Destined

Anbaixiu posted a message in the chat group saying that his death was at hand, but after a good while, there was hardly any response. Only the dwarven vampire chimed in right on cue as usual, though his reply was: [What kind of act are you putting on this time? I didn't get it.] Anbaixiu was truly speechless this time. Why did this dwarf never believe him whenever he told the truth? Was the fellow cursed by the Lord of Knowledge, doomed never to distinguish truth from falsehood for the rest of his life? Yet this time, it wasn't just the dwarven vampire who was skeptical—practically none of the group members believed him. Especially Gareth the Headless Horseman, who even retorted: [Who do you owe money to now? You're actually resorting to this trick to dodge debt?] [Pale Little Skeleton: Are you trying to welsh on the devils? There's no need for that. It's not like you can't afford to pay.] [Mute: What kind of joke is this? You're a lich. Don't tell me you've made enough money.] [Rose of Decay: If you're feeling tired lately, come rest in the Underdark and discipline those drow elves.] [Dislikes Humans: Most likely setting up a dramatic preamble again. Next, he'll definitely drop some shocking news on us so we can be an audience and applaud enthusiastically. I've already seen through you. Cut the boring, garbage foreplay and get straight to the point.] ... Watching the group members joke and banter, Anbaixiu could only repeat: [There is no preamble. This is what I have to say. Friends, my time has come. This is the destined end of a divination wizard.] This time, true silence fell. As if drafting a will, Anbaixiu began settling accounts with the group: [Senior Aige, vast numbers of kuo-toa will flock to your banner in the future. Although the power of faith provided by clear-headed kuo-toa will weaken, this power should be enough to support you in achieving your wish. Our contract will be fulfilled.] [Gareth, I will hand over all the overseas alchemy business to Isabel. She is my student. While her skills are still slightly lacking right now, give her a few years, and her achievements in alchemy will surpass mine. Rest assured and leave it to her.] [Lady Rose, I will send all documentation on the mercury soul puppets to the Underdark. With the current scale of mercury soul puppets, subsequent propagation shouldn't be difficult. As for the plan to destroy Ryan, I'm afraid I won't be able to see it through, but I will hand over all my arrangements in Ryan to you...] Anbaixiu wrote on and on at length. This time, everyone finally understood that Anbaixiu wasn't joking—he was truly putting his affairs in order. For the members of the Elegy Poetry Society, such a situation was truly unprecedented. Undead were immortal, perishing only by accident. No undead ever knew when their end would arrive, and so none would ever arrange their post-mortem affairs like a terminally ill old person. A situation like Anbaixiu's was something they had never seen. While everyone else remained in stunned silence, Rose of Decay alone refused to believe it, cutting off Anbaixiu's final words. [Rose of Decay: Shut up right now. Wait for me to come to you.] This declaration put an end to Anbaixiu's lengthy treatise. Anbaixiu had no choice but to close the Necrotic Codex and await the queen's arrival. He hadn't expected that leaving his final words would get Rose of Decay so worked up. Hadn't he left all his Ryan-related connections and resources to her? He had truly done his utmost. Rose of Decay arrived very quickly, and she brought Melina along with her. The moment she saw Anbaixiu, Rose of Decay seized his arm and said in a cold voice, "Open your private space. Let's talk inside." With his creditor at the door, Anbaixiu could only comply. Entering the messy private space, Rose of Decay confirmed that the flow of time had been adjusted to one year inside for one day outside before sitting down. She asked Anbaixiu, "What on earth is going on? Why are you suddenly about to die when everything was perfectly fine?" Anbaixiu had no choice but to explain how Selwyn had sent him the final letter. Rose of Decay asked in bewilderment, "That was just a letter. What does it have to do with you?" Anbaixiu could only explain, "It's difficult for outsiders to understand, but you can think of that letter as a bow. Once a special bow appears in a story, it must shoot that fatal arrow. And in my eyes, that arrowhead has already pierced my soul. It can no longer be changed." The moment that letter had transformed into a scroll, the future Selwyn had tried so hard to conceal had also appeared within Anbaixiu's soul. He had seen blurry images, but he knew with absolute clarity that it was his own death. Refusing to give up, Rose of Decay said, "You have ties with so many deities. With your mentor, couldn't the God of Alchemy save you? Elevating a subordinate deity should be exceedingly easy for him." Hearing this, Melina chimed in repeatedly, "Father, you can't give up! Quickly use your invincible wit to solve the problem!" Seeing that neither of them was willing to give up, Anbaixiu realized that outsiders truly struggled to understand a divination wizard's state of waiting for death. Only by letting them see firsthand that fate could not be defied would they understand what condition he was currently in. "Fine, then let's ask my teacher." Anbaixiu immediately contacted the God of Alchemy, and the image of the God of Alchemy swiftly appeared in the magic mirror. As usual, the God of Alchemy was swinging his crystal hammer; every time they met, he was conducting an experiment. Only after setting down the hammer did the deity say to Anbaixiu, "My dear student, which deity did you offend today that requires your teacher to clean up your mess?" Anbaixiu didn't joke around with his teacher this time. He simply asked