The Death Poker was originally an item used for ranged attacks and had a consumption property. Even though Feng Bujue was holding it in his hand as a melee weapon at this moment, the four cards in his hand still disappeared after hitting the target. The energy that constituted the poker cards had been converted into actual damage, so the system determined that its physical form was immediately dissolved.

Looking at the monster again, as black smoke flowed out of its wound, its body suddenly shriveled and shrank, as if it had nothing but its outer skin, and no flesh or marrow. Only that black evil mist filled its body. Now that the black gas was leaking out, it quickly turned into a human skin, collapsing to the ground.

Feng Bujue casually released the arm he had just grabbed, because at this moment, the monster's arm was just a wrinkled piece of skin, and there was no need to continue holding it. He did not immediately put away the Death Poker, but manipulated another card, shooting it towards the puddle of mud-like black smoke on the ground.

But it didn't produce any effect. The Death Poker just passed through the black smoke and hit the ground. The black smoke was an invisible thing and was not damaged.

At this time, Feng Bujue's teammates had recovered from the frozen state in which they could not intervene, but the monster in front of them had been killed, and they had no room to take action.

"Brother Feng, weren't you restricted by this monster?" Brave Invincible asked.

Feng Bujue was still staring at the black smoke on the ground, and replied absentmindedly, "No." He paused for a second, "Just now, you were all restricted in some way and couldn't move?"

"It's hard to say," Meng Jingchan replied. "It's better to be indifferent. The more I want to help, the less my body obeys."

"From a setting point of view, it should have been a rather powerful mental attack just now..." Ye Zhi pondered, and then said to Feng Bujue, "Maybe it's because you have the protagonist's halo, so you weren't affected?"

"I don't think so," Feng Bujue replied. "When the system introduces the protagonist's halo, the described effect is that the halo will 'terminate' fatal situations. This situation can be a one-hit kill when the survival value is 100%, or a slight injury when the survival value is 1%." As he spoke, he even walked into the door. If you look closely, you can see that the black smoke on the ground was slowly moving towards the house a few steps in front of Feng Bujue. "The halo will forcibly terminate my death, but it can't make me immune to all negative effects. If I don't even have mental infections and survival value damage, then this Buff should be called the Invincible Halo."

While Feng Bujue was talking, he had already followed the black smoke to the wall: "To put it simply, I will lose blood like you, and I will be hit by skills, but I won't die.

The monster's first attack just now was not fatal. Whether it was strength or speed, it was just the level of a minion. If I didn't block it and chose to be hit, then I would normally lose survival value. Of course, the actual situation is that I blocked it. And the monster's second attack that followed was obviously an instant kill attack. Anyway, I didn't even see it clearly, and I wasn't confident that I could avoid it with my own strength. If I was hit, I would definitely be killed directly. So, when facing this fatal blow that could blow my brains out, the protagonist's halo came into play, causing the monster to inexplicably miss."

The black smoke in front of him wandered to the wall, gradually rising up, like a liquid, and immersed into the magic circle on the wall.

"Then why weren't you affected by the mental suppression applied by the monster? You can not only resist it, but also kill it?" Ye Zhi asked.

"Before you ask this question..." Feng Bujue stared at the magic circle and said without turning his head, "Why don't you try to think for yourself first... In the situation at that time, in addition to the protagonist's halo, what other conditions made me different from you?"

Ye Zhi heard this and thought for a few seconds: "The position where you were standing? The level of spirit art specialization?" After she said these two hypotheses, her expression changed, and she realized something, "You grabbed the monster's arm?"

"To be precise..." Feng Bujue replied, "Continuous and direct physical contact."

"I see, as long as you touch the monster's body, you won't be affected by its mental suppression, right?" Brave Invincible interjected.

"Yes, and no," Feng Bujue replied.

"Can you stop playing dumb, kid?" Brave Invincible said unhappily.

"I personally think that the... unable to move state you are talking about is a group control skill that acts on multiple people at the same time," Feng Bujue said. "And the reason why I was immune to the effects of this skill is very likely because I was holding one of the monster's arms at the time." He habitually touched the bridge of his nose with his hand, "But I don't think that the main body that released this skill was that monster."

Feng Bujue had already put away the Death Poker at this time, and took out [Robot Must Die] from his bag. While scraping the wall with the blade, he continued, "The moment the monster suddenly jumped out, you all instinctively took a step back, or a few steps... This shows that you could still move at that time."

Brave Invincible interjected at this time: "I was just about to ask you about this... A ferocious monster suddenly screamed and jumped out of the darkness. It's fine if you didn't step back, kid, but you didn't even seem to shiver. Are you even human?"

