Having too many gods was, at times, a blessing for mortals.
With so many choices, no one was tormented by a single, monolithic deity. One could worship whichever god they pleased. As long as one didn't casually switch allegiances like a philandering scoundrel, deities generally didn't mistreat their followers—barring a few exceptionally twisted ones, of course.
And precisely because deities were so numerous, mortals didn't have to fear that whatever a single god proclaimed would automatically become law.
Rules existed among the gods as well. For instance, even though the Lord of the Dawn knew full well that the Rose of Decay was dedicating her entire unlife to destroying Ryan, he couldn't simply swat her to death with a single divine palm and scatter her ashes.
If the Lord of the Dawn actually did that, Velsharoon, the God of Liches, would turn around and tear down the Ryan Empire's capital. Though Velsharoon was the kind of god whom the Lord of the Dawn could effortlessly pin to the dirt and pummel, bullying mortals was still child's play for him.
Among deities, the ultimate taboo was shouting, "Come on then, let's hurt each other!"
This was especially true for the gods of lawful and neutral alignments; unless pushed to the absolute brink, they would never strike mortals directly. They had set the rules themselves. If they were the first to break them, the chaotic evil deities would stir up havoc without restraint, and mortals would suffer far greater devastation.
This was also why Anbaixiu dared to negotiate terms with his teacher.
It was precisely this rule-abiding bunch of gods he could take advantage of. If you have the guts, crush me, and let all the gods join the fray and turn this entire Prime Material Plane into dust!
Of course, the premise was that Anbaixiu carried enough weight.
He didn't merely hold the right to cast Wish; more importantly, he understood the Wish ritual itself.
It was fair to say that if anyone across this continent could replicate this Wish ritual, it was definitely Anbaixiu.
The moment the lawful deities moved to dispose of him, his soul would instantly be protected by the chaotic evil gods. Then Anbaixiu would likely become their chosen, mass-producing Wishing Machines across the mortal realm—ideally handing one to every resident of the continent's Nine Kingdoms to see what madness mortals could unleash.
This was the bargaining chip in Anbaixiu's hands, and the reason he dared to haggle with his teacher.
Perhaps the God of Alchemy's arrival was because the lawful gods recognized Anbaixiu's significance and decided to play the emotional card, sending his teacher to deal with him.
Once Anbaixiu figured this out, he didn't hesitate to start bargaining.
"First off, an artifact that grants unlimited uses of Wish—I don't need to calculate its worth for you. In taking it away, you probably also expect me to keep my lips sealed and never share the technique with anyone. Therefore, not only do I want the right to cast this Wish, but I also want you to help me attain divine power vast enough to pin the elven pantheon to the ground and beat them senseless. This condition isn't too excessive, is it?"
The God of Alchemy stared blankly at Anbaixiu, then said, "Do you have any idea what you're saying? If the elven deities heard that, even I wouldn't be able to protect you."
"Oh, so they aren't eavesdropping right now. In that case, can you mass-sterilize the high elves? I can accept that instead."
The God of Alchemy put away his teapot entirely and said to Anbaixiu, "Feel free to try making that wish with Wish. Let's see if the elven gods beat you to death or not."
"Tch, you lawful-aligned folks don't have a shred of sincerity."
The God of Alchemy said in a stern tone, "Don't get too greedy. You know we're negotiating with you because we honor our word. But once you agree, you'll offend that crowd of chaotic evil deities, and we'll be the ones shouldering their hatred on your behalf. Stop acting like you're being wronged. You haven't lost out on a single thing from beginning to end, have you?"
"Not making the profit I should have made is the same as losing money! Besides, I'm a lich. If you want me to betray my alignment, shouldn't you pay a little extra?"
"You're not even a worshiper of Velsharoon! You think just because you're a lich, Velsharoon has to claim you? Besides, Velsharoon is staying neutral this time. Don't even think about dragging him into this."
The reunion of master and apprentice after several centuries had no reminiscing—only heated bickering.
Anbaixiu was deeply dissatisfied. He had originally wanted to wish for apotheosis—preferably becoming strong enough to arm-wrestle the Lord of the Dawn—but the God of Alchemy told him flat out to stop daydreaming. Even with a hundred Wish spells, reaching heaven in a single bound was impossible.
Anbaixiu settled for the next best thing, asking to become a god directly, even a weak one, but that was rejected as well.
It wasn't that the God of Alchemy was being deliberately difficult. Wish merely meant a deity granting a wish on your behalf. What god would ever help someone ascend to godhood? The price was far too steep—it required cleaving off a portion of one's own divine power and handing it over, the divine equivalent of a mortal carving off their own flesh.
If you want to become a god, work for it yourself. Who knows, maybe someday the supreme one above might take a liking to you, and you'll ride right over the Lord of the Dawn's head.
The God of Alchemy offered a compromise: he could grant Anbaixiu a new legendary boon to make up for him scraping the bottom of the legendary tier.
"Can I design a legendary boon myself?" Anbaixiu asked.
The God of Alchemy flatly refused. "No. I can only give you a chance to re-advance to the legendary tier. What kind of power you attain will depend on yourself."
"One isn't enough. I want two," Anbaixiu bargained again.
"That second chance isn't mine to grant, but as your teacher, I can give you an extra perk."
The God of Alchemy extended his right hand. Countless grains of gold sand converged in his palm before melting and casting into a gold coin with unique engravings.
"Take this coin. It can duplicate the legendary boon of any legendary alchemist, but you can only select one boon's ability. Once copied, it cannot be changed."
"Unlimited uses?" Anbaixiu asked.
"This power does not belong to you, so every time you use this coin, you must pay an equivalent price."
