Chapter 1 Your manuscript does not meet the requirements
The eerie castle is lit by dim candlelight.
Amberxiu used his skeleton-like fingers to open the envelope. The vermilion wax was broken into pieces, making a crisp sound, and the magic seal on the envelope was also broken.
Unfolding the parchment letter inside, the blue will-o'-the-wisp fire in Amberxiu's eyes flickered a few times.
"Dear Master Amber, after reviewing your paper "A Study on the Transformation of Undead Creatures into Non-Human Forms", the editor of our "Legendary Spells" publishing house believes that the paper is not suitable for publication in the monthly magazine "Legendary Spells". We recommend that you choose a magic academic journal with lower review requirements to submit your paper."
A ball of blue flame burst out from Amber's fingertips, burning the rejection letter to ashes. Then he said unwillingly: "My paper has detailed data and novel ideas, how can it not meet the standards! Isn't it discrimination against liches and undead magic?!"
"Legendary Spells" is the world's highest level magic monthly magazine jointly founded by thirteen legendary wizards from the nine kingdoms. Spellcasters of any race or nationality can publish their own magic theories in it.
Since its founding, "Legendary Spells" has made significant contributions to the development of world magic, with more than twenty basic theories of legendary magic appearing in this monthly magazine.
All spellcasters are proud to have their papers published in "Legendary Spells". Even the court mages of the nine kingdoms are judged by the number of papers they publish. If they have less than three papers, they will not even be eligible for an interview.
However, as a famous scholar who had successfully submitted papers many times, Amberxiu had his papers rejected three times in a row in the past two years.
Amber thought the reason was simple, he had just been reincarnated as a lich not long ago. The new editor-in-chief of Legendary Spells was a staunch priest of light who was extremely discriminatory against undead creatures.
"There are so many ways to achieve immortality, what's wrong with reincarnating as a lich?"
Amber waved his hand in dissatisfaction, sweeping the ashes on the table to the ground. A strange-looking skeleton crawled over and quickly swept the ashes away.
The shape of this skeleton is quite bizarre. Only the upper body is in the shape of normal human bones. The lower body has eight spider-like bone legs. It crawls very fast, but its arms seem to have fixed joints and can only make limited movements. It looks stiff, but its cleaning movements are extremely precise and swift.
It has a short stature and can climb walls and crawl under tables. Obviously, this is a "special" skeleton designed specifically for cleaning.
This is Amber's "Non-human Transformation of Undead Creatures". Professionally matched alien skeletons are always more useful than toddlers with clumsy movements.
However, this kind of transformation is not cheap. The cost of the initial experiments alone has emptied his wallet. Amberxiu now regrets reincarnating as a lich.
But the Youth Potion is too expensive, and recently the Silvermoon High Court has banned the export of two of its main ingredients, so the price of the Youth Potion is even more outrageous.
Legendary magicians don’t have any surplus food, and the legendary boon that Amberxiu obtained when he was promoted to legend is “mimetic soul”. He can use some simple materials to create something similar to the soul, which looks similar and is not much different in use.
With this talent, it would be a shame not to become a lich.
Therefore, when the price of the youth potion rose to 500,000 gold coins per bottle, Amberxiu decisively chose to reincarnate as a lich.
Go to Silvermoon High Court of the Elf Goddess. These elves are relying on their longevity to monopolize the life span. Amberxiu swears that when he has money, he will short the youth potion and make these elves go bankrupt.
But now the question comes back to the rejection of manuscripts. As a geek legend who seldom goes out, most of Amberxiu's income comes from the royalties of "Legendary Curse". After his manuscripts were rejected repeatedly, he began to lack money.
Although the lich does not need food or drink, the undead magic experiments cost money, the maintenance of this castle costs money, and even the maintenance of the life box costs money!
Amberxiu needs to find a way to get some money, otherwise he will be so poor that he won’t even have money to replace his wizard robe if it gets torn.
