Chapter 172: What Is This Potion Even For!!

The wall was already crowded with people, all watching the surging insect tide with trepidation, at a loss what to do.

Ang was also on the wall now; originally he had prepared to strike from below, waiting for the moment the barrier shattered and insects flooded in, then rushing out to kill the insect master—this might be the only way to save the city.

Of course, Ang did not know that even if the insect master died, the insects would not stop; they would devour everything edible, then turn on each other until all perished.

At normal speed, they could not evolve unless life acceleration sped up their iteration.

But Ang had done everything within his capability; whether it succeeded was beyond his control. Yet with such a massive upheaval, he could no longer stay below the wall—he sprinted up quickly and witnessed the most magnificent sight of his life.

A fearless warrior opened his chest and embraced the frail little girl, then was swallowed by a tidal wave of insects; the surge of rushing insects resembled a bottomless maw devouring all things.

This scene was worthy of becoming a legendary painting.

Clearly, he was not the only one who thought so; not far away on the wall, a mage had unrolled a scroll and was rapidly tracing symbols in the air, capturing the scene within.

When activated, the scroll would project its recorded events vividly before you, letting you experience them as if you were there.

Aside from being expensive and having limited uses, illusion scrolls had no other drawbacks.

But expensive was the greatest drawback—those who could not afford illusion scrolls still formed a huge market, so the wall was littered with painters unfurling canvases, frantically sketching the scene.

As for the little zombie, it was likely deemed an eyesore and deliberately ignored by most.

This astonishing scene lasted for hours, then everyone on the wall watched the insect carpet covering the entire land gradually contract until it formed a small mountain.

When Ang carved a path and emerged from the insect mountain with the little angel, the wall erupted in cheers.

When the little angel raised her hands to summon holy light, the cheers grew even louder, and people began "cursing" the Church of Light: "Light eternal! Light eternal!!"

The Church itself says Light is eternal—why are you calling it "eternal"? Isn't that a curse?

Ang heard this and felt uneasy, unsure how to stop the cheers, so he could only smile bitterly. But soon he realized: "Wait, I recognize these people. By the holy light, where did Anthony find these people? One man cleared the insect plague?"

Not only was he surprised, but when the news reached Anthony, he too was stunned. What the hell? I just came to buy grain—does buying grain come with free pest control? And how did Ang do it?

He immediately summoned Ang and asked cautiously: "My lord, how did you do it?"

"Insecticide."

"What!? You mean insecticide? The kind where one insect eats it and infects the whole nest, killing them all?" Anthony's eyes sparkled with excitement. "I want exclusive rights!"

Ang tilted his head. "What does 'exclusive rights' mean?"

"It means you sell this medicine only to me, and I sell it to others—I pay you a licensing fee," Anthony explained.

"Oh." Ang nodded, then pulled Negril's consciousness in and let them negotiate.

Night fell gradually. Ang began gathering fire elements into the insect corpse mountain, then ignited them—the flames surged dozens of meters high.

The rising heat current carried away much of the ash, scattering it everywhere, especially downwind; next year, the Black Mountain Duchy's crop yield would skyrocket—but that was a matter for the future.

Ang Dong shouted from the wall: "Governor, open the gates!"

On the rampart, the temporary regent of Black Mountain Duchy poked his head out. "No. It's dark now. We can't open the gates. If even one insect sneaks in, we're done."

Ang Dong nodded. He understood the regent's concern—indeed, if one insect slipped in, crawled into the sewers, and multiplied rapidly, it could swarm out from every drain, every latrine, every stinking ditch. The thought was terrifying.

Fine, don't open them. Ang Dong simply jumped down from the wall. As soon as he landed, the regent shouted: "Lord Ang Dong, you're going to visit the hero who cleared the plague? Please convey our gratitude on behalf of Black Mountain Duchy. We're preparing gifts and food—we'll send them over shortly."

"Sure, no problem," Ang Dong muttered inwardly: They're quite good at this.

"Wait for me, wait for me! That's our boss—come get us!" Sawa's voice came from the wall.

Ang Dong saw a tall, slender girl—was she a servant connected to the hero? Of course, no problem: "Alright, jump down. I'll catch you."

Sawa took a breath, closed her eyes, and leapt—she landed safely in Ang Dong's arms.

"Thank you, thank you. There's one more." Sawa bowed politely.

Ang Dong saw Sawa was quite beautiful and immediately perked up, flashing what he thought was his most charming smile: "No problem. Serving a beautiful lady is my honor. Next lady, jump—jump bravely!"

As he spoke, he looked up at the wall, assuming a catching pose—then saw a minotaur leap down. Ang Dong barely had time to activate his battle aura before he felt a mountain crash onto him.

Vania, embarrassed, carried the unconscious Ang Dong to Ang's side. "My lord, I knocked him out."

Ang glanced at him and cast a string of Purifying Spells.

The burning insect mountain was the brightest bonfire. Upwind, Ang Dong rubbed his arm, glancing nervously at the minotaur nearby. Vania sensed the gaze and occasionally turned her head, offering an awkward, dumb grin.

Their inner thoughts were probably identical: Damn, almost got crushed (by a minotaur)...

Feeling his arm improve, Ang Dong suddenly remembered: "Oh, right, my lord, the temporary regent of Black Mountain Duchy asked me to thank you and says he's preparing gifts to express his gratitude."

Ang tilted his head, unsure what to say—he clearly couldn't explain: "I mistook you for someone else, attacked you, realized my mistake, kept going anyway, and ended up collecting insect ash anyway."

Soon after Ang Dong finished speaking, the distant gate slowly opened, and two carriages rolled out.

