Gustavo Fring left with a grim, tight face.
In the end, Anbaixiu had still fleeced him of five million. Though it was a little less than expected, five million gold coins for a single vote was a painful sum to ponder, especially since it did not even guarantee his election.
Still, Anbaixiu had promised that if Fring ultimately failed to win, he would refund half.
As for their other avenues of cooperation, Anbaixiu tasked Fring with finding him a top-grade mana refining furnace—complete with installation—while offering Fring priority distribution rights for a portion of the Potion of Youth.
It looked like a win-win on the surface, but no matter how one sliced it, Anbaixiu came out far ahead.
Fring could not afford to haggle over details with him right now; he still needed to prepare for tomorrow's election. While Isabel's backing would help him sweep many votes from the younger demographic, victory was by no means a certainty.
His opponent was hardly someone to take lightly.
After seeing his old friend out, Anbaixiu hurried back to his laboratory.
The Rose of Decay was closely scrutinizing the soul that continuously emanated a vibrant, colorful radiance. Seeing Anbaixiu arrive, she praised, "Flawless. Even better than I imagined."
Anbaixiu quickly replied, "Of course. When it comes to your requests, I will naturally do everything in my power to satisfy them. I have already imprinted a command of absolute loyalty to you into this soul. Under normal circumstances, she will never betray you."
"Under normal circumstances? What counts as an exception?" the Rose of Decay asked.
Anbaixiu explained, "I preserved a degree of self-awareness for this soul and granted it the capacity for personal growth, meaning this little thing has a personality of her own. If you, as her master, treat her too harshly or torture her, resentment could breed within the soul. But based on my past experience, as long as you keep her well-fed like a pet, absolute loyalty is guaranteed."
"Is it not possible to bind her with an unbreakable soul contract?" she asked.
The Rose of Decay disliked subordinates who carried the slightest potential for trouble. Her underlings were all enslaved beneath contracts she had personally branded into them, leaving none capable of disobeying her orders. If this soul was not a hundred percent guaranteed, she had to give serious thought to the possibility of an accident.
"I cannot forcibly impose such a contract while preserving the soul's growth potential. I trust Lady Rose understands as well that a contract of that nature only takes effect by annihilating all self-awareness. Doing so would be an utter waste—after all, this undead was forged from the corpses of three legends."
Regardless of the type of undead, the core was always the soul.
A soul stripped of self-awareness would never qualify to become a legend, let alone possess room to grow. Even if it was already legendary to begin with, its legendary boon might dissipate on its own once its consciousness was erased.
Because at that point, you were no longer you.
There was no way to have the best of both worlds. Anbaixiu could only maximize her loyalty as best he could—much like a fledgling imprinting on the first living creature it laid eyes upon as its mother, Anbaixiu had led this soul to view the Rose of Decay as her closest kin. Naturally, Anbaixiu held the same level of authority as the Rose of Decay; he hardly wanted this little creature plunging a longsword through his skull one day.
After a long pause of hesitation, the Rose of Decay finally said, "I understand. Begin the transplantation, then. I will treat the little thing well."
Anbaixiu carefully cupped the soul shimmering with iridescent light and set it inside the colossal fleshy egg.
As the rainbow radiance sank within, the massive egg shuddered violently.
The bloody lights twitched and spasmed, and the drow elves pierced through with blood vessels convulsed alongside them, their bodies drained completely into desiccated husks.
Fresh blood poured into the egg, causing its tremors to grow all the more violent.
Suddenly, a pale arm burst through the egg's outer wall, sending a spray of foul-smelling gore splashing outward.
A second hand reached out through the tear. Both hands pulled with tremendous force, ripping the colossal egg in two.
A figure dripping in blood emerged from the egg, looking around with curious eyes. A striking, peculiar rune ran down over her right eye, stretching from the eyelid all the way to her cheek. Even Anbaixiu could not discern the rune's purpose, assuming it was an intentional mark left by the Rose of Decay.
Anbaixiu remarked in surprise, "Why a female physique?"
The body had been sculpted by the Rose of Decay, but Death Knights were predominantly male under normal circumstances.
"I prefer daughters," the Rose of Decay replied.
*Fair enough. The client calls the shots.*
The nascent undead girl had just been born and seemed fascinated by everything around her, yet she remained as cautious as a kitten. She edged toward the Rose of Decay with tiny, hesitant steps and reached out to tug gently at her hand.
The Rose of Decay stroked the girl's blood-soaked hair as dark energy surged from the Undead Queen's palm, washing over the young undead's entire body. The blood quickly blackened and hardened before crumbling away into ash. At the same time, the dark aura condensed into a form-fitting suit of soft armor over her frame.
The Rose of Decay took the girl by both hands, pulled her to her feet, and said, "From this day forth, you are my daughter."
