Chapter 1092: Recruiting Naraku Undead, Demon-Slaying Vanguard! (2)

“Yeah, yeah!”

“Can you promote us?”

It wasn’t just this Resentful Spirit who had that idea; the other Undead all had the same question.

Fang Zhou smiled faintly, looking at the Undead staring up at him, and the others resting not far away with their ears pricked, ready to eavesdrop.

The Resentful Spirit who spoke up first was one he had bribed outside in advance, precisely to cooperate with him here.

Fang Zhou said, “Of course! All Undead who join my banner, as long as you accumulate enough merit, I will give you the opportunity to be promoted!”

As he said this, Fang Zhou’s voice rose; he waved his hand and said, “Moreover, as long as you now possess enough Blood Moon Coins or resources, are willing to pay the cost of promotion, and swear loyalty to me, I can immediately hold a promotion ritual for you!!!”

Those words landed like a giant bomb exploding in the camp.

All the Undead started clamoring, arguing heatedly; some had already begun calculating whether their Blood Moon Coins were enough to promote themselves.

“My Lord, is what you said true?” a Vampire asked, plucking up his courage.

“Of course it’s true. This clause can be written into the Blood Moon Contract of fealty!” Fang Zhou swept his arm grandly.

At that, all the Undead surged forward, even those who had just walked away; they were all scrambling to offer their service to Fang Zhou.

Fang Zhou watched the scene below with satisfaction, his mind already planning his next moves.

For the Undead of the Blood War Furnace, promotion and demotion were two hot topics they could never escape their entire lives.

Not every Upper-level Undead was willing to let his subordinates obtain promotion.

On the contrary, due to their immutable nature, the vast majority of Undead would deliberately suppress their underlings, reducing their chances to advance.

This wasn’t just because holding a promotion ritual for subordinates consumed power and resources; they were even more worried those subordinates would one day threaten their own status.

Unless forced by absolute necessity, very few Undead were willing to voluntarily officiate a promotion for their inferiors, even when the underlings “brought their own rations” and had already prepared the needed resources.

This was a congenital vice of the Undead, an innate nature that couldn’t be changed.

But Fang Zhou, as a pure outsider, a being of Dual Soul Unity, didn’t possess this inexplicable Undead instinct.

He slowly realized this had already become the decisive factor for whether he could thrive in the Blood War Furnace.

…

Fang Zhou’s recruitment this time was extremely successful. In just a few days, he recruited over five hundred Undead of various ranks.

The key point was that he hadn’t spent a single coin on this recruitment.

Under normal circumstances, recruiting Undead required paying them a certain amount of Blood Moon Coins.

But after Fang Zhou declared he would proactively promote these Undead, that hiring fee was saved.

These five hundred-plus Undead of various tiers were all elites from their respective camps.

Their strength was quite good for their current Undead ranks, and they all “brought their own rations,” having already prepared the Blood Moon Coins or resources needed for promotion.

Even more Undead who hadn’t yet prepared resources wanted to defect to Fang Zhou, but Fang Zhou refused.

The truth was he was simply too poor right now; although recruiting these Undead cost nothing, the subsequent upkeep still required money.

If you wanted Undead to serve you, even Undead recruited by a Full Moon Lord had to be paid wages.

This was the fundamental reason lower-tier Undead were willing to struggle for their leaders.

If there were no Blood Moon Coins as wages, they would never have a chance to be promoted, and naturally wouldn’t work hard.

Only good Undead like Skeletons would tirelessly work without complaint, without any wages, willingly doing all the labor.

Recruiting these five hundred-plus Middle Tier Undead already put a lot of pressure on Fang Zhou.

The Blood Moon Coins in his hand were basically zero; if he recruited too many Undead, he might soon be unable to pay wages.

He still didn’t have a stable base, nor any steady source of income; feeding too many Undead would crush him financially.

…

In Fang Zhou’s temporary camp, Fang Zhou asked a nearby Banshee of Soulbinding, “Morgana, which direction do you think we should go to expand our territory?”

The Soulbinding Banshee was a mutated form of Resentful Spirit; they were humanoid Undead whose bodies were covered in living Chains.

