"Curse"

The Poet Ilett instinctively took a step back and said, "No, it's not necessary."

He quickly came to his senses, looked at the gray-robed man painting the Puppet in the darkness, and asked curiously, "Are you the Wax Figure Master serving Count Puyver?"

This Count had a hobby of making Wax Figures of his friends.

The man with a full, bright red beard withdrew his gaze and continued painting the unfinished Puppet in front of him.

Lumian had already returned to the Passageway, glanced at Albus Medici and, before he could speak, asked about the strange man in the messy room:

What should I call you?

Lumian was absolutely certain that there was something wrong with the "Wax Figures Maker" in front of him, but he wasn't sure how serious it was—they had just observed that there was no light emanating from the room, which meant that the other party was painting the Puppet in complete darkness!

The man with iron-black Eyes and a full, bright red beard raised his head once more, and said in a ethereal voice, "My grandfather went mad, went Depths into the Underground Palace, and never came back..."

"My father went mad, went Depths into the Underground Palace, and never came back..."

"So, you've gone mad too?" Albus Medici interrupted the man's ramblings.

The man paused for two seconds before saying, "I... I heard a call from the Depths of the Underground Palace..."

As he spoke, his gaze swept over the faces of Lumian, Albus, and Alois, and the corners of his mouth, surrounded by a beard, turned up slightly, as if revealing a faint smile.

His Iron-Black Eyes grew increasingly Cavern, and his voice held a hint of urgency.

"You, hurry to the Depths the Underground Palace, hurry to the Depths of the Underground Palace..."

"Why am I not included?" the Poet Ilett muttered under his breath.

Lumian's mind raced as he searched for commonalities between himself, Albus, Alois.

As the Poet Ilett said, the "you" in the strange man's words did not include him, which, given the current circumstances, must be problematic.

I am a "Hunter," Albus is a "Hunter," so is Alois also a "Hunter"? While Lumian the reasons, Albus Medici, completely unconcerned about the lurking horror in the "Wax Figures Maker's " words, cheerfully posed the question:

"Do you need us to go Depths into the Underground Palace to bring back your grandfather, father, and brother, or send a blessing to Past you?"

"Aggressiveness... Logically speaking, he's at least Pyromaniac, and one who's almost fully digested the Potion, so there's no need for him to keep Provocation. Every word he says is Provocation... Is he trying to mislead others into thinking he's just a ' Provocateur '?" Lumian muttered to himself as he looked at Albus's sharply defined profile.

The man painting the Puppet ignored Albus and continued his work.

"Excuse me." Lumian didn't give Albus a chance to elaborate, extending his right hand to grasp the Handle and gently closing the vermilion Wooden Door.

He then abandoned the search of the room containing the Tin Soldiers, fearing it would trigger unnecessary Mutation.

In the darkness, Lumian carried his Carbide Lamp and descended the mottled stone steps one by one.

As the clatter of footsteps echoed, Alois Einhorn suddenly exclaimed, "That person just now looked like Lion..."

Lumian recalled the Wax Figures Maker's appearance and realized that because of his long, thick, bright Red Hair and beard, he really looked like a human Lion.

Albus Medici lightly flicked the Carbide Lamp he was carrying, glanced at Alois, and said, "This is your grandfather's Castle. You've lived here for almost six years. Don't act like we visitors, knowing nothing and understanding nothing."

"I really don't know who that person was," Alois shook her head. "I rarely go into the Underground Palace; the furthest I've ever gone is that room full of wax Wax Figures."

In other words, in your few explorations, you chose the same route as me, and among the three doors of "hope," "madness," and "death," you also chose the "Madness Door"... Why didn't you continue to explore further then? What were you worried about? Lumian deduced some information from Alois Einhorn's brief answer.

Albus scoffed, "Have you ever heard the legend of the Sauron Family members going mad, entering the Depths the Underground Palace, and never returning?"

"For example, my grandfather went mad and went Depths into the Underground Palace..."

The member of the "Iron and Blood Cross Order" began to Imitation the man's delirium, his voice and tone incredibly realistic and vivid.

Very good, you've asked the question I wanted to ask... Lumian thinks that while Albus Medici is annoying, he also has his reasons for existing.

He seemed uninhibited and perceptive enough to always ask questions that others would find difficult to ask for various reasons.

With such a teammate on the team, Lumian can better remain "in the shadows" and not reveal his true thoughts and attitudes.

The weathered stone steps seemed endless. As Alois carefully descended, she sighed and said, "I've always known similar legends."

