"Take this seriously. Prayer isn't child's play, nor is it a joke. You must persevere; you must be pious..." Arthur Ryan did his utmost to guide Anbaixiu in praying to the Lord of the Dawn.
Yet in the end, it still concluded with Anbaixiu's bloodcurdling screams.
Lying on the ground, Anbaixiu said helplessly, "No way. It didn't hurt this much back when my limbs were chopped off. I quit."
After having his meritorious deeds listed by the group members in the chat for half the day, Anbaixiu had thought it was about time he went to the Lord of the Dawn to claim a reward.
So he had sought out Arthur Ryan, asking the Holy King for guidance on how to pray.
Yet it was futile. The moment Anbaixiu felt even a glimmer of the Holy Light's power, his soul suffered agonizing torment akin to death by a thousand cuts.
To the undead, the Holy Light was pure torture, completely inescapable. He hadn't felt agony like this in decades, and it left him trembling from head to toe.
Perhaps the Lord of the Dawn truly was willing to offer him a chance at turning over a new leaf, but Anbaixiu possessed no such iron will.
Back then, he had chosen to become a wizard precisely because he feared pain and didn't dare swing weapons around in hand-to-hand combat.
Now, asked to endure the torment of the Holy Light, Anbaixiu decisively chose to give up.
Arthur Ryan felt rather regretful; he had never seen a holy-light skeleton before.
"Forget it. I'm simply not cut out for the Holy Light. Unless the Lord of the Dawn cuts me some slack and grants a blessing making me immune to it, I'd better honestly remain a lich."
Fearful of death, pain, and poverty—someone like Anbaixiu could never become a paladin.
Bidding Arthur Ryan farewell, Anbaixiu prepared to set out for the outer sea.
He had important matters to attend to on this trip. The first was resolving the trouble with the dragon race, and the second was helping Aige harvest faith and aiding her ascension to godhood.
As for the third, he wanted to promote his alchemical products, earning money while bolstering the God of Alchemy's divine power.
There were many goals, but as long as everything went smoothly, they could all be handled along the way.
Upon stepping out of his private space, Anbaixiu spotted a fully armed Melina.
Melina asked excitedly, "Father, are we heading out?"
Anbaixiu nodded. He planned to bring Melina along this time. The girl had nothing to do in the Underdark. The Rose of Decay had tried to put her in charge of the myconids and svirfneblin slaves, but Melina had ended up getting tricked into going down into the mines to dig rocks herself.
The Rose of Decay bitterly regretted it. Back then, she shouldn't have focused solely on allocating stat points to combat prowess. Melina wasn't suited to be an heir at all; she could only serve as a fierce general charging onto the battlefield.
Yet the Rose of Decay had no choice; where was she going to find enough corpses of legendary powerhouses to craft another heir? Hearing that Anbaixiu was going away, she had no choice but to send Melina to his side, hoping the girl could learn well from her father. If she could master even ten percent of his capabilities, it would be enough to rule this underground kingdom.
Anbaixiu was rather helpless about it too. At the time, he had truly forgotten to invest points into intelligence, thinking only of unleashing the full physical might of that body.
Nothing could be done now; he'd just treat it as after-sales service.
Anbaixiu told Melina, "Get ready to depart. But remember: listen more, look more, think more, and talk less. Don't lift a finger without my orders."
Melina answered hastily, "Understood! I'll definitely be obedient."
Though this daughter of his was a bit simple, she was quite obedient, which brought Anbaixiu considerable comfort.
Anbaixiu led Melina aboard a streamlined airship.
This was Anbaixiu's personal warship, the Black Tide. He would be flying it to the outer sea.
It wasn't that he couldn't afford a teleportation array, but rather that he needed to give those natives a little alchemical shock to facilitate the establishment of subsequent transport routes.
The Black Tide was sixty-eight meters long with a meager passenger capacity, accommodating fifteen people at most. This was no cargo vessel, but an aerial warship crafted through Anbaixiu's painstaking effort.
For this journey, besides Melina, Anbaixiu also brought along Dahei and Erha, who had been running errands for Harvey.
Hastings and Hares had followed Anbaixiu for quite some time now, and it was about time they were upgraded and saw the wider world.
As Anbaixiu boarded the warship and entered the bridge, a misty specter rose from the crystal ball at the center.
"Welcome, Master. The Black Tide is ready for departure. Please issue your orders."
Anbaixiu said slowly, "Let us set off, then. Destination: the Emerald Dream Forest."
"By your command."
The warship vibrated slightly, then slowly floated into the air.
It was the effect of Feather Fall, rendering the multi-thousand-ton warship as light as nothing.
Powered by both dark magic and an alchemical engine, the warship's energy output would make any alchemist's jaw drop.
Anbaixiu even pondered whether he should inaugurate a brand-new branch of alchemy called Undead Alchemy.
On second thought, however, he gave up on the idea. Alchemy founded upon the unique capability of a legendary boon couldn't possibly be replicated by anyone else, so it hardly qualified as an academic discipline.
A glow surged across the hull of the Black Tide, and it vanished into thin air.
The next second, the airship appeared in the skies above a desert.
The machine spirit of the Black Tide reported, "Spatial teleportation to designated target complete. Discrepancy is within prescribed limits."
Anbaixiu nodded. Short-range targeted teleportation wasn't inherently difficult; as long as the coordinates were calculated in advance, the rest was merely a question of energy.
"Engage all engines. Test supersonic flight!"
At Anbaixiu's command, the jet engines at the rear of the Black Tide fired up, blasting out high-velocity airflow.
The Black Tide surged forward, the fierce acceleration pinning Anbaixiu firmly against his metal seat.
Dahei gripped a handrail tightly with his mechanical arm, while Erha's mercury body inadvertently splattered against the wall, flattened like a pancake.
Only Melina remained standing steadily, even pressing against the glass to admire the scenery outside.
As the Black Tide continued to accelerate, a white mist formed in front of the airship, as though the air itself had materialized only to be pierced through.
The hull shuddered, and the Black Tide broke into supersonic flight, trailing thunderous booms in its wake that gave the desert folk below a terrible fright.
Supersonic flight by a multi-thousand-ton behemoth was a grand feat beyond even the scientists of his past life—something seen only in science fiction movies.
And now, Anbaixiu's undead alchemy had achieved it!
However, this supersonic flight did not last long before the machine spirit of the Black Tide reported, "Master, the vibration frequency of the starboard hull exceeds projections; there is a possibility of breach. The overall oscillation amplitude of the vessel has reached critical threshold..."
The barrage of warnings made Anbaixiu sigh. "Decelerate. Keep it at subsonic speed. Sigh, the materials still aren't up to par."
Although Anbaixiu had spent plenty of time on the design and modifications, atmospheric turbulence during high-speed flight caused the outer armor to shudder.
That force was immensely powerful, and ordinary steel definitely wouldn't hold up. Anbaixiu had crafted it using several alloys, but it seemed that was still not enough.
"Looks like only mithral can guarantee supersonic flight for an ultra-large airship. Where am I supposed to find that much mithral? Even hollowing out the entire Underdark might not yield enough."
Once the flight speed dropped, the airship stabilized. Cruising at six hundred kilometers per hour consumed the least energy, and that speed had already surpassed every living creature on the continent.
"Master, life signs detected ahead. Suspected large flock of harpies."
Hearing this, Anbaixiu said at once, "Drop speed further. Prepare for combat!"
Chapter 357