Six Witches

More than ten minutes later, Green left the gardener Gilmore's room to tell Viscount Paul and Vincent what had happened. He headed down the corridor toward the upper floors of the castle.

Before long, he realized something was wrong. The corridor should have turned after barely a dozen meters, yet he had walked for ages without reaching the end.

No. What kind of illusion is this? I fell into it without even noticing. Green's heart sank, and he immediately entered the Graveyard.

Green was stunned. Despite all his caution, he had still fallen prey to an illusion. If he had not preserved a sliver of his Divine True Spirit in the Graveyard, and if Maxim and several Ghosts had not held the attackers back, he would surely have been doomed!

Shock gave way to anger. Green channeled his Magic Power, activated the Ghost Eye, and barked, "Get in!"

An invisible suction instantly seized the nearest white figure.

The attacking figures realized Green had woken. They shrieked and retreated, seemingly terrified, but the Ghost Eye had already locked onto one of them.

The Ghost Eye was especially effective against spirits. Though these white figures were not Ghosts, they were still a different kind of spirit. The suction dragged its target in; after only a few seconds of resistance, it was pulled into the Ghost Eye. Until the last moment, the figure struggled desperately. Its true form appeared: a beautiful young woman, tears streaming down her face as she begged for mercy. But she could not speak, producing only a whimpering howl like wind.

Green's face remained expressionless. The fact that she had once been an innocent, beautiful girl stirred no pity in him. Eerie beings were masters at toying with people's hearts. Only a fool would trust one.

At last, the white figure was sealed inside the Ghost Eye. Green snorted. The surrounding mist dispersed, and the other four or five troublesome figures had long since vanished. The corridor stood empty and silent, restored to its true appearance as the illusion faded.

A corpse swayed from a wooden beam above the corridor. Inside the gardener's room, Gilmore lay facedown on the floor, eyes wide, pupils unfocused, his face a suffocated blue-purple. He had been dead for some time. Steward Laurence, who had supposedly left, lay a few meters away. Green could not tell whether he was alive.

Green went over and checked his breathing. It was steady enough; he had merely lost consciousness.

Steward Laurence was undeniably hard to kill. An ordinary old man had come face-to-face with an Eerie being and survived! Once the mist cleared and the illusion broke, he soon woke. Though still badly shaken, he was otherwise unharmed.

Green ordered the Evil Spirit Maxim to examine both bodies. Maxim quickly found traces of a Demonic Insect's parasitism inside Gilmore. This strengthened Green's conviction that the gardener had been a believer of the Tower of Yin Spirits. He had even served as a Demonic Insect Parasite, likely planted as a spy within the Wilson Family.

Green told Steward Laurence his suspicions and instructed him to report them to Viscount Paul at once.

Having just taken a walk through the Gates of Hell, Steward Laurence was on pins and needles beside the two corpses. At Green's instruction, he immediately obeyed and hurried off, leaving Green alone.

Green took out the Ghost Eye. He had sent Laurence away precisely so he could examine the young woman's spirit he had captured.

From what Green had seen, he was almost certain that the spirits causing trouble in the castle were Eerie beings. Their methods were peculiar, though. They were not especially strong, but excelled at illusions and usually induced their victims to kill themselves rather than doing the deed directly. By Transcendent standards, they were only Intermediate Apprentices. Otherwise, Maxim and a few Ghosts could never have held them off while Green was trapped in the illusion.

Those peculiarities made Green keenly interested in the spirit he had caught.

Green sent his consciousness into the Ghost Eye. What he saw inside startled him.

During his last raid on the Tower of Yin Spirits, he had been left with several souls occupying eight slots. Without enough souls, the chance of forcibly converting them into Ghosts was too low, so he had stored them in the Ghost Eye for the time being. Now, to his surprise, a single soul filled all eight slots!

Green's heart stirred. What a powerful soul. Its strength surpassed Apprentice Rank. Even a Formal Rank Transcendent whose soul had not undergone special training might not reach that level. Yet her actual power was feeble. Why?

Green could make no sense of it. More curious than ever, he immediately channeled his Magic Power.

In an instant, the Ghost Eye's power was pushed nearly to its limit. Light burst from it, and it trembled faintly for a full half-minute before gradually settling. When Green checked again, the conversion had succeeded. Because this one soul was so strong, the transformation had taken a distinct direction: the resulting Ghost was a young woman with a human torso and a snake's tail.

At the same time, the snake-tailed Ghost regained consciousness. She had retained most of her intelligence, and the moment she realized she was trapped, she began to struggle, unleashing a powerful shockwave. Afraid the Ghost Eye would be damaged, yet unwilling to release a newborn Ghost outside, Green hurriedly sent the Ghost Eye into the Graveyard and released her there...

The Psychic Energy stored in the Graveyard plummeted, stopping only after more than sixty points had been consumed.

Green was secretly astonished. He had never encountered anything like this, and his interest in the snake-tailed Ghost grew. According to the Graveyard, recruiting the Evil Spirit Maxim cost only 45 Psychic Energy. Merely registering this Ghost with the Graveyard had cost more than sixty.

Once registered, the snake-tailed Ghost appeared near the ruins of the Abandoned Tower. She floated blankly in midair, now bewildered, now puzzled, as though she had crashed and was rebooting.

Green hurriedly checked her attributes:

Evil Spirit: One of the Six Sisters of Xignos (Six Witches), converted from the dead soul of the Six-Headed Snake Woman. (Gather the dead souls of the Six Sisters of Xignos and find Xignos's corpse to upgrade her into a Corpse Witch.) Combat strength: 11.5. Cost: 95. Magic: Mist Illusion Realm, Banshee's Charm...

"Xignos... the Six Witches... so that's what it was."

After reading the attributes, Green had already guessed that the other spirits who escaped were the remaining five Xignos Banshees.