[Ultraman Tiga: Currently in the Ryan imperial capital, fresh out of the teleportation array...]
Anbaixiu's single message kicked up a storm in the chat group.
The first to arrive on the scene was Heji Stone.
If one were to ask who in the Elegy Poetry Society disliked Anbaixiu the most, it was definitely this dwarf vampire.
It had only been a few days since he recovered from the shock of the Elven Queen throwing herself at Anbaixiu, and suddenly seeing Anbaixiu post again immediately ruined his day.
[Dislikes Humans: What the f***! What kind of bullshit are you bragging about now? The Ryan imperial capital? Undead get blasted into flying ash before they can even get close.]
The second to arrive was Gareth, live-in son-in-law of the dragon clan. This son-in-law presumably had nothing to do all day, so he never missed a single chat session.
[Crown of the Headless Horseman: Brother, I'm siding with him this time. Even bragging needs to follow basic logic. I wouldn't dare go anywhere near the Ryan imperial capital myself. With that frail little frame of yours, the Holy Light would blast you so thoroughly not even your ashes would remain.]
Looking at the two replies, Anbaixiu pondered for a moment before typing: [You two, care to make a wager?]
[Dislikes Humans: Bet on whether you're in the City of Dawn? How are you going to prove it?!]
[Ultraman Tiga: Never mind how I prove it. Just tell me if you're taking the bet or not. My stake is fifty-three million gold coins.]
[Dislikes Humans: That's quite an interesting figure. Where did the extra three million come from?]
[Ultraman Tiga: A bunch of paladins just knelt before me, crying and begging me to accept it. Since it's free money, I figured I'd put it up for a little wager.]
[Dislikes Humans: *******!]
Anbaixiu felt utterly helpless. Why did no one ever believe the truth? As a lich who conducted business on the bedrock of integrity, he always spoke the absolute truth.
Heji Stone seemed so agitated that he was furiously spamming asterisks across the screen, having completely forgotten about the bet.
Anbaixiu silently reminded himself to tell some white lies next time. He couldn't let his mark... ah no, he couldn't let his fellow group member lose his mind.
Once Heji Stone cooled down, Headless Bro finally followed up: [Brother, are you serious? You're really in the City of Dawn?]
[Pale Little Skeleton: Impossible. How could an undead enter the City of Dawn? Even if you were the Lord of the Dawn's bastard son, turning into an undead would still get you burned to ash by the Holy Light.]
[Ultraman Tiga: Why would I lie to you? I'll record it for you right now with a memory crystal.]
Anbaixiu retrieved a memory crystal from his private storage space and aimed it at the towering white stone pillars surrounding the teleportation array. They were carved with statues of the Lord of the Dawn; on the entire continent, only the Ryan imperial capital, the City of Dawn, had statues of the Lord of the Dawn that reached forty to fifty meters high.
Beyond capturing the environment, Anbaixiu walked up to a stern-faced paladin, leaned close, and said, "Come on, work with me here. Take off your helmet and give us a smile."
The paladin turned his head, gave Anbaixiu a single glance, and straightened his posture again, pretending he hadn't heard a thing.
"Fine, suit yourself."
Anbaixiu captured all the paladins guarding them in the recording, then uploaded the footage directly into the Necrotic Codex.
A moment later, the group members began questioning their own sanity.
[Dislikes Humans: How is that possible?! It's really the City of Dawn? You didn't fabricate this in advance, did you?!]
[Ultraman Tiga: If you don't believe it, I can write your name on a piece of paper and record it again for you.]
[Crown of the Headless Horseman: Brother, how are you completely fine? Where is the Holy Light? Why is it useless against you?!]
[Pale Little Skeleton: No way... are you actually the Lord of the Dawn's bastard son?!]
...
An undead entering Ryan's territory was absurd enough on its own, but what kind of place was the City of Dawn? It was practically the Lord of the Dawn's earthly palace, the place where divine miracles manifested most frequently.
Given the concentration of Holy Light there, even a bone dragon wouldn't last a few seconds.
How could Anbaixiu, a mere lich, show up inside the City of Dawn? Had he mastered some method of resisting the power of the Holy Light?
If that were true, it would be the most shocking discovery in the entire undead realm.
The Rose of Decay, who cared about Ryan more than anyone else, arrived late. After reading through the chat log, she impatiently sent Anbaixiu a private message: [How did you enter the City of Dawn?! What on earth happened?]
Anbaixiu knew Ryan was an inner demon for the Rose of Decay, so he didn't keep her in suspense. He told her about encountering the Silvermoon Knight in Sandshadow City and asking for passage to reach the Emerald Dream Forest, though he omitted the part about rescuing Harvey.
[Rose of Decay: You met Winston Wright?]
Whether it was an illusion or not, Anbaixiu felt as though he could sense the Rose of Decay's suppressed fury even across the Necrotic Codex.
[Ultraman Tiga: I did indeed. I even scammed him out of more than fifty million gold coins on your behalf.]
The Rose of Decay fell silent for a long while before replying: [Thank you. That is the best news I've heard in decades.]
Curious, Anbaixiu asked: [Do you have a grudge against this Silvermoon Knight?]
[Rose of Decay: My teacher, Master Morgan, died beneath his sword. But he didn't get off easy either—his final disciple also died in the Underdark.]
Anbaixiu hadn't expected such history between them. Had he known earlier, he would have extorted several tens of millions more.
[Rose of Decay: That old man is probably near death, isn't he?]
[Ultraman Tiga: He looks like he could draw his last breath at any moment, but the power of the Holy Light in his body hasn't degraded in the slightest. If we really fought, I might not be his match.]
[Rose of Decay: Whatever you do, do not fight him. That old man's Divine Smite can wound a lich's soul. Even if you return to your phylactery, it will carry the lingering Holy Light back with you. That was how my teacher died to his Divine Smite—even after returning to his phylactery, he was ultimately burned to ashes by the Holy Light.]
The Rose of Decay's words startled Anbaixiu.
Wasn't that old man a bit too ridiculous?
A lich's soul returning to its phylactery was governed by a fundamental rule of the universe, not some spatial spell.
In theory, nothing besides the lich's soul could be affected by that law. Even if one were struck by a curse, returning to the phylactery would purge the cursed energy.
Just how extraordinary did the Silvermoon Knight's Divine Smite have to be to latch Holy Light onto a lich's soul and hitch a ride all the way back to the phylactery?
Anbaixiu couldn't even begin to comprehend the principle behind it.
After calming himself for several seconds, Anbaixiu sighed with emotion: [Good thing the old man is almost dead.]
[Rose of Decay: Indeed. Fortunately he's almost dead, and fortunately he isn't of the Ryan imperial bloodline, or I would have died long ago as well. A pity you're trapped inside the teleportation array. If you had a way to enter the City of Dawn, there are several secret passages leading straight into the imperial palace. You might even have been able to assassinate the emperor.]
Anbaixiu asked in surprise: [You even know about secret passages? Aren't you a bit too familiar with Ryan?]
[Rose of Decay: Since you already know this much, there is no need to hide it from you. I am actually a native of Ryan. I grew up in the City of Dawn.]
[Ultraman Tiga: I guessed as much earlier. You know far too much about Ryan; it was obvious you were a local.]
Anbaixiu wasn't particularly surprised by her confession. He had already suspected that her deep familiarity with Ryan—even possessing intelligence on city defenses—meant she had very close ties to the empire.
As for why she had fled Ryan and become a lich, that wasn't unusual either.
Plenty of humans fled Ryan every year, whether because they had committed crimes, because the Lord of the Dawn's doctrines conflicted with their ideals, or, more simply, because they sought longevity.
Ryan strictly forbade using magical means to prolong life. Even the Silvermoon Knight, the strongest paladin, had to grow old, which showed just how rigid that prohibition was.
Survival was an instinct of all living things, and undead were living beings in their own right. Given the choice, how many could accept death with serenity?
Yet what Anbaixiu had never anticipated was that the Rose of Decay was no ordinary citizen of the imperial capital.
[Rose of Decay: In truth, I am of the Ryan imperial bloodline... The current Ryan Emperor is probably my cousin, though so much time has passed that I can hardly remember clearly.]
"What?!"
Anbaixiu blurted out the word aloud, forgetting to type.
Quickly conveying his shock and questions in writing, he waited as the Rose of Decay explained: [Is it that strange? What does imperial blood matter? In the end, one is still a slave to faith. Ryan is a country where everyone from top to bottom is willing to sacrifice everything for their faith. The moment you are not fanatical enough, you are a sinner. Back then, I was precisely such an insufficiently fanatical sinner.]
Anbaixiu hurriedly asked: [Did you want longevity and break Ryan's rules?]
[Rose of Decay: Not that. Brainwashed from childhood, I was originally willing to give everything for Ryan. But when I grew older, I realized that even if I was willing to accept death calmly, there were some things I simply could not accept. Do you know? The true bloodline of the Ryan imperial clan is actually very scarce. My father fathered more than forty children, and I was the only one capable of resonating with the Dragon Tyrant Armament.]
Anbaixiu thought to himself: Was the infidelity rate in the Ryan imperial family really that high? Could the scandalous tales about the Ryan Empress and goblins actually have been non-fiction?
[Rose of Decay: The Ryan imperial bloodline has been weakening continuously. Because the imperial house chose not to practice inbreeding from the start, more than a dozen generations of dilution have left it far different from the founding emperor's bloodline. Consequently, fewer and fewer people can resonate with the Dragon Tyrant Armament. The primary duty of every emperor is to sire children—to produce vast numbers of them until one appears who can resonate with the Dragon Tyrant Armament. I assumed that after ascending the throne, I too would be turned into such a breeding machine. Originally, I considered accepting it; after all, it was my family duty. But later, I discovered that I had still underestimated their madness.]
[Ultraman Tiga: 'Their'? You mean your family?]
[Rose of Decay: Yes. My father, my mother, and every other member of the imperial clan. They devised a plan. If I gave birth to my first child and that child failed to inherit the Ryan bloodline, they would replace my husband. With the imperial family obsessively having children for so many years, collateral branches are numerous. Those male cousins, second cousins, and even distant uncles would all take turns as my husband, until a child capable of inheriting the bloodline was born.]
Anbaixiu's fingers paused for a moment before he typed: [They truly have gone mad.]
[Rose of Decay: Exactly. They are mad. Before my coronation, I accidentally overheard their plan. It turns out there truly are things in this world far harder to accept than death. And so, I fled. I left Ryan before those lunatics could execute their plan. Then they began hunting me down relentlessly, leaving me no choice but to flee all the way into the Underdark. There, I met my teacher. With his help, I transformed into a lich... As for what happened after that, you know most of it already.]
Anbaixiu had no idea how to console her. No wonder the Rose of Decay harbored such deep, unforgettable hatred toward the Ryan Empire.
Yet the Rose of Decay was not the fragile sort of woman who needed comforting. She quickly recovered and asked Anbaixiu: [By the way, what are you going to the Emerald Dream Forest for this time?]
Anbaixiu replied: [The elves gave me the burial location of an artifact. I need to take a ship out to sea from the Emerald Dream Forest to reach it.]
[Rose of Decay: Out to sea from the Emerald Dream Forest? Then you should ask Mute. I chatted with her not long ago, and she seems to live in that very stretch of sea.]
Anbaixiu's skull filled with confusion.
An undead living in the ocean?
What kind of breed was that?
Chapter 165