Chapter 457

Leaving the Warlock Ladder, Anthony wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and hurried back to report: "This Eye of Truth is so powerful; it almost saw right through me."

Negris asked in confusion: "Saw through you?"

"He possesses a certain divine power that can discern what is true and what is false. However, there are quite a few restrictions when he uses this divine power. I suspect it functions through a Q&A format; as long as I don't answer with the truth, there's a possibility he could see through me," Anthony said.

"That magical?" Negris was shocked: "Isn't that the same as a lie detector?"

"Yes, a lie detector. My heart was pounding the whole time I was talking to him, terrified I might say the wrong thing," Anthony said.

Negris asked in surprise: "Then how did you bluff your way through it?"

"How is this bluffing? I was telling the truth the whole time," Anthony said with dissatisfaction: "He asked if I was really the Pope; I said yes. He asked who I serve as my master; I said the God of Balance. So, he believed me."

"Pfft—no matter how 'true' an eye is, it would have to go blind if it ran into you," Negris laughed out loud.

Having gained Cabrera's trust, Anthony also inquired about the situation regarding the Undead Monarch.

"The Silence Barrier has trapped His Majesty, but His Majesty has also soul-locked the opponent's Silence Warlock. Right now, neither can do anything to the other. Cabrera says they are currently accumulating energy, preparing to activate the Starburst Array and adjust it to soul-impact mode to bombard His Majesty inside the barrier," Anthony said.

"What? Activate the Starburst Array? When?" Negris was shocked.

Ang also raised his head. Under normal circumstances, when everyone was chatting, he would be lost in his own thoughts, doing his own thing. Previously, he would be farming in his spatial domain; now that he couldn't farm, he had to play with other things.

Recently, he had been practicing forming arrays—forming the Starburst Array. The entire Starburst Array had roughly over two thousand magic seals, and he had already combined over thirteen hundred of them.

Even Ang, who didn't like listening to their chats, looked up.

"I don't know. Cabrera didn't answer that question. However, judging by his appearance, it might take quite a long time—several months or even years is possible, depending on when the Starburst Array accumulates enough energy," Anthony said.

"That's not right. The God of Life said not long ago that the Starburst Array was about to break. If it's about to break, can it still fire?" Negris asked in surprise.

The Starburst Array was a very massive creation; even if it were damaged, it wouldn't be noticeable for a while, but there's no way it could fire again, right?

The God of Life popped out from Ang's shoulder, looking blank, and said slowly: "I don't know. It was those plants that told me."

It seems relying on the God of Life to determine the status of the Starburst Array is unreliable; everyone can only prepare for the worst.

How to prepare for the worst-case scenario is something for Anthony and Silver Coin to ponder. Ang doesn't need to think about these things; he can just happily go about reclaiming wasteland and farming.

As long as there is an ample supply of food, other problems won't stump Anthony and Silver Coin; only food is something they cannot conjure out of thin air.

Aiming at the desert climate, the crops Ang chose were mainly tubers. These tubers, which grow underground, can slow down the evaporation of moisture. The ground looks sparse and dying, unremarkable, but once it matures and you dig it up, you find large clumps of them in the soil.

After planting them, Ang doesn't bother with them anymore, nor does he use the Fast-Death Aura to accelerate growth, because there is too much wasteland waiting for him to reclaim.

If he used the Fast-Death Aura, he would be stuck in one place, planting and harvesting, harvesting and planting; besides wasting divine power, the total harvest wouldn't be much.

The southern part of the desert was planted full of unremarkable tubers by him. In the dam irrigation area and on both banks of the New River, because there was no shortage of water, rice and wheat were planted.

They could handle the wasteland reclamation and sowing, but once the crops grew, managing such a large area would be too much for just the few of them. The Pale Sea Plane needed one hundred thousand farmers; the manpower needed in the desert would only be more.

A large number of farmers were organized by Fivo to enter these areas, settle down, and tend to the crops. The original Desert Town was also rebuilt. The entire North Wind Desert entered a bustling production and construction phase, and the labor force in North Wind City actually began to run short.

"This is a huge anomaly. Do you know how wide those slave traders' eyes went when I sent them the purchase invitation?" Fivo couldn't help but feel cheerful whenever he brought this up.

"How wide? As wide as this?" Negris widened its eyes with effort, forcing them to become as large as a cow's eyes.

"Uh, not quite that wide, Lord Negris. Don't tease me; who can compare the size of their eyes to a dragon?" Fivo said helplessly.

