Evil Spirit (1)

"Hehe, this... this honorable sir, may I ask what brings you here?" Roddick forced out an awkward smile, while secretly casting a glance toward the door from the corners of his eyes, as if ready to bolt at any moment.

Green smiled but said nothing. Instead, he raised a hand and pointed toward the door, directly summoning a Skeleton Soldier armed to the teeth.

The tall Skeleton Soldier planted itself in front of the door, completely cutting off Roddick's retreat. From Lola's introduction, Green knew that the man before him was a complete bastard, a shameless liar, and incredibly cunning. There was no such thing as talking things over nicely with someone like him. Directly crushing him through sheer violence was the most efficient method—provided he could intimidate him enough to make him feel fear and despair.

At that moment, Roddick saw that Green had said nothing at all before casually summoning something nearly a head taller than him. It held an enchanted rifle fitted with a gleaming bayonet, sending a chilling sensation crawling up his spine.

What happened next was much easier. The entire conversation was completed in a harmonious and friendly atmosphere. By the time Green left by carriage, thoroughly satisfied, he had obtained the address of the Tower of Yin Spirits' secret base. It was in a small town called Boris, under the jurisdiction of Landon City. The town was famous for producing ceramic ware and had once supplied ceramics exclusively to the royal family of the Lorenzo Kingdom. However, over the past decade or so, its clay deposits had gradually dried up, causing the quality of its ceramics to decline. The town had already begun to fall into decline.

Boris Town was seventy kilometers from Landon City, and the journey by carriage took three to four hours.

Green did not set out immediately. Instead, he made ample preparations first and went to request leave from Viscount Paul, lest Viscount Paul think that he had fled like Doctor Wilkins.

It was not that Green felt any great sense of belonging to the Wilson Family. It simply had not yet reached the point where the tree had fallen and the monkeys scattered. The crisis in Landon City was certainly dangerous, but Green was confident that, with the Graveyard in his possession, he might be able to achieve even greater development amid the crisis. At the very least, this trip to run the Tower of Yin Spirits dungeon was a great opportunity.

Without waiting until the next day, Green finished all his preparations and finally boarded the carriage to Boris Town at three-thirty in the afternoon.

The carriage raced along at full speed. Clearly, the coachman hoped to reach Boris Town before night had completely fallen.

As a small town resembling a county-level administrative unit, Boris Town had no Anomalies Bureau, only a shabby police station. A police chief and six officers were responsible for maintaining order throughout the town. In truth, anyone with discerning eyes knew that the police station was merely a front. The town's true armed force consisted of the security teams of its two large ceramic factories. Together, they numbered over a hundred men, all equipped with rifles and selected from retired soldiers. They were fairly well trained.

Green had done his homework before coming. According to Roddick's account, the Tower of Yin Spirits' secret base was hidden inside one of the ceramic factories. It had secretly taken control of the entire factory and commanded a security team of more than fifty men.

Green jolted along the road in the carriage and finally saw the lights of Boris Town shortly after nightfall.

As the carriage entered the town, the first thing they passed was a stretch of low, ramshackle housing. The residents here were all workers from the ceramic factories. However, the factories were not doing well, and many of the workers had already left, making the area look rather desolate. Across the vast residential district, scarcely a single light could be seen. It stood in stark contrast to the brightly lit central streets of the town nearby.

According to Roddick's explanation, he had a relative who had once worked at one of the town's ceramic factories. Half a year earlier, an accident had caused a factory building to collapse, smashing open an entrance to an underground cavern. There had also been quite a few scattered antique objects inside. That relative was the factory owner's trusted aide. Knowing that Roddick was a black-market merchant and possessed a fairly good eye, he had called him over to determine whether the items had any collectible value.

Unexpectedly, someone had arrived before Roddick. That person was an official from the ceramic factory's union, who claimed to believe in the True God of the Void—the Lord of Yin Spirits! He said that everything inside the underground cavern belonged to his true god, and ordered the factory owner to seal it all away and offer every last item to the true god.

Naturally, the factory owner had his men throw such a fanatic out.

Roddick happened to see that man shouting "Lord of Yin Spirits!" and struggling frantically. He did not pay much attention, merely focusing on appraising the objects. To his surprise, they were all antiques from seven hundred years ago, from the Tiexuosi Dynasty. Although none were magical items, they were in perfect condition and extremely valuable.

Roddick was delighted and even secretly took one for himself. He later sold it for quite a few gold pounds.

If the matter had ended there, it would not have been anything unusual. Yet only a few days later, Roddick's relative suddenly came to him. His mental state was terribly abnormal: he was extremely anxious and frightened, could barely speak coherently, and kept muttering things like "devils" and "everyone's gone mad." He even begged Roddick to save him.

Roddick was startled. After years of struggling in the black market, he had seen no shortage of bizarre incidents. Faced with such a situation, he immediately became vigilant. He first settled his relative in an inn, then hid in the Mages Association instead of returning home, and hired a mercenary to keep watch over the inn where his relative was staying.

That was right. Aside from being a black-market merchant, Roddick was also a registered junior magic apprentice of the Mages Association. His talent was simply too poor. He had only barely managed to enter the field and found it difficult to advance any further, so he had concealed his identity as a magic apprentice and made his living in the underground black market.

This time, Roddick's caution saved him once again. Early the next morning, he heard the news that there had been a murder at the xx Inn. After making further inquiries, he was shocked to learn that not only had his relative died, even the mercenary had committed suicide. Roddick naturally refused to believe that the two of them had killed themselves at the same time. Yet the results of the investigation, along with all the evidence, pointed to suicide. In the end, the police station closed the case as a suicide.

Even after time had passed, Roddick still felt a chill run down his spine whenever he recounted the matter to Green.

If the matter had ended there, Roddick would have buried it deep in his stomach. But only three days later, that relative of his found him again! This time, however, he was no longer alive. He had become a Ghost.

After death, that ceramic factory manager, a man named Maxim, became a Ghost through the gathering of resentment, fear, hatred, and other negative emotions. He was also transforming into the even more vicious and terrifying form of a Vengeful Spirit.

Roddick had become entangled with such a Ghost. Once it completed its transformation into a Vengeful Spirit, that would be the day of his death.

It was precisely because of this that Roddick had been forced to continue investigating, eventually discovering that the Tower of Yin Spirits' secret base had moved into a ceramic factory in Boris Town.

When Green heard him mention a Vengeful Spirit, his eyes lit up. Based on his experience with the Hard-Skin Ghoul, wild undead creatures could be subdued. Ghosts themselves were third-tier units in the Graveyard. If they evolved into evil spirits, they would become elite third-tier units. Their attack power might not necessarily surpass that of Ghouls, but Ghosts had no physical form. As beings composed entirely of energy, they ignored physical attacks and could pass through walls and turn invisible. If these traits were used well, they would undoubtedly produce many unexpected effects.