Chapter 185 The Old Castle

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If not seen with one's own eyes, probably no one would have imagined that such an ancient castle would exist in the most desolate and remote part of Siberia: it is even close to the Arctic Circle, but a family unfortunate enough to be entangled by evil spirits still built their shelter here with huge manpower and material resources.

The shadow of a tall building appeared on the horizon. It was a bizarre black stone castle of indistinguishable style. It had thick circular outer walls and three high towers, but also had bowl-shaped canopies that did not match the overall style. The castle was surrounded by white snow, but the huge black building seemed to be isolated from the surroundings and was not stained with white at all. It was unknown whether the owner of the castle was good at managing it or some supernatural power was sealing off the area around the fortress.

As Hao Ren drove closer to the castle, he felt more and more uncomfortable. The magnificent and majestic building had a rather unpleasant atmosphere. Its thick outer walls and strange canopies were like a prison, binding an unknown monster in this frozen world. It was a gloomy cage isolated from the world – just looking at it made one feel a great sense of disharmony.

The people who built this castle were either mentally ill or forced by evil spirits, otherwise it is hard to imagine who would willingly live in such a gloomy and terrifying place.

After driving closer, Hao Ren found that there were other things around the castle. The outermost layer was a circle of old and heavy iron fences, and the inner layer had a circle of low stone walls. These two circles of obstacles made the fortress feel less like a place for people to live and more like a prison for something. The car obviously couldn't drive directly in. Hao Ren slowed down and drove around half a circle next to the iron fence before finding a rusty gate. He honked the horn a few times and waited for a long time before seeing an old servant in a brown coat come out of a small house next to the inner low wall to open the gate.

The old servant looked quite old and weak, and was severely bald. Only a circle of messy white hair around his head trembled in the cold Siberian wind. His body was hunched under a heavy coat as thick as a shell, and he came to the door in small steps, tremblingly opening a crack in the fence gate. He cautiously glanced at the strange car outside, his nasal voice heavy: "Who is it?"

Nangong Sanba stuck his head out of the car window: "It's me!"

The old servant's face changed when he saw Nangong Sanba, looking a little frightened, not believing that this demon hunter was still alive: "You're not dead?"

Nangong Sanba chuckled: "I'm an expert, and experts are not easy to die – I've brought some helpers. According to the contract with Igor, I will fulfill the contract until the evil spirit is driven out, and now I'm here to fulfill it."

The old servant's lips trembled a few times, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he said nothing. He opened the fence gate, and as the car drove past him, he realized what he had always felt was wrong: the only means of transportation available on this vast snowfield were sleds and specially made snow vehicles. How did this car drive all the way here?

The old servant looked in the direction the Little Bear constellation had come from and found that there wasn't even a trace of tire tracks outside the fence gate.

Hao Ren didn't know any of this. He rolled down the car window and called out, "Old man! Where should I park the car?"

He was now in front of ordinary people, so he couldn't just casually throw his beloved BMW into his personal space like before.

The old servant calmed down from his surprise. He had served in this strange old house for decades and had become somewhat numb to various supernatural phenomena, so he just sighed at this time and turned to point Hao Ren to a vacant lot: "Anywhere."

Then he saw another "supernatural phenomenon": six people actually crawled out of the small Little Bear constellation one after another, and Nangong Sanba was even carrying a box at least half a person tall (his combat props)!

The old servant was stunned for a moment and slowly muttered, "Maybe these people who came this time really are experts."

The others had already gotten out of the car. Hao Ren casually took out the data terminal and pressed it twice at the car. The terminal held its breath for a few seconds before reluctantly "beep-beep"-ing twice, and then nagged in Hao Ren's mind: "Can you not just do whatever comes to your mind? It's tiring for this unit to be brought into new scenes at any time!"

Hao Ren didn't say anything, just gently pressed his chest: there was a hidden pocket there, and Dou Dou was curled up inside. Pressing twice was to remind the little guy not to run out casually. But Dou Dou wouldn't be bored inside either: when it was inconvenient for her to show her face, the little mermaid could observe the outside through a small monitor. The button near Hao Ren's collar was the camera...

This suit was directly manufactured in the onboard factory of the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace. It had been so heavily modified that it was hard to tell if it was still considered clothing.

The courtyard in front of the castle had been abandoned for who knows how many years, or rather, there probably wasn't any courtyard here from the beginning. It was difficult for many plants to grow in such a cold place, but there were a few circles of stone bricks built near the stone wall that looked like flower beds. In the open space inside the stone bricks, one could only see some dry, cold, and strange thorns. It looked more like a flattened graveyard than a garden. Hao Ren and the others walked towards the main entrance of the castle under the guidance of the old servant, and didn't see anyone else along the way. This even gave one the illusion that there was only this one old man in the entire castle.

"There's no one else here?" Becky felt a little scared by the strange atmosphere here, so she had to find a topic to break the silence.

"Yes, in the house, but not many," the old servant's voice was low, as if it came from a grave, "Master Igor went out early this morning and will probably be back tomorrow. Before that, you can rest in your rooms."

As he spoke, he had already led everyone to the door. After pressing the doorbell on the door, the heavy and ancient door opened a crack, and a middle-aged man in a butler's uniform with a blank expression appeared in front of Hao Ren.

The old servant introduced the identity of this group of guests, and Nangong Sanba stepped forward and shook hands with the zombie-faced butler: "I brought helpers."

The middle-aged butler finally showed a stiff smile on his face: "The explosion from the basement back then scared a lot of people. Fortunately, you're still alive."

The group walked towards the depths of the castle under the lead of the middle-aged butler. Nangong Sanba casually asked about what happened after he "evacuated" (actually, he was sent back to the city) from here: "Has the evil spirit come out again since then? What did Igor go to do?"

"The evil spirit hasn't moved since the explosion that night, and the underground door has been re-sealed. We don't know the situation below, but that thing should have been suppressed again. Master Igor thought you had failed, so he went to visit one of his hermit friends early this morning, hoping to seek some comforting incense and herbs – but it seems they won't be needed now."

Nangong Sanba's expression was caught between laughter and tears, but it was also a fact that the mortality rate for his profession was high, so he could only laugh dryly twice: "Forget it, let's rest and recuperate first, and then discuss the next step of exorcism after Igor returns. These helpers I brought are all guys with combat power stronger than me. If it weren't for my past friendship with them, no one would be able to invite these people – the evil spirit in the castle is doomed."

He was starting to forcefully brag in advance in order to allow Hao Ren and the others to successfully gain the trust of the castle's owner, but Hao Ren didn't care about this. He was busy observing the portraits hanging on both sides of the corridor.

The inside of the castle was not as gloomy and depressing as it looked from the outside. Although the ancient stone building inevitably had a bit of a cramped feeling, at least the corridor was warm and bright. Under the warm-toned lights, one could see large portraits of people hanging on both sides of the corridor. They were wearing gorgeous clothes from various eras, standing or sitting, lifelike, and each painting looked like it was made in a different era.

"These are the past ancestors of the Andrei family," Nangong Sanba whispered next to Hao Ren, "The Igor we're going to see is the current 'head' of this family."

Hao Ren nodded slightly, his gaze continuing to wander over the portraits of men and women. As his gaze swept over those portraits, the expressionless ancestors on the portraits seemed to become a bit more lively. Their eyes stared at the outsiders in the corridor, their gazes cold and stiff, lifeless, but indeed seemed to be staring at everyone who looked at them.

Hao Ren found that the eyes on all the portraits here were exactly the same: regardless of gender or age, they all had the same pair of dark brown eyes.

Nangong Wuyue curled her lips: "Seems a bit interesting."
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