The Necropolis (1)

[AU Note: Please vote for me. I'm participating in the 70th prompt and need your votes. There will be faster releases if I somehow go into the top three]

Night turned into midnight as wild animals returned to their dwellings, which in turn, silenced the forest.

Right at the base of two small mountains was a settlement affiliated with the nearby Jade City, the only coastal city in Moonfield Prefecture.

Villages weren't usually built right in front of forests, as Beast Hordes that can easily decimate armies roam inside them. But the ones that are built are usually scout settlements or, sometimes, bait.

Yuan Ming wasn't a stranger to the affairs of the privileged cultivator and ruler classes. The mortals were only soil to step on for them. They were worthless, but like ignorant animals kept obeying their orders.

Such 'bait' settlements were created in order to stall Beast Hordes and detect them earlier. Such villages are considered enticing for the poor to live in, as the local authorities reward people for working and living there. Usually the people living inside them know what they're tasked with…

And that's why Yuan Ming was hesitant to attack the village. He didn't want to attract attention until he had a base ready, and villages like these would the last thing he'd attack if he wanted to stay hidden from people's sights. Usually there would be something inside the settlement transferring information about the villagers to the city.

Now that he thought about it, infecting any other village or settlement would be as equally risky as there weren't many of them that were far away from the cities.

The relatively-comfy houses decorating the village, along with some wells and even bigger houses painted the perfect image of a village. The village began from a small road and was covered in trees from every direction. Each individual house had a small fence barricading it.

Most of the villagers were asleep but a few men kept watch from two-men tall towers. But they didn't have lamps in their hands, thus they didn't spot Yuan Ming crawling into the village through darkness.

Although he did order his slaves to follow him and storm inside when someone attacked him, he didn't think he needed to bother so much for such an easy task.

Yuan Ming's eyes glimmered as he closed in on a water well, which was probably the source of the water for the entire village. A few others were also spread throughout the village.

Yuan Ming didn't want to intentionally slow down his task, so he cautiously opened his jaw and aimed inside the well. A stirring feeling struck his mouth as a stream of foamy black liquid dropped into the water. The black liquid stuck to the surface of the water like oil, but quickly fell beneath and mixed with it.

Yuan Ming suspected that the water might smell like rotten flesh, but even if it did, the villagers would only drink water from the wells. If it did smell rotten and they ended up avoiding the water, then he'd have to kill them all.

He crawled across the entire village and poisoned the wells in similar ways. The sleepy watchmen didn't manage to notice him. After he was done, he ran away through the same path he entered.

Yuan Ming was sure that the disease would effectively turn the entire village into the undead — unless there were any cultivators of Rank 2 and above there. They'd be able to quickly see through any problems in the water. Although Yuan Ming didn't sense any strong essence signatures from the village, he had to be cautious.

‹You three, did you manage to find any shelters?›

Yuan Ming climbed a tree and met his three new undead slaves. Earlier down the road, he had ordered them to find suitable shelters and meet him at a tree. They surprisingly managed to remember which tree he had marked.

Unfortunately, even though their intelligence was inherently higher than the older undead from before, their red eyes couldn't convey emotions, nor could they talk. They could only point and…attack.

"Graa…" A mindless growl escaped from one the undead, who's entire skull was clean and flesh-free. He turned around and pointed towards a small cave beneath a tree.

The entrance was large enough for a man to enter, while it was also covered in branches and hidden from sight by the tree itself. It was perfect. But it was too close to the village.

Yuan Ming shrugged and entered the cave. He immediately realized an actual animal used to live there after he saw dozens of chicken feathers culminating on the floor.

He felt like eating the feathers, but realized it probably wouldn't do much. He then went to sleep.

…

Dawn broke over the small human settlement hidden between the mountains as the people woke up. The children noisily ran down the streets to their schools while the men went to work.

However, something happened that morning that broke the peace inside the village. In the middle of the village was a small mansion where the village elders and the chief resided.

"I know someone's there. Reveal yourself! "

A grey-haired Village Elder barked, while he looked around his room attentively. He wasn't a village elder for nothing, and even though he was a mortal, he wasn't a simple one either.

"I'm surprised your ears still work, old man. "

A middle-aged woman slid into the room from a wardrobe and sweetly smiled at the Elder. Who closed his eyes and returned to his mediation.

"What do you need from me? "

"It's nothing. Just something I noticed when I checked the well this morning — the water smells a bit…fetid. Here, smell some. "

The lady handed the man a bowl of water. The Elder's face went dark when he saw little black dots in the transparent water. He cautiously drank some drops and winced due to the smell, but didn't really feel bad.

Instead, the old man felt essence from the air start to crawl inside his body. Even though only a few drops of unpure essence entered his body, the man's mouth widened as he screamed out in joy.

"This…t-this is a blessing from the Jade Emperor! The water has Spiritual Essence, it's a Natural Oddity!! A-Ah, quickly, alert the chief! "

No one noticed a reddish-brown hue on the Elder's flesh.

…

..

Yuan Ming's sleep broke when it was morning, but he didn't wake up and instead continued to sleep until it was night. This time, vibrations insides the cave didn't wake him up, instead vigorous shaking of the tree woke him up instead.

Yuan Ming couldn't hear anything, but his situation had slightly improved. He could hear very, very loud noises. Other than that, he could only hear silence.

"Ggghg! Cough, cough, burrggh! "

Yuan Ming slowly crawled out of from underneath the tree and quitened his alert minions, who he had tasked with staying up all night to guard him. He dug his nails into the tree slowly and jumped up onto one of the branches. Thankfully, his weight wasn't much, otherwise the branch would've fallen.

