Chapter 1455: Chapter 1016: The Origin Magic Egg of Dark Power

“Greetings! It’s too crowded here, make some room for me.” Durken squeezed in with a smile, accompanied by the sound of bones cracking and flesh tearing.

When Durken returned with both himself and the cannon vehicle, Anthony was still in disbelief. Despite his preparations, he had deemed the chances of such a thing happening to be minuscule. Yet, it had actually occurred–it was absurdly improbable!

“Are you really Giralimo’s uncle? Just an uncle–was it necessary to sacrifice so much for him? Privately commandeering a flying artillery vehicle to bombard a civilian plane is surely a serious crime, isn’t it?” Anthony said, astonished.

This so-called uncle of Giralimo tried to stammer a reply, but Anthony interrupted by twisting his neck and snapping it: “I’ll search for myself.”

After some searching, Anthony remarked, “No wonder. That was his son. So dull. Looks like I’ll have to figure out a way to clean up this border patrol squad–they’re way too lax. To think they’d let someone privately take off with such a devastating artillery vehicle. Though, on the upside, lax management makes bribery easier.”

Durken spoke warily, “What do you plan to do to ‘clean up’? Let me make it clear first–the vehicle is mine.”

“What? Can I give it to you later? I need to use it for a trade first. They’ve lost such a massive cannon vehicle and won’t be able to cover up this mess. If they can’t cover it up, they’ll come at us full force. But we can’t just wipe them all out–if we do, their overseers will send even more personnel here, and it’ll be too troublesome.” Anthony replied.

Durken countered, “Can’t you just kill them all and turn them into Undead beings? Use soul contact to control them?”

“No way. That would cause much bigger problems. The Great Speaker might be supporting us to boldly propagate our faith, but if we dare to indiscriminately create Undead beings, he’d be the first to come after us. As long as his Undead Mourning Legion doesn’t mobilize, we don’t even need to care if we upend the entire Alliance. Are you sure you want to provoke him?” Anthony retorted.

Durken rolled his eyes and quickly fled the scene, only to scurry back shortly after dragging Ange along. “Sir, you absolutely must help me. If you can measure its stats quickly using your Ring of Balance, I promise I’ll build you a flying giant artillery vehicle.”

At these words, Ange paused.

Durken immediately caught on. “No, I’ll build you a vehicle that can grow crops on its own. Then, we can take it to a new plane, and with one shot, the seeds will be sown. Does that work?”

Ange nodded and flew back toward the flying artillery vehicle.

Durken stood dumbfounded for a moment, then slapped himself in frustration. “A crop-growing artillery vehicle? What nonsense am I even thinking? It’s easy to talk big, but how am I supposed to build that?”

Ange circled inside and outside the flying artillery vehicle, gathering all its measurements effortlessly.

Durken took the detailed parameters, marked them on his self-drawn cross-section diagram, and quickly produced engineering schematics. From there, improving or scaling it up would be child’s play for the King of Alchemy.

“Take it back. I don’t want it anymore.” Durken said, pointing at the flying artillery vehicle.

Anthony called Old John and Aji back, interrogating them about the border patrol team’s details, personnel makeup, and private dealings. After analyzing the situation, he fabricated a scene resembling a “car crash.”

Two border patrol members had taken the cannon vehicle for a joyride, collided with floating rocks due to excessive speed, and lost the cockpit. While the vehicle’s main body remained intact, the two patrol members perished.

Incidents of airships colliding with floating rocks were not uncommon. Not everyone could see as well as Ange in the pitch-black void; most pilots flew blindly.

As such, airships generally adhered to fixed flight paths, similar to maritime routes. Deviating from the routes posed real danger, and every year, several unfortunate souls died in such collisions.

In this case, the cockpit was damaged, but the main body of the cannon vehicle remained intact. The patrol team captain, though puzzled, breathed a sigh of relief.

