Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton-Chapter 1002 - 571: Alas, One Must Know Restraint

Anthony knew there was trouble, the salt and sugar were too pure, this wasn’t the style of roaming merchants.

The salt and sugar that Ange produced were his own manufacture, the salt was sun-dried from Fallen Dragon Lake, and the sugar was pressed out of beetroot, with very few impurities.

Ange first disinfected them in the Divine Realm, then transferred them to the Dimensional Space, covering them with Breathing Soil, so they didn’t get damp or clump together, making them look as white and loose as snow, very beautiful upon taking them out.

Such high-quality salt and sugar were not something those roving traders could get their hands on. They could only obtain inferior quality, sand-adulterated, unfiltered or even lumps of yellow and black sugar, full of impurities.

Did Anthony not understand this? He did, but there wasn’t enough time, it was too late for him to adulterate with sand, and he hadn’t expected people to come knocking so soon. It was just a holiday celebration, why would anyone care about the quality of sugar and salt?

Though aware of the trouble, Anthony was not at all panicked, with a turn of his eye, he quickly thought of an excuse, and turning around, he smiled and said, "Sir is jesting, with the Sorcerer Alliance’s sky ladder flying over our heads every day, why would we need to send spies?"

"However, these goods indeed come from the Sorcerer Alliance. Our commerce guild went bankrupt, and a stock of high-end goods we couldn’t sell didn’t want to be sold cheap to people from outside our town. Now we’re offering them at a discounted price to pay back our fellow townspeople. Would the gentlemen like to buy some too?"

The Skeleton Knight was stunned for a moment, "Really from the Sorcerer Alliance?" He then leaned in closer.

This reaction made Anthony’s heart sink.

This was the most troublesome situation, the other party was not sure these were goods from the Sorcerer Alliance but just made up this reason on the fly; it was clear they were here to cause trouble.

As expected, as soon as the other party glanced inside the bags at the sugar and salt, their eyes lit up, and they barked loudly, "Well, well, you have some nerve, daring to carelessly sell the Sorcerer Alliance’s goods. Who knows if they contain ingredients that bewitch the mind. Come, seize all these goods!"

The two Skeleton Knights behind him rushed up and snatched the bags from the ground.

Feiti was a bit angry and looked at Anthony, but Anthony slightly shook his head, indicating there was no need to take action. It was only a small amount of money; let them take it as long as they didn’t go overboard.

When Anthony used to mingle in the Church, he was particularly familiar with the act of extorting bribes; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to get by in the Church. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

These Skeleton Knights seemed to have picked up some worldly habits; quite normal, they were knights, not skeletons. They were living people, naturally having all sorts of needs.

The economy within the Dead Line was underdeveloped, and one could tell from their frayed sleeves and collars that they lived a hard life and were in poor financial condition.

If it weren’t for the fact that their armor and Bone Horses cost them nothing, they probably couldn’t even afford this equipment.

After taking away the two bags of salt and sugar, the lead Skeleton Knight glanced at them, then greed flickered in his eyes as he looked at Anthony, his gaze then shifted past Anthony towards the wagon and stone cottage behind him.

Anthony sighed. Why bother? Extortion should have its limits; boundless greed leads to nothing. However, it was clear that this Skeleton Knight was not satisfied with just the two bags.

Seeing through the other party’s desires, Anthony took the initiative by shouting loudly, "Alright, alright, the lord has already confiscated our goods. We’ve got nothing to sell now, everyone disperse, please."

With a single shout, Anthony startled the spectators who had been idly watching until then. No more goods for sale?

The common people are always indifferent unless they’ve been educated from a young age, otherwise, if it doesn’t concern them directly, they tend to look the other way. Even if some of them feel it’s not right, they wouldn’t dare to stop these Skeleton Knights.

Until Anthony bellowed, "What? No more goods for sale? But I haven’t made my Soul Fire Bread yet. No, no, you can’t take the sugar."

"You can’t take the salt either. We’ve been waiting for the Holy Fire Festival to do our big shopping; we need to buy enough salt to last us half a year. You can’t take the salt."

