Pioneer Lord: A Leisurely Imperial Life

Chapter 324 Natural Magic

As darkness fell completely, the temperature in the desert plummeted, yet the cool breeze could not dispel the thick stench of blood.

Richard stood with his hands behind his back, gazing towards the city wall, where the battle was nearing its end.

The soldiers of Huangshiling were still resisting, and there were still sporadic shouts of battle from the city walls, but they had already lost their momentum.

With the two elven assassins and Baron Yellowstone dead, there are no other high-level combatants left in this territory; all that remains are ordinary people.

As for the two elves, when they use their life force in battle, they manifest the totems of their tribes. Richard recognized that they came from the Blackwisp tribe.

Viscount Hongyan knelt on the ground.

He was trembling all over, and the urine stains on his trousers were still wet. Two guards stood behind him, their hands on their sword hilts, their faces expressionless.

"Tell me, what exactly is Baron Yellowstone's background? Tell me from the beginning, or I'll feed you to the wolves."

Viscount Red Rock shivered, his voice stammering.

"He... he suddenly came to our door three years ago, saying that he was the second son of a minor noble family and offered two thousand gold coins to buy a baron title to settle down here."

He swallowed hard. "This land in Huangshiling is too barren. There isn't even a place where crops can be grown. Whoever buys it will lose money. Since he doesn't mind, I'll sell it to him."

Richard tilted his head slightly: "You didn't know he was from the Vatican?"

Viscount Red Rock trembled, his face filled with even greater terror than before.

"I only found out later!" His voice was shrill and urgent. "After he bought the land, people from the Vatican kept coming to him!"

"But... how could I dare to interfere? He has the Vatican backing him; I can't afford to offend him..."

"Did he tell you that he was a member of the Holy War Alliance?" Richard asked again.

Viscount Hongyan looked bewildered.

"The Holy War Alliance? What's that?"

Richard stared at him for a few seconds. The man's expression didn't seem fake; perhaps he genuinely didn't know.

Indeed, he was just a useless feudal lord who turned a blind eye to money.

"After he arrived, did he do anything particularly strange?" Richard asked, turning his gaze away.

"Plant trees!"

Viscount Hongyan quickly replied, "He had many date palm trees planted on the westernmost edge of Huangshi Territory. Most of the water diverted from the Nansha River was diverted there!"

"He valued that date palm grove highly and even built a military camp around it, stationing dozens of knights who patrolled day and night."

Richard frowned.

What were you thinking?

Date palms grow relatively slowly; without grafting, it takes at least seven or eight years from planting to bearing fruit.

He spent two thousand gold coins to buy a barren barony and diverted all the water from the South Sand River, just to plant a date palm grove that would take several years to harvest.

unreasonable.

Where is the date palm grove?

"It's to the west, just an hour's walk."

The desert night was bright, the earth was bathed in a silvery light, and soon a blurry shadow appeared on the horizon ahead.

Arrived.

At the very front was a military camp. The soldiers there seemed unaware that Huangshi Territory had been invaded. Without further ado, Im led his men to quickly wipe them out.

Passing through the barracks littered with corpses, a vast date palm grove stretched out in the night, seemingly endless.

Most of the water intercepted from the Nansha River has been diverted here. After being exposed to the sun all day, you can feel a sultry, humid heat hitting you.

The surrounding area consists of ordinary date palm trees with thick trunks and dense canopies, no different from typical date palm trees.

As you venture deeper into the forest, the date palms gradually thin out, replaced by a few solitary watchtowers standing in the clearings.

But what's even more eye-catching is a giant tree behind the watchtower, which stands out abruptly in the date palm grove.

The tree was at least twenty meters tall, with a trunk so thick that it would take several people to encircle it, and a dense canopy.

As the moonlight shone down, a faint glow of fireflies appeared between the tree canopies, and even the bark gleamed with a dark red sheen.

An ancient war tree of the elves!

Richard had seen a record of this tree in the library at Runaway Fortress.

The Elven Moon Servant can use arcane magic to summon the Ancient Tree of War and transform it into terrifying withered tree guardians.

The withered tree guardians are exceptionally strong, standing at least twenty meters tall, growing taller with age, and possessing at least a star-level extraordinary vitality.

