Lord of Rot

A bend in the Shuijian River, at a fork in a tributary.

A great many boats passed through this tributary. Not only did the people of Waterfall Land rely on this river, but many merchants traveling north also chose the waterway, willing to spend a bit more money to save themselves the effort.

The mountains were rife with bandits, and with the Black King causing a stir recently, traveling by land felt unsettling.

BOOM!

A boat sailing along normally suddenly lurched violently.

The people on board instantly grew tense.

”A water monster!” someone started shouting.

”It’s a water monster!” One cry incited a panic.

”What do we do?”

Chaos had already broken out.

Recently, rumors had spread of a strange water monster in Waterfall Land. Boats were being inexplicably struck, so everyone was extra careful when navigating this river.

The boat carrying the contingent from Porcupine Territory also grew lively.

Everyone rushed to the stern, staring at the ferry in the distance that had been thrown into chaos.

The Soldiers gripped their weapons, their nerves taut.

On land, they had a fighting chance, but here on the water, their strength was greatly diminished.

’Not good!’ inside the cabin, Leech, who had been studying the wondrous item, suddenly snapped back to reality.

He quickly put down the [Casting Crystal] in his hands, thinking to himself, ’I got too engrossed in my research and let my attention wander.’

The so-called water monster was the Corpse Demon Giant Lizard. Since Leech had nothing better to do on the boat, he had started studying the two wondrous items in his possession.

He had only been partially focused on guiding the Corpse Demon Giant Lizard, making it follow obediently behind the ferry and occasionally checking to see if the Corpse Ghost had fallen behind.

The Corpse Ghost possessed intelligence and could understand such simple requests, but it couldn’t handle more detailed instructions.

But just now, Leech had been so engrossed in studying the [Casting Crystal] that he had subconsciously released his control over the Corpse Demon Giant Lizard. As a result, it bumped into a boat passing overhead. To be more precise, the Corpse Demon Giant Lizard had no concept of avoiding things. It was simply following Leech’s command to trail behind obediently and was struck by a ferry coming up from behind.

An undeserved disaster.

Leech focused his mind and controlled the Corpse Demon Giant Lizard to swim forward. At the fork in the tributary, the water was shallower. If not for the [Vessel of Invisibility], anyone looking down into the water would have seen a terrifying behemoth, longer than the boat itself, lurking below, its massive body writhing as it swam past.

Leech waited until the Corpse Demon Giant Lizard had swum ahead of his own boat before breathing a sigh of relief. Only then did he emerge, feigning that he had just heard the commotion outside.

”What’s wrong?”

”Sir, it’s the water monster! The water monster is back!”

”I suspect the water monster is following our boat.”

Looking at the sailors’ nervous expressions, Leech suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

Because he needed to sleep too, and without his guidance, the Corpse Demon Giant Lizard wouldn’t proactively avoid other boats. This was why the legends of the water monster were always most intense at night, and the sailors who made their living on the water were firm believers.

”It’s alright,” Leech said. ”We’re almost there. You can rest on shore and wait until the rumors of the water monster die down before you set out again.”

The sailor sighed. ”I suppose that’s all we can do.”

He considered himself lucky. So many boats had been attacked by the water monster, yet his own had remained safe. The trouble only ever seemed to happen around his boat.

On the boat behind them, the sailors, all good swimmers, wore bitter expressions.

”The cargo fell into the water! Hurry up and get it!”

”But... but... there’s a water monster in there.”

”If we lose this cargo, we’ll lose our lives! Even if there was a Giant Dragon in there, you’d have to jump in and get it!”

After some arguing, the sailors jumped into the water one by one. Fortunately, the process was safe, and no man-eating water monster appeared.

Leech thought, ’If they saw the Corpse Demon Giant Lizard with their own eyes, they’d probably be scared to death. It might even cause an unprecedented shock to Waterfall Land’s shipping industry. By using the [Vessel of Invisibility], I’ve saved them from the terror and prevented all this from happening. I’m just too kind.’

