Lord of Rot

It was unclear whether being a Transcendent increased the odds of becoming a Corpse Ghost, or if the artifact, [Poisonous Touch], was responsible.

’It worked, and it’s a Corpse Ghost made from a Transcendent’s body! Does she still possess her former powers? Judging from the case of the little blue-skinned monster Mage, the probability of her retaining her powers is extremely high.’

The books of the Necromancer contained no mention of Transcendent Corpse Ghosts. His era predated Leech’s, and while Magic might have existed in the world, humans with such immense power did not. At least, his records only mentioned Corpse Ghosts with human-level intelligence, not ones that could single-handedly turn the tide of a battle.

The Corpse Ghost’s gaze was simple as she quietly looked at Leech.

Leech didn’t hesitate. He immediately thrust his spirit into the female Transcendent’s body. This was his first time entering the body of a Transcendent Corpse Ghost. He could feel her Spiritual Power; it was pure and much stronger than that of the Red-haired Earthlings.

Upon sensing Leech’s spirit, her own immediately gathered around it, clinging to him with complete submission.

Her memories flashed through Leech’s mind, more detailed than any he had experienced before.

Her name was Aina. She was a female Warrior from a small desert tribe, skilled with the scimitar, close-quarters combat, and mounted warfare.

The tribe guarded a small oasis, subsisting on date palms and breeding fine horses.

But a group of desert bandits pillaged the tribe, and Aina barely managed to escape.

With nowhere else to turn, she went to Mama City to make a living. There, she was shocked to see her tribe’s horses at a horse trader’s stall. After tailing them, she discovered that the desert bandits who had pillaged her tribe were actually disguised light Cavalry from Mama City. They even greeted the city Soldiers, and their leader was none other than the son of Mama City’s lord.

Aina wanted revenge. Knowing she wasn’t strong enough, she began to train her skills.

She grew stronger day by day until last year, when she acquired a mysterious power.

After learning that the son of Mama City’s lord would be leaving the city, she departed as well. She secretly followed his retinue and launched a surprise attack in an open area.

The son of Mama City’s lord was surrounded by elite Knights of the desert. Aina’s Extraordinary power was also clearly different from Stacy’s; she couldn’t unleash explosive bursts of energy or run faster. After a difficult struggle in which she slaughtered dozens of men, she was eventually wounded by poison, had an arm chopped off, and was taken captive.

She had failed to kill the wretched lord’s son and could only roar at him in fury, like a crazed desert lioness.

Because the son of Mama City’s lord was traveling to Linta Bay, he kept her with him. He tortured her along the way, hoping to learn the secret of how she could fight one against a hundred, but she never opened her mouth.

As Leech watched these memories, he seethed with rage. ’It’s because of these good-for-nothing idiots who only know how to torture people for information that I had to spend several times the amount of gold to repair this body—far, far more than the Jinri it would have cost to buy the dying female Transcendent!’

Only when she was on the verge of death was she brought to the Black Market to be sold.

When Leech withdrew his spirit, he also inherited the combat instincts and skills from Corpse Ghost Aina’s body.

These included:

Scimitar techniques, vicious and no less deadly than a Warg Slayer’s Swordsmanship.

Powerful close-quarters combat abilities.

Mounted combat skills. Aina had lived on horseback since childhood, making fighting from a saddle as easy for her as fighting on the ground.

And finally, the sensation of Aina controlling her Extraordinary power.

It was a peculiar power that sprouted from within and flooded her entire body. This was the power that had allowed Aina to cling to life and not die.

It was completely different from Spiritual Power.

Leech tried to imitate it, but he found he couldn’t create it from nothing. However, now that he knew the feeling, if even the slightest inkling of it appeared in his body in the future, he would be able to grasp it immediately and naturally come to possess his own Extraordinary power.

Although he hadn’t managed to gain an Extraordinary power himself, Leech couldn’t resist trying to control Aina’s body to get a feel for what it was like.

Aina’s simple consciousness sensed Leech’s intent. Her spirit nestled against his and relinquished control of her body, allowing him to pilot it. She was like a little girl sitting obediently in the passenger seat, watching him control her body.

