Far away in the depths of the Great Desert, Heji Stone was reclining on a colossal golden seat.
It seemed to be a golden chair crafted for a giant; at barely over a meter tall, he couldn't even reach its armrests.
This was a newly excavated area.
The desert kingdom had always sustained its domestic economy through tomb-robbing; even during these years of war, their excavation of underground architectural complexes had never ceased.
Heji Stone's luck was quite good. Digging downward over the past two days, he had breached a new passage leading to a colossal underground city.
What was more, it appeared to be a city inhabited by giants. Every single item inside was oversized, including the gold items within.
This subterranean civilization must have enjoyed an exceptionally glorious era, for one could generally find massive quantities of gold wares and magic items inside these underground cities.
Heji Stone had struck it immensely rich this time, unearthing a giant city filled with vast amounts of gold.
This gigantic golden seat alone was estimated to be worth tens of millions of gold coins, to say nothing of the mountain of varied golden utensils and vessels piled inside the storerooms.
Yet just like most of the ruins excavated previously, while everything in the city remained intact, not a single trace of biological remains could be seen.
It was as though the city's inhabitants had all vanished abruptly, and then the entire civilization was swallowed by the desert.
Over the years, countless scholars had conducted in-depth studies on this, but the results were a cacophony of conflicting theories; no one could produce decisive evidence.
Still, not knowing the reason did not hinder this utilitarian archaeology. It was tomb-robbing anyway—wasn't it all the better that the tomb's owner wasn't lying inside?
To Anbaixiu's two-million-gold-coin intelligence fee, Heji Stone agreed without a second thought. A mere two million was nothing; he was now a vampire rolling in wealth.
Anbaixiu had no idea what was happening in the distant desert, and naturally did not know that Heji Stone was rolling around excitedly on the giant golden throne like a rolling die.
But since the other party had declared that money was no object, Anbaixiu replied directly: [Then transfer the payment first.]
It was merely a test, but to Anbaixiu's surprise, Heji Stone actually transferred the payment right away. Not only that, he even directly delivered the top-spec gargoyles owed from before, without even asking Anbaixiu for the teleportation circle's shipping fee.
That was a continental teleportation circle capable of transporting large magic items; the cost of this single teleportation alone exceeded ten thousand gold coins.
At first, Anbaixiu couldn't fathom it, but when he saw the gold that had been teleported over, he roughly guessed the reason.
These were not gold coins, but gold vessels and implements of various designs. The weight was not skimped on in the least, and the exquisite ancient patterns on the items added a great deal of collectible value.
These golden vessels also made Anbaixiu realize that Heji Stone had struck treasure. Most likely, he had dug up good stuff beneath the desert again, instantly making money no object.
It was just... why did the patterns on these golden vessels look somewhat familiar?
Searching his memory, Anbaixiu couldn't quite recall, so he simply paid it no mind. In any case, the purity of the gold was solid; genuine gold was all that mattered.
"I'm so envious. Why isn't there an ancient civilization under my home?"
Anbaixiu sighed wistfully, then sent Heji Stone the intelligence he possessed: [The elves are mass-equipping anti-magic weapons, likely part of the Elven Queen's plan. The magical contract I mentioned to you before should be tied to the elves' strategic plan. Lords who sign the contract will end up aiding the elves' invasion once they violate it...]
This time, Anbaixiu didn't conceal any deduced intelligence. After all, the desert dwarves were currently at a disadvantage. If he didn't lend a hand to this major client, they might not be able to afford the "retainer fees" for future cooperation. And once the elves completed their strategic deployment, Anbaixiu would also rapidly find himself in dire straits.
Heji Stone was somewhat skeptical at first. Mass-producing enchanted weapons was unrealistic; back in the day, even the City of Alchemy lacked such capability. But Anbaixiu's reasoning held water—the Elven Queen advancing to legend a second time wasn't entirely impossible.
Heji Stone hurriedly passed the matter along to Hoffman Ironfist. Yet, faced with such a massive development, the Hand of the King merely replied with a curt acknowledgment and left it at that, without pulling Heji Stone in to discuss countermeasures.
Though Heji Stone found it a bit strange, he didn't pursue it further. Even though the two had decent personal relations, it was better to avoid suspicion on affairs of state.
Anbaixiu didn't inquire how the Golden Kingdom planned to counter the elves' anti-magic weapons either. He was currently busy decorating his castle; twenty obsidian gargoyles needed suitable spots chosen for installation.
Strictly speaking, gargoyles were neither living creatures nor undead, but puppets created through magical construct techniques. These top-tier gargoyles used obsidian as their primary material, supplemented by high-grade materials like adamantine and mithral. The material cost alone was exceptionally steep. Furthermore, sculpting a gargoyle's exterior was tied directly to the design of its internal magical arrays, requiring an expert craftsman to handcraft each one.
These twenty obsidian gargoyles possessed over a dozen special effects, the most fundamental and vital being magic resistance.
Obsidian gargoyles held immense resistance against spells of all kinds. If a spellcaster like Anbaixiu didn't draw upon the Golden Throne's power, facing a gang of five obsidian gargoyles would make him consider fleeing.
Top-spec obsidian gargoyles also possessed self-repair capabilities. As long as damage did not exceed thirty percent, they could petrify into a statue state and fully recover after a few days.
Furthermore, they had no weak points. To destroy an obsidian gargoyle, one had to swing a hammer and smash it with brute force. Smashing its head was no different from smashing its feet; the creature's head was purely ornamental and played no role in sensing targets.
