Lord of Rot

The origin of the Two-Legged Flying Dragons was about what the Brass Dragon had guessed.

Ah Yamei’s luck had been quite good. She once found an ancient battlefield where countless bodies were buried. Her original goal had been to find some thick, sturdy bones to create Skeleton Soldiers, but she unexpectedly found some scattered, withered bones of Two-Legged Flying Dragons.

Whether that ancient battlefield was from a hundred years ago or several hundred was impossible to verify, and history didn’t seem willing to record it.

But centuries later, Ah Yamei used Undead Magic to reassemble them, obtaining her own Undead Bone Dragon. This elevated her power by a huge step.

With her Undead Bone Dragon, she lived a relatively comfortable life. No one was willing to provoke a Necromancer who possessed a Bone Dragon.

Unfortunately for her, she eventually ran into Leech.

The amount of Spiritual Power Ah Yamei could control was not higher than his own, as Leech had imagined. In reality, Ah Yamei’s Spiritual Power was a mere 40 units.

This was because the Undead Magic used to control the Undead was simpler and more efficient, and unlike Leech’s method of controlling corpses, it didn’t require detailed micromanagement. Thus, it didn’t require partitioning off too much of one’s consciousness.

Leech wasn’t interested in zombies and skeletons.

Low-end cannon fodder had no strategic value unless deployed on a massive scale. Besides, Leech himself had no intention of sweeping across the Lu Leiyi Continent with an Undead Corps and making an enemy of every living being. ’What’s the point of fighting to the death? It’s much better for everyone to get rich peacefully.’

Of course, when it came to those looking for trouble, Leech’s general policy was to beat them so thoroughly that they couldn’t possibly survive.

’This method of controlling the Undead is incredibly useful. It can cover for my weakness in being unable to control mobile corpses on a large scale.’

Leech felt this was his greatest gain, second only to teleportation Magic.

Right now, there was only one usable corpse in the entire cape cavern: the black-haired slave who possessed master-level throwing skills. The short-legged, iron-hoofed Knight had long since been reduced to ashes.

Leech first tried to control the Necromancer Ah Yamei’s Corpse Ghost, using her as a medium to cast a spell. He placed a mark on the black-haired slave’s corpse, allowing it to receive Leech’s commands just like a Skeleton Soldier.

First, a simple thought: Forward.

The black-haired slave’s corpse currently had no consciousness, nor was it under any spiritual control. It was just a simple corpse.

When Leech used the Necromancer Ah Yamei to raise a hand and give the ”forward” signal, the black-haired slave’s corpse actually began to squirm forward.

Leech quickly called a halt, only to realize he hadn’t programmed a ”stop” command. He had to divert a sliver of his spirit into the black-haired slave’s corpse to forcibly make it stop.

’It seems this isn’t as simple as I thought.’

Leech had to be patient and first give the black-haired corpse a command to get up.

He gave the signal, and the black-haired corpse scrambled to its feet.

’Walk forward.’

It was the same signal as before.

But the black-haired corpse fell to the ground with a THUD, then began squirming forward again.

’Looks like I have to teach it from the very basics. It doesn’t even know how to move its legs. But it’s not a complete loss. At least when I told it to stand, it really could stand up.’

Leech once again broke down what the concept of ”walk forward” entailed.

For example: move the left leg, then the right leg. To maintain balance, the hands and shoulders could also swing slightly.

It was like controlling a marionette with a remote.

The only advantage it had over a marionette was probably that the Corpse Ghost’s body retained its strength and support. Unlike a puppet, it wouldn’t collapse into a limp heap on the ground the moment no one was pulling its strings.

’Alright, next I’ll integrate the ”walk forward” command.’ Leech began nesting the logic.

Layer by layer, he combined the logic. He needed the Corpse Ghost, upon receiving the ”forward” command, to step forward with its legs instead of squirming.

Furthermore, while walking, it had to alternate its feet, not just use one leg.

Yes, Leech had just encountered that very problem. It ended with the black-haired slave’s corpse doing the splits, which then devolved into it squirming forward while in a split.

There was a lot of behavioral logic to add. For example, if the corpse was lying down instead of standing and was given the ”forward” command, it would just kick its left and right legs in the air... It would even deliberately swing its shoulders to maintain balance, even though it was already on the ground.

So, he had to add a sub-routine: upon receiving the ”forward” command, the corpse must first stand up and assume an upright posture before walking forward.

In truth, while perfecting these commands, Leech had to spend a large amount of Spiritual Power. But once a command was written, running it only required a tiny bit of Spiritual Power—an amount so small compared to the cost of actively controlling a corpse that it was practically negligible.

