It really couldn't be blamed on Anbaixiu going back on his word. After all, as a lich, doing something wicked once in a while was just staying true to his roots. Otherwise, if paladins were prostrating and bowing to him day in and day out, what kind of undead would he even be? What would his fellow undead friends think of him?
Even if ordinary undead tore out someone's soul, it was difficult to read their memories cleanly.
Souls were fragile. When control and resistance clashed, the soul would fracture—which was precisely why most undead were clumsy and dim-witted.
Only those who became undead willingly could retain most of their sanity.
Anbaixiu, however, was different. His Simulated Soul ability allowed him to weave a soul out of nothing. After years of research, his understanding of souls far surpassed that of ordinary mortals.
The goblin's soul was drawn out by Anbaixiu into fine threads. Its memories rested along these soul-threads without missing a single detail.
"Let's see here... hunting, eating, sleeping, eating, eating, eating... Are you a bottomless pit or what?! Ah, this—this part... what a pitiful bard... No way, not even a tree hollow was spared..."
Anbaixiu read through the goblin's memories bit by bit. Most of it was just dull, meaningless eating, drinking, shitting, and pissing, while the rest consisted of utterly twisted and nauseating acts.
The soul-threads snapped and crumbled in Anbaixiu's hands, dissipating into scattered starlight. Having spent quite some time skimming past the meaningless drivel, Anbaixiu finally found what he needed from the goblin's soul, but the intelligence left him quite troubled.
Catherine materialized beside Anbaixiu and asked curiously, "What's wrong? Can't find a good route?"
"There is a route. We aren't that far from the western coast, but the problem is that we need to cross the territories of several druid tribes in the Emerald Dream Forest. And the druids of the Emerald Dream Forest just made a decision: they enveloped more than half of the forest in a Dream Barrier. The moment any outsider approaches, they fall into an eternal slumber."
"Why? Why is it that everywhere we go, nothing ever goes smoothly?" Catherine complained.
"Why else? Because of Ryan's damn nonsense. The Golden Kingdom suffered a complete rout and has already surrendered half of the desert. The Emerald Dream Forest is terrified that Ryan will come after them next, so they began preparing for war long ago. Half a year ago, they completed a ritual, blanketing the Emerald Dream Forest in the Dream Barrier, making it impossible for outsiders to set foot inside.
"These goblins were also driven out by the barrier. The Emerald Dream Forest is now in a state of war, so many tribes that are usually unruly have been expelled."
Anbaixiu wished he could wipe Ryan out right now. That pack of religious fanatics caused trouble every single day, leaving all their neighbors jumping at shadows.
Then inspiration struck, and Anbaixiu said to Catherine, "Wait, no. I can't go, but you can. Elves aren't affected!"
Thanks to the blessings of the elven gods, elves possessed absolute free will. Their minds were immune to the effects of drugs and spells—things like sleeping draughts were completely useless against them.
Catherine countered, "Aren't you the same? Undead don't need to sleep either."
Anbaixiu shook his head. "No, you're underestimating the druids. The effect of the Dream Barrier doesn't care whether you need sleep or not. Even an outside bug entering the barrier will fall into a deep slumber, even if that bug only lives for a single day and never sleeps at all."
Every kingdom had its own specialty. The Emerald Dream Forest took its name from the Emerald Dream itself. It was just like how the City of Dawn was a forbidden zone for the undead; even a legendary undead going there would meet an end of being purified.
A barrier created by pooling the entire might of a kingdom wasn't something an individual could resist. Even a lesser deity would suffer greatly if they intruded.
Only because the elven pantheon was powerful enough could their blessings potentially withstand the Dream Barrier.
"You mean you want me to carry you through this Dream Barrier?"
Catherine was somewhat eager to try. Last time, going solo to put on a show for that group of paladins had been nerve-racking, but it had also been thrilling. She now felt she was a mature adventurer capable of holding her own.
Anbaixiu shook his head. "No, no. My original plan was for us to head to the western coast together first to retrieve the artifact hidden by the elves. But I didn't expect the druids' situation to be so tense. My plan has changed now."
Catherine eyed Anbaixiu suspiciously.
"Are you trying to swindle money out of the druids again?!"
"What are you talking about? Am I that kind of person? When it comes to money, I always... obtain it through righteous means! I always abide by agreed-upon terms. Don't go spreading rumors—I've never scammed anyone." Anbaixiu defended himself with absolute earnestness, then ignoring Catherine's disdainful glare, continued, "What I mean is, the druids are on edge right now. They're terrified that Ryan will make a move against them, so your arrival is very important to them."
Catherine countered, "Me? I only represent myself. I'm not the Elven Queen anymore, as you well know."
The shut-in elf had wised up by now. Last time she hustled the paladins, she had nearly dragged the reputation of the elves through the mud; if Anbaixiu hadn't patched things up later, she really would have ended up a swindler conspiring with an undead.
"No, you don't understand my point. The elves are currently in a weakened state. Who is your greatest rival? The dwarves? Your true threat is your ally—that bunch of religious fanatics who go around hacking people to pieces while shouting about Holy Light and justice! This is a wonderful opportunity to strengthen ties between the elves and the druids of the Emerald Dream Forest."
Anbaixiu said earnestly, "I'm not telling you to swindle them, but to hold formal talks with the druids. Discuss what areas your two nations can cooperate in—mutual benefit. Even though your two lands are far apart, if you're willing to invest a little, building an ultra-long-distance national teleportation circle isn't impossible. Then you could watch each other's backs."
