Inside the castle, Anbaixiu looked at a pile of bones soaking in nutrient fluid and nodded in satisfaction.
The bone-colonizing virus had been perfectly injected into the bones. Once they finished soaking in the nutrient solution, these bones would be able to self-repair and continuously proliferate for a long time.
"Well done. You're almost qualified to manage a laboratory on your own."
Anbaixiu's praise did not bring any joy to Isabel. The poor girl had dark circles under her eyes, her body tottering unsteadily.
Although there were many steps, the experiment wasn't difficult; the only issue was danger.
Throughout the experiment, Isabel hadn't dared to make the slightest mistake, terrified that if she were infected by the virus, Anbaixiu would turn her into an undead.
The more nervous she was, the greater the mental strain. Having stayed up all day and night like this, Isabel felt completely drained, barely able to remain standing.
"I... I'm going to rest..."
Isabel swayed as she trudged toward her room. Anbaixiu stroked his chin, wondering whether he should just turn her into an undead and be done with it. A human body required eating, drinking, and using the bathroom—it really wasn't cost-effective at all.
Then again, he decided against it. Undead had their merits, and humans had theirs.
Besides, Isabel would die eventually in several decades anyway; there was no rush.
Turning back to look at the bones soaking in the vats, Anbaixiu gathered a vast surge of magic around himself. Pale blue energy condensed into the shapes of hands, floating around him.
More than a dozen Mage Hands swiftly and methodically set to work.
Bone after bone was removed and assembled according to Anbaixiu's design.
These were not human bones, but came from a creature known as a subterranean rothé.
This creature hailed from the Underdark. It was a massive beast resembling a yak, but far larger and stronger. Some cruel drow elves liked to use subterranean rothé heads to quarry rock, which showed just how powerful the creature was and how hard its skull was.
These bones were a gift from the Rose of Decay; a large portion of the advance payment had been made in various materials rather than gold coins alone.
A subterranean rothé possessed an enormous frame, so its bones were naturally thicker and sturdier. Such bones were unsuitable for crafting small praying mantis skeletons; this time, Anbaixiu intended to create a different kind of special skeleton.
Under Anbaixiu's control, the massive bones began to piece together. The heavy base was still an insect-like multi-legged chassis, though the thick joints could only manage simple forward, backward, and turning movements—reinforcing structural strength and load capacity at the expense of agility.
The upper half was pure armor plating, composed of heavy subterranean rothé skulls like a canopy bristling with bone spurs, leaving only a massive aperture open.
Then, Anbaixiu used a Mage Hand to haul over a portable magitech cannon.
This piece had been constructed according to original blueprints from the City of Alchemy, but because the materials were substandard, it ran the risk of backfiring.
Still, that was no big deal. What Anbaixiu did best was using low-end materials to build cheap, practical skeleton puppets.
Once assembled, an extraordinarily bizarre skeleton appeared in the center of the laboratory. In fact, calling its shape a skeleton was a stretch; it was entirely a spherical tank.
It stood two meters tall and nearly four meters in diameter, with a long cannon barrel measuring a full three meters.
Hard craniums enclosed its entire body, shielding even the multi-legged assembly underneath. The stocky frame exposed nothing but a single cannon barrel.
Anbaixiu slotted a prepared Simulated Soul into it, and the skeleton tank rumbled into operation.
Dull thuds rang out as the multi-legged joints beneath moved smoothly, shaking the floor slightly with each step.
Then came forward movement, reverse, and slow turns... The movements were somewhat sluggish, but overall there were no issues.
Next, it was time to test its firepower.
Controlling the skeleton tank, Anbaixiu guided it into a teleportation circle. With a flash of light, this massive creation of bone and machinery was sent into the sewers of the City of Alchemy.
The moment this colossus appeared, it drew the attention of the sewer creatures. Red glints flickered in the darkness as twisted, repulsive slimes began crawling toward the skeleton tank.
After some time had passed, the sewer slimes seemed to have mutated once again.
Their bodies were embedded with numerous metal parts—things like iron nails, blades, rebar, and saw blades. Who knew who was dumping such industrial waste into the sewers? If a mortal were engulfed by such a slime, they would be shredded from head to toe in an instant.
The skeleton tank was an unfeeling undead machine. Its soul fire blazed fiercely, and faint ripples formed along the cannon barrel.
Then came a muffled, heavy sonic burst as a greyish-white mass erupted from the barrel, scattering and splitting the moment it cleared the muzzle.
A barrage of bone buckshot peppered a wide area ahead, striking over a dozen mutated slimes.
Squelching sounds echoed as bone shards sank into slimy bodies, accompanied by the clatter of bone fragments striking embedded pieces of metal.
The immense concussive force blew the squishy slimes backward, tearing them to pieces under the onslaught of countless bone fragments, while the metal parts twisted visibly and flew in all directions.
Slimes could shrug off many forms of physical damage, but even they couldn't withstand the raw power of a portable magitech cannon; a single shot blasted them apart by sheer impact, smearing viscera across the floor.
Yet the cannon's destructive power did not end there. A few fortunate slimes had only been grazed by the bone shrapnel and survived, but the bone fragments that penetrated their bodies rapidly grew and proliferated, fusing with neighboring shards.
Bizarre coral-like bone formations sprouted from within the slimes, tearing their bodies apart.
Some slimes died on the spot; others desperately used their digestive secretions to dissolve the growing bones, caught in a deadlock between proliferation and digestion, entirely immobilized.
Then came two more loud blasts, and every slime in the area was wiped out.
Anbaixiu inspected the skeleton tank. Its skeletal structure remained fairly stable. He had cleverly confined the growth of the bone-colonizing virus to the loading chamber, where it could continuously generate bone cannonballs before firing them using the magitech cannon's air pressure.
The materials used for the magitech cannon were so shoddy that its firing lifespan was probably under ten shots. However, that wasn't an issue, as the internal magic array's charge could only support six rounds at most; it would run out of mana well before suffering a barrel burst.
Sales of this portable magitech cannon had never been good in the City of Alchemy. The mobile barrel was difficult to recharge, yet if it were mounted on a city wall connected to a charging array, its caliber was far too small, making it seem like nothing more than an expensive toy.
Despite the drawbacks, it was the simplest way to bolster his strength on short notice. Anbaixiu still wasn't sure what had decapitated him in the first place, and it never hurt to be prepared.
He took the skeleton tank on a circuit through the sewers, firing off all six shells. Its power was indeed impressive: within twenty meters, a graze meant injury and a direct hit meant death. At close range, even Anbaixiu, with a magical shield raised, wouldn't be able to withstand six consecutive bone-colonizing shells.
Still, it would be of little use against a legend. The skeleton tank was ponderous, with a noticeable pause and charge-up before firing. That gave plenty of time to dodge or strike first, unless an opponent was foolish enough to take it head-on, or forced into it by cramped terrain.
Just after teleporting back to the castle with the skeleton tank, Anbaixiu sensed something amiss.
The castle had been infiltrated. A magical trap had been triggered, but the intruders appeared quite skilled, having dismantled the trap outright.
Anbaixiu thought the paladins had moved sooner than expected. He hurriedly activated the crystal surveillance to check the situation, only to see two familiar figures.
Dahei and Erha, the pair of "clients" whom Anbaixiu had fleeced down to their last copper, were currently creeping up the back of the castle. The magical trap had been dismantled by these two.
Just as Anbaixiu was about to step in and capture them, a massive dark shadow over four meters tall suddenly appeared on the crystal surveillance.
Anbaixiu sighed.
Those two were finished.
Chapter 57