The Ancient Castle was gloomy, its candlelight dim.
Amber Xiu opened the envelope with his skeletal fingers. The scarlet sealing wax cracked apart with a crisp sound, and the magical seal on the envelope shattered along with it.
He unfolded the parchment inside, and the ghostly blue flames in Amber Xiu's eye sockets flickered several times.
"Dear Master Amber Xiu, after review by the editors of the Legendary Spell Publishing House, your submitted paper, Research on Non-Humanoid Morphological Transformations in Undead Creatures, has been deemed unsuitable for publication in the Legendary Spell Monthly. We suggest submitting it to a magical academic journal with less demanding review standards."
A mass of ghostly blue flames erupted from Amber Xiu's fingertips, burning the rejection letter to ash. Then he said indignantly, "My paper is backed by detailed data and presents novel ideas. How could it possibly fail to meet the standards? Isn't this just discrimination against liches and undead magic?!"
The Legendary Spell was the highest-level magical monthly in the world, jointly founded by thirteen legendary Mages from the Nine Kingdoms. Spellcasters of any race or nationality could publish their magical theories in it.
Since its founding, the Legendary Spell had made major contributions to the development of magic throughout the world. The foundational theories of more than twenty legendary spells had appeared in its pages.
Every spellcaster took pride in publishing in the Legendary Spell. Even court Mages from the Nine Kingdoms were judged by the number of papers they had published. Anyone with fewer than three papers was not even qualified for an interview.
Yet Amber Xiu, a renowned scholar who had successfully submitted papers many times before, had been rejected three times in a row over the past two years.
Amber Xiu believed the reason was simple. Not long ago, he had reincarnated as a lich. And the new editor-in-chief of the Legendary Spell was a devout light Cleric who was extremely prejudiced against undead creatures.
"There are so many ways to gain immortality. What's wrong with reincarnating as a lich?"
Amber Xiu waved his hand in displeasure, sweeping the ashes on the desk onto the floor. A strangely shaped skeleton crawled over from the side and swiftly swept up the ashes.
The skeleton's appearance was extremely bizarre. Only its upper body had the bone structure of a normal human; its lower body consisted of eight spider-like skeletal legs. It crawled incredibly fast, but its arms seemed to have fixed joints that allowed only limited movement. Its motions looked stiff, yet its cleaning was extraordinarily precise and swift.
It was short and could climb walls and crawl beneath tables. Clearly, this was a specially designed "special-type" skeleton meant for cleaning.
This was the subject of Amber Xiu's Research on Non-Humanoid Morphological Transformations in Undead Creatures. A specialized Mutated Skeleton was naturally more useful than a humanoid skeleton that stumbled around with clumsy movements.
However, this kind of modification was not cheap. The expenses of the preliminary experiments alone had emptied his wallet, and Amber Xiu was already beginning to regret reincarnating as a lich.
But the Youth Potion was simply too expensive. Recently, the Silver Moon High Court had banned the export of two of its primary ingredients, driving the price of the Youth Potion to an absurd level.
Even a legendary Mage could run out of money. Besides, the Legendary Boon Amber Xiu had received upon reaching the legendary rank was "Mimic Soul." He could use some simple materials to create something resembling a soul. It looked similar, and there was not much difference in how it functioned.
It would have been a waste not to become a lich with such a talent.
Therefore, when the price of the Youth Potion rose to five hundred thousand gold coins per bottle, Amber Xiu decisively chose to reincarnate as a lich.
To hell with the Silver Moon High Court of the Elf goddess! Those elves were monopolizing lifespans by relying on their longevity. Amber Xiu swore that once he had money, he would short the Youth Potion and bankrupt those bean-sprout elves.
But the problem had now returned to the rejected paper. As a legendary shut-in who rarely went out, Amber Xiu's primary source of income was the royalties from the Legendary Spell. After being rejected three times in a row, he had begun to run short of money.
Although a lich did not need to eat or drink, undead magic experiments cost money, maintaining this Ancient Castle cost money, and even maintaining his Phylactery cost money!
Amber Xiu needed to find a way to make some money. Otherwise, he would truly become so poor that he would not even be able to replace his Mage robe after it developed holes.