Not forgetting to praise himself, Leech went back to studying the wondrous items.

The wondrous item, the [Casting Crystal], showed him a few peculiar possibilities. There were two development paths, though both were still vague for now. The main problem was that he lacked the technical means and a suitable environment for random testing.

The crystal had one characteristic: it could release all stored Magic in an instant. Due to his current environment, he couldn’t test its offensive capabilities, but he figured it was probably as he had guessed.

But the crystal also had a drawback: stored Magic would dissipate over time. Storing it for a year or even half a year for later use was clearly impossible.

This eliminated the possibility of storing thousands or tens of thousands of spells to be released at once, annihilating entire armies.

There was another feature: the stored Magic didn’t actually disappear but was recorded in the Magic Array. As long as it wasn’t deliberately erased, it could be released simply by inputting Spiritual Power.

’I don’t have the skill to cast multiple spells at once, but I can with the [Casting Crystal]. But it would be such a waste to only use this wondrous item for warfare.’

’If I were really pursuing destructive power, what could possibly compare to thermal weapons?’

’Even a Transcendent would have no escape from a bombing raid.’

A wondrous item should serve a technical purpose, accomplishing things Leech couldn’t do himself. He already had some ideas, so he didn’t plan on just using this thing for fighting.

Then there was the wondrous item he had named the [Wind Cavalry Helmet], which he hadn’t yet been able to study for any specific properties.

The wind that swirled around the wearer was indeed interesting, deflecting arrows and slashes. If this type of helmet could be mass-produced, it would be like a Divine Weapon descending from the heavens on the battlefield. While it wouldn’t make a soldier invincible, they could easily suppress an enemy two or three times their number, as long as the initial disparity wasn’t too outrageous.

But the problem was, wondrous items couldn’t be mass-produced.

The helmet’s design was also a bit ancient and didn’t match the style of the East Gorge. He had no idea where Shanzhang Castle had gotten its hands on this thing.

Leech reached out and gently brushed the feather on the helmet. It looked like an eagle’s feather. For now, he could only set it aside. He hadn’t figured out a use for it yet, but he definitely wasn’t going to wear it into battle himself.

After a long and boring journey by water, they arrived at their destination.

They had now entered the territory of the Monkey Clan. This was a small, open-access pier.

’I’m starting to understand why the Monkey Clan is so determined to take Longship Castle.’

Everyone was making money off this waterway. The Monkey Clan knew just how much profit was at stake; the bigger the bite they took out of Longship Castle, the fatter they’d get.

The boat trip took three days. For a party of over a dozen people plus a carriage, the fee was 1 Silver Moon per person and 2 Silver Moons for the carriage.

’Just from the shipping business, their annual earnings aren’t much less than Porcupine Territory’s.’

The entire river was packed with ferries. One could only imagine the terrifying amount of income it generated.

After once again lamenting his hell-difficulty start, Leech disembarked.

Ahead, the road split into three paths. One went east toward Iron Valley.

One went toward Burning City.

The last led into the heart of Monkey Territory.

With Transcendents beginning to emerge, Leech was also very cautious. He didn’t recklessly send out his ’Eagle Eye’ birds, lest he attract the attention of some sensitive Casters or other Transcendents.

SPLASH!

The water’s surface broke as the massive body of the Corpse Demon Giant Lizard emerged.

It climbed onto the shore with heavy steps.

On the pier, a little boy holding his mother’s hand turned his head in confusion. He watched as a monster bigger than his house walked past him, its scales as large as his fully outstretched hand. Yet, the boy’s gaze couldn’t seem to focus on it, as if it were nothing more than a passing, unremarkable breeze.

Such a terrifying beast was walking through the crowded pier, yet a bizarre scene unfolded: people seemed oblivious to it, but they would subconsciously move aside, clearing a path for it to pass.