Chapter 217: Seems Angry

"I truly am the Immortal God." Ange reactivated the communication device and stated the truth.

"You're really getting bold now, aren't you? Fine, fine, fine. You're the Immortal God, I'm your father. Don't humans love cursing like this the most? Which dead kid picked up a communication bone tile and started playing with it recklessly? You can't even bear to waste a Soul Crystal, which is so expensive." Clearly, the other end of the communication assumed he was a human who had found a communication bone tile and was sending messages recklessly.

"But, I truly am the Immortal God." Ange said somewhat blankly; when others didn't believe his words, the vegetable-growing skeleton didn't know how to react.

"Shut up! If you're the Immortal God, why do we still have to be stuck here, unable to return home for a thousand years! Get lost! If you harass us again, after the Eternal Night, I'll release the raven flock to eat all the grain in the nearby villages and starve you bastards to death." The voice on the other end roared in grief and anger. Crack! The communication was cut off again.

Ange and Lord Nai Ge's minds touched briefly, both sensing the other's confusion: "It seems he's angry?"

Since the other party wouldn't believe him even if he spoke, and calling again wouldn't know what to say, Ange could only temporarily put the bone tile away.

"Brandt, pick two people and come with me to Shengbicheng." Lord Nai Ge said.

"Yes, my lord." Brandt responded, then turned his head and shouted: "Little Brandt, Tiny Brandt, come over here."

Lord Nai Ge was stunned: "Wait a minute, how many Brandts do you have here?"

"Ah, there are more than ten of us. We are all from the Brandt family. Little Brandt is my son, and Tiny Brandt is my nephew."

Lord Nai Ge was speechless: "You make names too easily. Do you call each other like this normally? Aren't you afraid of getting mixed up?"

"No, no, no, we don't call each other like this normally. My son is called Lame Foot, and my nephew is called Iron Drum. Please rest assured, my lord, they are the most outstanding warriors among us." Brandt thought Ange was disdainful of them and quickly patted his chest to guarantee it.

Anyway, they all sounded terrible, and Lord Nai Ge was too lazy to dwell on it. He asked the three of them to come over and line up. After they stood in a row, Lord Nai Ge discovered the problem: "Your appearance is a bit hard to show off."

The three Brandts shamefully lowered their heads.

Brandt was slightly better off; Little Brandt was missing one boot because his foot had been lame before, and no boot could fit him. As for Tiny Brandt, his armor and clothes were incomplete, with holes showing in some places.

"How about this? I'll lend you three sets of armor. Return them to me after you're done." After Lord Nai Ge finished speaking, Ange took out the Holy Spirit Armor Egg.

Back then, in the Holy Heaven Kingdom, they had found one hundred and twenty Holy Spirit Armor Eggs. A few were given to Anthony, and the rest were thrown aside, never having the chance to be used.

Brandt held the Holy Spirit Armor, which was the size of an ostrich egg, looking at Ange blankly. He obviously didn't recognize this high-grade item, Holy Spirit Armor. Even if he had occasionally seen someone wearing it, he wouldn't know what it looked like when shrunk into a ball.

"Take off your rags and then infuse them with Holy Power." Lord Nai Ge said.

Brandt confusedly took off his armor; his son and nephew even stripped off their underwear in three or four quick motions.

Upon infusing Holy Power, the Holy Spirit Armor instantly popped open, transforming into the shape of a metal angel facing Brandt. The wings behind it wrapped down. With a series of cracks, metal plates adhered to Brandt's body.

Such a cool way of dressing shocked Brandt's entire family. The other Holy Knights and villagers were watching from afar. The scene at that moment made them all kneel down. Someone murmured, "I saw an angel attach itself to Brandt."

With Ange's arrival, everyone in the village had not been shocked for the first time. Many had never left the village in their lives and were actually half-skeptical about the Light; their faith was not firm.

Occasionally, priests and saintesses would come to the countryside, but they wouldn't frequently display miracles. Instead, they would demand bribes, which easily caused villagers' resentment. Shocking them was difficult.

For many, their belief in the Light mostly came from Holy Knights like Brandt.

Now, what Ange displayed made them truly feel the power of the Light.

The other Holy Knights were dying of envy. After passing the Holy Knight assessment, they were issued old, dilapidated second-hand armor. Some didn't even fit well. Wearing them not only lacked the majesty of a Holy Knight but might also transmit athlete's foot or ringworm.

But the Holy Spirit Armor was holy, majestic, cool, and full of a sense of power. Just wearing it once would be enough to make one feel satisfied.

