In Anbaixiu's adventuring life, there were not many things he had ever ridden. After all, he was a mage; whenever difficult terrain arose, he simply flew right over it with the Fly spell, and for long journeys, he merely rode horses.
Therefore, a black panther was something he was riding for the first time, and the experience was utterly miserable.
When Catherine rode atop the black panther, her body rose and fell in perfect harmony with its galloping rhythm, as though they were melding into one.
Anbaixiu, on the other hand, felt as though his bones were being jolted to pieces. Were it not for his agility allowing him to leap from a standstill and spin seven and a half times in midair, he likely would have been thrown right off.
Only later did Anbaixiu learn that horsemanship was not part of the ranger legacy—Catherine had practiced and mastered it on her own afterward.
Catherine even refused to share her riding techniques. Though the girl could never win a verbal argument against Anbaixiu, deep down she still believed he was enslaving Naomi.
She was not mistaken, either. For a lich like Anbaixiu, who was accustomed to enslaving others, had Naomi not been hurt so grievously by "familial love" that she wholeheartedly submitted to him, the two of them never would have forged the contract.
One could only say that one was willing to strike and the other willing to take the blows—truly a match made in heaven.
Even if both sides were willing, claiming he took advantage of her vulnerability was certainly not wrong.
Catherine was clumsy with words, but her sensitive heart allowed her to see right through Anbaixiu's intentions.
Later, Anbaixiu had no choice but to cheat using Fly, hovering directly above Naomi's back and merely holding onto the fur on her back to be dragged along. Even then, he still could not match Catherine and was left far behind in their race.
The two were not running around aimlessly, either. They spent most of the day teleporting several times and taking a wide detour across the desert's Death Line to enter a desert city under the control of the Ryan Empire.
It could not be helped. The artifact's location provided by the elves was deep in the ocean. To reach that place, they had to cross the entire Ryan Empire and then enter another kingdom—Emerald Dream Forest Noria.
They had to set sail from this druid-dominated country in order to take the shortest route to where the artifact was buried.
Emerald Dream Forest operated under a council system quite similar to the City of Alchemy. It was composed of several druid circles and factions, along with minority tribes such as centaurs, goblins, giants, murlocs, and lizardfolk. Each sent their own representatives to form the Emerald Dream Council, adhering to a system where mortals and nature coexisted in harmony, rejecting blind expansion and reckless terraforming of nature.
This stood in stark contrast to the technomaniacs of the City of Alchemy, which was why relations between the two realms were at rock bottom. If not for the vast distance separating them, they likely would have gone to war long ago.
Emerald Dream Forest was a classic closed country with exceptionally strict restrictions on visitors. A lich like Anbaixiu—especially one hailing from the City of Alchemy—would definitely not be permitted to enter Emerald Dream Forest.
Fortunately, Anbaixiu had Catherine's assistance. If this Elven Queen were to reveal her true appearance before others, the druids of Emerald Dream Forest would probably welcome her with fluttering banners and thunderous drums and gongs. As long as Anbaixiu took care not to expose his identity as a lich, entering Emerald Dream Forest should not pose much of a problem.
The real trouble was how to cross the Ryan Empire.
Catherine's charisma was indeed formidable; as long as she asked, no one would refuse to accommodate her.
The problem was that the Ryan Empire had a very nasty habit: every single city was constructed with a large-scale Undead Repulsion Magic Circle.
Once weak skeletons and zombies stepped within range of such a magic circle, they would immediately be scorched by the Holy Light and have no choice but to flee for their lives. Although Anbaixiu was a powerful lich and the circle could not truly harm him, the continuously flashing, bombarding Holy Light would instantly single him out from the crowd.
That would be equivalent to announcing to every citizen of Ryan that an undead creature was trying to sneak into the city.
When that happened, if the paladin legion mobilized and bombarded Anbaixiu with several Divine Smites, things would get exceedingly troublesome.
Yet the continental teleportation circle lay within the city, and Anbaixiu did not have months to spare on a detour.
How to enter the city was the problem. Then Catherine offered a suggestion.
"How about... you pretend to be a corpse? I can say I'm returning a friend's remains to Emerald Dream Forest and need to borrow Ryan's continental teleportation circle."
Anbaixiu could only patiently explain to her that a corpse was a corpse and undead was undead—two completely different things.
It was not as if Anbaixiu could simply lie on the ground, remain motionless, and magically become a corpse. If so much as a single cleric of light came to inspect him, the ruse would be seen through immediately. At that point, it would be treated as an undead creature maliciously infiltrating Ryan territory, leaving no choice but an outright battle.
Unless pushed to the absolute brink, Anbaixiu truly did not want to tangle with those paladins on the Ryan Empire's turf. It was just like fighting a mage inside their own wizard tower—only adventurers with failing intellects would make such a stupid choice.
Catherine truly did not know much about the undead, so she could only sigh and say, "If only I had that massive personal space of yours."
Anbaixiu shook his head. "It isn't that simple. Even if an ordinary mage's personal space were large enough, you couldn't stuff a legend into it."
Most mages could study spatial power to create their own pocket dimensions, but their capacity was generally limited and could not hold much. Even if a space were large enough, there were restrictions on what could be placed inside. Excessive mass or excessively high energy would drastically increase the load on a personal space, causing it to rupture if one was not careful.
A personal space capable of containing a legend was something Anbaixiu had never even heard of.
His castle-sized personal space was high-grade work produced through the Wish spell, already possessing some traits of a divine realm. Even a God-favored like Catherine did not have one and could only look on with envy.
Yet this thing could not be lent to someone else. Otherwise, Anbaixiu could simply have hidden inside to evade the Ryan Empire's detection.
