Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

Negris fell into silence. The Undead Symphony was a small piece of music, no one knew who composed it, only that it was found on many creations of the Undead Empire. It was found on creatures such as Petersburg, the guardian deity, and the auto-repairing buildings of the temple, and so on.

If the Earth Hammer truly did bear the score of the Undead Symphony, then the only possibility is that it was a creation of the Undead Empire.

How could the Pope possibly bless a creation of the Undead Empire? The only possibility is a seal, why else would you seal a hammer? Are they afraid of it? Afraid of a hammer?

Curiosity made its appearance, wait, but he had just dissuaded Ange, and now he was changing his mind?

He couldn’t help but complain: “You could have told me this important information earlier, I just stopped Ange from doing it.”

Anthony sneered: “You ran away before I even managed to finish speaking. Also, did you really persuade our Lord? You should ask again.”

Negris suddenly had a bad feeling, he indeed hadn’t heard Ange say ‘not going’ earlier.

He turned to Ange and asked: “Ange, are we still going to the Black Mountain Kingdom?”

“Yes,” Ange answered.

“Why?!” Negris was upset. How could Anthony understand Ange better than he did?

“Hammer, farming, bugs, fertile fields.” Ange replied.

Negris buried his face in his hands, he had been careless. As long as it involved matters of farming and fertile fields, Ange would never easily give up.

The Bone Dragon was flying in the sky, whilst Fala clung closely to his robe, shivering fearfully within the rope net. His teeth were chattering: “It’s… it’s… it’s too… too… too cold up here.”

“Oh, I forgot you’re still alive. Ange, help him warm up.” Negris said.

Warming someone up didn’t even require magic. It just required raising the density and activity level of the fire element. The warmth would come immediately. Almost instantly, Fala felt warm all over.

“What’s the current situation in the Black Mountain Kingdom? Since you all managed to escape from there, tell us about it.” Negris asked.

Although Ange had been tricked into going to the Black Mountain Kingdom, Anthony couldn’t provide any specific information. He only knew that the insect plague had broken out in the Black Mountain Kingdom. The bugs had overwhelmed the royal family, and the two main cities were still resisting, but they were facing a food shortage.

The castle of the royal family had stored a large amount of food. Therefore, once the bugs entered the palace, it was utterly disastrous. The entire royal family including the descendants of the Black Mountain Duke, family and friends, loyal servants, and others were all consumed completely by the bugs.

As for how far the insect plague had spread and its scale, Anthony had no idea. It was up to Negris to find out.

Conveniently, Fala and the others had previously been near the Black Mountain Kingdom, so their knowledge of the situation was definitely more than theirs.

“Ah? I also don’t know, we were not in the Black Mountain Kingdom, just near it. Now that you ask me, the insect plague did indeed come from the direction of the Black Mountain Kingdom. Could it be that they were the first to be affected by the disaster?”

“The Black Mountain Kingdom is small, with just one large Black Mountain. The King’s Court is on the mountain, with a city on the northeast side of the mountain, and another on the southwest side. The rest of the area is all farmland.”

After a round of questioning, it turned out that Fala knew even less than they did. Therefore, they decided to just tuck him into the Temple of Rest.

The Black Mountain King’s Court, formerly brightly lit, was now shrouded in darkness. Apart from the eerie gnawing sounds that occasionally echoed through the darkness, no other sounds could be heard.

The doors, windows, beams, and pillars within the palace; anything wooden was now thoroughly perforated and damaged. Occasionally, one or two black beetles could be seen wandering about on the wood.

On the ground were clean bones, not a sliver of flesh to be found, just pristine skeletons, some with faint gnawing marks.

Some skeletons were posed in ways normal human beings could never achieve. Was it that these poses were moved like this after death, or did they suffer from unbearable pain before death, twisting in agony?

A ragged man slowly walked into this environment. As he passed, bugs scattered in all directions. Some turned a corner and reconvened behind the ragged man, surging and parting like ocean waves.

