Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

White Neck’s main task now is to look after the Elf Beans, because they are planted on Lake Island, and it requires anyone else to row for a hundred to two hundred kilometers to get there.

Arriving at Lake Island, the surrounding plants are already very lush, especially the wetlands by the shore, all of which Ange has reclaimed into paddy fields, planting Saline Demon Rice.

On the hillside of Lake Island, a low World Tree is thriving there, growing longer and wider, almost covering the hillside. The soil layer of Lake Island is quite shallow, to prevent the World Tree from being blown down, the tree top is often pruned to encourage horizontal growth and keep its height down.

Under the umbrella-like shade of the tree stand, five or six skeletons are gathered around a little seedling, holding sticks in their hands and warding off all kinds of small birds and ants to prevent the valuable seeds from being snatched away just after they’ve sprouted.

These arrangements now appear to be foresight, the seeds have sprouted.

Ange looked at it and immediately felt relieved. The seedling was growing well and healthy, which meant that the growing environment was suitable for it. As long as it was watered and fertilized regularly, it could grow vigorously.

Next, Ange jumped down into the paddy field by the shore, picked up the sickle, and started harvesting. The rice plants fell into the water row by row. Normally, the water should have been drained to keep the grain from getting wet, but Ange was not worried about it, he had magic and Breathing Soil.

The wet rice was swept with Magic Power, removing the water element from its surface. This ability is not even considered magic.

Lake Island is a stone mountain, with a thin layer of weathered soil on the surface. On the bulging hillside where the stone is cracked open, there is a huge stone crevice. Breathing Soil is spread inside, and the harvested rice is piled in. At least several hundred thousand tons can be stacked.

Ange plans to store all the crops planted on Lake Island here, and allows humans to exchange the outside crops for Soul Flame.

While Ange is happily busy, Negris sighs: “You fool, you get caught up whenever you see a field, have you forgotten something important?”

Ange tilts his head in confusion.

“The Earth Hammer, the real Earth Hammer, you wouldn’t have forgotten about it, would you? The Undead Symphony, the Blessed Saint Seal, things that Anthony wants to see, even I want to see it, I’m dying of curiosity.”

“Oh.” Ange scratches his head as if he remembers something about it. “But…” He turns back to see that only one tenth of the paddy field has been harvested.

“Alright, alright, I’ll go get Anthony, you go ahead and enjoy.” Negris sighs helplessly. When Ange gets into this kind of mood, probably ten dragons together wouldn’t be able to pull him away. It would be easier to have ‘mountain’ come here.

“Okay.” He quickly agrees this time, and runs off with his sickle as soon as the words are out.

“Sigh…” Negris says: “White Neck!”

White Neck swooshes in front of Negris like a white shadow: “Ao?”

Negris slaps it on the head: “Stop making ‘ao ao ao’ sounds all the time, speak in Dragon Language.”

White Neck said.

“…Forget it, just keep making ‘ao’ sounds. What you could say in one ‘ao’, takes you half a day in Dragon Language.”

“Ao!” White Neck gladly switched back to Aoao language.

“Go to the canyon, fetch Anthony.” Negris finishes saying and then hops onto White Neck’s back, plonking down onto it.

Perhaps due to good nutrition, White Neck has grown rapidly and is now five to six meters long. It’s not a problem for him to carry one or two people on his back. The talent of a Silver Dragon makes him look like a silver shadow when he flies.

“Ao!”

“You fly fast, whereas the Bone Dragon is sluggish. What’s the problem with letting your ancestral grandfather hitch a ride?”

“Ao~” White Neck unwillingly twists his head, flaps his wings weakly, and flies up with a listless look.

“Hurry up, we’re short on time. I’ve got something good for you.” Negris pulls out the pebble.

White Neck holds it in his mouth, and looks at Negris in confusion.

“You fly up, give it a try, and you’ll understand. You’re small, fast, and the space bubble stimulated by it should be able to envelope you,” Negris said.

The faster you go, the bigger the space bubble the pebble can stimulate. White Neck is small, unlike the Bone Dragon, which is twenty-some meters long and can’t be wrapped up in the bubble.

Taking off, accelerating, upon reaching a specific speed, White Neck opened its mouth, allowing the Wind Element to strike the pebble it was biting. In an instant, White Neck felt the air resistance on its body disappear.

When it flew at its top speed, the wind was the biggest factor that obstructed its speed, which humans referred to as wind resistance.

With the disappearance of the resistance, White Neck suddenly darted forward, its speed drastically increasing.

