Rhapsody of the Skeleton – Chapter 27

Ch 27: The New Official Takes Office

Next to the Soul Rift, Old Hank was directing the villagers in digging the Dark Canopy with all their might.

Yun Ming, using battle formations as units, assigned tasks to the lower white bones. There were six groups in total, rotating to patrol around the village. While four groups patrolled, the other two were responsible for guarding the Soul Rift.

Among the remaining six white bones, one named Sonic possessed a rare bone technique: long-range vision. He could clearly see any object within a kilometer’s range. Yun Ming assigned him to the watchtower to observe any unusual movements around the village at all times. The other five white bones served as a reserve team, standing by at any moment.

Inside the Soul Well House, Old Hank excitedly grasped Yun Ming’s hand bone, almost shedding tears. Originally, Old Hank was a little worried. Now that Yun Ming had so many lower white bones, he could completely kill everyone in the village to enhance the strength of the lower white bones.

What he never expected was that Yun Ming would issue such an order to the lower white bones: “It is forbidden to harm any life in the village, and it is also forbidden to destroy any houses in the village.” Not only that, Yun Ming did not use soul speech for this order, but announced it loudly. The villagers who heard these words first showed disbelief in their eyes, which was immediately replaced by gratitude, and the movements in their hands couldn’t help but speed up a bit.

The white bones were already accustomed to obeying Yun Ming’s orders and did not have any doubts. But Jin Shan was different. As Yun Ming’s same-level vassal, after hearing Yun Ming’s order, he suddenly felt that something in his mind “snap” shattered.

Later, Jin Shan, who had already become a well-known merchant bone of his generation, recalled this day and believed that what shattered with that “snap” sound was his worldview as a skeleton.

Looking at the excited Old Hank in front of him, Yun Ming felt a little helpless. The reason he didn’t use soul speech was that he saw that there was still some fear in the eyes of these villagers, and he wanted to reassure them so that he could use these villagers in many ways in the future.

After seeing off Old Hank, only Yun Ming and Jin Shan remained in the house. Having just recovered from the shock of that order, Jin Shan couldn’t wait to ask, “Boss, you could ascend to a war bone just by killing all the humans in this village, and you’d still have a lot of living souls left over. Why are you protecting these humans instead?”

Yun Ming said while looking at the Soul Well, “Compared to absorbing their living souls, they have a greater use. In many ways, they are irreplaceable by skeletons.” After saying that, Yun Ming himself felt that this reason was a bit far-fetched. Could it be that his previous life was really as a human?

Immediately, Yun Ming shook his head. Whether he was a human or a skeleton before, it was too far away for the current him.

“Then… okay, you’re the boss, what you say goes.” Jin Shan had no choice but to accept his fate.

After roughly estimating the depth of the Soul Well and the width of the wellhead, Yun Ming already had a clear idea in his mind. A Soul Well of this size could produce about 5 standard gray soul orbs in a month. According to this quantity, it could also produce 50 *jin* of soul water （although the soul water in the Soul Well would not dry up, once the soul water was reduced to half of the total amount, it would affect the production of soul orbs）.

If he wanted red soul orbs containing more essence souls, he was afraid that he might not even get one in a month. As for higher-level purple, cyan, or even black soul orbs, he should just forget about it. After all, the quality of the soul orbs also depended on the size of the Soul Well.

Seeing Yun Ming staring motionlessly at the Soul Well, Jin Shan immediately began to show off his knowledge, “Although this Soul Well is a bit small, it’s much better than the average skeleton village. It can barely produce 5 soul orbs a month.”

“Then you will be responsible for guarding the Soul Well from now on.” Yun Ming assigned a task to Jin Shan. Jin Shan, who was at the side, was still chattering non-stop, “If you ask me, these gray soul orbs are nothing at all. Boss, have you ever seen a red soul orb? Let me tell you… Boss, what did you say?” Jin Shan had an incredulous look on his face.

“I said that from now on, you will be in charge of guarding the Soul Well and be responsible for collecting soul orbs and soul water. What’s wrong? You don’t want to do it?” Yun Ming asked Jin Shan, pretending to be serious.

“No… no, I want to do it so much! Boss, you are the most discerning jade bone! Hahaha!” Jin Shan, who had reacted, was even more excited than Old Hank just now. He opened his arms, wanting to give Yun Ming a big hug.

Not used to such enthusiasm, Yun Ming dodged it without showing any emotion. Jin Shan was not embarrassed either, and continued to laugh heartily, unable to stop at all.

