Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

Chapter 807: Chapter 456: Should the Church of Light Be Taken Over?
 

The Breath of Death Mist has little destructive power, but it is the prelude to many horrifying magics.

Mournful wails—echoed through the mist, as Countess Rebinya remembered the experiences taught by her elders. She stayed completely still, even slowing her breathing as much as possible. As a Great Swordsman, she could even hold her breath for over ten minutes.

Giant wraiths began to loom vaguely in the mist, their movements sounding like the cries of infants, sending chills down one’s spine.

A wraith circled around her, drifting by her side.

Rebinya remained motionless, her eyes wide open, but resolutely avoiding eye contact with the wraith.

The wraith abandoned her, wailing as it drifted away.

A larger shadow appeared in the mist, slowly floating towards her with a huge scythe in hand, moving as if it were the Grim Reaper itself.

An even larger, indistinct shadow loomed, visible only as a towering figure like a city wall, drifting overhead. Rebinya’s spine turned cold, a strong fear of gigantic things welling up inside her, dreading the thought of the towering entity lowering its head.

After enduring for several minutes, the Breath of Death Mist finally dispersed, and Rebinya let out a long sigh, feeling as though her entire body was drenched.

Many on the city walls fared worse than her, collapsing to the ground, their proud and pompous demeanor gone—now they looked as if they’d been ravaged, with ash-pale faces drenched in sweat.

Just the presence of a simple Breath of Death Mist had frightened everyone to this state. If the Undead Temple decided to act, the people in the city wouldn’t even be able to muster the thought of resistance.

So, they were really from the Undead Temple—and high-ranking priests at that, or even… the Great Priest?

With this thought, Rebinya dropped the rope and was ready to descend from the city walls.

“Earl, Countess Rebinya, please wait a moment.” The chairman of the Commerce Guild, a somewhat sleazy-looking human elder, hurried over and ingratiatingly said,

“My lord, our guild has suddenly received a batch of low-priced new grain. Just the other day, weren’t you looking to purchase grain? Fortunately, we can transfer this batch to you at the original price. I will immediately arrange for the shipment to your residence, please accept it graciously, Earl.”

Rebinya paused, confused. Not just the day before yesterday, but recently she’d been trying to buy grain from the Commerce Guild every single day, only to be brushed off with one pretext after another by this elder’s subordinates.

She couldn’t even buy much of the old grain, forcing her to distribute a portion from her own reserves for disaster relief. With all outflow and no inflow, it left her on edge as well.

Though she sympathized with the disaster victims outside the city, she couldn’t give away all the grain from her own territory, causing her own people to starve, could she?

Previously, they’d baffled her with every excuse not to sell grain, and now they suddenly offered her new grain at the original price? Newly arrived? Who are they kidding?

Moreover, he had never addressed her as ‘my lord’ before. He would either call her by her name or cheekily add a ‘lady’ before the title of ‘countess,’ as if a ‘lady countess’ was somehow not a true countess.

If he weren’t older, she’d definitely give him a piece of her mind, Rebinya muttered fiercely under her breath.

Forsaking grain would be foolish, so Rebinya promptly said, “Then I’m very grateful to the chairman. I will arrange for the payment immediately.”

“No rush, no rush. Who would doubt the Earl’s credibility? You even have connections with the Undead Temple. I’d like to ask the Earl to put in a good word for us in front of the esteemed priests of the temple,” the elder said obsequiously.

So that was it. Her interactions with Ange and the others had been seen by those with discerning eyes, and now they were promptly seeking her out to form connections.

Furthermore, it was grain he offered—during such times, grain was a strategic resource. Even with money, it would be difficult to acquire, let alone at the original price. The elder was certainly paying a heavy price.

Rebinya immediately said, “No problem, but I can’t guarantee how the priests will react. They were quite upset before, as they spent most of the day providing relief outside the city, and not a single person from within the city came to show sympathy.”

Not just the elder, but also captains of Mercenary Corps, heads of various Commerce Guilds, and chairmen of guilds who had crowded around, all began to look pale.

One of them, thinking quickly on his feet, said, “It’s a misunderstanding! It was that demon Tug who stopped us. Otherwise, we would have already gone to pay our respects to the esteemed priests of the temple. Please, Countess Rebinya, speak for us. We have long been ready with various relief supplies to send out of the city.”

“Yes, yes, it was all the demon Tug’s doing. It was him.” After all, Tug was already dead and wouldn’t be rising to argue.

“That’s good to hear. I will pass on everyone’s sentiments,” Countess Rebinya said before leaping down from the city walls, secretly pleased with herself, thinking that the temple’s esteemed priests would surely appreciate this gift.

…

Negris and the others were gathered around Ange, quite frightened by the massive figure themselves.

“What was that thing? Did you summon it?” Negris asked.

“It seemed… like Your Majesty,” Durken said.

Essentially, the Undead King was in the form of that Black Crystal Skeleton, but not quite like that, especially to the Undead, who observe the world through their souls, which is divided into active and passive.

The soul emits fluctuations, which reflect off objects and are perceived by the soul upon return. That is active perception.

An individual with soul fluctuations sends out these vibrations to be perceived. That is passive perception.

His Majesty’s soul fluctuations were truly terrifying. To the majority of the Undead, it appeared as a colossal black shadow, filled with oppressive might. As long as it existed, all other soul fluctuations would be overshadowed by it, leaving only its presence in one’s perception, akin to how the sun outshines all stars.