Chapter 227: Dare to Burn My Fields

How could Kailandeir have imagined that there exists a crop in this world that requires a sapling's blessing to sprout — naturally, she couldn't get it to grow.

"What do we do? If we kill the crop, the God of Life will be very angry." Kailandeir was about to cry.

Now that their relationship with Seeing Ange had reached this state, the responsibility lay entirely with the elves' side — and worse, it was the kind where kindness was repaid with ingratitude.

At the time they had seen the God of Life shed all its leaves and grew anxious and angry in the moment, but two months had passed, and the facts proved Lord Nai Ge had not lied.

The Tree of Life truly had not died — slicing open the bark, the branches were tender green, in better condition than ever before; even those diseased branches, the grey blotches on their bark were weakening or even vanishing.

Lord Ange truly was healing the God of Life.

And now, the elven race had not only scared off the God of Life's saviour into fleeing, they had also killed the new crop he had cultivated. Once the God of Life awakened, no one knew how furious he would be.

If it were an ordinary crop, so be it — at worst they'd compensate, tenfold even; the elves were wealthy and generous, and truly didn't care much about money.

But the problem was, these things couldn't be compensated for — Saltwater Magic Rice, unprecedented in history, a high-yield crop grown in saline-alkali land. If it died, it would not only be Seeing Ange's loss, but a loss for every living species.

Although no detailed statistics had been taken, the saline-alkali land across the entire plane amounted to at least twenty percent of usable arable land — meaning, if fully reclaimed, the plane's usable arable land could increase by at least twenty percent.

That was the entire plane — a twenty percent increase could feed an extra hundred million people; that was a terrifying figure.

Yet that was only the saline-alkali land, not counting coastal wetlands and shallows. If popularised, this would absolutely be a divine thing capable of changing the entire continent's situation.

And now, this divine thing was about to be killed by her.

Setting everything else aside, just the guilt of being a druid who killed a new species was enough to make her cry.

Gai La De's expression also grew solemn without meaning to. The importance of Saltwater Magic Rice, Kailandeir had explained to her repeatedly — if it truly died, even offering herself as compensation would be useless.

"Then what do we do now?" Gai La De asked.

"Find Lord Ange and beg his forgiveness."

……

The elven race began searching the world for Seeing Ange, and the Seeing Ange they were searching for was at this moment squatting on a stone platform, watching the humans below process the rice — only then did he discover that humans had so many different ways of hulling grain.

Mortar and pestle pounding went without saying, but they could also use a millstone — placing rice between two flat stone slabs, pressing down hard on the upper slab, and giving it a forceful slide.

There were also rolling and pounding methods, all inefficient, but there were so many people that after a busy session, they obtained a batch of hulled rice.

Everyone put the rice into a bucket and began looking at Seeing Ange with eager eyes. They no longer found this skeleton frightening at all — only very kind and amiable, even a little handsome.

After all, who could pull out a big bucket of clean water and rice when one was both hungry and thirsty — anyone would look handsome doing that.

Unfortunately there was no pot, so cooking the rice became another challenge.

Seeing Ange didn't think it was difficult. He poured water into the bucket until it covered the rice by about a finger's width, then mobilised fire element. Soon, the water in the wooden bucket began to boil.

Nai Ge Li Si leaned over and said: "Be careful, don't set the bucket on fire."

After pulling out the three Brandos, Seeing Ange casually 'summoned' out the others as well.

Everyone assumed it was a summoning, Brando included — they didn't think it was Seeing Ange's hand piercing through space to pull them out from another dimension. The difficulty of the two was entirely different.

Seeing this motley combination of dragons, horses, humans, cats, and a saintess, Brando was no longer surprised — he didn't even want to ask.

If any villagers had questions, he would immediately go over and warn them off, so everyone became 'unsurprised' by this combination as well.

Seeing Ange naturally wouldn't set the bucket on fire. He confined all the fire element within the interior of the water bucket — here there was only water and rice. Once the fire element was activated, the heat rapidly transferred into the water; as long as the water didn't boil dry, the wooden bucket wouldn't catch fire.

The heat made the water boil, cooking the rice within. Soon, the rice in the bucket turned into porridge, bubbling with a fragrant aroma.

Everyone couldn't help crowding over, staring at the porridge in the bucket and swallowing their saliva.

"So thick — a spoon placed on it wouldn't sink. Too thick. Even at Holy Light Festival I've never eaten porridge this thick. Can we eat now?"

"Right, right, who eats porridge this thick? This is the kind of porridge only the noble lords in Shengbicheng could eat. If it were me cooking, I couldn't bear to put this much rice in."

