Chapter 458: You Save the Monarch, We Want the Starburst Array

Powerful force, passing through Seeing Ange's true body — the Obsidian Body — formed a channel through his current body, streaming over in an endless flow.

In the past this channel existed too, but the force transmitted was too little; what came through was just enough to cast a first-tier spell — uh, though cast very quickly, it was still a first-tier spell, right?

Now this channel had thickened; with a single thought, Seeing Ange cast a second-tier spell.

Bark stared wide-eyed at the second-tier Purification spell, which was clearly brighter than before: "Is this the holy light bestowed upon me?"

Seeing Ange, with a hand wreathed in holy radiance, gripped Bark's crippled arm; cutting off the pain, he raised his hand and sliced — the already-healed cross-section was cut open, revealing bone splinters and raw flesh.

Gasps rose all around; Bark's mother covered her face and screamed outright, but Bark himself was the calmest of all, because he felt no pain, and instead gazed with some curiosity at the bloody cross-section of his arm.

Seeing Ange took out some essence liquid and poured it on the cross-section; spurred on by the holy light, the flesh of the cross-section grew at astonishing speed.

Honestly, the scene was somewhat horrifying — the flesh grew too fast, forming clusters of granulation tissue that stretched out in a scramble; a few minutes later, Bark's arm had grown back.

The newly grown arm was Bai Xi and tender, like a baby's skin, utterly unlike the grimy hide covering the rest of Bark's body.

This miraculous scene struck everyone's hearts; after standing dumb for quite a while, they all dropped to their knees with a series of thuds.

"Oh heavens, oh heavens — limb regeneration, a miracle!"

"What spell is this? What spell is this? I want to learn this spell."

"It's a miracle! It's a miracle! The Church of Light — they're from the Church of Light! Oh heavens, is the Church of Light this powerful?"

Seeing Ange reaped a wave of soul flames; the people who had witnessed the limb regeneration with their own eyes immediately believed in the Light, and as word spread from mouth to mouth, this miraculous scene would continue to spread further.

This slave-receiving operation had somehow turned into an occasion for displaying miracles, and it kept on going.

For example, the slaves suffering from swollen-belly sickness, after drinking the water Seeing Ange had specially prepared, immediately had bellies rumbling like thunder and ran swiftly toward the latrines prepared long in advance; the cesspits beneath were layered thick with lime.

This was the careful Silver Coin's doing — he had built a row of latrines, otherwise everyone would have had to relieve themselves in the roadside bushes.

After a great splashing and clattering, these people walked out weakly, only to find their bellies had shrunk; the swollen-belly sickness that had plagued them for so long had actually been cured just like that.

It wasn't a simple deworming — if it were, intestinal bleeding would have killed these already very weak people; alongside the deworming, essence liquid repaired the intestines; after they finished purging, these people immediately felt hungry.

Not far off were rapeseed cakes, but before receiving food, everyone was driven into the river to wash themselves clean.

After coming out, deworming powder was sprinkled on them, and then each person received a rapeseed cake.

This whole routine was second nature; in the main plane, Anthony had repeated it countless times — every link in the chain he had prepared thoroughly, even taking the slaves' mental health into account.

The unease in the hearts of the slaves who had just arrived in a strange place quickly settled.

……

Seeing Ange was already splitting his attention; most of his focus was concentrated on that energy channel — besides letting him cast second-tier spells, the massive influx of energy had also brought him some strange changes.

Seeing Ange focused his spirit, suddenly stretched out a hand, and his palm and arm vanished into the air.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si, used to such oddities, flew over without a fuss to shield him, lest he startle people, and asked along the way: "Why are you reaching into the Divine Kingdom? If you want something, go inside and get it."

Seeing Ange's control over the Divine Domain of the God of War and Peace was growing stronger and stronger — he could open a patch, or open a small opening; Lord Nai Ge Li Si assumed he was reaching into the Divine Domain.

Seeing Ange reached in and pulled out a handful of Xi Rang.