"That's not very wide either," Negris said triumphantly, hands on its hips: "What did they say?"

"They said: 'Why are you buying so many old, weak, women, children, sick, and disabled people? Has the food at home gone moldy?'" Fivo said, spreading his hands.

If the food at home hadn't gone moldy, the slave traders couldn't figure out why anyone would buy so many old, weak, women, children, sick, and disabled people. What could they do besides waste food if they bought them back?

Their production value might not even be as high as the food they eat. Under circumstances of rationing, a normal person needs to consume one jin of rice or flour every day, which is over three hundred and sixty jin a year, plus clothing and housing all cost money.

Yet their labor capacity might not even yield a few hundred jin of grain after farming for a year. If they get sick, you have to pay extra; it's a total loss.

In the eyes of slave traders, this was a cold, hard math problem. They really couldn't understand why Fivo would risk losing money to acquire so many worthless people. Was there some profit point they couldn't see?

Could it be because both the Undead Empire and the Warlock Alliance were distributing food, so costs could be lowered? Or could they exchange it for some preferential policy?

Unable to ask for any key information from Fivo, the slave traders moved with half-belief. While sending people to Fivo, they also treated the remaining slaves better themselves.

They were terrified that if the slaves starved or died of illness, they wouldn't be able to collect whatever benefits were being distributed from above.

You couldn't ask for the key from Fivo because there was no key at all. Ang really only needed the old, weak, sick, disabled, and pregnant.

Of course, he could take strong labor, but it wasn't necessary. After all, the most strenuous wasteland reclamation work had already been finished by Jiadelige. The newcomers only needed to tend to the crops in the fields, occasionally weeding and catching field mice or pests—even children could do it.

Moreover, the old, weak, sick, and disabled would soon be full of vigor once they arrived at Ang's place.

"This is an Upgrade Bean, right? You're adding it to the rapeseed cake; aren't you afraid everyone will get nosebleeds from eating it?" Negris asked, unable to help himself as he watched Ang throw Upgrade Beans into the mill.

"No, compared, appropriate amount." Ang had compared them and chose the appropriate ratio.

After finishing the rapeseed cake, Ang poured medicine into the holy water. The water consumed by every newly arrived slave would be replaced with holy water, which was top-tier for clearing the bowels and stopping diarrhea; now, he was adding medicine to it.

"What kind of medicine is this?" Negris asked.

"Hemoer, saliva." Ang said.

"Pfft—the Insect God's drool? Why add this?" Negris was shocked.

"Deworming." Among the newcomers, most had problems with parasites. Some had round, bulging bellies like pregnant women, but their limbs were abnormally thin; some had patches of different colors on their faces.

The Insect God's saliva wasn't an ordinary insecticide; it was a substance possessing divine power. It would only drive out and kill the insects without toxicity and would not harm the body.

After pouring in the Insect God's drool, Ang poured in a few bottles of Essence Liquid. The vast majority of people had damage to their gastrointestinal tracts; the Essence Liquid could accelerate the healing of internal injuries.

Negris understood this, but it just hurt his heart a little—eight thousand magic crystals per bottle of Essence Liquid! These few bottles were already twenty or thirty thousand magic crystals. They didn't even spend that much money buying these slaves back, and now it was all used up in a few buckets of water.

The price of slaves was very cheap, one could even say half-sold and half-given, because there were too many of them.

Admittedly, both the Undead Empire and the Warlock Alliance had started relief efforts, but the turbulent situation resulted in piles upon piles of bankrupt farmers. Take Deluoge City, for example; Ang had taken in over ten thousand disaster victims there.

Throughout the entire plane, there were countless cities similar to Deluoge.

Not long ago, the Warlock Alliance took in a batch, but they only wanted healthy children under ten years old.

Strong labor was highly sought after and was taken away early. No one wanted the remaining old, weak, women, children, sick, and disabled. Slave traders would come over and shout: "Food and housing provided!" and a crowd would swarm over.

Thanks to the relief from the Undead Empire and the Warlock Alliance, otherwise these people might not have lived until now. However, everyone knew that relief couldn't last forever; if there was another way out, they definitely had to plan early.

Bake and his mother arrived in North Wind City under these circumstances.

Bake was not even ten years old this year. Originally, at his age, he could have been selected by the Warlock Alliance, but his right hand was disabled, so he was not selected.

His mother also had a severe lung disease and would be out of breath just from walking a little fast. So, when he begged those slave traders to give him a job and said he would work very hard, what he got in return was mockery: "What can you do, being sick and disabled like this? Waste of food, go beg."

