Chapter 204

"We're leaving, don't worry—come try to fight me if you dare."

Geralde saw this line and burst out laughing in anger: "Fine, fine, wait till I come over and beat you."

"Are you angry? We're angry too—we shouldn't have saved the God of Life. Let it die; it'd save you elves from being ungrateful and turning on your benefactors."

"Can't you see how simple this is? No. What do you want? Do you think we don't know? No. The Tree of Life belongs to itself—not to you elves."

These two paragraphs in the letter stirred Geralde with emotion and shame—apparently, their thoughts were crystal clear to others.

Yet this shame vanished again in the fourth paragraph.

"You have numbers and home advantage—dare you send someone to duel us? The loser runs naked around the World Tree—dare you?!"

Among the others, including Ang, Nagelis, and the rest, the only one wearing clothes was the little angel—what difference does running naked make to them?

Fifth paragraph: "You won't dare. We're leaving first. When the God of Life awakens, we'll return and accuse the elves of their rudeness before it."

"Take good care of the crops, assets, and subjects we left behind. If, because of you, the crops fail, the assets collapse, or the subjects die, the God of Life will punish you, the God of Undeath won't spare you, and the God of Knowledge will curse you."

"If you can't, we'll send you a leaf from the sapling every month until we pluck it bald—hope you'll think carefully."

The letter ended here; below were messy smudges, as if several people had fought over the ink while writing it.

"What does the letter say?" Kaelandael rushed over as soon as Geralde finished reading.

Geralde handed the letter to her directly, staring blankly at the distant Meishencheng and the World Tree.

After reading it, Kaelandael exclaimed: "There are crops? I'll go see."

She leaped backward, transformed into a giant eagle, and soared into the sky. Soon, she spotted vast rice fields beside Zhuilong Lake; she landed, plucked a stalk, and upon closer inspection, her expression changed drastically.

Asidoria was the third to take the letter; her fingers gently brushed the parchment, and the ink instantly rose like living things, touched by her skin.

Soon, Asidoria had "read" the entire letter with her fingers.

"What do we do?" Geralde asked, troubled.

Asidoria smiled slightly: "Can you find which plane they're on?"

Geralde shook her head: "We can narrow the general area, but pinpointing which specific Abyss is hard—it might take years, even decades, to check each one, requiring massive manpower and resources, and likely casualties."

"Then before you find them, take good care of what they left behind," Asidoria said.

Geralde hesitated: "Is that right? One line in the letter was true—the Tree of Life belongs to them. Isn't our desperate struggle wrong?"

Asidoria smiled slightly: "That's for you to answer—can you, or the elf race, bear the cost of losing the God of Life?"

Geralde shuddered, immediately shaking her head: "No."

As Elf Queen, she knew too well the elf race's flaws—without the God of Life, the elves might face extinction.

"So now, you have only two choices: spare no cost to seize the sapling, nurture it while it's young, and perhaps it won't remember it was stolen. The God of Life once said it has no memory before its ten-thousandth year—it doesn't know how elves were born."

Geralde fell into thought, then asked after a long while: "What's the second option?"

"Build good relations. When it's strong enough to protect the elf race, the entire race will pledge allegiance to it," Asidoria said.

Compared to the first, the second sounded like a joke. Geralde snapped: "Don't joke."

Asidoria smiled faintly, saying nothing in reply.

Geralde took a deep breath and decided: "Fine. For now, build good relations, care for their crops and assets, and search relentlessly for their Abyss—spare no cost to seize the sapling. The Tree of Life must belong to the elves."

A giant eagle swooped back down, transforming into Kaelandael: "It might not be this simple—look."

Geralde glanced blankly—she was a Dragon Hunter, what could she see from a single rice stalk? Only confusion.

Asidoria reached out and touched it too, finding nothing amiss.

"I picked this by Zhuilong Lake—the water's salty. These are saltwater rice," Kaelandael said urgently.

As outsiders, the Dragon Hunter and the Truth Archmage clearly didn't grasp the key point: "Is it precious? Rare? Don't humans know crops can't grow in saltwater?"