"Isn't our goal the artifact? Why are you suddenly having me talk about national cooperation with the druids?" Catherine stared at Anbaixiu, as if trying to see right through his thoughts.
Anbaixiu explained, "Because the druids' situation is special now, so I changed my plan. Think about it: they're full of anxiety. If you visit representing the elves, they'll definitely welcome you. And if the talks go well, wouldn't that be the perfect opportunity for Naomi to learn some druidic arts from them?"
To save Harvey, they needed a time dragon's power to travel back to the past. Thus, Naomi had to turn into a time dragon. And turning into a time dragon required two conditions: first, Naomi's own druidic abilities had to be sufficient to transform into a dragon; second was the temporal artifact.
Anbaixiu had originally planned to join forces to retrieve the artifact first before coming to the druids to reap some benefits, but now he felt dividing their forces would be more efficient. After all, there was no telling how long it would take Naomi to master the power to transform into a dragon. If Catherine visited openly and had Naomi pose as her pet to exchange insights on Wild Shape with those legendary druids, it would certainly be far better than trying to secretly learn from them in the shadows.
However, that meant Anbaixiu couldn't accompany Catherine. No matter how he disguised himself, an undead like Anbaixiu was completely at odds with the natural environment and couldn't fool druids with their formidable senses.
Therefore, to avoid trouble, splitting up was better.
Anbaixiu broke it down for Catherine in detail, and she finally understood what he meant. This time, she didn't need to swindle anyone; she just had to visit the Emerald Dream Forest in the most normal, official manner.
While this wasn't nearly as thrilling or adventurous, Catherine didn't want to go swindling people again anyway. After all, most druids had fairly good relations with the elves.
"Still, how are you going to cross this Dream Barrier alone?" Catherine asked.
Anbaixiu didn't possess the ability to resist the barrier; the moment he entered its bounds, he would fall into slumber.
"I'll take a detour."
Anbaixiu chose the simplest method.
"Won't that waste time? How long will a detour take around here?" Catherine asked in surprise.
Anbaixiu said, "If I brought you along, it would take seven or eight days. But if it's just me, I only need a single day."
"How is that possible? You think I'd drag you down?" Catherine said indignantly.
She was a legendary mage too! Even though she specialized in Transmutation, she knew spells like Fly and Dimension Door as well. A mage's travel options were limited to those tricks; what else could a Divination wizard like Anbaixiu possibly come up with?
"I can't explain it to you. Some methods can only be used by the undead."
Catherine really wanted to get to the bottom of it, but as a hired hand, if Anbaixiu didn't want to say, she had no choice. She obediently took Naomi and set off toward the nearest druid tribe.
Anbaixiu drew a map for the two of them and pointed out their specific direction, confident that with Catherine's capabilities, she wouldn't get lost in the forest.
After seeing them off, Anbaixiu slipped directly into his private demiplane and set the flow of time to maximum speed.
Anbaixiu rummaged through his laboratory and pulled out a large pile of metallic materials, all special metals that had been converted to possess corpse properties. Originally, Anbaixiu had planned to have Dahei and Erha test them out before swapping his own body, but those two rascals were probably slacking off somewhere to stall for time, and Anbaixiu didn't have the luxury to hunt them down right now.
Whether it could resist Holy Light didn't matter for now; all Anbaixiu needed right now was durability.
Piece by piece, Anbaixiu took out silvery-white metal components. These were not ordinary silver, but exceedingly expensive mithral. Mithral possessed immense strength while being far lighter than steel, making it the finest armor material available. The only drawbacks were its low yield and steep price.
However, that wasn't a problem. The Rose of Decay was the greatest mine owner around, and Anbaixiu could purchase things like mithral at the most preferential rates.
Combining mithral with special alloys and his meticulously crafted mana power reactor, Anbaixiu completed a flawless mechanical body.
His soul fire detached from his original skeletal body and merged into this mithral machine.
A few seconds later, the mana power reactor in his chest flared to life, and Anbaixiu returned to life once more.
Clenching his fists and taking a few steps, Anbaixiu remarked in surprise, "With the power reactor loaded, a mechanical body is indeed far stronger than a skeleton."
And another discovery pleasantly surprised him: after acquiring the power of a legendary ranger, his control over his body was extraordinarily sharp. Moving around for just a few minutes was enough to completely master his new frame, without needing hundreds of hours of practice like Dahei.
"Even better than I expected. That saves even more time."
Having swapped into his mechanical body, Anbaixiu emerged from his private demiplane. Appearing alongside him was an enormous magitech cannon.
After briefly calculating the coordinates, Anbaixiu angled the barrel toward the sky, opened the breech, and climbed inside a special cannon shell.
The shell was likewise crafted from mithral, allowing him to conceal himself inside and use the magitech cannon's immense propulsion to launch him across the sky.
Fly only reached sixty or seventy kilometers per hour at best, but this magitech cannon he had modified could accelerate a projectile to over a thousand kilometers per hour. And if he cast Feather Fall on the shell itself to reduce its weight, the speed would be even more terrifying.
Of course, that was purely theoretical; Anbaixiu hadn't actually tested it.
Today happened to be the perfect chance to give it a shot.
"I suppose this counts as dedicating myself to science."
Anbaixiu slipped into the shell and channeled magical power to activate the magitech cannon.
After a dozen seconds of charging, the magitech cannon let out a deafening boom. The mithral shell streaked across the sky, leaving a white vapor trail in its wake.
Chapter 168