A look of pure excitement washed across the girl's face, and in a raspy voice, she called out, "Mother."
Anbaixiu had not expected the Rose of Decay to actually raise her as a daughter. In that case, there was clearly no need to worry about her loyalty.
To his surprise, the Rose of Decay turned to him and said, "Help give her a name."
"Me?"
"You created the soul, and I created the body. In a sense, she is the child of us both. As her father, it is only natural for you to name her."
Anbaixiu felt this sounded bizarre beyond measure, but paying clients were gods. As long as the Rose of Decay paid enough, she could claim this girl was his long-lost biological daughter for all he cared.
"I have no talent for naming things. If you're asking me... how about Melina?"
Faced with a girl sporting a strange, mystical rune over her eye, Melina was the first name that sprang to Anbaixiu's mind.
"It doesn't sound particularly pleasant, but never mind. It is a name given by her father." The Rose of Decay looked at the young girl. "From this day forward, your name shall be Melina Ryan."
She then turned back to Anbaixiu. "The child takes my surname. You have no objections, do you?"
"Uh, none at all. Feel free."
This was sounding stranger by the second. Had he suddenly ended up with a child alongside Lady Rose? She wasn't going to demand child support from him, was she?
The Rose of Decay gazed upon her "daughter" and said tenderly, "Come, Melina. Show me your power. From the moment of your birth, legendary might was already condensing within you, was it not?"
Though Melina was newly born, Anbaixiu had woven a degree of intellect into her soul, embedding basic knowledge like language and writing. She understood the Rose of Decay's words perfectly.
Melina walked to the very center of the laboratory, closed her eyes, and began channeling her legendary power.
A blue radiance rose from the laboratory floor as an intricate magic circle took shape beneath Melina's feet.
"Is that... a mount-summoning circle?"
Though Anbaixiu had never crafted a Death Knight before, he was quite familiar with the ability. It was their signature trait: summoning a nightmare mount.
Yet what Melina summoned was not a nightmare, but... a sapling.
A bizarre little tree with pale branches and leaves as clear and azure as crystal.
"A sussur tree?!"
This time, Anbaixiu was genuinely stunned.
This was the sussur tree native to the Underdark, an extraordinary plant known as the nightmare of every spellcaster. Wherever sussur bloomed, all magic ceased to function.
This included, but was not limited to, the spells of wizards, the bloodline powers of sorcerers, the inspirations of bards, and the divine magic of clerics... Legend had it that even comparatively weaker deities would fall under the sussur's dampening influence.
However, once a sussur tree left the Underdark, it would rapidly wither—a process that took no more than three seconds.
Yet under the infusion of Melina's mana, this sussur sapling showed no sign of withering. Instead, it grew frantically, shooting up three meters tall in moments before swelling in girth and shifting in shape.
Before Anbaixiu's flabbergasted eyes, a warhorse formed entirely from the sussur tree took shape.
Its body and limbs were made of wood, draped in barding composed of sussur blossom petals. The moment this sussur warhorse finished coalescing, Anbaixiu felt a colossal barrier expand outward, engulfing him within.
The dark mana inside his body was completely suppressed. He could not even summon his Golden Throne.
This was the power of the sussur tree—a power governed by the fundamental rules of reality, the bane of all spellcasters. While an Antimagic Field could also suppress magic, its area of effect was small, its duration brief, and its suppression far from absolute; Anbaixiu's Golden Throne could punch right through such limitations.
Against the sussur tree's power, however, that was impossible. Within the boundaries of its field, absolutely all magic was snuffed out; no amount of struggling would do any good.
What was even more absurd was that Melina herself appeared completely unaffected. She was still able to channel dark mana to forge a pitch-black spear for herself—a traditional Death Knight ability, unremarkable on its own.
The problem was that she had cast a spell inside the sussur tree's barrier.
She could cast magic, while nobody else could. The sheer horror of that realization sent a chill down his spine.
The Rose of Decay was equally astonished. "Remarkable, Melina. You are even stronger than I imagined."
Melina excitedly mounted her warhorse and said to the Rose of Decay, "Mother, I want to take a run outside."
"Do not rush, Melina," the Rose of Decay replied. "Once we return home, you can ride for as long as you wish."
Though a little disappointed, Melina dismissed her mount and obediently fell into step beside the Rose of Decay.
"I am very pleased. The remaining balance will be delivered directly to you. I shall take Melina and return home now. If you ever wish to see your daughter, you are welcome to visit me in the Underdark at any time."
Anbaixiu quickly replied, "Certainly, certainly."
In his mind, however, he thought: *The Rose of Decay's enemies are in for a nightmare. A Death Knight that carries her own absolute antimagic barrier wherever she goes—who on earth could stop her?*
Chapter 244