Chapter 425: Silver Coin, Hitting People

This was the first time the little sapling had shown interest in something… besides making other people grow hair.

Seeing Ange hurriedly reached out to take the chain necklace, but the woman clutched it tightly, as if clutching a life-saving straw.

Oh, exchanging for food—Seeing Ange understood, and reached out to dig through his pockets, but Lord Nai Ge stopped him: "Don't scare people. Hey, you—Jili."

Jili clutched her bag and tried to run, but the moment she moved, Duroken's big hand pressed down on her shoulder.

"I knew this would happen. Good thing I roasted two big packs." Jili smugly pulled out a pack of beef cakes, then clutched her bag tightly.

Having fully learned her lesson from last time, Jili had thrown all her luggage into her storage ring, carrying only the beef cakes on her back.

Seeing Ange had too many storage ornaments—grab one handful and he could pull over seventeen or eighteen, from spatial pouches to storage rings, as long as the space wasn't especially large, he could pull them over.

He also had plenty of materials. Worst case, he'd pull the materials over and let Duroken craft them on the spot.

With only this handful of subordinates, of course he'd give one to each. This kind of extravagance stunned both Luokessi and Jili silly.

The bag on Jili's body was stuffed full of food, and her storage ring held some too—enough to guarantee that even if she got lost in the desert, she could eat for a month.

Seeing Ange stuffed an entire pack of beef cakes into the woman's arms and exchanged for her necklace.

Stuffing such a big pack of beef cakes into the woman's arms left her dumbfounded too. Right now, what's the most expensive thing in Rapids Fortress? Food.

Originally she'd thought being able to trade for two or three cakes would be pretty good. Such a big pack, enough for her to ration out for half a month—this is… deadly.

The woman gave a sudden shiver, alertly turning her head to look, and sure enough, she saw the people sprawled around in every direction, on the verge of death, now all crawling up, eyes gleaming green, staring fixedly at the big pack in the woman's arms.

Although she couldn't see clearly what was inside, the greasy stains on the outer wrapper and the faint scent of wheat left no doubt that it was food inside.

The woman quickly stuffed the big pack of beef cakes back into Seeing Ange's hands and said urgently: "Wait for me a moment."

Then she ran back at full speed. Just moments ago she'd been on the verge of death, moving sluggishly, but now her movements were as nimble as a rabbit's.

The woman ran back and led out two small children from the crowd—one boy, one girl, about five or six years old.

A gaunt man beside them grabbed the little girl's small leg with some reluctance. People's emotions in this kind of situation go crazy: I'm about to starve to death, and you got food but won't share any with me?

Rather than miss out on a bargain, he'd make sure you lose out too—that was the gaunt man's inner portrait.

The woman yanked hard but couldn't budge him, and instead made the little girl start sobbing. This little girl was also on the verge of death, without even the strength to cry.

The woman was furious, but something even more frightening happened—the gaunt man's actions reminded more people. Several nearby crawled up, eyes gleaming green, reaching for the two children.

These people's thoughts were probably: You got food, we'll grab your kids, you bring food to trade for them.

Hunger turned these originally possibly peaceful ordinary people cruel and vicious.

Seeing Ange tilted his head, flicked his fingers, and two wraiths were flicked out by him.

At first the wraiths were just two wisps of smoke, but after leaving his fingers they rapidly swelled. Within five meters they'd already transformed into man-tall, sturdy wraiths, crawling swiftly on all fours, their two eyes radiating fierce red light.

Seeing Ange had always remembered Lord Nai Ge telling him to pretend to be a necromancer, otherwise he'd have cast Holy Word right now and shackled those guys with Original Sin Shackles.

Yet despite that, Lord Nai Ge still couldn't help covering his face: "Rein it in, I told you to rein it in. A level-six Wraith Wanderer—you just flicked your fingers and released it? Are you trying to scare people to death? Huh, wait, that's not right—why can you cast level-six magic?"

Seeing Ange tilted his head blankly.

Duroken, however, guessed the reason: "Because the essence of a Wraith Wanderer is a wraith, not magic. My lord, as the God of the Undead, summoning a wraith is too easy. This isn't magic—this is a Saint's Summoning."

Crawling to the woman's side, the two wraiths each clawed the gaunt man's face once. The gaunt man couldn't help letting out a piercing shriek, and his grip on the little girl naturally loosened.

The wraiths stuffed the "things" they'd clawed off into their mouths, and their red eyes swept around. The rest of the people scattered in fright.

The woman hurriedly pulled the two children back to Seeing Ange's side, took the beef cakes, opened them in a fluster, stuffed one into each child's hand, took one herself, and wolfed them down.

