Chapter 180: The Earth Holy Hammer

The Earth Holy Hammer actually has a magic spirit? I've never heard of such a thing. Anthony was stunned for a moment, immediately realizing this was a breakthrough. He had been fretting over how to uncover the hammer's origins, and never expected it to have a magic spirit—wouldn't it be easier to just ask it directly?

"So it's called the Ethereal Hammer. What is an Ethereal Hammer?" Anthony asked.

"Why should I tell you? Move aside, don't get so close, your breath is spraying on me," the Earth Holy Hammer replied impatiently.

Negris turned his head and let out a cry: "Awooo."

The little angel immediately came running over, rubbing against them.

"The meaning of Ethereal Hammer is the echo of souls in a vast emptiness. This is a hammer that can touch souls," the Earth Holy Hammer replied swiftly.

"What is it used for?" Anthony asked.

Under the little angel's menacing glare, the Earth Holy Hammer was very cooperative: "It can touch the echoes of souls and summon the remains on the ground."

"Isn't that just 'The King Arrives'? Any golden skeleton can do that. Is it really worth sealing it away?" Negris asked, puzzled.

"You can't say it like that. What a golden skeleton can do and what a hammer can do are not the same concept. Because anyone can use a hammer. Can you imagine two armies clashing, the opponent has lost half their men, you've lost a third, the situation is in your favor and you're about to win, when suddenly the corpses on the ground all crawl up and become enemies? I suddenly understand why Duke Heishan is invincible."

"But, would the Church of Light let such a person live?" Negris asked, somewhat doubtful.

"Perhaps they couldn't defeat him. This Duke Heishan himself has the strength of a Gao Jie Sword Saint, and under his command, he has two Arcane Mages, one Truth Sword Saint, six Gao Jie Sword Saints, and an elite cavalry regiment. He also gained the support of most anti-church nations. It's already quite something that they haven't wiped out the Church of Light," Anthony said.

"So, the seal on the hammer is equivalent to a ceasefire agreement signed by both sides?" Negris speculated.

"That should be it. Let's ask. Magic spirit, do you represent a ceasefire agreement?"

"Are you stupid? I'm just a seal. How would I know what I represent? Do you know what you represent? You represent a fool."

Anthony was stunned by the insult. After a long while, he said blankly: "Is this magic spirit a relative of your Lightning?"

Negris stifled a laugh: "No, it's easier to deal with than Lightning; it doesn't have legs. Little angel, I'll leave it to you. Take it to level the land. The soil layer on the Huxindao is too shallow and there are too many rocks; it's perfect for using it to prepare the land."

Huxindao was originally a rocky mountain. The shallow topsoil was almost entirely formed by weathering or settled dust, and it was filled with a massive amount of rocks. If the Earth Holy Hammer were used to prepare the land, the arable area could likely be increased by five or six times.

The little angel ran off excitedly, carrying the hammer. Ang followed excitedly, and the little zombie followed as well.

The two old foxes were left behind, looking at each other.

"Forget it, I've already made rubbings of the seal and the Undead Movement. I'll go back and study them slowly. If you discover anything, let me know. You are, after all, the God of Knowledge." Anthony was in a rush and took his leave.

Twenty days later, the ten thousand mu of farmland leveled on Huxindao using the Earth Holy Hammer had all been planted with magic rice by Ang. At the same time, the elf bean had sprouted its second bud point.

"Ang, it's bad, it's bad! The elf bean's second bud point was snatched away by something... Wait, did you prune it?" Negris flew over in a panic to inform him, only to see Ang holding a small bud point, carefully pressing it onto the World Tree.

The bark of the World Tree was sliced open, the bud point was also trimmed flat, and it was pressed tightly against the inner bark. Then, holy water was poured on it, and it was covered with clean soil that had been purified by holy light.

"Are you... grafting?"

Ang nodded.

"Why think of grafting? You haven't even grown the elf bean yet."

"Slow," Ang said with disdain. It had already been twenty days, and only the second bud point had grown. Who knows how many years it would take to grow beans.

"Uh, it takes sixty years. Thirty years to bloom, thirty years to fruit, and then it withers. The harvest period is only twenty years, and it can produce about five hundred beans each year."

That is to say, in the lifetime of one elf bean plant, it can produce over ten thousand beans. It sounds like a lot, but in reality, if each person eats one a day, ten thousand beans are only enough for ten thousand people to eat for one day. If it were an army of two hundred thousand, who knows how many elf beans would be needed to supply them.

And this requires consuming the land's time and fertility for sixty years.

