Chapter 520: He Seems to Think We're One of His Own

Ever since Seeing Ange poured two divine realms' worth of pure water into Water God Tom, Tom had been lying stiff in the void, only shifting his consciousness down when Seeing Ange summoned him.

Staying in the void long-term, he couldn't really keep playing dead forever, right? He had to work, so the task of breeding fell onto Tom's head.

Remember that planting orb? With silk cloth and adhesive in hand, Duroken had already replicated several and improved them, giving the internal workings a degree of automation and greatly reducing the workload.

For instance, the automatic seeding function the old planting orb lacked: pour the seeds in at the feed port, and they roll automatically into the slots. Just rotate the slot and seeding is done — very convenient.

Also automatic fertilizing, cyclic harvesting, precise temperature control, air circulation, and so on.

Under Seeing Ange's guidance, Duroken brought out his Alchemy King skills, refining a brand-new design to near-perfection. A planting orb like this needs only one or two people to keep producing fresh vegetables, enough for one to two hundred people a day.

The planting orb was originally developed for void cultivation. If the Warlock Alliance knew this equipment had been improved to the point of being worth promoting, they'd go crazy.

The Warlock Alliance's biggest problem is the lack of planting space, so their vegetables and grain cost the sky. Their staple food is a kind of rubbery strip-like thing — it fills the belly, but eat too much and you'll get inflamed. It's not a crop either, but some animal's meat, fat, skin, shell, and the like, processed by special methods.

So the Warlock Alliance is extremely short on vegetables. Grain keeps longer and can be bought from the surface, but vegetables can only be eaten as dried greens.

They seek every way to buy vegetables, even willing to price them in magic crystals. If they could grow vegetables in the void, they'd pay an enormous price.

Now, this improved planting orb sits atop the pillar of the Warlock Stairway, looking like an extra ball on an umbrella's top. Tom floats nearby, managing things now and then.

This highly automated planting orb doesn't need much attention. Tom's as idle as an old doorman — until Seeing Ange arrives, when he perks up at once: "Oh, my lord, what brings you here? Come to see the seedlings? They're growing really well."

Seeing Ange nodded and flew into the planting orb himself.

Lord Nai Ge took a deep breath, flew out of the Warlock Stairway as well, and quickly entered the planting orb.

A blob of pure water floating in the planting orb shifted shape a few times and condensed into Tom's form. The boss is here to inspect — better put on a good show, or that dragon-headed strategist will slander me and my lord will dock my pure water.

Lord Nai Ge didn't get a chance to slander, because the first thing that stunned him was a pumpkin bigger than himself: "This... this is a pumpkin?"

Then a winter melon taller than a person, a clump of fast-growing lettuce big enough to nest in... Looking around, nearly all the vegetables and fruits had grown beyond imagination, as if they'd taken a giant's potion.

"How... how are they this thick? This big? What did you do?" Lord Nai Ge asked in disbelief.

At the very beginning, when Seeing Ange said he wanted to breed in the void, he'd wondered — why breed in the void? What advantage does the void have? There's no water, no air.

Of course, now there's the planting orb and Water God Tom, so the air and water problems are solved. Otherwise they'd only be able to grow a small amount inside the Warlock Stairway, which wouldn't even be as fast as Seeing Ange forcing growth in his space.

Seeing Ange shook his head: "Didn't do anything."

With Seeing Ange's way of talking, getting details out of him would be a wonder. Even though Lord Nai Ge was a qualified translator, knowledge can't be guessed — he had to turn to Tom.

Tom spread his hands: "I didn't do anything either. Just followed my lord's instructions — planted the seeds, watered on time. Oh, and pinched off the ones that grew small or slow."

"That's it?" Lord Nai Ge couldn't believe it. Just from that, they bred these giant vegetables and fruits? He wasn't buying it.

Finding nothing more from Tom, Lord Nai Ge had to turn back to Seeing Ange to ask. He was determined — even if Seeing Ange spit out one word at a time, he'd get to the bottom of it today.

"No gravity, save energy, grow, mutate, giant, select the best, save seeds." Seeing Ange spat out the words one by one, struggling to explain.

If this were the Lord Nai Ge who had just met Seeing Ange, he probably wouldn't understand such a brief explanation. But his planting knowledge had been updated now — to put it bluntly, he was second only to Seeing Ange in planting knowledge, ranking fourth or fifth.

Second and third were the little sapling and the God of Life — those two couldn't be compared...

"You mean, there's no gravity in the void, so crops save energy growing — they don't need to grow things like lignin, mutations occur during growth, and then you pick the ones that get giant, grow fast, taste good, select the best and save the seeds?" Lord Nai Ge translated with effort.

