Chapter 23

In a simple room within the Ice City, Anna Lofang ran her fingers through her messy hair, massaging her scalp to ease the numbness from overthinking. When she pulled her hand away, she noticed a few strands of hair, which only worsened her mood.

"If this keeps up, I'll go bald, aaaaah!!" Anna exclaimed in frustration. "I'm just a princess, why do I have to deal with all this?!"

"Because your brother ran away," a thin, dark figure in the corner of the room replied, arms crossed, speaking slowly.

"Damn Luther, these things should have been his responsibility, he's the first in line!" Anna fumed even more. Her so-called first-in-line brother had quietly fled, leaving all the responsibilities to her.

If she handled it well, there would be no reward. When her brother returned, the position of city lord would still be his. If she failed, she would be the one to take the blame. It was a lose-lose situation, making her feel extremely unbalanced.

"You don't have to handle it," the dark figure in the corner said.

Anna shook her head, her expression turning serious. "No, that damned demon is still hiding and has attacked our poorly defended planting areas. If we don't find him, we'll face a severe food shortage next year."

The dark figure was silent for a moment, then sighed helplessly. "Indeed, it's too vicious. Our planting areas are too scattered, and some are connected by caves, making it easy for a demon to sneak in and set fires, destroying our crops. We can only futilely spread our soldiers to every food-producing area to try to catch him."

"Don't worry, I will catch them. When I do, I'll tie him up and throw him to the Lich City, letting those liches tear him apart, soul and all," Anna said viciously.

"You might have a misunderstanding about liches. They no longer tear souls, but that's not important. How do you plan to catch the demon with the information on the table?" the dark figure asked, puzzled.

Anna's lips curved into a confident smile. "Every incident reveals a lot of information. For example, events one to three happened consecutively, but there was a three-day gap between event three and event four. The two locations are only a day's journey apart. Where did he go during those two days?"

The dark figure thought for a moment and hesitantly said, "Tired?"

"Right, exactly. Within a two-day journey from the planting areas of these two incidents, where are there places to rest? The arsonist is likely a lava demon, who loves magma." Anna pulled out a map and laid it on the table.

The dark figure couldn't help but step out of the corner, revealing a face full of wrinkles and a gaunt figure. The exposed skin on her face and arms was covered with tattoos that looked like runes.

If someone familiar with these tattoos were present, they would have gasped in shock—Holy Light Necromancer! And a necromancer who had been purified by the Church, the tattoos being the marks of the purification runes on her skin.

In the human world, undead creatures are considered heretics by the Church and are purified upon capture. The Church believes that ordinary methods cannot kill liches; only purification can destroy both their bodies and souls. Otherwise, even if their heads are cut off, their souls can escape as undead.

Wrapped in holy shrouds and burned with flames until both body and soul are reduced to ashes.

This is actually reasonable because some liches cannot be killed by ordinary methods due to their phylactery.

They create a phylactery from their heart, placing it in a special container and hiding it in a safe place. In the heart's place is a soul fire. This way, even if they are killed, they can be reborn through the phylactery.

To counter such liches, the Church invented a method: first, wrap them in holy shrouds, then burn them with flames, destroying both body and soul. This way, a reborn lich will lose all memories and have a permanent mark on their body that even rebirth cannot erase.

The dark figure was a lich who had been purified and reborn, but she had lost her memories from before her rebirth. She didn't remember who she was or how she died. She only saw the word "Lan" on the emblem of her phylactery, so she now called herself Lan.

Lan came to the table and quickly found a name on the map: "Here, Melted River."

"Right, at Melted River. This is the only place nearby with magma, the demon's favorite environment," Anna said.

Lan nodded. "That makes sense, but these are just assumptions. You have no evidence to prove your assumptions are true."

Anna smiled and took out a piece of paper, handing it to Lan. "I've already sent people to investigate. They found demon tracks on the road leading to Melted River, confirming that a demon passed by during that time."

Lan was silent for a moment, then couldn't help but exclaim, "You're amazing, you really found his trail."

"Of course," Anna said, raising an eyebrow proudly. "That's how I deduced he's a lava demon, needing magma to restore his strength. By knowing his rest intervals and keeping an eye on places with magma, we'll have a chance to catch him."

"We need to act quickly. If he sets more fires, we'll have a significant food shortage next year, and many people will starve," Lan said.

"Don't worry. I've already contacted the human world through a teleportation array. They have a good harvest, and if we can afford the price, they can use a large teleportation array to send us several dozen tons of food in one go."

Lan shook her head. "The cost is too high. Just opening a large transfer station requires over a dozen magic crystals. We don't have a corresponding large teleportation array here, and the transfer station in this world has been out of service for a long time. Otherwise, a dozen magic crystals would be enough, but a one-way delivery requires hundreds of magic crystals. Even if we scoured all the valuable things in our underground city, we couldn't get that many magic crystals."

Anna, frustrated, scratched her scalp again and said irritably, "What can we do? Wait to starve? The Lich City is also short of food. They sent people to buy food recently, which I refused. If they had more food, it would be great if they could help us."

Just as Anna was scratching her head in frustration, a soldier came to report: "Princess, Liza August from the Lich City requests an audience."

"Liza August? Who is she? It was always Esk who came before. Why a new person this time?" Anna muttered, puzzled.

Lan's eyes flashed with excitement. "This isn't a new person. She is the true ruler of the Lich City. This old hag hasn't shown up in hundreds of years. I thought she was dead. Go see her; this old lich is not simple."

"The true ruler of the Lich City? Isn't the city lord Phyllin?" Anna's curiosity was piqued, and she quickly tidied her appearance and clothes to prepare for the meeting.

"Phyllin is afraid of his wife; this is his wife."

When they arrived at the reception room, there was only a woman in a black veil, with fair skin and a plump figure, sitting there, not the "old hag" Lan described.

Lan's attention wasn't on the woman in the black veil but on the door of the reception room. She asked bluntly, "Where is your old hag, August?"

The woman in the black veil turned her head, a casual smile on her lips, and said lazily, "Are you talking about me, the old hag, August?"

Hearing the familiar voice, Lan was startled and turned her gaze to the woman's face, her brows furrowing.

She had known Liza in her lich form, a withered, gaunt, ashen, and dried-up necromancer like herself. The plump, fresh-faced woman before her, with features that somewhat resembled the old hag and a similar voice, was confusing.

The woman in the black veil slowly opened her mouth and said, "Lan, it seems only you can call me an old hag from now on."

Lan's expression changed dramatically, and she burst into anger. "So it really is you! August, you're despicable, you actually possessed a living person's body?! I'll kill you!"

"What?! No, no, no, you misunderstood. This is my body. Hey, stop, ouch, don't hit my face, stop, or I'll get angry."

Seeing Liza and Lan fighting like children, Anna, who had intended to help, suddenly realized something and stopped in her tracks.

Two thousand-year-old liches fighting without magic, using their bare hands, was so unusual that Anna would have eaten the chair if it were a real fight.

Sure enough, after a while, the two liches, with disheveled hair, stopped. The gaunt, withered Lan looked particularly disheveled, while the plump, fresh-faced Liza had a different kind of charm.

Lan, angry and jealous, asked, "How did you become like this? You really didn't possess a living person's body?"

Powerful liches and undead have the ability to possess living bodies, but the living person dies, and the body loses its vitality, decaying within a few days. If she hadn't possessed a body, Lan couldn't think of any other way a lich could become so fresh and vibrant.

Liza smiled faintly and asked, "If you had the chance to restore your body's vitality and become like me, what would you be willing to pay?"