Ambrose repeatedly emphasized that the stuff wasn't worth the price, and that express delivery would require building a special teleportation circle capable of transporting living things, which would incur even more fees.
Sure, a tiny vial could dissolve tens of millions in gold and store it in a special state, but it really wasn't a good deal.
But Brother Headless was insistent, adding more money with magnificent generosity.
It left Ambrose with no excuse to refuse. He made another trip to the City of Alchemy and, to the utter shock of the saleswoman, purchased a vial of genuine Living Quicksilver Solution.
Ambrose had checked it. It was the real deal.
He then returned to his castle to construct the teleportation array. It took him half a day to send the item to Brother Headless, and in the end, he tearfully earned twenty thousand gold coins.
It wasn't that he was greedy. When the price of the goods went up, it was only reasonable for his intermediary fee to increase proportionally, right? You couldn't make three thousand on a ten-thousand-gold deal and still make the same three thousand on a hundred-thousand-gold deal.
Besides, teleportation arrays weren't cheap—the materials were one thing, but the technical expertise was priceless!
For a custom teleportation array built by a Legendary spellcaster plus a finder's fee, twenty thousand gold was a bargain. Ambrose could pat his own ribs and swear you wouldn't find another lich on the entire continent with such fair rates.
Gazing at the shimmering pile of gold before him, Ambrose felt his soul achieve a state of ultimate satisfaction. Fulfilling his obsessions was the only way a lich could experience pleasure.
Of course, cursing those bean sprouts from Silvermoon High Court while counting his gold made it even better.
One day, Ambrose would make those elven twigs understand that there were consequences for inflating potion prices!
With Brother Headless's deal concluded, he could now focus on the order from Withered Rose.
A high-tier undead capable of breaching the walls of the Ryan Empire's capital was no simple matter. Even drafting a design would require a great deal of research. And since he still had two vials of fake Living Quicksilver Solution, Ambrose didn't want them to go to waste. Perhaps he could incorporate it into a new design.
With funds secured, Ambrose could be a little bolder with his experiments.
————————————
Far to the west, across the vast ocean, within a shadowy Umbral Crypt, the light of a teleportation array slowly faded.
A burly knight picked up the glass vial of Living Quicksilver with two fingers.
The headless body was terrifyingly tall. If Ambrose were standing before him, he'd probably only reach the knight's knee.
He was clad in heavy black armor, its surface covered in glowing magical runes. The cape on his back was exquisitely embroidered with the image of a soaring bone dragon.
This was the son-in-law of the bone dragon clan, the Legendary Headless Knight—Gareth Alcanos.
He had added the surname after marrying into the family. The Gareth of the past was just an ordinary human knight who had died on the battlefield. Betrayed by a comrade, he, who should have been a war hero, was beheaded by the enemy.
Over a hundred years after Gareth's death, more than two hundred heads were hung where he had been executed.
The comrade who betrayed him had returned a war hero, become a noble, and his family had flourished for over a century. A hundred years later, Gareth sent every last member of that family to the chopping block.
This massacre made Gareth the most wanted man in the Ryan Empire. The strongest human empire on the continent dispatched an entire legion of paladins to hunt him down.
Gareth carved a path from the Ryan Empire to the Golden Kingdom of Shadowern. For five years, he fought across a thousand miles, evading over a thousand paladins and lopping off the heads of more than a hundred of them. On the brink of defeat, Gareth ascended to the Legendary tier, inflicting the greatest loss the Ryan Empire had suffered since its founding.
The Ryan Emperor at the time was on the verge of bringing out his ancestor's Demon Dragon Armaments, intending to use a power beyond Legendary to slay Gareth.
But then, the Legendary Headless Knight suddenly vanished without a trace, eluding even the Ryan Empire. Just like that, this legendary maniac became a kept husband.
Thankfully, few people knew this. Not even the members of the Elegy Society knew that the Brother Headless in their chat group was the same maniac who had once forced the Ryan Emperor to don a divine artifact and personally lead an army against him. The Ryan Empire would have died of rage.
Gareth, the man who had once cut down a thousand paladins with a two-handed greatsword, now crept about like a timid little acolyte, clutching the vial of Living Quicksilver as he tiptoed to a wall.
He tapped a few spots on the wall, causing several magic runes to light up. Then, a series of rhythmic thumps emanated from Gareth's chest. The stone wall slowly cracked open, revealing a spatial portal.
A few simple motions incorporated a password lock, a mana lock, and a voiceprint lock—a triple-layered defense. If there was even the slightest error in any of the three, the wall would open not to a portal, but to a room crammed full of love letters.
If his wife ever found it, the room of love letters would serve as a romantic reversal to help him escape his fate.
Gareth had transitioned from a remorseless head-chopping maniac to a cunning old married man. One wonders what the Ryan Emperor would think if he knew.
With a focused expression, Gareth stepped through the portal, appearing a second later in another room filled with love letters.
That's right. He had two rooms prepared for the love letter gambit.
Even if his wife found the portal, she would have to open another secret door to find the location of his real private treasury.
After navigating a winding path, he entered the true vault, where a mountain of gold coins rose before him.
The thousand or two gold coins Ambrose had haggled over with the young lady in the City of Alchemy was, to Gareth, a trivial sum.
Gareth placed the open vial before the mountain of gold.
Then, he extended his hand toward the golden peak.
Immense dark energy surged forth, staining the hundred-ton mountain black. A dull thud echoed from Gareth's chest, and he lifted the entire mountain of gold with one hand.
The gold coins scattered, forming a swirling tornado.
A cascade of coins fell, landing precisely inside the small jar.
As the glittering coins dropped in, they vanished instantly. A river of gold poured into the tiny glass vial, disappearing as if by magic.
In a short time, the entire mountain of gold was gone, leaving only the vial of Living Quicksilver Solution in the empty secret room. The gold was now stored as a special form of energy, undetectable even by magic specifically designed to locate treasure.
Gareth carefully sealed the small vial. "You really get what you pay for," he mused. "Brother Tiga is a stand-up guy. I can do business with him again."
He was just turning to leave, content, when a translucent specter appeared before him.
It was the ghost of a woman with a graceful figure, stunning beauty, and a pair of horns on her head. In common parlance—a dragon soul.
The beautiful dragon soul crossed her arms, a cold smile on her face. "You were saying... who are you doing business with?"
*Clink.* The glass vial slipped from Gareth's hand and fell to the floor, the Living Quicksilver spilling out in a pool.
"De... dear... how did you..." Gareth stammered, utterly blindsided. He had taken so many precautions, yet his wife had still caught him red-handed.
The beautiful dragon soul took out a Codex of the Undead, flipped to the last page, and quickly wrote a message.
[Pale Little Skeleton: Sister Rose, thanks for the tip. I'll invite you to the dragon tomb for tea next time.]
[Withered Rose: You're welcome. Consider it a thank you for the two bone dragons you sent me last time.]
[Pale Little Skeleton: Crown of the Headless Knight will probably be offline for the next few years, everyone. No need to worry.]
[Tiga Ultraman: ???]