Some women had their eyes shining as they whispered among themselves. On this barren plane, many people had never in their lives seen food made purely from grain boiled or steamed — whether porridge, rice, or bread, they all had large amounts of edible fillers mixed in.

Things like wild vegetables, tree bark, ground lichen, mushrooms, even white clay — stretching a single meal's worth of grain into two or three meals. Taste no longer mattered to anyone, as long as it filled the belly.

If they didn't mix it together, once the grain was eaten, the other things simply couldn't be stomached.

The bucket of porridge Seeing Ange cooked — even on their grandest festival, they couldn't bear to cook it this way.

The only time they could eat such a thing was at Holy Light Festival, when the great cathedral in Shengbicheng would have cultivators, clergy, and the saintess personally distribute holy bread for free — that was the best-tasting food most people would ever eat in their entire lives.

If Seeing Ange's bucket of porridge could be shared with them, then the best food in these people's hearts might just be replaced by this bucket of porridge.

But as the porridge boiled, Seeing Ange didn't stop, still cooking away. Large amounts of steam escaped, and the porridge in the bucket grew less and less.

At this sight, many people's hearts couldn't help clenching: "Still cooking? If it cooks any longer it'll dry out!"

"Uh, Lord Holy Skeleton, surely you're not trying to cook the legendary rice?"

"Rice? That legendary kind where a spoon stuck in it won't fall over, made entirely of grain, where a few bites can keep you from being hungry for days?"

The topic of rice was instantly ignited. Everyone, enduring their hunger, chatted excitedly there about legends of 'rice' that had been exaggerated goodness knows how many times over.

Their words reached Nai Ge Li Si's ears, and he felt both amused and pitying — even everyday food from the main plane could be deified. The daily lives of these bottom-dwelling residents of the Fallen Land were imaginable.

Thinking of those goitre-necked children in the slums, Nai Ge Li Si said: "Add some salt, otherwise it won't have much flavour. You still have that Little Fat Lamb cured meat, right? Slice a few pieces of cured meat."

Now even Brando couldn't hold back, leaning over to ask quietly: "my lord, did you just say salt?"

"Yes, salt. What about it?" Nai Ge Li Si asked, puzzled.

Fallen Dragon Lake was a saltwater lake, and many places along its shore had natural salt deposits — when salt was needed, one only had to go there and dig it up. Seeing Ange had dug up a few bags and stored them in his space.

Actually, back in the slums, Nai Ge Li Si had wanted to give the salt to that little girl, but was afraid she'd be robbed, so he didn't take it out.

Brando said, moved: "Too precious — in our place, salt is almost more valuable than gold."

Soon, the rice was cooked. With the right amount of salt and cured meat added, the rice smelled wonderful, making many people's mouths water.

Without bowls, Seeing Ange shaped rice balls by hand, one per person, held and gnawed on. Many shed tears of happiness, and Seeing Ange also harvested a large amount of pure soul flame.

With this bucket of rice, these humans' goodwill toward Seeing Ange shot up rapidly — they had already begun calling Seeing Ange Lord Holy Skeleton.

Once everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Brando and the others began escorting the villagers down the mountain. Serinina even warmly invited these people to settle at Bridgehead Town.

In the Fallen Land, villages with too few people couldn't survive. After the Everlasting Night, the first to disappear were always those settlements sparse with humans.

Not long after leaving the cave, they saw Big Bone squatting by the roadside out of sheer boredom, staring longingly toward the cave's direction.

Nai Ge Li Si flew over and asked curiously: "Why haven't you left yet?"

"It's you?" Big Bone recognized at a glance — this was the consciousness that had previously attached itself to Seeing Ange.

"This is more convenient. What about you? Why would you be afraid of humans?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si asked, puzzled.

Big Bone said dejectedly: "Too brittle. It fell off and can't be put back on."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si's expression jolted: "You mean, human arms and heads and such — once they fall off, they can't be put back on, so you're afraid of breaking them?"

Big Bone nodded.

"You really are a kind-hearted skeleton. Then walk farther away — best not to follow us." Lord Nai Ge Li Si tried to persuade it to leave.

"No, you bullied me." Big Bone clung stubbornly to this point.

But seeing humans coming, Big Bone ran off again.

This counted as having picked up a liability. Big Bone followed from far away, absolutely refusing to get close to the humans, but also refusing to leave.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si had no choice either, only hoping this stupid skeleton would get bored after lingering long enough and leave on its own.

Unfortunately, that hope never had a chance to come true. One turn of the head, and the little zombie and the little angel were gone. Looking back, the two little ones had somehow run up in front of Big Bone, squawking at it, no one knew what they were saying.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si's whole heart was in suspense. The little zombie would be one thing, but the little angel was now a true angel — its body carried pure holy light power, naturally at odds with undead creatures. Please, please don't start a fight.