"Unprecedented. This is a new grain variety—one that can grow in saltwater and saline soil. A completely new crop. No one can be sure they can 'take good care' of it." When saying "take good care," Kaelandael emphasized the phrase.

Now Geralde and Asidoria understood the critical issue—a new grain, saltwater-tolerant, and even Kaelandael couldn't guarantee its care—who could?

If they failed and the crops died, how could they maintain good relations?

Ang and the others were forced to flee, surely furious—and if the elves killed their new grain, they'd hate them forever.

"Is it precious?" Geralde asked. If not, let it die—how much could grain cost? Pay double, triple, tenfold compensation later.

Kaelandael nodded, suppressing excitement: "Let me put it this way—one-fifth of the world's arable land is saline. If this crop spreads, it's like gaining one-fifth more farmland—enough to feed one-fifth more people."

Geralde's heart trembled—a single word flashed in her mind: priceless.

"Should we apologize and beg them to return?" Kaelandael suggested.

Geralde and Asidoria both rolled their eyes at her—though Asidoria had no whites to roll, her expression was unmistakable.

The massive elf army retreated in disgrace, gaining no victory—and now had to leave people behind to care for Ang's things.

A squad of elf Druids and a squad of Chimera Knights remained under Kaelandael's command.

Kaelandael's Druids, of course, were assigned to care for the saltwater magic rice—a miserable duty, since elves were ill-suited to desert climates—but they accepted it gladly, for they were tending an unprecedented new crop.

…

In the Holy Heaven, the Square of Gods, Ang stood in his tilled field, staring blankly at a spot in the sky.

Lu Se, who had just returned from the Abyss of Rest, saw this and asked worriedly: "Is the Master still like this?"

Nagelis sighed helplessly: "Yes. He misses his land."

"Damn elves—if you'd taken me along back then, I'd have cut them all down on the spot," Lu Se said indignantly.

Nagelis feigned excitement: "Really? Next time I'll bring you. The elves aren't many—three Archmages, one with a magic-nullifying field, a dozen Mastery Mages, one Dragon Hunter, three Archers, and a few hundred mages in their mage corps."

With each addition, Lu Se's face twitched, his embarrassment impossible to hide—he quickly changed the subject: "By the way, Lord Nagel, do you still have Upgrade Beans? Anna's hit a bottleneck—she wants to use one to try breaking through to High Sword Master."

Nagelis spread his hands: "None left. Ang used them all for planting."

"What?! None left? Now what? Anna's so lazy—without Upgrade Beans, she won't bother trying to break through. She might just stay stuck as a High Swordman forever."

Lu Se scratched his head in distress: "Master, should I pressure her? Steal her blanket while she sleeps, snatch her toilet paper when she goes, throw sand in her food during meals—force her to break through? I'm just afraid it'll ruin sibling bonds."

Nagelis's jaw nearly dropped: "Breakthrough… can you do it like that?"

"Of course—stimulate latent potential," Lu Se said eagerly, no longer caring about the breakthrough—just the thrill.

"No no no—too damaging to feelings. Go trade with a Dark God for some. Ang."

Nagelis took charge of the Upgrade Beans himself—out of pity for Anna, to spare her from her unreliable brother's antics, and also to give Ang something to do, to distract him.

This vegetable-growing skeleton had grown ambitious. Before, one patch of land was enough; now, he constantly yearned for the endless fields along Zhuilong Lake and Huxindao.

He clearly understood the elves were too powerful to return to now, so he said nothing—only occasionally, while tending crops, he'd stare blankly at some distant spot, so quietly heartrending.

"Ang, where's the Dark God statue? Bring it out to trade for Upgrade Beans—Anna needs to break through, and they'll help."

Ang nodded, took out the Dark God statue, and placed an Elf Bean on it.

In a flash, a furry paw shot out, grabbed the Elf Bean, and pulled it back.

Immediately, the paw shot out again, and pounded loudly, repeatedly, on the statue's palm—hard, forceful—and finally clenched its elbow tightly.

Nagelis and Lu Se exchanged glances, uncertain: "Is it… angry?"

