Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton
Chapter 1481 - 1042: So You Can Choose, Why Didn’t You Say So Earlier?

Chapter 1481: Chapter 1042: So You Can Choose, Why Didn’t You Say So Earlier?

Anthony was ’summoned’ over, thrusting his wand into the ground before him. It radiated a sacred light like a streetlamp, illuminating the entire room as if it were broad daylight.

The spiritual bodies outside dared not enter. Peeking nervously indoors, they recoiled in agony when touched by the light, shrieking and wailing as they retreated. The others behind them would then step up, repeating the same process.

If they were physical entities, they might be forced inward by the press of those behind them. But being spiritual bodies, they quickly withdrew upon exposure to the light, unimpeded by their companions.

Anthony asked suspiciously, "Why are there so many spiritual bodies? Did many people perish here?"

Negris replied, "Perhaps. Outside is a broken plane. Look at this house—its elements are so intact. It might well have been a Prime Material Plane. If it exploded without migration, then yes, a lot of people would have died."

Anthony’s expression dimmed uncontrollably. A Prime Material Plane typically had tens to hundreds of millions of inhabitants. If a plane shattered in such a catastrophe, resulting in complete extinction, the scale of spiritual bodies here would certainly indicate a high death toll.

"What happened here? Why did the plane break?" Anthony asked.

Negris shrugged, "I don’t know either. We just arrived. Those Transparent Dragons tossed us here and took off on their own."

Ange suddenly shook the puppet in his hand. Only then did Negris register, "Oh, you mean ask it."

"It’s still alive? Oh, a God Forbidden Puppet?" Anthony exclaimed in surprise.

"You call it God Forbidden Puppet? This kind of thing is very rare. You guys even gave it a name?" Negris remarked in astonishment.

Anthony nodded and replied, "You don’t necessarily have to see something to name it—even nonexistent things can have names. Otherwise, how could they write knight novels about things that don’t exist? If woodcraft can seal souls inside, then sealing a Divine Soul becomes God Forbidden Craft, doesn’t it?"

"Makes sense." Negris nodded. "Some knight novel authors have never seen moving bones their whole lives, yet they still managed to conceive skeletons as creatures. The imagination of humans is their greatest strength. So, who sealed a Divine Soul into this puppet?"

Rolling up his sleeves, Anthony declared sharply, "Let me see. Its Divine Soul is within the mask on its face, so this teddy bear is just an attachment. I may as well rip its limbs off!"

It was evident from Anthony’s tone that he was merely trying to intimidate, but the God Forbidden Puppet remained unmoved.

Ange lifted it up for inspection, then stated, "It’s asleep."

"Asleep? How is that possible? Is it a pighead?" Negris exclaimed in shock.

"It’s not surprising. Probably like Silba the Owl: its body can’t endure the intensity of the soul, so it requires prolonged slumber to recover," Anthony explained.

"But it’s a puppet." Negris countered.

"True, it’s not a living being. So let’s consult Durken."

Durken was also ’summoned’ over, though this summoning wasn’t a true invocation. Ange simply conjured a teleportation point and called out through their soul, summoning Durken over—Anthony had arrived via the same method.

Durken carefully inspected the puppet up close. "This mask is an exceptionally intricate alchemical item capable of converting Dark Elements. That’s what allows it to function. However, the conversion efficiency is too low—it runs out of energy after brief activity. Although simple mobility should be sustained, did you guys beat it up earlier?"

"What do you mean us beating it up? It refused to cooperate and struggled instead, wearing itself out," Negris retorted.

"Ah, I see. So it got exhausted from disobedience. Somehow that explanation feels odd," Durken muttered. Suddenly the puppet’s leg kicked up, landing squarely on Durken’s jaw.

Snap—its leg broke.

After a moment of hesitation, the puppet drew back its leg, reached out to touch around, and confirmed its leg was indeed broken. Then, it burst into tears, sobbing loudly.

Durken, now inhabiting the shell of a Mourning Undead Soldier, was simply impervious to an attack from a God Forbidden Puppet.

Ange, irritated by its cries, tossed it into the midst of the group.

Freed from restraint, the puppet stopped crying. It lifted its head, cautiously scanning left and right. First, it glanced at Ange but quickly withdrew its gaze in fear. Then, it eyed Anthony, but the wand illuminating the entire room made it tremble. Next, it looked at Durken, but seeing its broken leg, it instinctively bent it further.

Finally, it turned to Negris, who seemed relatively less intimidating. It gave him a sly side-eye, its entire eye socket going pitch-black.

"Hey, this little rascal! Quick, rip its head off!" Negris shouted in anger.

Durken reached out and detached its head, tossing its plush body aside. The mask on its head was the true core of the God Forbidden Puppet; the rest was merely supplementary.

Under the commotion, the puppet finally spoke up: "Who are you people? Stop messing with me!"

"Oh, you can talk? If you can talk, why didn’t you do so properly earlier? Why scare us?" Anthony replied with deliberate ease.

"I... You... I’m blind." The puppet lamented.

Indeed, it had been blind. Why provoke them unreasonably? Initially, it had been chasing down those Transparent Dragons. But it overstepped and got involved, inviting these individuals inside.

When Ange grabbed it, it nearly lost its soul to fright.

Soon after, more trouble arrived—a man with a wand illuminating the room to ward off spiritual bodies, and another man whose jaw was so sturdy that kicking it caused the puppet’s leg to break. It couldn’t afford to provoke any of them.

For centuries, hardly anyone passed by here. Encountering a rare group, the puppet had thought to mess around a little for entertainment, only to find itself overwhelmingly outmatched. Blaming its blindness seemed the only plausible explanation.

"Alright, then we’ll call you Blind Puppet. Why are you here? What’s your Divine Soul? How did this plane break? Why are there so many spiritual bodies here? Are there other creatures in this place?..." Anthony fired off a string of inquiries.

The God Forbidden Puppet stared blankly for a moment before responding, "I’m not Blind Puppet; I am the God of Darkness."

"Pfft—You? The God of Darkness?" Negris burst into laughter. A God Forbidden Puppet claiming to be the God of Darkness—what an audacious boast! Although its mask could convert Dark Elements, its claim to divinity was a stretch at best.

It thought it had found someone it could handle, and suddenly the puppet glared fiercely at Negris.

Negris merely squinted briefly before calmly opening his eyes again. Despite appearing relatively weak, Negris’s true identity was the Bronze Book; mental tricks like these were laughable against him.

Realizing even Negris was out of reach, the puppet sank into depression, shut its eyes, and muttered, "Just kill me. I’ll leave it to you guys."

Trapped here for hundreds of years, it had finally encountered what it thought was amusement, only to discover it wasn’t their amusement—it was theirs. Now, it didn’t want to live anymore.

"Dying isn’t so easy. Look here—Soul Purgatory can make your soul burn ceaselessly," Anthony said while conjuring a flame of Fire of Purgatory:

"Aside from Soul Purgatory, we’ve got other treasures, like abundant Dark Elements, crystallized puppet bodies, blank God Statuses. If you want us to cast you into Soul Purgatory, subjecting you to eternal soul-burning, pick option one. If..."

"Two! Two! I pick two. Why didn’t you say there was a choice earlier?"