Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

Chapter 548: Chapter 313: Application to Reopen the World Transfer Station_2

To everyone’s shock, the entire family of Grand Duke Wusu was poisoned that very night. A servant stood forth, confessing his responsibility for the death of the Duke’s family. He vehemently condemned the Duke’s family for their cruelty, maltreatment of servants, kidnapping of women and a host of other crimes. Subsequently, he stabbed himself to death.

The sight of the servant driving a sharp knife into his neck and the subsequent spilling of black blood shocked everyone present. Most assumed he was beyond saving, yet the servant’s body was found later that night in the City outskirts at the Luosha Military Camp. With a cheerful, “How did I do?”, he accepted their medical treatment.

Any Witch, after ingesting a bellyful of chicken blood and slashing their own neck, then using soul energy to expel the blood from their stomach could replicate this scene.

With no heir to Grand Duke Wusu, a seemingly ‘reluctant’ Grand Duke Sharo could only take over the military authority and territory of the Wusu Kingdom.

Registration of citizens, farmland allocation, food control, and the organisation of production processes remarkably restored calm to the Wusu Kingdom within a few weeks.

“Truly, it isn’t that remarkable. I followed Duke Wusu’s approach, eliminated part of the population to free up more resources. Only I tackled the landed gentry instead. It’s easy to keep calm with resources in abundance, evenly-distributed. Given our current circumstances, having a full belly is more than enough for most,” sighed Lord Anthony.

Misha, who had learned much during this time, quickly jotted down Anthony’s words: a full belly.

Anthony looked at what she had written, his nose twitching with annoyance, “I’ve said so much and you noted down only three little words?”

Misha stared at him with big, innocent eyes.

Laughing and shaking his head, Anthony said approvingly, “Very good at playing dumb, and you did note down the crux of what I said. Not just that, your mind is sharp, your determination strong. Your heart harbors enough cruelty, you protect your own and are not scared to cross lines. With no restraint of moral shackles, given time, you will no doubt surpass me. I can’t help but wonder how your mentors managed to groom you with this mindset. That is an achievement indeed!”

With a faint smile, Misha responded, “No one taught me, that mindset was born during the two years after my death. When I was alone in a cave, watching my own body decomposing, unable to leave or sleep, despite being already dead.”

Anthony lightly patted her head, “Only two years, after two centuries, you’ll forget it all. You’re already an Undead.”

Misha blinked in confusion not quite grasping what Anthony was implying.

Not bothering to explain, Anthony quickly changed the topic, “Where is Lord Ange? I was hoping to buy more grain from him.”

Of course, he was at Salt Lake.

After a few days, Ange had figured out the characteristics and handling methods of the potassium salt and was transferring it into the Temple of Rest.

However, the lake of potassium salt was too vast. Even if he filled the entirety of the Temple of Rest, it would still not even hold one-tenth of its total volume.

When Anthony found him, Ange was amusing himself with the green algae in the salty lake waters.

“Is this…algae? No way, this is all salt! How salty must this water be for the algae to still thrive?” Even the world-wise Anthony was taken aback.

On the surface of the white, potassium salt-covered lake, the water teemed with green algae. Ange pointed at it, and the algae began to grow at a rapid pace, quickly burgeoning into a large clump.

This was not Anthony’s field of expertise, so he switched to discussing the grain purchase.

“My Lord, I would like to purchase an additional hundred thousand tons of grain,” Anthony stated.

Ange shook his head, “At the moment, there isn’t any.”

With the harvest season not yet over and crops not ready for reaping, Ange didn’t have that much grain at hand. Of course, he could use the Instant Death Halo to encourage crop growth, but that would require an amount of soul energy he didn’t dispose of at the moment. There was no way he could accelerate the growth of a hundred thousand tons of crops.

Anthony nodded, understanding Ange’s predicament. Ange had always been straightforward, and if he said he didn’t have it, he didn’t. And so, Anthony shifted the topic, “In that case, My Lord, I request the activation of the World Transfer Station.”

“Are you crazy?” Negris jumped up at the idea, “What if we let beings from other dimensions know that the World Transfer Station is open, and they attack?”

