Plague Lord (1)

Nothing. He could feel nothing. His ears felt like they were clogged with iron while his throat felt like it had disappeared. Every single fiber of muscle in his body ached as he reached for his forehead.

Yuan Ming slowly peeled his eyes open and discovered a vertical world. His face lied flat on the ground, leading his eyes to see wet grass and the trees from below. The night was deeper than before. It was likely midnight…

A dull pain assaulted his temples as he assumed a fetal position due to pain. Yuan Ming whimpered as he noticed that his senses were sharper than before.

"Kaa…Grrraa…"

Astonishingly, when Yuan Ming tried to speak instead of words, demonic growls came out. In panic he jumped up and looked around, afraid that the monster from before had come again.

It took his moments to figure out the voice was coming from him…

"Aaah! Graaa… "

Extending his hands towards his face, he got the shock of his life as he saw knife-like fingers on his dark-red decayed hand. His hand was just …like that demon's!

Unfortunately, Yuan Ming felt a sort of familiarity with his hands. He looked at his chest — its flesh was of the same dark-red rotting color. Plus the stench coming from his own body, particularly his chest, made him uneasy.

Right in the middle of his chest however, was a translucent red spot he didn't see at first. He extended his now flexible neck and tried to see through that spot.

Inside that spot was a throbbing black orb. It rotated in its own axis and occasionally sent out waves of warm energy throughout his body.

Yuan Ming was uneducated, but that didn't mean he was oblivious to the workings of the world! Was he a demonic beast now?

That orb looked like a Beast Core; an artifact he had seen once when he was a child. Similar to how cultivators had their own Cores, beasts had their own cores too.

Unfortunately, Yuan Ming couldn't speak nor could he cry. He could only scream and express his frustration and fear…

"KAAAAA…!! GRAAAAAAAA!!! "

The birds perched on the trees flew away as Yuan Ming gripped his boney head and screamed once again. He noticed there was no hair there.

Yuan Ming felt scared. He couldn't hear, nor could he speak. It all felt so unfamiliar to him — he didn't feel safe in his own body.

Strangely, Yuan Ming calmed down minutes later as he started to mindlessly wander through the forest. He couldn't focus on anything, but all he knew was that he wanted to go home.

His bony legs couldn't keep up with him unfortunately as he fell on the ground and softly scowled.

A strange desire entered his body as he felt energy course through his body again. Even though he wasn't sure what he was right now, he felt hunger and emptiness in his stomach.

'Hunger…I am…hungry…It hurts…'

Yuan Ming heard his own voice in the emptiness of his ears. He uttered a soft growl.

[There. A Rank 1 Beast. It's hiding behind that tree — eat it.]

A whisper sounded in his mind as he cautiously looked towards a tree to the east. He felt something call out to him in that direction…

There it was. A red-hooved ram-like creature staring at him in…fear?

It's brown scales glistened in the moon light as it turned around, fully unaware that Yuan Ming had seen it. He felt a strange sensation in his head as he growled and ran towards the beast.

A Rank 1 beast was something that overpowered beginner cultivators, it's might was unimaginable for someone like Yuan Ming who had never cultivated. But now, he felt a sense of excitement and bloodlust as he screamed and jumped on the beast.

"KRAAA!! "

Yuan Ming's bony and red body jumped at a speed that the beast couldn't even comprehend, and bit it on its neck.

"Grooak!"

The beast let out an earth-shaking cry as it tried to run, but the red dagger-like teeth biting on its neck held it to its place. It's legs slumped to the ground as turned around and clamped on Yuan Ming's body.

Unfortunately, his body was…rotten. Waves of cold black blood burst out of the wound on his back and entered the beast's mouth. In a few moments the beast stopped struggling and fell to the ground.

Yuan Ming slowly stepped away from the corpse of the ram-like man-sized beast. He felt a small amount of pain on his back, but that didn't explain the huge amount of blood he expelled.

In his eyes, the corpse of the beast had a slight glow to it. He stepped closer and bit into the corpse.

How tasty. Is this what…beast flesh tastes like? He had never tasted anything this flavor!

"Graaa…! "

…

Slowly but surely, Yuan Ming ate through the creature. He left behind nothing but blood, he didn't even spare its bones.

He felt a warmth spread throughout his body as new strands of flesh sprang out from his core and covered his body. Their texture was a bit different from flesh although, a scaly exterior was evident on their surface.

[This…is the power of a 'Plague Lord'. Do you feel it yet, Mortal!]

Yuan Ming shook his head and growled. He didn't care about the voice in his head, he had more…pressing matters to take care of.

The matter about him waking up as a monster had already desensitized him. So it didn't really matter.

He looked towards where the signboard was, and began running there once again. This time, he felt like his legs had magic attached to them!

Yuan Ming's speed was so fast, that he could see trees appear and disappear in the edge of his vision. Sometimes he ended up hitting one or two of them, but it didn't really hurt him.

Within thirty minutes, he could see the ever-familiar farm…

Yuan Ming hid behind a tree and searched the farm for any signs of life. Fortunately, no workers were present as the farm was clean of any vegetables and fruits.

At the end of the farm was a cottage emitting smoke from its chimney. A sign that someone was living there.

Hidden in the moonlight, Yuan Ming looked like a carrier of death. His rotten, decaying body looked like it was filled with maggots…

With both of his hands and legs on the ground, he crawled towards the house — he was surprised with the amazing grip and dexterity his hands had.

Like a lizard, he quickly crawled and reached the cottage door. His hands quickly punched the door and broke it in two halves — exposing the insides of the house.

Inside, Yuan Ming saw two familiar faces. An old man and a girl.

The old man was nude and lying on the bed with eyes half closed. He sprang to his feet when he saw the door explode. While on the other side of the bed was a naked girl crying her eyes out. She had no reaction when she heard the door explode.

The old man didn't even have time to react before the undead horror at the door let out an ear-shaking scream and pierced his head with its hands.

"KRAAAA! GRRRRRRRRAAAAA!!!! "

The man's brain exploded and landed on the walls and the undead. It let out a laugh-like growl and threw the man to the other side of the room like a ragdoll.

The girl on the other hand, had a silent and expressionless face as she saw Yuan Ming kill the man. She weakly uttered, "Please…kill me. I don't want to live. "

Yuan Ming felt a massive pain in his chest as he softly whimpered at the girl. He closed in on her and saw her close her eyes in anticipation for the death blow, but was disappointed.

"OooHH…Grr… "

Yuan Ming tried his best to get a reaction out of Xue'er, but failed.