Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

Just as the two paladins prepared to return to the fuzzy hair of the Giant Fur Clump, the long hair suddenly lifted, and a handsome knight clad in black armor, leading a sturdy skeletal horse, walked out from within the fur clump.

Embedded within the hair of the Dimensional Beast is a dimensional passage. When its body spans two spaces simultaneously, this dimensional passage connects the two worlds.

Many have sought to discover the actual shape of these dimensional passages, but the fur of the Dimensional Beast is too long. Despite numerous methods, the edges of the tunnel remain elusive. People only know that crawling into the hair and moving forward will lead you to another space.

The sudden emergence of a black-armored knight leading a skeletal horse startled the two paladins. The younger paladin’s instinct was to draw his sword, but his hand had just touched the hilt when it was held down by the older paladin.

The old paladin placed a hand on his chest in a respectful gesture, apologized, “I’m sorry, my lord, we did not mean to offend. We had not been informed of your arrival. May I ask your name, sir?”

The handsome black-armored knight leading the skeletal horse respectfully reciprocated the gesture, saying politely, “I am at fault, as I came without notifying the frontline of the Land of Fallen. I saw the Dimension Beast and came over. I am Shadow Knight Julian.”

“The Shadow Knight who exists under the holy light? I’m in your presence, sir.” The old paladin immediately knelt down, frantically tugging at the robes of the young paladin.

The young paladin was a bit bewildered. Was the black-armored knight leading the skeletal horse, the Shadow Knight, not an enemy? Shadow Knight? He had heard of that. Superior even to God’s Knight, they are the knights closest to the gods under the holy light.

Seeing the bewildered expression on the young paladin, Julian politely said to him, “You should thank your companion. He saved your life. The moment you drew your sword before me, you were already dead.”

The young paladin gasped as a strong fear welled up from within him, causing him to sit abruptly on the ground, wetting his pants in fright.

The old paladin hurriedly pleaded, “May your Grace spare us. The young boy did not mean it. Please leave him be.”

The Shadow Knight respectfully nodded, “Alright, a small ‘reproof’ would result in incontinence for a while. Be diligent in washing his trousers.”

The old paladin’s expression changed drastically, and he quickly lowered his head. This method of quietly inflicting ‘reproof’ on the young paladin showed that the power of this Shadow Knight was truly terrifying.

Moreover, he was quite petty. Merely because of the instinctive drawing of a sword, he invoked the ‘reproof’, causing incontinence for a period of time?

For the energetic young paladin, this was more painful than death itself.

But he wasn’t the young paladin’s father, so what should he care? He needed to serve the petty Shadow Knight well to avoid being on the receiving end of his powers.

“Is there any task that your Grace requires our assistance with?”

Julian replied with a smile, “No need. You can leave. Let the Dimensional Beast stay here and wait for me.”

The old paladin was eager to comply, “Yes, my lord.” He quickly helped the paladin with wet pants up and crawled back into the long fur of the Dimensional Beast.

The Dimensional Beast lowered its head to glance at Julian but said nothing. It continued to struggle against the Resting Wind.

Julian, leading his skeletal horse, walked to the edge of the void and gazed intently outwards.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t see anything. At its fiercest, the Resting Wind was pitch black, as though the space outside the void was not a gust of wind, but wave upon wave of thick ink. Unless something glowed in the darkness like the angels, one couldn’t make out anything outside at all.

However, Julian stood there entranced, staring at nothing, like a wise poet lost in thought.

The bone horse he led, however, was not as patient as he. It snorted and complained, “What on earth are you looking at in this pitch-black darkness, damn it! Hurry up and set up the Delivery Magic Circle.”

His composure shattered, Julian stuttered angrily, “You…you…you vulgar!”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re the refined one with armour that hasn’t been washed in six years, always messing with this baffling stuff, making me accompany you in the cold wind. Get to the main point,” the Bone Horse grumbled impatiently.

“What do you know!? The armour can’t be washed; it would become ineffective if it gets washed. The strange wind is blocking many signals, and it’s useless to remove them while the wind is still blowing, you jackass!” said Julian, his earlier pleasant manners completely gone, looking flustered as though he wanted to stamp his feet.

“Signals not working? That’s a bit annoying, so is this place exactly…” Before Bone Horse could finish its sentence, Julian clamped its mouth shut.

Realising the situation, Bone Horse murmured in a low voice with his soul, “Oh, almost forgot about the big guy.”

After Julian loosened his grip from its mouth, it continued, “Let’s change the subject. How’s Lord Dyson been doing lately? He seems quite agitated.”

Mentioning this topic seemed to uplift Julian’s mood, and he lightly smiled, “Lord Dyson has suffered a severe setback on the Master Plane.”

“Oh? Do tell me more, what’s the matter?” asked the Bone Horse, light flickering in its eye sockets with excitement.

“Great Bishop Nikola was assassinated, leaving a vacancy for the Bishop’s position in the Western District. Lord Dyson rushed back to vie for it, hoping to return to the Western District. Despite his idealisation of the situation, his control over the Land of Fallen was iron-clad, making a new Bishop useless,” Julian explained.

“While he moved back, he would have control over the Western District’s affairs. Having the support of both districts, he was certain to succeed the Pope once he passed away. Little did he know, Lord Anthony was even more formidable. He directly split the Eastern Diocese, established the Holy Church, and became the Pope. This almost caused Dyson a stroke.”

Bone Horse’s jaw began to tremble with excitement, “Hahaha, is it true? Who assassinated Nikola?”

“Who else could it be but Anthony?”

“But why would Lord Anthony want to kill Nikola? He had a good reputation within the curia and was a well-respected man. The happiness index of the Eastern Diocese followers is far greater than that of the Western District,” Bone Horse asked confusedly.

“Because Nikola attempted to assassinate Anthony, who, by some unknown means came back to life. He promptly consolidated the Eastern Diocese, threatened the curia to deal with Nikola, and arranged manpower to kill Nikola. A master of strategy indeed,” said Julian, reflecting on Anthony’s careful plots and diversions.

If Anthony had heard this conversation, he probably would cry out loud. He was innocent!

Bone Horse had a good laugh, then asked with confusion, “Now that Anthony has split off, doesn’t that eliminate the competition for Lord Dyson? Wouldn’t taking over the Western District be much easier for him? Why is he so agitated then?”

Julian responded with a slight smile, “You’re indeed naive. Now that Anthony has split off, if Lord Dyson takes charge of the Western District, it would mean that both the Land of Fallen and the Western District are under his control. Who would the curia then listen to?”

“Oh, I get it now. The Pope wouldn’t allow such a thing. No wonder Lord Dyson is so angry,” said Bone Horse, sudden realization dawning on him.

“Yeah,” Julian sighed, empathizing with Dyson, “What’s the point of having the Land of Fallen? It’s impoverished and remote, while the Master Plane is like the real paradise. My heart aches for my homeland, for the adorable, fragrant beauties there…”

“Enough with all these, it’s annoying!” Bone Horse yelled annoyed.

While Julian was lost in reveries, the Resting Wind began to wane.

As the wind strength decreased, the thing outside the bubble became clearer and clearer. Julian stopped confusedly, squinting toward the bubble’s exterior. There was a shadow standing vaguely there.

Is it a rock? Doesn’t seem like it because there was some green at the top.

As the Resting Wind gradually weakened, he finally saw the shadow clearly. It was a ‘figure’ squatting with its knees pugged up, a pot on his head in which a Little Sapling swung its leaves.

The ‘figure’ was also looking back at them, their gazes met, in the standoff.