Anbaixiu hadn't expected Catherine to see him this way.
Ariel truly had just been an accident. From the start, he hadn't even thought about tricking her into coming along; he had only wanted to hoodwink her into leaving, but who could have guessed she would stick to him like glue?
As for the paladin, that was entirely a coincidence. Who would have thought a Silvermoon Knight would seek a lich's help to train his troops? It was just happenstance.
Yet Anbaixiu had no way to explain himself. The elven girl already held a deep-seated prejudice against him. A person's preconceptions were a towering mountain, one that not even a legendary lich could move.
"Sigh, if only your imagination were this vivid on normal occasions,"
Anbaixiu grumbled, then transformed into the likeness of the green slaad from earlier and veiled Catherine in an illusion, rendering her invisible.
With that, the two swaggered back toward the depths of the swamp.
Sure enough, green slaadi held higher status, and no one stopped them this time as they entered.
The so-called swamp depths were actually a stockade built on the water out of timber. Though slaadi were amphibians, they did not spend all their time submerged. A small palace had been erected over the mire, and within it resided the slaad lord.
According to the memories of this green slaad named Shidubi, the lord usually stayed in the stockade's highest chamber. Gray slaadi already belonged to the middle tier of their kind; to evolve further, there were two paths.
The first was to delve deeper into spellcasting, until one day they evolved into a death slaad wielding necromancy.
The second method was even simpler: locate the corpse of a death slaad and devour it to evolve on the spot.
However, finding the corpse of a death slaad in this swamp was out of the question. As a result, this slaad lord named Kakachang preferred to seclude himself to research spells, emerging only when the pack needed to breed, at which point he would open a spatial portal to send slaadi hunting into another plane.
Yet the previous spatial connection ritual had gone awry.
The swamp had connected to a desolate ruin devoid of anything. Slaadi had wandered around inside, unable to find so much as a blade of living grass, let alone prey.
And since Anbaixiu and Catherine had wiped out all those slaadi, the slaad lord surely already knew. Consequently, a second spatial connection ritual would likely be held soon.
As Anbaixiu entered the water stockade, the number of green slaadi around him grew. Seeing him, they let out croaking sounds in greeting, presumably familiar acquaintances.
Anbaixiu didn't dare reply casually.
Even though Shidubi's memories contained information about each companion, to Anbaixiu, these slaadi all looked virtually identical. Even with the memories, he couldn't tell who was who.
How was he supposed to greet them? He could only pretend to be in a foul mood and walk past with head bowed, not daring to exchange a word with any green slaad.
Advancing all the way, he soon reached the innermost reaches of the water stockade.
There, Anbaixiu saw Kakachang, the gray slaad lord, perched upon a railing and gazing into the distance.
At the sight of Anbaixiu, Kakachang sighed and let out a string of croaks. Anbaixiu discreetly cast Detect Thoughts to read his mind.
Detect Thoughts was a mind-reading spell that functioned identically across all species, though it was easily noticed by the target and could expose one's identity. But Anbaixiu had no fear of spell failure—the Dice of Fate could alter probability in his favor.
Under the effect of Detect Thoughts, Lord Kakachang's thoughts were laid bare before Anbaixiu.
That croak just now had actually been a lament:
"Shidubi, this hunt has gone wrong yet again. Our tribe of slaadi is treading on thin ice. Tell me, can we truly ever return home?"
Anbaixiu didn't know the slaad tongue and had no way of conveying such complex meaning with a few simple croaks, so he could only utter a low, curt croak.
He had just learned this one; it meant, "Don't know."
Yes, No, Don't Know—these were the three slaad phrases Anbaixiu had gleaned from Shidubi's memories. Because they were simple, they were easy to pick up, but asking him to say anything beyond that was out of the question.
Fortunately, Lord Kakachang wasn't genuinely seeking Anbaixiu's input; he was merely musing aloud.
Thus, he soon asked Anbaixiu again, "The invaders—have they been found?"
An anomaly had occurred with the spatial connection, invaders had killed the slaadi, and the passage had closed—Kakachang was already aware of all this. This Shidubi was one of the green slaadi dispatched to track down the intruders, which was why Kakachang asked.
And Anbaixiu could only utter another croak to signify that he didn't know.
Kakachang snapped in annoyance, "You know nothing, so why have you returned? Do you have nothing to report to me?"
This flurry of croaks was so sharp it made the eardrums ache; Kakachang was genuinely agitated. Having anticipated this, Anbaixiu produced an arrow and handed it to Kakachang.
This was one of Catherine's arrows, and its specially crafted magic-piercing arrowhead made Kakachang's eyes bulge.
"What weapon is this? It sends a chill down my spine... it seems to possess immense suppressing power against magic. Was this recovered from the intruder?"
Anbaixiu shook his head in haste, then put on a show of sighing deeply.
