his hand.

“Hermorthos is in the statue?” Negris, bewildered, looked up at the statue.

The instant his eyes met the statue’s, his entire soul seemed to freeze, unable to formulate a thought. A dominant perception was pouring from the statue’s eyes onto his own soul. The immense divine might seemed like a winter storm, freezing the soul.

The gaze of a God can truly squelch the life out of a weak being.

Of course, Negris wasn’t weak. So, he still managed to say to Ange: “Smash it!”

“Oh.” Ange responded, Little Angel beside him, immediately spread his wings excitedly, only to be pulled back by Ange, causing it to pout in anger.

Ever since they set foot underground, Little Angel had not yet lifted a finger, and it was growing restless. Even Little Zombie got the chance to pick through the insect bodies, while it got nothing.

Ange shook his head resolutely. Then, raising the Hand of Locke on his right, the phantom of Steadfast Locke appeared before Ange. They reached out and clasped hands, their figures merging into one—Ultimate Transformation Technique.

“Isn’t that unnecessary? You use this move just to smash a statue? That’s a total waste.” Negris murmured to himself.

But Ange ignored him, and with the transformation into Steadfast Bone, he crouched down, facing the statue, and bellowed at it. A formidable Soul Impact landed on the statue.

A horrified fluctuation emanated from the consciousness on the statue along with a barely audible shriek.

Bang! Bang-bang-bang! Bang-Bang! From the top to the bottom of the statue, it exploded, just like a series of Magic Eggs had been planted on it, shattering it into grains of dust which scattered all over the ground.

Negris stayed in his murmuring pose, mouth agape: “Bada, did you just Soul Impact a god?”

Not only did he Soul Impact a god, it looked like the god was also injured. Oh my God, this is a battle against gods?

As the statue turned to dust, the consciousness normally cast onto it also disappeared without a trace. Negris could no longer confirm whether the consciousness was injured and how serious the injury was, so he simply cast the thought aside.

From nowhere in the darkness, a hoarse voice let out a painful scream: “Ancient Nest, horrible, stay away!”

The raspy voice, through a series of whispers, carried its words far and wide.

Having cleaned up all the insect corpses by incinerating them, Ange had about five tons of insect ash in his possession, more than ten times of what he previously had. The last cubic batch of insect ash only weighed two hundred pounds or so.

“The enemies’ nests are providing a bounty. This amount should last you awhile, right? Would you want to sell some of it to the elves?” Negris asked.

This insect ash may not be the substance known as ‘Yin’ told by the Dougong people, but when mixed into the soil, it had a certain healing effect on the World Tree’s ash spots. Elves should be more than happy to buy such fertilizer.

But Ange vehemently shook his head. He still wasn’t clear about all the effects of this insect ash and didn’t want to sell it to the elves yet.

“Alright, alright, you can sell it later when you have more,” Negris said helplessly.

If possible, it still wanted to save the World Tree. Although the tree had claimed it still had over nine thousand years of life left, it was far from a hearty nine thousand years’ life if the tree remained sickly.

While leaving the bug nest, Ange scattered the insect ash everywhere he could see, whether it was moss, mushrooms, or puddles. It was quite reminiscent of the zeal he had when he had first gotten the Life Essence.

However, he was just indiscriminately sprinkling the ash around and not using the aura acceleration, so there were not going to be any significant changes in the short term. It was a complete waste.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, Anthony held a thick glass cover over several beetles and summoned all his subordinates to announce solemnly:

“The Hermorthos bug plague reappears. The Eastern Diocese will immediately enter wartime control. Everyone must comply with the demands of wartime control and follow the commands of the Archbishop Court. Anyone who disobeys orders will be arrested on the spot!”

At the mention of the Hermorthos bug plague, everyone was startled and instinctively looked at the glass cover in Anthony’s hand.

The Hermorthos bug plague was a famous disaster tied to famine. Every time the Hermorthos bug plague breaks out, a large famine would follow in the next year, resulting in millions of deaths from starvation and exhaustion.

This was a disaster that couldn’t be ignored.

However, when ‘wartime control’ came out of Anthony’s mouth, the expressions of everyone couldn’t help but subtly change. They were confused as to whether the bug plague had really broken out, or if Anthony was just using it as an excuse to strengthen his control.

Recently, the Church of Light had essentially entered into a real split. Since Anthony claimed to have been assassinated but received divine favor and returned to the world, the schism in the Church began.

The current Eastern Diocese was virtually independent of the curia and refused to comply with any order from the curia.

Normally, it would be incredible for a mere Cardinal to cause a split in the Church. It was almost impossible to have people follow him on such a pursuit.

However, reality was completely different from everyone’s expectations. Many Eastern Diocese families, forces, alliances, etc., mostly obeyed Anthony’s orders without hesitation.

Even at first, some opposed it, but when Anthony personally visited them and told them, “Your grandfathers, ancestors, etc. should have all left a will, right? Bring out their wills, the time has come.”

Who’d have thought that a guy named Piero would have started making plans a thousand years ago?

During his constant rebirths over the years, each generation left behind some loyal subordinates. Some of these subordinates have fallen, but many have grown into deeply rooted large families. Their descendants always remember that when someone comes to them with keepsakes and secret words saying that the time has come, they must obey.

Of course, there are also those who refuse to obey, or forces not left behind by Anthony. At this time, some excuses, such as disobedience to ‘wartime control’, are needed for cleanup.

Before long, astonishing news spread throughout the continent. The Eastern Diocese of the Church of Light had declared independence and changed its name to the Holy Church in continuation of the faith of Light.