Evil Spirit Manor

Kubeiro Manor.

In just one or two months, this once-bustling manor had fallen completely into ruin.

It was better during the day, but at night, ghostly shadows seemed to lurk everywhere.

The soldiers tasked with sealing off the manor heard faint, eerie wails every night, as though female ghosts were sobbing and moaning. They were so frightened that they could barely sleep night after night.

If their superiors had not kept them in line, the soldiers would have fled long ago.

Silver Moon Viscount Sa had once sent people inside to investigate. In the end, of one Grand Knight and five knights who entered, only one knight emerged alive—and his mind was already somewhat unhinged.

Standing not far from the manor, Silver Moon Viscount Sa felt a fresh pang of pain as he recalled the Grand Knight and knights he had lost.

"What's the situation inside now?" Sunan asked.

The secretary beside him hurriedly replied, "The manor is now overgrown with mandragoras. Most of the original vegetation has withered and died, and a faint mist sometimes appears even during the day."

Sunan's gaze flickered slightly at that.

Mandragoras were beautiful and alluring, and could be used medicinally, but they were also poisonous plants with hallucinogenic effects.

The mandragoras in the manor, which had grown alongside the Bloody Mandala, were surely far more toxic and hallucinogenic than ordinary mandragoras.

At present, the entire manor was filled with the pollen and strange fragrance of these mandragoras. The whole environment had been transformed into a highly toxic area. Anyone below the level of a knight would likely die from poisoning before getting very far inside.

Even knights and Grand Knights would be fortunate to wield sixty or seventy percent of their strength in such an environment.

"Lord Anger, what do you intend to do?" Silver Moon Viscount Sa asked.

Sunan cast a Shield Spell on himself and said casually, "Just wait outside."

Silver Moon Viscount Sa stared in astonishment. "You don't need me to send people in with you?"

"No need." Sunan waved a hand.

Knights could not be of much use within an evil spirit's Ghost Domain. They would only hold him back.

He had no desire to be in the middle of a fierce battle with the evil spirit, only to suddenly discover that his allies had been controlled by illusions and turned into enemies stabbing him in the back.

Taking out a Rune Gem and holding it in his palm, Sunan strode toward the manor.

He had left Hidden Dragon and Amy outside.

Evil spirits relied on perception to locate their prey. Hidden Dragon's camouflage and Reality Shift abilities were useless against an evil spirit, and its sharp claws and fangs could not harm one either.

Amy would be even less help.

The moment he stepped through the manor gate, the light in his field of vision dimmed considerably.

Everything before him seemed to have been washed over with a layer of gray, permeated by deathly stillness and gloom.

The temperature in the air also dropped sharply. A chilling wind swept past, carrying faint, muffled sobs.

"Such dense Negative Energy Particles."

Sunan raised an eyebrow.

For wizards who specialized in necromantic spells, or who had methods to eliminate the effects of Negative Energy Particles on the body, this manor was undoubtedly an ideal place to cultivate.

Meditating here would be at least twice as efficient.

Unfortunately, Sunan had no means of eliminating the side effects of Negative Energy Particles, so he could only give up on the idea regretfully.

Even if he did have such a method, the evil spirit here probably would not let him cultivate in peace.

After a brief pause, Sunan continued deeper inside.

Everywhere within sight was filled with mandragora flowers blooming in dazzling splendor.

After Sunan entered, those mandragoras began to sway slightly. Their movements were unnervingly synchronized, and even the mouths of the flowers seemed faintly turned toward Sunan, sending chills down one's spine.

Yet Sunan's expression remained unchanged as he ignored the mandragoras entirely.

In his previous life, he had seen plenty of sanity-draining creatures in games. Balls of Gibberish, Death Hunters, Sosa Side Parasites—there were countless disgusting monsters across the multiverse, along with scenes that drove people mad.

Compared to the sights that made one question the designer's mental state, this was practically normal.

After crossing the deserted courtyard, Sunan entered through a side door, passed down a corridor, and arrived at the main hall.

Under the influence of the Negative Energy Particles, the furniture here had already begun to grow moldy and rot.

Mandragora vines threaded through the furniture and spread in every direction, covering nearly the entire hall.

Sunan took a longsword from the Magic Cube and casually cut down the vines blocking his path, ignoring the faint weeping at his ears.

He searched several more places, but still found nothing.

All he saw along the way were mandragora flowers, and more mandragora flowers.

"As expected, without a spell like Detect Undead, it's simply impossible to find an evil spirit's true body in a Ghost Domain with the naked eye alone."

Sunan stopped and glanced at the strange mist that had somehow spread through the area.

When he entered the manor, he had already activated the Protection Ring.

With the protective force field shielding him, he did not need to worry about the poisonous mist. But if he remained here for too long, the force field would quickly be eroded and dissipate.

"I need to end this quickly."

Sunan no longer hesitated. With a flick of his wrist, a ruby appeared in his palm.

The next second, surging waves of flame erupted outward from him in every direction.

Wherever the flames passed, the mandragora flowers and vines fled in panic as if they were living creatures. Yet the fire quickly caught up with them. They writhed wildly as they burned, and the blaze spread with astonishing speed.

In an instant, the entire manor seemed to boil like oil splashed with water.

The sobbing around him suddenly rose several pitches.

The surrounding mist rushed toward the burning mandragoras, seemingly trying to extinguish the flames. But magical fire formed from high-density Energy Particles differed from ordinary flames, and the mist could not put it out at all.

Sunan moved to several other locations and threw out several Flame Rune Gems.

Before long, the entire manor had turned into a sea of fire.

As large swathes of mandragora flowers were burned to charcoal, the strange fragrance and mist hanging in the air visibly thinned.

"Ah!!!"

An incomparably piercing shriek suddenly rang out.

It was as if an unusual layer of energy had appeared in the void. The rapidly spreading sea of flames abruptly stalled, then weakened at an astonishing speed before finally vanishing.

At the same time, a dark red mandragora flower suddenly appeared out of thin air in an open space a hundred meters ahead of Sunan. Its petals bloomed in brilliant splendor, but at its center was a twisted human face.

Beside the mandragora stood a young girl in a white dress stained with blackish-red blood. Her hair hung loose around a pale, distorted face.

She stared at Sunan with venomous hatred, an eerie, chilling smile spreading across her face.

"So you're finally willing to show yourself." Sunan raised an eyebrow.

Heh heh!

Accompanied by strange laughter, one hazy black shadow after another emerged from all around, surrounding Sunan.

They retained human outlines, and their appearances from before death could vaguely be recognized. Many had been servants and soldiers who died in the manor.

Among them were five armored warriors with especially sinister auras—the five dead Grand Knights and knights who had served under Silver Moon Viscount Sa.

These souls of the dead had already been transformed into vengeful spirits by the Bloody Mandala.

They paused briefly before screeching sharply and lunging at Sunan.

Sunan had no intention of dodging. These vengeful spirits could not break through the protective force field around him.

He spread open his palm, and a pure gemstone appeared out of thin air within it.

The next second, he pointed with one hand. A ghost suddenly lurched sideways and was involuntarily dragged over by some invisible force, screaming as it was pulled into the gemstone.

After a strange flash of spell light, the gemstone took on an unusual shade of gray.