[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-vegetable-growing-skeleton-s-foreign-land-re":3,"chapter-the-vegetable-growing-skeleton-s-foreign-land-re-the-vegetable-growing-skeleton-s-foreign-land-re-chapter-118":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Vegetable-Growing Skeleton's Foreign Land Reclamation",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2351599,4600,"Chapter 118: This Land Will Belong to You","the-vegetable-growing-skeleton-s-foreign-land-re-chapter-118",118,"\u003Cp>Since her family was chosen as Dragon Speakers, ancestors had repeatedly warned each new generation: Do not disturb the dragon when it sleeps; its morning temper is terrible, and it will burn everything to ashes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the problem is, the dragon sleeps endlessly—sometimes for years, sometimes for decades.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once, an ancestor became a Dragon Speaker while the dragon was asleep; by the time he was on his deathbed, the dragon still hadn’t woken up, making him the only Dragon Speaker in history who never saw the dragon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, your lost child has come knocking—even if it has a morning temper, shouldn’t it hold back?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nagelis’s words, Shafia actually believed nine-tenths of, because Nai Aili had indeed mentioned Zero Degree Ocean Island to her ancestors, saying it was the place of her first beautiful memory—but what “first” meant, Nai Aili never said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyway, every little detail Nai Aili had ever said was recorded by her ancestors in notebooks, stripped of repetitions, copied into volumes, and passed down for future generations to study.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every new Dragon Speaker’s greatest task in becoming one is to read through all the Dragon Language Manuscripts and memorize every word the dragon ever spoke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the problem is, over these thousand years, Nai Aili’s words, when excerpted, filled fifty chests of parchment scrolls—millions of characters—the difficulty of memorizing them all rose exponentially.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, ancestors didn’t just pass down the Dragon Language Manuscripts—they also passed down exam techniques: highlighting key points.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of the fifty chests of parchment scrolls, which parts were important, which were guaranteed to be on the exam, which could be handled with just knowing the patterns—if you understood the dragon’s thinking, you could answer correctly nine times out of ten.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, Shafia, the most skilled at exams, became the new Dragon Speaker.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Today, she made a decision that defied her ancestors—because she understood the dragon’s thinking, and had a hunch that waking the sleeping dragon wouldn’t trigger a morning temper, but instead shock her: “My child? Where did I get a child?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Far worse would be not waking her, letting her sleep until naturally awake, then discovering she’d driven her child away—that’s when the real morning temper would explode.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But even if it did explode, what did it matter? With Nai Aili’s current state, if she could fly up and breathe fire in anger, wouldn’t that be something to celebrate? Let her come and hit me if she can!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The dragon’s sleeping place is a secret—no one knows where it is—but it can be reached via a teleportation array, and activating the array requires Dragon Language; meaning, only the dragon and Dragon Speakers can trigger it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Installing a magic crystal, Shafia chanted the incantation in Dragon Language—a flash of white light—and she appeared in a vast underground space.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Countless glittering gems, crystals, and other shiny objects were piled in dark corners; the only source of light was in the center, where a beam of sunlight pierced through a crack and fell upon the dragon, making her scales gleam golden and illuminating the entire underground chamber.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shafia had read in the Dragon Language Manuscripts that the dragon actually disliked glittering gold and silver treasures—those were fabrications or misunderstandings from knightly novels, forming a stereotype.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it was true the dragon was more sensitive to glittering things; its body was so enormous that humans were like tiny mice to it, easily crushed underfoot—and gems, magic crystals, and crystals smaller than humans were invisible unless they glittered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the notion that the dragon’s nest was piled high with treasure, it was both true and false: a dragon lives thousands or even tens of thousands of years—even the wooden horse it rode as a cub became an antique after millennia, valuable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But gold, silver, divine weapons, sacred swords—even if undamaged—left lying for hundreds or thousands of years would rust into worthless scrap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No one has ever heard of an iron sword or iron armor unearthed from a thousand years ago being as functional as when freshly forged. But yes, good condition meant high value.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unfortunately, this stereotype led humans to lavish glittering things upon Nai Aili—unable to spare magic crystals, they offered worthless companion crystals; unwilling to give gold or silver, they offered shiny tinware.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nai Aili had complained to Dragon Speakers more than once about these things—useless and taking up space; better to send a few little lambs, she could roast them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But no one believed her; instead, they grew fearful, and next time brought even more offerings—only by accepting these gifts and praising them did people feel reassured.