"Looks like it. Angry about what?"

"Angry we haven't traded with it for so long?"

As soon as they said it, all felt absurd—a Dark God angry because no one traded Upgrade Beans with it?

Ang picked up another Elf Bean and tapped the tightly clenched little fist.

The fist remained clenched.

Ang tapped again—it loosened slightly. Tapped again—it loosened more. When it seemed ready, Ang slipped the Elf Bean between its toes.

The paw squeezed it, then slowly retracted, its movement sluggish and reluctant.

After pulling back, the paw shot out again and tapped the statue's palm.

Ang placed another Elf Bean on it—on the fourth bean, the paw reached out, now holding one Upgrade Bean.

"Huh? Wasn't it five Elf Beans for one Upgrade Bean? Why four now?" Nagelis asked, puzzled.

Lu Se guessed: "Could it be… because we haven't traded in so long, it thinks we dislike the price, and raised it on its own?"

"Possible. But why collect so many Elf Beans? To eat?" Nagelis asked.

"Uh—if it's a Dark God and needs Elf Beans to eat, how many would it need daily? We haven't traded for ages, yet it hasn't starved." Lu Se said.

Ang picked up an Elf Bean, manipulated elements to burn a few small characters onto its surface: "Are you hungry?"

The Elf Bean was pulled back—the furry paw shot out again, but instantly retracted, likely having spotted the writing.

After several minutes, the paw extended again, palm up, holding a black stone with two crooked characters: "So hungry."

"It understands human writing! Ask it: Can Elf Beans fill you up?" Nagelis said excitedly.

"Can Elf Beans fill you up?" Ang carved the words and placed the bean in its palm.

"Tasty." The paw reached out again, palm holding a black stone.

"Eat anything else?"

"Other tasty" — no punctuation, but Nagelis guessed it was a question, otherwise it wouldn't match the query.

"What else have you eaten?"

The paw took a long time to respond. Minutes later, it extended, the black stone showing a crooked drawing of a furry head, tilted, its two eyes clearly expressing confusion.

Alongside the stone was one Upgrade Bean—though they'd begun talking, the Dark God hadn't forgotten the exchange: four Elf Beans for one Upgrade Bean.

This soul-level art style made Lu Se and Nagelis burst out laughing: "Looks like it doesn't even know what it's eaten—just try one thing at a time, see what else it'll accept."

Ang thought, then pulled out a glowing shard.

Nagelis grabbed him in alarm: "What are you doing? That's a God fragment—what are you thinking?"

The soul inside the God's body escaped, but was caught by the God of Life and crushed.

The shattered divine essence scattered, but Ang collected it without mercy—plus the large piece seized by the little angel, over half the God's body's soul was now in Ang's hands.

"So many." Ang pulled out a handful— Quanshishenlingdesuipian ， Zhiqiannachulaideyikuai ， Haibudaozhelideliushifenzhiyi 。

【100】 "So many." Ang pulled out a handful—all God fragments; the one he'd taken out earlier was less than one-sixtieth of this.

"Then be careful with it, don't waste it." Nage Lisi reluctantly let go.

The divine fragment was placed on the palm; the tiny claw swiftly pressed down, pulling it back.

More than ten seconds later, the claw extended again, clutching a full handful—roughly seven or eight upgrade beans. It dropped them straight down, retracted, then reached out once more with another handful.

A small fragment of the divine essence had been exchanged for three handfuls, totaling twenty-four upgrade beans.

"Too many—we can't use them all. Ask if we can trade for something else," Nage Lisi said.

Ang carved the words "Trade for something else" onto a spirit bean, then placed it atop the divine fragment.

Several more minutes passed without movement.

Everyone wasn't in a hurry; now Nage Lisi understood—the claw's silence meant either hesitation over what to trade, or deliberation over the value of potential exchanges.

The tiny claw extended again, clutching something, its toes flexing and curling as if wanting to give but unwilling to let go.

Finally, it opened its palm, revealing a black crystal fragment the size of half a fingernail.

ps: seems there's a double, go rob the monthly votes