Chapter 413

Nagrillis originally hoped to come here seeking the Undying King, but Ange wasn't interested in the matter—if left to himself, Ange could grow vegetables in the planting spheres until his next life.

Strangely, Du Luo wasn't particularly eager either; he was more absorbed in new alchemical techniques.

Though he was the Alchemy King, this new world offered countless novel materials, from which entirely new alchemical methods could be developed, plus many fresh alchemical concepts to draw upon—plenty to keep him engrossed for a long while.

Without Ange's command, Nagrillis couldn't command Du Luo either.

They couldn't really spend their whole lives planting vegetables—something had to be done to get Ange out. Even if they weren't going to find the King, at least let him go outside for a walk.

In a flash of thought, Nagrillis realized he wasn't particularly eager to find the King either—it was just too boring, and he wanted to go out and play.

Ordinary excuses wouldn't move Ange, but luckily, he'd just received word that Northwind City was buying large quantities of grain and vegetables. Ange had grown so many vegetables—why not sell them? Otherwise, the divine domain would be completely full.

Ange hesitated, opened his divine domain, looked inside—fine, he'd go sell vegetables.

The fast-growing vegetables were sprouting too quickly; under the combined effects of the saplings, planting spheres, insect ash liquid, and the rapid-death aura, they were being harvested faster than they could grow. If this continued, the divine domain would be packed solid in no time—sell them first, then stop planting vegetables altogether.

What to plant next? The planting spheres seemed suited for soilless rice, but soilless rice had a long growth cycle. It'd be best to have more planting spheres—but even as the whole team prepared to depart for Northwind City, Ange was still agonizing over these issues.

Since they were officially going to sell vegetables, Yin Bi was unquestionably the team leader.

During this time, Yin Bi had also become obsessed with the House of the Departed. According to him, he'd already earned sixty million magic crystals.

"Pfft—how did you earn that? I never saw you sell anything. In just a few weeks, how did you make so much? Did you conjure gold dragons out of thin air?" Nagrillis stared in shock, Du Luo's eyes bulged, and Luo Si's legs went weak.

"Heh." Yin Bi smiled sheepishly: "From a commercial standpoint, information is more profitable than goods—it turns over faster. I noticed that Du Luo's permission level for me was unusually high—I could access information most couldn't. First, I sold information for a few days, saved up a few hundred thousand magic crystals, and now I'm acting as a middleman."

"Middleman? That can make money?" Nagrillis asked in surprise.

Middlemen profit from transaction commissions or price differentials, but the House of the Departed itself is already a middleman platform—why would anyone pay extra to another middleman for information they could already find there?

"Of course it can." Yin Bi pulled out a small notebook, flipped open a page, and continued: "Most people lack the ability to organize information. They post random buy or sell requests on the House of the Departed and wait for fate to guide them."

"But many don't even understand their own needs. Like Lu Tixia—she only asked to buy fifty thousand gold coins' worth of flame seals, but her real need was the strongest possible, willing to pay up to a million. There's a ninety-five-thousand-gold-coin gap here that can be exploited."

"I uncover these latent needs, match them with proper resources, bundle them, and sell them back—whatever profit remains is mine."

Here, Yin Bi turned to Ange: "My lord, there's been a flood of grain purchase requests on the House of the Departed lately—some have been posted for one or two months without fulfillment. My lord, this world is severely short on food—we need massive quantities of grain, or soon we won't be able to do business at all."

Ange's eyes lit up, and he nodded vigorously, turning to leave—when Nagrillis grabbed him in a sudden hug: "Don't even think about going back to farm right now! Sell the vegetables, buy materials, make new planting spheres, and expand your cultivation scale first."

Ahead, the vegetation grew thicker and denser; gradually, they left the desert behind, and paths began to appear on the ground.

But after traveling only a short distance along the path, dozens of bandits leapt out, surrounding them in a rush: "Robbery! Hands on your heads and squat down, or we won't be polite!"

"Hey, boss boss, there's a shit-yellow dragon! Is that a dragon? So cute! Such a tiny dragon must be worth a fortune!" One bandit spotted Nagrillis, his eyes widening with excitement.

