Two minutes later.
Terrified screams suddenly came from inside, mingled with the sound of something chewing bones and the horrifying noises of squirming and tearing.
[Ding! Flesh-and-Bone Aberration's fear of you +50!] [Ding! Blood Wraith's fear of you +60!]
Five minutes later.
The door suddenly burst open. A rotting evil spirit crawled frantically toward the outside, its decaying hands scrabbling noisily at the threshold, as though something behind it was dragging it back.
Just as it was about to crawl over the threshold, a huge tentacle shot out with a whoosh.
Its body was instantly swept back into the darkness.
The door clicked shut.
"Help... he-!"
[Ding! Flesh-and-Bone Aberration's Sanity -50!] [Ding! Blood Wraith's Sanity -50!]
Fifteen minutes later.
Lin En let out a loud, satisfied burp and walked out with a toothpick between his lips and a skeletal hand slung over his shoulder.
"We're terribly sorry, my lord. Please have a safe journey, and thank you for your generosity. We're sorry for the trouble! We apologize! We'll never drag random people inside again!"
Behind him.
A rotting man and a translucent, ghostlike woman stood neatly side by side, bowing at a hundred and twenty degrees with their legs ramrod straight as they fearfully saw Lin En off.
"Wait!"
"Eep-"
The evil-spirit couple behind him instantly froze in terror, standing bolt upright.
Lin En glanced sideways and said:
"So you're absolutely sure this isn't No. 154? This isn't my house?"
The rotting man stood rigidly (.;ﾟ;:benefit:;ﾟ;.), blocking the female ghost behind him, and said:
"Ab... absolutely not! Because of the [Spirit Realm Overlay], there's a chance the Spirit Realm will overlap with the real world at night. We... we only just got here ourselves. We only wanted to eat someone. We never expected to run into you, my lord. Please forgive our stupidity!"
Lin En rubbed his chin and asked in confusion, "So I came to the wrong place?"
The rotting man trembled. "No!! Whether you came to the wrong place or not, it's all our fault!! If anything else is to blame, blame the Spirit Realm! It overlapped without warning and affected your judgment. None of this has anything to do with you!"
Lin En asked uncertainly, "What's this Spirit Realm thing?"
The rotting man froze and said:
"Uh... you don't know...? I thought you'd come from deeper within the Spirit Realm..."
Lin En casually pointed at the enormous rift in the sky and said cheerfully:
"No, I came from up there!"
"..."
The rotting man stiffly raised his head with a series of creaks, staring toward the edge of the Red Moon at the enormous rift that cut straight across the entire sky.
Hic-
He toppled backward, stiff as a board.
"Honey!! Honey!! What's wrong?! Don't scare me!! (ΩДΩ)!!"
But in the next instant, the rotting man dropped to his knees at lightning speed and prostrated himself toward Lin En, banging his head against the ground over and over.
"We're sorry!" (Terrified.)
"We were blind! For an O... Outer God like you to visit a poor little backwater like ours is nothing short of a blessing! So before you enslave this world, please don't take what happened today to heart! I'm willing to offer everything I own to support you!"
He swiftly bundled up a pile of [Spirit Coins] and brought them out.
Next came a heap of neatly wrapped, bizarre flesh.
Two thighbones.
Finally, he carried out a ghost infant that was bawling its eyes out.
"If you don't mind, please take my daughter too! We've been terribly rude!"
"You can't give away our daughter!"
Bam-
"..."
"..."
Lin En looked at the rotting man kneeling on the ground, waved his hand, and said:
"No need for the daughter. Give me the cash equivalent. Tell me where No. 154 is, and we'll call it even. But remember, eating people is bad! You're not allowed to eat them in the future either, understand?"
The rotting man and his ghostly wife immediately nodded frantically, terrified of offending him.
"We won't! Absolutely not! We swear!"
"And the place I'm looking for?"
"Over there!"
The two grotesque beings pointed in unison at a distant house glowing with faint candlelight.
"But please be careful. Houses that aren't overlaid by the Spirit Realm at night usually have some kind of exorcism measures in place. Ordinary evil spirits like us have a hard time getting near them!"
A few minutes later, the two evil spirits watched Lin En walk away, bowing again and again.
Silence settled over the surroundings once more.
Only then did the female ghost beside him grab her husband, still shaken, and ask:
"So... so what exactly... was that lord?"
Even now, the mere thought of what had just happened left her trembling with lingering fear!
The rotting man said, (.;ﾟ;:anger:;ﾟ;.):
"Have you forgotten? That ancient legend we heard back in the Spirit Realm! They say that when something actually falls out of that enormous rift in the sky, it'll be a sign that the legendary Outer Gods are returning! If the Outer Gods make their comeback, never mind this surface world-even the big shots in our Spirit Realm will have to kneel and pledge allegiance!"
"Do you know how this world ended up like this?! It was because of Them!!"
The female evil spirit asked blankly:
"But... but how can you be sure he came from outside? What if he's a fake..."
The rotting man's teeth chattered as he said, (.;ﾟ;:benefit:;ﾟ;.):
"You're too naive!! You stupid ghost woman!! This isn't something you can fake!! Under the Red Moon, every grotesque being reveals part of their true form! You couldn't see it because you're too weak!! All you saw was an indecent naked man in his underwear! But what I saw was..."
Boundless tentacles, indescribable, twisting and compressed within that cramped body...
"Run!! Go back, pack our things, and run!! Absolutely no! Taking photos!!"
A few minutes later.
With the skeletal hand over his shoulder and the supplies that kind family had donated hanging from it, Lin En finally arrived in front of the house lit by candlelight.
"This should be the right place now!"
Lin En looked up in puzzlement at the number above the door.
He could also see candlelight through the gaps in the window frame. That definitely meant humans lived in this house, because the evil-spirit couple had said they were actually very afraid of fire.
So that means this host of mine wasn't all alone. He actually had a lovely family of his own!
Lin En (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧
Nothing I can do about it. You were just unlucky enough to end up as my host.
Besides, even if I hadn't descended into your body, you definitely wouldn't have survived-someone had already cracked open the top of your skull.
Since that's the case...
That makes things much easier!
Have no fear! Your wife and children, I shall support! Leave your family in my care!
He coughed hard and cleared his throat, then reached up with his fingers and forcibly pulled both corners of his mouth upward, producing what he felt was a very friendly smile-he still couldn't quite control this body's facial muscles, so this was his only option.
Then he stepped forward and walked up to the door.
But the moment he stopped in front of it, the candlelight behind the window suddenly went out with a whoosh.
Lin En was utterly baffled.
But he didn't mind.
He reached out.
Knock, knock, knock-
"I'm home!"
Fwoosh-
Almost the instant he knocked, the dozens of sheets of paper plastered over the door, covered in illegible scrawls, suddenly burst into flames for no apparent reason. They instantly turned to ash and blew all over him.
"What was that?"
Lin En stared blankly.
"Got ash all over me."
Meanwhile.
A pair of large eyes hiding beneath the window suddenly widened, their pupils dilating violently, though they couldn't quite make out who was standing at the door.
"The Spirit-Sealing Talismans... failed..."
Before you continue