When the first ray of the sun shone on Ange's body, his soul slowly ignited, waves radiated from the empty eye sockets, and he could sense anything he touched. This was the way the skeleton observed the outside world.
The soul extended out and landed on Ange's chest and ribs, where the pecking sound sounded. A small bird was pecking at the broken spot on Ange's ribs, removing the grass seeds embedded there, and then busily swallowing them.
Ange remained in his original position and did not move, letting the bird clean his body. This was a good thing for him, because the grass seeds embedded in his bones would burst his bones if they got wet and sprouted.
After the bird flew away, Ange got up from the ground and checked his body.
"A lot of damage has happened again. It needs to be replaced..." He said to himself. After a long sleep in the winter, Ange's skeleton was much damaged compared to last year. If not replaced, it is likely to affect his activities.
But when he thought about needing to go to the palace not far away to find replacement bones, a feeling of uneasiness filled his heart. There were well-preserved bones stored there, but the powerful power exuding from the palace still frightened him.
A thousand years ago, the immortal king disappeared, but there was still an influence deep in Ange's soul, making him reluctant to approach the palace.
"Just use it this year, let's talk about next year..." Ange finally gave up his determination to go to the palace to find a replacement skeleton, and turned around and walked towards the fields not far away.
The place where he stood was a haystack, his shelter, where he used to sleep and shield himself from the sun. But now, he no longer cares too much about the sunlight, but he still maintains the habit of sleeping at sunrise and working at sunset. This is an instinct deep in his bones.
This haystack became his home. In the past, when he had companions, they would hide in the haystack together and crawl out in the evening.
However, this kind of work and rest habit is not the best choice, because the moisture and darkness in the haystack can easily breed insects and corrode bones. To avoid these problems, Ange began to bundle straw stalks into bundles, pile them into a semi-enclosed cavity, and then drilled them into the hole. In this way, rain and sunlight cannot enter, and the condition of the bones is relatively much better.
Although he no longer suffers from sun damage, the routine of many years remains. It was late in the day, and it was time for him to begin his hard work.
Ange is a little skeleton who grows vegetables in the nearby Undead Empire. He is responsible for cultivating fifty acres of farmland and has spent eleven hundred years.
Once, there were more than sixty vegetable gardening skeletons like Ange on the entire farm, each of whom was responsible for cultivating fifty acres of farmland. Ange is not conspicuous, just an ordinary skeleton among them. The only thing special about him is his longevity, he lives longer than other skeletons.
Ordinary skeletons don't take care of their bones. They drive away birds and hide in haystacks. So their bones can only last a dozen years before rotting on the ground.
Sometimes, advanced undead creatures fly through the sky and notice that a certain piece of farmland has been abandoned, and they will notify their superiors. After ten days, new skeletons will be sent to replace them.
Of course, farmland that has been abandoned for a period of time will definitely not yield a harvest this year. But this is not a big problem. Undead creatures do not need food. The crops grown here are only for storage in case visiting human missions need it.
However, due to tensions between the Undead Empire and humans, no human missions have visited for hundreds of years.
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But it doesn't matter. The cost of keeping this farm running is low, with only sixty skeletons, keeping the farm running is effortless. In fact, the top leaders of the Undead Empire even forgot about the existence of this farm and continued to operate only by inertia.
In this farm that runs on inertia, Ange has always kept a low profile. No one ever noticed this skeleton that lived an unusually long time. Intelligent higher undead creatures rarely appear. They are not corrupted, so they will not be disposed of. Moreover, he discovered a way to extend his life.
When some skeletons begin to decay and lose the ability to move, it is not their entire body that rots away. Some may only have a broken hand, some may have a damaged spine, but more often the bone plate is damaged.
While these skeletons are unable to move, Ange will dismantle the parts of their bodies that are still intact and use them to replace his own decayed parts.
This method lasted for more than a hundred years, and companions were replaced many times, but Ange still persisted in tatters. Then, in the 139th year, when he woke up again from his winter sleep, Ange found that the entire world had changed dramatically.
The surroundings were absolutely quiet, with no wails of resentful spirits, no screams of evil spirits, and even no advanced undead creatures flying across the sky. Even the farm companions were missing.
Ange didn't realize what was happening. As usual, he continued to repeat the work of the past hundred years, weeding, plowing, and sowing seeds. After a week of hard work, he began to notice that everything but the land he was responsible for was deserted.
"Is there another skeleton rotting?" he thought to himself. As usual, he immediately set off to find a replacement skeleton. He checked all the abandoned areas and found fifty-nine skeletons that were not seriously decayed, and even the soul fire had been extinguished.
Ange finally felt that something was wrong, but he was just a low-level vegetable-growing skeleton and had difficulty understanding what was happening. His joy came from the fifty intact skeletons, which were stored in a hollow made of haystacks. This invention made him happy for a long time.
These bones became his replacement material, and for the next two hundred years, he spent time peacefully relying on the replacement of these bones.
During these two hundred years, Ange continued to complete his work, sowing, harvesting, leaving seeds, dragging excess food to the large cave at the edge of the farm, and then throwing it down the chute.
The large crypts are filled with breath, which keeps crops longer. And the space is extremely vast. If Ange was alone, it might take a thousand years to fill this large cave.
As time goes by, the bones will eventually be used up. In particular, bones stored in cavities slowly decay over time.
When the last spare bones were used up, Ange had a broken leg and had to limp out of the farm that had not been left for three hundred years.
The entire undead empire was silent, not a single soul could be seen. The ground was filled with broken and weathered bones. Judging from the degree of decay, these bones had been dead for at least two hundred years.
"Why is this happening?" Ange walked doubtfully on this silent land, looking for replacement bones. Finally, he came to the palace.
The Palace of Rest is the supreme existence of the Immortal Empire, in charge of the soul and eternal life, and is the place where the Immortal King sleeps. It has a natural coercion on low-level undead creatures.
Ange wandered around the palace for several days before he got used to the pressure and entered the confines of the Palace of Rest. The place is filled with the smell of death, and the ground is covered with thick soil, which can dry out everything and preserve it for a longer period of time.
In these soils, Ange found some relatively strong and solid bones. If Ange is a low-level bone skeleton, these strong and solid bones once belonged to a higher-level gray bone or white bone skeleton.
Unfortunately, these skeletons, which were once stronger than Ange, have now lost their souls, leaving only a pile of skeletons. If they were not buried in the soil, they would have rotted and decayed like their counterparts outside.
Ange selected a bunch of bones, pieced them together into a complete skeleton, and then transferred his soul into it. He suddenly turned into a more advanced gray skeleton.
Although he wanted to piece together a more advanced silver skeleton, he found that his soul was too weak to effectively drive those more advanced bones. So, he had to give up the idea.
In this way, Ange returned to the farm and continued to live a life of resting at sunrise and working at sunset, until his bones rotted again.
In this undead empire, Ange has always maintained a low-key life. No one noticed this unusually long-lived skeleton. Intelligent higher undead rarely come here, and he is not corruptible, so he will not be abandoned.
In addition, he also invented ways to extend his life, maintain his bones, and replace damaged parts so that he can continue to perform his work, planting vegetables, harvesting, and storing.
However, his thousand-year lonely life is about to change. Although he knows nothing about the changes in the Immortal Empire, his fate has long been destined that Ange will be involved in a new adventure full of unknowns and challenges.