Shit-yellow? Nagrillis looked down at his scales, then realized they meant him—his soul erupted in instant rage: "You bastard, who the hell are you calling shit-yellow?!"

Bronze dragons have a blue tint, red copper dragons have a purple tint, yellow copper dragons have a…

Just as Nagrillis was about to charge, Ange grabbed him—there was a powerful aura among the bandits; Nagrillis couldn't beat it yet.

That aura belonged to a silver skeleton wielding a great axe, standing beside the bandit leader.

The leader himself was a necromancer wrapped in a cloak, now pulling back his hood, eyes gleaming with delight as he stared at Nagrillis: "Such a tiny dragon? Smaller than a dragon egg! A gnome dragon? A new breed? Quick, grab it! Alive! Plenty of noble ladies will adore it."

Yin Bi couldn't help asking curiously: "Why did you choose us to rob? Do we look that easy to pick on?"

The bandits exchanged glances; the necromancer leader pointed and listed: "Goblin, woman, little girl, embryonic dragon, old man, woman—only two adult men, and they're barely any threat. Isn't that easy?"

The so-called adult men were Ange and the little zombie; without armor, the little zombie appeared as the strongest adult male present.

Du Luo's face twisted into a grin—he'd been called an old man? Were these idiots blind? He was clearly a mature, refined middle-aged gentleman.

With eyes this blind, they deserved to be killed.

But Du Luo didn't need to act—Yin Bi's body rippled with a faint disturbance, and a shadow only ordinary people couldn't see rose from him.

He flicked his thumb, and a crisp, clear sound rang out—the chime of a gold coin being flung. The coin spun through the air and landed atop the bandit leader's head.

Yin Bi's voice was hypnotic: "These gold coins belong to you now—whoever grabs them, gets them."

It was only one gold coin, yet Yin Bi said "these." No one knew what the bandits saw, but instantly their eyes turned red with greed, lust, and malice—they drew their swords and slashed at the bandit leader without hesitation.

"Mind control? Yin Bi, when did you learn spirit magic?" Nagrillis gasped.

Yin Bi scratched his head sheepishly: "Nope, I don't know spirit magic. This is my divine skill—The Power of Money. When a gold coin lands on someone's head, everyone around them sees them as a pile of gold coins. Slash them down, and gold coins explode out."

"Ssshh—that's brutal." Imagine suddenly seeing a pile of gold coins beside you—slash it, get rich. Who wouldn't strike first? If you're a brother, slash it!

The only one unaffected was the necromancer himself—he shrieked: "What are you doing?! Are you rebelling?!"

The silver skeleton, under his control, swung its great axe, cleaving through the bandit in front of it, then stepped forward to block the necromancer. Swords clanged against its body.

The silver skeleton's bones had been metalized—ordinary slashes might chip off a bit of bone.

But one sweeping axe blow severed a bandit clean in two.

Clang! Clang! Clang! The bandits and the leader's skeleton clashed furiously—all because of one tiny gold coin flung by Yin Bi. The Power of Money was truly terrifying.

Soon, the entire bandit gang lay dead, the silver skeleton dismantled, leaving only the necromancer leader, trembling and collapsed on the ground: "Y-you… who are you?!"

This outcome wasn't surprising. Though Yin Bi looked gentle and harmless, he was, after all, the God of Merchants. When he deployed his divine skill, a bandit gang of this caliber was merely sacrificial.

"Undying God…" Du Luo stepped forward, glaring at him—soul shock.

The necromancer's eyes instantly glazed over, losing all luster; his mouth twisted uncontrollably, drool dripping down: "Heh… Undying God… heh… I'm the Undying God…"

He'd become an idiot.

After resuming their journey, Yin Bi said: "My lord, our appearances are too misleading—we lack intimidation. We'll attract trouble on the road."

Nagrillis agreed wholeheartedly: "We'd barely left the desert when we got ambushed. This place is even wilder than the main plane—and these idiots are blind. 'Shit-yellow'? They can't even tell colors!"

Ange tilted his head.

"We should make our appearances more fearsome. Luo Si and the little zombie should wear their soul armors, release some death aura, create a thick black mist effect—that'd look awesome, terrifying at a glance."