Those Chains formed the body of the Soulbinding Banshee and were also her primary means of attack.

Soulbinding Banshees specialized in torturing Demons’ souls, cruel and cunning, and they also possessed managerial ability.

Most of the time, Soulbinding Banshees were excellent torture Masters, overseers, quartermasters, and mid-level frontline Commanders.

The one before Fang Zhou was the strongest Undead he had recruited this time, with strength at Golden Middle Rank.

When he first recruited her, Morgana had only been a Resentful Spirit, a lower-tier Undead beneath the Soulbinding Banshees.

To demonstrate he kept his promises, Fang Zhou had held a promotion ritual for Morgana on the very first day, promoting her to a Soulbinding Banshee.

Soulbinding Banshee Morgana bowed her body respectfully; her voice sounded like Chains grinding against each other: “My Lord, I think we should go north. I’ve heard there’s a huge ranch in those northern mountains; as long as we can develop it, we’re bound to make a fortune!”

North?

Fang Zhou recalled: wasn’t the north the direction of Funeral Bell Ranch, occupied by his former employer Hecarim?

Hecarim wasn’t a Demon-Vanquishing Order vanguard; on the contrary, he was a Terror Knight General directly under the Lord of Fang City.

That stingy Terror Knight had left a deep impression on Fang Zhou; if he went there to develop, he’d inevitably have to deal with that miser.

Thinking of that, Fang Zhou shook his head and said, “The north isn’t suitable. All the good resource spots there have already been taken.”

Compared to Fang Zhou, Morgana, as a native, was much more worldly.

The Wailing Blood Plain integrating into the Blood War Furnace wasn’t something that could be accomplished in just a few years.

On the contrary, this process often lasted for decades, even centuries.

And Morgana—she was a Skeleton born from the Wailing Blood Plain.

After nearly a hundred years of work, step by step, plus decent luck, she had finally become a Middle-tier Undead Soulbinding Banshee.

These near-hundred years of work had given Morgana a fairly clear grasp of the surrounding information.

After pondering for a moment, Morgana offered another direction and said, “My Lord, if the north won’t work, we can go east.”

Fang Zhou asked, “East? What good things are over there?”

A smile appeared on Morgana’s face as she said, “My Lord, the branches of the Endless Blood River in the east are wider, and can spawn more Spiritual vortices! I’ve heard the Undead Rulers currently developing the east are all making a killing! But the east has its downside as well: it’s much closer to the regions controlled by the Abyssal Will, so Demon attacks are more frequent!”

Hearing Morgana say that, Fang Zhou also recalled his arrival at the Blood War Furnace. Back then, he had followed Trist into Tusk City from the east.

The Undead castles and small towns they passed should have been built by various Demon-Vanquishing Order vanguards.

As they went by, Fang Zhou had indeed witnessed the phenomenon of Spiritual vortices several times; those souls were hard currency in the Blood War Furnace.

As for the risk of Demon attacks—what was a drawback to others was not a drawback to him.

As long as not too many Glory Champion Tier Demons showed up, any other Demon that came was just free loot!

Thinking that, Fang Zhou reached out and patted Morgana on the shoulder, saying with satisfaction, “Not bad. The east is a good place! Pass the order down—have everyone assemble. I’ll hold promotion rituals for them!! Once promotions are done, we march!”

“Yes, my Lord!!” Morgana called out loudly.

But after speaking, Morgana bowed again and said softly, “My Lord, why don’t we wait until we’ve reached the east and finished developing our territory before holding promotion rituals for the other Undead?”

“Why?” Fang Zhou asked.

“You can’t expand territory without casualties. Once they’re dead, wouldn’t the promotion resources they submitted be saved?” Morgana said with a sly grin.

Fang Zhou burst out laughing at that. Undead were Undead, after all.

He patted Morgana’s shoulder and said earnestly, “No need. I gave them my word, so I will definitely hold promotions for them! Morgana, go issue the orders.”

“Yes!”

…

The Naraku Undead were assembled, kneeling on one knee across the camp.

Fang Zhou stood on a high platform in the camp, overlooking all the Undead below.