Even the slave traders didn't want him.

His mother had already expressed several times that Bake should ignore her and go save his own life, but Bake refused. He could still go collect food now; if he left, his mother might not even be able to squeeze into the crowd collecting food and would starve to death.

So, upon hearing that someone had no restrictions and wanted anyone who could breathe, Bake didn't say a word and brought his mother over.

Bake had a habit: he liked to listen to others talk, and his hearing was also very good. So, while waiting in line, he heard the whispers of two people behind him: "The buyer this time seems very rich. They're actually using a teleportation array to pick us up?"

"Are teleportation arrays very expensive?"

"Of course. I heard my previous master say that teleporting one person costs four or five magic crystals. Selling me wouldn't even be worth one magic crystal, and you want to sit in a teleportation array?"

At this moment, another voice interjected: "Not really. When we gather enough quantity and teleport together, it costs about one magic crystal per person, depending on the distance and body weight."

"One magic crystal is also a lot. In our village, one magic crystal could buy a wife."

The whispers of others gave Bake an important piece of information: the person who bought them seemed very rich.

Gathering enough quantity, the teleportation array activated. With a flash of white light, Bake found himself in a brand-new place.

"Come, come, come, friends who have just arrived, please observe order, leave the teleportation array in an orderly fashion, come this way, come this way." Jiemi held a large megaphone, shouting enthusiastically and generously, guiding everyone.

This little boy he met on the road had changed drastically from when he first encountered him. Anthony really could transform people.

Bake looked curiously at this older brother who wasn't much older than him. Jiemi also noticed him because the disability on Bake's hand was very conspicuous.

Jiemi smiled at him in a friendly manner and continued to shout: "Please move in an orderly fashion, everyone. We have prepared food and water; you can get it once you go over."

Food and water attracted everyone, and everyone's movements became much faster.

Perhaps because they were walking a bit too fast, Bake's mother suddenly began to pant rapidly, out of breath, her lips turning purple.

Jiemi discovered this situation, hurried over, and reached out to press his hand on Bake's mother's forehead: "May the Holy Light bless you."

Bake's mother's condition eased quite a bit. Jiemi then had someone push over a wheeled cart, put Bake's mother on it, and pushed her along. Sure enough, she wasn't panting anymore.

From the moment the Holy Light shone from Jiemi's palm, Bake's gaze fell on his hand from time to time, his heart shocked beyond measure.

Seeing him like this, Jiemi smiled and raised his hand to show him: "This is the power bestowed by my master, Ang. You can have it too."

"I can have it too?" Bake's eyes lit up.

"Of course. Three months ago, I almost starved to death on the side of the road, even worse off than you are now. It was the Master and the Crown Prince who saved me and bestowed power upon me. By the way, what's wrong with your mother?" Jiemi asked.

Bake's mother had recovered. Hearing that he was asking about her, she said with some difficulty: "An old ailment. I pant when I walk too fast. Just now, tha... thank you."

"Panting when you walk? That should be a decline in lung function. What caused the decline? I'll take you to find the Crown Prince and see if he has a way." Jiemi said, pondering.

Bake's eyes lit up: "Can it be cured?" Not to mention a complete cure, even a partial recovery would be fine. He didn't dare hope for running or doing heavy work; as long as she could walk normally, Bake would be very happy.

Jiemi, as if hearing some joke, showed a strange yet polite smile: "My master is omnipotent."

If Lord Ang were to take action, he could even change a body...

A number of patients had already gathered around Ang. Wearing gray sacrificial robes, he was healing them non-stop. Originally, at his speed, no one would have been able to gather around him, but Anthony strongly requested that he heal a bit slower.

"Why?" Ang asked, puzzled.

Clearly, he could cast twenty or so Cleansing Arts in a second, but now he was asked to cast one every few seconds or ten seconds; he was a bit unaccustomed to it.

"My lord, if no one sees your might, how can your glory be spread? Achievements must be done in the open," Anthony explained.

"Oh." Anyway, he didn't understand, so Ang just followed suit.

Although he slowed down his speed, it was soon Bake's mother's turn. She was cured in a few moments, and for this, Essence Liquid was even atomized for her to inhale into her lungs.

Watching his mother stand up with unprecedented ease and even jump twice without panting, Bake knelt in front of Ang with a thud and said piously: "My master, please bestow upon me the Holy Light."

A thick soul flame entered Ang's soul, wrapped around it, and formed a mark. Instantly, Ang felt as if something had been opened up between himself and his main body.