Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton
Chapter 1619 - 1180: Have I Failed in My Harvest?

Chapter 1619: Chapter 1180: Have I Failed in My Harvest?

The Starborn Lord couldn’t accept it—how could the Light Disaster be resolved in such a simple way—selling food.

This Silver Light Mercantile Company was actually selling a type of vegetable flatbread to billions of people across the Divine Light Alliance, continuously for over a month, and it seemed like they intended to keep it up indefinitely.

It was the simplest solution, the most practical one, but also the most impossible to accomplish. Where did the Silver Light Mercantile Company get so much food?

After some investigation by South Coronet, they discovered the food source was the Sea of Omniscience.

"The Sea of Omniscience? That water-covered plane? How could you grow food there?" the Starborn Lord asked in disbelief.

South Coronet found it hard to believe as well, but still responded, "They claim it comes from the water. No matter how much I pummeled them, that’s their story."

"Pummeled? Don’t you have other interrogation techniques?" the Starborn Lord questioned.

He used to delegate offworld affairs to the Great Speaker, but now the Speaker had betrayed him, North Corona was dead, and South Coronet was the only one left he could command.

South Coronet clearly wasn’t a professional at this, and neither was he, but even so, could interrogating with mere beatings uncover critical information?

"I captured a Spirit Magician and used spirit control on them; I still got the same answer. I think, even if it’s not literally from the water, it must be related to the Sea of Omniscience," South Coronet added quickly.

Well, at least that was somewhat satisfactory. If he were truly that dense, he’d be of no use. Still, lacking competent personnel was indeed a problem, akin to having no one to prepare meals in a king’s palace. But it wasn’t feasible to cultivate another Great Speaker anytime soon.

After a moment of thought, the Starborn Lord impatiently said, "Destroy it all. Too troublesome."

If everything was destroyed, there would be no more trouble. With this thought, the Starborn Lord declared, "I will go to the Sea of Omniscience."

With a pouch of money in hand, the Starborn Lord stepped into the teleportation array to head for the Sea of Omniscience. Even something as trivial as undercover reconnaissance had to be handled personally by him, which underscored just how much trouble the Great Speaker’s betrayal had caused him.

Originally, South Coronet could’ve been sent. However, South Coronet didn’t have the ability to project himself into a human body like the Starborn Lord did, making it nearly impossible for him to evade the Mourning Undead Soldiers under the Speaker’s command, let alone the Star Gods in Gemez Fortress.

Following a group of people into the teleportation array, the next thing the Starborn Lord knew, he had arrived at a solitary island. Everywhere he looked, there was water, and beyond the horizon stretched an endless ocean, save for the fact that the sea’s surface was covered with swathes of shimmering, white substance.

The entire island was nearly filled to the brim with buildings. Between the buildings hung canopies, casting shadows and blocking direct sunlight. People moved about in the shade beneath these structures, and even the roads to the airship docks were covered by an interconnected network of bridges, ensuring no one was exposed to even a sliver of sunlight.

What had once been a barren island had, in a short amount of time, been transformed into a bustling town—a testament to Lisa’s ingenuity, capable of managing an entire Goddess of Beauty City.

The island’s primary trade commodity was food. Most people coming and going were either here to buy or transport food. Transactions took place in taverns and inns, where deals were negotiated, orders placed, and invoices drafted—before heading to the docks for collection, with airships transporting them away.

For those in urgent need, they could, after signing contracts, pick up goods directly from the Silver Chamber of Commerce warehouses on various planes. If the local warehouse lacked stock, they had no choice but to pay a premium to have goods transported back via teleportation arrays. This had rendered the teleportation arrays extremely busy, to the point where the Starborn Lord, after taking a quick look, was promptly urged to clear the array corridor.

Standing dazed outside the teleportation array, he was quickly approached by someone. "Greetings, traveler from afar! Are you here to find lodging or to do business?"

Looking up, the Starborn Lord saw a middle-aged man who carried himself like a magician.