Eating too fast, the woman and the two children all choked. Lord Nai Ge timely handed over a waterskin and said: "Don't rush, eat slowly. By the way, what happened in Rapids Fortress? How did it become like this?"

The woman accepted the waterskin with profuse thanks, feeding the children water as she spoke: "These past two months, for some reason, the bone guards that maintain order stopped coming out. The day before yesterday a fire suddenly broke out in the city, then fighting started, and nobody went to put out the fire. We ran out, didn't bring food or water, and couldn't get back into the city, so it ended up like this."

What the woman said was still too brief—the actual situation was likely much more serious than she'd described.

When Jili had fled to Desert Town two months ago, she'd already mentioned that along the way, order had collapsed in many places. Robbery, murder, kidnapping, brawling—incidents emerged one after another. In some places, grain fields and crops had been burned by people.

To use a more apt term, it was a state of anarchy. The undead creatures that originally maintained order all ground to a halt overnight. With no one to drive them, they just lay in the cemeteries and wouldn't come out.

In some places, besides the undead creatures, there would be another kind of force maintaining order. But in those places without that "other" force, the entire system would run on inertia for a period, until it hit an obstacle and couldn't keep running, then it would collapse rapidly.

Rapids Fortress was exactly this kind of situation.

The obstacle that caused Rapids Fortress to collapse was food. A city built on a mountain like this was never a food-producing area to begin with—just like Northwind City, the vast majority of food had to be transported in from outside.

As order collapsed, the food transported in from outside dropped sharply, prices doubled, and even with the price hikes, it was a seller's market with no goods available.

Silver Coin had said long ago that the House of the Returned was full of requests to purchase food.

In this situation, food naturally became the most important resource. Part of Rapids Fortress's city management force, originally meant to maintain order within the city, was recruited from thugs and rogues. With less restraint, these people actually set their sights on the city's grain depot.

Setting fires, looting, storming the grain depot—but they were beaten back and routed by the depot's guards. These scattered fellows then turned their attention to the nobles, wealthy merchants, and such. If they could break in, they did; if they couldn't, they switched targets.

The manors and fortresses of nobles and wealthy merchants had numerous guards, so few attempts succeeded. Thus, those who suffered became the middle-income households.

This woman was hiding a piece of exquisite jewelry, clearly not a commoner—she was a person of some means, exactly the main target of those people. If she hadn't run out beforehand, staying home might have cost her life.

After figuring out what had happened, Duroken and Silver Coin exchanged glances. In this situation, the vegetables definitely couldn't be sold—what to do?

Seeing Ange didn't care what they would do. He was sitting with the little angel and the little zombie, knees hugged, in a circle, with the little sapling placed in the middle, and the necklace hung directly on the little sapling's body.

Ya—ya—ya—the little sapling emitted information of unclear meaning, extended its true leaf, and touched it to the gemstone on the necklace.

The emerald green within the gemstone began to flow, traveling along the true leaf into the little sapling's body.

Grow—ya—grow—ya—the little sapling waved its leaves, emitting fervent information. Soon, a small flower bud sprouted from the top of its head.

Seeing Ange reached out to poke it, but the little sapling immediately covered the small flower bud: No—ya—no—ya—

Won't let me poke? Seeing Ange tilted his head and asked: "What is it?"

Ya—ya—ya—whether the little sapling was answering or simply shouting was unclear.

Yet Seeing Ange nodded as if he'd understood.

This kind of wildly imaginative exchange puzzled Lord Nai Ge: "You understood? What did it say?"

Seeing Ange picked up the necklace and said: "Wants this. Lots."

At this moment, on the necklace, the trace of emerald green on the gemstone had already vanished, leaving only a dim crystal.

"Pfft… Are you guessing? Or did it really say that? What it emitted wasn't language at all, just a kind of information. I don't believe you could understand it." Lord Nai Ge said, unconvinced.

It, the great God of Knowledge, couldn't even understand the little sapling's "ya ya ya," so how could Seeing Ange understand?

Seeing Ange tilted his head: "Just a guess."

"... Your guess makes so much sense, I'd guess the same thing too..."

The little sapling rarely took the initiative to want a certain type of gem; after absorbing the emerald green inside the gem, a little flower bud sprouted on its head — anyone with eyes would know to find more for it to absorb. Does that even need guessing?

But why is it that when Seeing Ange says it out loud so matter-of-factly, it's especially infuriating?

Nai Ge Li Si asked the woman about the origin of this gem, and the woman replied: "My lord, this is a specialty of the mountain range near Rapid Flow Fortress, called Life Gem."

"A local specialty? That's troublesome, the place is in such chaos right now." Nai Ge Li Si muttered.