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon teleporting in, Shafia immediately heard a thunderous snore—a very low-frequency sound, so powerful that when at its peak, the entire ground resonated with it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shafia had prepared in advance; she plugged her ears first, then hid behind a large rock, grabbed a fist-sized stone, and hurled it with all her strength at Huang Tong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shafia used all her strength—but the blow was too weak; Huang Tong felt nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The stone clanged against Huang Tong’s head; Shafia shouted at the same time: “Boss, wake up!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Tong’s brow scales wrinkled; its nostrils flared; Shafia instantly ducked behind the rock.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hss—Huang Tong sneezed, exhaling a wisp of dragon breath that dried the drool beneath its nose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then Huang Tong shifted into a more comfortable position, ready to drift back to sleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whoosh—another stone flew, striking Huang Tong’s snout precisely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The massive dragon’s eyes snapped open, twin vertical pupils blazing with boundless fury; the air exhaled from its nostrils grew scorching hot; a suppressed roar echoed through the entire underground space: “Who woke me? You foolish creature, you will bear my endless wrath—I will roast you into dried fish!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Boss, it’s me!” Shafia poked her head out from behind the rock and spoke quickly, then ducked back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Foolish creature, I chose you as a Dragon Speaker not so you could wake me while I sleep! Come out and face my rage—I’ll roast you extra crispy, so you won’t suffer too much.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shafia stretched her neck out from behind the rock and opened her mouth toward Shafia.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Boss, your son has come to find you.” Shafia spoke quickly, afraid Huang Tong hadn’t heard, repeating it several times: “Your son has come to find you, your son has come to find you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nai Aili’s vertical pupils widened, nearly biting her tongue: “My son? Where did I get a son?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shafia exhaled in relief—her life was saved. Huang Tong’s temper was wild right after waking, hard to control—but if something could snap her back to reason, she was quite reasonable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I don’t know, but it mentioned Zero Degree Ocean Island, and said its name is ¥%#@.” Shafia spoke Nagelis’s name in Dragon Language.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“¥%#@? ¥%#@?” Nai Aili murmured the name several times, her eyes brightening: “¥%#@? Is it really ¥%#@!?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, it’s ¥%#@—I studied Dragon Language well, I didn’t mispronounce it.” Shafia declared firmly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nai Aili excitedly tried to rise, urgently asking: “Where is it? Where is it?” But before she could stand, she stumbled forward and collapsed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Careful!” Shafia cried out, instinctively rushing to help—but after two steps, she remembered: before her was a colossal creature, dozens of meters long, weighing over a hundred tons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So excited—could it really be her child?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Nai Aili said, excited and thrilled: “Dragons are cold-blooded. When we sleep, our body temperature drops to its lowest; when we wake, we need time to warm up before we can move.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As she spoke, Nai Aili looked up at the ceiling, realizing that relying on that single sunbeam to warm her body would take forever—she simply said: “Move farther away.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shafia hesitated: “Are you going to fly? You’re not in good condition now—you shouldn’t tire yourself. I’ll go fetch them here.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nai Aili shook her head, speaking with reverence: “If the Huang Tong you speak of is named ¥%#@, then it is a being worthy of my greeting. Move away.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shafia ran as fast as she could to a distance, then felt a wave of heat surge behind her; turning back, she saw Nai Aili exhaling a torrent of scorching dragon breath onto the ground where she had lain—the rock at the point of impact melted instantly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The dragon breath rolled outward, turning the surroundings into a sea of fire; the lingering flames even engulfed Nai Aili.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Tong’s dragon breath was not flame—it was a highly condensed state of elements, possessing many properties; heat was merely one of them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Amid the searing heat, the colossal creature slowly rose; its scales gleamed brightly under the dragon breath’s scorching.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wings spread wide, it flapped hard—the dragon breath on the ground instantly extinguished. Dragon breath was hard to extinguish; clearly, the wings didn’t produce mere wind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Raising its head and neck, Nai Aili let out a deafening, soul-shaking dragon roar, then dropped: “Go back yourself.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shafia expected her to take flight—but instead, Nai Aili folded her wings, leaped hard, hooked her short claws onto the crack above, and pulled her body upward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time, she tucked in her large belly and lifted her hind legs—hook, hook, hook, hook!