Chapter 422 – Corpse Cosmetics

Chapter 422 – Corpse Cosmetics

Ghost wolves were only low-level undead creatures. Caught in a pincer attack of death rays from two skeleton mages, their souls shattered on the spot.

The skeleton warriors who had been working together against the external threat, upon seeing these soul essences, were like mischievous children spotting candy and began scrambling for them.

They didn’t go for killing blows against each other, but there was no shortage of shoving and tripping.

After a round of fighting, those with better luck, harder bones, and greater strength snatched up the soul essences. After devouring and digesting them, the quality of their soul fire improved further.

While the other skeletons were fighting over soul essences, the limping skeleton that Mo Lan and the others had first encountered was picking through the pile of bone frames that had been scattered by the ghost wolves’ charge. It selected a shinbone of more suitable thickness and length for itself, and walked much more steadily afterward.

It couldn’t bear to throw away the replaced leg bone either, and dragged it back to its coffin.

After the other skeletons finished fighting over the soul essences, they came to fight over the bone frames too.

Only after the scattered bones on the ground had been completely divided up did the skeletons return to their coffins to sleep.

The four sorceresses, who had been crouching at the edge of the flying carpet and peering over to watch the entire spectacle, pulled their heads back.

“That was brutal! The spoils of war weren’t just the ghost wolves’ soul bodies — they included their own companions’ bones!” Sylph patted her chest, still shaken.

Vasida didn’t find it strange at all. “That’s just how undead creatures are. Their souls are incomplete, and their bodies are incomplete too. They can only get by with patching and mending.

I remember when I was little, one time egg fried rice accidentally chopped off its entire hand while cutting vegetables for me. Mama didn’t have suitable materials to fix its hand right away, but it still needed to cook for me, so Mama detached a hand from another undead servant zombie and temporarily sewed it onto egg fried rice.”

Sylph imagined that scene and found it unacceptable. “I’d rather prune flowers and plants than dismember undead servants.”

“These skeletons’ appearances are admittedly somewhat unsightly, but that’s mostly because they’re completely left to fend for themselves with no one carefully maintaining them. Look at those lumber-cutting skeletons and woodworking skeletons — they’re much better. They’ve probably just had a maintenance session.

How an undead servant looks depends entirely on the master’s craftsmanship and aesthetic sense.

On this topic, there’s a book callederta Cosmetology》that’s very much worth reading,” Mo Lan recommended.

Sylph expressed no interest, but Vasida and Lilith immediately looked it up.

“erta Cosmetology》? I copied that one too!” Lilith found the book in her Grimoire. “Though I haven’t read it yet. I’ll give it a thorough read before I make a humanoid undead servant!”

“Huh? My mama’s reading list doesn’t include this book. For undead servant cosmetics, there’s only one book, called 《How to Raise an Undead Servant Companion (Corpse Cosmetics Volume)》?” Vasida said in surprise.

Mo Lan thought back briefly and recalled the book:

“If I remember correctly, 《How to Raise an Undead Servant Companion》 is a whole series — nine volumes in total. The author is none other than Lady Ginia, your mother.

The Corpse Cosmetics Volume is the second in the series, continuing from the first volume on Corpse Material Selection.

The content is actually quite good, but the undead servant templates featured throughout all tend toward physically large, muscularly powerful undead servants, and moreover…”

Mo Lan thought of the book’s extensive descriptions and various diagrams on how to sew reproductive organs onto undead servants so that they would possess reproductive capability at the moment of their transformation into the Corpse Clan, and her face reddened slightly.

This book was even more risqué than that set of 《Anatomical Appreciation Atlases》.

Lady Ginia was truly a pioneer among witches when it came to raising an undead servant as a companion, and she was quite willing to share her experience.

“Moreover what?” Vasida pressed.

“Anyway, the point is — unless you’re planning to follow in your mother’s footsteps and raise an undead servant as a companion to bear little witches with, studying 《Corpse Cosmetology》 alone is sufficient.

Your mother’s Undead Servant Companion series is honestly rather ahead of its time. And some of the procedures in it are extremely difficult,” Mo Lan said.

When witches made their own undead servants, it was generally either the zombie type or the skeleton type.

Purely spectral undead servants formed naturally and couldn’t be artificially created — they were simply captured and bound with an undead servant contract.

Spectral undead servants were also much easier to maintain than zombie or skeleton types, and were correspondingly more precious.

So books about creating undead servants all dealt with zombie or skeleton types.

Lady Ginia’s books were no exception.

For zombie and skeleton undead servants, the bodies were cobbled together and patched up by witches from various parts. Generally speaking, as long as they could move, that was good enough.

Even for zombies, there was no need to be so meticulous as to craft internal organs — undead servants had no use for them.

In fact, much of the time, an undead servant’s belly was simply stuffed with preservative herbs.

Under these circumstances, adding a reproductive organ to an undead servant meant maintenance costs that were difficult to even estimate.

Over time, maintenance alone wouldn’t be enough — replacement materials would also be needed.

Corpse materials for limbs and heads were easy to find, but intact organ materials were not.

Thinking this through, Mo Lan shook her head. Better not to create unnecessary trouble for herself — a normal undead servant would do just fine.

Lilith, observing Mo Lan’s expression, found it somewhat familiar. Combined with her words that trailed off, she immediately guessed what was going on. “Moira, don’t tell me this series is as explicit as the 《Anatomical Appreciation Atlases》!”

“As explicit?” Mo Lan mulled over this phrasing and detected something off about it. “You… you haven’t read the 《Anatomical Appreciation Atlases》, have you?”

The original edition only existed with Fayeth, but the reprinted version was also available in the Witch Council Library.

Lilith said matter-of-factly, “The Windowsill of the reproduction book collection room says ‘required reading for adult witches’! I figured since I was leaving the Wilds this time and didn’t know when I’d be back, I copied down several sets of classic books recommended in the guide. I’ve only read a little so far…”

“Does it say ‘required reading for adult witches’? It clearly says ‘required reading for adult witches before reproduction’!” Mo Lan said in exasperation.

“How would you know! Did you go in there too?” Lilith grinned mischievously. “So, which race’s body do you think looks best?”

“…”

Mo Lan had indeed gone in, and had even copied some books, but her interest was in how witches managed to successfully reproduce with any race — after all, different races had different methods of reproduction.

She was also somewhat curious about what the various races of Valen actually looked like in terms of physical anatomy.

She was interested in witches’ reproductive methods and the anatomical structures of other races, but she was not interested in actually reproducing with other races.

As for which race’s body looked best — the intelligent races of Valen were each uniquely blessed, with their own distinctive physical features and their own kind of beauty. But when it came to the actual process of reproduction, that was another matter entirely.