Luo Si immediately armored up in her original form, drew her Guardian Sword, and pointed it forward: "Is this it? Fresh flesh, desperate moans—the undead earth shall stretch beneath my feet!"

She'd always been armored before, but now that she was animated, she refused to cover her fresh, pale, flawless face for even a second.

Everyone exchanged glances, a thought rising unspoken: This kid must've read too many knight novels.

The little zombie's armor transformation was simpler—just one word: thick. He wrapped himself in a full suit of armor like a metal can, his left shoulder plate thicker than the right, sprouting spikes, grotesquely menacing.

One hand held a shield, the other held… a hoe. Clearly, he knew how to farm.

Du Luo donned a tall hat, draped himself in a cloak, slipped on white gloves and a half-mask—noble and mysterious.

Ange considered armorizing his straw cloak soul armor, but everyone unanimously opposed it—his soul armor would instantly change the team's vibe, making them look like they'd come to farm.

In the end, they had to return and loot the insane necromancer, find a clean cloak among his luggage, and pretend to be a necromancer themselves.

This team now looked like it had explosive combat power—surely no one would dare provoke them now?

As they traveled, progress became much smoother. Occasionally, they still sensed hidden watchers in the wilds, but no one dared jump out anymore.

Taking advantage of the quiet moment, Nagrillis quickly taught Ange a few necromancer spells to make his disguise more convincing.

"The most common necromancer spell is Death Summoning—raise the corpses on the ground and flood everything with an army." Nagrillis had barely finished speaking when corpses around the road began scrambling out rapidly.

"Stop! Stop! Stop! You've got a monarch arriving—you don't need area spells. Learn the single-target ones only." Nagrillis hurriedly called a halt, fearing they'd end up trailed by a horde of skeletons and zombies.

Ange extended his index finger, pointing at the corpses one by one—point, rise; point, rise—each corpse stood up obediently.

"Stop! Stop! Stop… you don't even need single-target spells. Learn the Wraith Slow spell—summon a wraith to slow enemy movement, otherwise they'll move too fast for you to lock onto them…" Just as he spoke, Nagrillis saw a swarm of wraiths surge forward.

"Fear spell, Death Arrow, Death Shockwave, Flesh Wither… forget it, improvise on your own. Just tone it down a bit—don't scare people to death."

There was nothing left to teach. Whenever Ange acted, he was the most authentic necromancer—no other necromancer could match him, for he was the god of all necromancers—the Undying God.

They arrived smoothly at Northwind City, and Nagrillis realized it was truly chaotic—the city gates were completely unguarded, with people freely entering and exiting.

Even in the desert town, there were gray-bone skeletons guarding the entrance—but here, in this major city, there wasn't a single guard at the gate.

Just outside the gates, rows of neatly arranged graves stood silent and lifeless. Only a few graves near the edge held gray-bone skeletons, peering out curiously, staring blankly toward the city gate.

Du Luo observed for a moment and said: "These skeletons seem to have lost command—they must not have received orders from their lord, so they don't know what to do."

"Where's the lord?" Nagrillis asked.

"Probably dead," Du Luo shrugged.

Nagrillis was startled: "If the lord dies, shouldn't all undead bound by soul links die too? Did they all sever their soul links in advance?"

"No," Du Luo shook his head. "The Undying Empire's regional defense has always been independent—no soul links to lords. Otherwise, every time a lord was reassigned, all his subjects would follow him? Impossible."

"Each lord has a small number of direct subordinates, but those should be city guards. Without orders, they just stay in their tombs." Du Luo explained.

"No wonder it's so chaotic. How many skeleton guards are there?" Nagrillis asked.

Ange glanced around and said: "Five hundred thousand."

"Only the Undying Empire's guards, who don't eat or drink, could sustain such a massive defense force. In a human city, five or six thousand would be a lot." Sighing, Nagrillis urged them: "Let's go inside."

As they walked toward the gate, Ange's gaze fell on the few gray-bone skeletons peeking out from the edge graves.

Perhaps sensing Ange's stare, the skeletons scrambled out of their tombs and stood rigidly upright, just like the two skeleton guards at the desert town's entrance.