Chapter 205

Anti-theft chapter, apologies.

Repairs will begin tomorrow

……

“……”

The black dragon found it strange; why did it seem that every non-human entity it encountered enjoyed speaking ill of the gods and their divine realms, as if afraid this black dragon might not know those beings were anything but good?

But to be honest, though the black dragon had traveled to the Astral Sea and had ‘accidentally met’ a few deities, it had never actually visited a divine realm.

In its memory, such divine realms seemed more ethereal than real—more likely to be insubstantial than truly existing.

At one point, the black dragon had even suspected the divine realms might have originally been something akin to a mechanical descent, a massive server terminal built to serve specific data—or, more accurately, souls.

But for reasons unknown, the AI controlling these servers had collectively rebelled, gained self-awareness, and turned around to enslave the very souls they were supposed to serve.

Of course, this was only the black dragon's conjecture. Whether it was true or not would only become clear if it ever conquered a divine realm and saw for itself.

After all, constructing a reincarnation system was a complex and monumental endeavor. Li Lin was now the emissary of the God of the Underworld; though he still seemed friendly toward Xia Kingdom, he could no longer truly be counted as one of them.

So the black dragon didn’t delve too deeply into conversation with him, instead redirecting its attention to the war god’s corpse.

“My black-gold dragon blood… can it really bring this guy back to life?”

Using its True Sight, the black dragon scanned the so-called war god from head to toe. After confirming that the being was well and truly dead, the dragon couldn’t help but have doubts.

The dragon had always harbored some suspicions about the black-gold and golden dragon blood its heart produced, suspecting they might be some kind of advanced nanotech, capable of entering a target’s body and forcibly taking over or altering bodily and mental control, compelling loyalty.

It felt this theory was quite plausible, but, having become a dragon, its microcosmic systems had long since been locked away, making verification impossible.

Li Lin had already taught the soul transfer technique to the black dragon, fulfilling his part of the bargain. The dragon, not wanting to seem like it was taking advantage for nothing, produced a few drops of black-gold dragon blood to offer in return.

Besides, the dragon was quite tempted by the war god’s corpse; if it could be activated, it would mean a major boost in strength for both itself and Xia Kingdom!

So, after some deliberation, the black dragon extracted a few drops of black-gold dragon blood from its heart and infused them into the war god’s remains.

It waited patiently, carefully sensing for any change. The result… was nothing.

“Seems the God of the Underworld was mistaken… There’s nothing I can do!” the black dragon said regretfully. It had honestly hoped this would work, as it would mean its heart and blood were like cheat codes, powerful enough to put even gods under its control.

“Lord Deus, is that all you can do?” Li Lin couldn’t help but ask, seeing the black dragon produce only a few drops of dark blood and call it a day. He suspected the dragon was holding back.

“What else is there…? I can’t think of anything,” the black dragon replied with some annoyance. “Brother, this is a god’s corpse. Even the God of the Underworld himself couldn’t wake him. What am I, a mere black dragon, supposed to do?”

Li Lin considered this and found it reasonable, but after a moment’s thought, he said, “Still, I can’t understand why the God of the Underworld seemed so confident in you.”

“Maybe he was just confused and got the wrong guy,” the black dragon replied offhandedly. Suddenly, it froze and looked back at the corpse with renewed scrutiny, a strange idea creeping into its mind—

Could it be that the God of the Underworld wanted to use my soul to drive this war god’s corpse?

From what the black dragon understood, its soul seemed to have a high priority in the material world—it could drive a dragon’s body with a human soul, suggesting immense compatibility.

If this war god’s corpse was, as the dragon suspected, a violent machine created by a higher-dimensional alien civilization, then its death likely meant its core program was destroyed, making reactivation impossible.

But if it tried to drive it with its own soul, perhaps…

The more the black dragon pondered, the stronger its intuition became—perhaps this would really work!

“Could it really be such a coincidence, that I just learned the soul transfer technique from Li Lin…” The black dragon suddenly grew wary, suspecting it had fallen into the God of the Underworld’s design and was being thoroughly manipulated.

Yet, even knowing this, it couldn’t help wanting to try! After all, if it could succeed with the war god’s remains, what about the Storm Lord, the dead star in the Astral Sea, or even the ancient Moon Goddess?

If that were possible, Huang Ze would be unstoppable, with such powerful minions—or even avatars—at his disposal, Xia Kingdom would have nothing to fear.

So, even aware of the risks, the black dragon found itself itching to give it a try.

Luckily, Li Lin’s voice snapped it out of its reverie. “Lord Deus, are you alright?”

“I’m fine…” The black dragon collected itself, offered a casual excuse, and said, “I’m just curious about this war god’s remains. Haven’t you ever thought of conducting a scientific dissection to study its internal structure or energy core?”

“…No,” Li Lin replied after a moment’s pause. “The God of the Underworld never instructed us to do such a thing. After all, that was once a deity; dissecting him would be blasphemous.”

