Chapter 307: It

Leaving the consciousness space, Nage asked about this matter.

"How did you know?" Lisha asked in confusion. "That was over a thousand years ago, and I haven't told anyone. Could it be Lord Anthony? Is Lord Anthony investigating me?"

"No, it's because you were the only saintess stranded in the Abyss of Rest due to the transit station shutting down. You were just too unlucky, so he took a few extra looks when he was burning the roster," Negris said.

Lisha covered her face. A saintess remembered because she was too unlucky?

"Yes, I was once the first-in-line heir to the Duchy of De Luo Sa. The current Grand Duke of De Luo Sa should be my younger brother's..." Lisha counted on her fingers for a long time and said, "Should be the forty-sixth generation descendant, named Duchess Mei Sha or something? Why bring this up suddenly? I only came to report on the turmoil in the neighboring Duchy of Uss."

Lisha's information was clearly lagging. The intelligence collected by those clients relying on the City of Beauty certainly wasn't as fast or timely as the Church of Light's intelligence system.

Negris recounted the news he had just received from Anthony, and also shared Anthony's analysis and deductions.

Lisha immediately became anxious: "Is it that insidious? How hateful. Back when Uss was founded, we even provided them with aid, and now they actually want to plot against my descendants? My lord, please approve my leave. I want to take two years off."

Negris also became anxious, twitching his eyes at her and constantly glancing at Ang.

As expected of Lisha, careful and understanding, she immediately understood Negris's meaning and turned to Ang: "My lord, Lord Nage is too bored and wants me to take you to De Luo Sa to play, and incidentally kill those people from Uss."

Ang tilted his head: "Can things be planted in De Luo Sa?"

Lisha ignored Negris's frantic winking and said truthfully: "The Duchy of De Luo Sa is mostly mountainous and hilly, with little arable land. There's no way to grow vegetables."

"Oh, not going. You go," Ang said, effectively granting Lisha's leave.

Negris complained: "Why are you so honest? Wouldn't it be better to fool him a bit and get Ang to help you?"

Lisha glanced at him: "Are you stupid? Should I fool my own god? By the way, my lord, can you sell me some grain?"

"Yes," Ang nodded: "Move it yourself."

The grain grown at Dragonfall Lake hadn't been collected by Ang into the Palace of Rest; it was all stored in the City of Beauty. Lisha had the key herself; she could just move as much as she needed.

"Yes, thank you, my lord," Lisha replied happily. With Ang's words, it was equivalent to having a continuous supply of grain. With sufficient grain, couldn't the Duchy of De Luo Sa handle a few refugees?

Just as he was about to summon Bai Hou, Negris, who was bored to death, couldn't let go of this golden opportunity and hurriedly said:

"The land in the Duchy of De Luo Sa can't be farmed by others, but you can, right? Your soilless rice and gravel mushrooms, can't they both be grown? At worst, we can go there to grow holy mushrooms. Our current production of essence liquid can't keep up, and the dragons will need to use it in the future, so we need to grow more."

Hearing this, Ang nodded and asked: "Is there plenty of water?"

Holy mushrooms were indeed a problem. The territories he could currently control, the Pale Sea plane and Dragonfall Lake, were too sunny. With sufficient sunlight, holy mushrooms couldn't be grown.

The Dark City was suitable, but it lacked water, and the lich dungeon in the Abyss of Rest had reached its production limit. If production were to be expanded further, other underground spaces would need to be developed.

Since they had to develop them anyway, it might be better to just find a place in the main plane. If the Duchy of De Luo Sa didn't lack water, then the hilly and mountainous terrain should be very suitable for growing mushrooms.

"Not lacking, not lacking at all. It's much more suitable than the dungeon; at least we don't need fluorescent moss for light. That's great! With you taking action, my lord, maybe we can settle the Duchy of Uss in a few weeks," Lisha said excitedly.

"Ah? No rush, no rush, we can mess around for a while longer," Negris said repeatedly. As long as it wasn't just monotonously growing vegetables, he was willing to stay in the Duchy of De Luo Sa for a while longer.

Ang was the most convenient at mobilizing personnel. He backhanded everyone into the Palace of Rest, then mounted Flash, and headed straight for the Duchy of De Luo Sa. That very evening, they arrived near the capital of the duchy.

In this plane, there were many small countries. Depending on the area ruled, they were enfeoffed as duchies, earldoms, and the like. If it was a densely populated area, the territory would be smaller; if it was a remote and desolate area, the area would be particularly large.

