Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

Kebos was once a commoner in Ice City, destitute and cold, unable to afford a coffin for his parents, until Lord Ange’s arrival.

Lord Ange brought food and the World Tree, not only providing them warmth and satiation, but occasional beetroots to enjoy. When they were sick, someone would heal them, when they died, someone would bury them. Even coffins were available for their deceased parents, rumored to be imported from the human world made of jujube wood.

No longer needing to wander across barren lands in search of their ancestor’s remains, this was a prosperous era they could have never imagined. Henceforth, Kebos became a devout follower of Ange, and after various tests, he eventually became a priest of the Undead Temple.

All the robed men and women here were priests of the Undead Temple, reporting directly to Lady Lisa, but their immediate superior was High Priest Ork.

Now that Lady Lisa’s not around, he can only resort to reporting to High Priest Ork.

Kebos found the young boy who was dutifully sweeping the cave floor and respectfully said, “High Priest Ork, we treated thirty refugees today, most of whom were saved, but a few of them have stubborn diseases that our abilities cannot handle. We need your personal assistance.”

Ork scratched his head: “Alright.”

Kebos continued to report, “Among these people we’ve treated, most are poor civilians, but two or three of them were brought here due to old injuries flaring up. Looking at their wounds, they are predominately caused by blades and swords. After treating and interrogating them, it turns out they are spies from the Wusu Kingdom hiding in the refugee group. I interrogated them and here are their recorded confessions, cross-checked and with inconsistencies highlighted.”

As he said this, he tried to hand the documents to Ork.

Ork shook his head, “I can’t read it, give it to Lady Lisa.”

Kebos expected this reaction, as High Priest Ork was notoriously uninvolved, much like their Master God, Ange.

After briefing him on daily routine matters, which Ork listened to and then ignored, Kebos followed him to the treatment area.

Nearby caves have been modified into a settlement area, a treatment area, and an emergency aid area.

Patients not in need of emergency aid would stay temporarily in the treatment area until healed, then they’d be moved to the settlement area.

With Ork’s arrival, several patients suffering from chronic diseases were healed one by one and were then transferred out.

In the end, there was only one spy left.

“This is one of the three spies we found. We’ve treated the other two, but this fellow has a hard mass near his heart. No matter how we attempt to heal it, the mass does not shrink. It is already pressing on his blood vessels. If not treated, he will die soon,” explained Kebos.

Ork leaned forward to apply the Holy Light at the position of the spy’s heart.

The spy smirked mockingly, “When did you servants of Light become so merciful? What’s the difference to you whether or not I’m healed? Years ago, I was kneeling in front of your temple cradling my daughter. But because I couldn’t come up with twenty gold coins, you chased us into the alley. My daughter slowly perished in my arms. What kind of ‘kindness’ are you pretending to show today?”

Ork was taken aback for a moment, shaking his head and honestly replied, “That’s not our problem, we…”

He was trying to say they weren’t the Church of Light, but he got kicked by Kebos who interrupted, “You’ve misunderstood. We’re not trying to save you—it’s just that our Lord hasn’t returned yet and we didn’t want you to die prematurely.”

“Sure enough, Light’s servants are always so heartless. You’ve been feeding off the common people for so long, you’ve forgotten mercy and kindness. When you say that I’m a spy, it’s not accurate. I’m not like the other two. I have another title—Death Soldier, and my death is my destiny!”

As he said this, the spy (Death Soldier) clenched his chest as if crushing something. His body tensed, veins popping and eyes wide open with rage.

Kebos was startled, “That’s not a growth, it’s an implanted object. God, I checked before, and there was no sign of anything foreign. This must have been planted near his heart when he was young. As he grew, it merged with his heart, thus it wasn’t detected. This is a Death Soldier raised right from childhood.”

“You guessed it.” The Death Soldier’s figure enlarged as though he were a raging beast, throwing a powerful punch at Ork’s head.

Despite being unarmed, the sheer force and speed of that punch could burst a man’s head instantly.

Ork looked like a frail boy confronting the brute force of a feral beast, yet his face displayed no panic as he took a step forward.

Instantly behind him, a black hole ripped open, and a golden skeletal hand emerged, catching the punch that the Death Soldier had thrown.

Another skeletal hand reached out from the black hole. Perhaps annoyed by Oke’s blocking its path, the hand forcefully pushed him aside, and then a golden skull crawled out from the hole.

The Death Soldiers were stunned. They were supposed to kill the servants of Light. Why had a skeleton appeared?

Without giving them any time for thought, the Bone Priest thrust his hand directly into a soldier’s chest, pulling out a hard object which was a crystal ball about the size of a horse’s eye.

At this moment, the crystal ball was shattered, with a liquid flowing out from inside. It was believed to be a potion that enhanced the potential of the Death Soldiers and induced their berserk transformation.

The hard object was located directly above his heart. As the object was pulled out, his heart was damaged. The Death Soldier wanted to struggle on the brink of death, but couldn’t move, dying with a face full of confusion.

I was clearly about to kill the servants of Light, so why did a skeleton appear?

With the death of a Death Soldier, the scene calmed down. Only then did Oke and Kebos notice that the Bone Priest looked rather messy, with his body covered in hardened lumps of bird droppings.

Oke scraped at the priest’s bones and asked with confusion, “What happened?”

The Bone Priest’s empty eye sockets moved over to Oke. He remained silent for several seconds before speaking slowly, “You should have… summoned me… earlier.”

Apparently, since the Bone Priest killed the Insect God, Hermel, he had been left in that cave all along.”

Oke slightly tilted his head, “You said it doesn’t matter where you are.”

The Bone Priest replied with a somewhat dejected tone, “Couldn’t clean up.”

The cave where Hermel had stayed was high and spacious, filled with rubbish. Without the Insect God, bats would occasionally fly in and defecate mid-air.

In the beginning, the Bone Priest would use ‘Soul Impact’ to kill these bats.

However, their bodies would then fall and become an even bigger pile of rubbish. After sweeping them to one side, they would rot and breed bugs that would crawl all over the place.

No matter how he swept, the Bone Priest couldn’t clean the cave completely, which greatly troubled him and even made him lose his hair.

“Oh, do you want to go back?” Oke asked.

“Yes.”

Oke opened the summoning channel again. The Bone Priest stepped into it and reappeared in the familiar Undead Temple.

A plump Minotaur auntie was watering the sacred mushrooms there. She seemed happy to see the Bone Priest, “Good day, Sir Bones. Long time no see. How have you been?”

After greeting him, the Minotaur auntie left, carrying her bucket. After all, the Bone Priest wouldn’t respond. Instead, she had to be careful not to let the sacred mushrooms grow into the precincts of the temple, or he would chase them away with his broom.

Not long after she walked away, she heard the sound of sweeping coming from the temple again.

…

The priests of the Undead Temple had arrived outside the refugee camp early, and Grand Duke Luosha’s troops were also well-prepared, just waiting for the Wusu Kingdom’s army to walk into the trap.

The whole plan was made by Anthony, the acting Pope of the Holy Church. Misha even had the chance to meet this legendary figure in person.

One day, Misha, along with some high-ranking individuals from the kingdom, brought the designed plan to Ange and Lisa. There, they found a mysterious man draped in a cloak.

The mysterious man lifted his hood, introducing himself, “I’m Anthony. Nice to meet you. I’ve looked at your plan, and to be honest… it’s too cruel.”

“I would like to ask you one question. Do you plan to block the people of Wusu at the border, watch their lands being annexed by nobles, turn civilians into refugees, and allow an endless stream of them to eat and drink at your expense, or die within your territory?”