The next day, Ange invoked the divine name of Negris, and the Bronze Dragon's thoughts projected into his soul.
Ange explained the peculiar connection he had with Little Zombie and asked for an explanation.
As soon as Negris heard, he shouted, "Impossible, that's a soul contact, but you got it by its dedication to you? A new witch, it dedicated its soul to you? Are you kidding me? You're not a king."
Ange tilted his head, seemingly understanding, but also not. He blinked in confusion.
"Hey, hey, speak up, what do you mean by ignoring people?" Negris became angry.
Ange tilted his head in confusion again, and said, "One question, tomorrow."
Negris almost spat blood, "No no no, this is not a question, it's me asking you, did it dedicate its Soul Fire to you? Voluntarily?" Negris asked urgently.
Ange nodded.
"But...but..." Negris was at a loss for words: "But you're not a king."
Ange stared at him blankly.
Negris was distressed for a while, but decided it was better to clear things up, lest half-baked explanations kill him.
"Your connection with Little...this is a witch, Sidol Chuk? Your soul connection with Sidol, is called Soul Contact between two undead. There's a soul connection between superior and subordinate, it can't betray you, you can control everything about it, including its soul and thoughts, even destroy it."
"There are two scenarios for Soul Contact. One is that you endow it with the soul, did you endow it with the soul?" Negris asked.
Ange shook his head, but asked a seemingly unrelated question, "Why is it called Sidol Chuk?"
Negris answered impatiently, "Can't you see it? It's written inside the clothes."
"The other possibility is that it makes a Soul Oath to you. Did it make a Soul Oath to you? Or do you even know what an Oath is?" Negris sneered, not that he was underestimating Ange and Little Zombie, but with Ange's slow-witted expression, what could he know? Just enough to be annoying.
Ange shook his head.
Negris sighed, "If it's neither of the two cases, then the only remaining possibility is the Soul Network. But you aren't a king."
A puzzled Negris suggested, "You should look for any remaining Undead Temples of followers. If your soul can connect to it, then it is the real Soul Network."
After Negris left, Ange pulled Little Zombie over, opened its clothes to check and indeed, inside he found the name Sidol Chuk written.
When the original human starved to death, his clothes were complete, but after turning into Little Zombie and running around wild, the wear and tear rubbed off the rest, leaving only half of it on.
The name on the clothes was probably the name of Little Zombie's shell when it was alive.
Even though they're not the same soul, Little Zombie was just an undead creature that sprouted from this corpse, but it doesn't matter, it's just a name, at least it's better than Little Zombie, less confusing.
Seeing Ange open its clothes, Little Zombie thought that Ange wanted them and quickly took them off to hand over. It wasn't until Ange indicated that he didn't want them that it put them back on. But in such handling, the clothes became even more worn.
And so, Ange claimed this area, cultivated farmlands, brought over broken stones to line up row by row, and laid Luminous Moss on top of them.
Luminous Moss, such tenacious moss, grows in every damp corner when left unattended. Now that someone had purposely set up a suitable environment for it, naturally, it grew wildly. Not only did the trenches of the cultivated farmland become full, even the edge of the rock wall was covered. When entering this area, it was a full view of glowing moss, as bright as daylight.
With enough light, Ange sowed seeds into the ridges made between the two rows of Luminous Moss.
Ange might not know much, but when it comes to planting, he has over a thousand years of experience, allowing him to quickly familiarize himself with the properties of crops.
Moss needs moisture, but can't stand stagnant water. So, he laid broken stones at the bottom of the ditches. The crops couldn't be too humid, so they needed to be planted on ridges, spaced out in rows to ensure each row gets exposed to light.
Yes, Ange planned to use the light emitted by the Luminous Moss to illuminate the crops, whether this would work was yet to be found out.
In the meantime, Feilin made another visit, trading ten Soul Crystals for forty-five bags of grain. He then noticed the luminous moss field Ange had created, and it immediately caught his attention.
In Feilin's mind, Ange was an Observer who wouldn't bother with pointless things. Could Luminous Moss be used like this?
The biggest problem in the underground city is the dwindling cultivatable land. Meeting the conditions of having sufficient light and being shielded from the Resting Wind is difficult. It's easier to find fertile soil; a bit more effort in digging will do.
If Luminous Moss could be used in this way, then the requirement for 'sufficient light' could be removed. The underground city has plenty of land to grow things.
A week later, all the sowed seeds had sprouted.
...
In a dark corner of the underground city, the body of a Necromancer laid rigid on the ground and was showing signs of livor mortis. This was unusual; a normal corpse would have decayed and produced maggots a week after death.
But, he had been a Necromancer alive, with too many methods of corpse preservation at his disposal. The erosion of death aura alone was enough to slow down the decomposition of the body.
Without any warning, a red flame ignited on top of the corpse's head. The corpse suddenly sat up, with eyes wide open, revealing a pair of black pupils without any whites.
On the forehead, a pair of demonic horns twisted outwards, growing in odd angles. A low voice echoed, "Useless trash. Can't even gather bodies without getting caught. In the end, it falls on the honorable Lord Demas to do the dirty work myself."
After the demonic speech, the horns retracted on the corpse, the pupils returned to their normal state, distinct with black and white. Even the spots of livor mortis disappeared completely, restoring the skin to the color and elasticity of the living.
After sorting himself out, Demon Demas surveyed himself from head to toe, nodded in satisfaction, and quietly left the room.
Through a winding tunnel and an extended staircase, Demas crawled out of a thick coffin. There were hundreds of similar stone coffins here.
...
Feilin, who had been keeping constant tabs on Ange's situation, naturally knew about the sprouting of the seeds. As someone who was already struggling to make ends meet, he managed to scrape together another ten Soul Crystals under the pretense of trading for food, to personally inspect the situation.
After seeing it for himself, Feilin was very excited. The Luminous Moss really could provide light for the crops. This was more efficient than their current method of manually powering Magic Lamps with magic, and then using those lamps to illuminate the crops.
They didn't need to fully switch to this method; even adopting a small part of it could save them a huge amount of manpower.
"Lord, may we use this method?" Feilin asked expectantly.
Ange didn't understand his meaning and cocked his head at him.
This posture once again frightened Feilin. He promptly took out a Soul Crystal with a painful expression, "Please allow us to use the method you invented. We will pay you a usage fee of one Soul Crystal per month."
Now Ange understood. It turned out that one needed to pay a fee to use someone else's invention. Ange accepted the Soul Crystal and nodded.
One Soul Crystal was not a small amount. Each time, Ange followed the habit he had formed from the first transaction, absorbing half of the energy of the Soul Crystal into his own soul. The first time was unintentional, but the next two times it became the norm. One Soul Crystal could last for two transactions.
Keeping the Soul Crystal aside, Ange suddenly remembered the Bronze Dragon's suggestion and asked Feilin, "Is there an Undead Temple here?"
Feilin, who had just let out a sigh of relief, felt his soul jump back into his throat upon hearing this question.