In an unnamed little village in the Ryan Empire, Cade Watson had just shut off the magic mirror's live broadcast and was pinching the bridge of his nose hard.
The Radiant General had lost, and in a manner bordering on outright humiliation.
No wonder that lich had reminded him beforehand that this battle had to be recorded with memory crystals.
Looking at the dozen or so memory crystals in front of him, Cade Watson sighed and murmured, "I didn't do it. The magic mirror recorded it automatically. I didn't do it."
As he spoke, the forgotten little cleric transmitted the memory crystals through the magic mirror.
It would probably take a month or two for these memory crystals to circulate before everyone's eyes. What would happen to Ryan then?
Alan's side would need these, even if they were deadly poison to Ryan.
Yet Cade Watson had no choice. Even if he refused, someone else would do it for the lich. Ryan had already fallen into decay, sick to its very bones; one could only pray that someone might save it with this poison—either fighting poison with poison, or letting it be poisoned to death once and for all.
Having finished a task so simple even a child could manage it, Cade Watson felt utterly drained, collapsing onto his chair drenched in sweat.
Pale though his face was, he actually felt his mood lighten considerably.
Now that what should and shouldn't be done was all finished, there was no need to dwell on past matters anymore; he had always possessed such an optimistic disposition.
Once relaxed, however, Cade Watson could not help wondering who on earth that paladin working for the lich was. His father might know something; perhaps he could ask?
It wasn't just Cade Watson who was curious—everyone who had watched the broadcast wondered about the paladin's identity.
Those unfamiliar with Anbaixiu were still guessing, while those familiar with him were already preparing gold coins. If one wanted the lich to talk, nothing worked better than cold, hard cash.
And after this battle, the whole world would surely remember the lich's name: Legendary Divination Wizard, Master Lich Ultraman Tiga.
Anbaixiu's plan was more than half successful; the period ahead would be one long harvest.
With his stay on the island drawing to a close, Anbaixiu needed to consider what to do with Gold Coin Island.
To pull off this grand performance, he had thoroughly remodeled the island, not only expanding its land area but also laying down a massive array of magic circles serving all sorts of functions. It would be a waste to simply abandon it.
Anbaixiu studied the map carefully. The location of this little island was not bad at all. It was fairly close to what had once been the Kingdom of the Unholy Hymn; although that land had turned into a vast ocean, Gold Coin Island was close to quite a few shipping lanes.
It could serve as a transit hub where raw materials from the overseas dragons could undergo preliminary processing before being shipped to the Raging Tide Kingdom for further refinement, which would help keep the techniques confidential.
Anbaixiu's alchemy was nothing exceptional; he lacked the skill to create technical encryption that could never be cracked. Thus, keeping secrets was the best policy. Denying others information on even a single step could waste years of their reverse-engineering efforts, earning Anbaixiu a few extra years of profits.
However, this meant Gold Coin Island could not host too many undead. The corrupting effect of dark magic was too potent; only materials from bone dragons could be processed under such conditions.
The island would therefore need living people stationed on it. Anbaixiu did not have enough subordinates to spare. Harvey had his hands full managing the desert business alone; Isabel was busy working on alchemy over with the dwarves; Catherine was an elf after all; the dark elves were handling transport... To his embarrassment, the lich realized he hadn't found a single subordinate capable of overseeing a whole region independently.
He already had plenty of living subordinates, yet at crucial moments, there were never enough.
"Time to recruit some manpower. In a few days, once the news has had time to spread and ferment, hiring shouldn't be difficult. But finding trustworthy people is never easy," Anbaixiu muttered to himself.
He was not lacking money now, and his businesses covered vast ground.
Druid grain, dragon specialties, high-tier armor and spices from the former Unholy Hymn territory... All of these were wildly marketable goods, and Anbaixiu held a monopoly on them.
Under such conditions, recruiting people wasn't hard at all, but entrusting such massive enterprises to someone was another matter.
Trustworthy individuals could not be groomed overnight. If not for the lack of time, he would have loved to snatch a few children into his personal demiplane to train for a while.
After all, a day outside was a year inside; half a month would be enough for children to grow up.
Yet Anbaixiu knew he was no good teacher. After taking in Harvey for so long, he had never taught him anything hands-on, just leaving him to read books on his own. The same went for Isabel: Anbaixiu had only taught her the most basic alchemy, and the girl had figured out how to produce the Fountain of Youth entirely by herself.
If he truly brought children into his personal demiplane, Anbaixiu reckoned that after two days of teaching, he would switch to free-range neglect and leave them to read books alone.
The success rate under that method would be abysmal—out of hundreds of children, who knew if even one useful talent would emerge?
While Anbaixiu was mulling over these problems, the Rose of Decay suddenly appeared beside him.
"Lady Rose, are you preparing to withdraw your forces?" Anbaixiu asked.