The elf bean requires a massive amount of fertility; ordinary land cannot grow it. Moreover, its roots spread very wide. Within a range of several hundred square meters, as long as one elf bean is planted, other plants have a hard time growing well.

Therefore, even though the elf bean is a crop with strategic value, the elves cannot achieve universal consumption and can only plant a little as a strategic resource.

Now, Ang had actually had a brainwave and was attempting to graft the elf bean onto the World Tree? The reason was that he disliked how slowly it grew?

Indeed, if it could grow as fast as the World Tree without consuming the land's fertility, then the elf bean would definitely become the staple food of the entire world. But if it were possible, why wouldn't the elves do it?

"Oh, I forgot, the elves only have one World Tree, and they treasure it like crazy. How could they possibly do such a grafting experiment? It's only because you have a pile of World Trees in your hands that you can mess around with them." Negris thought of a key point and immediately couldn't help but get excited.

However, this was clearly not an easy task. The first bud point grafted on soon withered and turned black. During this time, Ang kept dripping life essence, holy essence, insect ash, and essence insect ash liquid, but none of it could save the bud point.

The first plan failed, and Ang soon prepared a second plan, but it required waiting for new bud points to grow. The entire progress was very slow.

Just as Ang was squatting in front of the elf bean sprout, waiting for a new bud point to grow, Lisa's call came through his soul: "My lord, come and take a look. They've started fighting."

They had started fighting. The refugees from the Fallen Legion and the Sand People were fighting. Everyone was throwing punches and kicks, pushing and shoving each other.

One side was crying out aggrievedly: "You Sand People are bullying outsiders! You won't give us this, you won't give us that. By what right? Just because you came first?"

The Sand People were also angry: "This is the desert! Everything is precious. You waste this and waste that. Water is so precious, and you actually use it to take baths? Go back, you city folk."

The conflicts accumulated over more than a month finally turned into a brawl.

By the time Ang arrived, everyone was so tired they were lying on the ground panting. They had chosen to brawl right at noon, of all times. Not a single person had been beaten to death, but more than one had been sun-dehydrated.

Fale and Shafiya were dragged in front of Ang, dejected. Negris, who was angry, was dragged in front of Ang by him, and he opened his mouth and roared: "What is the matter! Are you too full and have nothing to do?!"

Fale and Shafiya nodded desperately in unison. Fale even started to complain:

"My lord, it's just that we're too full. We have sweet rice to eat every day. This was a life only nobles had before. Now, everyone doesn't have to do anything. We lie in the dugouts and get up to eat when it's time. Except for the few days when we first arrived and were busy harvesting rice, for this recent period, everyone has been idle, so of course, they're going to cause trouble."

Shafiya nodded and added a complaint: "They also waste food and waste fresh water. We Sand People only take three baths in our lives: once when we're born, once before we die, and once when we give birth. These people actually want to bathe every day, and they want to use fresh water to do it. It's infuriating."

"Ah? You only bathe three times? Then why are you so clean?" Negris was immediately distracted and asked curiously.

As soon as he finished speaking, Negris sensed a murderous aura. He turned his head and saw that not far away, Nai Aili had already narrowed her dangerous vertical pupils. Terrified, he hurriedly tried to remedy the situation: "Curious, just curious. You don't have to answer."

"What's so strange about that?" Shafiya said generously: "Use sand. Clean sand. The best sand, after the afternoon sun has passed and it's scorching but not burning. You scrub, and you can get very clean. It's good for the skin."

"That's a good method. The fresh water in the desert really can't support the consumption of bathing. But isn't there a river here now? And it's not like fresh water is lacking," Negris asked.

"They are wasteful, unhygienic, and dump waste everywhere. They poop in the reed beds and pollute the river and water sources. We got angry and said a few words to them, and they said we were bullying outsiders." The more Shafiya spoke, the angrier she got, and she glared at Fale again.

No need to ask, Shafiya definitely had a hand in starting the fight. Why was this Dragon Speaker's temper so explosive?

Fale was helpless and said with a bitter smile: "The main thing is that we're too idle, and we have nowhere to vent our energy. My lord, I wonder if there is any work you can arrange for us to do? For example, land reclamation or farming, so that they can be busy and won't think about fighting."

After hearing this, Ang became instantly vigilant. When Negris turned to look at him, Ang immediately said: "No, mine."

Alright, he had already learned to preemptively answer. This matter was definitely not up for discussion. Just kidding, farming was Ang's only hobby. If he let them do it, what would Ang play with?

Of course, if they wanted to go elsewhere to reclaim new land, Ang wouldn't care, but the land currently being farmed was all Ang's.