"Oh, two carriages? That's quite a generous gift," Ang Dong praised—but when he saw the contents, his face darkened.

He had expected two carts full of gold and silver coins, jewels, and ornaments. After all, Ang had saved a city and over a hundred thousand lives. Two carts might be excessive, but one to one-and-a-half carts was reasonable.

These days, hiring a mercenary company to rescue a city of a hundred thousand people cost three times that amount.

But the two carriages were filled with grain, cloth, handicrafts, books—worthless things. The most valuable item was a pouch presented by the lead envoy, containing a thousand magic crystals.

A thousand magic crystals weren't enough to buy a single bottle of pure holy essence. In other words, Black Mountain Duchy's gratitude was worth less than a bottle of essence.

Ang Dong was furious: "No wonder Black Mountain Duchy keeps declining—do they really think this is acceptable?"

Though angry, the gift was not payment—no agreement had been made. Even if they gave nothing, it wasn't illegal. Aside from despising their poor manners, stinginess, and rudeness, Ang Dong could do nothing—after cursing a few times, he returned to the city.

Ang didn't care. He hadn't acted to save Black Mountain Duchy—he acted because he'd mistaken someone.

After burning the insect mountain, Ang collected all the ash. At that moment, Luo Ge suddenly appeared: "Lord Ang, I found the insect master's nest."

Because Luo Ge couldn't pass through the Light of Truth scan, he'd stayed outside the city. He could've been brought into the Palace of Rest, but at that point they were near the gate, surrounded by people—such an act would've drawn attention, so he was left outside.

Demons had keen senses, so during the fight he hadn't approached. He didn't think a demon and an insect master could defeat the Immortal God and the God of Knowledge, so he casually wandered off—and somehow, he stumbled upon an unexpected discovery.

Seeing the cave packed with sacks, Negril, who had just finished negotiating with Anthony and returned to his bronze dragon body, stared in shock: "Did this guy turn Black Mountain Duchy upside down? If the city folks' thanks are this pitiful, maybe they're truly broke?"

The cave was piled high with sacks; some bulged with gold and silver treasures, spilling from the openings. Inside were rings, necklaces, bracelets, silver candlesticks, golden bowls, all manner of exquisite gold, silver, and copper artifacts—anything valuable could be found here.

Among them was a sack that enraged Negril—gold teeth, clearly pried from corpses.

If they even took the gold teeth, it was no surprise they'd turned the entire duchy inside out. And only an insect master could do this.

Driving waves of insects, they infiltrated everywhere—no matter the ceiling, floor, or three feet underground, nothing blocked them. Where there was a crack, they squeezed in; where there wasn't, they dug. Every corner, every brick, every cellar, every pit was a target.

Especially since many nobles liked to bury grain in underground pits, giving the insects even greater incentive to dig.

Under this level of plunder, all the wealth accumulated by Black Mountain Duchy over a thousand years was piled here.

"Add the royal treasury, and you've got the entire nation's wealth in your hands. What rotten luck."

Royal treasury +1.

Ang felt nothing, even bored. He stuffed sack after sack of glittering gold, silver, and jewels, necklaces and ornaments into the Palace of Rest—slower than when he collected insect ash.

He'd considered leaving them, but seeing Sawa's excited, almost desperate urge to throw herself onto the sacks, he realized these things still held great value to humans.

After storing the treasure, Negril said: "I've finalized the deal with Anthony. Report: He paid three million magic crystals for exclusive rights to the insecticide. From now on, we only sell it to him—sixty thousand magic crystals per transaction."

Hearing about the insecticide, Sawa's ears had already perked up. Now she asked, puzzled: "Per transaction? What does that mean? Isn't our insecticide supposed to be sold by weight?"

Negril glanced at her, sneering: "You don't think insecticide alone can wipe out all insects, do you? Of course, the insecticide helped—but alone, it can't eradicate them. The insect master notices something's wrong and immediately stops the insects from devouring each other."

"Do you know why Ang stood there and took the hits? Only then would the insect master foolishly drive every single insect forward to die. Otherwise, the insects wouldn't have been wiped out so cleanly—this cave alone would've been left with a horde guarding the treasure."

"As long as even one or two survive, they'll breed another swarm. Eliminating them isn't hard—clearing them completely is hard. Especially in complex environments like cities—how do you clear them completely? In the end, you still need Ang to step in."

"So I negotiated with Anthony: we don't sell the product—we sell the service. Clearing a pest infestation costs sixty thousand magic crystals per job. The insect corpses are ours."

"Oh, by the way, you have a one-in-ten-thousand share of the profits, each time."

Sawa's eyes sparkled with magic crystals: "Profits? Each time? Even this one?"

"Yes. Silver said the best incentive for top talent is profit-sharing—you get a cut every time," Negril grinned.

Of course, Silver had said other things too—he didn't repeat them. For example, Silver said:

"Don't give too much—it kills motivation. If someone gets enough for three or five years from one payout, they'll just slack off for three or five years. Also, guide her toward big spending: buy a house, an estate, a magic crystal carriage, have children—get her deeply in debt, so she has incentive to earn."

Sawa was clearly motivated: "My lord, look—I've been designing these potions over the past two years. Do any of them suit you?"

As she spoke, she pulled out a large notebook. Negril flipped through it and couldn't help cursing:

"What the hell are these potions? Stone flesh potion? Hardens limbs temporarily? Shouldn't it harden the skin? Why limbs? Vasodilator potion? Treats vascular atrophy? Isn't there a Purification Spell? Just get a priest to purify it. And this one—pregnancy potion? What the hell is this potion supposed to do!!"