Talos watched Anbaixiu process the various intelligence reports in such an orderly fashion, growing so thrilled that his hands practically crackled with hundreds of ball lightnings.
Although Talos could not suppress his fury and savagery, he was no fool, and he knew full well that Anbaixiu was a clever man.
Not only did this lich possess supreme intellect, but he also held the power to stir the world into chaos.
Talos wanted to clutch such a person in his grasp. He wanted to make this lich his subordinate, to let him ruthlessly batter the faithful of other deities.
"What a pity that he had to be a lich!"
Back then, Talos had shared his divine power with a lich, but in the end, all he had received in return was betrayal.
Velsharoon had fled, and to this day, Talos could not track down the whereabouts of that God of Liches.
The very concept of a lich thoroughly disgusted him.
Were it not for that, Talos would truly have descended with a divine thought to converse with this lich, to see how much incentive it would take to hire him into his service.
While Talos hesitated, Anbaixiu had already finished transmitting the intelligence.
Next, he had only to wait for those grand figures to help him resolve the military dilemmas.
Aige had remained at his side, watching Anbaixiu busy himself for her sake. Only when he finished did she speak with heartfelt gratitude: "Thank you. I don't know what words could express my gratitude, but sadly, I have nothing with which to repay you."
The Silent Night Pirates possessed widespread fame, yet they truly had nothing decent to offer.
As for wealth, the Raging Tide Kingdom had paid them a bit of tribute, but normally what they pillaged was not gold coins, but all sorts of useless junk they hurled straight into the sea to rot.
Aige now felt a touch of regret. Why hadn't she saved more money? Wouldn't it have been perfect to offer as a favor right now? After all, she could hardly gift Anbaixiu two ghost ships.
That part was certainly true. Even if she gave Anbaixiu ghost ships, he would have no use for them.
Anbaixiu's self-image had already risen from a merchant to a capitalist. Aside from draining resources, ghost ships were of little value to his business. If Aige didn't gift them to him, a single word would secure her help anyway; but if he accepted them, he would have to manage many things himself and lose out on free labor—a complete deficit.
Facing Aige's apologetic look, Anbaixiu magnanimously replied, "We are fellow members of the Elegy Poetry Society; this is nothing. However, this time, we need to alter our previous pirate methods. Lady Aige, do you have any experience governing a territory?"
Aige pondered for a moment, then hesitated. "Do you mean... my Silent Night Sea?"
The Silent Night Sea was the name of a maritime expanse where Aige usually appeared. Because the pirate fleet emerged only at night and the ghost ships sailed in total silence, the name 'Silent Night Sea' had gradually caught on.
Unfortunately, this answer failed to satisfy Anbaixiu.
"Lady Aige, living in a place is not the same as ruling it. We are about to seize the Volcanic Sea, which will be the territory of an entire kingdom. The surface alone spans hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, to say nothing of the three-dimensional space beneath the waves. How do you intend to manage such an immense expanse of ocean?
"Our objective is to gather enough worshippers to provide you with the power of faith. The territory is brand-new, but what about the population? You can't expect this handful of undead to provide you with faith, can you?"
Perhaps because the undead inherently lacked sensation—either completely devoid of emotion or weighed down by intense grudges—it was exceedingly difficult for them to provide faith of sufficient quality and quantity. They were considered the least valuable of worshippers.
Just look at Anbaixiu and the Rose of Decay: when had liches like them ever believed in Velsharoon? That was why deities of the undead pantheon had always been thoroughly frustrated.
If Aige were to ascend to godhood, she would require a massive host of worshippers—living worshippers.
Aige understood the problem as well and promptly asked, "Then what should I do? You must have a way, right?"
Anbaixiu let out a sigh. Why was everyone around him always too lazy to think, leaving him to solve everything in the end?
This could not go on. No matter how powerful his soul was, it could not endure such relentless strain. He had to hire more clever people as assistants.
Though annoyed inside, Anbaixiu patiently explained to Aige, "Most races in the sea already possess their own faiths. Therefore, we either capture enough members of various races and let them reproduce, securing the faith of the next generation. That approach isn't aggressive and shouldn't provoke the wrath of those deities. But its drawback is that it requires many years of slow cultivation. If you want to become a deity, you'll need many years of patient nurturing."
After listening, Aige smiled and said, "There must be a faster way, right?"
Anbaixiu replied helplessly, "Of course there is. The simplest and best targets are the kuo-toa. As long as you don't mind their chaotic faith warping your original form, the kuo-toa are the finest choice." Any random kuo-toa could yield an ocean of faith, but their minds were chaotic and unhinged; once she drew heavily upon kuo-toa faith, Aige's true vessel was very likely to become twisted.
Whether she would achieve godhood first or turn into some grotesque hybrid ship of lobster and octopus was something no one could say for certain.
Aige asked, "The safe method takes time, and the quick method has side effects—is that what you mean?"
