Chapter 267: Goddess Worshipper, Professional Farmer

The sky gradually brightened, and Ange happily collected insect corpses with his little angel and little zombie; every insect burned produced super fertilizer.

Nai Ge Li Si and La Mo and a few others stood around a cocoon on the beach, silently observing.

After Ange pulled out the God of Insects' heart, all the insects went mad, surging desperately toward the heart; Ange used every spell he had but still couldn't stop them.

This made Ange deeply realize his firepower was still far too weak…

In the end, he only had time to slap a soul imprint onto the heart before he was drowned by insects.

The insects bit the heart but didn't break it; instead, they melted into liquid and stuck to the heart.

The liquid accumulated more and more, forcibly pushing Ange out, until countless insects clung to the heart, forming a giant sphere at least ten meters in diameter.

Unfortunately, they underestimated Ange's public virtue; while the liquid was still unhardened, Ange swiftly scraped it off, forcibly removing more than half, leaving only about five meters in diameter.

Calculating by the volume of a sphere, a five-meter-diameter sphere has only one-eighth the volume of a ten-meter-diameter sphere.

Finally, the liquid hardened into a cocoon five meters in size, but before it fully solidified, Ange pried off two of its shell pieces…

Throughout the entire process, the insects behaved like they were insane, completely ignoring someone's orders; Ange saw a humanoid figure struggling in the pile of insects, its handsome face filled with terror, helplessly swept forward and finally stuck to the cocoon.

"It seems the God of Insects' attraction to insects has the highest priority," Nai Ge Li Si murmured.

"What a miraculous thing—its body pulses with endless life force, a complete opposite to us," La Mo touched the cocoon shell, scanning it with his mind, marveling: "Is it reviving through the heart? Is this its phylactery? Like our liches?"

"Probably not—it's just unusually resilient life force; it's not the same concept as a lich's phylactery," Nai Ge Li Si analyzed.

He turned and shouted to Ange: "Ange, I'm not an expert on this—call Sawa over."

Ange nodded, acknowledging, and kept collecting his fertilizer; only after a full hour did he pull out the Heavenly Staff and open a portal.

The Heavenly Staff activates the Heavenly Staircase's teleportation function: those transported must first gather in Demon Valley, ascend the Heavenly Staircase into Holy Heaven, then pass through a portal from the temple's roof.

If not in Demon Valley, one must first teleport there, making multiple jumps—time-consuming and laborious—but this was already the most convenient method of movement.

Alchemist Sawa, Ox-Head cook Wan Ni Ya, Gear Master Wa Li Gu, and others, including Ouk, arrived together.

Sawa was dragged before the cocoon to study it; Wa Li Gu was dragged into the soilless rice water channels to study a machine for rapid harvesting of soilless rice; Wan Ni Ya was dragged to the detention area to cook for the imprisoned adventurers, so they wouldn't starve.

But Wan Ni Ya didn't light a fire—she handed each person a rock-hard dry biscuit, then punched two adventurers who complained; soon everyone realized Wan Ni Ya was unsuited as a cook, better suited as a prison warden.

After punching two adventurers to establish authority, she began selecting people: two adventurers who could cook but clearly had no combat ability, and assigned them to cook.

A group of adventurers who had spent half the night starving and chewing dry biscuits, parched and desperate, finally got hot food at noon—boiled dry biscuits.

"At least you've got something to eat! Don't you see our leader and commanders haven't eaten yet!" Wan Ni Ya bellowed, hands on hips.

Those in the know couldn't help but glare at her: your leader eating would be the real problem.

Under the banner of the Bone-Carving Mercenary Group, Ange's party began taking control of Shazhou; once they controlled the teleportation array, this plane effectively belonged to Ange.

Others could come too, but without using the teleportation array, they'd have to find their own way to transport—something beyond ordinary people's ability.

Where could they go even if they arrived? The sand isles were already occupied; unlike the Church of Light, Ange had a convenient method to monitor all sand isles—bury a skeleton on each one.

Teleported into the sea? Then figure out how not to drown.

But no major power would likely be interested here—everywhere you looked was water, impossible to farm, no mines, and even fewer unique products; no wonder, after two hundred years, Shazhou had only a thousand or so adventurers.

Ange was busy processing insect corpses, Nai Ge Li Si was busy studying the cocoon, Wa Li Gu was busy studying the harvester; three days later, Wa Li Gu came to Ange with his harvester.

"My lord, look—simple rolling guillotine blades: first press the gel plates to keep them level with the blades, then the blades roll over, and the rear barriers naturally push the rice stalks onto shore, where people can tie them up."

"Just drag those gel plates through the water channels into this slot—your gel plates are all uniform, so future ones should follow this standard," Wa Li Gu explained.

Ange tested it—it was indeed convenient; planting along the water channels, harvesting meant linking the gel plates with ropes and pulling them over like a convoy.