"Huh? Xi Rang? When did you put Xi Rang in there? Huh, no, wait — you haven't been to a cemetery or anything lately, you couldn't have come into contact with Xi Rang — where did this stuff come from?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si asked, puzzled.

"The Resting Palace," Seeing Ange said, and thrust his hand back in.

"Hiss — you mean, your hand can reach into the Resting Palace now?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si asked, shocked.

Seeing Ange nodded, pulled his hand out again, and now held a cluster of withered rice stalks.

Seeing Ange hadn't gone back in too long and couldn't tend the crops on the farm; most had withered and died, leaving only those with especially hardy lives — the God-Seeding Flowers, the Upgrade Beans, and the like.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si immediately grew excited: "Really? Are there any limits? Can you take out something bigger? Can you pull Patxi out?"

Originally Seeing Ange could pull out objects the size of a half-skeleton, but if his consciousness returned to his true body and he transformed into Jian Gu Luo Ke, the two sides working together could stuff something the size of a person through.

The Little Angel, the Little Zombie, Silver Coin, and Anthony had all been stuffed through this way; only Lord Nai Ge Li Si had been pulled straight through.

However, this kind of "pulling" and "stuffing" consumed a great deal of energy, and there was no way to transfer larger objects — for instance, the Purple-Bone Titan couldn't be stuffed through; the main plane also needed people to stay behind, so Seeing Ange hadn't continued transferring personnel.

In the new place, pioneers like Anthony and Silver Coin were needed, and combat power like the Purple-Bone Big-Bone was needed too, but administrative talent like Lisafelin wasn't needed for now.

Now that Seeing Ange could reach into the Resting Palace, could he take out objects larger than an ordinary person's size?

Seeing Ange shook his head: "Put it in."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si understood what Seeing Ange meant — what Seeing Ange meant was: the only change was that he could now put things in, but the volume of objects transferred hadn't changed.

That was no fun; Lord Nai Ge Li Si forced a smile: "Well, that's still good — from now on, if we run into danger, at least I can stuff my book in."

Seeing Ange clenched his fist hard, and his entire forearm slowly turned grey.

This change was far too uncanny, unsuitable for Seeing Ange's current persona; Lord Nai Ge Li Si was so startled he hurriedly spread his fleshy wings to cover Seeing Ange.

But there were hardly any people around anymore — the next batch hadn't arrived yet — so there was no worry about anyone seeing the change in his hand.

Once the fleshy wings spread, they covered the surroundings tightly; Seeing Ange glanced over curiously and noticed that, without realizing it, Lord Nai Ge Li Si had grown a lot — when the fleshy wings spread, they could serve as a tent; from now on, when it rained, he'd use them to keep the rain off.

Having made up his mind, Seeing Ange turned his attention to his hand.

The arm toughened and turned grey at a speed visible to the naked eye, somewhat resembling the skin of an Iron-Sheet Zombie, but without becoming dehydrated and withered.

This state continued for quite a while; the skin color of the arm slowly returned to normal, but the metallic sheen on the skin told Lord Nai Ge Li Si that this arm had already become something different.

"How could this happen? Your power shouldn't be able to reach the flesh and skin, should it? And you've only taken in one fanatic believer — why would it affect your hand? Truly strange — let me peel back your flesh and take a look," Lord Nai Ge Li Si said, puzzled.

Seeing Ange was a skeleton; the layer of flesh and skin on the outside had grown on this body after it was bathed in holy light — fundamentally it wasn't the same kind of thing; not conflicting was already quite remarkable; it was impossible for it to act on the bones.

Seeing Ange peeled back the flesh and skin, revealing the bones beneath; the bones were smooth and white, with an ivory-like sheen — clearly not normal human remains or Holy Spirit remains.

Seeing Ange pinched the parted flesh and skin back together; just as he was about to cast holy light, the flesh and skin healed on its own first.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si watched this peculiar scene and suddenly said: "We've always heard Abbert going on about Holy Spirit this, Holy Spirit that — is it possible that this body of yours actually isn't a Holy Spirit's?"

Seeing Ange tilted his head — could it be? If it weren't Holy Spirit remains, then why could holy light resurrect it?