Anthony laughed lightly, “It’s not the same now as before. With our strength, who can penetrate into the Resting Abyss now?”

Negris was taken aback for a moment but quickly realized, “Yes, who can penetrate? The Holy Kingdom is gone.”

Negris was not actually afraid of the World Transfer Station, as it was guarded by twelve deities, formidable mechanical constructs left from the era of the Undead Empire. Anyone who tried to invade the Resting Abyss through the World Transfer Station would be flattened by the deities the moment they exited the teleportation array.

What Negris was most concerned about was the Holy Kingdom. This entity could move in the void and appear outside the range of the World Transfer Station at any time, sending in troops.

But the problem now was that they had occupied the Holy Kingdom. As long as they didn’t invade other dimensions, who would dare to invade them?

Even if someone dared, without a void fortress like the Holy Kingdom, who could send in troops on a large scale? Sending them in one by one was akin to courting death.

So, they could open the World Transfer Station now, and announce the return of the Undead Empire.

However, Negris frowned, thought for a while and shook his head, “Let’s forget it, we don’t really need the Transfer Station. The small teleportation arrays we have are enough now.”

Anthony nodded, “I know. If it weren’t for bulk commodities like food, the small teleportation array would indeed be enough. To transport 100,000 tons of food, I spent several million Demon Crystals. If the World Transfer Station were open, the cost of teleportation could be reduced by a tenth. Even if transshipment is required, one-fifth of the cost would suffice. Only by opening the World Transfer Station can I buy a large amount of food from other dimensions.”

Negris shook his head.

“How about this: turn off the marker that indicates the World Transfer Station is operational. That way, only teleportation arrays that have registered coordinates beforehand will display the World Transfer Station’s presence. More than a thousand years have passed, how many of those teleportation arrays are still in existence? Even if there are some left, we can simply tell them that a new teleportation array has been built over the site of the old World Transfer Station.”

After thinking about it, Negris said, “This method indeed is much safer, but still unnecessary. You’re better off finding your own food channels. Once a deal is struck, we can briefly open the World Transfer Station to receive the delivery, then shut it down again.”

“Good! This is a great idea.” Anthony clapped his hands, gave a thumbs-up, and praised.

Negris looked at him with a skeptical gaze, “Is that your original goal?”

“No, no. It’s because Lord Nage is considerate and has come up with a better plan,” Anthony quickly clarified, and handed over a piece of paper, “This is a deal I brokered with another dimension for 10,000 tons of food. The transaction is scheduled for this time tomorrow.”

“Kvada, you even set the time, and you still claim it wasn’t?” Negris’s nose twitched in indignation.

Anthony showed no embarrassment, and continued, “This is what I was thinking: if the teleportation cost can drop by 90%, even with single transshipment, it’s still just 20% of the original cost. We can charge 50% of the original cost, with 30% as a usage fee for the Transfer Station. How about it?”

In other words, the original transportation cost of one million would now drop to two hundred thousand, but they would charge five hundred thousand, three hundred thousand of which would be the usage fee.

This seemed like a pretty good deal, opening up the World Transfer Station, and charging use fees for it. No business would be easier than that.

However, Negris kept his guard up and pulled Ange aside to ask Silver Coin via soul contact.

Upon hearing this, Silver Coin instantly objected, “No, no, absolutely not! That’s way too much of a loss for us. We cannot consider our own on cost, but rather how much the other party saves on theirs.”

“Even if the shipping cost doesn’t change, we are dealing in bulk trades. We are saving a lot of time, and time is money.”

“Using a small teleportation array, it would take him dozens of days to transport these 100,000 tons of food. With the World Transfer Station, it would only take a day. He could save a lot of manpower and materials, all of which are cost factors. Why should we reduce the shipping cost?”

“And we’re only profiting by 30%. All costs of wear and tear, maintenance, and security are in this 30%. We might even end up making a loss. Therefore, shipping costs cannot be reduced. At most, in consideration of familiar relations, we can give Lord Anthony an 80% discount.”