He had assumed she came to take back her people. After all, the construction of Gold Coin Island owed much to the Undead Queen's aid; only the Rose of Decay could readily field tens of thousands of specters.
She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. If you want those specters, you can have them. That's not what I came to ask."
Before Anbaixiu could even rejoice at her generosity, she said, "Could you... let me meet Arthur Ryan?"
Anbaixiu was taken aback. "What brought this on all of a sudden?"
After obtaining Arthur Ryan's heroic spirit, Anbaixiu had brought the matter up with the Rose of Decay. At the time, neither Arthur Ryan nor the Rose of Decay had shown any interest in meeting.
Anbaixiu understood the awkwardness well.
From Arthur Ryan's perspective, he hadn't even been married when he became a heroic spirit; suddenly having a great-great-great-granddaughter was emotionally hard to accept. Moreover, Arthur felt a certain aversion to this era and disliked seeing people.
When one thought about it carefully, he had waited over a thousand years for a promise, only to step out and find his friends mostly dead and his enemies gone, while his descendants had become the greatest evil in the world. After striving so hard and sacrificing so much, all he got was this outcome. Looking at this world felt like taking a knife to the heart. Even Anbaixiu would have turned withdrawn under those circumstances.
That was why Arthur Ryan had never asked Anbaixiu for freedom of movement, quietly remaining inside Anbaixiu's personal demiplane, likely still trying to adapt to this world.
As for the Rose of Decay, she was a princess forced to flee by the Ryan imperial family, and the only mentor who had treated her well had died at Ryan hands. She hated the very name Ryan down to the marrow of her bones. Even if that Holy King had little to do with her plight, a thorn remained lodged in her heart.
He had assumed the two would never meet, so her sudden request came as a surprise.
Sensing something amiss, Anbaixiu asked, "Why do you suddenly want to see your ancestor?"
Hiding nothing from Anbaixiu, she answered candidly, "I thought his strength had faded drastically and that he would be of little use. But I never imagined he would still be so powerful, repelling an entire Ryan army single-handedly. I want him to step forward and help me overthrow this corrupt Ryan.
"A weak Arthur Ryan is an impostor, but a powerful Arthur Ryan is the real thing—he could bring about the immediate destruction of this empire!"
"Uh? That..."
The Rose of Decay looked puzzled. "Is there a problem? If it's a matter of money..."
Anbaixiu waved his hands hurriedly. "No, no, no, Lady Rose, you misunderstand. You've just helped me so much—how could I have the nerve to talk money with you? The main issue is that bringing Arthur Ryan out now won't actually affect the Ryan Empire the way you think; instead, it will only grant them a breathing spell."
"Arthur Ryan wouldn't destroy the current Ryan? Why do you say that?"
A look of perplexity crossed her face. Had anyone else said this, she would have flung a necromantic spell at them without hesitation. But this was Anbaixiu speaking, and she knew full well the lich never spoke without purpose and would not deceive her on such matters.
Anbaixiu explained, "It's simple: what you want is physical destruction. You want to slaughter the entire Ryan imperial clan and even obliterate the empire itself. And Arthur Ryan will never help you do that."
"He's merely a heroic spirit. We have more than enough ways—isn't reshaping souls what you excel at most?" she replied with confidence.
Anbaixiu shook his head again. "Setting aside whether a resolute heroic spirit like Arthur Ryan can even be altered, suppose he could, and suppose he fell completely under our control, stepping forward to proclaim that the Ryan Empire of today is utterly corrupt. Do you think that alone would destroy Ryan?"
"Is that not enough?"
"Of course it isn't. Ryan is no longer just a mere empire. It inherited the names of those ancient heroes and has maintained its rule for over seventeen hundred years; its cultural core is mature and stable. Never mind Arthur Ryan—even if two consecutive generations of emperors were idiotic tyrants, the empire would still possess immense self-correcting capability.
"Playing this card too early would only give the Ryan people time to prepare. What if that young emperor immediately drops to his knees before Arthur Ryan, confesses all his wrongs, and abdicates the throne?
"A tyrant might lose his head, but Ryan would not be destroyed. They would swiftly elect a new emperor to ensure the Ryan Empire endures. Even if Arthur Ryan truly revealed himself and took back the reins of the empire, do you think a single command would destroy it?
"Impossible. That is an empire of hundreds of millions, a colossus mightier than all the other kingdoms combined. If Arthur Ryan dared issue such an order, it wouldn't be long before the Ryan people overthrew him themselves.
"Unless the Lord of the Dawn intervened in person to thoroughly destroy this empire, the influence of a single man is far from enough. Doing so would only plunge Ryan into the cycle of another thousand years. Arthur Ryan's rule would merely give the empire a chance to catch its breath—or even achieve a renaissance."
Chapter 407