Lord Nai Ge Li Si saw the doubt in Seeing Ange's heart at a glance and said: "First, it has no wing joints; second, its bones aren't as slender as the Little Angel's, nor do they shrink with level increases; third, Jian Gu Luo Ke wouldn't choose an ordinary Holy Spirit's remains to inhabit."

The third point was the most important — it knew Jian Gu Luo Ke's personality all too well; without anything special, it absolutely would not choose an ordinary Holy Spirit's remains.

Even if forced to choose one, it would quickly swap it out, or work hard to make it "special" — that was the stubborn-boned Jian Gu Luo Ke; it absolutely would not be mediocre and ordinary; to it, a Holy Spirit was far too ordinary.

So, could it be that Seeing Ange's body wasn't ordinary? In the past it had always overlooked this point; now, seeing this abnormal change in Seeing Ange's arm, it couldn't help but overthink things.

Seeing Ange tilted his head, a little bewildered — if it wasn't a Holy Spirit's skeleton, then what kind of bone could it be?

No one knew; at the very least, no answer could be found in the residual information left by Locke.

Just as he was about to say something more, Seeing Ange suddenly leapt up and with one hand shoved Lord Nai Ge Li Si aside.

A 'human' had, at some unknown moment, quietly crept up not far away — no one knew whether it had been eavesdropping.

Seeing that it had been spotted, this human split its mouth into a grin: "Quick reflexes, I see. Looks like you glow-worms have found yourselves a backer and are ready to crawl out of the gutter?"

As it spoke, its mouth split open — and this was no mere figure of speech, but a literal action. Its mouth truly split apart, gaping into a bloody maw. A huge grey-black scaled head poked out, neck stretching forth, and lunged in one bite toward Seeing Ange.

"Dragon Lich!? Nossaro!? Ugh——" Lord Nai Ge Li Si shrieked; it was unmistakably the dragon lich Nossaro from the Council of the Dead they had encountered before.

It had actually transformed into a human form, mingled among the refugees to sneak closer, then suddenly revealed itself to bite those Light-running dogs to death.

This trick never failed to work — as a dragon lich, whether in dragon or lich form, it held the advantage at close range. Any theurgy-user it got near could barely react in time.

But before Lord Nai Ge Li Si could finish shouting its name, Seeing Ange swung his still somewhat iron-grey arm, twisted his body, and slammed a fist into Nossaro's head.

Nossaro's enormous head was sent flying.

The head had recovered, but the body had not yet — Nossaro was in a top-heavy, off-balance state. Seeing Ange's punch sent its head flying, and the momentum dragged the body flying along with it.

Slammed more than ten meters away, Nossaro was a little dazed. What had just happened?

It struggled to raise its head and looked toward Seeing Ange, only to see a figure leaping toward it — a fist descending from above.

The head it had just raised was slammed heavily back into the ground.

A lich's soul does not reside in its head, yet Nossaro was still stunned — the fist that struck its head carried a tremendous force that shook its entire body and reached its soul.

Impossible! How could this be?! Doesn't this mean its head got hit, but its heart ached? Just how much force would it take to produce such an effect?

Before it could collect itself, Seeing Ange delivered another fist straight to its head.

Even at this moment, Nossaro's body had not fully transformed back; it braced on all fours trying to get up.

But the moment its head lifted, Seeing Ange slammed another fist into it — a crisp sound of bone shattering rang out. Nossaro's skull was smashed flat, caving inward into a great radial crater.

The whole scene fell deathly silent. Even Nossaro himself was stunned — because of density, a dragon lich's body was incomparably sturdy, tougher than ordinary iron-skinned zombies and golden skeletons, and among them, the skull was the hardest of all.

But now, this Light theurgy-user hadn't used any theurgy, yet had smashed its skull bare-handed? What kind of joke was that? An illusion?

Bracing on all fours in disbelief, trying to rise — this time, Seeing Ange didn't move, but Nossaro felt a sharp pain on its back; the heavy blow sent it crashing down again.