The rest were auxiliary effects like life sense, wound tearing, flight, and shadow lurking. Once activated, they would tear into enemies relentlessly like mad dogs; ordinary mortals couldn't withstand two blows before being shredded to pieces. If there was any flaw, it was their restricted range of activity.
Gargoyles were not a unit capable of roaming freely, but defensive installations tethered to their pedestals; wandering too far from the base caused them to swiftly turn to stone.
Anbaixiu's batch of obsidian gargoyles had a maximum movement range of only five hundred meters. That was more than enough to cover the castle, but taking them outside to bully others would be difficult.
Yet that was no obstacle for Anbaixiu. He positioned ten obsidian gargoyles in various corners of the castle to serve as guards, placing the remaining ten inside his personal demiplane.
In critical moments, opening a portal would turn these gargoyles into his reinforcements.
With the gargoyles installed, Anbaixiu set about tackling his real business. He had received the first batch of ore "retainer fees" from Viscount Leitman. Though only crudely processed iron ore, the quantity was truly substantial, filling more than half the castle storeroom.
With the ore delivered, the breeding plan for the mercury soul puppet could officially begin.
Searching through the castle, Anbaixiu found the mercury soul puppet in the dungeon playing with its little companions.
Trailing behind the big silvery-white blob was a group of glittering little blobs, playing what looked like hide-and-seek or a dance.
Those little blobs were, of course, the special undead Anbaixiu had previously crafted from sand and glass, having altered their material properties into undead puppets akin to elemental creatures.
Because Anbaixiu hadn't restricted their intelligence, these little fellows had quite good imitation skills.
Perhaps because the mercury soul puppet had the largest size, the other little guys automatically acknowledged it as their boss.
The little guys didn't seem to notice Anbaixiu, absorbed in their play.
The mercury soul puppet squirmed and morphed, sprouting several arms to seize the elemental undead. The elemental undead fled using their respective tricks: some dispersed their bodies outright into sand spread across the ground, rapidly rolling away; others twisted into a rope, wriggling like snakes to evade; still others mimicked the mercury soul puppet by forming arms to arm-wrestle the boss, only to be promptly pinned and rubbed into the dirt; and even more outrageously, one pushed down a companion beside it before fleeing on its own...
The little ones were having a blast, and Anbaixiu enjoyed watching them just as much. The intelligence of these little creatures had clearly improved; in a while, he could test the effects of their kneeling prayers again, hopefully achieving gold freedom as soon as possible.
After watching for a while and seeing no sign of them stopping, Anbaixiu had no choice but to play the killjoy parent. He picked up the mercury soul puppet and carried it off to the storeroom housing the ore.
Anbaixiu stroked the plump little fellow and told it, "You're already a mature mercury soul puppet. It's time to learn how to make babies."
Understanding Anbaixiu's words, the mercury soul puppet squirmed and crawled onto the ore.
With a squelch, a heavily corroded helmet dropped from the mercury soul puppet's body. It was an imitation artifact seized from the Ryan Empire paladins; after digesting it for so many days, it had only eaten away the surface layer.
Having spat out this indigestible object, the mercury soul puppet transformed into flowing silver water and began devouring the ore in great gulps. The small mountain of ore dwindled at a visible pace.
Consuming an artifact was very slow, but the speed at which a mercury soul puppet devoured ordinary metals was extraordinarily swift. In just a few minutes, the hundred tons of ore were completely devoured, leaving behind only a pile of non-metallic slag.
Yet the mercury soul puppet's size hadn't changed in the slightest. It even whined at Anbaixiu, indicating it was only eighty percent full and still lacked the energy required for reproduction.
Anbaixiu was somewhat surprised; his calculations had been off. Satiating a mercury soul puppet with ordinary metal ore was no easy feat.
Aching with reluctance, he took out some gold and fed it to the mercury soul puppet, finally bringing the little guy to a state of full satiety. The mercury soul puppet's shell rapidly hardened as it entered a breeding state. Once this silver carapace shattered, two mercury soul puppets would emerge from within.
Cultivating it for the first time, Anbaixiu was exceptionally cautious, staying by the mercury soul puppet's side the entire time to continuously monitor the little creature's vital state.
A day and a night passed, and cracks finally appeared on the outer hard shell.
Silvery-white liquid flowed from the shattered shell, swiftly separating upon landing on the ground into two identical blobs of mercury. Though slightly smaller than the previous mercury soul puppet, they were two structurally complete living beings.
"Success!" Anbaixiu exclaimed excitedly.
For a living being, maintaining vitality was merely the first element; to truly become a complete biological species, it needed the ability to reproduce.
The two mercury blobs crawled to Anbaixiu's feet, rubbing against his shins like clingy kittens.
Anbaixiu stroked the two little fellows, unable to tell which was which, and said to them, "Children, your appetites are far too huge. Viscount Leitman's supplies alone probably won't cut it. It's time to pay a visit to other mining areas."
The mercury soul puppets' appetites had exceeded Anbaixiu's expectations. Waiting for Viscount Leitman's second batch of ore was unrealistic; it would be better to pick a suitable target and rob them directly at their doorstep. It was also a perfect opportunity to bring along those elemental undead to give them some practical combat experience—hunting was the best way to elevate intelligence.
Anbaixiu cast his mind back and muttered to himself, "The ones I ran into on the road last time seemed to be worshippers of the Goddess of Pain. Consider yourselves unlucky."
Chapter 103