Reincarnated as a bamboo rat, it begins its extreme survival struggle.

In the nun's perception, although the Sea of ​​Despair belonging to the Bamboo Sea region had stopped collapsing, the existence of the Royal Tomb still subtly influenced the Bamboo Sea region.

As the king of the bamboo forest, Bell had no time to bother with these small fry who were developing the City of Bones. In fact, to some extent, Bell was happy to see a large number of adventurers exploring the City of Bones deep in the bamboo forest.

They will consume a lot of resources here, which can weaken the influence of the Bone City and indirectly help Bell's plan to develop the royal tomb.

The nun didn't know what Bell wanted with these corpses. She guessed that Bell wanted to use them to repair the damaged Sea of ​​Despair in the Bamboo Forest, a dangerous place. After all, the king of a dangerous place had a very deep connection with the Sea of ​​Despair and possessed skills that were highly related to the Sea of ​​Despair.

But what Bell was planning was far beyond what the nun had guessed.

"I can glean some experience and knowledge from these thirty ancient corpses that were powerful in life, but the most valuable resource among them is actually the traces of time that ordinary people cannot perceive."

The traces of time are a truly top-tier resource. Ordinary people are completely unable to perceive the traces left by the great power of time. They can only passively accept the baptism of time and only realize at some point that they have become old and decrepit.

Logically speaking, for someone of Bell's level, or for a high-level mage in Azure Star City, time is an untouchable force.

Let alone them, even if the powerful beings buried in the royal tomb were brought back to life, few of them would be able to sense the power of time and mobilize their power to capture the remnants of time.

Bell's ability to sense the existence of time remnants is the product of a confluence of various factors and coincidences.

He was born into this world with unique powers. His super-high mental strength made Bell's senses sharp. When he first came into contact with the magic inscription, the poem Bell chose was highly related to the power of time.

The poems "A Long Song" and "The Short Day" gave Bell the possibility of preserving the remnants of time.

"I can sense the remnants of time, and I can also use my body to bear a portion of them, but I still cannot use this power. I can only use the aura of the remnants of time to construct a false temporal predicament."

Bell was well aware of his own abilities; he knew he couldn't use real time manipulation, and the illusory time trap was Bell's limit.

However, using a powerful force often does not necessarily require one to be strong oneself.

It is important to understand that everything in the world is in motion. Just as the comment Bell saw when he acquired the skill "Fire Wisdom" said, "The past, present, and future of the world are all an eternal living fire."

The world keeps turning, and the various forces within it flow according to certain laws.

Transformation includes the supreme power of time.

According to Bell's vision, if he could manipulate an entire environment and make everything within that environment flow according to certain laws, time would be no exception.

If Bell could mobilize the things in an entire ecosystem and control their flow and changes, he could indirectly use a power far beyond his control—the unstoppable and inviolable power of time.

"This is part of my plan: to construct a super-wide-area magic circle to indirectly utilize the power of time."

Bell had a grand plan in mind: to construct a super-wide magic circle that indirectly activated time magic, using the entire bamboo forest as a base. However, this was only part of the plan, serving Bell's core design.

Making this plan a reality is very difficult. The most basic challenge is how to ensure that an ultra-wide-area magic circle can operate smoothly, which is a major problem.

The energy source for a magic circle to function, how to prevent a magic circle from being destroyed after it is set up, and how to create a continuous magic circle...

Faced with a mountain of problems, Bell's deep thinking alone is not enough. Given time, Bell can come up with solutions to these problems. Perhaps in a few decades or even a hundred years, he can find a way out.

"But that's definitely not enough, far from enough."

One person's wisdom is limited, not to mention that Bell was also excavating royal tombs; he couldn't possibly spend all his time designing magic circles.

At times like this, Bell desperately needs the help of his teammates; even the Shadow running at full power isn't enough.

"Leave this to us. It's only right to help friends, not to mention there's nothing else we can do here."