Kakachang caught his drift and patted Anbaixiu on the shoulder. "I understand. You pulled it from the corpse of your spawn, didn't you? Never mind, I understand your reluctance to speak. It seems this intruder is troublesome indeed. Shidubi, prepare yourself. Before the next ritual begins, the intruder must be found!"
Anbaixiu quickly croaked, "Yes."
Kakachang sensed nothing amiss. Waving a hand to dismiss Anbaixiu, he crawled back into the lord's chambers.
Anbaixiu hesitated a moment. Rather than following inside to keep exchanging croaks with Kakachang, he turned around and departed the water stockade.
Catherine followed close behind all the way. Only once no one was around did she marvel to Anbaixiu, "Are you truly not a god of deception? How on earth could you converse with a slaad just by croaking? What did you two even talk about?"
Catherine was genuinely amazed. How could Anbaixiu pick up an entirely new and alien language in just ten minutes or so?
It defied reason. All those croaks sounded the same—how could they possibly convey complex ideas? Yet Anbaixiu had carried on a seamless conversation with the slaad lord, even getting a pat on the shoulder. Clearly, the chat had gone swimmingly.
Anbaixiu didn't bother answering such a loaded question. Instead, he told Catherine, "If we want to use their spatial connection ritual to leave this place, I have two options. Let me run them by you."
"What options?" Catherine asked curiously. To suddenly have two plans lined up was truly impressive.
Anbaixiu suggested, "The slaad lord told me just now that the next spatial connection ritual will only proceed once the intruder is captured. But they don't know there are two intruders. So... how about making a small sacrifice and letting yourself get caught? Then you can wait while I secretly learn their ritual."
Catherine snapped angrily, "Out of the question! I choose the second option."
Those slaadi were far too repulsive. Even if it was just an act, Catherine had no desire to be taken by those toads—that would give her nightmares for an entire year.
"The second option: you play the slaad, and I'll let myself be captured. Do you feel confident in pulling off the performance?" Anbaixiu asked.
Leira's True Mirage could indeed be cast on a group; Anbaixiu wasn't strictly required to be the one disguised as a slaad. He could easily pretend to be captured—after all, as a lich, he had myriad means of escape.
The problem was that Catherine simply lacked the skill to fool the slaad lord. Relying on her would drop the plan's success rate to rock bottom.
Sure enough, Catherine had no confidence in herself either. She could only mumble in a low voice, "Can't we just conjure a fake with illusion magic and let that get caught?"
Anbaixiu had to explain, "It's not impossible, but the failure rate is very high. Back in the Emerald Dream Forest, I could fool people because I was treated as a guest—nobody attacked me. An illusion is an illusion in the end. The moment these slaadi strike it, they'll easily notice something's wrong."
Illusions were illusions after all. If Leira had truly been invincible, she wouldn't have been stripped of her divine portfolio, with even her corpse salvaged by druids to construct a magical barrier.
"Are there really only these two options?" Catherine asked plaintively.
"The third option is to charge straight in, seize this slaad lord, and hope we can force the ritual out of him. But don't count on me reading his soul—there's a high chance he'd ascend straight to the slaad divine realm upon death."
In truth, the biggest problem was that Anbaixiu didn't understand the slaadi's language. If he had a teacher to instruct him carefully for ten days to half a month, Anbaixiu was certain he could swindle these slaadi so thoroughly they'd skin themselves just to sell him their hides.
A language barrier was a swindler's greatest obstacle.
Catherine pondered for a long time, then gritted her teeth. "Fine, then sacrifice me. But you must promise never to let these toads... Ugh, forget it. Arrange it however you want. I trust you won't harm me—after all, I still have to work for you until I break down crying, don't I?"
Catherine still remembered that when Anbaixiu had conned her into climbing inside the dragon's belly to place the seal, he had used that very reasoning. Until Catherine reached that agonizing future, her safety would remain guaranteed.
Hearing Catherine say this, Anbaixiu broke into a satisfied smile.
Yet he soon told her, "Heh-heh, I was only testing whether you had the resolve. In truth, you don't actually need to sacrifice yourself."
Catherine stared at Anbaixiu, thoroughly dumbfounded. "Aside from you and me, who else is there? Don't tell me you want to use Naomi as the captive! I won't allow that!"
Anbaixiu replied, "What are you thinking? What kind of ranger would sacrifice their beast companion? Am I that sort of person?"
Catherine looked at Anbaixiu with utter disbelief, as if he were precisely that sort of person.
Helpless, Anbaixiu opened his pocket dimension and hauled out a piecemeal golem puppet. He said to Catherine, "We killed all the witnesses, and they have no idea what the intruder looks like. We can just fool them with this thing. Later, we lure the slaadi to the edge of the swamp and toss the golem puppet out—won't that leave dead men telling no tales?"
Chapter 209