"I’m here to purchase some things," the Starborn Lord responded.

"Ah, so you’re doing business! What sector are you interested in? Grain? Fabrics, clothing, shoes, or hats? We have everything you could possibly need. Should I offer you some recommendations? It only costs a nominal introduction fee." The middle-aged man enthusiastically proposed.

"No need, I’d prefer to look around myself," the Starborn Lord replied curtly.

"What a pity! I regret not being able to assist you. Well then, head down this way. Raw materials are on the left, finished goods to the right. For grain, head this way toward the docks," the middle-aged man said, ’regretfully.’

As he watched the Starborn Lord walk away, the middle-aged man slipped into the Soul Network, calling out gleefully, "We’ve got one! Looks like a big one too!"

Anthony, Negris, Leonel, and others hurriedly swarmed over.

"This is the guy. He’s not carrying any luggage or traveling with attendants but claims to be here for business. Total rookie," declared the middle-aged man, Ursman.

He and Anthony, along with Leonel, had been taking turns staking out here for a long time, hoping to catch agents sent by the Starborn Lord.

After some time on rotation, they realized there were a lot of infiltrators—from the Leo Royal Court, the Joseph Faction, even from the Friel Empire. Eventually, it had become something of a game for them, trying to see who could unmask the most spies faster.

They referred to ordinary infiltrators as "small fries" but labeled those from the Starborn Lord’s faction as "big fish."

"Why do you think he’s a ’big fish’?" Negris, observing the Starborn Lord through the various Eyes of the Wizard positioned around town, asked curiously as the man wandered about aimlessly.

"Because he’s too inept. He didn’t even react when I didn’t use honorifics. Any real merchant wouldn’t waste words on me if I wasn’t being respectful. Only the Starborn Lord’s side would send someone this clueless," Ursman explained.

The Starborn Lord couldn’t possibly imagine someone mocking him behind his back. Though inexperienced, he had tried his best to act ’normal,’ even preparing a cheat sheet with social phrases. How did he still get so easily identified? He thought that by pretending to be ’human,’ he could fool everyone.

In this unfamiliar territory, the Starborn Lord, once omnipotent and in control of all he saw, now resembled a newborn babe, walking defenseless into a den of wolves. Before long, he had been dissected thoroughly, yet he remained blissfully unaware, thinking himself to be blending in as he wandered idly.

In this bustling town, that very act of ’wandering’ was highly conspicuous—everyone was busy, running around non-stop.

Eventually, he wandered to the shore and saw farmers rowing small boats to gather those white substances floating on the sea. They hauled them to the shore, sun-dried them, sieved them, ground them into powder, and finally delivered them to a furnace-like building.

When the processed materials emerged, they had been transformed into sheets of vegetable flatbread.

After days of careful observation, the Starborn Lord managed to summarize a few key points. First, the production yield of that white substance was astonishing—fields harvested just a few days ago had regrown full again by the third day.

Glancing up at the sun in the sky, the Starborn Lord strongly suspected that the Light Disaster was responsible for this explosive growth. He had not only overheard one farmer say, "This sun is so strong; the algae rice grows like crazy."

Thinking deeply, the Starborn Lord quickly pieced together the reasoning. These white substances primarily grew underwater, and only the parts floating above the surface were exposed to sunlight.

The Light Disaster, after being weakened by the seawater’s filtering effect, wasn’t able to damage their underwater structures. Yet, the parts floating on the surface benefited immensely from the intense sunlight, producing an abundance of algae rice. Ironically, the disaster increased their yield.

Second, the harvested algae rice dried incredibly quickly under the sunlight; it could be fully dried and ground into powder in just one afternoon.

Third, that bread-making factory relied entirely on sunlight to bake its food.

Digesting these conclusions, the Starborn Lord felt a deep sense of dismay. "They’re using the Light Disaster to neutralize the Light Disaster. Have I failed in my harvest?"