Yuan Ming looked down and saw a sight that would've repulsed his former self. A ragged woman was vomiting yellowish liquid — which was mostly food — and coughing. She couldn't even breathe as chunks of undigested food flew through her nose.

Through the her tattered garments, he could see her uncovered skin. But unfortunately desires such as that had long left his body. Remnants remained, but he didn't care. Her skin was feverishly brown, but one look at her face would tell people that she wasn't born with such skin.

Along with vomiting, her eyes were slightly red and veiny. While she was sweating bowls of salty water. Yuan Ming watched on with interest, as he found out that the disease had succeeded in infiltrating the village.

Deep within his soul, Yuan Ming could feel something turning as the woman croaked and vomited a chunk of her intestines. He could feel…a new connection to his soul. He remembered that he felt something similar when he subdued his slaves.

Once the woman looked down and saw some of her entrails on the ground, she shook in fear before running back into the village.

Yuan Ming felt a set of information enter his soul once again, as he looked at the woman. According to the information, he now held control over the woman. Mind control would be the simpler way to explain it. Although he couldn't 'control' her actions, he could control her functions and make her die at will. He could make her feel fear and talk to her through her brain. He could kill her and instantly turn her into an undead…

But he wouldn't do that. He wanted to see with his own eyes what effects the disease had on humans.

Yuan Ming scanned through the village and saw no one out in the streets. Only that woman was exhibiting symptoms…

To test one of his skills, Yuan Ming focused and closed his eyes. And found himself inside the village, in the body of that woman. But he couldn't control her sadly, he didn't have the power to do it.

"Elder, Elder, there's something…ack…wrong!! "

It felt nice to hear sounds again…

The female entered a mansion inside the village and yelled while knocking on a door. A half-naked man opened the door.

"I don't think I can be more disappointed. Look at you, what happened? "

A woman lying on a bed with bruises on her body was visible through the gap behind the man's shoulders. He had a disinterested wince on his face as he looked at the tattered woman.

"Elder, the water…the water, someone poisoned it… I-I've been vomiting since early noon, I thought it was something I ate, but I've vomited some of my internals, Elder. Please help… "

The elder frowned, "Are you…sure? I've drank a lot, but I… "

Suddenly, the elder's eyes closed and he fainted.

Yuan Ming broke the connection and returned to his slumber. He suddenly felt another link connect to his soul…

…

…

…

Yuan Ming woke up this time a day later at night. His body must've gotten used to waking up at night was what he thought after he crawled out of his cave.

The scenery outside surprised him. Dead bird and animals were all sprawled out on the ground. Yuan Ming forgot about them! They drink water too! But it seems like they died before they could transport the disease somewhere else.

The grunting, rotten-fleshed undead zombies he had made his slaves obediently followed him. He took them along just in case.

For once, he saw the towers around the village unmanned and the village unusually quiet. Once he set foot into the village however, he saw a sight that excited him.

Dead. Every single man, woman, child was dead. Their brown-green bodies lay on the ground as foamy blood oozed out from their bodies.

One thing he noticed was that their bodies were strangely emaciated. It looked like their life-essence was sucked right out of their bodies.

[Excellent! There are exactly two hundred and eighty-five dead waiting for your commands. A single word will turn them all into ghouls…but that is something you'll do later.]

[Humans and pesky heretics can come in here, so now, you need to summon a Necropolis from the Dead Nether and build a base here.]

A massive amount of symbols and seals appeared in his memory as he recognized the method to summon a Necropolis from the Dead Nether.

[Beware however Plague Lord, heavy sacrifices are needed.]

The memories Yuan Ming had inherited had all of the information he needed.

‹Go, hunt down a few beasts! Make sure you don't bring any ordinary ones.› Yuan Ming commanded his slaves in their language.

They left, and Yuan Ming went to the center of the village square and began writing the symbols and seals he saw in his memory. His fingers dug deep into the ground and wrote the symbols, creating half-a-finger wide canal-like Spiritual Seals.

At the end, the Summoning Formation was covered up a large area of the clean village square. The circular formation was dug shallowly, but it was very wide. Yuan Ming needed a lot of life-essence to power the Summoning Formation.

His slaves returned half an hour later with numerous beasts in their hands; that Yuan Ming was happy to see.

He took them from their hands and buried them under the formation. As soon as he buried the first beast the Formation started to glow an eerie red light…

[It isn't sufficient…quick, draw out some of your life-essence.]

Yuan Ming this time, didn't blindly obey the whispers in his head and instead barked back.

'What? Why should I?! '

[A necropolis holds benefits for your army, and for you. You can choose to find another hundred beasts, or fuel the formation using your own life-essence.]

[You need to be less greedy and see the bigger picture.]

Yuan Ming contemplated and finally decided. He'd rather build his base first…

Yuan Ming inhaled and exhaled. A strong blast of wind exploded from his body as a shining ball of essence manifested in his hand.

Yuan Ming felt the brightness in his Core lower down, and his vision turn blurry as the essence he devoured in these three days run out of his body. Technically, he didn't have any life-essence as he was essentially dead. But he did have life-essence stored in his core.

Yuan Ming cracked a slow smile and threw the ball of life-essence back inside his core. He withdrew his body from the formation and glanced at the hordes of dead bodies lying on the ground beside him.

He opened his claw and howled towards the dead. Within a few minutes each and every dead body started crawling towards the formation and once they reached it, they severed their own heads and watered the formation with their life-essence.

[How smart. Another step and I would've taken over.]

..