Three more horses were dragged out. Lord Nai Ge asked, "Can you ride horses?"

Brandt answered shamefully, "We can ride, but not well. We used to practice with donkeys before."

"Alright then. Each of you take one out to practice. If you learn well, you can go; if not, we'll replace you. After completing the mission, these horses will belong to you as a reward." Lord Nai Ge said.

The warhorses stolen from the Sand Pirates and the Dragon-Slaying Knight Order had stayed in the Palace of Rest too long. They slept until full, ate until full, and slept again, with no space to run. They had already become several sizes fatter. If this continued, these warhorses would be ruined. They needed to find a way to send them away or sell them quickly.

"Thank you, my lord! We will definitely practice hard." Brandt responded loudly with excitement.

A warhorse! In the Land of Desolation, a horse was far more precious than a person. Brandt's entire fortune couldn't buy a single warhorse.

Wearing Holy Spirit Armor, riding sturdy horses, and practicing horsemanship with great joy, a spirit of elite troops naturally arose in the three Brandts.

Leading three genuine Holy Knights, Ange, this fake ascetic, and the God of Common Sense projected onto him, along with the summoned unicorn Lightning, galloped towards the direction of Shengbicheng.

Shengbicheng was not far, especially with horses. After a day and a night, the Shengbicheng, which seemed embedded in the mountain wall, could be seen.

From a distance, one could see a pillar of light shooting up from Shengbicheng into the sky. It gradually weakened after reaching several hundred meters in the air and finally disappeared.

"What is that?" Lord Nai Ge asked. Now projected onto Ange, Lord Nai Ge was responsible for speaking; Ange only needed to maintain a blank expression.

This matched his identity. No one would suspect where the voice came from. Ascetics were originally the type who rarely opened their mouths; the less they spoke, the more ascetic their cultivation.

"Oh, that is the Reception Staircase. After connecting with the Holy Heaven Kingdom, using the Kingdom Staircase to link with the Reception Staircase allows many people to be transported here at once." Brandt said.

Understood. It was equivalent to the receiving end of a teleportation array.

"What a pity." Lord Nai Ge sighed.

"My lord, what is a pity?" Brandt asked, confused.

"Nothing." Lord Nai Ge replied casually, but thought in his heart: It's a pity the Kingdom will never connect here again. Any staircase can only be used for show.

Arriving at the gate of Shengbicheng, Ange took out the Cat-Teasing... Beast-Seeking Rod. According to Selina's account, this rod could guide the location of Dimensional Beasts.

But unfortunately, this guidance was planar and one-way, not very intuitive. It could only indicate a general direction, but the specific location had to be checked after arriving at the corresponding position.

If one went the wrong way, its guiding direction would change; if one went too far, it would point backwards.

Standing on the horse at the position approaching Shengbicheng, the Beast-Seeking Rod turned a ninety-degree angle, pointing to the left.

Following the direction, they galloped for several dozen li, and Ange's group arrived at a massive settlement.

It could only be described as a settlement, neither a city nor a town. Various buildings, tents, and wooden sheds were scattered everywhere, in patches here and there, as if there was no planning.

This was the great rear area of Shengbicheng. While humans blocked the undead attacks at Shengbicheng, this place was responsible for concentrating various supplies, producing various equipment, repairing armor and weapons, training soldiers, and treating the wounded, and so on.

This was the plan laid out by humans over a thousand years ago. However, a thousand years had passed. Countless reinforcements came and went, and this place had long changed drastically.

Like a room that was never cleaned, over a thousand years, countless tenants had changed. Some brought in a few pieces of furniture, some brought in a few sets of quilts, some brought in a few books. Everything was piled together without being thrown away, eventually becoming like this.

With the population growth in the Land of Desolation, this place had now become a slum. Poor people with clothes barely covering their bodies and vacant eyes lay or sat by the roadside. Only when Ange came before them did a slight glimmer appear on their faces. They quickly rolled over and knelt, murmuring something randomly.

The murmuring voice was very low and indistinct. Ange stopped, gathered his mind onto him, and finally heard clearly what he was saying: "Have mercy, master. Grant me food and health, grant me wealth and glory, grant me that all my thoughts come true..."

However, this kind of chanting was more like a routine, with no belief at all. From him, Ange could not feel a trace of faith.

After Ange passed, he rolled over and lay flat again, mumbling on his lips: "Holy bread, come quickly. Holy bread, come quickly..."

Holy bread was the relief grain distributed daily by the Church, made of coarse flour mixed with bran and baked. It was rough, hard to eat, and scratched the throat, but it could fill one up to fifty percent. This poor person's daily state was lying like a corpse, waiting for relief, then lying like a corpse again, waiting for relief again, until death...

