Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton-Chapter 992 - 562: He Will Remember You for a Long Time

The House of the Deceased is a Soul Network formed by powerful Spiritual Bodies similar to Relay Spirits. It has no owner, so it can connect to the souls of anyone.

It’s operated by the Undead Guild, and information exchange is carried out through a feature similar to a ledger. People can post information, make purchases, offer rewards, announce, and so on. Its functionality is akin to the bulletin board that used to be in front of the Mercenary Guild.

This Soul Network has been operating smoothly for over a thousand years, and the vast majority of people, from a very young age, know about its existence and take it for granted.

Merchants, mercenaries, politicians, and officials from all sides have grown accustomed to using it as a window and platform for external affairs. In some small places where there is no regular security force, bounties are posted to capture various criminals, greatly shocking people from all walks of life.

Such a Soul Network, deeply integrated into the entire social system, poses one very serious problem—it has no Highest Power Mark.

The Undead Guild responsible for its management doesn’t hold the Highest Power Mark either, resulting in a large amount of usage and management fees being accumulated. The total value has already reached upwards of ten billion Demon Crystals.

If someone could buy it, wouldn’t they be able to extract those ten billion Demon Crystals?

"Uh, Lord Nage, you’re thinking too much. Although the Undead Guild doesn’t have the authority to extract Demon Crystals, the Demon Crystals were supposed to be handed over to them anyway. They’ve already used them up. What’s displayed in the House of the Deceased is just a string of numbers," said Anthony.

"What? That’s terrible, that money should be considered ours," Negris said angrily.

The Undead Guild doesn’t have the Highest Power Mark and therefore cannot extract this money, but they do have it, so rightfully the money should belong to them.

Anthony spread his hands. Although the Undead Guild doesn’t have the authority, they have already extracted the actual Demon Crystals; what’s in the House of the Deceased is just a string of numbers.

"If they don’t have the authority, then how can they sell the House of the Deceased?" Negris asked, puzzled.

"Just sell the operational rights," replied Anthony.

"Why would they want to sell it in the first place if everything’s fine?" Negris asked, confused.

Anthony smiled, "How can everything be fine? Surely someone has been causing sabotage, resulting in massive losses for the Guild of the Dead recently. Plus, silver coins continue to hit them hard commercially. In just half a year, the Guild of the Dead nearly went bankrupt."

"Who’s been causing sabotage inside?" Negris was taken aback. The House of the Deceased is a Soul Network built on the basis of Relay Spirits—who has the ability to cause sabotage within it?

But before he had finished asking, he saw the inscrutable smile on Anthony’s face and immediately understood, "Is it you who caused the sabotage? Because you have the Highest Power Mark, you can cause harm without them detecting it."

Anthony smiled faintly.

Having the Highest Power Mark is like having the power to see everyone’s cards. All the bounties, missions, bids, and other commercial activities listed can be seen by silver coin through the rights of authority—it’s like gambling with open cards.

Silver coin doesn’t even need to cause any damage—by merely starting from a commercial standpoint, it can quickly collapse the entire economic system built by the House of the Deceased, earn money that belongs to the Guild of the Dead for themselves, all without anyone being the wiser.

The Guild of the Dead continues to incur losses without understanding where the losses are occurring or why, only feeling that business has recently become very challenging.

"Even with losses, it doesn’t make sense to sell the House of the Deceased. An organization that’s been around for thousands of years—don’t they have any savings? A few decades of losses shouldn’t force them to sell the tools of their trade," Negris said, puzzled.

Anthony nodded, "Yes, that’s why silver coin devised a plan to force them to sell."

"I see now; you didn’t come here to tell us this news. You came to seek Ange’s help, Kvada, beating around the bush and almost had me fooled," Negris suddenly realized.

Anthony quickly distanced himself, "Not me, not me, it’s the silver coin that wants to seek the lord’s help, nothing to do with me, I’m just here to report the situation."

Screaming for Ange to save his life all the time, even Anthony, with his thick skin, felt ashamed to admit it, as it wasn’t his affair, and he absolutely couldn’t admit it.

When there’s trouble, it’s time to sell; when there isn’t trouble, create trouble to force a sale.

"The main bodies of the House of the Deceased are over a dozen powerful Relay Spirits that require a vast amount of Soul Crystals to feed every year. The Soul Nodes they’re connected to are too numerous, their consumption level is on an entirely different scale compared to those Relay Spirits used purely for communication in the Land of Fallen. We just have to increase their consumption, and soon the Guild of the Dead won’t be able to afford feeding them," he explained.

"Is it really that simple?" Negris was a bit incredulous.

"Of course it’s not that simple, the people from the Guild of the Dead will definitely have other ideas, like setting us up, or transferring the management rights to us but not telling us how to sustain those Relay Spirits, so they can buy them back or snatch them back once we can’t afford it anymore. If they don’t have such thoughts, we can lead them to have these thoughts," Anthony explained.

"Hiss—" Negris took a sharp breath in, "They don’t know we have the Highest Power Mark; they might indeed sell it just to set us up, earn the money first and when we can’t handle it, either buy it back or snatch it back."

"Exactly, as long as they entertain this thought, we win. Once they transfer those Relay Spirits to us, they’ll find out not only can we sustain them, but we can do it better than they ever could," Anthony said.

Still, Negris hesitated, "But wouldn’t this provoke Gust to come after us?"

The Guild of the Dead was easy to deal with since it was purely run by humans, but their backer was challenging to handle. It was said they reported directly to Gust. It wouldn’t be worth it if they ended up buying from the Guild of the Dead only to provoke Gust.

"Heh, does Gust have the leisure to care about the Guild of the Dead now? ’Thirty million’ soldiers of the Holy War Expeditionary Force are on their way here; the Sorcerer Alliance is panicking. Gust will be even more anxious," Anthony said with a laugh.

In the past, they didn’t dare to covet the House of the Deceased, but now it was different. The arrival of the ’thirty million Expeditionary Army’ worried not the Sorcerer Alliance the most, but Gust’s Council of the Undead.

Anthony believed that with the Undead Empire’s means, they would definitely be able to find out about this news through various channels. If they somehow failed to find out, Anthony would quietly inform them himself.

Once Gust realized that a massive Expeditionary Army was being deployed here, where would he find the time to bother with the human-run Soul Network?

Negris suddenly saw the light, "So your ambush is set here, Kvada, one ring after another, and you still say it’s none of your business? Surely it’s your plot."

"Not at all, not at all, it’s the silver coin’s idea; I just added a tiny bit of my own opinion," Anthony denied immediately.

This left Negris puzzled; why wouldn’t Anthony take the blame?

"But in doing so, Gonia and the others will be in danger," Negris mentioned.

"Right, right, too dangerous, I must go back and keep watch. Although the Sorcerer Alliance promised to help seal the airspace, I still need to sit tight. You’ll have to relay the details to the lord; I’m off..." Anthony didn’t even finish speaking before he disappeared without a trace.

Negris stood there, stunned for a long while, then turned to look at Ange, who was planting with great enthusiasm on the icy surface, took a deep breath, "Kvada!"

Now Negris understood why Anthony was unwilling to take the blame; Ange was in high spirits, but dragging him back to work would surely leave a long-lasting memory.

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