Lord of Rot

「The next morning.」

Leech, who had just woken up, immediately ordered someone to fetch him a bucket of water for a cold rinse.

In the summer, houses in the south were even hotter than it was outside.

Standing under the sun was hot, but staying inside was hot and stuffy.

The air was always sticky and suffocating.

Waking up felt like he had slept in a sauna; he was covered in sweat, and his hair was greasy.

After rinsing off and taking a bath, Leech sat comfortably at the table to eat. He hadn’t bothered to dry his hair, but by the time he picked up his chopsticks, it was already half-dry.

This was partly because his hair was short, and partly because the weather was so hot.

Despite the heat, Leech’s appetite was quite good. He noticed that some of the food in Burning City was made a bit sour, probably to whet appetites in the summer.

He was happily eating when a Soldier walked in. ”My lord, someone claiming to be an old friend of yours is here...”

’Where am I getting all these old friends I’ve never even met?’

Leech couldn’t help but complain to himself. Although he hadn’t seen the person, he could guess who had come this time.

”Please, show my old friend in.”

Soon, a completely unfamiliar ”old friend” walked in.

He placed a letter and a thick, handwritten journal in front of Leech.

Then he turned and left.

’Pretty efficient,’ Leech thought, wiping his hands and opening the letter.

It contained only a single line: ”Outside Burning City.”

’It has to be Black Ball.’

Leech wasn’t in a hurry to leave immediately. Instead, he picked up the journal that was under the letter.

It was an untitled journal. Opening it, he found it was filled with numerous diagrams.

There were also lines upon lines of small text.

It looked a lot like the meridian and acupoint charts from traditional Chinese medicine.

’It really is a method for cultivating Extraordinary power!’

Leech was thrilled.

This training method was completely different from the kinds of cultivation, battle qi, or Inner Strength he had read about in web novels in his past life. It was simply a way to increase one’s strength by continuously stimulating the muscles.

The journal also stated that those with better bloodlines and talent were more likely to become Transcendents using this method.

However, an ordinary person could also succeed if they followed the method with perseverance and determination.

Leech had once borrowed the Extraordinary experience of the Corpse Ghost, Aina of the [Poisonous Touch], to master precise control over Extraordinary power. Because Aina’s ability was self-regeneration, she could undergo infinite trial and error. But compared to this journal, that experience seemed far too crude.

The two had some differences and could complement each other.

’This is basically ascetic training. An ordinary person definitely couldn’t handle it.’

The cultivation postures were incredibly demanding.

If an ordinary person tried to train using the methods recorded in this journal even once, it would probably cost them half their life.

’When I get back, I’ll try it with Aina’s body.’

’It can’t be destroyed anyway. I’ll use the Corpse Ghost’s body to test the cultivation first. If any problems arise, I won’t be harmed.’

Experience was one thing, but tempering and conditioning the body was even more important.

After finishing his meal, Leech mounted his horse and left Burning City alone.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to bring more people. The combat effectiveness of his firearm-wielding Cavalry was limited. While his Extraordinary Corpse Ghosts could have been quite useful, Black Ball and his companion gave Leech an unusual feeling, so he needed to be cautious.

Not long after leaving the city, Leech saw a burly, muscular fat man standing by the roadside.

It was Black Ball, now without his cloak. His figure was swathed in clothes, making it impossible to tell if it was muscle or fat underneath.

And standing beside him was a rather cute young girl. She was holding a book, her cheeks slightly flushed, and she was standing on her tiptoes to occasionally say a few words to the muscular fat man next to her.

The muscular fat man’s replies were terse, but the girl was persistent.

Focusing his attention slightly to eavesdrop, Leech heard the girl asking how to build big muscles.

When he saw Leech approaching on his horse, the muscular fat man spoke up. ”Follow me.”

Leech didn’t know much about the Giant’s Foot faction, and he didn’t remember this person from his memories.

He nodded and followed them on horseback.

After following the muscular fat man and the girl for some distance, he saw a slender figure completely shrouded in a black cloak.

’It’s the one from last night, just as I thought.’

”We’re making the trade here?”

Leech looked around but didn’t see any so-called treasures or chests.

The three of them had empty pockets and were each riding a horse. He really couldn’t see anything valuable on them.

The muscular fat man’s horse was the only thing that looked a little pitiful; it certainly wasn’t easy carrying such a huge guy.

”Not here.”

”Not here?”

’That makes sense. A treasure worth 70,000 Jinri should be quite substantial.’

Along the way, Leech couldn’t help but glance a few more times at the horse beneath the muscular fat man. It was actually the strongest and tallest horse among the four of them, but carrying the muscular fat man, the steed looked utterly pathetic by comparison.

After traveling around the mountain for the better part of the morning, they stopped in a ravine.

A stream flowed past their feet and fell away up ahead, plunging into the ravine and forming a long, thin waterfall.

Leech, still on his horse, tilted his head and glanced down. The drop was about the same height as looking down from the cliffs at Iron Wall Castle. The light was blocked by the mountains and trees, making it look bottomless at first glance.

The muscular fat man said to the girl beside him, ”Doyle, you stay here and watch the horses.”

The girl nodded obediently. ”Yes, my lord!”

The three of them—Leech and the two others—dismounted and followed a small path through the grass, walking inward along the edge of the ravine’s cliff.

After walking a short distance, Leech grew uneasy.

”A cavern!”

That’s right. They had stopped at a cavern, hidden behind the small, splashing waterfall in the ravine.

The red dot had been constantly reminding Leech that there was a Water Curtain Cave behind the waterfall.

The black-robed person turned to look at the other two, then leaped toward the Water Curtain Cave.