The existence of the skeleton race greatly solved this problem. When Bell approached them, none of the skeletons refused, all patting their chests and indicating that there was no problem.

They certainly didn't understand things like magic circles, nor did they know about the outside world of the bamboo forest.

But Bell doesn't need them to know; as long as the skeletons cooperate fully, he can perform calculations and deductions.

[Military strength consolidated]

In the life-or-death struggle on this battlefield, the skills that generals use to enhance the attributes of their soldiers have a completely new use in Bell's hands.

When morale doesn't collapse on the battlefield and soldiers are united, the skill [Force Cohesion] can be maintained for a long time with very low resource consumption. The reason it's not used in normal times is that human minds are too scattered and difficult to unite.

But the skeletons don't have this problem. They can enter a state of near-complete emptiness, letting Bell manipulate their entire sea of ​​consciousness at will.

This ability allows Bell to easily focus their consciousness and enter the state of "military force solidification".

Bell doesn't need to improve their overall attributes; he only needs to connect the consciousness of these skeletons with his own, using them as an external brain to provide additional computing power.

Right at the entrance cave of the royal tomb, a consciousness computer was built, with Bell as the server center and a large number of skeletons as the computing units.

At this moment, Bell's consciousness entered a state of ecstasy, as if he were ascending to heaven.

At this time, the flow of all things in the world slowed down considerably, and Bell's thinking ability also increased.

Unprecedented power.

The concept of the "Ultra-Wide Area Magic Array," which was only a concept and had a bunch of difficult problems, began to be implemented at an astonishing speed.

Basically, spending six hours fused with the skeleton race will advance this idea by one percent.

"Let me transform into a mouse-shaped computer and completely perfect this massive magic circle design."

Although Bell cannot maintain a constant connection with the Skeletons, his current ability to activate the Ultra-Wide Magic Array is enough.

With two months to go until the New Year, Bell can ensure that he completes the design and on-site installation of the ultra-wide-area magic circle before the New Year, taking into account other plans.

While dispelling the [Military Force Condensation], Bell also went outside to collect corpses and continued to excavate the royal tomb.

The royal tombs cover a vast area, but their depth is not particularly impressive. The overall height of the pyramid-like tombs is only a little over 300 meters, giving them a unique sense of flatness.

Although this height is indeed astonishing, for example, in the world before reincarnation, a building that is 300 meters tall would generally be a landmark building in a large city.

However, the burial depth achieved at this height is still insufficient to withstand Bell's pixel tools.

Holding a pickaxe, Bell dug down from the entrance cave of the royal tomb right in front of the skeletons, all the way down to the white bone wall at the bottom of the royal tomb.

The environment here is extremely harsh, and Bell has to drink a bucket of milk from time to time to deal with the various negative effects imposed on him in order to continue working.

However, the death energy that Bell experienced in the strata beneath the royal tomb was not as intense as inside the tomb itself, suggesting that the tomb's existence also sealed off a large amount of death energy, preventing it from leaking out.

After nearly a week of digging, Bell has unearthed a large number of intersecting tunnels in the deepest stratum of the royal tomb. These tunnels are distributed in a very regular pattern and will be of great use to Bell.

To be honest, Bell was ruthless. During a break from his work, he entered the royal tomb and dismantled the mithril-cast observatory. This act brought Bell three mithril cubes and a bunch of scraps.

Mithril cubes are pure mithril cubes that Bell crafted using a workbench after disassembling the Mithril Observatory into smaller pieces. Each cube weighs one and a half tons, and one cube is basically enough to buy half of Azure Star City.

Among those scattered materials were small pieces of non-synthetic mithril, as well as some gems that still shimmer after many years, and rare materials that have survived to this day.

Bell carefully stored all these items away, intending to use them in his Ultra Wide Area Magic Array. After all, without these materials, his Ultra Wide Area Magic Array would not be able to become a reality.