As its speed increased, larger air bubbles were stimulated, encasing its body. Its entire body’s resistance disappeared, so the faster White Neck went, the larger the air bubbles became, creating a positive cycle.

Whoosh, White Neck was as fast as lightning, disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye.

It wasn’t until it reached the gorge that White Neck slowed down, spat out the pebble into its hand, and excitedly cried out, “Aoao!”

“Are you saying it feels amazing and super fast? But your snout isn’t in the air bubble, so the wind bites a bit? Also, lack of shockwaves and streamlined structure means your aerial mobility isn’t great, you can run away but not fight effectively?”

“Aoao!”

“That’s easy to deal with. You could use a snout cover, extending a tube that you can push against. You can open it while accelerating and close it while manoeuvring. Because the tube extends the distance, it can also cover your nose.”

“Aoao!” White Neck excitedly cried out ‘Aoao’.

Some people on the ground were farming and, hearing the sound, they looked up excitedly saying to their companion, “See, I told you, Giant Dragons do go ‘Aoao’. Do you hear it?”

Arriving at the cliffs of the gorge, where Naeli had previously used puff puff, Anthony was already waiting there eagerly.

“Eh, you changed your mount? Why have you come so late?” Anthony jumped onto White Neck’s back, at first surprised, then he couldn’t help but complain. “I’m really busy, with a ton of stuff, how are you guys handling that Favored One?”

“Which Favored One? Oh, you mean that female shopkeeper? Isn’t she under Silver Coin’s command? Just leave the arrangements to her.”, Negris responded after a moment of confusion.

“Isn’t that inappropriate? She’s a Favored One. You just left the arrangement to someone else. That’s not right.”, Anthony hesitated to say.

Negris rolled his eyes at him, “You always look for Lord Ange to blabber about your woes, and even let him run errands for you. Aren’t you a Favored One? Silver Coin often reports to Lord Ange regardless of the matter at hand, isn’t he also a Favored One? Lisa borrows Lord Ange’s power for her beauty treatments daily, isn’t she a Favored One too? Everyone’s a Favored One here, no need for any special treatment.”

“Well, that’s true. It’s not that the Favored Ones are special, it’s that Lord Ange is too special. Alright, I understand now.”

Whoosh, White Neck went full speed and returned to Lake Island in not too long.

“Hiss, is this the Saline Demon Rice? What’s the yield?” Looking down from above, Anthony gasped upon seeing the rice in the deposition zone.

It was his first time here and his first time seeing Saline Demon Rice up close. He had only heard Negris mention it a few times, but this was his first time having a direct understanding.

Now, after looking at it, he immediately realized he previously underestimated it. Farm produce that can be planted in salt water and saline-alkali soil, as long as its yield isn’t too low, can be a divine item capable of changing the entire continent’s situation. It could be even more terrifying than one or two Divine Artifacts.

As for how much the yield needs to be not to be considered low? Anything under one hundred catties per mu would be considered low, as it would mean that the harvested produce may not even be enough to feed the farmer himself.

“The ones planted are Magic Rice No.3, with a yield of six hundred catties per mu.” Negris stated.

“Huh? How much? Six hundred catties?” Anthony immediately spat out his drink.

“Is that not enough? You’re right, at the Spring Breeze Cup, there were plants with a yield exceeding one thousand catties. So, six hundred does seem to be a bit low. We do have Type One rice though, with a yield that could reach seven hundred. That’s already pretty good, considering it’s salty soil…”

“Lord of Knowledge, haven’t you updated your knowledge about farming in a while? Yes, there was a grain plant with a yield of over one thousand catties at the Spring Breeze Cup, but that was a product of meticulous cultivation and care by the druids. With ordinary farmers, a yield of three to four hundred catties is already considered a bumper harvest.”

After being looked down upon by Anthony, Negris finally realized that he shouldn’t use the data he got from Ange and the Spring Breeze Druid as a standard.

Picking up the Earth Hammer, Anthony studied it, “Hmm, this is indeed an artifact from the Undead Empire. There’s a complete Undead composition on the handle, aside from these visible symbols, there are also these convex dots that mark the resonance pitches of spirits. Only the Undead could chant this composition perfectly. However, it’s been sealed, so we can’t see its original form, and don’t know what kind of hammer it is.”

“It seems to be called the Hammer of Ethereality.” Suddenly, the hammer spoke up, startling Anthony, “Who are you?!”

“Of course, I’m the demon spirit who sealed this hammer.”