Chapter 206: Philosopher

If you can't eat it, then don't eat it? Keep eating!

Ang forcefully shoved more inside: See if you still want to eat the little zombie's brain!

Ang was angry—if he hadn't reacted quickly, the little zombie's entire upper body would've been devoured; if the soul-fire in its heart got bitten, the little zombie would die.

The Soul-Eater probably never imagined it would one day eat so much soul energy it would burst; after being force-fed, it emitted a string of agonized messages: Full… Bursting… Spare me…

Ang extended a finger, conjured a soul oath, and moved it onto the hat; the Soul-Eater obediently let the oath etch itself onto the hat, establishing a soul-link between it and Ang, integrating into the soul network.

Some information also flooded into Ang's soul.

After scanning the information transmitted by the Soul-Eater's hat, Ang suddenly looked up and said to Negrilis: "The Straw Man Hat—he made it."

"It? This hat made the Straw Man Hat?" Negrilis sounded strange—could a hat make another hat?

Ang shook his head: "Du Luo made it."

"Oh, so he's a illusionist? An alchemist?" Negrilis asked dismissively.

As the Lich King, Du Luo could do anything—it wouldn't be surprising. A lich with no reputation, who couldn't even beat Jian Gu Luo Ke in a fight, what else could he do besides sleep?

Of course, whatever was fun, he'd do it. Just look at how he turned his palace into a concert hall—it's perfectly normal for him to know other skills, nothing extraordinary.

Sure enough, Ang nodded: "All of them." Meaning he knew illusion and alchemy, understood music, and his magical skill was certainly high—he was an all-around Lich King.

Ang picked up the conductor's baton, infused it with soul energy, then took out his broken Straw Man Hat and gently tapped the crack.

The cracked Straw Man Hat automatically repaired itself.

"Whoa, is this illusion?" Lu Se exclaimed in surprise, thinking he'd been fooled by an illusion.

"Tsk tsk tsk, I know what these are now—the Philosopher's Stone Set. This is a great treasure." Negrilis praised enthusiastically.

Lu Se asked puzzled: "Aren't you not familiar with Du Luo? Then how do you know about his set?"

"Sigh, what can I say? It's the classic case of the creator unknown, the Philosopher's Stone Set famous, yet no one knows who made it." Negrilis sighed sympathetically—everyone knows the God of Knowledge, but who cares about His true name?

Lu Se urged: "Just tell us already—how is it famous?"

"The Philosopher's Stone Set has three pieces: a Soul-Eater Hat, a Philosopher's Rod, and a cloak. The Soul-Eater Hat contains various alchemical secrets; once worn, you instantly master alchemy, and with the Philosopher's Rod, you can easily create or repair alchemical gear—like the Straw Man Hat. Look, isn't it fixed?"

Ang took off the Soul-Eater Hat and put on the Straw Man Hat; light and shadow flickered around his body, revealing the human form he had previously conjured.

"Looks like it's truly fixed. This Philosopher's Stone Set is incredibly useful." Negrilis marveled.

Ang casually slipped the Soul-Eater Hat onto Negrilis's head.

"Ahh! What are you doing? It'll eat me! Aah! Help! It's biting me! Take it off! Save me!" Negrilis felt the hat wriggling and twisting on its head, thinking it would be devoured like the little zombie—until a faint message drifted from above: Not eating… Idiot…

Negrilis looked closer—the wriggling hat shrank a full circle, becoming a tiny, perfectly fitted top hat, snugly seated atop its skull bump, as if custom-made. Apparently, the wriggling wasn't to eat it, but to adapt to its shape.

Ang shoved the Philosopher's Rod into Negrilis's hand: "It says, the more you know, the better you use it."

Though the Soul-Eater Hat contained many alchemical secrets, ordinary beings couldn't use it well—for example, some skeletons didn't even know what alchemy was, and just tapped randomly.

Also, when Ang wore the Straw Man Hat, he couldn't wear the Soul-Eater Hat—so Negrilis was the perfect candidate for it.

"So you think I know a lot, huh?" Negrilis stuck its tiny paws on its waist, tail sticking up proudly.