"What price?" Anbaixiu asked.
"Gold. Unleashing the power of a legendary boon that isn't yours requires paying in gold. As for how much, that depends on your choice." The God of Alchemy set the coin before Anbaixiu.
Anbaixiu knew very well that this coin was an artifact, forged by a deity's own hands, capable of producing miraculous power.
Still, being limited to replicating an alchemist's legendary boon made its scope rather narrow.
Even the council president's legendary boon didn't seem all that impressive, and Dippel's boon—which practically amounted to repairing household appliances—was the absolute trash among trash, even more useless than Anbaixiu's Simulated Soul.
On second thought, however, between this coin and the opportunity to re-advance to legend, Anbaixiu would possess three legendary boons. No matter how trash an ability was, stacking them together had to yield a qualitative leap eventually.
Finally, Anbaixiu retained the right to cast this Wish. The only catch was that once his wish was made, the City of Alchemy would completely vanish, relegated to an alternate space beyond mortal reach.
In other words, after trying every possible means to breach the boundary between mortal and god, Gary Watts would only end up granting Anbaixiu a single wish before being sealed away forever.
Anbaixiu spared a few seconds of pity for the poor president, then asked, "Throwing away the entire city immediately after I make my wish? It can't linger at all?"
"Indeed. Linger for even a moment longer, and there will be danger. You said so yourself: we aren't the only ones watching this place. Other gods are stirring restlessly as well. Time is running short. If you still refuse..." The God of Alchemy didn't elaborate further. The benefits offered were already generous and sincere. If Anbaixiu pushed his greed any further, the pantheon backing him wouldn't be polite anymore.
No matter how lawful good a deity was, none would tolerate someone opening their jaws for extortion over and over again.
Anbaixiu also understood that he couldn't keep shearing the gods' fleece, or he would end up as the lamb led to slaughter.
"Fine, let's leave it at that."
Left without a choice, Anbaixiu nodded in agreement.
The God of Alchemy's body slowly dissipated. Before departing, he added to Anbaixiu, "Though we'll shield you from the other gods' wrath, their worshipers will still come looking for trouble with you. Watch your back—you've offended quite a few deities today."
Those words made Anbaixiu a little uneasy, but fortune favored the bold. With gains like these, it was well worth the risk.
Once the God of Alchemy vanished completely, the effect of Temporal Stasis dissipated as well. Everything in the City of Alchemy returned to normal, and not a soul noticed anything amiss. Even the two warring sides above failed to register the pause.
Only the president, who had ascended to the realm of godhood, showed a puzzled expression in his massive eyes, seemingly sensing that something was off.
Anbaixiu didn't break the brutal truth of what was to come. He merely told him, "Alright, the deal is struck. Grant my wish."
Gary Watts was bewildered. Knowing only that the God of Alchemy had vanished, he assumed Anbaixiu had genuinely used some special means to drive the deity away.
"Much as I despise the God of Alchemy, he was right about one thing: you are far too clever. You always seem to be the one laughing last."
Anbaixiu showed no smugness. Instead, he sighed with deep feeling. "You have no idea what price I paid. He was my teacher, yet I completely severed ties with him."
Gary Watts didn't doubt the truth of Anbaixiu's words. The master and apprentice had bickered fiercely right before his eyes earlier, showing not the slightest hint of an act. Perhaps Anbaixiu truly had paid a price beyond ordinary comprehension to drive the God of Alchemy away.
"Speak your wish. I shall use everything in the City of Alchemy to make it real," Gary Watts said.
Anbaixiu made his wish with utmost gravity: "I want you to create a special space, transfer every valuable thing in the City of Alchemy into it, seal it away securely, and hand full control of that space over to me."
After all, the only thing the God of Alchemy intended to seal was Gary Watts. The rest of the City of Alchemy's wealth was useless to him, so it was the perfect haul to pocket directly. It wasn't as if Anbaixiu hadn't considered being even greedier—like making all the gold in the entire world belong to him. But doing that would surely provoke deities of every alignment. Believers needed to eat, too; if Anbaixiu snatched away all their gold, were they all supposed to go bankrupt?
When that time came, good and evil would team up to double-team him, and Anbaixiu would be dead meat.
Only the City of Alchemy, a city destined to be sealed away, was an ownerless prize. So Anbaixiu took the next best thing, packing up and carrying off everything of value in the city.
No matter how impoverished the City of Alchemy had become, it was once the wealthiest city on the continent. Those precious potions, assorted confidential formulas, and schematics... this haul had to be worth at least tens of billions. When wishing for godhood was off the table, directly asking for money was the next best choice.
Gary Watts responded, "According to my calculations, you will receive wealth valued at six million."
Wait, how much?!
Six million?!
"How can it only be six million? How much of a kickback did you pocket?!" Anbaixiu cried in disbelief.
"Activating Wish requires consuming massive quantities of matter as energy. By my calculations, only six million worth of wealth can remain."
Anbaixiu was just about to revise his wish and demand ten billion gold coins, but then he suddenly remembered another prophecy fragment—the one where he stood before a mountain of gold, with the number of coins appearing to be at least a million.
At least... a million...
Bullshit prophecy! So it had already calculated this for me right here.
Six million gold coins was already the upper limit of what he could get his hands on, so wishing for hard cash was pointless.
"Stick to the original plan. Seal the remaining valuable goods into a special space for me. But regarding this space, I have one tiny little request."
If this had been a true Wish spell, Anbaixiu wouldn't have been allowed to haggle like this. But Gary Watts was now on his side, meaning Anbaixiu could probe his limits little by little.
Chapter 87