Lord of Rot

”Heave-ho!”

”Lend a hand over here!”

”Careful!”

Leech stood in the doorway, watching his men struggle to lift the coffin onto a carriage.

They didn’t know what was in the coffin, but after following Leech for so long, everyone knew what to ask and what not to ask.

Some families liked to collect human skins, always buying a heap of slaves to flay, and their soldiers even had to help on the side.

The other carriages were loaded with various local specialties from Burning City, Scholar Toma’s luggage, and the small trinkets the soldiers had purchased.

Radish, the one with the best head for business, had also bought quite a few local goods. He would never use Leech’s carriages for his own things; he just bought items he thought were good and carried them on his person, managing to turn a small profit every time.

Even so, Radish’s personal assets were estimated to be close to 30 Silver Moons.

In an era of scarce information and inconvenient travel, anyone who plied the trade routes could make money, so long as they could protect their own lives and their cargo. Even a fool could do it.

Buy low, sell high—it was the simplest business model.

Leech, however, wouldn’t rely on this to make money. Transport was a high-cost, high-consumption, low-return business, far inferior to developing his own manufacturing.

Leaving Burning City.

”This way,” Leech directed from horseback.

Although it was a detour, no one questioned him.

Soon, through the eyes of the Corpse Demon Giant Lizard, Leech saw his own Porcupine Clan flag.

If he hadn’t been maintaining a constant connection with the Corpse Demon Giant Lizard, Leech’s own eyes would have automatically overlooked the enormous creature’s presence.

”Halt!”

The caravan stopped. Not a single person glanced at the giant beast lying by the roadside.

Leech pointed at the giant white bones on the ground. ”Load them all up.”

The carriage they had intentionally left empty was just the right size.

”What kind of bones are these?”

”No idea. Couldn’t be a dragon, could they?”

”Hahaha, no way. They look like lizard bones, a lot like that thing the Lord brought back last time.”

The men chatted as they hauled the bones onto the carriage, none of them particularly shocked. After all, they had seen a lizard bigger than a carriage before!

Little did they know, the very lizard they were discussing was lying quietly nearby, watching them.

Leech didn’t mind their speculation. Even if they spread the word, who would believe them?

Saying you picked up a carriage full of dragon bones on the roadside? Who did you think you were kidding?

As the men loaded the carriage, the Brass Dragon poked its head out of Leech’s collar. It looked at the bones being loaded piece by piece and asked in surprise, ”Dragon bones?”

”What do you think?” Leech said, a little proud. ’See? I can hunt dragons, too.’

”A Bone Dragon cobbled together with Magic, not a true Undead Bone Dragon,” the Brass Dragon said disdainfully. ”Besides, this is a Two-Legged Flying Dragon. They’re beasts, not Giant Dragons!”

As it spoke, the Brass Dragon raised its two front paws toward Leech. ”Giant Dragons have forelegs.”

”But it can still use Dragon Breath,” Leech stressed. ”So what if it’s missing two legs? By any measure, it should still count as a dragon, right?”

”No,” the Brass Dragon said, refusing to budge.

”How is it a beast?” Leech asked, unwilling to give up as he grabbed the Brass Dragon. ”It should at least count as a magical beast, like a harpy or a Griffin.”

”A Griffin?!” The Brass Dragon’s voice suddenly grew louder, but Leech quickly clamped its mouth shut. Only after seeing that no one was looking their way did Leech let go.

The Brass Dragon continued, ”There are some rumors that We find utterly laughable. Some people claim that Two-Legged Flying Dragons are the offspring of Giant Dragons and Griffins. While it’s true that Giant Dragons do fall in love with different species, and Griffins are indeed powerful magical beasts, they do not produce Two-Legged Flying Dragons! A Two-Legged Flying Dragon shares not a single drop of blood with a Giant Dragon, nor do they look alike.”

Leech had never seen a live Two-Legged Flying Dragon, only its bones.

As for Giant Dragons, he could only guess what they were like based on this Brass Dragon.

He had no grounds to argue.

”If you had ever seen a live Two-Legged Flying Dragon, you’d realize they have reptilian scales like a lizard. Noble Giant Dragons, on the other hand, possess true dragon scales!”