calmly, "Teacher, can you elevate me to become your subordinate deity right now?" The God of Alchemy was taken aback and said in surprise, "Why bring this up all of a sudden?" Anbaixiu didn't explain either, merely pressing, "Is it possible?" The God of Alchemy nodded. "Of course it's possible. But your contract with Hell isn't finished yet, right? Once you become a deity, you can no longer conduct massive soul transactions like that. Deities are not permitted to privately dump large quantities of souls into Hell." Hearing this, Rose of Decay disregarded etiquette and asked agitatedly, "Why is there such a restriction?" The God of Alchemy gave Rose of Decay a puzzled look, sensing that something was off with the atmosphere, but he explained nonetheless: "According to the rules of Hell, the souls of evildoers falling into Hell are distributed randomly, unless they had already signed a contract with a devil prior to death. This is a rule established by Asmodeus, the Lord of Hell, to ensure the fundamental balance of the Nine Hells. "No deity may conduct soul transactions with any devil of Hell. Occasionally sending a few souls down to Hell is fine, but something on the scale of tens of millions of soul coins like yours is impossible. Asmodeus will never allow other deities to affect the balance of power in Hell. Otherwise, those mighty deities could stir up trouble simply by sending vast quantities of heroic spirits into Hell, and Asmodeus would be worked to death." The Nine Hells were a very peculiar plane. Theoretically, villainous wrongdoers from all realms were to enter Hell to receive punishment—a rule established when Ao created the world. Yet the devils of Hell rarely acted decently themselves and had offended far too many enemies. For a hell meant to punish villains, its administrators happened to be evil through and through, each worse than the last. As the Lord of Hell, Asmodeus not only had to guard against mutinous subordinates on ordinary days, but also had to watch out for deities brimming with an excess of righteous zeal coming into Hell to stir up trouble. Wasn't Zariel the prime example? Back then, the battle had been so earth-shattering that Asmodeus, the Lord of Hell, was forced to step in personally before things finally settled down. Thus, Asmodeus had severed transactions between deities and Hell. After all, who could tell whether the souls sent into Hell were true sinners or heroic spirits dispatched to cause havoc? If you stuffed all of them into a specific hell lord's domain, were you trying to gorge that devil to death, or incite him to revolt? This rule was strict, and few among the gods dared to violate it. Anbaixiu summarized: "So what you mean is, I must first deliver the soul coins I owe the hell lord, because transactions involving mortals are not restricted by Hell's divine laws. But if I become your subordinate deity, I will no longer be able to make that transaction, which would breach my contract, and the devils would come after me." The God of Alchemy nodded and asked Anbaixiu, "What trouble have you run into? Weren't you waiting for the Goddess of Wealth before?" Anbaixiu shook his head. "Nothing, just asking. Sorry to disturb you, Teacher." The God of Alchemy took a look at Anbaixiu, but ultimately said nothing, slowly vanishing from the magic mirror. Seeing the God of Alchemy leave, Rose of Decay said hastily, "Doesn't that mean there's still a chance? As long as you fulfill this contract—or even if you can't fulfill it, as long as you hide within the God of Alchemy's divine realm, you could..." Anbaixiu looked at the highly agitated Rose of Decay and shook his head. "Things aren't that simple. Even if I entered my teacher's divine realm right this moment, the result would just be devils knocking on the door to drag me off to Hell. No matter how I evade it, the outcome remains the same—there will always be some unexpected mishap in an unguarded moment that leads to my capture. "The other path is the same. Even if I start hiding inside my private space right now to forge soul coins, materials will suddenly run short, forcing me to buy more, and then some mishap will happen during transport. Or perhaps after the soul coins are forged, they'll be snatched away by some devil lord during the exchange... Whichever accident it is doesn't actually matter, because the result is already destined." Still seemingly unwilling to believe it, Rose of Decay muttered to herself, "There must be another way. If it's useless, what was the point of the scroll that Selwyn sent? Why did he send that thing to you?" "To buy me time. I could use this scroll to make the entire world forget my existence. After a period of chaos, I could dig a hole and bury myself. Perhaps when I wake up hundreds or thousands of years later, everything happening now will have vanished, and everything meant to put me to death will have been worn away by time." Rose of Decay hurriedly seized Anbaixiu's hand. "Then do that! In the Underdark, we can find plenty of suitable places for seclusion. I have already waited so many years; I wouldn't mind waiting a few more centuries for Ryan to perish on its own." Anbaixiu gave Rose of Decay a surprised look. This was no small statement—could she truly let go of her hatred toward Ryan? Yet regrettably, Anbaixiu could only shake his head once more. "Doing that is meaningless. As a divination wizard, you cannot praise the Goddess of Fate's favor when things work to your advantage, only to choose disbelief when fate decrees your misfortune. Even if I erase my own name, I will still reach the end of my life in some corner unknown to all." Rose of Decay couldn't understand why Anbaixiu was so certain of his impending death, but she refused to give up. "If you cannot defy fate, then I will help you. I will lock you away and ensure that no one can kill you!"