Anbaixiu looked down at the unconscious Brandir Sanda, thinking to himself that this kid could take an astonishing amount of punishment. The druid had held out until Anbaixiu emptied two full magazines of anti-magic bullets before finally collapsing from sheer exhaustion.
Though his lack of combat experience was obvious at a glance, his willpower was undeniably formidable.
Moreover, his Shillelagh was far from ordinary. A couple more swings of that staff, and Anbaixiu's mithral mecha would have been battered to scrap.
Unfortunately, no matter what beast a druid shifted into, there was no outrunning a mecha flying at supersonic speeds. Between a legendary ranger's marksmanship and anti-magic ammunition, the druid had been utterly hard-countered.
Anbaixiu also finally understood why the God of Alchemy had managed to regain divine power merely from flying fast. A breakthrough in speed truly brought upheaval to an entire continent.
With immense patience, Anbaixiu had whittled down Brandir Sanda's mana bit by bit. The young druid, knowing that surrender meant leaving his people at the mercy of invaders, had held out to the bitter end.
Looking at the slumbering druid, Anbaixiu shook his head. "Foolish boy. Going head-to-head when you know you're outmatched? Even if running wasn't an option, you could have ducked out of sight and played for an ambush. Stalling might have bought you a turn of fortune."
It all came down to experience. In his own adventuring days, Anbaixiu had run into enemies he couldn't beat in a straight fight. Once, his entire party fell into a magical trap and was knocked unconscious, leaving him as the sole survivor against an ogre.
Unable to stand by and watch the monster devour his companions, Anbaixiu had resorted to relentless harassment. Taking advantage of the ogre's sluggish movements, he fired a cheap Ray of Frost the moment the creature opened its maw to take a bite.
With Anbaixiu's spellcasting at the time, the Ray of Frost barely gave the ogre a case of the shivers, but it was enough to slow its stride.
Whenever the ogre tried to chase him down, Anbaixiu cast Misty Step to slip away, turning the encounter into an endurance test.
After stalling for a full ten minutes or so, one of his companions finally woke up. Luckily, their cleric recovered first, swiftly casting a divine spell to revive the rest of the party. Swarming forward, they hacked the clever, trap-setting ogre to death.
Perseverance was admirable, but one still had to use their head.
Wary that Brandir Sanda might stir and get in the way, Anbaixiu hit him with a Sleep spell, followed by an entire vial of sleeping potion down his throat.
Legendary or not, he was out cold for at least a day.
With every nuisance dealt with, Anbaixiu walked up to the absurdly massive banyan tree.
By rough estimate, it stood over a hundred meters tall, its primary trunk spanning forty to fifty meters across—and that wasn't even factoring in the hanging aerial roots. The tree was vaster than Anbaixiu's own castle.
Picking an arbitrary spot right against the trunk, Anbaixiu prepared to dig.
Three hundred meters down was certainly not something he could excavate by hand.
Summoning the Golden Throne, Anbaixiu began casting the sixth-circle spell Move Earth!
The ground tore open in an instant, parting into a dark, gaping pit about thirty meters deep.
Empowered by the Golden Throne, the effect of Move Earth was multiplied several times over. Anbaixiu dropped straight to the bottom of the pit and cast the spell again, plunging dozens of meters deeper.
After every stretch of descent, he re-entered the dreamscape to confirm the location of the skeleton with the Lady of Mists.
Casting one Move Earth after another, Anbaixiu soon laid eyes on the remains. The corpse was heavily decomposed, yet its flesh and bones appeared to be woven entirely of fog. When Anbaixiu reached out to touch it, his fingers passed through nothing but empty air.
As expected of a deity's remains—possessing such wondrous power even in death.
Wasting no time, Anbaixiu took out the box containing the Portfolio of Darkness, opened it, and placed it upon the skeleton.
A surge of black mist poured out, merging seamlessly with the bones.
Anbaixiu extended his senses, eager to witness what ascension to godhood looked like, but the reality left him deeply disappointed. The fusion of black mist and bone yielded no earth-shattering phenomena; the skeleton simply turned black, then rapidly sprouted new flesh and blood until it restored the likeness of Leira, the Lady of Mists.
The reborn Leira possessed no overwhelming divine aura, exuding only an elusive, ethereal presence.
Anbaixiu hurried to ask, "Have you restored your divine power, Your Lady?"
Leira nodded gently. "I am a deity once more. Thank you. In all these years, you are my greatest benefactor."
She carried herself without the slightest trace of divine haughtiness. Small wonder she had been labeled a shut-in goddess in the past.
"Are you able to remain here?" Anbaixiu asked. "Deities aren't permitted to wander the mortal realm as they please, right?"
His primary concern was whether Ao would order Leira to leave the Emerald Dream Forest. If she departed, would the Dream Barrier dissipate? Without it, the druids would likely invite an invasion from Ryan, and they stood no chance against the empire's grand armies.
