002 The Whisper of the Dead Matures

Because he possessed the Handbook for Cultivating Dark-Attribute Plants, Karen knew very clearly how crucial the ripening stage of the Whisper of the Dead was. Its quality was often decided during this period.

Under normal circumstances, once the Whisper of the Dead matured, there was a five percent chance it would become ordinary quality, and a one-in-one-hundred-thousand chance it would rise to fine quality.

By now, the only thing left standing between Karen and the upgrade condition for his territory was the cultivation of a single Whisper of the Dead.

If this batch could mature smoothly, producing one fine-quality blossom and five thousand ordinary-quality ones, then as long as Karen could also raise the level of the Bone Tower, he would be able to advance his territory once more. With that, his own strength would also take another step forward.

So the mixture of tension and anticipation he felt then was easy to imagine.

Starting two days ago, security around the flower fields of Karen’s territory had been raised to the highest level.

Death Wing circled overhead, fifteen hundred second-tier undead patrolled the perimeter, and even Karen’s Bone Tower remained in a constant state of martial readiness.

Under Karen’s watchful gaze, time passed little by little, and the more than one hundred thousand Whispers of the Dead in the flower fields began to exude dark energy.

At first, the darkness lingering over the fields was still very faint. Forget the naked eye; even Karen could hardly sense any increase in it.

But as time went on, the dark aura grew thicker and thicker.

The presence of dark energy became noticeably stronger, and one could even see a thin black mist beginning to drift through the flower fields.

And when the Whisper of the Dead finally reached the standard of maturity, the entire field became a different world.

Not only was the flower field wrapped in dense black haze, but from within it came an eerie sound, like the whispering of the dead.

Only then did Karen understand why the plant bore that name.

And as those uncanny murmurs arose, all manner of strange things began appearing within his territory.

Of course, these strange things were mostly undead.

There were corpses, skeletons, and from time to time even the shadow of a ghost.

But their strength was not great. Most were only first or second tier, and even third-tier beings were rare. The undead under Karen’s command could suppress them with ease and keep them from approaching the flower fields.

For Karen, the appearance of these weak undead was not a danger at all, but a blessing.

He did not keep any of them, but after killing them, even the ghosts left behind Ghost Cores. If Karen was interested, he could fuse them and turn them into his own subordinates.

Of course, at the moment Karen was not very interested in those undead. What concerned him more was the outcome of the Whispers of the Dead as they matured.

On this matter, the system was quite considerate. Every time a Whisper of the Dead matured, it would automatically report the count to Karen, allowing him to grasp the situation very intuitively.

...

Ding. The Whisper of the Dead planted in your territory has matured. Final quality: trash. Same-quality matured so far: 14,573 blossoms.

Ding. The Whisper of the Dead planted in your territory has matured. Final quality: ordinary. Same-quality matured so far: 573 blossoms.

...

Similar system notifications kept flashing rapidly, and the two numbers continued to rise. After roughly thirty minutes, the flood of messages finally stopped.

By then, only one blossom in the flower field had not yet matured, and it was wrapped in dense darkness. The final totals for trash quality and ordinary quality were also already in.

Trash quality: 106,400 blossoms.

Ordinary quality: 5,122 blossoms.

It could be said that Karen had essentially already met the first two conditions. Now only one fine-quality blossom remained.

And luck was on Karen’s side as well. At the present rate, when that last blossom finally matured, its quality would at least be at the fine level.

However, just as Karen was feeling excited, an accident occurred. Death Wing, circling above the territory, suddenly let out a loud cry.

At that moment, there was no need for Alice to translate; Karen already knew what had happened, because in the next instant, a black panther shot out and made for the flower fields.

The moment that black panther appeared, Karen’s Eye of Insight activated automatically, and its attributes surfaced before his eyes.

...

Darkmoon Shadow Panther

Type: Magical Beast

Attribute: Darkness

Strength: Fourth Tier, Excellent

Description: A darkness-attribute magical beast drawn here by the dark aura released when the Whisper of the Dead matured. It possesses extraordinary speed and ability, and can move briefly through shadows.

...

Seeing the panther’s attributes, Karen’s expression changed. By then, however, the beast had already broken into the flower field.

In just a few seconds, several hundred Whispers of the Dead had been swallowed by it. At the sight of this, how could Karen dare hesitate? He immediately opened the Territory Shop and sold every currently mature Whisper of the Dead.

...

Ding. You sold 106,000 trash-quality Whispers of the Dead and gained 1,060,000 territory energy.

Ding. You sold 5,122 ordinary-quality Whispers of the Dead and gained 512,200 territory energy.

...

In the blink of an eye, more than one hundred thousand Whispers of the Dead vanished. At the same time, Karen’s territory energy surged to as much as 2,450,000.

Since crossing over, this was the first time his territory energy had broken one million, and it had not merely crossed it, but soared past two million.

Yet Karen had no time to rejoice. Just as his territory energy was rocketing upward, the Darkmoon Shadow Panther ravaging the flower field realized that the Whispers of the Dead strewn across the ground had suddenly disappeared.

It was instantly filled with fury. It had been counting on those one hundred thousand Whispers of the Dead to increase its strength, and now that they were suddenly gone, its feelings could be imagined.

But just as it had barely let out a roar, before it could do anything else, Karen gave a direct order: “Take it down. Don’t let it interfere with the final blossom’s maturation!”

At his command, the third-tier undead that had been standing ready for most of the day all sprang into action.

The fastest were the third-tier mages, whose control spells landed on the Darkmoon Shadow Panther at once.

Blindness robbed the panther of sight, and before it could recover, it was already trapped by Bone Cage, the advanced spell of Bone Claw.

And while it was confined, dozens of third-tier melee undead under Karen’s command swarmed it.

At the sight of this, Karen’s mouth curved upward, and he was about to celebrate the addition of a fourth-tier corpse to his collection when an utterly astonishing scene unfolded...