Ancient Magic, Blood Refinement

"Could there really be a ghost? I don't know if buying this villa was the right move!"

"There's no such thing as a ghost. It's probably some evil entity causing trouble. Even if there really were a ghost, so what? If the living aren't afraid, why fear a mere ghost?"

Yun Feiyang waved his hand. "I'll go in and take a look. You guys wait for me outside!"

"I'm going too!"

"You stay here. Don't get in my way!"

"I..."

Lisanna grabbed Mira. "Big Sister Mira, I'm scared!"

Looking at Elfman, he was shivering even more!

Mira had no choice but to watch as Yun Feiyang walked in alone.

After entering the villa, Yun Feiyang headed toward the basement.

According to Edward, this place was originally an abandoned pier that only started development in recent years. The villa was built on the site of an old warehouse, and the location where the workers disappeared was in the basement.

"Little White, look around and see if you can find anything suspicious!"

The basement here was quite large, with several rooms. The man and the dog checked them one by one.

"Is anyone here?"

"Mr. Ghost? Ms. Ghost? Come out and let's chat about life and dreams!"

After walking a full circle, there was absolutely nothing!

"As expected, ghosts don't exist. Aside from a certain loli First Generation, but she only survives as a spirit because of a curse. There are no ghosts in this world at all—though there are Celestial Spirits."

He entered the final room. Judging by the layout, it appeared to be a wine cellar.

Looking at the empty room, Yun Feiyang felt a bit troubled.

"So why would people disappear? If I don't solve this problem, I won't be able to move in with peace of mind!"

He had originally thought a monster was causing the trouble, but now it seemed like there was truly nothing here. No wonder the few people the guild sent couldn't solve the problem.

"Little White, did you find anything?"

"Woof~"

Little White walked out from another room; it seemed it hadn't gained anything either.

Just as Yun Feiyang intended to leave and head up to take a look, a light suddenly lit up beneath his feet.

"This is... a Magic Array!"

Yun Feiyang's expression changed, and just as he prepared to leave, the Magic Array flared with brilliant light before fading away. He vanished along with it!

"Woof, woof, woof~~~"

Little White was frantic. By the time it ran over, the array had already disappeared. Anxious, it could only pace in circles before bolting toward the outside.

As the scene before his eyes shifted, Yun Feiyang found himself in a passageway.

"So it was a Teleportation Array!"

"Where is this place? A cliffside? A cave?"

Since he was already here, he might as well make the best of it. With his high level of skill giving him courage, he truly felt no fear; discovering the source of the problem was a good thing.

Just as he prepared to walk further in, another Magic Array appeared above his head.

"Again!"

Yun Feiyang quickly dodged to the side, watching as the Magic Array spewed out some gas.

"What is that?"

Having accidentally inhaled a little, he felt his mind grow slightly hazy.

He shook his head to clear his senses and waved his hand, conjuring a gentle breeze to disperse the gas.

"Illusion Magic? I'd like to see what kind of secrets this damn place is hiding."

He walked cautiously through the rest of the passage until he reached a room, where he was immediately shocked by the sight before him!

In the center was a Blood Pool, surrounded by corpses, with piles of bones stacked high on the ground.

Without exception, every one of these corpses had their hands reaching into the Blood Pool, their bodies withered and dried up.

A few of them had clearly died recently, looking as if they had been drained of all their blood.

It was no surprise that these were the workers who had gone missing recently.

"The Teleportation Array sends people here, and the Illusion Array lures them in to offer their blood? What is the purpose of this?"

He carefully approached the Blood Pool; it was indeed all blood, and the stench of it was incredibly pungent.

"Damn it, a Blood Pool made from human blood—how many people had to die for this?"

"What is the point of going to such great lengths to create this Blood Pool?"

He casually picked up a piece of wood and poked it toward the center. Unexpectedly, the moment it got close, several Magic Arrays appeared above the Blood Pool, startling Yun Feiyang so much that he scrambled to the side.

Under the operation of the Magic Arrays, the Blood Pool below began to churn as if it were boiling.

"Wicked stuff!"

Before figuring out the purpose of the Blood Pool, he didn't dare to get close again. If he ended up being refined into some kind of Blood Demon, where would he even go to cry?

He turned and began to wander around the room, soon discovering another small chamber deep inside.

There was a stone bed and a stone table, with a few books resting on the table, though they were covered in a thick layer of dust.

"An ownerless place? The person is gone, but the Magic Arrays are still running?"

"Huh? Doesn't this feel like the classic trope where someone falls off a cliff and discovers peerless martial arts? This is proper protagonist treatment!"

Thinking of this, Yun Feiyang grew excited and walked over to the table.

"These books must definitely be peerless magic!"

He blew off the dust and stared intently at the books...

Then, tragedy struck!

"What the hell? I can't read a single word. What language is this?"

"Forget it, I'll take them back first and have Fried translate them."

Yun Feiyang strongly suspected these were ancient characters.

However, the moment he picked them up, the books crumbled into dust in the wind!

The corner of Yun Feiyang's mouth twitched. "Do I have to be this unlucky? What happened to the promised protagonist treatment?"

"Damn it, how long has this junk been sitting here?"

Unwilling to give up, he felt around and tapped on the walls of the room, but he didn't find anything else.

"Sigh~ It seems I don't have the fate of a protagonist after all!"

After circling around, he returned to the front of the Blood Pool. "So, what exactly is this thing?"

"It is Blood Refinement!"

Yun Feiyang turned his head to look. "Huh? Guild Master, why are you here? Is this an illusion? Did I fall into a trap without realizing it?"

He walked over and began kneading Makarov's face.

"This illusion feels pretty real!"

Makarov roared, "Stop it, you brat! I'm real, not a hallucination!"

"Haha, you should've said so earlier!"

Makarov said irritably, "Mira and the others rushed back to the guild in a panic saying you'd disappeared, so I came to take a look!"

"So that's how it is! Did you also come through that Teleportation Array?"

"How else would I get here?"

"Alright! What exactly did you say this Blood Pool was?"

"Blood Refinement!"

Makarov stared at the Magic Array hovering above the Blood Pool, his expression grim. "Blood sacrifice refinement is an ancient form of dark magic."

"Explain it clearly!"

"Using the blood of living beings to forge evil weapons—legend has it that this was something Dark Mages loved to do in ancient times!"

"I see. No wonder this place is filled with such an ancient aura."

Makarov shook his head. "Such things are forbidden now. The establishment of guilds and the Magic Council was specifically to put an end to such inhumane acts."

"Hey, hey, Guild Master, is this Blood Pool still useful? Are weapons forged this way very powerful?"

"Powerful, certainly, but also incredibly wicked; they are not tolerated by the righteous path! Naturally, the Blood Pool is still functional—can't you see the Magic Array is still running?"

Seeing the look of interest on his face, Makarov's heart skipped a beat!

"Kid, what are you planning? I'm warning you, don't do anything reckless. This place should just be destroyed!"

"It definitely needs to be destroyed, but in the spirit of not letting things go to waste, it wouldn't hurt to use it once, right?"

Makarov's eyes widened, and he barked, "Absolutely not! We are a legitimate guild; we cannot use such evil weapons!"