Chapter 167: Insecticide

Projected onto Seeing Ange, Lord Nai Ge Li Si stared at the one-eyed soldier's one eye, muttering: "Don't you dare try anything funny, or I'll tear down the city gates for you, and I'll burst the rest of your eyeballs too. Shouldn't have brought the little angel along — it's even more eye-catching than me, should've stuffed it in here too."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si had said it long ago: the little angel is too cute, fair and tender, looks like nobility at first glance — to go out without four or more white horses pulling the carriage wouldn't even do justice to its image.

But it was no use, the little angel refused, and Seeing Ange didn't force it. See, now it's caused trouble, right?

Just as the one-eyed soldier's filthy hand was about to rise, a heaven-shaking great roar: "Young Lady!"

Then, accompanied by the thundering of footsteps that made the very earth tremble, a minotaur Miss whose tonnage was at least double that of a minotaur auntie came rumbling over, ran to the little angel's side, her belly gave a single heave, and shoved the one-eyed soldier aside:

"Young Lady! You're alright! That's wonderful, wonderful, may the Light bless us, I've finally found you! The Viscount my lord will be so happy. I'm the cook, Waniya the Cook — do you still remember me?"

The minotaur Miss finished speaking, turned her bull-head, glared, and roared: "What? You want to touch our Viscount family's Young Lady with your filthy hand!?"

The one-eyed soldier cringed and waved his hands repeatedly: "No, no, don't talk nonsense."

"Hmph, I dare you not. Young Lady, let's go." Saying so, she took the little angel's hand.

Probably because she'd been staying with the minotaur aunties in the Lich City for a long time, feeling close, the little angel unusually allowed Waniya to hold her hand, and was led toward the city gate.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si breathed a sigh of relief, urged Seeing Ange to hurry and follow. Not far in, suddenly hearing a shriek from behind, he turned and saw that one-eyed soldier covering his crotch in shame and fury, his crotch wet through.

In a moment, sensing Nai Ge Li Si's return, it hurriedly asked: "What did you do?"

Nai Ge Li Si said flatly: "Just severed a tube that lets him get it up, that's all."

Arriving at the city gate, a pillar radiated red light; every person entering the city had to pass through the red light.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si murmured: "Light of the True Eye, so this is the real inspection method. I said so — patting and thumping could detect bugs? Not afraid of letting some bug-egg incubator slip in? Hey, can you fool the Light of the True Eye?"

Nai Ge Li Si replied: "Can't fool it. Looks like I can only stay outside. You and my lord be careful."

If it were another city, Nai Ge Li Si could circle around and sneak in elsewhere, but this city had already activated its protective barrier — even if he turned into smoke he couldn't get in.

"Heh, you should make this city be careful. Sigh, just don't tear the city down, that'd be fine." The Purple Remains Titan was stored in the Rest Palace, plus a guardian deity like Patxi, and with the Ultimate Transformation Art, whether transforming into Jian Gu Luo Ke or the Dragon God, it would be enough to blast through the protective barrier.

Every person passing through the red light, the Light of the True Eye would give a soft beep. When Seeing Ange's turn came, it also beeped, but the mage operating behind the pillar poked his head out and carefully sized Seeing Ange up.

Seeing nothing abnormal, the mage ducked his head back in, then — as if seeing something — poked his head out again for another look, and finally waved Seeing Ange through.

His companion couldn't help asking: "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just that this person's bones are much clearer than others, as if there's no flesh." The Light of the True Eye could see through flesh straight to the skeleton; under the Light of the True Eye, everyone was just a skeleton.

"I see, probably just too skinny. I thought you spotted a bug — don't make a fuss, it's scary."

Seeing Ange's group entered the city without incident. Waniya released the little angel's hand, rubbed its head, and said roughly: "Alright little sister, you're in the city now, you're safe. Go find your family, be careful, there are lots of bad people out there. I've got to go now, goodbye."

After speaking, Waniya waved her hand freely and turned to leave.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si said with sudden realization: "So she's a kind-hearted minotaur Miss. I thought the little angel was some Viscount's daughter — she mistook it."

After sighing, finding no one responding, he sighed dejectedly and muttered to himself: "Alright, we've arrived. Let's go deliver the grain first. Anthony bought a thousand tons of grain to deliver to the Anthony Knights. Kuabada — that name, sounds like his personal army the moment you hear it. Let's go find the Anthony Knights first, deliver the grain, then go turn in the hammer bounty."

At the Anthony Knights' station, Anthony scratched his thinning hair, sat for a while then stood up, stood up and walked a couple of circles, then sat down again — restless.