In order not to disturb Jin Shan, Yun Ming tactfully left the Soul Well House and prepared to go to the Soul Rift to take a look. He had just taken two steps when he encountered Old Hank, who had been waiting nearby. Yun Ming discovered that there was still a trace of fear and nervousness in Old Hank’s eyes as he looked at him. He kept wringing his hands, as if he had something to say to him, but he didn’t dare to say it.

Under Yun Ming’s gaze, Old Hank finally revealed everything. It turned out that the young and middle-aged people in the village were equipped with weapons, and they had also built fences and watchtowers. Old Hank wanted to ask Yun Ming if he could let them maintain the status quo, after all, it had taken a lot of effort to get it done.

Yun Ming thought for a while and directly told Old Hank, “Yes, you can continue to build the defensive fortifications that you haven’t finished, and you can also continue to hone your weapons.”

Old Hank once again burst into tears of gratitude, and patted his chest to guarantee that the honed weapons would be stored uniformly and would never appear in the village at ordinary times.

Yun Ming nodded. He really didn’t know how to deal with this kind of scene. He thought that he must call Jin Shan next time he encountered this situation. His leg bones accelerated and he hurried towards the Soul Rift.

The villagers had already dug the Dark Canopy. Seeing Yun Ming coming over, they greeted Yun Ming one after another, “Hello, Lord Yun Ming,” “Hello, Lord Yun Ming,” “Lord Yun Ming”… Yun Ming felt that one of the villagers looked a bit familiar. It seemed that his name was A Qing, and it was he who discovered him and his subordinates in the watchtower and sent a signal to the whole village.

Yun Ming nodded, feeling a little lightheaded. After the villagers left, Yun Ming walked into the underground. The Dark Canopy was very large, enough for Yun Ming and the lower white bones to live in. There were also bone poles around and in the center to support the Dark Canopy.

The four patrol groups had already set off. Yun Ming was now very grateful that he had asked Elder Wo to teach him how to train soldiers, otherwise his lower white bones would definitely not be as capable and efficient as they were now.

At this time, a white bone reported a new situation to Yun Ming through soul speech: Gray bones were constantly climbing up from the Soul Rift, and he didn’t know what to do. Should he directly beat them back into the Soul Rift or keep them as cannon fodder.

Yun Ming came to the edge of the Soul Rift. One group of white bones was honing their battle formation, and the other group was looking at several gray bones. Seeing this, Yun Ming nodded with satisfaction. It seemed that these guys were very hardworking. His previous training had already made them used to it, and they had also learned to divide the work. Very good. Seeing Yun Ming coming over, the white bones all stopped their movements, waiting for Yun Ming’s instructions.

“You’re doing a good job, knowing how to divide the work, and not forgetting to practice the battle formation. Very good!” Yun Ming knew that he must not be stingy with praise at this time. This was a great opportunity to boost morale. As expected, the white bones who heard the praise from the upper jade bone unconsciously straightened their chests, and a hint of a smile was hard to hide on their face bones.

A white bone stood up and said, “We just want to hone the battle formation and follow you, Lord, to kill the enemy! To prove ourselves!” The other white bones echoed together, “Kill the enemy! Kill the enemy! Kill the enemy!”

“Good! I believe your performance will not let me down.” Yun Ming affirmed them, and then looked at those gray bones. Yun Ming believed that cannon fodder was still needed, otherwise, if they encountered other skeleton armies, they would have no way to deal with groups of gray bones. However, while ensuring the number of cannon fodder, Yun Ming also wanted to ensure the quality of the cannon fodder.

So he used soul speech to instruct the lower white bones: In the future, the guard group on duty would also need to be responsible for collecting gray bones, imitating the Bone Nurturing Division, ten gray bones as a batch, and only one gray bone per batch. In this way, while ensuring the quantity, they could maximize the quality. If there were any humanoid gray bones with good potential, they could use soul orbs to promote them to white bones.

As for the other beast-shaped white bones, because their bone structure and combat methods were different, it would take a lot of time to adapt them, so Yun Ming would not consider them for the time being. When his own strength became stronger in the future, when he was promoted to a strong bone, he might consider it.

Anyway, since he had nothing to do, Yun Ming simply sorted out a few things that still needed to be resolved: First, he had to find Old Hank and ask him to organize the villagers to dig a few more large Dark Canopies to house the gray bones. This would not only improve the survival rate of the gray bones, but also facilitate management; he also had to ask Jin Shan to make some soul-luring water to prepare for emergencies; Yun Ming also found that the village’s bone materials were also running out, so he had to guarantee the supply; he also had to ask Old Hank to find out about the situation in the vicinity…

Yun Ming suddenly realized that the garrison mission was a long and arduous one.