The ragged man walked to a skeleton, crouched down, and removed the necklace hanging around his neck.

It was a feminine looking necklace with a youthful design, obviously meant to be worn around the neck of a beautiful noble girl. However, the beautiful noble girl had been reduced to a skeleton, making the necklace far more eye-catching.

“Hehehe….” The ragged man let out a creepy laugh, tried to pull the necklace for a few times, only to realize it wouldn’t come off. He decided to stomp on the neck of the skeleton, breaking the neck easily, and finally taking off the necklace.

The ragged man now held the necklace before his eyes. He studied it greedily for a moment before slipping it into the bag tied around his waist. That bag, stuffed full, was undoubtedly filled with numerous items.

Feeling that the bag was full, the ragged man took it off, tied it well, then gently touched it with his middle finger, which bore a ring. With a whoosh, the bulging bag disappeared.

The ragged man took out another bag and tied it around his waist. Seeing a ring on a skeletal hand, he tried to pull it off with great force. But the finger bone was too large, and the ring couldn’t be removed. So, he stomped on the hand, shattering it, and took the ring.

Thus scavenging as he went, the ragged man made his way to the Holy Temple of the Black Mountain King’s Court.

Where the opulent palace decor ended, the stark authority began. Upon realizing his location, the ragged man cackled. “Hehehe, the Earth Hammer of the Black Mountain Duke should be here, right? Too bad, even the pope-blessed Holy Hammer couldn’t fight off my children. If you knew this beforehand, I guess you wouldn’t have followed the bullshit Church of Light and joined our Chaos Temple instead.”

After circling the Holy Temple, the ragged man didn’t find the Earth Hammer.

“Huh, where did the Holy Hammer go? Has it been taken? I’ve never heard that the heirs of the current generation of the Black Mountain Duke could lift the Holy Hammer,” the ragged man murmured to himself, “Could there be a hidden room?”

With that thought, the ragged man whistled, sending a note into the air that had a soft, rustling sound. From beneath his ragged robes, a torrent of bugs flowed out in all directions.

Quickly, the ragged man found the mechanism to the hidden room. Upon pressing it, the ground slowly retracted, revealing a recess in its stead.

Inside the pit was a hand gripping a hammer.

“Found it.” The ragged man’s eyes lit up as he jumped eagerly into the pit to hold the Earth Hammer.

The Earth Hammer began to glow.

The ragged man laughed, “Hehehe, such a pure Power of Holy Light. Sadly, I am not a heretic, and this Holy Power can’t harm me.”

As he spoke, he tried to lift the hammer but found it immovable.

This didn’t surprise the ragged man. If the Earth Hammer could be easily lifted, the Black Mountain Kingdom would not have succession disputes every few decades.

He turned his hand over to reveal a cloth marked with holy symbols—the Holy Shroud.

He tightly wrapped the Earth Hammer and the hand gripping it in the Holy Shroud, then took out a bottle of green liquid and dripped it onto the hand holding the hammer. With a sizzling sound, white smoke rose from the hand, which started to decay slowly.

Very few people knew that the Earth Hammer was transferred using this method when no one could lift it. The Holy Shroud would neutralize the Pope’s blessing left on it.

Just as the ragged man was occupied with these arrangements, the skeletal route he had taken was being reanimated. As if summoned by some force, the skeleton whose neck he had crushed was pushing itself up and reaching for its severed head, trying to attach it back to its neck.

However, several of its neck bones had been crushed and naturally, the head couldn’t be attached. In the end, it could only hold its head under its arm and stumble forward.

The skeleton whose hand bones he had stomped to pieces also got up. Its intact hand picked up a knife, and it too stumbled forward.

More skeletons, as if pulled by invisible ropes, began to resurrect one after another.

Their movement disturbed the beetles, which poured from crevices, shadows, and even directly from inside the skulls. They tried to bite the skeletons, but failed, so they scuttled away like a swarm of insects.

Staring at the slowly decaying hand, the ragged man was oblivious to the pile of skeletons that had risen behind him.