The Knights were out of grain. When they set out, they hadn't expected to run into the bug plague, so they hadn't brought much food. Here, they were just visiting troops — not on the establishment, so naturally no grain was supplied to them.

Brazenly going to ask, he got brushed off — they answered him with just two words: no grain.

There was never a budget for them in the first place, so it was perfectly reasonable not to give them any. Anthony prepared to risk breaking out. Their unit had four hundred men but five hundred horses. People could skip a meal or two, but the horses couldn't miss even one.

Who knew that when he contacted the boss, the boss said wait a moment, he'd send grain tomorrow.

At the time he wanted to curse — you think I believe you? Could it possibly arrive tomorrow?

The nearest grain depot was over three days away. Even if you could fly, it was impossible to transport grain for four hundred men and five hundred horses here, let alone with bug plagues all along the road — don't end up delivering it straight into the bugs' mouths.

Even spending big money on spatial items to transport it, it was hard to fit that much. It's not like he hadn't seen spatial artifacts before — he had one himself, and one that could hold a cubic meter was already considered high-grade.

Unless they took down the protective barrier and used a teleportation array to send it, Anthony couldn't think of any way to deliver enough grain for men and horses by tomorrow — well, today already.

If the grain didn't come today, by tomorrow when they tried to risk breaking out, both men and horses would be too weak from hunger. Every hour lost at night, the difficulty of their breakout would rise. He really didn't know whether to listen to that unreliable boss — if it couldn't be delivered on time, all his people would be done for.

A subordinate ran in with a strange expression to report: "Uh, my lord, someone's looking for you."

"Who?! Are they carrying a lot?" Anthony stood up immediately.

"Not much, just three people, one of them a little girl, empty-handed, not carrying anything." The subordinate said.

Anthony immediately deflated: "Not seeing them. Chase them away. What time is it and people are still pulling strings?" Bringing a little girl along — definitely not here to deliver grain.

"But, he said the Big Boss sent him."

The moment "Big Boss" came out, Anthony shot out like a rocket.

Seeing Ange was just here to deliver grain, too lazy to deal with Anthony's roundabout probing. After confirming identities, he told him to find a warehouse.

Anthony sucked in a breath of cold air — empty-handed, find a warehouse? Can he conjure grain out of thin air?

Anthony instantly thought of a projection array and couldn't help reminding: "The protective barrier's up, you can't project in, right?"

Seeing Ange tilted his head in confusion, walked into the warehouse, and came out not long after: "Done."

Anthony ran into the warehouse and looked — bags of grain piled high, fully a thousand tons. No matter what method the other party used to produce it, this ability far exceeded his understanding.

A big shot, definitely — must make his acquaintance. Anthony hurried out, but only saw Seeing Ange's group walking away in the distance.

He opened his mouth, the words of wanting to make acquaintance wouldn't come out, and only squeezed out: "Uh, um, don't you need a receipt?"

No one paid him any attention; the group quickly walked far away.

"Alright, next mission — the bounty on the Great Earth Hammer. First find the Mercenary Guild. Usually the Mercenary Guild is at the market gate, next to the slave market. See where the crowds are, that's definitely where the Mercenary Guild is." Lord Nai Ge Li Si said with full confidence.

Reality quickly slapped his face — because of the bug plague, huge numbers of refugees had flooded into the city. Looking around, people were everywhere. In the end they had to ask for directions to find the Mercenary Guild's location.

But when they arrived at the Mercenary Guild's location, under the big signboard, a pile of people were sitting or lying down, blocking the entrance and the hall. The moment they saw someone coming, a crowd swarmed over.

"Boss, boss, hiring? Sheep-herding, horse-tending, shoeing — I'm skilled at everything."

"Boss look here, professional mercenary, intermediate swordsman, bodyguard work, fighting — all my specialties. Hire me, hire me."

"Here, here — beauty and hairdressing, fur-smoothing, eyebrow-trimming."

"Cook, cook — premium minotaur cook! Carrying bags, milking, roof-repairing, bodyguard work, fighting, beauty and hairdressing — I can do it all. Hire me and one of me counts as three!" An even louder voice drowned out everyone else's shouting.

Hearing that familiar rough voice, the little angel — whose head was blocked from view by the crowd — jumped hard, hopped out of the human pile, and waved at Waniya.

"Oh? It's you, little sister?" Waniya swept with one big hand — whether intermediate swordsman or beauty-and-hairdressing, all swept aside, clearing a path. The advantage of race — sometimes, no amount of effort could make up for it.

"Awo!" the little angel responded.

"Moo? You speak our Minotaur tongue?" Vanya was stunned.