It took Bell almost a week to do all this, during which time Bell did not burn the ancient corpses to gain knowledge.

After all, a single corpse can only provide Bell with limited enhancements, and if a large number of corpses are burned, Bell cannot retain all the extracted time remnants, as his body, as a container, cannot hold such a large number of time remnants.

Unless Bell wants to trap himself in the time labyrinth, because absorbing too much time remnant is tantamount to courting death.

"Long Live the Withered Vine, this item in the black market"

"What I consider a priceless treasure is now my just deserts, and they deserve to rip me off."

Shaking his head, Bell left the depths of the bamboo forest. He had stayed there for a week, and it was time to return to the market to buy supplies.

But this time, Bell went to the agricultural guild first.

"Mr. Ning, our agricultural association is always looking forward to your visit."

When they met Director Wim again, he was still as polite as ever, and all the members of the Agricultural Guild turned their heads to look at him after Bell arrived.

The last distribution of refined bone meal had already brought benefits to many members of the agricultural guild. Three veteran farmers even managed to cultivate their own companion magical plants and become magical plant manipulators thanks to the powerful effects of the refined bone meal.

This is great news for the Agricultural Guild, as the number of high-level professionals with combat capabilities has a significant impact on the guild's overall standing in Azure Star City.

“Director Wim, just like last time, I’ve brought refined bone meal. The good news is that I’ve brought even more bone meal this time.”

Controlling Edu's body, he reached out and swept his hand across the conference table, revealing a row of bulging little bags—refined bone powder that Bell had already stored in his inventory.

The appearance of this large pile of refined bone powder made Director Wim tremble, and he could not hide the smile on his face. At the same time, powerful auras also came from other rooms in the Agricultural Guild.

It seems that since the last time the Agricultural Guild distributed refined bone meal among its members, this transaction has attracted even more skilled members from the Agricultural Guild.

"Mr. Ning, which treasures in the secret vault are you interested in? How about we go inside and browse as we choose?"

Wim extended an invitation with a smile. Before encountering Bell's refined bone powder, the Agricultural Guild's secret vault was a forbidden zone within a forbidden zone, and it would not be opened except in critical moments or for major transactions.

But now that we have refined bone meal, Vimba is eager to replace all the treasures in the vault with refined bone meal.

Forget about historical depth; the stuff in the secret vault is just rare resources that are useless for the time being. It would be better to exchange it for refined bone meal, a super useful top-grade fertilizer.

Wim even calculated that if all the treasures in the Agricultural Guild's secret vault were exchanged for equivalent amounts of refined bone powder, the Agricultural Guild could gain two hundred more plant manipulators and a massive number of high-level farmers within three years, becoming the guild with the most high-level professionals in Cangxing City, and able to compete with mages in terms of raw strength.

At that time, apart from the church and the city guard, the peasants will be able to rise up and become the third most powerful force in Cangxing City.

Of course, these were just some random images in Wim's mind. He knew they were unrealistic. Not to mention whether Bell could produce that much refined bone powder, their agricultural guild's secret vault also contained hidden treasures that outsiders could not know about and could not touch.

"I'm not going to exchange for the treasure this time."

Bell waved his hand, refusing the request to choose a treasure.

If he hadn't been to the depths of the royal tombs, he might have been somewhat interested in the Agricultural Guild's secret vault. But after seeing the wealth deep within the royal tombs, Bell said that the small pieces of mithril that you consider treasures are nothing to me. I could knock you out with just a few mithril pieces now.

"Director Wim, I want to trade a large quantity of plant seeds, whether agricultural or magical, the more the better. Of course, I also need special living plants, as many as you can get."

Bell continued to grow all kinds of plants, and the Agricultural Guild, a place that deals with plants every day, has no shortage of all kinds of seeds and plants.

Chapter 183 The Dream Before the New Year Shakes

"Mr. Bell, the New Year is just two days away. What are you planning to do?"

"Take a break, it's a rare time to rest."