Chapter 1 “Jue-ge… Th-th-th… This is…” Wang Tanzhi was stuttering again, thoroughly frightened.

“If I didn’t interrupt you, were you just going to keep [bleep]ing like that?” Feng Bujue said.

Long Aotian turned his head. “Brother Feng, why can you say censored words?”

“It’s obvious that when I said that curse word, I didn’t have any insulting intent in my mind, so the system didn’t directly stop me, but the word itself is not very elegant, so it was censored,” Feng Bujue explained. “Speaking of which, isn’t agonizing over this issue a bit out of place right now?”

Ping, ping, ping… crash, crash…

The sounds of light bulbs exploding and shards of glass scattering and falling to the ground were incessant. The wall lamps around the dining room all burst at this moment, and the room plunged into darkness.

Almost before these sounds had settled, Feng Bujue had already taken out a flashlight from his knapsack, turned it on, and shone the light upwards, towards his face. “Was it really necessary… to just turn them off? Such drama.” As he spoke, he put on the [Eyes of Hatred].

In the darkness, Little Tan and Brother Long saw the upward spread of light and turned their backs to Feng Bujue, slowly retreating to his side. They also took out flashlights from their knapsacks and turned them on, each illuminating a fan-shaped area in front of them.

On the other side, Siyu Ruoli and Bei Lingxiaogu naturally had their own means of illumination. