"Mute." The name was unfamiliar to Anbaixiu.
After the president of the Elegy Poetry Society showed up last time, this group member codenamed Mute had chimed in with a few remarks.
All undead were lunatics, each mad in their own distinct way. Anbaixiu wasn't the sort who excelled at making friends, so he hadn't reached out to any of them privately, wary of offending some unspoken taboo.
He hadn't expected the Rose of Decay to actually strike up a conversation with Mute.
Still, the Rose of Decay didn't seem to know Mute's exact race either, only that she claimed to wield considerable influence across the high seas.
Anbaixiu could only marvel at how the Elegy Poetry Society was truly a den of crouching tigers and hidden dragons; every last member was a titan. If his luck hadn't taken a turn for the better lately, Anbaixiu might well have been the society's most embarrassing, unpresentable member.
[Rose of Decay: I'll sort things out with Mute and contact you then. By the way, don't try wandering into the City of Dawn. That place is hell for a lich. For ordinary people, it's paradise, but only temporarily. One day, Ryan will destroy itself through its own madness.]
Anbaixiu didn't dare reply to that. After all, this was the Lord of the Dawn's home turf.
Still, the Rose of Decay wasn't wrong. With the Ryan imperial family descending into madness from the top down, once the collapse began at the highest levels, this kingdom would unravel far faster than any other.
It was just a question of when that thread would finally snap.
Abandoning any notion of exploring the City of Dawn, Anbaixiu waited quietly beside the teleportation circle.
Every now and then, he traded barbs with Heji Stone in the group, goading the dwarf vampire into spamming more strings of "xxxxx."
When the light of the teleportation circle flared again, Anbaixiu took Catherine and departed.
The continental teleportation circle in the Ryan imperial capital connected directly to the border. By the time Anbaixiu materialized once more, the Emerald Dream Forest lay right before their eyes.
Under the "guardianship" of a host of paladins, Anbaixiu and Catherine walked out of the city. Everywhere they looked stretched an expanse of lush, verdant green.
Going from a dead desert to a primeval forest, a smile bloomed on Catherine's face. Elves naturally preferred such vibrant, thriving environments.
"What do we do now?" Catherine asked. "Do we have to come up with another scheme to trick people?"
Anbaixiu shook his head. "No need. It was only so troublesome before because Ryan and the undead are sworn enemies, so we had to deceive the Holy Light. We don't have to jump through those hoops now. The Emerald Dream Forest is just a loose alliance; it doesn't monitor every town and plot of land with an iron grip like Ryan. We can just pick any guise, enter wherever we like, and make our way toward the forest's west coast."
"Great!" Catherine said excitedly. "Then I'll stick to my role as the runaway rich young lady! I want to flesh out her backstory a bit more."
Anbaixiu: ...
Taking playing house so seriously... was this Elven Queen kept under strict discipline when she was little?
Nonetheless, Anbaixiu cooperatively shifted into human form, continuing with his persona of Hawkeye Barton.
Anbaixiu released Naomi from his private pocket dimension and said to her, "The Emerald Dream Forest is just ahead. You can come with us as a druid, or you can choose to disguise yourself as my mount. But that means you'll have to stay in beast shape continuously without turning back into a human..."
Naomi was the key to this journey. Not only did they need to find the time dragon's artifact for her, but Naomi's druidic abilities also needed improvement—at least to the level where she could wildshape into a dragon—before she would be qualified to transform into a time dragon.
Normally, this would require decades or even a century of hard work. However, Anbaixiu's ranger abilities happened to allow him to share power with his companion. As a result, Naomi could skip decades of accumulating raw strength and only needed to hone her technique.
Therefore, what form she took when entering the Emerald Dream Forest was an important question, closely tied to their subsequent plans.
To Anbaixiu, either option was fine; they just required different approaches, so he sought Naomi's input.
Hearing Anbaixiu's explanation, Naomi replied with hardly any hesitation, "I'd rather stay in beast form the entire time."
Hearing that, Catherine urged anxiously, "How could you do that? You're an independent person! Don't let this lich brainwash you—you're not some pet!"
Naomi looked at Catherine gratefully. "Thank you, Your Majesty, but this is my own choice. I don't want to interact with other druids as a druid. I'd rather just be a beast who doesn't have to care about anything. That's good enough for me."
Only then did Catherine recall Naomi's past. The young girl truly carried scars regarding druids. Realizing she had inadvertently reopened an old wound, Catherine hurriedly apologized, "I'm sorry. I didn't think it through. Please forgive me."
Naomi offered a bittersweet smile. "Not at all, Your Majesty. Other than Master, you're the person who treats me best."
The young girl transformed into a giant black panther and wagged her tail at Anbaixiu.
Anbaixiu swung onto the black panther's back and shrugged at Catherine with a "she volunteered" look on his face.
Catherine ground her teeth in frustration. For the first time in her life, she had discovered that someone could be this loathsome—and even worse, she couldn't catch a shred of evidence of Anbaixiu actually doing evil.
Unlike what the elven elders had told her in her youth, this undead creature didn't need to slaughter or pillage to get what he wanted. Wealth and beauties seemed to deliver themselves right into his hands.