At this moment, having finished discussing things with Du Luo Ken, Silver Coin came over and said: "My lord, we may need to think of a way to take Rapid Flow Fortress."

Du Luo Ken said: "Rapid Flow Fortress is an important stronghold guarding this end of the river valley. If it falls into ruin, the bridge we build on the other side will be completely meaningless. But to occupy this place, these refugees will need to be rescued, and that requires a large amount of food."

"Rapid Flow Fortress has over ten thousand people, the daily food consumption is no small number, we need to think…" Silver Coin said, troubled.

But before he finished speaking, Seeing Ange arched his back and, with a snap, pulled out a bag of Spirit Beans, saying: "Take it."

Ten thousand people sounds like a lot, but one meal a day only needs ten thousand Spirit Beans. One bag is twenty jin, with at least thirty thousand Spirit Beans — enough to feed the whole city for three days.

Silver Coin hesitated: "But this would expose the secret of the Spirit Beans. A strategic resource like this, once exposed, would easily draw unwanted attention."

When the Spirit Beans were in the elves' hands, people were always coveting them. If they couldn't beat the elves, they would have long since snatched them all away — not only snatched them all, but would have taken the elves as slaves and made them plant the beans.

Seeing Ange thought for a moment, grabbed the bag of Spirit Beans, and kneaded it hard. In no time, the beans inside were crushed into powder.

Seeing Ange opened the Divine Domain, kept summoning wind tornadoes, stirring the beet leaves in a small area into fine bits, then tossed the Spirit Bean powder in and stirred it all together. Soon it became a mix of Spirit Bean powder and vegetable bits, which he then kneaded into balls — one by one, vegetable dumplings appeared.

"That's a good method. If we could add some flour, it would be vegetable cakes." Nai Ge Li Si said.

Everyone pitched in, busily kneading dumplings, but the fastest was still Du Luo Ken. Everyone saw his Gold-Touch Rod tapping away nonstop, and one after another, perfectly sized, round vegetable dumplings appeared.

"We have the food, but how do we distribute it? We don't have that many hands." Nai Ge Li Si looked at the pile of vegetable dumplings, troubled.

"Watch me." Silver Coin said confidently, picking them up into a bag and heading back to the mountain path.

He pulled out a vegetable dumpling, held it up, and said to the starving refugees: "Hiring! Hiring! Men, women, children — all welcome, food included!"

Whoosh — the refugees who had looked listless and weak instantly became vigorous and fierce, scrambling to crowd over.

"One each, one each, don't fight. The strong ones step forward first, help me keep order." In this kind of chaos, the most important thing is actually order, and Wu Li is the priority that needs to be won over first.

So to those strong men, Silver Coin said one each with his mouth, but actually gave out two. These people froze for a moment, then immediately felt the importance of being treated differently, and their whole spirit was instantly lifted.

"Good, the nimble ones, step forward. This bag is for you to distribute — one each. Those who get one, drive the rest to the back. No taking extras." Handing out the distribution task to others, Silver Coin could free himself to oversee the big picture, and also speed things up.

"From now on, women and children first. Anyone who fights gets seized and put on display." Once order was established, the vulnerable could be prioritized. When supplies are abundant, prioritizing the weak makes everyone feel at ease.

Silver Coin once again demonstrated his extraordinary organizational ability, arranging the refugees clearly and properly in just a few moves.

The rescue work unfolded in an orderly fashion. Several distributors, under the protection of over a dozen strong adult men, moved steadily toward the other end of the mountain path. Ji Li and Aoluo Luokesi were in charge of transporting the vegetable dumplings.

The refugees ate in an orderly manner. Most were moved to tears of gratitude. Some especially emotional people even knelt and kowtowed to Silver Coin on the spot, thanking him for saving their lives.

Silver Coin didn't dare accept such thanks. Whenever someone kowtowed, he would say: "Thank Lord Seeing Ange for bestowing the food."

Actually, Silver Coin didn't even need to say it. From the moment someone ate a vegetable dumpling, Seeing Ange felt a steady stream of Soul Flames flowing toward him — that was the power of the God of Planting. As long as someone ate something Seeing Ange had grown, they would offer power to him.

This power was generated in this world, without the attenuation from being projected from the main plane, and could be used to drive the Quick-Death Halo Stone.

Beyond that, it could only be used to replenish soul energy and condense Soul Crystals, because Seeing Ange currently couldn't use any divine skills.

Just then, Seeing Ange suddenly sensed something and strode forward at a run.

Nai Ge Li Si hurried to keep up, asking at the same time: "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Silver Coin is hitting someone." Seeing Ange said.