"How should I make money?"
Amber Xiu could not help falling into deep thought. Ordinary Mages could serve nobles as magical advisers and receive generous salaries. But at the legendary level, they had to apply for positions in the royal courts. Ordinary nobles could not afford a legendary Mage, and the same applied to a legendary lich.
Only two of the Nine Kingdoms were willing to accept liches, and both were a long way from Amber Xiu. As a newly advanced lich and a veteran legendary Mage, Amber Xiu understood all too well that the gap between legends could sometimes be even greater than the gap between mortals and legends.
His attainments in undead magic were merely average, so even if he applied, he might not succeed. If he failed, the cost of opening a continental teleportation gate would be a total loss. Damn that Silver Moon High Court! Those bean-sprout elves had driven up the cost of continental teleportation gates too!
Besides, leaving his homeland meant facing more than just the risk of losing his travel expenses. If he was careless, he might even lose himself. No matter how mediocre a legendary being was, they were still legendary. No one would refuse the chance to enslave a legendary lich.
Amber Xiu had also wondered whether he could sell his "Simulated Soul" for money, but his fellow professionals all said that a Human Slave cost only a few dozen copper coins, and that came with a genuine soul. Why would anyone pay triple the price for his imitation?
Those words left Amber Xiu speechless, and he increasingly felt that his Legendary Boon, "Simulated Soul," was a useless skill.
"I need to ask around about ways for a lich to make money."
Amber Xiu waved a finger, and a thick spellbook flew out from beside the desk. An exquisite skull relief was set into its cover. This was the Necronomicon that the Mourning Poetry Society had sent him after he reincarnated as a lich. It recorded a great deal of basic lich knowledge, including the most important One Hundred Taboos After Reincarnating as a Lich.
Reminders such as not habitually pulling open the curtains immediately after waking, not habitually using Daylight as a candle, and not keeping a dog had indeed been of great help to Amber Xiu.
But Amber Xiu was not looking up those common-sense rules now. He flipped to the very last page, gathered magical energy at his fingertips, and wrote: "Friends, may your Soul Fire burn forever. I've been a little short on money lately. Could someone tell me how exactly a lich is supposed to make money?"
The magical words condensed without dispersing, wavering across the page like ripples of light.
A moment later, a new line of text appeared.
[Withering Rose: Aren't your royalties pretty good? After reincarnating as a lich, you should be saving even more money. Undead experiments are the cheapest of all.]
The one signing herself Withering Rose was a senior lich and a core member of the Mourning Poetry Society.
The Mourning Poetry Society was very mysterious. Every newly reincarnated lich received a Necronomicon sent by the enigmatic society president. To this day, Amber Xiu still did not know who the president was. At the time, he had not even noticed who had placed the Necronomicon beside his corpse.
The reincarnation ritual was when a lich was at their most vulnerable. If the president had harbored even the slightest ill will toward him, Amber Xiu would have long since become his puppet.
The Mourning Poetry Society had few members. They usually communicated through this Necronomicon, and everyone addressed one another by code names.
Amber Xiu's alias in the Mourning Poetry Society was Diga.
[Diga: Don't remind me. The new editor-in-chief of the Legendary Spell has rejected me three times already. That racist bastard has driven me to the brink of bankruptcy. Madam Rose, how do you usually make money? Give me some leads.]
[Withering Rose: Oh, I heard their new editor-in-chief is a light Cleric. So they've started openly discriminating against undead now? What an awful human. I usually make a profit off the drow elves in the Underdark. They're the best gold mines around, whether it's the spiders they raise, their collections, or their corpses.]
Amber Xiu replied helplessly, "Madam Rose, the kingdom I live in has occasional conflicts between its mixed races, but the Alchemist Council would never allow me to capture other races on a large scale as experimental materials."
Before Withering Rose could offer a new suggestion, another member of the Mourning Poetry Society appeared on the page.
[Crown of the Headless Knight: Brother Diga, I urgently need a bottle of Living Mercury Solution. If you can help me obtain one from Alchemy City, I'll pay a high price.]
(End of Chapter)
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