With a new toy, Negrilis instantly became like Ang when he got Essence of Life—tapping everything it saw. A perfectly good table, once touched by the Philosopher's Rod, shattered into wood shavings and copper chunks with a crack.

Ang searched the palace for hours more but found nothing else useful—though of course, only to him. Those exquisitely carved, opulently crafted items, if taken out, held immense artistic value.

But sadly, if it couldn't be used for farming, it was useless.

Leaving the Palace of Rest, Lu Se happily tossed down the Upgrade Bean with the upgrade bean.

"By the way, Ang, do you remember that luxury carriage? The one from the desert, the mage's carriage—what was it called?" Negrilis asked.

Ang nodded and teleported the luxury carriage out.

The carriage perfectly embodied the noble traits of laziness and decadent luxury—it contained a folding space and an ice array to maintain optimal temperature.

These magical systems consumed enormous energy; just running them required over ten magic crystals per day.

Ten magic crystals—that's a hundred gold coins a day, enough to buy dozens of tons of grain—just for a bit more space and comfort.

So after acquiring the carriage, Ang and the others never used it—it was impractical.

"I've always wanted to modify it, but I couldn't nail the details. Now I've got the Philosopher's Stone Set—I know how to upgrade it. Oh, give me a few Unbound Crystals and Starstone Gems too. Last time you caught some Rainbow Stones? Hand them over too. Watch me make it beautiful."

"Oh, can you plant seeds in it?" Ang asked.

Negrilis's expression froze instantly: "Can you stop thinking about farming? Isn't a fast, flying, teleporting carriage better?"

"Oh, can you harvest from it?" Ang asked.

"No! If you want a harvester, go find Wu Guli."

"Oh, neither works. Useless carriage." Ang nodded in understanding, then turned to tend to his elf beans, leaving Negrilis bewildered—its enthusiasm for modifying the carriage vanished completely.

"Damn it, fine, don't modify it. You take it and plant crops yourself." Negrilis snapped.

At that moment, Ang suddenly received a call from Lisa in his soul: "Bad news, bad news, my lord—we have someone infected with the Undead Plague!"

The news that someone in the Palace of Rest was infected with the Undead Plague was like a thunderclap—everyone was stunned into silence.

By the time Ang teleported down from Heaven, everyone had gathered at Demon Valley, surrounding a zombie half-rotted away.

The zombie was tied with a rope, swaying back and forth. When it drifted toward one side, sensing the hostile beings there, it shuffled away; when it reached the other side, finding those beings even more terrifying, it turned again—if the zombie had intelligence, it would've been crying by now.

Negrilis approached and examined it: "Definitely the Undead Plague. Where did you find it?"

A human was brought forward. Seeing a crowd of undead staring at him, he trembled violently and stammered:

"R-reporting to all Undead Lords, this is my brother. Recently, lumber became cheap, so I wanted to nail him a coffin to stop him wandering. I searched the wasteland for days and finally found him—but I don't know why he rotted like this. If not for the tag on him, I wouldn't have recognized him. I brought him to New Darkside City, and then I got arrested by your lordship."

Negrilis turned to Anna and Feilin: "Do you know him?"

Anna nodded: "Yes. He's from our Ice City—at least everyone on one street knows him."

So he wasn't an infiltrator from another plane. His brother was a native of the Abyss—why had he contracted the Undead Plague?

Negrilis turned to Luo Ge. Over three thousand undead were being relocated to the Palace of Rest, and Luo Ge had to oversee every step—many undead trusted only him, so he'd been handling the migration.

Now, this plague was first discovered at the New Darkside settlement.

"My lord, you know how terrified we were of this plague—we'd recognize its ashes anywhere. When we saw this human dragging a rotting corpse, we nearly killed him on the spot. Oh no, better to burn him to ash—it's safer." Luo Ge spoke excitedly.

The Undead Plague had terrified them all—every undead creature, watching it corrode them clean, wished they'd die sooner. If not for Ang's ability to purge it, many would've committed suicide when the outbreak spread.