"Precisely. Furthermore, while rounding up kuo-toa in large numbers and domesticating them isn't difficult, I fear their goddess will take issue with it. As you know, She holds madness within Her divine portfolio; She is capable of anything."
This was Anbaixiu's greatest worry. It was not that gods could not kill mortals; they simply did not dare.
With the examples of Lolth and Shar before them, normal deities held reservations. But the kuo-toa goddess was not normal. If that lunatic disregarded Ao's rules and insisted on stepping in personally to slay Aige, even if She were later punished by Ao, it would be too late.
You could not reason with a madwoman, let alone predict her actions through ordinary logic.
This was precisely where Anbaixiu's deepest apprehension lay. The other races posed little problem; the greatest peril stemmed from this batch of dim-witted kuo-toa, along with the psychopathic goddess backing them.
Aige did not answer immediately either. She said calmly, "No rush. We can talk about that after the Volcanic Sea becomes our territory. By the way, why did you seek out those terrestrial humans and elves to strategize for you?"
Anbaixiu sharing ocean intelligence with his surface friends was what baffled Aige the most.
Waging war beneath the waves was fundamentally different from fighting on land; planar warfare and three-dimensional warfare were entirely different beasts. Aige was confident she could defeat any so-called 'renowned general' of the surface down in the depths. Even without stepping in personally, she could achieve an effortless victory merely by directing the pirates under her command.
Yet Anbaixiu had handed over the strategic intelligence to those surface-dwellers. Aige felt he was being overly cautious.
Anbaixiu shook his head. "I am not asking them for tactics. Surface-dwellers walking on two legs cannot imagine what warfare on the ocean floor looks like. I gave them the intelligence for two reasons. First, to let them know that I have tapped into overseas markets—deep-sea markets, even—and to inform them that I will soon control this sea that borders the continent. Those clever minds will understand the significance of this ocean expanse, making future business negotiations far simpler.
"Second, I am not asking for specific tactical guidance, but rather an overarching strategy encompassing an entire kingdom's domain. They might not understand how to direct a particular battle, but those veteran generals seasoned by decades of warfare will certainly be able to draft an appropriate campaign strategy for us—where to begin, where to build our operations, where to establish defensive lines, and so forth. Once they provide their recommendations, we can adjust them according to the actual state of the sea.
"Lady Aige, this will be a supreme war involving every race across the ocean, with over a million combatants participating. It is not some minor squabble of a few hundred men raiding the open waters, nor is it something you can easily win merely by being invincible in the deep."
Aige asked in confusion, "I don't follow. If no one can defeat me, what reason do I have to lose?"
Anbaixiu chuckled. "I once heard a tale. There was a general who was peerless in direct combat beneath the heavens. Leading fifty thousand men against four hundred thousand, he won a crushing victory; leading thirty thousand against five hundred thousand, he won another crushing victory; later, leading a hundred thousand against seven hundred thousand, he still battered his foes so thoroughly they dared not face his vanguard. Yet in the end, he still died.
"When he took his own life, he likely did not even understand how he had lost."
Aige gasped in astonishment. "How could that be? How could he lose after all that?"
"Indeed, I cannot fathom it either, which is why I know that in military affairs, I am an absolute amateur. In my lifetime, I have experienced only small skirmishes; I have never truly participated in a grand war of hundreds of thousands. Thus, we must entrust such matters to the professionals.
"The outcome of one or two battles does not necessarily determine victory in a kingdom-wide campaign. We can no longer obtain Eadro's aid, so we have only a single chance. We cannot lose, nor can we afford the slightest carelessness."
As the sovereign of the Silent Night Sea who had roamed the depths unchecked, Aige had never met a single adversary capable of contending with her head-on, so she naturally harbored a measure of disdain for the other races. But hearing Anbaixiu speak with such gravity, she realized she had been mistaken. She needed to go all out, denying her opponents the faintest opening.
Seeing the shift in Aige's demeanor, Anbaixiu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Aige was the core of the entire plan. Nothing could be allowed to go wrong with her, or all their efforts would come to naught. Now, she was finally treating it with the seriousness it warranted.
Yet this was still no time to rest. Anbaixiu activated the communication feature of the magic mirror once again. This time, the mirror's surface reflected a stern old man with dark skin.
The moment Anbaixiu saw him, he beamed. "Old friend, could you speed up production on the custom parts I ordered from you? I'm in a terrible hurry for them."
The man glared furiously at Anbaixiu before replying, "You only placed the order three days ago! Even if I were the God of Alchemy, I couldn't rush all those parts out in such a short time!"
"Listen to yourself—you're underestimating the God of Alchemy! Fine, I'll give you three more days. Worst comes to worst, I'll come down to your factory and turn screws for you myself." Anbaixiu added with utmost gravity, "My old friend Flynn, I am deadly serious. Do not delay my timetable under any circumstances, or I will settle the score with you for the rest of my life!"
Chapter 424