Corpse Kingdom—Imperial City District
Taiji Hall
Before the towering palace gates lay special steps made from a mixture of extremely yin stone and metal, 1,008 steps in total.
Two officials wearing black gauze hats and official robes embroidered with ferocious beasts across the chest climbed the steps one by one and knelt before the gates.
One of them was the governor of the dragon ship. His emaciated body formed a stark contrast with the broad build of the other minister.
The other man spoke first:
"Your Majesty, the rate at which the Lock Workers are being consumed has steadily increased. Even if Corpse Gatherings are distributed directly to the surrounding floating islands, the number of zombies supplied cannot make up for the ever-growing losses.
"Furthermore, the efficiency of recent 'expeditions' and 'hunts' has clearly declined.
"I beg Your Majesty to..."
At that point,
an extremely terrifying black aura surged out wildly, like a grim hell of burial and death, making the man tremble all over.
"Zhu Guang, withdraw."
"...Yes."
Though he still wanted to say something, for the sake of his life and certain other reasons, he could only lower his head and retreat.
"Governor Pei, are you also here to report such tedious matters to Us?"
Governor Pei kept his head lowered and replied softly,
"This humble servant came to report on several floating islands... During this corpse-collection expedition, although many floating islands had Corpse Gatherings as their foundation and their zombie populations had increased, their quality varied greatly.
"However, this humble servant discovered a capable individual on one small floating island. It actually defeated a corpse demon raised by the Imperial City within that floating island and successfully transferred the corpse demon's implanted machinery during Flesh Transformation.
"It also received dual excellent marks during the dragon ship assessment.