Anbaixiu stressed time and again that the stuff simply wasn't worth the price, and having him deliver it on rush order would require building a specialized teleportation circle capable of transporting living matter, which came with even steeper surcharges.
Sure, a tiny vial could dissolve and store tens of millions of gold coins in a unique state within its small frame, but it was genuinely not a cost-effective purchase.
Yet Headless Bro remained adamant, tossing in more gold with magnificent generosity.
Left without any room for excuses, Anbaixiu had no choice but to make another trip to the City of Alchemy. Under the saleswoman's stunned gaze, he purchased a genuine, unadulterated bottle of Living Mercury Solution.
Anbaixiu personally inspected the goods; it was the real deal.
Returning to the ancient castle, Anbaixiu set up the teleportation circle, spent half a day sending the item over to Headless Bro, and ended up "tearfully" pocketing a profit of twenty thousand gold coins.
It wasn't that he was greedy—when the item's unit price surged, it was only fair that his intermediary fee scaled proportionally. You couldn't expect someone to earn three thousand on a ten-thousand-gold deal and still earn only three thousand on a hundred-thousand-gold deal.
Besides, teleportation circles didn't come cheap either. The materials might be inexpensive, but the expertise was priceless!
For a teleportation circle constructed by a legendary spellcaster combined with his broker's fee, twenty thousand gold coins was a downright bargain. Anbaixiu could thump his bony ribs and declare that you wouldn't find a lich with fairer rates across the entire continent.
Watching the bright, clinking pile of gold before him, Anbaixiu felt his soul achieve ultimate gratification. Fulfilling one's obsession was the only way a lich could experience true pleasure.
Of course, counting gold coins while tossing a few curses at those beansprouts in the Silvermoon High Court made it feel even sweeter.
One day, Anbaixiu would make those beansprout elves realize that inflating potion prices incurred divine retribution!
With Headless Bro's transaction wrapped up, it was time to focus on the order from Rose of Decay.
High-tier undead capable of breaching the walls of the Ryan Imperial Capital were by no means simple creations. Even drafting a blueprint would require extensive research. Moreover, since he still had the two counterfeit bottles of Living Mercury Solution, Anbaixiu didn't want to waste them; perhaps he could incorporate the living mercury into some new design.
With fresh funds in hand, Anbaixiu could afford to be bolder in his experiments.
***
In the distant west, across the vast ocean within a gloomy tomb, the light of a teleportation circle gradually faded.
A burly knight reached out with two fingers, pinching the glass jar containing the living mercury.
His headless frame was terrifyingly tall; if Anbaixiu stood before this headless knight, he would barely reach the giant's knees.
He wore heavy black armor engraved with layers of magical runes that radiated an eerie gleam. On the cape draped behind him, a soaring bone dragon was meticulously hand-embroidered.
This was the live-in son-in-law of the bone dragon family, the legendary headless knight—Gareth Arcanus.
His surname had been adopted only after marrying into the family. Once upon a time, Gareth had merely been an ordinary human knight who died on the battlefield. Betrayed and ambushed by a comrade, the man destined to become a war hero instead had his head severed by the enemy.
Over a century after Gareth's death, more than two hundred heads hung where he had originally been executed.
The comrade who had betrayed him had returned to become a decorated war hero, rose to the nobility, and spread his family's lineage over a hundred years. Yet over a century later, Gareth sent every single member of that bloodline to the guillotine.
That slaughter turned Gareth into the Ryan Empire's most-wanted criminal. The most powerful human empire dispatched an entire legion of paladins to hunt him down.
Gareth fought his way from the Ryan Empire all the way to the Golden Country of Salokma, battling across three thousand li over five years. He forcibly slipped through the grasp of over a thousand paladins and took the heads of more than a hundred of them. In those dire straits, Gareth broke through to the legendary realm, dealing the Ryan Empire its heaviest loss since its founding.