Seeing Ange nodded repeatedly.

Alright, Lord Nai Ge got it. This was actually the most standard breeding method — appropriately change the growing environment, let the crops adapt to the new environment, pick the best seeds, optimize generation by generation. If mutations happen along the way, even better.

But what counts as "appropriate" change? Plants are delicate things — a degree or two lower in temperature and they won't sprout, three to five degrees higher and they'll die on you. Humidity, insufficient sunlight, and yields drop.

What environmental change won't negatively affect plants yet still requires them to readapt?

Gravity.

Gravity is everywhere, yet it's not necessary for crop growth. On the contrary, to resist it, crops need to invest a lot of nutrients to grow tall and sturdy. Void breeding neatly eliminates this factor.

Of course, those strange fluctuations in the void also induce mutations. Anyway, breeding in the void has a particularly high chance of producing weird varieties.

Mutations can go good or go bad — just cull the bad ones. After all, these are just vegetables and fruits: fast-growing, high-yielding, tasty and nutritious is enough.

Under Tom's careful tending, this patch of giant vegetables and fruits appeared in the planting orb.

"You can grow good vegetables even in the void? Is there anywhere you can't grow things?" Lord Nai Ge conceded.

Seeing Ange tilted his head, but before he could say anything, Lord Nai Ge hurriedly cut in:

"Alright, alright, I don't want to know where you can't grow things, I don't want to know. We're not here to grow vegetables right now."

Lord Nai Ge absolutely couldn't let this topic continue, or something unexpected would happen — that damned skeleton would be off to plant things somewhere else again.

Just then, an owl swooped onto the outside of the planting orb, flapping vigorously.

Lord Nai Ge opened the planting orb's door and let it in.

"Blood boiling, blood boiling! Did you hear it? Did you hear the dragon's call?" Silba asked excitedly.

Lord Nai Ge spread his hands: "In my current state, can my blood even boil?"

"So the dragons aren't all dead — there's still bloodline passed down. What a shame. They used blood resonance to teach me a dragon-language spell, told me to study it well and come pick me up later. Do you want to know what dragon-language spell it is?" Silba said excitedly.

Lord Nai Ge curled his lip: "Isn't it... ￥#……*￥（#*￥*……"

Silba was dumbfounded: "Didn't you say you can't do blood resonance? Why do you know this one too?"

Lord Nai Ge explained the situation with the golden arowana Dorok, then said: "Although I know this dragon-language spell, because of my body size, I can't chant the dragon language or cast it, so I don't know what it does."

Silba hurriedly said: "I know what it does. Come with me."

Seeing Ange and the others came out into the void. Lord Nai Ge held his breath even longer, his face flushed red and ears burning, until Seeing Ange couldn't stand it anymore and patted his head.

A transparent shield wrapped around Lord Nai Ge.

"Huh, Peace Guardian can be used like this too?" Lord Nai Ge's breathing instantly smoothed out, and he said in surprise.

Over on his side, Silba had already begun transforming. The tiny owl swelled rapidly, scales sprouting fast, claws and fangs, a long neck stretching out, a bloody maw opening, finally becoming a colossal beast — a black dragon fifty to sixty meters long.

True dragon language, through the dragon's abdominal resonance, turned into deep dragon speech and spread out. Note that this was the airless void — theoretically, no sound could be heard. But the breath the dragon exhaled became the medium for sound transmission.

After the dragon language, no visible change came over Silba, but his bloody maw was opening and closing normally. Then, a sound like resonance rang in Lord Nai Ge's ears:

"This is the effect — it lets us breathe and talk in the void. Can you hear what I'm saying?"

The magic the dragon race passed down through blood resonance was actually a spell that let one breathe and talk in the void?

Silba cast the spell again, but this time the target became Lord Nai Ge.

Nai Ge Li Si only felt his breathing ease, as if decades of rhinitis had suddenly cleared, his breath flowing freely and his mind refreshed.

"Why?" Nai Ge Li Si asked in disbelief: "No wonder Duoluo Ke couldn't make it work. This draconic magic was clearly created for survival in the void. Why would the dragons create a magic like this?"

"I don't know, maybe the dragon race moved into the void," Ma Xier Ba replied casually.

Nai Ge Li Si slapped his waist, excitedly saying: "Right, that's it. The dragon race moved into the void, or some plane without air, so they had to create a magic like this. Oh right, what's this magic called? Void Breathing Art?"

"No, with the dragon race's such a smug personality, of course it's called Dragon Race Breathing Art," Ma Xier Ba said.

"Ugh, how can you talk about yourself like that? You're also a dragon, though you are quite smug," Nai Ge Li Si retorted.

