Chapter 348: Introducing Undead

By the time Xia Duo flew back to Linshui Village, Ximeng and the others had already returned, and Laidun was in the middle of bestowing a final blessing upon the deceased soldier.

Before the Altar, Laidun looked solemn; facing the sun overhead, he recited holy words, and a mass of Holy Light appeared in his hands. Then, Laidun placed those radiant hands upon the forehead of the deceased, slowly moving them down toward the legs.

It would take a few more repetitions before the process was finally complete.

Xia Duo landed outside the crowd without drawing attention, watching from afar. He could actually perform this procedure himself; it was nothing more than summoning a Positive Energy Baptism to clear the Negative Energy from the deceased, so as to prevent mutation after burial.

It was just that Laidun's blessing had a better effect, even carrying a faint preservative quality.

Seeing that the ceremony was about to end, Xia Duo sent a Sending to Laidun and Aiwa, telling them to come to his tent.

Before long, whether they were territory residents or Slaves, everyone was led by their respective Working Group leaders to continue their work. Inside Xia Duo's small tent, he was assigning tasks to Aiwa and Laidun.

"There is definitely more than that one nest of Trolls around the Territory. We never found the nest of those two we encountered last time, so there might still be more."

"Aiwa, your next task, besides training the Territory Guard members to use Magic Items, is to expand the reconnaissance range around the Territory and mark threat levels in advance. Additionally, pick out members of the Guard suitable to become Rogues, train them, and make them full-time scouts. I'll give you 5 slots."

"Yes, my lord!"

"Laidun, for every person Aiwa takes, you must replenish the same number, including the one who died today. The Territory has limited conditions right now, so we won't do new recruit training; try to pick people who have experience as Adventurers or soldiers, and it's fine to be a bit more lenient with the age. Also, from now on, the cleanup squad's range of activity is limited to areas already scouted by the scouts."

"Yes, my lord!"

Xia Duo waved his hand, and Aiwa left silently. Only Laidun remained standing in place. Xia Duo asked, "Is there anything else?"

"My lord, as the population increases, I think the Territory should have Night Watchers."

"Night Watchers? Don't we already have Territory Guard soldiers patrolling at night?"

Xia Duo said subconsciously, but the next moment he realized what was meant. In Savile Territory, "Night Watcher" was not a general term, but referred to a special group—

Undead!

Xia Duo was very covetous of these "perfect workers" who never slept or rested, but the existence of Negative Energy still made him fearful. He absolutely dared not manufacture Undead himself; once you got involved with that stuff, you couldn't shake it off.

Besides, Necromancers were already looked down upon in Netheril; only Clerics of the Lord of Death could openly raise Undead, and they could also reduce the impact of Negative Energy on the outside world (though it could not be completely eliminated).

Of course, this was not without restraint or rules. Generally, they were the corpses of criminals, or extreme believers of the Lord of Death who were willing to leave their bodies behind to be driven after death.

The Night Watchers of Savile Town were a type of Undead. During the Orc War, after Xia Duo killed a Necromancer who had lost the ability to perform Spellcasting, Leonard arrived with a team of Night Watchers.

Although Xia Duo had never seen their true appearance, Negative Energy could not be blocked by a mere layer of ordinary black robes, and this incident had left a deep impression on him.

If he could introduce a batch of Night Watchers, that would be quite good; it would just happen to reduce the defensive pressure on the Territory Guard. Thinking of this, Xia Duo asked, "What must be done to introduce Night Watchers?"

To tell the truth, he was even worried that it would be hard to find such "people" who only worked, didn't eat, and didn't take money!

Laidun smiled and then said, "My lord, we don't need to do anything extra. The servants of the Lord of the End of All Things like to record the life and death of mortals, hoping to obtain eternal peace from it. My lord only needs to go to Savile Town and invite a Fate Recorder to serve as the cemetery guard for the Territory, and he will raise Night Watchers for you to serve you, however—"

"However what?" Xia Duo asked hurriedly. He didn't expect the conditions for obtaining Night Watchers to be so simple; as long as he had the bodies, finding a servant of the Lord of Death would suffice.

"My lord, Fate Recorders do not participate in killing; you must provide the corpses for raising the Night Watchers."

"I see. Must they be human? I mean, are the corpses of Goblins or beasts acceptable?"

"Ah—" Laidun was simply stunned. He had never thought of such a question. As far as he knew, the source of the Night Watchers in Savile Town was mostly criminals and those who violated the curfew.

"My lord, I cannot answer this question. At the very least, I have never heard of Goblins being converted into Night Watchers."

Not getting the answer he wanted, Xia Duo was a bit disappointed, but he still prepared to ask a professional later. If Goblins could be made into Undead, that would simply be a gold mine.

Although their size was smaller, which could be seen as lower power per unit, they were almost perpetual motion machines; in the long run, it was a business with huge returns.

Thinking of this, Xia Duo could almost not suppress the urge to teleport back to the Tower of Time and then go to Savile Town to find a Fate Recorder.

But in the end, he stopped. Since they were "perpetual motion machines," he didn't care about this bit of time. Anyway, a ship would be coming in a few days, which would also save the energy of the Tower of Time.

After Laidun left, Xia Duo sat quietly for a while. After eating lunch, he set off again to inspect the river-digging site.

Over the past few days, the 500 river-digging workers, including all their tools, had all arrived in position. Every day Xia Duo went over, he could see brand-new progress.

He first went to take a look at the brick kiln north of the temporary sheds. It was currently in the stage of firing bricks for the kiln itself; the quality of bricks in this stage was the worst, only slightly better than sun-dried mud blocks.

Afterward, it would constantly iterate until "qualified" bricks were finally produced. Of course, in Xia Duo's view, these bricks were actually not qualified, but they were enough for paving the ground.

Further north of the brick kiln was the Elemental Channel, or rather, the riverbed. Some had been dug on the east end, but later Xia Duo called a halt to it, turning instead to clear the trees along the way first.

With hundreds of people working at the same time, the efficiency was still very fast. As Xia Duo walked along, the vast majority of the trees on this "road" of the Elemental Channel had already been felled.

This step took almost no effort; the real trouble was the transport and the underground stumps. Digging a riverbed—you couldn't possibly leave these tree roots behind!

Likewise, for Linshui Village, the residential area only needed the surface to be cleared, but the subsequent opening of farmland would require clearing out tree root remnants and forest stones bit by bit.

That was the real major project.

Along the Elemental Channel, heading east all the way.

Soon, Xia Duo saw the apocalyptic scene in the Mythallar Ruins not far ahead, and further away, the silhouette of the Tower of Time faintly visible through the apocalyptic scene.

"Sigh, I don't know when the Magic Net will be able to return to normal!"

Sighing, Xia Duo arrived at the end of the Elemental Channel. He didn't know when it started, but a stone house had appeared here.

He had known about it from his previous visits; this was the temporary residence of those three Arcanists from the Hand of Secrecy. Besides them, other Arcanists who came to repair the Magic Net had also established temporary residences on the edge of the Magic Net ruins.

Xia Duo was not surprised; after all, repairing the Magic Net was not something that could be completed in a short time.

This was a long-term project!