Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton Chapter 1322

Chapter 1322: Chapter 882: Did Little Bone Run Away? Chapter 1322: Chapter 882: Did Little Bone Run Away? The Yellow Mud Book displayed an imprint of the God of Knowledge, and a faith network that had been ownerless and adrift for tens of thousands of years finally linked up to Negris, rapidly forming divine status. There was no need to guess–it was undoubtedly prepared by Ange.

“This Dead Skull… is surprisingly good,” Negris said, moved to the point of tears in his eyes, “Do you recognize me?”

However, he moved too early. As soon as he admitted his identity, the two mages immediately erupted in rage:
“Swindler!”

“Charlatan!”

“Give us our money back, you heartless God of Knowledge.”

Negris was so flustered by the scolding, but as their condemnation continued, another imprint appeared on the Yellow Mud Book, along with a rush of information.

After he quickly skimmed through this information, he couldn't help but curse angrily, “Kvada, silver coin, this is your doing!”

The spreading of the faith of the God of Knowledge was arranged by Ange, but the actual executor was the silver coin, who, due to some kind of limitation, couldn't directly reincarnate in this world and could only enter through a form of projection.

Moreover, since the silver coin also had to spread the worship of the God of Fraudsters, the time allocated to the God of Knowledge just wasn't enough, so it resorted to the most economical method–a bad name is still a name.

Every examination season, there would be people handing out pamphlets at the entrance of every major academy, grandiosely proclaimed as examination secret manuals available for trial.

Every trial period, the silver coin would project down to whisper incessantly in the customers' ears, proving the effectiveness of the secret manual, convincing them to pay, but it would stand them up come the actual examination, leaving those who bought the manual fuming.

The kind of harm done by being stood up at life's pivotal turning points is memorable for a lifetime. The next year, when pamphlets were distributed again, they were immediately surrounded by angry students.

However, those distributing pamphlets retorted confidently: “It's because your faith isn't firm enough. If you were truly devout believers, how could you not receive a response from the gods? Could it be that among the crowds praying, someone had faith firmer than yours, so the gods answered them instead of you?”

This logic was so flawless that it left no room for rebuttal. Not receiving a divine response was because your faith wasn't strong enough or devout enough. When praying together, the gods could only respond to the most devout one. Who was the most devout believer? Everyone inevitably thought of those who scored the best marks.

Some felt guilty and dispersed unwillingly, but there were others who persistently demanded a refund and resorted to violence when refused.

The problem was, those distributing the pamphlets weren't really followers of the God of Knowledge; they were people of the God of Fraudsters. Whoever dared to start a fight would immediately find them lying down.

Then a bunch of 'righteous' citizens would run over, wanting to drag them to the city hall or Religious Affairs Office. To prevent the news of them trying to cheat with divine help from spreading, these impulsive fellows could only settle the issue with compensation.

Thus, not only did the God of Fraudsters make a handsome profit, but it also managed to spread the name of the God of Knowledge far and wide…

“I Kvada you, Bada, is this spreading the word? Is this spreading the word? This is slander; you're ruining my reputation!” Who knows how many years later, when Negris next met the silver coin, he immediately tried to strangle him.

Running away, the silver coin retorted, “Did your divine name get spread or not?”

Not just spread, but it became infamous, now associated with swindlers and charlatans. It was lucky that those cursing it were all victims; otherwise, it would have to fight the silver coin to decide who truly was the God of Fraudsters.

But strangely enough, despite the bad reputation, infamy is still fame, and given how widely known the name of the God of Knowledge became, didn't some young folks who heard of the deity but had never been conned think to try believing a little?

Believing a little wouldn't hurt; as long as no money was given, there would be no harm or deceit.

Therefore, people began to slowly pray to the God of Knowledge, and even some non-believers, when faced with examinations, would mutter a prayer or two for the blessing of the God of Knowledge.

Even if they failed the exam, it was no big deal since they didn't spend any money. They would just comfort themselves by thinking, 'Surely I wasn't devout enough, or the God of Knowledge would have blessed me,' or 'Surely someone else was more devout, and that's why I wasn't blessed.'
Even some who did well on their exams through their own ability, when asked by others, would modestly say, “It's all thanks to the blessing of the God of Knowledge.”

They never mentioned how they studied until three in the morning or secretly took extra lessons at the library.

Over a few thousand years of development, due to survivorship bias, tales that better fit people's beliefs persisted while incidents that didn't fit those beliefs faded into obscurity.

Things like 'How could the God of Knowledge deceive people?' 'How come the God of Knowledge cheated you but not me?' 'You failed the exam, and now you're blaming the God of Knowledge!'
The silver coin accomplished the promotion of the God of Knowledge with minimal effort and energy.

Though the reputation of the God of Knowledge had been improving, the world was still full of fraudsters, especially during exam season, when some would show up at the academy gates to deceive and swindle, attempting to replicate the lucrative trick of creating counterfeit silver coins from yesteryear.