Ma Xier Ba shrugged indifferently — the most smug one calling others smug, those words had no sting at all. Taking advantage of the momentum, it pointed again toward a certain direction in the void: "I sense it, the dragon race should be in that direction…"

At this point, Ma Xier Ba suddenly stopped, frowning and showing a slightly pained expression.

After a good while, Ma Xier Ba recovered, frowning as he said: "It's blood resonance again. The dragon race is summoning all giant dragons, saying they need to guard the Dragon Pearl."

"Dragon Pearl? What thing is that? Never heard of it," Nai Ge Li Si said in surprise.

As the God of Knowledge, and also a senior of the dragon race, there was almost nothing among the giant dragons that Nai Ge Li Si didn't know, yet now a 'Dragon Pearl' had suddenly popped out of nowhere? And summoning all giant dragons to guard it?

What thing is that, could it be some new thing the giant dragons created in this plane?

Ma Xier Ba shook his head: "I don't know either."

Seeing Ange, who had been reaching out planting things, finally raised his head, pointed at Nai Ge Li Si's eyes and said: "Dragon God's, eyes."

Nai Ge Li Si sharply inhaled… then realized he couldn't draw breath…

The Dragon God's eyes? Kuabada, the dragon race here actually has the Dragon God's eyes in their possession? What does this represent? This represents that the Dragon God's body might also be in this world.

No no no, absolutely cannot let the Dragon God's eyes be snatched by others. Nai Ge Li Si hurriedly turned his head to look at Seeing Ange.

Seeing Ange understood its meaning and nodded.

"Go go go, gather everyone, board the Sky Ladder, we're going to guard the Dragon God's eyes. You can receive blood resonance, so the distance shouldn't be very far," Nai Ge Li Si said rapidly.

"Rebirth: The Great Era of Riding the Waves"

"Huh? What if it's very far? The dragon race's business, what does it have to do with us?" Ma Xier Ba was somewhat reluctant. Having been an undead creature for too long, he actually no longer felt he was part of the dragon race.

Nai Ge Li Si said: "Seeing Ange is the Dragon God, hurry."

Ma Xier Ba extended a claw to scratch his own skull, his face blank.

Everyone was quickly gathered. The two Sorcerer Sky Ladders separated — the one with the ring was called Number One, continuing to stay in the void.

The one without the ring, with only a main pillar remaining, was called Sky Ladder Number Two, piloted by people of the Du Lai Te family, flying toward the direction Ma Xier Ni indicated.

The Du Lai Te family has now been completely transformed. This family, almost entirely formed by disabled people banding together, under Du Luo Ken's guidance, saw their alchemy level advance by leaps and bounds — not only able to craft very practical prosthetic limbs, but also able to operate the precise Sorcerer Sky Ladder.

Du Luo Ken being able to repair Sky Ladder Number Two and drive it off within a single night is inseparable from the Du Lai Te family's assistance. Now, they have in fact become Du Luo Ken's vassal force, wholeheartedly serving Du Luo Ken with all their might.

Following the direction Ma Xier Ba indicated, the Sorcerer Sky Ladder traveled for two or three hours, and in the distance saw a giant 'landmass' floating in the void.

On the 'landmass,' several dozen giant dragons flew about, spewing dragon breath, attacking those airships that looked like flies, occasionally shooting down a few.

But the number of airships was too great, with all kinds of weapons fired wildly, occasionally hitting the giant dragons as well, blasting them crashing down toward the landmass.

The battle between both sides was white-hot, but outside the plane, there was still a Sorcerer Sky Ladder hovering. In front of the Sky Ladder, a shadowy figure was shrouded in black qi, wearing a high-collared cloak on his body, the collar standing tall.

Possibly sensing the arrival of the Sorcerer Sky Ladder, the cloaked shadow turned his head to glance, and upon seeing it was a Sorcerer Sky Ladder, no longer on guard, turned back.

Andong Ni said: "It's the Twelve Joint Seats of the Sorcerer Alliance, Void Ghost Hai Deng. He seems to have taken us for one of his own."

PS: Surgery is done, a bit weak, don't dare eat too much, listless and drained.

------ Tangent ------

Thanks to Han Jia Xiao Zhu Xiang Lian Ai, Bai Tian Xiang Wang Hei Ye, Hei Wo Niu boss, Li Fu Zhou, Shu You, Lu Wei Shang De Qing Ting, Shou Chan Bu Qing 308, Gu Yue Qing Zhu, hallliana, zlh, Shuo De Bi Chang De Hao Ting, Shen·Ma, Fu Feng Yu Hun, Shu You, Shu You, for their tips.