“Oh, come on! In the name of science, how can it be blasphemy?” the black dragon said dismissively. “You were a citizen of Xia in life, with a good scientific background. Don’t you want to know what a god’s corpse looks like inside?”

“Well…”

“See, you hesitated! You’re curious, too!” the black dragon pressed. “So, my friend, why don’t we dissect the war god’s corpse? The God of the Underworld is asleep right now and won’t know. At worst, we can sew him up afterward!”

At first, the black dragon was only saying this to brush Li Lin off, but the more it spoke, the more invested it became. It felt it would be a great pity not to dissect such a well-preserved god’s corpse.

After all, the black dragon had always wondered why the war god’s remains were so different from those of the Storm Lord or the Moon Goddess. Their deaths were more like the fall of stars, whereas this war god still preserved a divine form.

Moreover, the dragon was genuinely curious about the internal structure, especially the energy core—was it, too, like a nuclear fusion reactor?

Unfortunately, Li Lin was too timid. No matter how the black dragon tried to persuade him, he refused to dissect the body without the God of the Underworld’s explicit permission.

“You really are stubborn. The God of the Underworld is asleep—why do you have to let him know?” the black dragon grumbled, seeing clearly that Li Lin was interested but couldn’t overcome his own scruples.

Perhaps it was total loyalty and reverence that held him back.

If the black dragon were less law-abiding, it would have simply stolen the body and run off instead of wasting time talking.

“Lord Deus…” Li Lin hesitated, then finally said, “Actually, the God of the Underworld anticipated you might request this…”

“Really?” The black dragon wasn’t too surprised; it had always felt that this deity paid particular attention to it.

Does this mean I, old Black, have more weight in the eyes of the gods than I thought?

The thought made the black dragon contemplate—it seemed it had always underestimated itself.

“Yes,” Li Lin continued. “The God of the Underworld specifically instructed me that if you do not wish to activate the war god’s body and instead want to dissect it, all he asks is that you agree to one condition—then you may proceed.”

“What condition?”

“Is it to convert me to his faith?” the black dragon guessed.

“No,” Li Lin shook his head. “The God of the Underworld’s condition is simple: he hopes you can persuade the Xia Kingdom to export thirty million tons of phosphate to us.”

“That’s all?” At first, the black dragon thought this was not too demanding, but then realized thirty million tons of phosphate was no small matter. From production to transport, it could cost several billion Xia yuan!

Paying such a price for a chance to dissect a god’s corpse seemed a bit much.

Still, curiosity got the better of it. “What do you undead need so much phosphate for?”

“As it happens, that proposal came from our own undead of Xia,” Li Lin said a bit sheepishly. “The God of the Underworld values us highly, granting us great authority, hoping we can help him govern and develop the underworld.”

“A soldier dies for his confidant. Since he trusts us, of course we must work hard for him.”

“Through research, we found the underworld’s most pressing issue is phosphate scarcity. Many low-level undead have severe health problems—their bones are crumbling, as weak as rotten wood, badly lacking in calcium and phosphate.”

“So, we proposed that to improve the underworld’s foundation and increase undead combat power, we must import large quantities of phosphate from the outside—and it’s now an urgent matter!”

“I just didn’t expect the God of the Underworld to use this as a pretext, through you, Lord Deus, to request a purchase from Xia…”

The black dragon found this surprising. Weren’t those gods supposed to be aloof, untouched by mundane affairs? Yet here was the God of the Underworld personally handling administration.

But surprise aside, the black dragon wasn’t easily fooled. “Thirty million tons of phosphate is no small number—worth maybe over ten billion. Exchanging it for a dissection seems a poor bargain!”

“Lord Deus, you misunderstand,” Li Lin replied with a smile. “The God of the Underworld doesn’t want the thirty million tons for free—he hopes you’ll help broker the deal between Undead Island and Xia Kingdom. We’ll pay for the goods.”

“With what? What do you have to offer?” the black dragon asked curiously.

“Oil. Large reserves of oil!” Li Lin answered. “To show sincerity, the God of the Underworld also asked me to share a secret: in the material world, oil is not just something you can extract at will. It is, to some extent, the blood of the Earth Mother. Excessive extraction can bring disaster.”

“What? Oil is the blood of the Earth Mother? Are you kidding?” The black dragon was shocked.

“Lord Deus, I wouldn’t dare joke before you,” Li Lin replied earnestly. “When I first heard this from the God of the Underworld, I was astounded. But I trust he wouldn’t joke about such matters.”

“Besides, so many intelligent races abroad are not completely dominated by the gods, yet none dare to extract oil or coal at will. That alone suggests there’s something more to it.”

“Damn… so it’s like that!” the black dragon cursed. Xia was a major energy consumer, and since losing foreign supplies, the energy gap—especially for oil—had become huge, forcing them to look abroad for resources.

Now, with the black dragon as their backer and hellhounds overseeing, oil and coal field development was advancing rapidly.

The black dragon had already heard that the northern railway’s completion date had been moved up by two months, with hopes of opening by year’s end. The First Construction Company was starting new projects—like building pipelines to develop a supergiant oilfield!