Because the fame had grown and the reputation was better, there were even more victims of deception, including these two male and female Wizards standing right in front of me.

Negris helplessly said, “The ones who swindled you weren't me, they're crooks, fraudsters. Go find them. You're not even my followers; if you were, I'd certainly protect you. But as you're not, I can't even hear your prayers.”

At this moment, Little Bone and I were already aboard an adventurer's airship, cruising between a heap of 'corpses' of Ancient Gods, flying towards some direction in the Void.

The two Wizards also realized they had blamed the wrong person and could only mutter stubbornly, “Well, it's still because you didn't show your divine might. Nobody maintains your godly name, so fraudsters use it without consequence; that means you're not up to snuff.”

“All right, all right, I'm not up to snuff; I'm still green.” Negris responded irritably, changing the subject, he asked, “So, what's going on here? Why are there so many… corpses?”

The female Mage explained, “This is the Land Forbidden to Gods. Don't you know that?”

“I live here; how am I supposed to know what you mortals call it? Why is it called the Land Forbidden to Gods?” Negris mused as he looked toward the Ancient 'corpses.'
Those weren't actually corpses but petrified bodies–those Ancient Gods who had pledged allegiance to Ange. Among the more noticeable ones were the Iron Scale Cleaner and a little snail attached to its shell. It seemed Ange had already helped it accomplish the business of reproduction.

All these Ancient Gods were petrified and floating in this expanse of the Void. From afar, it resembled an ancient graveyard for gods.

“It's the Land Forbidden to Gods, so many gods were killed when they got close. Not even the Gods dare approach this place,” the female Mage said, her voice filled with shock.

Negris asked, puzzled, “And you still dared to come?”

The captain, who was busy munching on a piece of bread, unsheathed his Longsword with a 'clang' and pompously declared, “Because we are fearless adventurers! Exploring a land that even the Gods dare not approach is our honor!”

Everyone fell into an awkward silence. Negris looked at the male and female Wizards, baffled.

The male Wizard said somewhat sheepishly, “Read too many Knight novels. Mainly because we've figured out the pattern of the Pillar of Creation and found a safe route to navigate through this area into the forbidden land. We didn't expect that there would be nothing inside the Land Forbidden to Gods.”

With that, everyone's eyes shifted towards the stream of energy gushing down from some unknown place in the Void, which was referred to as the Pillar of Creation.

“There's nothing? That's an exaggeration; aren't there trees?” Negris countered weakly. But indeed, that was all there was–no minerals, no developmental value. The only thing of value was the Fruit of Life, but these fools had no idea what treasure they were overlooking.

This barren land was mostly empty because Ange had built it up early on. Apart from its proximity to the Pillar of Creation, it had nothing special. For tens of thousands of years, no one had managed to reach this place.

After some conversation, Negris got the gist of this adventure team's background. They were students from various academies of the Republic of Stellaris, who had joined the True Research Group. Since they couldn't find a suitable interest group, they formed their own.

Feeling that 'interest group' was too mundane a name, they had opted for 'adventure team.' They wanted to study the Land Forbidden to Gods, hence the name. Although they had registered with the Mercenary Guild, they were essentially just an interest group from the True Research Group.

Negris had always thought the True Research Group was the perfect fit for the Republic of Stellaris; it was only in a place like Stellaris that such a peculiar organization obsessed with truth could flourish. He hadn't expected them to actually converge here.

A bunch of naive students with a strong curiosity about unknown mysteries formed a team and ventured into the Land Forbidden to Gods, bringing back a real divine being. This plotline seemed too cliche even for a Knight novel.

After leaving the Land Forbidden to Gods and moving away from the Pillar of Creation, the Goblin piloting the airship activated a device, then shouted, “Brace yourselves for the jump, don't puke on the airship. Hold on to your buckets, or you'll be scrubbing the deck for a month!”

“Jump?” Soon, Negris found out what kind of jump it was. The airship shuddered, leaving trails of light behind as it disappeared from sight.

A Spatial Slingshot! They'd actually fitted one to a regular airship?

The next moment, the airship arrived in front of a Starburst Array. Beneath the array, a flat piece of land drifted in the Void.

While everyone was still feeling queasy, the airship landed atop the Starburst Array.

“They've even built the Starburst Array,” Negris murmured softly. “Facing the ground, huh? Wonder what they're guarding against.”

Once Ninova had finally managed to recover, she came over to greet, “Let's go, Lord Nage. We'll disembark and find a place to settle you down first. What are you planning on doing next? Oh, by the way, where's Lord Bone?”

“Little Bone? Little Bone… Little Bone… Where did Little Bone go?” Negris searched around the airship and panicked upon realizing Little Bone was nowhere to be found.

“It ran away? It actually ran away? I… I don't have a Soul Contact with it. If it's gone, how will I ever find it?”

Chapter end

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