Chapter 237 The Old Manor

The atmosphere of this town was already so gloomy and bizarre it made one's skin crawl, and Hasse Anana's words only amplified that feeling, sending shivers down everyone's spines. Nangong Sanba immediately raised his little hand crossbow, aiming it around the staircase entrance. "Are you sure? I don't feel anything at all."

Vivian didn't hesitate and threw out a small bat to check the movements on the second floor. The bat fluttered around up there, and Vivian shook her head. "No one's up there, not even a ghost."

"Tsk, now you're making me a little nervous," Hao Ren muttered, rubbing his arms. He had experienced things a hundred times more dangerous than this, but sometimes danger and scariness weren't the same thing—the atmosphere and weirdness of this town gave him a creepy feeling. He hadn't felt it so much when he first arrived, but the longer he stayed, the more uneasy Hao Ren felt. Everything here exuded a strange and bizarre aura, not just the flames floating in the hearth, but also something unseen and intangible in the air.

It was probably the ubiquitous spirits that were causing the goosebumps.

"First, let's check this house," more bats slowly appeared around Vivian, and she began directing these sentries to scout every corner of the mansion. "It's very likely the wizard hid here."

"Then I'll change into my human form first. The corridors of this old house are too narrow, and my tail can't turn around," Nangong Wuyue waved to Hao Ren. "Give me my clothes."

The group scattered to inspect the abandoned house, while Hao Ren and Vivian teamed up to check the second floor.

The interior of this mansion was complex. Although it didn't look particularly magnificent from the outside, it still had the intricate structure favored by nobles of that era. The house consisted of a long house and two separate small buildings on either side. Most of the building materials were thick wooden planks. The first floor of the long house was a hall and several compartments for servants and livestock, while the second floor had straight corridors and many rooms, which should have been where the lord and his family lived. The entire mansion was lit with lights. Oil lamps were hung every few meters on the dark walls, all with the same dry condition. The flames floated a few millimeters above the lamps without any fuel, and they had no temperature.

Hao Ren and Vivian slowly explored the second floor. The wooden floor creaked under their feet, as if it couldn't bear the weight and was ready to collapse at any moment. Hao Ren noticed that some rooms in the corridor still had thick carpets. Like everything else around them, the carpets were stained with a layer of gray-black, but even in these dim colors, he could still vaguely see their original gorgeous patterns.

Vivian bent down to examine the patterns on the carpet, a nostalgic look on her face. "Looks like high-end goods from Italy. Nobles… even nobles in such a remote town would use this level of luxury. This one carpet should be enough for a family of five in town to live on for half a year."

"It's all covered in dust here too," Hao Ren said, getting his hand covered in dust when he opened another door next to him. "It's inside the house, but the dust accumulation is as serious as outside. It seems this dust is unusual… probably also a product of the supernatural."

Behind the door was a small room, and the decorations weren't luxurious either. It didn't look like a place where a lord or a noble relative would live. Vivian looked at the furnishings in the room and made a deduction based on her knowledge of that era. "It should be where the butler, advisor, or similar high-ranking servant lived. These high-ranking servants managed all the affairs, big and small, of the noble's house, and they inherited their positions along with the family they served, generation after generation, so they were qualified to live so close to their master. But they didn't have noble titles, so they weren't allowed to use some decorations reserved for nobles."

Hao Ren nodded slightly and casually said as he walked into the room, "Speaking of which, you seem to be quite adapted to this atmosphere—I feel like my back is crawling."

"I don't feel anything," Vivian laughed. "I used to live in tombs all the time. I'm a bloodkin; dealing with these things is normal."

The room was also covered in soot. An oak bed was placed in the southeast corner of the room, and the once-expensive bedding on the bed had rotted beyond recognition. Next to the bed was a writing desk with drawers, and on the desk, he could see old and dilapidated writing tools and some fragments that looked like paper. On the other side of the room was a small stove, with a non-natural flame burning quietly inside without any heat. In front of the stove was an old rocking chair, with a few pieces of torn cloth hanging down from it.

