Lord of Rot

Leech looked at the silk in his hand, feeling extremely frustrated.

Just when he was imagining how his trip had successfully opened a trade route, even planning to expand his silkworm farming and picturing himself drowning in gold... the very goods he’d sold had reappeared in Bonta Market today, in perfect condition.

Only a day had passed. The silk goods had changed hands an unknown number of times before winding up right back in Bonta Market. One of Leech’s men had spotted the silk, bought a sample, and brought it back.

There was no doubt they were from Porcupine Territory.

’Bonta Market is too chaotic.’

He wanted to open a trade route, but after this fiasco, all his plans were just empty talk.

’Looks like I really have to establish a foothold here.’

Leech’s thoughts turned to the local gangs, but he found it hard to get interested. A single gang wasn’t powerful enough to serve him. His focus then shifted to Bonta Market itself. If he could get a grip on this whole town, that would truly secure the route.

Seizing it by force was out of the question. Making a move on another’s territory would cause serious problems.

’I hear Little Bill’s family plans on continuing their partnership with Bonta Market. I wonder if I can steal that business?’

A knock on the door interrupted Leech’s thoughts. He put down the silk and asked, ”What is it?”

”My lord, Kuer Oasis is here to see you.”

’I was just thinking about him, and here he is.’ He pushed himself up from the table.

The common room of the inn was quite spacious.

When Kuer Oasis saw Leech appear at the top of the stairs, his face immediately broke into a smile. ”Thank you for coming all this way to help.”

Not much time had passed, but Kuer Oasis looked like a completely different person compared to when they had met in Burning City.

A thick beard covered the lower half of his face like a mask, no doubt a great help in blocking the wind and sand.

”We’re old friends, after all,” Leech said. ”Besides, I wanted to come here to clear my head.”

Leech didn’t mention a business partnership with Kuer Oasis. From what he’d briefly gathered, the Oasis Clan was little more than security guards collecting stall fees. The various vendors all had powerful backgrounds of their own, and none of them listened to the clan.

Still, it depended on how these ”security guards” played their cards. Using Bonta Market as a platform to arrange deals could be incredibly lucrative.

Right now, Leech was short on money and men.

But there was little to discuss with Kuer Oasis. He wasn’t the one in charge of the town, nor was he the heir. Talking to him would be a waste of time.

’Better to talk about that little 30-Jinri job first. With seven Transcendents, we could make a killing.’

After some discussion, Kuer Oasis laid out the plan.

The ”plan,” as it were, was to have a group of Transcendents enter a cavern and bring back the treasures inside. Regardless of what other valuables were down there, he only wanted the one artifact that could create an oasis.

Everyone could split the rest.

After specifying the meeting point and setting the time for midnight, Kuer Oasis left in a hurry.

Leech’s group wasn’t the only one he had hired; he still had other places to be.

「Inside the main hall of the Bonta Market garrison.」

The building couldn’t compare to a lord’s castle. It was only two stories tall, with simple, dated rooms. Only the gold-inlaid furniture and the exquisite hand-woven carpets gave it a semblance of luxury.

Kuer Oasis had just walked in the door after a long day when he was met with a sarcastic voice. ”My poor brother, I hear you spent a pretty penny hiring a group for a treasure hunt? Do you have enough money? Want me to lend you some?”

Kuer looked up at the middle-aged man standing by the second-floor railing.

It was his older brother, Baike Oasis.

As the next heir to Bonta Market, his brother had always looked down on him.

But his brother’s position as heir was unshakable, so Kuer could only swallow his anger. He hoped this treasure hunt would get him what he wanted. And when that time came... Hmph!

”I don’t need it. I have enough!”

The brothers exchanged a few more barbed words before going their separate ways.

His brother, Baike Oasis, wore a smug smile, while Kuer looked thoroughly displeased. He’d experienced far too many of these confrontations from a position of weakness.

’Once I get what I want tonight,’ he thought, ’everything will be different tomorrow.’

’Money? True, he didn’t have any. But dead men don’t need money, do they?’

’A man of little importance must seize every opportunity to fight for his place. Then, Father will see clearly who is the more suitable heir.’

...

The sun arced across the sky and quickly fell below the western horizon.

The moon hung high, and a chilly wind began to blow.

Though the scorching sun was gone, anyone going out still needed to wrap their head and face in a scarf. The blowing sand didn’t stop to rest just because the sun had disappeared.

Leech led his team of Transcendents to the meeting point.

With his Extraordinary Corpse Ghosts and Extraordinary Mercenaries, Leech’s forces completely dwarfed the number of people gathered. Kuer himself was not a Transcendent, but he had brought two Transcendent Mercenaries. Including four others, there were only six other Transcendents in total.

Some ”acquaintances” from the Round Table meeting were also here, such as the person who had given Leech the Black Dragon ore-gem, the woman with the Northern Territory accent, and the naive silver-haired woman.

Each person was wrapped in a thick cloak, their face covered with a cloth.

Leech suddenly felt that this ”Round Table” wasn’t very impressive. He used to think that a group of Transcendents gathering to trade goods was a mysterious and high-class affair, like King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

Looking at them now, he saw they were nothing special—just a bunch of moderately powerful thugs bartering in the shadows.