"Right, right, right, there’s only one merchant coming through. If you take their stock, we won’t have anywhere else to buy from."

This outcry woke the rest of the people. That’s right, with only one merchant, there would be nowhere to buy goods if they were taken away.

This wasn’t like normal times when there were several merchants to choose from. Without the goods, how could they celebrate the festival? Especially since the goods were of good quality and inexpensive; it was a good deal however they bought.

"No, no, you can’t take these, if you do, we won’t be able to celebrate the festival. Put them down, put them down!" All the people crowded around.

With one shout, Anthony had easily shifted the conflict between him and the Skeleton Knights to a conflict between the Skeleton Knights and the community, leaving Negris dumbfounded, "Can it really go like this?"

The Skeleton Knight, inciting anger all around, no longer cared about Anthony and dropped his things as he fled in a panic.

Negris quickly asked, "What do we do now?"

Anthony smiled and said, "Let’s go back and see if we can lure out the giant snake. If we can, we’ll snatch the Undead Holy Fire. How about that?"

"Aren’t you afraid of alerting others?" Negris asked.

"That’s why we need to lure it out and take the opponent down in one round," Anthony explained and then turned to Ange, "My lord, may we request Wuga’s assistance? His True Illusion Territory is most effective against the Undead."

Ange nodded.

In the midst of the chaos, Ange summoned a stone house, and everyone led the horse-drawn carriage back the way they had come.

It was only then that Anthony noticed the little boy who had first spotted them was still with them, sitting on the shaft of the cart, eating candies, with his face covered in sticky syrup.

Seeing Anthony look over, the little boy grinned at him, revealing a mouth missing two front teeth.

Anthony glared at him without amusement, walked over, lifted him off, and gave him a kick in the rear: "Go."

The kick wasn’t hard, and the boy wasn’t scared; he stumbled a couple of steps, made a face at Anthony, and then ran back giggling.

Seizing the chaos, Ange and his party retraced their steps for a while. Along the way, Ange pulled out Wuga and gave him a series of instructions: "Wuga, wuga, wuga—"

Wuga nodded repeatedly in understanding: "Wuga."

Once they were ready, it wasn’t long before the sound of galloping hooves followed by a powerful Soul Howl was heard from behind: "Spies of the Sorcerer Alliance! Halt, I am the Undead Saint Kent. Surrender now, and I can guarantee the safety of your lives and souls."

Upon hearing this, Anthony immediately understood what was happening. That group of Skeleton Knights who had run back would certainly not admit they were trying to rob the merchants. Instead, they’d claim to have discovered spies of the Sorcerer Alliance, leading the foolishly deceived Undead Saint to chase after them.

This fell perfectly in line with Anthony’s plan. The other side, misinformed, was unlikely to be cautious around a trade caravan and would blunder right into the trap.

One annoying thing about the undead was their numerous Soul Contacts. A single thought could spread news far and wide, meaning if their ambush didn’t work instantly, they would be easily exposed.

They had come to steal bones, and any mishap that might make Gust wary would be troublesome.

The others had already hidden in the carriage, leaving only Anthony outside. When he heard the howl, he feigned a shrill scream, left the carriage, untied the Black Horse, and galloped away furiously.

The exaggeration of his actions made even the Black Horse snort: "That’s too fake."

Though it was a charade, the Black Horse still played along, racing back down the road.

The team of Skeleton Knights came chasing after Anthony, while a few others surrounded an Undead and approached the carriage.

The Undead first scanned the carriage with his Soul, detecting no danger. Only then did he signal the Skeleton Knights to open the carriage door. As the door opened, everyone was taken aback.

The carriage was packed to the brim; there were dragons, humans, little girls, scarecrows... Scarecrows? Wuga?

Wuga was at the very front of the carriage, with Ange’s hand firmly on its shoulder until the very moment the carriage door opened. Only then did Ange let go.

Without the constraint, Wuga suddenly leaped out.

A question flashed through the mind of the Undead Saint Kent: Why didn’t my soul scan detect these people? Oh, did Wuga possess a Real Illusion Terrain? This is bad...

As the thought passed, Kent’s soul became mired in chaos.

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