Leech looked down and observed that the Brass Dragon’s scales were indeed different. The scales of the Corpse Demon Giant Lizard, in contrast, were far inferior—dense, packed together, and not at all beautiful.

”So they’re really not the same species?”

”They don’t even count as a subspecies,” the Brass Dragon said with a nod. ”It is only because of human ignorance that you think a Two-Legged Flying Dragon is a Giant Dragon just because of its similar shape. Let Us ask you this: both sparrows and goshawks can spread their wings and fly, but does that make them the same kind of creature?”

Leech’s mind suddenly drifted to an elementary school question from his past life. Hawks are birds of prey, and sparrows are their snacks.

A hawk definitely couldn’t give birth to a sparrow.

”A living Two-Legged Flying Dragon should have Extraordinary power, right?” Leech pressed.

’It doesn’t matter if it’s not a Giant Dragon. As long as it’s strong, that’s enough.’

”More or less. A bit stronger than you humans,” the Brass Dragon said. ”A pity they’re brainless. A beast will always be a beast.”

’It has a huge body, it can fly, it breathes fire, it’s an Extraordinary creature, and it’s twice the size of my Corpse Demon Giant Lizard.’

’It’s practically a super weapon of war.’

’Being brainless isn’t even a drawback. That just means it can be tamed.’

’So then, how powerful would a true Legendary Giant Dragon be?’

’I can’t even imagine. Forget it, I’m not going to think about it.’

Leech said, ”It would be pretty great if I could get a Two-Legged Flying Dragon to ride.”

The Brass Dragon scoffed at his words. ”Such a limited view. You aspire to a mere Two-Legged Flying Dragon? In Our memory, a force of a thousand Two-Legged Flying Dragon Cavalry once tried to besiege a Giant Dragon, only to be annihilated by a single breath of its Dragon Breath.”

”Damn, that strong?” Leech sucked in a breath. His image of a Giant Dragon, rather than becoming clearer, was growing ever more indistinct.

He had no frame of reference. Even the Undead Bone Dragon he had encountered was no match for a genuine Two-Legged Flying Dragon, yet a legion of a thousand such creatures was wiped out by a single attack from a Giant Dragon.

How was he supposed to make a comparison?

’Is a Giant Dragon basically a mobile nuclear weapon with infinite ammo?’

He couldn’t rule out the possibility that the Brass Dragon was exaggerating, but Leech felt that was unlikely.

The dragons recorded in books had never known defeat.

For example, the Red Dragon in *Furnace* had merely shaken its body in the sky, and the resulting lava had effortlessly wiped out the entire expedition of Knights sent to slay it.

It was like a person crushing ants. Crush one, crush a thousand, it made no difference.

’Ten thousand? Fine, I’ll just light a fire. Still not a problem.’

”Besides, these Two-Legged Flying Dragon bones are just a collection of parts. Someone probably got incredibly lucky, stumbled upon a Two-Legged Flying Dragon boneyard, and picked out the best pieces,” the Brass Dragon said. ”Necromancers just love digging up graves.”

Leech wasn’t at all concerned about the bloodline issues the Brass Dragon was talking about. Of course he knew his half-bodied Undead Bone Dragon couldn’t be a true Giant Dragon. Giant Dragons were legendary creatures; what Necromancer would have the power to enslave one?

But the bones of a Two-Legged Flying Dragon were good materials, and that was all that mattered.

Even if he were given the corpse of a Giant Dragon right now, Leech wouldn’t dare turn it into a Corpse Ghost. It seemed that corpses of beings beyond the Extraordinary rank retained a strong consciousness. If the Corpse Demon Dragon he created were to awaken and blast him to death with its Dragon Breath, who could he possibly complain to?

Once the loading was complete, the caravan set off again.

Along the way, they met up with Guy, who was waiting for them.

Next, they would retrace their steps, take the river route to detour through Waterfall Land, and then return to Porcupine Territory.

The round trip would take about a month and a half. By the time they returned, it would be mid-November, and winter would be just around the corner. There was still so much to do in the territory.