Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton
Chapter 1265 - Chapter 1265 Chapter 828 I... I Guessed Randomly

Chapter 1265: Chapter 828: I… I Guessed Randomly Chapter 1265: Chapter 828: I… I Guessed Randomly Seeing the pitiful look of the Flesh Giant, everyone reluctantly agreed to let the War Tree People, Tree Herders, and Petrified Tree People go out to dig, with Ange leading the way down.

“The black stone is revealed after digging? How big are we talking?” The Tree Herder was a bit confused. Wasn’t it just going in to bask in the Ancient Godlight? Why did it have to do so much work?

“As big as the black stone is, that’s how big you dig,” Negris said.

“Then I’ll have to dig up the entire forest, as it’s all lying on top of the Ancient Black Stone. Didn’t I tell you that before?” The Tree Herder said.

“How is that possible? A forest-sized black stone, really?” Negris said, shocked.

The Tree Herder had mentioned before that the whole forest was growing on the Ancient Black Stone, but everyone thought it was a bit of an exaggeration because, mechanically speaking, a meteorite with a diameter of just tens of kilometers could destroy all life on a plane.

The forest had a diameter of a few thousand kilometers. A black stone of such a vast area, if it were to crash into the plane, would surely obliterate it.

The Tree Herder spread its hands: “It’s that big. When it first smashed down, it might have been only tens of kilometers, but then it kept growing and expanding to its current size. By my estimation, it occupies at least one-quarter of the plane’s volume. In the hundreds of years that it expanded, the entire plane was undergoing severe changes; mountains and oceans were formed during that period.”

The rest of the words had already lost their meaning, as everyone was confused by the ‘expansion.’ A black stone of tens of kilometers expanding to occupy one-quarter of a plane’s volume? Was this still a stone?

Obviously, it wasn’t a stone, and everyone became even more interested in it, urging the Tree Herder to dig as much as possible.

“Are you crazy? I just came here to soak up some Ancient Godlight, and you’re making me do all this? I also have to herd the flowers, grasses, and trees to another location. Do you know how much work that is? You have good intention… Alright, no problem, I’ve got this,” said the Tree Herder, changing its tune upon seeing the three barrels of Insect Ash Liquid that had been placed in front of it.

It had gotten a taste of the Insect Ash Liquid from the Stone Giants previously and knew very well the miraculous effects of this liquid; combined with a bath in Ancient Godlight, it could rejuvenate, making withered wood burst into spring vigor and old trees sprout new life.

After Ange and the rest left, the Tree Herder happily stuck its roots into the large barrel, slurping with gusto, but soon felt two shadows overtake it. Looking up, it saw the War Tree People and Petrified Giants. A gentle breeze rustled through their treetops, making a rustling sound that conveyed a certain message.

With a pang, the Tree Herder divided the Insect Ash Liquid into three parts, one for each tree.

After ‘receiving payment,’ the Tree People immediately became more energetic, vigorously shaking their heads, the leaves on top rustling in response.

However, after a few shakes, the War Tree Man’s leaves quickly fell off, turning into a bald Tree Person. The War Tree Man looked at its fallen leaves with a puzzled air, thinking: It isn’t autumn, is it? Why are the leaves falling?

…

Ange’s group reached the bottom of the Sky Pit and saw a… an octopus egg?

“Are you blind? That’s my beard, not octopus legs, you damn lizard!” bellowed the Flesh Giant, furious.

Negris cursed back, “What’s the difference? Octopus legs on a chin are still octopus legs, right? Not just an octopus egg, but a stuck octopus egg.”

The octopus egg fumed back, “Those are tentacles, tentacles, tentacles! Not octopus legs, you damn lizard, may tentacles grow on your ass.”

Ange’s expression flickered, but he ultimately did not react.

Suddenly, a wisp of smoke appeared on Negris, and from within the octopus egg came an anguished cry: “Ah! My ass! A curse rebound? Why?”

“Why? Of course, because I’m more ‘spirited’ than you, hehe, an ass with tentacles, and you say you’re not an octopus,” Negris snickered back.