In addition, its main body possesses a giant biological force similar to that of the Rock Armored Earth Dragon, which means that its final combat power can no longer be measured by the extraordinary level.

This tree is far from mature.

Richard walked around the tree trunk and discovered a complex magic circle engraved on the ground near the roots.

The array patterns were pale green, gleaming faintly in the night, like living water flowing slowly in a ditch.

He crouched down and examined it carefully.

The trenches of the magic circle contained a large quantity of rare magical materials.

The remains of some kind of creature, fragments of glowing gemstones, and some other things he couldn't name.

These materials were carefully arranged and embedded in the soil to provide a continuous source of energy for the magic circle.

The unique natural magic of the elves!

I've heard my older brother mention before that in the Elf Garden where the Moon Elf lives, there's a small patch of fields that are grown using magic.

Although it is extremely expensive, it can quickly produce life crops, comparable to the system's garden.

In this desert, someone is using the same method to force the ancient war trees to grow!

Richard stood up and scanned the surrounding date palm grove with his own light.

This forest covers at least 5,000 acres, but there are certainly more than just this one ancient war tree.

He continued to explore deeper into the forest, and sure enough, every hundred steps there was a similar giant tree standing among the date palm grove.

The dark red patterns on the tree trunk, the magic circle at the roots, and the rare materials buried under the magic circle are exactly the same.

He roughly counted them; there were at least several dozen.

If they are all ripened prematurely, they will be summoned by the Moon Elf...

Gee!

Richard soared into the air and hovered above the date palm grove. From above, the outline of the grove was even clearer.

The fact that the elves of the Blackbush tribe dared to secretly cultivate the War Tree here, thereby accumulating power in secret, suggests that it must be related to that Holy War Alliance.

This is planting spies within the Star Empire.

Moreover, he believed that there were definitely more than just this one place; there must be similar growth-promoting forests in the four major realms of the empire.

But why?

Richard couldn't understand it.

Some are secretly cultivating ancient war trees, some are creating hordes of undead in the Demon Empire, some are assassinating the heir of the Sky Eagle, and some are taking advantage of the chaos during the Northern Purge.

All of this points in the same direction: this Holy War Alliance is brewing an earth-shattering war involving two great empires!

The key question is, is it just the Blackbush tribe that's involved, or is the entire Golden Forest involved?

No.

At least the Darkmoon Clan shouldn't know, otherwise the Wolf Riders would.

Richard glanced down at the dark red shadows of the trees at his feet and continued to gather his thoughts.

What kind of person is the Yellowstone Baron?

Viscount Red Rock confirmed that he was definitely a member of the Papacy, and of a certain rank, otherwise he wouldn't have been chosen to manage a territory.

Now that he has become involved with the Holy War Alliance, does this mean that the Holy War Alliance is actually a shell of the Vatican?

Richard thought for a while, but still couldn't figure it out.

There is too little information.

He now has only the dead Yellowstone Baron, the Red Rock Viscount who knows nothing, and dozens of ancient war trees that haven't even grown yet.

He suddenly became very irritable.

Since he came into this world, he has forced himself to follow the rules.

Just like today, negotiation is negotiation, and war is war. He gave Baron Yellowstone two choices: surrender or resist.

However, they were ambushed.

Although the problem was easily solved, he didn't like the feeling of following the rules while others broke them.

Those bastards are trying to throw this continent into chaos; they can't sleep until war breaks out and blood flows like rivers.

He just wanted to live a relaxed and leisurely life with his beloved maids, but the world wouldn't let him have peace.

This feeling of being caught up in and forced to cope irritated him deep down...

A sudden surge of malevolent fire erupted!

Richard suddenly remembered the Snow Rabbit Clan Chief, the rabbit with the colorful bird crest on his head.

His face was full of resentment, and the image of him roaring to the sky and breaking his longsword is still vivid in my mind.

He just wanted to live in a peaceful place without war or hatred, but this damned world wouldn't allow it.

Richard felt that he was no different from him, except that he was unlucky and was burned to ashes.

But not only am I lucky, I also have the ability to burn this world.

For no reason...

Richard wanted to blow up this date palm grove with a single shot!