The Duchy of De Luo Sa was a remote but not poor duchy. The national territory was very large, but it was all in the mountain and hill region. The ruler was the Grand Duke of De Luo Sa, and the entire family had a long history, having been passed down for dozens of generations.

Lisha was the eldest daughter of the fourth generation shortly after the founding of the Duchy of De Luo Sa, and also the first-in-line heir.

"You guys don't know, back when the country was just founded, our family was so poor. My ancestor threw all their wealth into it just to buy the status of Grand Duke, and we had to conquer the territory ourselves. Our whole family struggled for decades before we finally stood firm in my mother's generation."

Lisha poured out her grievances: "It was poor back then. One of my skirts had to be shared with the maid because my maid's mother had a good skill—dyeing cloth—and would subsidize her from time to time, making her richer than me and her skirt prettier than mine. If it weren't for my status, I would have wanted to work for her mother."

"Later, I was chosen as a saintess, and without a second thought, I threw the heir status to my younger brother. The life of a saintess was much more comfortable than that of a princess. However, in my third year as a saintess, a mine was dug in the territory—a large gold mine—and my brother's life instantly became comfortable. It pissed me off. Why couldn't they dig a mine when I was there!?"

Lisha said angrily. Although the tone was complaining, anyone could hear the nostalgia. Unexpectedly, after parting and returning, it had already been over a thousand years.

Coming to the main plane, Lisha never talked about her family affairs because she knew that over a thousand years had passed, and the people and things she knew had long turned to dust. The current Duchy of De Luo Sa had nothing to do with her.

Unexpectedly, now, because of this kind of thing, a connection had occurred. Just receiving the news of the war in the Duchy of Uss, she was very panicked.

Because when she was still the heir, the Duchy of Uss was established, and at that time, it even received strong support from her family. Unexpectedly, a thousand years later, the descendants of Uss were actually using such insidious means to plot against her family?

Flash curled his lips: "Isn't it obvious that your bad luck dragged the family down? As soon as you left, their luck turned."

A cold light flashed in Lisha's eyes, and she said with a smile: "Flash, your rations are all distributed by me. Aren't you afraid that one day I'll accidentally mix something else in, making you poop until dawn?"

Flash said solemnly: "Bad luck is just a form of luck. It's just that you, Sister Lisha, have such good luck that it manifests as bad luck. Doesn't this just prove that you have good luck? Beautiful even after a thousand years."

"Beautiful even after a thousand years? Hey, that sounds good, say more." Lisha beamed.

"Yes, beautiful Sister Lisha." Lightning hung his head in dejection, racking his brain to butter her up.

He realized his mouth was becoming less and less useful, as if everyone had a way to restrain him. How he missed those newcomers who had just joined; Insect God, oh Insect God, where are you?

Under Lisha's guidance, Lightning landed in a valley thirty kilometers away from the duchy's capital.

This valley was unremarkable, sandwiched between two hills, with low cliffs on both sides and the valley floor overgrown with shrubs.

Lisha introduced it: "This is our family's mausoleum. Starting from my ancestor, all members of the family are buried here. Even if I went missing, they would still place my belongings inside. I need to go find a few keepsakes that belong to me."

"Uh, is that necessary? It's been over a thousand years; will your descendants even recognize them?" Negris asked, puzzled.

Lisha gave a bitter smile: "What else can I do? Run over empty-handed and tell them, 'I am your great-great-great-great... aunt'? It would be a miracle if they didn't throw me out. Besides, it's been a thousand years, and I need to do some mental preparation. After all, to me, they are actually strangers. I hope the ancestral graveyard and my belongings can evoke more of my memories."

Lightning suggested: "Should we reincarnate or summon your entire family? Then we can storm into the Grand Duke's Prefecture together and introduce them: 'This is the first-generation Grand Duke Rosa, this is the second-generation Rosa...' Ouch! Don't hit my face! Don't."

Negris didn't sympathize with this stinking horse at all, but he actually agreed with the suggestion, saying: "We can indeed look for those whose souls haven't dissipated yet, preferably from a more recent year. Reincarnate and resurrect them to ask about your family's recent situation."

Lisha had black lines on her face. A more recent year? Is this brewing wine? But since she couldn't beat Negris like she could beat Lightning, she could only smile bitterly: "Fine, fine, let's look."