"Build several more blades—harvesting a hundred thousand tons won't be too hard. Start harvesting now, and send the grain to Anthony as you go; with enough food, he'll find it easier to deceive people."

Nai Ge Li Si crossed his arms, smirking: "I'm just curious—what trick will he use to send a hundred thousand people out of the main plane?"

Soon, Nai Ge Li Si found out: "What? Holy War? These are heretics?"

Nai Ge Li Si stared, eyes bulging, as humans dressed as farmers gradually teleported out of the array—there were still human heretics in the main plane?

"Of course there are—many of them. Some small nations have perfect terrain—easy to defend, and their faith is unshakable; converting them is nearly impossible. These are followers of the Harvest Goddess," said Pat Li, the Holy Attendant, an old acquaintance of Silver Coin, also tasked with explaining Anthony's plan.

"But this year they suffered disaster too, fleeing to the Eastern Diocese. The High One can't aid them directly—both Eastern and Western Dioceses are suffering; if he aids heretics, the Church will curse him to death," Pat Li said.

Nai Ge Li Si nodded understandingly—heretics were a messy problem. Even though Harvest Goddess followers were harmless, aiding them while your own people starved would make everyone scream at Anthony.

"But the High One didn't want to watch them die, so he showed mercy—sent people to spread rumors among these heretics, claiming we planned to exterminate them to avoid wasting food, leaving them terrified," Pat Li said, her tone dismissive, always calling them "heretics."

Clearly, she was the type who didn't care much for heretics—she was just carrying out Anthony's orders.

"Meanwhile, the High One mobilized the Church internally, declaring a Holy War to exterminate these heretics—but he found a channel: one healthy heretic equals one ton of grain. So he told everyone during the Holy War not to harm their bodies or lives," Pat Li said.

Nai Ge Li Si spat: "Pfft—this works? Anthony's got no shame!"

Pat Li pretended not to hear and continued: "Dai Sen thought this deal was brilliant and demanded to join, but the High One refused. Then Dai Sen asked: what if they're not heretics? One person per ton of grain—even Church members could be sold. So the High One asked me to ask you: do you want Church followers?"

Nai Ge Li Si smiled: "No. Anthony wants us to feed people for free again. No shame."

Pat Li kept pretending not to hear, continuing: "Then the High One sent people again among the Harvest Goddess followers, spreading rumors that the Harvest Goddess had been found here—that they could eat their fill and serve the Goddess. So the High One asked you: could you show a miracle to make them believe you're the Harvest Goddess?"

"That's doable—but Ange certainly won't be bored with this. Lisa Lisa, come here—you're best at pretending to be divine."

…

High Priest Dak Wen stared in despair at the sand isle, the water channels, the adventurers, and the bizarre creatures—he knew he'd been fooled by the Church of Light.

Those people had come only to deceive and lure them here to die—how could such a barren world hold the footsteps of the Harvest Goddess?

As a priest of the Harvest Goddess, Dak Wen's faith was utterly devout—he would unhesitatingly give his life for her.

But this year, for reasons unknown, the Goddess had not protected them; the land had yielded no harvest—had the Harvest Goddess abandoned them?

For ordinary believers, faith couldn't feed them; starving, no god mattered. Under their pressure, Dak Wen followed them to heretic lands.

But even heretics' lives weren't easy—sometimes they claimed they'd be exterminated, sometimes they said they'd be traded for grain; eventually, rumors twisted into: the Harvest Goddess was trading grain for these faithful believers.

Dak Wen sneered—why would the Goddess want to trade them if she didn't speak to him, the High Priest, directly, but used heretics as intermediaries?

But did Dak Wen have a choice? No. All he could do was tell everyone he'd go ahead to scout—if he found the Goddess, he'd return to notify them.

If he didn't return, don't enter the teleportation array—fight the heretics to the death rather than step in, so at least they'd die on the main plane, their bodies nourishing the earth.

Of course, he still held a sliver of hope—what if the rumor was true?

Unfortunately, that one-in-ten-thousand hope was now completely shattered. This barren world was full of grit unfit for crops to grow — how could there possibly be any trace of the Harvest Goddess?

Just as Dakewen was hesitating over whether to simply dash his head against something and die right here, a long string of gel boards laden with rice seedlings drifted slowly along the waterway, gliding past Dakewen and the others.

Standing on the very front gel board was a dewy, beautiful young woman in a green gauze dress, fair-skinned and lovely, bearing a passing resemblance to the Harvest Goddess.

As she passed Dakewen, the young woman took flight, drifting over to where Dakewen and the others stood. A sacred light radiated from her body, a loving smile on her face, and she said slowly, "You have come."

As she spoke, the green plants on the row of gel boards behind her suddenly began growing at tremendous speed.

On the distant shore, Seeing Ange quietly stepped down a footprint. For a more dramatic effect, he deliberately chose plants that were about to enter the grain-filling, flowering, and fruiting stage — under his Instant-Death Aura, these plants abruptly filled their grains, flowered, and bore fruit, producing an extremely striking visual effect.