"I'm brave," Feng Bujue casually敷衍敷衍(fūyǎn fūyǎn - perfunctorily) said, and then continued what he hadn't finished, "The moment the monster's first attack was blocked by me, with everyone's psychological quality and combat strength, you must have already reacted, but you were unable to lend a hand. In other words, almost at the same time that the monster's hand was captured by me, you were hit by the skill."

"Yes, it happened at that moment," Meng Jingchan said with a very certain tone.

"Well, then let's think about it from a different perspective..." Feng Bujue said, "If the skill was launched by the monster itself, why didn't it release the skill directly after it appeared? What's wrong with launching an attack after the enemies in front of it are all suppressed and can't move?"

"You mean there's something else here..." Brave Invincible said, his expression becoming tense again, and he used his flashlight to shine into the dark corridors on both sides.

"Actually, the answer is right in front of you." When Feng Bujue said this, he had already scratched the magic circle in front of him.

The entire mansion and the garden outside it disappeared into thin air at this moment. The crowd was surrounded by a scorched wilderness, and only the wall in front of Feng Bujue still stood there lonely.

The shriveled skin of the monster from before also revealed its original appearance at this moment. It seemed to be the corpse of some kind of domestic animal. It was now difficult to identify what animal it originally was, because its skin and flesh had been forcibly stretched to a contour close to human skin, looking like a piece of dough that had been thrown into a mold.

"This magic circle first used a summoning skill," Feng Bujue said. "Only after that skill is finished can the control skill be used." He put away the steel knife. "This order cannot be changed. It must first bring out the monster that can kill us, and then it makes sense to use the skill that restricts our movements." He added, "Comprehensive inference... that control skill requires continuous casting and cannot be maintained for a long time."

"Are you saying that this magic circle is a conscious monster?" Brave Invincible asked.

"I think the so-called 'Grudge Well' in this script should be similar in nature to this magic circle," Feng Bujue did not answer Brave Invincible's question, but continued to narrate his own speculation. In fact, his tone could already indicate certainty. "The strength of the Grudge Well must be stronger than this magic circle." He turned around and walked back towards the road. "The town doesn't count. There are no decent buildings within a few miles except for farmhouses. And a mansion like this, with a garden, appearing in a place that should be farmland is a bit inexplicable." After he brushed past everyone, the five of them looked at each other, waited for a few seconds, and followed one after another.

"When I discovered that there was a wall a few meters after opening the door, I began to suspect that these were all illusions," Feng Bujue said. "Even if this is a building in a ghost script, there is no reason for the entrance to be in that state. When I saw the magic circle painted on the wall and remembered the function of similar magic circles, I understood that 'it' can only generate illusions to this extent, because this place is basically empty." He raised his arm and pointed behind him, "If this magic circle was not painted on a broken wall, but was painted in a real mansion..."

"Then the illusion it generates might be as vast as a maze..." Brave Invincible continued Feng Bujue's words, and the terrifying memories of the Usher Mansion gradually surfaced in his mind.

"The complexity of the surrounding actual scenery determines the complexity that the illusion can achieve," Feng Bujue said. "For a wall, this is the limit of external disguise that can be achieved. If the interior is to have a detailed illusion with rooms, furniture, upstairs and downstairs, and even a basement, it cannot be completed in this field."

From the beginning, Copernicus and Galileo had not said a word, and had been watching the actions of others. During this period, their expressions changed several times, and they constantly exchanged glances and had brief exchanges.

At this time, Galileo opened his mouth. His question was more of an inducement than a question: "Uh... Brother Feng, do you think... in the mountain in the main quest, will there also be this kind of magic circle?"

"It would be great if you just told me directly..." Feng Bujue排遣(páiqiǎn - silently complained) in his heart, but on the surface he remained calm, "Heh... I thought you would first ask me... why until now, we have neither heard the prompt that the side quest has been triggered, nor have we received any related rewards after killing the monster and breaking the magic circle."

"Yeah, why?" Meng Jingchan lit another cigarette.

"Let's assume that this kind of magic circle that uses various troublesome skills is our main enemy in this script. And on the mountain pointed to by the main quest, there are several such magic circles, with roughly the same abilities, and the most powerful one is painted at the bottom of the Grudge Well," Feng Bujue said. "Then... the magic circle we just broke should be considered 'extra', that is, one that we would not encounter according to the conventional route."

"So what?" Brave Invincible also asked.

Before Feng Bujue could answer, Ye Zhi interjected thoughtfully: "So... the act of destroying this magic circle is a reward in itself."