Ever since she began working for Anbaixiu, Catherine hadn't seen him kill a single human, yet he had effortlessly racked up tens of millions of gold coins, gained a druid girl who willingly served as his beast companion, and even made a crowd of paladins kneel before him.
He had extorted paladins inside a temple of the Lord of the Dawn and walked out completely unscathed.
Thinking of this, the lich was simply terrifying. Probably not even the God of Liches would dare be so arrogant in front of the Lord of the Dawn. With a twinge of awe and dread, Catherine rode her black panther alongside Anbaixiu into the lush forest.
Halfway into their run, Catherine asked again, "We shouldn't be too far from the coastline here, right? Why don't we just fly over?"
If they mounted giant eagles and flew the whole way, they could reach the west coast of the Emerald Dream Forest in two days at most, and then enter the sea directly without relying on any more teleportation circles.
Anbaixiu replied, "Would your Silvermoon High Court allow someone to fly right over your heads?"
Reminded by Anbaixiu, Catherine caught on immediately. "I see. There are no-fly zones here."
There were many ways to take to the skies across the continent: a wizard's Fly spell, a ranger's flying mount, a druid shifting into a bird, airships engineered through alchemy, and so forth. With flight methods so diverse, kingdoms naturally had to develop corresponding countermeasures against unauthorized flight.
Though the Emerald Dream Forest was merely a loose alliance, certain vital areas were bound to enforce no-fly restrictions. If the two of them stumbled into one by mistake, it could easily trigger a war.
Anbaixiu said, "Our goal is just to find a guide. Once we map out a proper route, we'll sprint straight for the coast and avoid getting tangled up with anyone from the Emerald Dream Forest."
Catherine produced a small notebook and jotted down Anbaixiu's words. These were all invaluable lessons in adventuring. Currently in a state of self-imposed exile, she had no idea how many years it would be before she returned to the Silvermoon High Court, making practical adventuring experience particularly precious to her.
Two people and two panthers sped along swiftly. Even the dense jungle could hardly slow the black panthers' stride; if anything, the forest environment made them run even faster.
The Emerald Dream Forest was somewhat different from forests elsewhere; upon stepping inside, Anbaixiu felt a distinct discomfort.
The entire forest was permeated with the breath of life, which clashed somewhat with the dark magic inside Anbaixiu's body. While not as utterly incompatible as Holy Light, it still made Anbaixiu profoundly uneasy.
All he could do was diligently suppress his dark magic and avoid conflicting with the surrounding environment.
Though not friendly to the undead, the forest's creatures thrived tremendously thanks to this abundant vital energy.
Towering trees forty to fifty meters tall could be seen everywhere, their trunks thicker than houses. The woodland creatures were also a size larger than elsewhere; Anbaixiu spotted numerous squirrels bigger than domestic cats and butterflies larger than a human face.
The Emerald Dream Forest's natural harmony was the polar opposite of the Golden Desert.
Riding through the woods on the black panther, Anbaixiu didn't steer their course, leaving Naomi to choose their path forward instead.
In the jungle, a beast's sense of smell was far better suited to detecting signs of civilization than his magical senses.
Naomi did not disappoint. After running barely a dozen kilometers into the dense forest, she quickly located a settlement.
Looking from afar, several plumes of cooking smoke rose lazily into the air.
The settlement was not large, comprising perhaps thirty or forty roughly built wooden cabins. The style was rugged and primitive, resembling druidic craftsmanship, except a faint whiff of blood and foul stench drifted from it, causing both Naomi and Catherine's mount to sneeze a few times in obvious distress.
Druids revered nature and balance and disliked urban living, but they weren't entirely indifferent to their living conditions. How could they tolerate such a vile stench? Wouldn't transforming into beasts with heightened senses be sheer self-torture?
Regardless of the smell, as long as there were living people, they would surely be able to gather some useful information.
"Let's go. Don't waste time," Anbaixiu urged Catherine, whose face was twisted in disgust.
The closer they drew to the settlement, the stronger the rancid stench became. Anbaixiu was relatively unaffected, but Catherine had to cast a magical air-purifying ward over herself and the two black panthers.
A few dozen meters from the settlement, an arrow flew through the air and thudded into the ground.
A shrill voice called out, "Warning! Keep back!"
Upon hearing this shrill voice, Anbaixiu's expression shifted immediately.
Catherine asked curiously, "What's wrong?"
Anbaixiu replied with a tinge of helplessness, "That's a goblin tribe."
"Goblins?"
Catherine had never seen a goblin in person before. Looking over with curiosity, she spotted a filthy green creature perched atop a watchtower by the tribal entrance. The creature was hideous, with a hooked nose, a mouth full of fangs, and wrinkled skin covered in coarse hair and warts. Just looking at it made one's stomach turn.
Catherine couldn't help but remark, "What a disgusting creature."
Not only was it ugly, but its body seemed smeared in all kinds of filth, an absolute assault on the eyes.
Anbaixiu glanced at the goblin, then looked back at Catherine.
The moment they found living beings, it turned out to be a pack of goblins—and he had an Elven Queen right beside him.
Talk about a bad omen!
Chapter 166