The muscular fat man, however, gestured for Leech to go first.

’How courteous of you.’

Leech got the feeling the man was afraid he would run away, so he was staying behind to keep an eye on him.

He pushed off with his legs and leaped across.

As his body passed through the SPLASHING little waterfall, he inevitably got wet.

He had just taken a few steps forward when a loud THUD sounded from behind him. The muscular fat man had followed him in.

Leech could see clearly without needing to light a torch.

The other two, however, clearly needed light. They lit torches to illuminate the path ahead as they wound their way down the tunnel.

The passage was like a funnel, narrow at the entrance but suddenly widening after they had walked for a while.

After walking a bit longer, a huge cavern suddenly opened up before them.

WHOOSH—!

As the three of them approached with their torchlight, a great cloud of black shadows suddenly flew out from the cave.

They moved with the speed of a stone thrown with full force—incredibly fast.

Leech subconsciously drew the precious sword at his waist. With a single sweep, a shower of bodies fell to the ground with a series of THWACKS.

He looked down and saw strange birds with faces like grieving mourners.

The muscular fat man, walking behind Leech, said, ”A little over two months ago, a flock of these strange birds suddenly appeared over Burning City. We also discovered some treasure in their stomachs. It took us a long time to find this place.”

The corner of Leech’s mouth twitched. ”You don’t mean we have to kill these strange birds and gut them one by one, do you? You could have just killed them yourselves and handed the collected treasure over to me.”

’There are so many of them. It would take ages to kill them all, and then gutting them one by one... this is not a great job.’

”Of course not,” said the muscular fat man. ”This is just a small fraction. We’ve sent people in here before, but we never heard from any of them again... including five Transcendents.”

”...”

Leech asked, ”Is it too late for me to leave now?”

But the muscular fat man said, ”Don’t worry. Now that you’re here, my lord, there won’t be any danger.”

”I think you could have waited until after you’d collected the treasure to come find me.” Leech turned to leave.

’This lord never fights a battle I’m not confident in winning.’

RUMBLE!

The cavern suddenly began to shake violently.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

The shaking grew more and more intense.

HISSS—!

In the darkness, eight large red lanterns lit up.

”Snakes?”

The torchlight couldn’t reach that far, but Leech’s vision was clear enough to see them. They were four great pythons, each as thick as a man’s waist—no, as thick as the muscular fat man’s waist!

”Not four snakes... four heads?”

Leech’s scalp tingled.

The four heads rose up like a city wall.

’So the muscular fat man’s plan was to drag me along as a conscript!’

Even if they took one head each, it would be difficult to handle. Leech had never fought a monster this huge before.

But when the leftmost great python opened its mouth, Leech knew he had been naive. This was not something he could deal with.

Above Transcendent!

An aura similar to the Water Nymph’s swept over them. It was a fraction weaker than hers, but not by much.

Leech’s base Spiritual Power was 45 units, yet he was instantly suppressed.

Within the giant, open snake mouth, flames rapidly condensed, forming a massive Fireball.

BOOM!

Leech clearly saw that as it spat out a tangible Fireball twice the size of his own body, the python’s head recoiled, just like a cannon being pushed back by its recoil.

The air even exploded, creating a sonic boom.

In the blink of an eye, the tangible Fireball had reached the three of them.

Gripping the saw-toothed sword in his hand, Leech instinctively turned, wanting to hide behind the muscular fat man.

The black-robed person in front was too slim to even be a proper cannon fodder. The muscular fat man, on the other hand, was tall and sturdy-looking, which was reassuring.

ZAP—!

A streak of lightning flashed.

The Fireball suddenly exploded.

A lightning barrier had appeared in front of them, completely blocking the Fireball’s damage and stopping Leech in his tracks.

The black-robed person standing in front of Leech raised his left hand. Lightning rapidly coalesced in his palm, forming a spear of lightning that looked almost solid.

Arcs of lightning connected the spear to the barrier, forming a dense, spiderweb-like pattern.

He drew his left arm back and threw it violently.

CRACK!

The snake head that had spat the tangible Fireball was instantly blown apart.

’The monster whose aura paralyzed me was just killed in a single, effortless blow?’

But he could also feel just how terrifyingly powerful that tangible spear of lightning was.

You could guess its power just by seeing how the lightning spear pierced the snake’s head, burrowed into the cavern wall, and blew open a huge crater.

Then, the black-robed person opened his hand again, and another lightning spear quickly took shape.

The second snake head was blown apart with ease.

Then the third snake head was blown apart as well.

The headless snake’s body crashed to the ground. The stumps were carbonized, and Leech could even smell a scorched odor, along with the scent of cooked meat.

The remaining fourth head suddenly opened its mouth and roared.

’So that’s the one that’s above Transcendent!’

Leech was shocked.

The power displayed by the fourth head was completely different from the other three. On closer inspection, the first three heads were, at most, at the peak level of a Transcendent.

But the fourth spear had already been thrown.

BANG! The snake’s head recoiled. Its scales were scorched, but its body was unharmed.

Instead, the spear had enraged the head. It dragged its three-headed-less body forward, charging at them rapidly.

The ground beneath their feet rumbled and trembled.

It was hard to stay standing!

But the black-robed person in front of Leech threw another lightning spear.

BOOM!

The snake head exploded.

The headless snake corpse crashed heavily to the ground.

’That thing was above Transcendent, and it was dealt with so easily?’

The black-robed person turned his head to look at Leech, as if waiting for his assessment.

Leech swallowed and cleared his throat. ”Prince... impressive!”

Feeling that was a bit too brief, Leech added, ”Uh, I’m in awe!”