Against this backdrop, Lisa said with a smile, "I shall bring you a bountiful harvest."

This was the most frequently quoted line from the Harvest Goddess's holy canon — it was practically an explicit declaration of her identity.

Without the backdrop behind her, this would at most be a flattering remark, much like the Church of Light's "May the Holy Light bless you."

But with the still-rapidly-growing crops behind her, even Dakewen no longer doubted. He fell to his knees, trembling with excitement: "Goddess's blessing! Bounty upon all things!"

……

Dakewen returned to the main plane through the teleportation array and shouted excitedly to all his believers: "We found the Goddess, we found the Goddess! The Harvest Goddess has brought us a bountiful harvest, and miraculous soilless rice! Quick, quick, quick — bring our farming tools and serve the Goddess of Harvest!"

Believers of the Harvest Goddess poured into the Light Sea Plane in a steady stream, and Seeing Ange quickly discovered that these people were actually stealing the work of growing things from him.

The Harvest Goddess's believers were all the most professional farmers. After just two days of their study, the cultivation method for soilless rice was figured out by them, and their tending was far more meticulous than Seeing Ange's.

For large-scale cultivation, Seeing Ange could not attend to every detail — even sowing was done with magic. The spacing was adequate, but it could never be kept at the optimal distance at all times, the way professional farmers could.

On a single gel board, if Seeing Ange casually planted he could fit nine rows, but they could plant ten — that was a whole extra row of yield, fully one-tenth more.

Fine. The more meticulous operations of the Harvest farmers meant Seeing Ange's biggest role was now preparing the gel boards. Once the gel boards were prepared, all other work could be taken over by these farmers. Soon, floating gel boards covered every waterway across the entire Shazhou, leaving only a few main channels open for ships to pass through.

Seeing Ange had lost his greatest pleasure……

"You can't just snatch everything back and grow it yourself like you did in the Rest Deep Abyss. You can't supply food for this many people on your own — let them grow it, or else we won't be able to feed these hundred thousand mouths."

Under Lord Nai Ge Li Si's earnest and patient persuasion, Seeing Ange gave up the idea of driving these people away to grow things himself. Sullenly, he squatted on an outlying Shazhou, gazing out at the distant sea.

The little angel and the little zombie squatted on either side of him, with a big cat perched atop the little angel's head.

This was already the outermost Shazhou — looking out, there was nothing but water, with the setting sun slanting down and the surface shimmering with rippling light.

Nai Ge Li Si flew over, sighed, at a loss for words. Knowing Seeing Ange's temperament, the fact that he was idle enough to watch the sunset said it all about how bored he was: "How about you……"

Before he could finish, a small dot in the distance rapidly grew larger. Judging by the sail's shadow, it was unmistakably Jellys's ground-effect airship.

The airship streaked past at a height of two or three meters at high speed, the downdraft of wind lifting a white ribbon — but behind it, an even larger white ribbon was thrashing about: a massive sea beast was in hot pursuit of the airship, the distance closing fast.

Good — something to play with. Seeing Ange flipped over, sat down on Nai Ge Li Si's back, and swept his big hand forward.

Nai Ge Li Si panicked — Lightning, where's Lightning? He whipped his head around, found no trace of Lightning, and could only take off reluctantly, heading toward the airship.

Chasing the airship was the Sea God of the Gulu Gulu tribe — a hundred-meter-long sea beast, shaped a bit like an eel but shorter and plumper, and — regrettably — it was not a magical beast.

So when it ran into Jian Gu Luo Ke, whose body was invincible, it took only two or three punches to blow its head apart. Taking advantage of the few seconds left in his transformation, Seeing Ange grabbed the beast's neck vertebrae and swiftly dragged it to the shallows.

The Gulu Gulus clinging to the sea monster were all shaken off, staring blankly at their supposedly invincible 'Sea God' being beaten to a head-exploding pulp by that purple-gold skeleton in two or three punches, then dragged away. They were all dumbfounded, and only came to their senses after a good while before scattering in a rush.

"What a fat sea monster! This fat can be used as lamp oil, this hide can be made into clothes, and this meat can feed a hundred thousand people for many meals — ha, extra feast tonight!" Nai Ge Li Si couldn't help but break into a broad grin.

Sawa came riding Lightning, and was stunned at first glance by the giant sea monster before her. She jumped up excitedly: "My lords, you've already heard? You brought it back this fast? I was just coming over to tell you!"

Nai Ge Li Si was baffled: "Heard what? Know what?"

"That Insect God cocoon is about to hatch, but there isn't enough heat — it can't break out of the cocoon, and it's actually withering away. I was just coming to notify you to think of a way to catch some fish. Surely you weren't……"

PS: Double chapter, begging for monthly votes, awoo~