After pondering for a long time, Anbaixiu had a sudden inspiration and pulled out the mercury soul puppet.
The little silvery-white fellow hopped and bounced affectionately around Anbaixiu, seemingly having grown a bit larger over the past few days.
"This is the mercury soul puppet I created. It's an absolute living creature, so Ryan's magic circles won't detect any issues. If I do this..."
Anbaixiu reached out and gave his chin a firm shove upward.
Amid Catherine's screams, Anbaixiu popped his own head right off and stuffed it inside the mercury soul puppet's body. Being enveloped in mercury was not pleasant, but Anbaixiu's skull was not metal, so the mercury soul puppet would not digest it.
Moreover, the mercury soul puppet possessed formidable magic resistance, which should be able to evade the magic circle's detection.
Catherine stared at the skull that had already submerged into the mercury, sinking into utter silence.
Undead were way too convenient—they could actually do something like this?
For a lich, the most important thing was really the soul. As long as there was a vessel to hold the soul, form and size did not matter in the slightest. A single head fit snugly inside the mercury soul puppet.
"I won't be able to speak; in a moment, it will all depend on you. Catherine, do you know how to lie?" Anbaixiu asked.
"Such a simple thing—how could I not know how?" Catherine replied with utmost confidence.
Heh. Nine out of ten rookies who boasted like that ran into trouble... Still, Catherine possessed a charisma aura, so it was truly hard to say.
Anbaixiu had no other choice now and could only pin his hopes on Catherine.
To ensure their chances of success, Anbaixiu also reminded Catherine not to enter the city wearing the guise of an orc, lest she get arrested before even getting close. She had to transform into human form.
Filled with excitement, Catherine meticulously prepared a new identity for herself:
A human ranger from the City of Alchemy who had traveled extensively in the Silvermoon High Court for a long time, which explained why her mannerisms resembled those of an elf. This backstory was simply flawless.
Both of her parents were alive and well; her father was a merchant, and her mother was a ranger. Out of admiration for her mother's past adventuring days, she had chosen to become a ranger herself. Furthermore, she had made a pact with her family: if she could not earn one hundred thousand gold coins within ten years, she would have to return home and get married.
The fiancé her family had arranged for her was a decent man, but she genuinely disliked him, putting her in a semi-runaway bride situation. Hence, she needed an alias, and she was determined never to return even if she failed to earn enough money.
The mercury slime beside her had been encountered during her training in the sewers of the City of Alchemy; finding it interesting, she had bound it as her pet.
She was currently striving toward the goal of becoming a legendary ranger.
Her journey to Emerald Dream Forest this time was to advance her beast companion, as it was said that druids possessed methods to help such beasts evolve into even more powerful forms.
Looking over the new persona she had crafted, Catherine felt immensely satisfied. Every detail had been addressed. If anyone questioned her, there definitely would not be any issues.
Just like that, Catherine arrived at the city known as Sandshadow with the mercury soul puppet in tow.
This desert city, which had originally belonged to the dwarf kingdom, now held no races other than humans. The city walls had changed little, yet platinum light continuously flashed across the sky above, the entire city enveloped within an immense Holy Light magic circle.
Even before entering the city, one could hear hymns to the Lord of the Dawn drifting from within.
Having only recently been recovered by Ryan, the city was in a crucial period of proselytization, making Sandshadow City's religious atmosphere exceptionally thick.
Catherine glanced through her notes one last time to make sure she had memorized every detail of her new identity, and only then did she pluck up the courage to walk toward the city gates.
She had now assumed the guise of a human girl, clad in light leather armor and draped in a cloak commonly seen in the desert, which covered most of her face and left only her eyes exposed.
Yet even wrapped up so tightly, when Catherine appeared before the city gates, the guards on duty still froze for several seconds.
How could a girl's eyes be so captivating?! Before they knew it, they were utterly mesmerized.
Catherine walked over and was just about to introduce herself when several rays of holy light descended from the heavens, circling the body of the mercury soul puppet as if sensing something.
Catherine immediately panicked. Had they not agreed that the mercury soul puppet could use its magic resistance to shield against the magic circle's detection? Why were they discovered before even stepping through the gates?
The soldiers seemed to sense something was amiss as well. Forgetting all about staring at Catherine, they drew their swords and began chanting prayers under their breath.
On Ryan territory, every pious believer could draw upon the power of the Holy Light—even small children could do so. This was forbidden ground for the undead, a place where not even Anbaixiu dared to force his way in.
Catherine desperately wanted to explain, but her fabricated notes contained nothing of the sort! Was the plan not premised on remaining undetected? Now that they were caught red-handed, how was she supposed to bluff her way out?
Just as Catherine was spiraling into panic, the mercury soul puppet let out what sounded like a hiccup and spat out a small fragment of bone.
The rays of Holy Light darting around nearby seemed to find their target and immediately shot toward this bone fragment, purifying the dark magic within it into ash.
The mercury soul puppet let out a dull, honest voice: "*Hiccup*, sorry about that. Swallowed a few skeletons on the road earlier, still digesting them. *Hiccup*~"
The mercury soul puppet spat out another bone fragment, which predictably drew another round of Holy Light purification.
Only then did Catherine snap out of it, hurriedly chiming in, "Ah, yes, yes, yes! I completely forgot about that! The desert has been so restless lately; we ran into a lot of undead along the way."
The gate guards looked at Catherine and believed her words almost without a second thought.
"So that was why! Respected lady ranger, your righteous deed is truly admirable. I'll write you a certificate right now so you won't be questioned after entering the city. May I ask what your name is?"
As the guard asked this final question, his eyes were practically gleaming.
Chapter 156