”Forward,” ”Go forward,” ”Advance.”

Leech experimented tirelessly, watching the corpse return to an upright posture from various states—on a wall, lying down, prone, or even upside down on the ground.

From the middle of the night until dawn, Leech burned the midnight oil, repeatedly trying to input, nest, and integrate his commands.

He finally succeeded in making the corpse obey his command to walk forward. However, he still couldn’t make it follow a ”pick up item” command, because the action was too complex. It involved controlling the fingers to grasp, bending over to pick it up and then straightening back up, and handling exceptions like abandoning the task if the object’s weight was too great, to avoid tearing its own arm off.

The command hadn’t been fully compiled yet. It looked like his nights would be busy for the foreseeable future.

But only by building this framework of logic and commands could he enable the corpses to perform more complex actions from a single, simple command, such as jumping while running, or swinging a sword while jumping.

Moreover, this set of behavioral logic could also be applied to skeletons, allowing for more detailed control and action.

’Spiritual Power is basically a computer.’

When Leech used control Magic, he himself was the core processor controlling these corpses.

He would organize and save these commands. In his eyes, the Necromancer Ah Yamei was the perfect ”host machine.” Once he finished writing the execution scripts, he could just have Ah Yamei provide the Spiritual Power and ”run AFK” on the side.

In truth, Necromancers already had related control techniques. Otherwise, how could Skeleton Soldiers walk forward, or even block with shields and slash with swords?

But that was a form of instinctive control, a ”Magic” in the purest sense. He believed that the inventor of that Magic had already written this behavioral logic into the very fabric of Undead Magic.

What Leech needed was something a little different. He wanted something more meticulous, which meant he would need to invest more effort into recompiling this Magic. ’Recompiling’ was perhaps an exaggeration; in reality, it was more about making various fine adjustments.

This was the charm of corpse-controlling Magic.

With enough effort spent on adjustments, a Necromancer could theoretically turn every single one of their Skeleton Soldiers into a Sword Saint.

However, from a cost-benefit perspective, turning a Skeleton Soldier into a Sword Saint seemed rather useless.

The investment and the return were not proportional. It was far less effective than simply overwhelming the enemy with a sea of skeletons.

The night passed just like that. Outside, the sky had brightened considerably, and the sun inconsiderately spilled its light through the window.

The voice of his personal valet came from outside the door. Leech knew it was time to get up.

”Come in.”

Autumn had arrived, and Leech’s clothes had become appropriately thicker.

The valet helped him change and groomed his hair.

”My lord, breakfast is ready for you.”

When Leech arrived at the dining room, he didn’t see Fastblade.

”Lord Fastblade went to select Soldiers from among the serfs first thing this morning.” Gelan, seeming to have read Leech’s mind, spoke up.

Leech nodded. ”I did promise him he could form a Cavalry unit.”

He wasn’t surprised by this outcome at all. That was just like Fastblade—completely unable to wait.

If it hadn’t gotten dark last night, Fastblade would have surely started the selection then and there.

Breakfast was milk, bread, fried eggs, and, of course, sausage.

Leech had always had a healthy appetite. Even for breakfast, besides devouring bread, he also drank several glasses of milk. This was probably a problem all Transcendents had to face: becoming a glutton.

Extraordinary power didn’t come from nowhere. He firmly believed that one needed a full stomach to have strength.

”Oh, right,” Leech said, putting down his chopsticks and looking at Gelan. ”You can pull some people from the docks. I plan to build an Alchemy Workshop.”

Gelan was surprised. ”An Alchemy Workshop?”

”That’s right. To provide Porcupine Territory with some useful little gadgets,” Leech said with a nod. ”Don’t build the workshop around Porcupine Territory proper; it needs to be farther away.”

”Perhaps Pig Spine Valley would be a good choice,” Gelan said. ”The quarry over at Pig Spine Valley has ceased operations, but the surrounding trees have been cleared, and the stone has been excavated. The terrain is relatively flat, and it’s also very remote. If you want to build an Alchemy Workshop that won’t be disturbed, it’s definitely an excellent option.”

”Alright, build it there.” Leech pictured the location.

The entire map of Porcupine Territory was already imprinted in his mind. He could pinpoint the location with just a moment’s thought.

That area wasn’t too far from the coastal cape, making its geographical position quite good. In the future, they could even open up a small road dedicated to connecting the workshop to the cape.

”Right, and there’s Scholar Toma.” Leech recalled the useless scholar he had poached. ”He’ll need a scholar’s tower, but that will have to wait until after our docks are finished. For now, you can try to find a quiet residence for him. Hmm, just find one in the residential area.”

Gelan bowed his head. ”As you command, my lord.”