Looking at this scene, an image seemed to float into Hao Ren's mind: a warm little flame burned quietly in the stove, illuminating the small room. After completing the work entrusted by his master, an old butler returned to the room, sat on his favorite rocking chair, and rested with a blanket over him. The firelight shone on his face, casting shadows on the old butler's wrinkled face. Then, the butler suddenly remembered something, got up, came to the writing desk, and wrote something on a piece of parchment, which he put in the second drawer under the desk…

Hao Ren suddenly shook his head to regain his clarity. He felt his heart beat faster. Those illusions, whether from imagination or appearing before his eyes, had not completely faded away. He stared at the old rocking chair in the center of the room. For that moment, he seemed to really see an old butler with a wrinkled face sitting on it, and even the things that happened afterward seemed to be clearly imprinted in his mind as if he had seen them with his own eyes. For a moment, the boundary between reality and illusion seemed to be shaken. Hao Ren felt his consciousness pulled out of the abandoned house in the current time and space and fell into a memory from hundreds of years ago. Vivian immediately noticed that something was wrong with him. "Hao Ren, what's wrong?"

"I seem to see some things, but it's different from the way Lily sees them," Hao Ren said, subconsciously walking to the writing desk next to the bed. A rusted latch hung on the second drawer under the desk. "I seem to see an entire memory…"

As he spoke, he casually crushed the latch on the drawer. After opening the drawer, he saw many pieces of parchment scattered inside.

There were also some severely weathered fragments around the parchment. Those should have been ordinary paper that had failed to resist the erosion of time and had turned into碎渣, but the parchment was basically still intact. He carefully took out those fragile pieces of paper and placed them on the table, then took out the data terminal. "Scan it, increase the contrast, and see what's written on it."

The terminal made a sound and floated in the air above the table to scan. A blue light shone from its lower part onto the paper, and the holographic projection above it showed the parsed text. Some of the handwriting had completely disappeared, and technical means couldn't restore it, but the other handwriting could still be seen. It was something like a diary:

"...Heimowen's suspicion and irritability are getting worse. He deeply believes in those superstitious claims circulating among the civilians and even actively spreads them... I watched him grow up, but I'm starting not to understand him. Ever since Karina got sick, he's been like... perhaps that 'scholar' is suspicious, but Heimowen's trust in him is unparalleled, and that scholar touched the cross... I'd better write these things down, but who should I write them to? I hope these things don't have to be spread in the future..."

After deciphering the contents of this paper, Hao Ren placed the other parchments in front of the terminal and asked the latter to arrange all the texts in order. He found that the things recorded on these papers were more important than he had imagined: they seemed to be able to unlock the secrets of this town.

"...Who exactly is that scholar? I can't find his origin, but he has credible evidence to show that he is not evil. He touched the cross and cleaned his teeth with clean salt. He is not afraid of the spices I add to the fireplace either—perhaps he has noticed my several attempts to test him, so he is calmly taking the initiative to show these qualities... But the doubt still lingers. The rumors in the town have not diminished at all and are getting worse. The witch who was expelled a few days ago was found dead near the river beach this morning. She seemed to want to steal a piece of clothing, but she still didn't last until the sun rose. Did her magic fail?

"...The witch's body was burned. The signs of black magic were unmistakable. Perhaps I should repent. I even suspected that she was an innocent girl before—but when the fire rose, I only felt infinite fear. The witch's body trembled violently at the moment of ignition, and then a huge smoke rose from the flames. It was a terrible sight. The ashes scattered in the smoke almost covered the entire square... The collected ashes weighed more than the weight of three adult men. Some people said that it was the weight of the children the witch had eaten before. The ashes were purified with holy water and sprinkled into the lime-filled bottom of the pit...

"...After the witch incident, my suspicion of the scholar has not diminished, because the disease has not ended as he said. Whether it is expelling the witch or burning the witch's body, the children in the town are still getting sick, and the adults are also starting to weaken...

"...One night, I saw the scholar stopping at the place where the witch's body was burned. There was no one there, but his mouth was moving, as if he was talking to someone. I didn't dare to get too close, but I vaguely heard him mention 'the other side of the door' and a person called 'the King of Blood'... There is no doubt that he is related to the witch."