Antares was utterly broke.
Lin Moyu finally understood why he had used his own scale to craft the Genesis Scepter back in the day.
Even the item he had given Lin Moyu was a scale.
While the scales were undeniably valuable, it also revealed a simple truth: this fellow was truly poor.
He disdained the items of the small world and had brought nothing from the greater world. Under such circumstances, it would have been strange if he weren’t poor.
Curious, Lin Moyu asked, “At your level, don’t you have a personal storage space?”
Antares replied, “Of course we Dragons do. Ours just works differently.”
“My things are split in two: the most precious treasures are stored in my lair, while the rest I carry with me.”
Lin Moyu pressed. “Then where are they?”
“Inside my Dragon Bead.” Antares answered, his voice muffled and slightly sullen.
Several Dragon Beads had already been recovered, but a few remained lost. The one containing Antares’s things was among the latter.
Seizing the moment, Lin Moyu asked, “With your abilities, how could you fail to retrieve the Dragon Beads yourself? Why rely on others?”
Antares shook his head, “You think I don’t want to? A certain bastard placed a restriction on the Dragon Beads. I can’t touch them. Only after someone else does will the restriction vanish, allowing me to reclaim them.”
“And that someone must be a human from your world. That bastard was far too insidious.”
Lin Moyu could more or less guess who Antares was referring to.
Over the past millennium, Antares had recovered twelve of the original sixteen Dragon Beads through various human intermediaries. Four still remained.
Lin Moyu asked, “Do you know where they are?”
“In the deep layer—all four of them.”
Antares shared a connection with the Dragon Beads and could sense their locations.
Though his power could reach the deep layer, the restriction prevented him from retrieving them himself.
Antares muttered bitterly, “In the last age, I almost got them all back. But those self-righteous fools ruined everything. Who do they think they are?”
The frustration in his voice was unmistakable. Those four Dragon Beads clearly mattered greatly to him.
Lin Moyu said calmly but firmly, “Don’t worry. I’ll retrieve them for you.”
Antares gave a low grunt and let the matter drop, “Even if I’m broke, I can still scrape together some materials.”
As if thinking of something, he lifted his head. The dense mist surged violently upward.
Lin Moyu thought he heard a resonant roar and glimpsed a massive claw reaching through the mist toward some unknown place.
Moments later, a colossal corpse was hurled down.
Lin Moyu recognized it instantly. It was the body of a Dreadbeast King. Not just any Dreadbeast King, but a particularly powerful one.
Without hesitation, he summoned the Undeath Lich.
The Undeath Lich originated from a Dreadbeast, though its lineage was not orthodox.
Lin Moyu wasn’t certain whether using a Dreadbeat King’s corpse as upgrade material would work.
The answer came quickly.
The Undeath Lich dissolved into a mass of black mist, engulfing the enormous corpse and devouring it.
Antares didn’t stop. The surrounding mist churned again as his claw reached out once more.
This time, the wait was longer, nearly a full minute.
Then something fell from the sky.
It was a massive boulder, over ten meters tall, like a hill.
It crashed down with a heavy metallic clang.
Despite its massive, crushing weight, it radiated a sharp, cutting aura.
Simply looking at it made Lin Moyu’s skin prickle, as though being sliced by invisible blades.
Antares said, “There are countless laws, just like there are countless elements.”
“This stone is called Goldstone. It contains the law of metal.”
Lin Moyu frowned. He had never heard of the metal element.
“Is it the same as gold?”
Antares burst into laughter, “Yes—and not entirely. Among humans, there are many systems of inheritance. One of them divides power into the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.”
Of course Lin Moyu knew about the five elements.
In his previous life, this system had been passed down for thousands of years within Huaxia [1].
Metal did not refer only to gold. It represented all metals, as well as qualities like sharpness and indestructibility.
Antares continued, “This Goldstone is a mythical-grade material. In the deep layer, this is about the level of treasure you’ll find.”
To Antares, such things were trivial.
Mythical-grade materials were meant for Transcendent Gods, yet at his level, they were barely worth noticing.
But for Lin Moyu, it was an excellent treasure.
The Elemental Lich family was about to gain a new member.
Without hesitation, Lin Moyu used the Goldstone to cast Summon Elemental Lich.
The Goldstone burst into dazzling golden light before vanishing. In its place stood a two-meter-tall Metal Lich, wrapped in the law of metal, radiating a razor-sharp aura like a drawn blade.
[Metal Lich]
[Grade: low]
[Growth limit: Transcendent God-level (6th tier)
[Law Ring (metal): grants a metal Law Ring to the host and the summons, increasing physical attack power by 100% and partially ignoring the target’s defense.]
It was a straightforward yet powerful damage-boosting ring of light.
At the same time, the Undeath Lich completed its devouring, its aura rising directly to level 94.
However, its appearance remained largely unchanged, still small and unassuming.
[Undeath Lich]
[Grade: low]
[Growth limit: Transcendent God-level (1st tier)
[Undead Ring (undeath): grants a metal Law Ring to the host and summons that can absorb fatal damage and fully restore health. Cooldown: 1 minute.]
The ring’s attributes were both expected and surprising.
After the upgrade, the cooldown had dropped from 24 hours to just 1 minute.
Thinking of the Dreadbeast King’s regeneration power, it made sense.
The Dreadbeast King’s overwhelming strength had elevated the Undeath Lich to a similarly formidable level.
Antares couldn’t help but sigh, “That’s truly impressive.”
Lin Moyu felt that his survivability had increased once again. Killing him would now be far more difficult.
As he dismissed the Elemental Liches, he sensed a change within the law art star tied to Summon Elemental Lich.
The Elemental Liches no longer remained in the Lich space; instead, they had entered the law art star.
Through his soul sense, they appeared as tiny, dormant points, waiting to be summoned at any moment.
His soul drifted back into the skill space. With soul force to spare, Lin Moyu resumed moving skill star cores.
His soul plunged forward and wrapped around the nearest skill star core, dragging it away with all its might.
Each skill star core that evolved into a law art star promised a significant leap in power. Lin Moyu brimmed with anticipation.
Watching Lin Moyu, Antares’s expression grew complicated, and he muttered, “I feel as though I’m witnessing the birth of a monster.”
[1] - Huaxia, a historical concept representing the Chinese nation
