Soul-Sinking Anchor

The corpses aboard the ship already stank to high heaven, but the man seemed unable to smell a thing. With his back to the door, he slowly poured wine into a glass.

Hearing the door open, he did not turn around at once. He merely set the bottle back on the table.

"A new guest aboard my ship? Forgive me for not coming out to welcome you..."

The chains were attached to his body like IV lines, as though they were pumping power into him.

Ling Chu looked at him, and the Soulwarden's Eye automatically brought up a string of information.

[Physical state: Deceased.]

[Time since death: Twelve days, nine hours.]

[Soul integrity: 93%.]

[Current status: Abnormally lingering; fused with a Soul Artifact.]

[This soul is continuously drawing power from other deceased souls through a special Soul Artifact, maintaining the connection between his soul and dead body.]

Well, would you look at that. He'd been dead for twelve days.

No wonder the system had sent her to work overtime. He was draining other souls to keep himself "alive."

The man finally turned his chair around. The Eyepatch showed that his name was Auston.

From a distance, he had looked much like a normal person. Face-to-face, though, it was clear his skin had lost the color and sheen of the living. Dark purple corpse spots had even appeared on the side of his neck, and the whites of his eyes had an unnatural yellow tinge.

At the sight of the spots on his neck, Lingering Wind and Fading Moon's eyes sharpened. "Careful," he said quietly to Ling Chu and the others. "He may not be human anymore."

Ling Chu focused on the chains running into the object behind him. They did not pierce his body directly. Instead, they converged