“How can I make money?”
Amber Xiu couldn't help but fall into deep thought. Ordinary magicians can find nobles to be magic consultants and receive a good salary. But when it comes to the legendary level, they need to apply for a job in the royal court. Ordinary nobles can't afford legendary magicians, and the same goes for legendary liches.
However, there were only two people in the nine kingdoms who were willing to accept liches, and they were far away from Amber. As a new lich and a senior legendary wizard, Amber understood that the gap between legends was sometimes greater than the gap between mortals and legends.
His attainments in necromancy were mediocre, so he might not be successful in his application. If he failed, the cost of opening the mainland portal would be a huge loss. Damn Silvermoon High Court! The cost of the mainland portal was inflated by these bean sprout elves!
Moreover, being far away from home not only means losing money on travel expenses, but you may even lose yourself if you are not careful. No matter how mediocre a legend is, it is still a legend, and no one would refuse to enslave a legendary lich.
Amber Xiu also thought about whether he could sell his "pseudo-soul" for money, but his peers said that a human slave only cost a few dozen copper coins, and it was a real soul, so why would they spend three times the price to buy a fake one? This made Amber Xiu speechless, and he felt that his legendary boon of "pseudo-soul" was a useless skill.
"I need to consult some liches about how to make money."
Amber waved his finger, and a thick magic book flew out from the desk. There was an exquisite skull relief on the cover. This was the Codex of the Dead sent by the Mourning Poets Society after Amber was reincarnated as a lich. It recorded a lot of basic knowledge about liches, including the most important "One Hundred Taboos After Reincarnation as a Lich".
Reminders such as not to open the curtains immediately after waking up, not to use daylight magic as candles, and not to keep a dog were indeed of great help to Amber Xiu.
But Amber was not looking up these common senses now. He just turned the page to the end, and his fingertips gathered magical energy to write this sentence on it: "Friends, may the fire of your soul burn forever. I am a little short of money recently. Can you tell me how a lich can make money?"
The magical words condensed but did not disperse, swaying on the pages like light waves.
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
After a moment, a new line of text appeared.
[Dead Rose: Isn't your manuscript fee very high? You should be able to save more money after reincarnating as a lich. Undead experiments are the cheapest.]
The one who signed as Withered Rose was a senior lich and a backbone of the Mourning Poets Society.
The Mourning Poets Society is very mysterious. Every newly reincarnated lich will receive a Codex of the Dead from the mysterious president. Amberxiu still doesn't know who the president is, and he didn't realize who placed the Codex of the Dead next to his corpse.
The process of the reincarnation ceremony is when the lich is at his most vulnerable. If the president had any evil thoughts towards him, Amber would have become his puppet long ago.
There are not many members in the Mourning Poets Society, and they usually communicate through this Code of the Dead, and everyone calls each other by code names.
And Amber's nickname in the Mourning Poetry Society is Ultraman Tiga.
[Ultraman Tiga: "Don't mention it. The new editor-in-chief of Legend Curse has rejected my manuscript three times. This racist bastard has pushed me to the brink of bankruptcy. Ms. Rose, how do you usually make money? Please introduce me to some ways.]
[Dead Rose: Oh, I heard that their new editor-in-chief is a priest of light, so they are discriminating against the undead openly. Humans are really too much. I usually get some benefits from the drow elves in the Underdark. They are the best gold mine, whether it is the spiders they raise, their collections, or their corpses.]
Amber replied helplessly: "Ms. Rose, although the kingdom I live in is a mixed race and there are conflicts from time to time, the Alchemist Council will not allow me to capture other races on a large scale for experimental materials."
Before the Withered Rose could offer any new suggestions, another member of the Mourning Poets Society appeared on the pages of the book.
[Crown of the Headless Horseman: Brother Tiga, I'm in urgent need of a bottle of living mercury solution. If you can help me get one from the Alchemy City, I can pay you a high price.]
(End of this chapter)