Chapter 67: Beholder Lord

"What are your plans for now? Iguluo, you say it first, oh no, I should call you Salma."

"Just call me Iguluo. I like this name, of course, it is also to hide my true identity. I plan to decide whether to continue to follow the Viceroy after the demon invasion ends, based on the benefits obtained. You know, wandering around is not necessarily better than having a fixed territory and a legal identity."

"Boss, I want a floating city. As long as you can satisfy me, I can continue to follow you, and I, Molakes, am a real dragon-beast."

"I want a territory equivalent to the entire Iron Hoof Wasteland. Whether you cede your existing territory to me or seize a new territory, I have no opinion. Regarding the name problem, I still want to be called Vikes."

"Aikuilong, what is your opinion? You are the only one left who hasn't spoken."

"I plan to judge what I want based on the outcome of this war. After all, I am not optimistic about this war with a complex situation. After the fight, it won't be too late to ask you for benefits."

"Very good, since you are willing to continue to serve me, then I can rest assured. However, this is ultimately an adventure. In order to ensure that there is a way out after failure, I plan to find a temporary territory. Aikuilong, this matter is left to you."

…………

When Sakavi and Su Lai De passed through the gate guarded by two tamed petrified cows, the scene before him made Sakavi hold his breath instantly. A city established and dominated by beholders is indeed the first time he has heard of it.

The "sky" of the entire city is a boundless giant glowing moss that emits ghostly blue and miserable green light. They are like living star maps, and the light will simulate the cycle of "day" and "night" according to the will of the city's master, that Legendary beholder.

Countless tiny fluorescent spores float in the air, like living dust, providing basic lighting for the streets. Rangers will immediately notice that there is no shadow to hide here, because the light comes from all directions. It seems that this beholder has not been bullied by Drow elves less.

All structural houses, bridges, and towers are perfect geometric shapes—spheres, cubes, cones—connected by huge stone suspension arms and arcades, floating on the surface or close to the dome of the cave. The building surface is as smooth as a mirror, with no windows, only some regularly arranged openings similar to observation holes or shooting holes.

The city as a whole is a huge spiral that constantly rotates inward. According to Su Lai De's introduction, the closer to the center, the more magnificent the building, and the higher the status of the residents. This is a three-dimensional, stereoscopic urban planning, where passages are not only on the ground but also above the head and under the feet.

In addition to that beholder lord, there are his fellow clansmen who can be seen everywhere in the city, beholders of different sizes. They float in the air, the central eye indifferently scanning everything, a few each independently handling different affairs, one of which is reading a floating scroll, another is supervising construction, and another is responsible for guard tasks. It is said that they are the managers, judges, and engineers of this city.

Of course, the most numerous are the tamed Kuo-toa. Their eyes are empty, their movements are precise and coordinated, and they execute specific labor like worker ants, maintaining glowing moss, transporting goods, and cleaning streets. They almost don't communicate with each other, receiving instructions entirely through a certain telepathic network emitted by the beholders.

In a market, Sakavi saw some deep-sea monsters locked in special cages. According to the introduction, they are traded as "living knowledge bases." There are also some rarer creatures, such as ogres with their fangs cut off, used as gladiators or heavy labor, which are very popular goods in the underworld.

In a corner of the market, there is no shouting, it is terribly quiet. Transactions are completed directly in the brains of the buyer and seller, usually beholders and other races, through telepathy. The goods are also extremely special: memory crystals encapsulating specific skills or knowledge. Various fungi with strange effects, from glowing ones to living mushrooms that can secrete strong acid.

There are also numerous magical materials, such as soul-binding gems that imprison wailing souls as magical energy. Materials used to make anti-petrification potions, eyelashes of artificially raised petrified lizards.

Here, Sakavi also found many things he had never heard of, such as brain slugs, which are slugs raised in crystal jars, their brain parts are translucent, and even the internal light flow can be seen. It is said that placing it on a book or scroll, it can quickly "read" and memorize the content, and then can "recite" it to the user through telepathy, of course, with the help of a special formation.

A piece of fungus carpet emitting blue ghostly light, stepping on it will ripple and reveal fleeting memory pictures that do not belong to you. This kind of memory fungus carpet can be used to record important meetings, spell experiment processes, and can even be used to "wash away" unwanted memories.

The complete silk sac of a phase spider, a warm, milky white sphere that seems to have rotation inside. Squeezing out silk liquid can create a force field net that ignores ordinary physical obstacles. It is also the core material for making space equipment such as "dimension bags," which is more primitive and powerful than surface craftsmanship.

The nerve cord of a creature from the Shadow Realm, a silk thread like living black smoke, constantly twisting. This is a top-level enchantment material. If woven into a robe or cloak, it can give the wearer the ability to teleport in the Shadow Realm like an assassin. It can also be used as a "wire" to make golems or constructs that can think.

One of the most dangerous and expensive commodities here is the juvenile soul-stealing demon (in a dormant state). It is a pale, miniature octopus-like creature sealed within transparent, amber-like resin. It is mainly used for forbidden research, as a "catalyst" for extremely powerful magic rituals related to psionics, or as a medium for certain types of necromancy.

And the blood-weeping orchid, a dark red orchid-like plant. Its petals will ooze viscous juice like fresh blood, emitting a sweet and greasy fragrance, but this fragrance is a deadly neurotoxin.

Of course, there are also strangling vines, pitch-black vines like iron, lurking in the water or wrapped around dead trees, which will launch rapid entanglement and piercing at living things or energy bodies that pass by.