Ignoring the sense of shame from being mentally observed, Leech focused his entire being on taking control.

A thick, black, poisonous mist billowed from Corpse Ghost Aina’s body. Leech smelled a strange, fragrant aroma.

This was the deadly poison created from Aina’s evaporated bodily fluids. It seemed the [Poisonous Touch] had fully fused with her body.

Leech controlled Aina’s body, preventing the poison from spreading and harming his own body, which stood nearby.

Under his control, the black mist suddenly condensed, forming a huge black hand as tall as a person. Its wrist grew out from under the ribs on Aina’s back.

The giant black hand swept across the ground, and the Magic Array on the floor was instantly corroded.

The deceased Transcendent Aina, combined with the artifact [Poisonous Touch], had turned her into a terrifying Transcendent who could not be killed by poison.

A dead person couldn’t be poisoned to death. That meant she herself was now a deadly poison to her enemies.

As mentioned before, Aina’s power was different from Stacy’s explosive strength. In a head-on fight, she might not be Stacy’s match. However, her body seemed to possess an extremely strong Life Force, allowing it to recover even from fatal wounds. Combined with her poison and corrosive abilities, and the fact that she couldn’t truly die, she was a different kind of threat.

Leech withdrew from Corpse Ghost Aina’s body. The one-winged black claw that had condensed from the poisonous mist exploded back into a black fog, then rapidly contracted and drilled back into her body.

”Aina?” he called out. The Corpse Ghost walked slowly toward him, her breasts, which had been repaired and filled with gold, swaying back and forth, a dazzling sight.

Her intelligence was higher than that of the Red-haired Earthlings. She could understand him, but it seemed she couldn’t speak.

An idea suddenly struck Leech. He found some paper and a pen in the room, wrote the name ”Aina” on it, and held it up for her to see.

”You are... Aina,” he said, pointing to the characters.

”Ai... na...” the Corpse Ghost managed to sound out with difficulty.

’Her bodily functions aren’t completely useless! She can still use them!’

Overjoyed, Leech pointed to the characters again and said, ”Aina!”

”Aina.”

After a few simple experiments, he confirmed that Aina’s intelligence was high. She could understand the Lu Leiyi common tongue and respond to it.

To test the limits of her responsiveness, a peculiar scene unfolded in the detached house outside Linta Bay.

A handsome, dark-haired man stood before a naked woman, commanding her to strike various poses and perform different actions.

”Aina, jump!”

”Aina, squat!”

”Aina, balance on one leg.”

For the next several days, Leech focused on training Corpse Ghost Aina. Because he could enter her body with his Spiritual Power, and her spirit could attach itself to his, it created a teaching method more perfect than any verbal instruction or physical demonstration. It could be called soul-to-soul teaching.

And Aina’s dependence on him grew stronger by the day.

During the day, they would train her Extraordinary power, developing its applications.

The deadly poison had turned Aina into a toxic corpse; he absolutely could not have any physical contact with her.

At night, Leech would teach Aina to recognize characters and to speak. Her formidable Life Force allowed her to vibrate her vocal cords and produce sound just like a living human. She could even mimic a heartbeat. This discovery made Leech willing to spend more time on Corpse Ghost Aina each day.

He discovered that Aina’s bodily fluids were completely poisonous.

The regenerative ability created by her Extraordinary power allowed her to temporarily become a ”living person,” with a pumping heart and poisonous blood flowing through her body.

If not for his insufficient medical knowledge, he might have been able to research even more.

Still, even without being analyzed through the lens of Earth’s medicine and science, the Extraordinary power was terrifying enough just by unleashing its inherent effects.

Deployed on a battlefield, she would be an invincible harvester of low-level troops.

Happy times with a Corpse Ghost are always fleeting. He had to leave tonight because Stacy’s 20th birthday ball was about to begin. After the ball, he could also depart and return to his Porcupine Territory.

Although he hadn’t been away from his territory for very long, he was already eager to return.