A sweep of its consciousness — it saw a six-winged archangel shouldering a Great Angel's Staff, swinging it high and preparing to bring it crashing down.

Unwilling to give in, Nossaro scuttled sideways — Boom! It felt as though it had been rammed by a giant thunder rhino; its footing gave way and it was sprawled down again.

A sweep of consciousness — it was the little zombie. But to avoid revealing its identity, the little zombie was not currently armored; it was wearing coarse cloth clothing. The collision shattered the clothing outright, revealing beneath it muscles as sturdy as marble.

But this shocked Nossaro's mind even more — it knew its own body's hardness all too well, and with its rough skin, throwing a person onto it would be enough to scrape their flesh open.

The little zombie had rammed it, the clothing had shattered, but not even a scratch on its skin? Not even a reddening? Battle Qi body protection?

Before it could figure out what was going on, a surge of rapid Holy Light fluctuations came from Seeing Ange's direction. By the time its consciousness swiveled back, it was drowned in a massive wave of Holy Light missiles.

Nossaro met the same fate as Jia Delige — blasted dizzy and disoriented, its soul strength plummeted drastically, and Seeing Ange forcibly extracted its soul, then stuffed the body into the Divine Domain.

At the fastest speed, every single member of the Church of Light on the scene — banners, placards, hanging scrolls, figurines, souvenirs — vanished without a trace, leaving behind only the wooden-stiff slaves and the spies observing from the shadows.

After a good while, the slaves finally reacted: "We... seem... seem to have been tricked? Did the Church of Light take us to set a trap?"

Some quick-witted slaves slapped their thighs hard: "I said it! Why even take the old, weak, sick, and disabled — turns out they were using us as bait. So sinister! If a few more undead had come, we'd have died in droves."

"But... but that little boy with the regenerated limb just now..."

"Ah, it has to be fake, it's an act, it's an illusion — that little boy's hand was never cut off in the first place," someone declared with absolute certainty.

"But what about their bellies? The big bellies are gone — that was big-belly disease, you can't live long with it, but look at them now."

A bunch of schistosomiasis patients immediately slapped their bellies, declaring they were in fine shape, not frauds — the disease really had been cured, by the grace of Holy Light.

Others whose injuries and illnesses had been healed also chimed in one after another, declaring Holy Light was efficacious and not to be slandered.

The spies sent by the Council of the Dead were also at a loss; everyone was stumped and could only go find Feiwo.

Feiwo also sighed helplessly: "I was tricked by them too. They said they wanted to pioneer and farm, and just asked me to help recruit people — I really didn't know they were from the Church of Light."

He washed his hands of it clean as a whistle.

"But since you're all here already, don't leave. North Wind City happens to be short on people — there's a large amount of newly reclaimed land that needs tilling. Go farm it. Five years tax-free, then convert to contract slaves; after paying tax for another five years, you can regain your freedom." Feiwo took the opportunity to announce the policy.

The generosity of this policy caused an uproar — pay tax for five years and regain freedom? How was that any different from no requirement at all? Because even free citizens had to pay tax.

Immediately someone asked: "If I pay my tax early, can I convert to free citizen status early?"

Then someone else asked: "If I stay as a contract slave the whole time, can I avoid paying tax altogether?"

The scene quickly turned into a policy briefing meeting.

The spies sent by the Council of the Dead were at a loss and could only report back truthfully in the end.

Anthony's grand display was all to catch another high-ranking member of the Council of the Dead. Jia Delige had been resurrected by them after death, making him unsuitable for transmitting messages — otherwise the Council of the Dead would know they had the ability to resurrect dead liches.

Nossaro's soul was stuffed back into its body. The moment it regained mobility, it tried to get up at once — but the next instant, it was frozen in place by Anthony's words.

"Do you know that the Star Burst Formation is accumulating energy, switched to soul-strike mode, preparing to bombard the Undead Sovereign? Are you still loyal to the Sovereign? Do you want to save the Undead Sovereign?"

Question after question struck Nossaro into helpless confusion.

"If you want to, we can cooperate — you save the Sovereign, we want the Star Burst Formation."