Chapter 49: The Haunted Manor
In just a month or two, this once bustling manor had fallen into complete disrepair.
It was still bearable during the day, but at night, it was filled with ghostly apparitions.
The soldiers tasked with guarding the manor would hear faint, eerie cries every night, as if female ghosts were wailing and moaning, making them unable to sleep.
If it weren’t for their superiors, the soldiers would have fled long ago.
Baron Silvermoon had once sent people to investigate, but a Great Knight and five Knights went in, and only one Knight emerged alive, and even he was mentally unstable.
Standing not far from the manor, Baron Silvermoon, recalling the lost Great Knight and Knights, felt a pang of regret.
“What’s the situation inside now?” Su Nan asked.
The secretary standing beside him quickly replied, “The manor is now overgrown with mandrakes, and most of the original plants have withered and died. There is also a faint mist that appears sometimes during the day.”Su Nan’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Mandrakes are beautiful and alluring, and they can also be used medicinally, but they are also poisonous plants and have hallucinogenic effects.
The mandrakes that grew alongside the Blood Mandrake in the manor were certainly more toxic and hallucinogenic than ordinary mandrakes.
Now, the entire manor was filled with the pollen and strange fragrance of these mandrakes, turning the entire environment into a highly toxic zone. Anyone below the rank of Knight entering would likely die from poisoning before they could go far.
Even for Knights and Great Knights, in such an environment, it would be good if they could exert six or seven out of ten of their strength.
“Lord Ang, what do you plan to do?” Baron Silvermoon asked.
Su Nan cast a shield spell on himself, casually saying, “Just wait outside.”
Baron Silvermoon was taken aback, “Don’t you need me to send people in with you?”
“No need.” Su Nan waved his hand dismissively.
Knights wouldn’t be of much use in the haunt of an evil spirit, they would only hinder him.
He didn’t want to be in the middle of a battle with an evil spirit, only to find that his allies had been controlled by illusions and turned into enemies stabbing him in the back.
Taking out a rune gem and holding it in his palm, Su Nan strode toward the manor.
He had left Shadow Dragon and Amy outside.
Evil spirits relied on perception to locate their prey. Shadow Dragon’s ability to change color and shift between the tangible and intangible would be useless against an evil spirit, and its sharp claws wouldn’t be able to harm it either. RΑ�
Amy would be even less helpful.
As he stepped into the manor from the outside, crossing just one doorway, the light in his field of vision immediately dimmed.
Everything he saw seemed to have a gray tinge, radiating death and gloominess everywhere.
The temperature also dropped suddenly, and a chilly wind blew through, bringing with it faint sobs.
“Such a dense concentration of negative energy particles.”
Su Nan’s brow furrowed slightly.
For those who specialized in necromantic magic or had a way to counteract the negative energy particles’ impact on their bodies, this manor was undoubtedly a paradise for cultivation.
Meditating here would at least double their efficiency.
Unfortunately, Su Nan didn’t have any way to counteract the side effects of negative energy particles, so he could only regretfully give up.
But even if he did, the evil spirits here wouldn’t let him meditate peacefully.
After a brief pause, Su Nan continued to step inside.
All he could see within his line of sight were mandrakes in full bloom, their colors incredibly vibrant.
After Su Nan entered, these mandrakes began to sway slightly, their movements surprisingly synchronized, and even the opening of their flowers seemed to subtly face Su Nan, sending chills down one’s spine.
However, Su Nan’s expression remained unchanged as he ignored these mandrakes.
He had seen more than enough sanity-draining species in the game in his previous life, things like Whispering Orb, Death Stalker, Sothasede Parasite, countless disgusting monsters from all over the multiverse, and scenes that made one question the designer’s sanity were countless.
Compared to those scenes that made one doubt the designer’s mental state, this was already quite normal.
He crossed the empty courtyard and entered through the side door, passing through the corridor and arriving at the hall.
Under the influence of the negative energy particles, the furniture here had begun to mold and decay.
Mandrake vines had grown through these pieces of furniture, spreading outwards, almost covering the entire hall.
Su Nan took out a long sword from the Magic Cube and casually chopped down the vines blocking his path, ignoring the faint sobs that came from his ears.
He searched several other places, but still couldn’t find it.
All he saw along the way were mandrakes.
“Indeed, without a detection spell for undead, it’s impossible to find the evil spirit’s true form with just the naked eye.”
Su Nan stopped, looking at the strange mist that had spread around him at some point.
He had already activated the protective ring when he entered the manor.
Protected by the force field, he didn’t need to worry about being affected by the poisonous mist, but staying here for a long time, the force field would soon be eroded and dissipate.
“I need to act quickly.”
Su Nan didn’t hesitate, he flipped his wrist, and a ruby appeared in the palm of his hand.
The next second, a surging wave of flames burst forth from him, spreading outward in all directions.
Wherever the flames passed, the mandrakes and vines, like living things, fled frantically in all directions, but they were soon caught by the flames, twisting wildly and burning up, the fire spreading rapidly.
In an instant, the entire manor seemed to boil like boiling oil splashed with water.
The sobs all around suddenly increased in volume by several octaves.
The mist around them rushed towards the burning mandrakes, as if trying to extinguish the flames, but the magical flames formed from high-density energy particles were different from ordinary flames, and this mist couldn’t extinguish them.
Su Nan changed his location several times and threw out several more flame rune gems.
Before long, the entire manor had become a sea of fire.
As the mandrakes were burnt to charcoal in large numbers, the strange fragrance and mist in the air visibly dissipated.
“Ahhh!!!”
A piercing shriek suddenly rang out.
A strange layer of energy seemed to appear in the void, and the rapid spread of the sea of fire suddenly stalled, then quickly weakened at an alarming rate, eventually disappearing.
At the same time, a dark red mandrake suddenly appeared out of thin air on the empty ground a hundred meters in front of Su Nan, its flower bloomed brightly, but the very center of the flower was a twisted human face.
And beside the mandrake, there was a girl in a white dress stained with dark red blood, her hair disheveled and her face pale and contorted.
She stared at Su Nan with a vicious look, a cold and eerie smile on her face.
“Finally willing to show yourself?” Su Nan raised an eyebrow.
Accompanied by a strange laugh, shadowy figures, like ghosts, appeared from all around, encircling Su Nan.
They retained the outline of human figures, their former appearances faintly discernible, many of them were the servants and soldiers who had died in the manor.
Among them were five particularly eerie armored warriors, the five Great Knights and Knights who had died under Baron Silvermoon’s command.
These dead souls had been transformed into vengeful spirits by the Blood Mandrake.
They paused for a moment, then, with shrill screams, they lunged at Su Nan.
Su Nan had no intention of dodging, these vengeful spirits couldn’t break through the protective force field around him.
He spread out his palm, and a pure gem appeared out of thin air in his palm.
The next second, he pointed his finger, and a ghostly figure suddenly staggered, involuntarily pulled by an invisible force, screaming as it was pulled into the gem.
After a strange magical brilliance, the gem was tinged with a strange gray.