Soon, they entered a cave at the bottom of the canyon. From the vegetation around the cave, one could tell that no one had been here for several years.

Lisha explained: "Unless there is something special, no one comes here after a family member is buried, to prevent leaving traces that could be discovered. There is also a magical barrier set up in the cave. If you don't have the corresponding sequence of runes, you can't open the barrier. If you try to force it, the whole cave will collapse."

Walking deep into the cave, there was an inconspicuous rock on the side, leaning against the cave wall. If Lisha hadn't said anything, no one would have noticed that there was an entrance behind that rock.

Lisha kicked the edge of the rock a few times. A slight magical fluctuation occurred, but the rock did not move.

Lisha tried a few more times, then turned back and said awkwardly: "They... they changed the password."

It wasn't surprising; over a thousand years had passed. No one knew what had happened in the meantime—perhaps the password had been leaked, or perhaps they simply disliked the password set by the ancestors. It was normal for it to be changed.

"Then what do we do? Let's just smash it; the rock doesn't look very thick," Negris said.

"No, no, if you smash it, it will trigger the barrier, and the whole cave will collapse," Lisha said, waving her hands hurriedly.

"It doesn't matter. Ang can handle it. We'll hide in the Palace of Breath, let Ang transform into Luo Ge, smash it and run. Even if the whole hill collapses, it won't hurt a Death-Mourning Skeleton," Negris said nonchalantly.

Lisha took a deep breath, composed herself for a moment, and roared fiercely: "It will destroy my ancestral graveyard!!! I didn't come back to demolish graves!!!"

Negris then remembered that this graveyard belonged to Lisha's family. They weren't here to grave-rob; this was truly awkward.

"Then what do we do? Can you break the barrier? Is there a back door?" Negris asked.

Lisha shook her head, pondered for a while, and said: "Forget it. I can't demolish my family's graveyard just for some keepsakes. Forget it, let's not go in. We'll go straight to them and say we have a connection with the former Saintess Lisha and have come specifically to help today."

"Hmm, that's a good idea. Let's do that," Negris nodded and said.

He didn't blame Lisha for making everyone take a wasted trip. Anything involving one's own relatives is not easy to sort out. Deep down, Lisha might not necessarily want to get the keepsakes; perhaps she just wanted to pay respects to her parents. Who could sort out such thoughts?

Having made a wasted trip, everyone turned to leave. However, just at that moment, everyone heard a scratching sound, as if sharp fingernails were scraping against stone.

Lisha and Negris first exchanged a glance, then looked at the big rock in unison.

Everyone realized there was something inside, but how could they open the barrier at the entrance?

"We can't smash it, otherwise it will trigger the barrier. How about I go find Brusque, Astoria, and Waguli and have them break the barrier?" Lisha asked tentatively.

"That works. There's no barrier that can't be broken; if it can't be broken, it's because the skill level isn't high enough. We could also look for those guys from the Star Academy; they definitely have deeper research on barriers. Ang, wait a second, don't smash it, uh..."

While Negris was speaking, Ang, who had been reaching into space to farm, suddenly pulled his hand out and walked to the rock, pushing it with force.

Before Negris could finish his sentence, the big rock blocking the entrance was pushed by Ang into a pile of straw, which *poofed* into the cave behind.

"I... you... *Ku Ba Da*, that works too? The barrier was just broken by your Elemental Conversion like that? Then this move of yours is simply invincible for picking locks."

Negris didn't know what to say. Using the Death Aura for farming, the Beauty Fist for modifying bloodlines, and Elemental Conversion for picking locks—that's not how divine skills are supposed to be used, hey!

Regardless of how it's used, as long as it works, it's fine. Ang opened the door without triggering the barrier.

A roar came from the cave, and an ugly zombie rushed out from the straw-filled cavern, waving sharp claws that shimmered with a metallic luster, reaching out to grab Ang.

Negris was shocked: "Oh no, an Iron-Skin Zombie!"

A Golden Skeleton and an Iron-Skin Zombie are undead of the same rank. In terms of strength, the Iron-Skin Zombie is even a step ahead because their skin and flesh are too hard; even if you stand there and let them be hacked, they aren't easy to cut.

This was just Lisha's ancestral graveyard. The number of people buried here wouldn't be too large, at most a few hundred. There was simply no sufficient soul energy; how could it give birth to an Iron-Skin Zombie? Where did this zombie come from?