"The owners of Red Swan Castle and the members of the Sauron Family who live there, regardless of gender, have a tendency to gradually become violent, manic, and eventually insane. After self-harm, they may enter the Depths the Underground Palace and never return. Sometimes this happens once every few years, and sometimes two or three times a year."

"Apart from those family members who most yearned to restore their Ancestors, the rest of the Soren stayed away from the Ancient Castle, not wanting to go mad."

"This had some effect, ensuring the continuation and continuation of the Sauron Family, but that madness seemed to be a Curse, Curse rooted in the bloodline. Soren living in other places would occasionally suddenly return here, repeating the experiences of their Ancestors."

Is this the surface truth behind the Decay of the Sauron Family? If the Core Member of the family go mad one by one, enter the Depths of the Underground Palace, and never return, then the family will indeed Decay little by little... Why did Alois tell us these things circulating within the Sauron Family in such detail...? Did she think we wouldn't be able to get out alive, so she just wanted to satisfy her own desire to share? Lumian recalled the Nightmare she had because of the King Cake Game.

In my Nightmare, Red Swan Castle was filled with Madman, including those who gouged out their own eyes and mutilated themselves in various ways, as well as _picture_books_.

In retrospect, those might have been different Soren who went mad over the past two hundred years.

Of course, these are not all members of the Sauron Family. In Lumian's Nightmare, the novelist Anoli and other Participant in the King Cake Game also went mad, harming themselves or others, and they clearly did not have the blood of the Sauron Family.

Albus Medici smiled and asked Alois in a tone that seemed to lack a beating:

"Did your maternal grandfather also go mad and end up Depths the Underground Palace?"

"No," Alois said calmly, Provocation. "He died from a long-term headache; not every master of Red Swan Castle goes mad."

"What do those who didn't go mad have in common?" Albus pressed.

Alois's face was illuminated by the light from the Carbide Lamp on the side, and she replied in a normal voice, "This is our family secret."

What she meant was, "I'm not telling you."

Lumian, who was walking at the front, was a little angry when he heard this.

If Alois had said from the beginning, "Don't inquire about the affairs of the Sauron Family," he wouldn't have had any emotional reaction. But after Alois shared a lot of useful information and piqued everyone's curiosity, she abruptly stopped at the most crucial point, not telling everyone the answer. Anyone would feel annoyed or Provocation.

Albus was silent for a few seconds, then smiled and asked, "And what about your mother?"

"She died of natural causes," Alois without hiding anything.

Albus chuckled and continued, "And what about you? You also have the blood of the Sauron Family. Won't you suddenly go insane?"

Alois glanced sideways at the rude fellow, a knowing smile playing on her lips.

"In the long run, we'll all go crazy."

Who are you referring to with this "we"? Lumian's brow twitched; he realized that Alois's "we" didn't just refer to the members of the Sauron Family.

After a brief silence, the Poet Ilett exclaimed sincerely, "A family's fear, Curse that has lasted for generations, Ancestors who keep walking into the dark Underground —it's truly excellent writing material, very inspiring. If Anoli knew, he would definitely create a classic novel. Even I have the urge to write a long poem."

As they spoke, the four of them finally reached the top of the long stone steps.

Before them lay a spacious hall, with rows of Gray-White Stone Pillars supporting the dark ceiling above.

As the light from the four Carbide Lamp shone in, Lumian and the others saw several piles of White Bone, partially exposed behind some Stone Pillars.

"Quite a few people have died," Albus Medici remarked with a smile, walking towards a pile of White Bone.

Just then, Lumian heard a rustling sound.

He suddenly looked up and pointed the front of the Carbide Lamp upwards.

In the yellowish light, a huge black shadow swiftly crawled across the dim, mottled ceiling and disappeared into the shadows on the other side.

The dark shadow was a creature resembling a spider.

Compared to its kind, it has only one pair of eyes, but each eye is filled with countless tiny ommatidia, which turn in different directions and gleam with a cold light.

The giant spider's body was covered with countless thick, long bristles, clustered around a shriveled, blackened, fist-sized, withered heart on its back.

Lumian suddenly shuddered, and a term popped into his mind:

Hunting Black Spider!

This is one of the Main Ingredient in the "Conspirer" Potion.

In the past month or so, although Lumian has not collected any materials related to the Hunting Black Spider and the Manticore, he has roughly figured out the situation of these two extraordinary creatures, what they look like, and what abilities they have. He has recently been considering whether to "Teleportation" to other places to look for traces of the Hunting Black Spider and the Manticore.

But compared to the Hunting Black Spider in the data, the giant black spider that just crawled Past was more peculiar, with many details being quite different. It even had an embedded, dried-up heart that resembled a human!