"My situation is unique," Leira explained. "My flesh and blood merged with this land to forge the mist barrier. As a result, this physical form is incomplete. Only by fully merging with the entire Emerald Dream Forest would I become a true deity. Doing so, however, would likely drag all the druids into ascending to my divine realm alongside me. That is almost certainly something Ao would not allow. Therefore, I will remain here temporarily, slowly disentangling my power from the soil. It will be a lengthy process."
"During this time, can you still control the Dream Barrier?" Anbaixiu inquired.
Leira offered a smile. "Of course. In fact, my power is greater than before, and the Dream Barrier is no longer restricted to the Emerald Dream Forest." She traced her fingers through the empty air, conjuring a cloud of greyish-black dust. Guiding the particles toward Anbaixiu, she said, "Inhale this powder, and no matter where you are, you can enter the sweet dream I weave for you."
Whether it was his imagination or not, Anbaixiu felt her tone had subtly shifted.
Smiling, Leira stepped up to him and gently caressed the mithral faceplate of his armor. "You may come find me in dreams whenever you wish. Within the dream, you will not be a lich. You can become any race you desire... and so can I."
Anbaixiu immediately caught her meaning. Yet to a lich, such an offer held zero appeal; he would have far preferred a potent divine blessing.
Even if he didn't care for this sort of reward, Anbaixiu would never be so tactless as to refuse her to her face. Wounding a goddess's pride was a swift road to making an enemy. Retrieving a glass vial, he carefully gathered all the powder and said, "Rest assured, I will enter your dreams at every opportunity. By the way, I have a magical item I'd like to present to you as well."
Anbaixiu produced a mechanical mirror and offered it to Leira.
"Simply speak the passphrase 'Mirror, mirror' to activate it. If I am unable to enter a dream in time, you can also reach me through this mirror..."
After walking Leira through how to operate the magic mirror for communication, he added, "I cannot linger here for long. I should take my leave before the druids awaken."
With a touch of reluctance, Leira said, "Go on, then. I shall await you in my divine realm."
Anbaixiu smiled inwardly. This truly gave him an extra escape route.
If push came to shove, he could ascend directly to Leira's divine realm. This goddess's concealment abilities had fooled even the Prince of Lies; other deities would find it virtually impossible to cause trouble for him there.
Leaving the deep subterranean cavern, Anbaixiu did not take to the skies. Instead, he sought out the Emerald Dream Forest's continental teleportation circle, opting to travel straight to the Kingdom of the Unholy Hymn.
With all the divine portfolios distributed, he could finally enjoy the convenience of teleportation.
Although more than a month remained before the deadline Mister Misfortune had set, Anbaixiu had no intention of cutting it close. The old fellow claimed he would cooperate, but who knew if he was lying?
Thus, Anbaixiu decided to head to the Kingdom of the Unholy Hymn early, treating it as a revisit to old stomping grounds.
Incidentally, he could check whether that Iron-Blooded General had gone bald yet.
With a flash of magical light from the circle, Anbaixiu arrived at Blackgate City on the kingdom's border.
With continental tensions running high, anyone wishing to enter tiefling territory had to pass through Blackgate City first, submitting to an inspection before proceeding onward.
As Anbaixiu stepped out of the circle, a squad of tiefling guards glared at him like hawks, ready to strike him down on the spot should he make any suspicious move.
A tiefling mage approached, demanding, "A human? State your identity and your purpose in the Unholy Hymn."
Without bothering to hide it, the tiefling mage cast Detect Thoughts directly on Anbaixiu to ensure he spoke the truth.
Anbaixiu gave a faint smile. "Easy there. I'm no spy from Ryan."
"Hmph, as if any spy would admit it. You're human, so the possibility—" The tiefling cut himself off mid-sentence, his jaw snapping shut.
Dark magic coalesced in Anbaixiu's open palm.
The tiefling mage recognized the spell at once: Blight, the signature hallmark of the necromancy school.
Anbaixiu could not possibly be a spy from Ryan, where practitioners of necromancy were loathed to the bone, hunted down and slaughtered without mercy.
Furthermore, the magical potency radiating from this Blight was terrifying enough to make the tiefling's heart flutter with dread. The figure before him was unquestionably an exceptionally powerful necromancer.
The tiefling hastily offered an apology. "Forgive my poor attitude just now, Master. Ryan has been making aggressive moves lately, and the situation is extremely tense."
"Understandable," Anbaixiu said dismissively. "May I enter the city now?"
"Well... please state your purpose for entering, Master. Surely you understand that a powerful necromancer poses far greater danger than a hundred Ryan spies. Forgive me, but strict orders are strict orders."
Anbaixiu sighed in exasperation. "I simply wish to visit Red River Town. I was an adventurer there many years ago, and I came to look up an old friend."
"Red River Town?"
Taking no chances, the tiefling pressed him for specific details about the place.
Anbaixiu answered according to his memories, but naturally, many points failed to align. That was hardly surprising; several centuries had passed, and the town was bound to have changed drastically.
The discrepancies, however, left the tieflings deeply unsatisfied.
The mage looked at him warily. "Our apologies, Master, but we must ask you to remain here. We need more time to verify your intentions."
Chapter 310