The flying cannon vehicle was the patrol team’s most valuable asset. Losing two personnel was inconsequential, but if the vehicle had been destroyed, the entire team would have been disciplined. Since only the cockpit was damaged, repairs would be relatively simple.

Old John discreetly handed him a pouch of gold coins, explaining, “The guy who stole the cannon vehicle was from our village. His illegitimate son had committed rape and was publicly executed by villagers. In retaliation, he stole the vehicle to exact revenge but ended up dying in the crash.”

“Although his fate was deserved, the damaged cannon vehicle left the villagers feeling guilty. The patrol team is vital for border security–we can’t allow them to be without artillery. So, the villagers pooled some money for vehicle repairs and ask you, Captain, to overlook the public execution incident.”

The captain quickly understood. So Old John had come here for this reason? Weighing the money pouch in his hand, he discreetly pocketed it and ordered the damaged vehicle to be hauled back.

Seeing it all go so smoothly, Old John mentally gave Anthony a big thumbs-up. Through Anthony’s design, the entire chain of events now appeared completely reasonable, even if the “death by meteor collision” aspect seemed a bit far-fetched.

But Old John’s intervention made perfect sense–a natural attempt by Giant Crystal Village to distance itself from the incident.

The captain, having taken the bribe, likewise wanted to absolve Giant Crystal Village from involvement. Doing so also meant no reparations for the repairs. Public property being misused and damaged meant the culprit would usually cover the cost, but since the guilty party was already dead, it was deemed unlucky happenstance.

“That’s it? Problem solved this easily? What kind of sloppy management is this? Two deaths, and that’s all it takes to sweep it under the rug?” Negris was utterly dumbfounded.

Anthony remained indifferent: “Isn’t this normal? The Divine Light Alliance hasn’t fought a war in tens of thousands of years. Border patrols are naturally lax. Are you worried about an invasion from the Fei Lie Empire? Just look at Old John on lookout duty with barely enough Demon Crystals for round trips. If anything, I’m more concerned about bribes not being accepted than bribes backfiring with executions. Fortunately, they haven’t completely decayed.”

Given the current state of the Divine Light Alliance, border areas maintaining this level of order was already commendable. At least there was no rampant enslavement or hidden population abuses. In the Master Plane or Star Burst Plane, entire villages might be converted into heretics. Anthony now already engaged in such affairs.

At that moment, something stirred in Anthony’s mind. He glanced outside and suddenly said, “Faradi is here–get the boss back quickly.”

“Isn’t she here to see you? Why call Ange back?” Negris asked in confusion but dutifully sent a projection to summon Ange.

Not long after, Faradi burst in, radiant and brimming with excitement. She exclaimed, “Lord Anthony, your method works wonders! By arranging suitable conditions for them to work together and introducing a few difficulties to force cooperation–or scaring them outright–it’s amazing! This month alone has seen twelve successful pairings. You’re incredible.”

“Haha, of course. This isn’t an easy task for the Goddess of Dawn. Come, let me check your results.” Anthony said.

Faradi extended her palm, and Anthony theatrically examined it. Meanwhile, Ange passed behind her stealthily, clawing at her back and extracting several clumps of Dawn Origin.

Perhaps it was due to the surge in divine power from the matchmaking successes, but this time Ange extracted even more Dawn Origin than before–yet Faradi remained oblivious.

It’s unclear whether the Goddess of Dawn truly exists. If someday she reconciles accounts with Faradi and finds glaring discrepancies, that would spell trouble.

With sufficient Dawn Origin, Ange could finally continue his research. After scrutinizing all night and wasting numerous materials, Ange produced two black yet iridescent pearls.

“What are these?” Negris asked.

Ange picked up one pearl, squeezed it, and hurled it forward, smashing it into a nearby crystal pillar. It detonated into a black light ball.

As the black light ball dissipated, the portion of the crystal pillar it had enveloped vanished entirely. The black light ball seemed to ‘devour’ a large chunk of the pillar.

Anthony and Durken’s eyes lit up, while Negris gasped in shock. “Dark Power? Original Magic Egg?”