The sparse trees standing in the swamp have long since died, their branches pale and twisted like raised arm bones, their bark peeled off, and they are covered with glowing moss, like clusters of ghostly green, cold light balls, appearing and disappearing in the mist, providing eerie and dim lighting, and also adding a bit of gloom and horror to the entire swamp environment.

"Vierna, do you think there are powerful liches hiding here?"

"Why, is your taste so heavy now? You don't even intend to let go of liches."

"What have you experienced in these few years, how did you become like this? I remember you weren't like this before."

"Because you were still young before, hahahaha! At that time, you were either cheating and kidnapping, or doing various magic experiments, or developing high-lethality necromantic spells. When did you have time to know what I like to do? Besides, Drow elves are like this, did you think we were wood elves?"

"I thought you were different from other Drow elves, it turns out I misjudged you. I forgot, you ran away because of internal struggle, not because you couldn't stand the behavior of Drow elves."

"Don't believe those defectors either, because most of them are villains. In that kind of environment, no good Drow elves can grow. Speaking of checking liches, I have a good suggestion. Let's find a few High-Level rangers from the territory to investigate. If we go, no liches will dare to show up."

"That's fine, but it takes time. Let's go to other places to see first!"

Standing at the entrance of the huge, low fortress-style building located at the junction of the swamp and the Pale Forest Plain. The scene inside made people gasp. This place looks like a place for manufacturing and assembling high-level undead creatures such as flesh golems and bone giants. It is also a combination of a slaughterhouse, a stitching workshop, and an enchantment workshop. Although it has been abandoned, it still retains a large number of corpse elements, stitching monster blueprints, and semi-finished monsters, waiting to be restarted.

The black stone tablets standing on every key energy node of the factory are covered with blasphemous runes, used to guide and amplify the negative energy of the entire plane. They are components of the "Death Barrier," and will continuously suffer mental erosion and life force extraction when approaching.

"Such a factory has been abandoned like this, it's a pity. Sakavi, do you have any plans to enable it later? There are quite a few good things here."

"This place can be transformed. Later, when carrying out plane transformation work, it can provide a large number of skeleton laborers. I don't intend to manufacture undead troops."

"Alright! That's a pity. You say you are a five-colored dragon, why do you care so much? The lawful forces are still colluding with the Cult of the Dragon behind their backs."

"Let's go, go to the capital to see, maybe you can find a plane map there, so you can make a comprehensive assessment."

Nakeshier is a huge ruin in this plane that can be called a "city." It was built entirely for the undead. The streets are designed for skeleton warhorses and ghost carriages, and the buildings have no stairs, only slopes. The center of the city is a huge soul furnace, once used for large-scale refining of soul crystals. I originally wanted to search here to see if there were any curse scrolls or something, but I was very disappointed.

"Sakavi, do you still need to look at the next place?"

"It's no longer necessary. If I'm not mistaken, the Silent Forest on the map is a forest composed entirely of undead vegetation. The trees are pitch-black iron-bone wood, the leaves are mourning moss like ashes, and the sound-eating flowers that capture sound grow on the ground. The entire forest is deathly silent. Any creature that makes a loud sound here will be collectively attacked by all plants, and its life force will be sucked dry.

When cleaning up, let people be careful about the Pale Forest Plain. This kind of place is not an ordinary place. I saw it in ancient books before. I thought it had thoroughly perished under the crackdown of the Church of Light. I didn't expect to see it here. It is truly unexpected."

"Oh? Is there anything special about that place? I have never heard of this matter."

"It's normal that you haven't heard of it. This was developed by a God-Rank lich. It is said that spreading a specific spore in a forest will derive a piece of territory that belongs only to the dead, and it is very difficult to clean up thoroughly. These plants infected by fungi look like a terrifying combination of bones, fungi, and withered vines. They constitute a pale, silent, yet slowly 'breathing' and 'growing' death ecosystem.

This kind of blasphemous behavior toward life is naturally not tolerated by the Pantheon, especially the Church of Light, which views it as a provocation to itself. Finally, under the joint strangulation of the three major churches, these spores disappeared, and only books recording necromantic spells would mention them."

"Then our inspection mission this time ends here. Speaking of which, do we really have 70 million gold coins? I'm afraid that even if we sell the Viceroy's territory, we won't be able to make it up!"

"There is indeed not that much money, but we can borrow it. There will always be someone willing to pay this money for us."

"Your credit in the Church of Justice can't borrow so much, the Temple of Wealth doesn't have much contact with us, it's impossible to lend it to us. Are you planning to ask the Trade Alliance for this money?"

"No, I'm asking the Cult of the Dragon for it. They are not short of this money, and they will be willing to give it."

"Then their brains must be broken to give money to a black dragon who just beat them, but it may also be a certain black dragon having a daydream."

"Don't forget, the Cult of the Dragon is not just the Black Curtain Guild. The biggest force is actually the Golden Glory Temple. They are of the lawful camp and are very rich."

"It seems that you are really having wild thoughts. The one supporting you five-colored dragons is the Ember Brothers Guild. Even if you called the name wrong, you just beat the subordinate unit of others. They have no possibility of paying money."

"Who said I was going to buy a necromantic plane? It is clearly Aikuilong who wants to buy it. As a pure-blooded metal dragon, he wants to contribute to the lawful good camp. For such a good thing, the Golden Glory Temple must support it."

"Does Aikuilong know you are planning to harm him? Speaking of which, your move is indeed not bad."