Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton
Chapter 1587 - 1148: Might as Well Give Demon Crystals

Chapter 1587: Chapter 1148: Might as Well Give Demon Crystals

"Still... still need to pay?" The Great Speaker was incredulous. With their level of camaraderie, they still wanted money?

"Great Speaker, you must be joking. This entire rescue mission is urgent and perilous, with especially high difficulty. We’re investing such vast resources—if we don’t charge, wouldn’t we be at a loss? Surely, you wouldn’t want us to save your people at a deficit?" Silver Coin said discontentedly.

The Great Speaker felt a headache building in his non-existent brain. Had he known, he wouldn’t have returned so quickly. The Great Speaker had plenty of other things, but making money was definitely not his forte.

From his prior experience with the Light Disaster, he knew that when these people charged money, it felt like having his bones scraped. It was definitely not the kind of thing that could be settled with a small amount. Realizing this, the Great Speaker stiffened his resolve and tried to invoke their relationship: "With the friendship we have, charging money seems inappropriate. Don’t you regard me as a friend?"

Silver Coin firmly rubbed his hands together and said seriously, "It’s precisely because we consider you a friend, Great Speaker, that we must charge you. Otherwise, money would taint the purity of our friendship. Let me do the math for you."

"How many magic crystals does it cost to teleport one person across planes?" Silver Coin asked.

The Great Speaker had a vague idea of the price. "Five magic crystals?"

Silver Coin nodded, "Correct. For same-plane teleportation, it’s only half a magic crystal per person. But cross-plane teleportation, the cost multiplies tenfold. The teleportation array alone consumes three magic crystals; with additional losses, five magic crystals means four of them are just costs. And how many people did we rescue?"

"Four... forty thousand?" Table Mountain and the nearby settlements had over forty thousand people in total. Now that he could barely see any left, he figured they had all been teleported. Forty thousand multiplied by five... two million?

The Great Speaker suddenly felt his bones stiffen. He hurriedly protested, "But you didn’t even use teleportation arrays!"

Silver Coin slapped his hands together. "Exactly, which makes it even more expensive. Look, the Tree of Life opened a Space Passage to transfer over forty thousand people to safety in such a short time. But this consumed the Tree of Life’s life force. Life force! Can you measure that in money? What if the Lord of Life’s lifespan was reduced because of this?"

The Great Speaker felt dizzy upon hearing this. He was well aware of the Lord of Life’s status. Depleting the Lord of Life’s lifespan wasn’t something money could compensate for. If only he hadn’t spoken up, charging by teleportation arrays would’ve been better.

The Great Speaker sensibly clamped his mouth shut. Seeing this, Silver Coin knew he had conceded and could freely elaborate.

But Silver Coin, being a man of principle, was a trustworthy businessman. He had to ensure the client spent their money willingly and with a clear understanding. So, he continued, "The Lord of Life is on good terms with you, so we won’t count that depletion. Only the cost—one million six hundred thousand magic crystals. Next, do you know how much value our lord can generate in one hour?"

Silver Coin made a gesture. "Six million. Our lord can produce at least six million magic crystals of value per hour. Great Speaker, if we hired you to kill the Mourning Bone Dragon, would six million per hour be worth it to you?"

The Great Speaker’s mind raced. He wanted to say it wasn’t worth it. He had never considered how much he might cost to hire. If it were six million magic crystals per hour, it didn’t seem entirely unreasonable.

But on second thought, if he were truly hired for several hours, he could accomplish a lot. What if they asked him to rob one of the six major factions’ treasuries? Or hunt several Giant Dragons?

He could easily earn six million that way, so he couldn’t say it wasn’t worth it. What if this goblin threw six million at him on the spot to hire him?

After weighing his thoughts, the Great Speaker had no choice but to force a smile.

Silver Coin carried on. "We rescued you because of our bond, so we won’t count those expenses either. Otherwise, even with a few more million, you wouldn’t be able to hire our lord, now would you?"

"Right, right." The Great Speaker could only nod frantically, not knowing what else to say. This goblin’s mixture of push and pull made the Great Speaker feel like he was riding a Super Speed Snail.

"However, our lord and the old lord incurred significant losses in taking down the Mourning Bone Dragon. Our old lord directly lost a Chaos Scythe, which was condensed from Chaos Mist. Such a loss cannot be borne by us alone, right?" Silver Coin suddenly changed his tone.

The Great Speaker immediately felt his bones ache. Chaos Mist? They might as well just charge magic crystals directly.

"Look, we suffered tremendous losses to rescue your people, causing irreversible depletion and utilizing massive resources."

"If you don’t pay the costs, next time something like this happens, we might not be able to rescue you due to lack of funds. After all, our old lord no longer has a second Chaos Scythe." Silver Coin spread his hands in conclusion.

It was logical and heartfelt, making the Great Speaker feel that not paying was indeed unreasonable. But he simply had no money.

Normally, he didn’t save up magic crystals. The Light Disaster last time had already emptied his savings. The only thing he still had was some Chaos Mist.

But he didn’t have much Chaos Mist either. Even if he handed over everything, it still might not be enough. And he needed it as well, so perhaps...

The Great Speaker spread his hands. "I have no money, nor do I have Chaos Mist. But I do know of a place where there’s plenty of Chaos Mist, though I don’t know its exact location."

Silver Coin froze. "What do you mean?"

Anthony leaned in excitedly. "What do you mean?"

Could there be an unexpected windfall? Could they fulfill His Majesty’s needs as well?

Anthony had initially planned to absorb the Great Speaker’s subordinates, take a portion of the Zhuo Shan Dimension, and make the Great Speaker sell off half the dimension’s land to them. He hadn’t expected there to be "plenty of Chaos Mist" as well?

The Great Speaker said, "There’s a Dimensional Space where the Mourning Undead Soldiers were cultivated. They first captured some talented humans there and transformed them into Witch entities, storing their Life Boxes and then cultivating them."

"The process of cultivation requires large amounts of the breath of death, Soul Energy, and Chaos Mist. The process is also cruel. They discovered that the Necromancers’ flesh and organs reduce efficiency and waste Chaos Mist, so they strip away their flesh and organs, leaving only their skeleton and heart."

"Although it doesn’t hurt, those Undead Soldiers stare at their dangling hearts every day. Many go insane and fail. The failed ones’ souls dissipate completely. The success rate is low—less than half an individual for every ten thousand Undead Soldiers."

"If they succeed, their stripped flesh is reattached to the skeleton, treated with a Secret Technique, and they become what we see today," the Great Speaker explained.

Everyone suddenly understood. "So that’s how the purple-gold skeletons and ordinary flesh of the Mourning Undead Soldiers were made. No wonder the flesh and bones don’t match."

"That’s too gruesome; peeling off their flesh until only a heart remains? Tsk, tsk, tsk."

The Great Speaker continued, "After cultivating Mourning Undead Soldiers, they use Life Boxes and a special cloth to wrap their souls and reincarnate them. After reincarnation, they retain only the memories they had before their Life Boxes were imprinted."

Negris slapped his waist. "So it’s Life Box resurrection. A resurrected soul perfectly aligns with its body due to compatibility."

"A special cloth? The Holy Shroud?" Anthony asked, startled.

The Great Speaker shook his head. "Unknown. I return there every few decades and stay for over a hundred years before coming back. Supplies from the South Coronet are also transported from there."

"I know the general range of its location, but not its specifics. If we can enter, we can obtain a huge amount of Chaos Mist used for cultivating Mourning Undead Soldiers."