Some willingly left the Prime Material Plane for this barren, birdless Abyss, hoping deep down to escape the plague's origin as far as possible—yet barely had they settled, and now the plague reappeared. They were all terrified.

"Burning to ash won't be safe. We must first find the source. Unless we know where it came from, burning every zombie and skeleton in the wasteland is useless." Negrilis frowned deeply.

"Could it be someone under Luo Ge's command still carries the plague?" Lan speculated.

"Impossible. If anyone still carried it, they'd have already fallen ill. It couldn't have infected wild zombies only now." Luo Ge declared firmly.

Negrilis, Anna, Feilin, and Lan's expressions turned grim: "If it wasn't brought by Luo Ge's people, then the problem is severe—someone secretly infiltrated our world and released this plague in the wild."

With this suspicion, everyone could no longer sit still—they shouted in unison: "Get up! Move! Search every inch—see if anyone snuck in!"

A continent-wide search began—all beings mobilized: humans, undead, demons, minotaurs—anyone who could move joined the search.

Centered on the location where the rotting zombie was found, they combed outward, leaving no corner unexamined.

In the past, the Palace of Rest couldn't have mounted such a large-scale operation—there wasn't enough food, let alone the resources or energy for a wilderness search.

But now it was different: the World Tree Windbreak Forest had given the Abyss vast farmland, enough to feed its entire population with ease.

In fact, with abundant food and supplies, the newborn populations in all three human settlements had exploded. Given time, the Palace of Rest might even revive the prosperity it enjoyed when the World Transit Station was open.

With sufficient food and supplies, such large-scale non-production operations became possible.

By day, White Throat Bone Dragon, Lightning, and other flying creatures scoured the skies; by night, searchers dug pits wherever they were and hid, resuming the next day.

After five straight days of searching, Ang and his group took shelter in a pit newly dug by the little zombie, avoiding the fierce winds of the Palace of Rest.

Ang hadn't felt the wind in a long time. These days, he sat quietly, hand extended beyond the pit. The little zombie and the little angel sat one on each side, copying him.

Negrilis chatted with others, sighing: "We found another thirty rotting zombies and skeletons. The plague has clearly spread."

Lu Se, unusually serious, said: "We might owe thanks to the Palace of Rest Wind—if not for it, the plague might've spread faster. Of these thirty infected, twenty collapsed in the wasteland; the rest couldn't wander far, slowing the spread. Also, Grandma Lan seems infected."

"What? Lan infected? How bad is it?" Negrilis gasped.

"Not serious—just terrified. She got infected on her face. When she saw her skin rotting, she nearly burned everything nearby." Lu Se said, still shaken.

"Hmm, understandable. If Nai Aili saw her face rotting, she'd blast herself with dragon breath."

"Sigh… Just like my mom." Lightning sighed.

"Sigh…" Others, lost in thought, sighed together.

"By the way, I made a few space rings. Want one?" Negrilis asked.

After getting the Philosopher's Stone Set, it couldn't sit still—and with Ang's abundant materials, especially the pile of Unbound Crystals, making space rings was easiest.

But it wasn't a space mage, so the rings it made couldn't be locked—anyone could open them.

"Yes yes yes yes! My old ring was stolen by Anna—I can't even store my Dragon Pattern… Greatsword anymore." Lu Se almost said the full name, but seeing everyone's murderous glares, he shrank back.

"I want one too!"

"Why do you want one? Your hooves are too thick—no size fits you."

"Can't I wear it around my neck? Will you give it to me or not? I'll camp outside your door and tell your story with the Sand Girl a hundred and eighty times!"

"When did I ever meet a Sand Girl? The one with the Sand Girl story is Lu Se!" Negrilis fumed, ready to jump.

Lightning rolled its eyes: "I know. But others don't. After saying it a hundred and eighty times, someone will believe it."

Negrilis's whiskers bristled in rage, and it reluctantly handed over a space ring.

At that moment, Ang, whose hand had been extended into the Palace of Rest Wind, suddenly spoke: "There's a voice… in the wind."

He leapt up, pulled out a Void Bubble Stone, and charged into the wind.