The Ryan Emperor of that era had nearly summoned the ancestral Dragon Tyrant Armament, intending to wield power beyond the legendary realm to strike Gareth down.
Later, however, the legendary headless knight abruptly vanished without a trace, leaving even the Ryan Empire unable to find him. Such a legendary badass had suddenly ended up marrying into another family.
Fortunately, very few knew about this. Not even the members of the Elegy Poetry Society knew that Headless Bro in their chat group was the very badass who had once driven the Ryan Emperor to personally take the field with an artifact; otherwise, the Ryan Empire would have died of sheer rage.
Back then, Gareth had cleaved through a thousand paladins with a greatsword. Right now, however, he looked like a cowering acolyte, clutching the bottle of living mercury and tiptoeing toward a wall.
He tapped several spots along the stone surface with his finger, instantly causing several magical patterns to light up. Then, Gareth's chest vibrated, emitting rhythmic thuds. The stone wall parted slowly, revealing a spatial portal.
A few simple actions contained a password lock, a mana lock, and a voiceprint lock—a triple layer of protection. If any of the three went slightly awry, what opened behind the wall wouldn't be a portal, but an entire room packed full of love letters.
If his wife ever discovered it, that roomful of love letters would serve as a romantic misdirection to save his hide.
Gareth had transitioned from a merciless, head-lopping badass into a cunning, battle-hardened married man. One could only wonder what the Ryan Emperor would think if he ever found out.
With utmost focus, Gareth stepped through the portal. The next instant, he appeared in another room packed with love letters.
That was right—he had prepared two entire rooms for the love-letter ploy.
Even if his wife discovered the portal, she would still have to find yet another hidden door to reach his true private stash.
After weaving through several twists and turns, he finally entered the actual vault, where a mountain of gold coins loomed before him.
Anbaixiu had spent ages haggling with the shopgirl in the City of Alchemy over a discount of ten or twenty thousand gold, but to Gareth, that was nothing more than trivial pocket change.
Gareth uncapped the glass jar and set it before the mountain of gold.
Then, he thrust a palm toward the glittering peak.
Vast dark magic surged forth, dyeing the hundred-ton mountain of gold pitch black. With a dull rumble in Gareth's chest, he hoisted the hundred-ton pile of gold into the air with a single hand.
The coins scattered, whirling into a localized tornado.
Clinking and cascading, the gold coins fell in a precise stream into the small jar.
The moment the golden coins plunged inside, they vanished without a trace. Flowing like a river, the torrent of gold funneled into the tiny glass container, disappearing as if swallowed by magic.
In just a short moment, the colossal mountain of gold vanished entirely, leaving the empty vault with only the jar of Living Mercury Solution. The gold would be stored in a unique energetic state, undetectable even by magic designed specifically to sniff out treasure.
Gareth carefully recapped the small glass jar and murmured with satisfaction, "You really do get what you pay for. Brother Tiga is a dependable fellow. I can definitely do business with him again."
Pleased with his work, he turned to leave, only to freeze as a translucent specter materialized right before his eyes.
It was a shapely, strikingly gorgeous apparition with a pair of curved horns atop her head—commonly known as a dragon soul.
Crossing her arms, the beautiful dragon soul sneered at Gareth. "And who did you say you're doing business with?"
*Smash!*
The glass jar slipped from Gareth's fingers, shattering against the floor as the living mercury spilled everywhere.
"D-Darling... how did you..." Gareth stammered incoherently. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that despite all his precautions, his wife would still catch him red-handed.
The beautiful dragon soul produced a Necrotic Codex, flipped to the final page, and swiftly penned a line.
[Pale Little Skeleton: Sister Rose, thanks for the heads-up. Next time, tea is on me at the Dragon Tomb.]
[Rose of Decay: You're welcome. Consider it a return favor for the two bone dragons you gifted me last time.]
[Pale Little Skeleton: Crown of the Headless Horseman probably won't be replying for the next few years. Don't worry, everyone.]
[Ultraman Tiga: ???]
Chapter 13