"Awo awo!" the little angel shook its head.

"Moo moo? Which tribe's dialect is this? I can't understand it at all!" Vanya exclaimed in surprise.

Lord Nai Ge was growing desperate; letting the two of them chat like this would likely yield nothing by tomorrow, and having Seeing Ange translate its words was troublesome—this fellow Seeing Ange was unsuited to be a mouthpiece.

Unable to hold back, it spoke for itself: "Aren't you the Viscount's cook? Why are you looking for work here?"

The sound of Lord Nai Ge's voice came from Seeing Ange's body; Vanya turned to look, puzzled, because she heard the voice but saw no mouth moving, which was strange.

But in these days, stranger things were common; Seeing Ange's situation might be ventriloquism, nothing remarkable, so she simply said with sudden realization: "Just now you were here too; you are the little sister's family?"

"Yes, we didn't have time to thank you just now." Lord Nai Ge expressed gratitude.

"No need for courtesy; we Minotaurs are the most warm-hearted; it's a small matter." Vanya said while patting her large chest, causing her robust, fleshy waves to ripple out in circles.

The swordswoman beauty and the shepherd, who had been squeezed aside, did not think so and began to curse angrily: "Warm-hearted? You even stole our lines!"

Vanya glared back with her ox eyes, and they immediately fell silent.

"By the way, little sister, what are you doing here? Looking for work?" Vanya asked back enthusiastically.

"We came to the Adventurers' Guild to turn in a bounty; what is the situation?" Lord Nai Ge asked.

The swordsman adventurer turned back and interjected: "He ran away, the head of the Adventurers' Guild! He took everyone's bounties and ran. That despicable fellow; adventurers all over the world won't let him off!"

Vanya nodded: "Exactly, so now everyone is unemployed."

"Then what about you? Didn't you say you are the Viscount's cook?" Lord Nai Ge asked.

"Speaking of this makes me angry! My Viscount not only doesn't pay me a salary, but he stays cooped up at home all day concocting some kind of insecticide, and even makes me, the cook, go out to work and earn money to support him. It makes me so angry!" Vanya said in a huff.

After some explanation, Lord Nai Ge roughly understood the situation.

Vanya had been the Viscount's cook since the time of her great-grandmother, but compared to her great-grandmother's era, the current Viscount's family fortune had declined; aside from the title, he was so poor he could barely afford to eat.

The current Viscount was an alchemist who constantly tried to invent unique secret formula potions, spending every day at home researching various potions, but none were attractive or sellable, resulting in years of no income and frequent selling of household items and servants.

During this period of insect plague, he whimsically wanted to invent an insecticide to kill the bugs; he spent all his wealth on materials and couldn't even afford to eat.

Everything that could be sold was sold, and even the servants were sold, but Vanya could not be sold because she was no longer a servant; working in his house required a salary.

However, after living together for a long time, Vanya and he were no longer just master and servant but more like family; how could she watch him starve to death? If Vanya ignored him, this Viscount, who was lazy and ignorant of the five grains, understanding nothing except potion-making, might truly starve to death.

What to do? Go out and work, so the Viscount's cook had to come out and take on jobs herself to support the useless Viscount who wouldn't pay her salary.

"You... that's too miserable," Lord Nai Ge said sympathetically; although Seeing Ange had never paid her a salary, it wasn't to the extent of going out to work to support Seeing Ange, so by that calculation, wasn't she not the most miserable?

Just then, Vanya's stomach emitted a thunderous rumbling.

Vanya smiled awkwardly and tightened her belt, pulling it tighter.

"Uh, you haven't eaten in a long time, have you?" Lord Nai Ge asked.

"I haven't eaten since yesterday, but it doesn't matter; I have plenty of fat on me, I can last a few days, consider it dieting," Vanya said carelessly, then her expression darkened:

"I wonder if the Viscount has eaten; he has no fat, don't let him faint from hunger. He said he wants to invent an insecticide where bugs don't die immediately upon eating it; when they return to their nest and contact other bugs, it will infect them, and then they will all fall ill and die together. I truly hope his insecticide can be invented so the insect plague passes quickly."

She had intended to have Seeing Ange pull out some food, but hearing this, Lord Nai Ge's eyes lit up: "There is such an insecticide? Infecting bugs so they die together? That is a good idea; it seems we need to visit your Viscount."

Suddenly, a streak of fire tore across the sky, plummeting at high speed, and struck the protective shield, exploding into a burst of sparks.

"Eh? A level seven Fire Meteor? Isn't this an insect plague? Why is there fire magic? Did a mage mix in with the insect exterminators?" Lord Nai Ge said in surprise.