Flapping its wings, it wanted to rush over, but who would have thought — Big Bone held out a hand, the little angel leapt hard onto its palm, then used the momentum to jump onto its shoulder and plopped right down.

"Aoo aoo!"

"Aoo aoo? Don't understand. I'm called Big Bone, what's your name?"

"Aoo!"

"Your name is 'Aoo'? Nice to meet you, nice to meet you, I'm called Big Bone."

"Aoo aoo!"

"Aoo aoo!"

Clearly a case of talking past each other, but miraculously, the three fellows actually managed to chat together. In the end, even the little zombie sat on Big Bone's shoulder, and Big Bone carried the two of them, dashing all over the place.

"This works too? You can make friends like this?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si was completely dumbfounded.

Confirming those few wouldn't start fighting, Lord Nai Ge Li Si was reassured, and flew toward Seeing Ange's position. While flying, the communication bone tablet hanging around its neck suddenly rang.

"Ladies and gentlemen, zombies and bones, hello everyone. After more than three hundred years of companionship, it's time to say goodbye. The mission of the frontline relay station is officially concluded. We've broken through the evil human defense line, seized the entire Fallen Land, and opened the road home. Palace of Rest, here we come."

A passionate speech — and that voice was actually the fellow who had called Seeing Ange a lunatic.

The communication bone tablet went silent for quite a while, then a weak voice sounded: "This is Relay Tower Three. Don't you know, after seizing the Fallen Land, we still have to push into the Prime Material Plane before we can return to the Restful Abyss? And after returning to the Restful Abyss, we still have to check whether the World Transfer Station is broken. If it's not broken, we can send a request, and only after the Palace of Rest responds can we enter the Palace of Rest?"

"Huh?! That many stages? Heavens, how much longer do I have to wait before I can go back?" The fellow who had called Seeing Ange a lunatic sounded like he was about to cry.

"How long? The Prime Material Plane has planar barriers — much harder to fight than the Fallen Land. This place took over a thousand years; the Prime Material Plane might take three thousand, who knows?" the weak voice replied.

"Three thousand years?! I'll die of boredom! I don't want this, I'm quitting!"

"If you don't want it, then don't do it. Just say a word to the Great Sage, and someone will come replace you soon enough."

"I can resign?" The fellow who had called Seeing Ange a lunatic was completely dumbfounded.

"Of course you can. What's not allowed about that? Just say the word."

"But back then, the fellow who arranged for me to come here told me: Want to quit? Wait till you're dead, then you can quit."

"……Are you still alive now?"

"I……"

"Hello? Hello? What 'I'? Hello? Hello hello? Ran off?" No matter how much the weak voice called out, the fellow who had called Seeing Ange a lunatic never responded again.

"Ran off fast. Such great benefits at the relay tower, and there are still people who don't want to do it — truly a waste. The land near the relay tower all belongs to you. If you feel bored, raise some pets, or take in some humans, clear the land and plant things, build a little town, lively and bustling, and you won't be bored. Really now. Oh right, buying salt — anyone who has salt, please contact me, Relay Tower Three."

The moment the communication bone tablet said "clear the land and plant things," Lord Nai Ge Li Si sensed a figure appear in front of it. Its heart gave a sudden lurch, and it muttered inwardly that things were bad.

Sure enough, it looked up to see Seeing Ange standing right there, the soul flames in both eye sockets practically bursting out, staring fixedly at the communication bone tablet.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si said, bracing itself: "I…… we go back to the Prime Material Plane to plant, okay? The soil's richer there."

Seeing Ange shook its head: "There are elves."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si said, bracing itself: "We go back to the Restful Abyss to plant, okay? There are no elves there."

Seeing Ange shook its head: "The soil's not rich."

"But it's too dangerous here. Who knows if that Harvey might discover us, and then burns your fields — what then?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si tried hard to persuade. The Fallen Land — what kind of place was this?

A plane that had just been unified by undead creatures, and still squatting a Lord of the Mourning — very dangerous. It had never expected Seeing Ange would get the idea of farming here.

But on second thought, after being driven out of the Prime Material Plane by the elves, Seeing Ange indeed hadn't properly farmed in a long time, and there was no other place with soil conditions that could compare to here.

Realizing these points, Lord Nai Ge Li Si knew trouble was coming. The Purple-Gold Skeleton probably couldn't stop the farming soul in Seeing Ange……

Sure enough, a fierce soul flame burst from Seeing Ange's skull, and it said in a very dangerous tone: "Dare to burn my fields?"

Big Bone, who was playing around with the little angel and the little zombie, suddenly felt a jolt of dread, and instinctively turned its head to look over.