Just as the octopus egg was about to explode in rage, Anthony timely intervened to stop this verbal sparring, quite adept at taking sides.

“Ange, what’s your situation? Why did you turn into this?” Anthony asked.

“What else could it be? When I was still an egg, one day, a black stone suddenly fell from the sky and nearly shattered me; the yolk was scattered. Once the yolk broke, hatching was out of the question. All I could do was reshape and, in the process of reshaping, I became what I am now,” the octopus egg replied miserably.

“And what about those humans whose consciousness you contaminated? How did you do that?” Anthony inquired.

“That’s just it, my original form is Nightmare Shay, and consciousness pollution is my innate talent,” the octopus egg said.

“Heh, if I hadn’t known Nightmare Shay, I really would have been fooled by you. Let’s go; let’s bury this pit,” Anthony pretended to leave.

The octopus egg suddenly panicked, “Don’t, don’t, I’ll tell you! The pollution comes from these black stones; I just utilize the black stones to enact consciousness pollution.”

“What do you mean?” Anthony pressed on.

After an in-depth interrogation, everyone finally understood the origin of this octopus egg. Just as it said, it was originally an egg of Shay, and like Shay, it was a long, filamentous entity.

But the skyfall of black stones destroyed almost all life in this plane and, at the same time, stirred endless fear within the plane in a short period.

As an Ancient God that fed on fear, Shay, and its egg, were no exception. A vast amount of fear transformed into energy for it, allowing it to survive the grand calamity of the plane… though it couldn’t really be called survival, considering that while the yolk was shattered, the shell wasn’t.

Shay’s robust life force allowed it to slowly rebuild amidst chaotic conditions, only this time what resurrected wasn’t Shay, but a strange creature with tentacles growing from its chin.

This odd creature didn’t even have a name but possessed powerful spiritual power that could project consciousness far and wide.

Because the egg was pressed underground by black stones and after a long time, its shell had petrified. Although the creature inside had taken shape, it was unable to break free from the eggshell and could only use its spiritual power to control some creatures.

However, spiritual control had to be continuous; once the spirit was not on the target, they could easily break free, so the number of targets it could control was very limited and insufficient to meet the octopus egg’s requirements.

The ultimate goal of the octopus egg was to control a group of creatures to enter the forest, dig it out from underground, then chisel open the shell and release it.

The scarcity of creatures it could control was insufficient to achieve this goal, and it didn’t have a better method. Previously, it had tried, through spiritual projection, to play god and establish a cult.

But within the powerful plane of the Temple of Doomsday, the cult it created could only survive if it remained small; any growth brought suppression.

Until a fortunate discovery, the octopus egg found that the black stones pressing on it could carry its own consciousness, and these black stones could then attach to other creatures to achieve a form of control.

The octopus egg couldn’t clearly explain the mechanism, but it felt like the creatures attached to by the black stone would have their bodies and consciousness separated. Originally, there was consciousness in their bodies, but as soon as it intervened, it immediately overtook the existing consciousness, turning the body into a part of itself.

Hearing this, Ange swiftly rummaged through his pockets, pulling out all the black stones he had quietly stashed away, then proceeded to disperse, purify, remove, and protect, ensuring even the powder that fell on him was cleaned off.

The others caught on and quickly emptied their pockets as well, realizing each of them had secretly kept quite a number of black stones.

“No need, no need. Only black stones that my consciousness has attached to can pollute other creatures. I’ve never attached to these stones,” the octopus egg hastily clarified.

Anthony scoffed, “You haven’t attached consciousness, but how do you know others haven’t attached their consciousness to them? You think you control others, but how do you know you’re not the one being controlled? You have the most black stone residue on you.”

“You…” the octopus egg let out a surprised squeak but abruptly stopped, then a new voice emanated from within the egg, “How did you know?”

Now it was Anthony’s turn to be stunned, “I… I guessed wildly. Is there really someone? Are you… Void Will?”