—her hind feet caught the crack’s edge; then, alternating front claws and hind legs, she climbed up clumsily yet surprisingly agilely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shafia sighed—every time she saw Huang Tong exit this way, she thought it was so undignified—but there was no choice; the crack above was too small to fly out—she had to climb first, then fly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So every time she exited, you saw that clumsy motion—you feared her belly was too big, her front claws couldn’t grip.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Watching Nai Aili climb out of the crack and fly away, Shafia teleported back to the oasis; upon returning, she found only Nagelis, Lu Se, and Lei Ting present—Ang and the angel skeleton zombie were gone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My lord, hello. May I ask where your other two companions and the little girl are? Please have them come rest here—quickly, bring dates, bring big dates, entertain our honored guests.” Shafia spoke politely and warmly, secretly kicking one of her trusted subordinates.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nagelis smiled faintly—this completely different attitude meant Nai Aili now knew who it was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the other two companions and the little girl… Nagelis turned and cried out: “Huh? Where’s Ang?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ang had slipped away quietly—he had been forbidden by Nagelis from planting things, and just then he’d spotted a vast expanse of abandoned farmland, so he sneaked off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though Nagelis hadn’t noticed him, the sentry on watch had—senior swordsman led two spearmen to follow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Greetings, honored guest, I am Aolem. How may I assist you?” the senior swordsman said politely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These were the Huang Tong’s companions. Though the Dragon Speaker questioned their identity, merely the Huang Tong’s status alone was enough to warrant extreme courtesy—whether or not they were Nai Aili’s child, they were surely kin, far closer than any Dragon Speaker.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So Aolem was very courteous, approaching only to act as a guide, not to restrict their movements.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ang had a question—he pointed to the distant abandoned area: “That place—what is it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh, that’s wasteland. Nothing there.” Aolem said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Farmland. There’s farmland.” Ang said anxiously, pointing to the ground’s traces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah, you mean that? Years ago, it was farmland—but as the water system deteriorated, it’s been abandoned.” Aolem sighed: “The oasis’s water system keeps retreating; more and more edge areas are going barren. Alas.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ang didn’t care—he asked: “All these farmlands are abandoned—can I plant things here?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Huh? You want to plant things there? But there’s no water.” Aolem exclaimed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ang opened his palm—and immediately, a gentle drizzle fell, wetting the ground within moments.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aolem bowed deeply: “So you’re a mage. My apologies—I didn’t realize….”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d been about to say planting with magic was impractical—but he stopped himself: what did practicality have to do with him? Maybe this mage had some odd habit?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So he changed his words: “That land is abandoned, unclaimed. By our custom, if you build any structure or plant anything on it, the land becomes yours—but to avoid disputes, you must register at the Dragon Temple, pay a small fee…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment he said “fee,” Ang held out his hand—his palm was full of magic crystals; Aolem and his two subordinates’ eyes nearly bulged out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though magic crystal mines existed near the oasis, no one here used them—they were too valuable; one crystal equaled nine gold coins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This….” Aolem swallowed hard, crushing the faint greed rising in his heart, carefully picking up one crystal: “Too much, too much—even one is too much. I’ll go process the paperwork first, then return the rest to you. But you must build something quickly—otherwise, in three to five years, the wasteland will revert to unclaimed status.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He finished speaking and dashed off immediately; it was a simple task that could have been handed to his spear soldiers, but Olem dared not entrust them with the valuable magic crystal—who knew if they might harbor ill intentions? The odds were slim, but what if?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Registering a piece of wasteland is a simple matter; wasteland in the desert is worthless—it’s land with water that has value. If housing or other structures are built on wasteland, it boosts the local GDP, so when someone came to register wasteland, the Dragon Temple’s clerk didn’t even charge a fee.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Holding a handwritten land registration certificate stamped with the Great Dragon’s emblem, Olem returned to the original site—and his jaw dropped from afar. Was this even the same place he knew? Why were there now a row of new buildings?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Combined into two chapters\u003C\u002Fp>",2258,"2026-06-21T03:18:43.177Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","5a537e2486d25656da1a285c01bdc4d2507d6992fcf10871ea9ad285701cbc23","the-vegetable-growing-skeleton-s-foreign-land-re-chapter-119","the-vegetable-growing-skeleton-s-foreign-land-re-chapter-117",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-vegetable-growing-skeleton-s-foreign-land-re-cover.jpg"]