All along the way, there were very many poor people in similar conditions, and Seeing Ange felt they didn't even have as much spirit as the skeletons and zombies in the Lich City.

Only the very young children could muster a bit of energy; even in this kind of environment, there were still quite a few naive children playing and laughing. Seeing Seeing Ange approach, they scattered with a sudden whoosh, then after running off, hid behind pillars and wall corners, peeking over timidly.

A toddler of two or three, with a very thick neck, ran too fast and with a thud sat down hard on the ground, scared into a sudden wail of tears.

A little girl of seven or eight darted out at high speed from a nearby shack, ran in front of Seeing Ange's horse, kowtowed hard once, then dragged the wailing toddler back to the roadside, and shot a quick glance at Seeing Ange.

Seeing Seeing Ange's expressionless face, the little girl's whole heart leapt into her throat, and she hurriedly kowtowed hard again, kowtowing while pressing down on the toddler's head, trying to make him kowtow along with her.

But a two-or-three-year-old child, scared, only knew how to cry — how could he kowtow? The anxious little girl was nearly in tears herself: "Hurry up and kowtow, my lord will get angry, hurry up."

Seeing Ange tilted his head, puzzled, and said to Lord Nai Ge Li Si: "I'm not angry."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si said helplessly: "Probably your face is too fierce, not a single expression. If you want to show you're not angry, you should smile."

"Oh." Seeing Ange kept his expressionless face, but flipped out a beetroot, tossed it to the little girl, and said: "I'm not angry."

The little girl looked at the fresh, juicy beetroot in front of her, then looked up at the expressionless Seeing Ange, in disbelief: "My lord, what did you say?"

Actually she had heard it, but she couldn't believe those words had come from the expressionless Seeing Ange; she thought she had misheard.

"I'm not angry, eat." Seeing Ange repeated.

This time she heard it clearly. Her eyes fixed on Seeing Ange, she carefully reached out and picked up the beetroot, carefully brought it to her lips, the whole time watching Seeing Ange in disbelief. Seeing that Seeing Ange still had no expression, only then did she bite down hard on the beet.

Seeing Ange still had no expression. Now she understood — this my lord might be a face-paralyzed one; the my lord truly was not angry.

Perhaps it was the relief of having narrowly escaped death, perhaps she was sweetened by the beetroot, or perhaps no one had ever been this kind to her before — the little girl's tears silently welled up.

She chewed the beet hard, wiped her tears with a small hand, and kowtowed once more to Seeing Ange.

A soul flame bloomed out from within her and flew straight toward Seeing Ange.

Back at Brando's village, the soul flames Seeing Ange had harvested were not few, because he had displayed several miracles. But all those soul flames had been aimed at the Gods of Light, and only then intercepted by Seeing Ange.

Everyone assumed he was an ascetic monk of the Church of Light, and everything he displayed was the power of the gods.

Only this one flame flew directly to Seeing Ange — this little girl's devotion was not to the Gods of Light, but to Seeing Ange.

Seeing Ange nodded to her and continued on his way.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si cursed within his soul: "It's just too miserable. The conditions here are worse than a desert oasis. I hope the oasis at least has someone managing it — this place looks like no one manages it at all. So many children have swollen necks; the malnutrition is already severe. Are those Church people all dead?"

"Swollen neck — is that a disease?" Seeing Ange asked, puzzled. He had noticed some children with thick necks and had assumed it was a racial trait.

"Goiter, caused by malnutrition," Lord Nai Ge Li Si said.

Just then, Seeing Ange suddenly sensed something and turned his head to look back. They had already walked several hundred meters; now, looking back, he could see from afar that a handcart had appeared where the little girl was.

Two attendants in white robes were arguing with the little girl about something. One of them reached out and snatched the beetroot from the little girl's hand, then picked up two biscuits from the bucket on the handcart and tossed them into the little girl's arms.

"Beetroot is something you kind of lowly wretch can eat? Gnaw on your holy biscuit. What my lord, what little lord? Where's the my lord? You must have stolen it." One of the attendants cursed and grumbled, even lifting his foot as if to kick her, scaring the little girl into quickly dodging back.

But immediately, the little girl's face lit up with surprise and joy as she shouted: "My lord!"

The attendants followed the little girl's gaze and saw only an expressionless ascetic monk sitting atop a grinning, oddly-smiling unicorn, with three imposing, armored elite Holy Knights following behind him.

With Holy Knights like those as attendants, this my lord might really be a 'big' person.