Farming is out, so what now? Is there any other work in this environment that consumes a large amount of manpower?

He couldn't think of anything for the moment, so he had to drive them to plant grass mats and date trees, extending along both sides of the river.

But this was not a long-term plan, because the ecology of every place is interconnected. If too many crops are planted on both sides of the river, it will inevitably consume the water resources in the river.

The river's flow will decrease, the amount of water injected into Dragonfall Lake will decrease, and with the evaporation rate remaining the same, the injected water will be less, and Dragonfall Lake will shrink. The water volume will decrease, the salinity will rise, and the fish and shrimp will decrease, thereby triggering a series of reactions.

Unless it is land where the water volume is already sufficient but has become desertified for other reasons. Otherwise, even if Ang could plant grass over the entire desert, he wouldn't do it. The water volume is not enough to support it becoming a grassland.

"Then why don't we open a beauty city?" Lisa suddenly thought of something and suggested with sparkling eyes: "There are very few things in the world that can attract people to travel thousands of miles, endure long journeys, brave the scorching sun, and willingly put money into your pocket. Beauty is one of them."

"Eh, I seem to have heard someone say this kind of argument before. Alchemist Sawa, right, where are Alchemist Sawa and Waniya?"

Alchemist Sawa clearly wasn't qualified to attend a meeting of this level. They sent someone to call her, and she came over very quickly.

Once they started chatting, oh boy, she and Lisa were like old friends meeting for the first time: "Pious believers, beauty-loving women, impulsive men."

"Wow, sister, you've heard this sentence too? My teacher is always saying it. Pilgrimage, plastic surgery, male enhancement—these are all big industries."

"For plastic surgery, we now have core competitiveness. The Jing Yan Shu and spot removal and wrinkle removal techniques are all the best. Think about it, a seventy or eighty-year-old woman comes to the desert for a trip and goes back thirty years younger—more tender, whiter, and more radiant. These people will definitely go crazy."

The two women talked over each other, and soon they had the Beauty City fully conceptualized, and even Shafiya and Nai Aili joined the discussion excitedly.

Ang couldn't understand it anyway, so he went off to plant vegetables on his own.

Feilin and Negris smiled bitterly as they were pushed to the side. Clearly, they couldn't get a word in on this topic, but it also showed that this idea had potential—you could tell just by looking at how excited these women were.

"By the way, Lord Negris, do you know where Ouke went?" Feilin asked.

"Ouke?" Negris thought of the fanatical boy who had hugged his sister and rushed into the temple, and asked, puzzled: "Isn't he in the temple in the Lich City?"

"No, a long time ago he teleported to the oasis, only saying one sentence: 'I am going to fulfill the divine oracle,' and then he disappeared. I asked many people, and they all said they hadn't seen him." Feilin said with a bitter smile.

Negris became nervous. If it were in the Abyss of Peace, disappearing was fine; as long as one hid from the Wind of Peace, there was no danger in the abyss.

But it was different here. There were too many dangers in this world. Not to mention sand bandits and human traffickers, even magical beasts and wild beasts could kill people. For a teenager like him to run around everywhere was very dangerous.

Thinking of this, Negris couldn't sit still. He turned to Ang and asked: "Ouke is gone. Do you know where he went?"

Ang tilted his head, withdrew his consciousness into his soul, and probed toward the symbol belonging to Ouke.

Ang's consciousness instantly crossed the vast distance and projected onto Ouke.

Ouke was currently in a pitch-black cave, groping his way forward. He slipped from time to time, but climbed up without a word. When he slipped again, he touched something different.

He put his hand to his nose and sniffed, a look of surprise appearing on his face. He said piously: "My Lord Ang, please grant me eyes that can see through the darkness."

Ang instantly felt a force surging toward the symbol belonging to Ouke in his soul. Ang was already used to this situation; people often borrowed his power and would return soul flames, and Ang didn't care who it was.

Instantly, the darkness before his eyes became bright. In a massive cave, a large area of slimy biological tissue occupied most of the cave, and countless insect eggs filled every place his eyes could see.

Just as Ouke looked over, a consciousness filled with doubt fell upon Ouke, seemingly puzzled as to how this person had appeared here.

Ang, who was projected onto Ouke, immediately recognized this consciousness. This was the consciousness attached to the statue when he used soul impact on it in the underground of the Dark Side City. So, what Ouke meant by "I am going to fulfill the divine oracle" referred to eliminating Hemertus.

Ang explained the situation, and Negris jumped up: "He's crazy? He went to kill Hemertus all by himself? Where is he now? Which cave?"

"Two," Ang tilted his head: "He, summoned the Bone Priest."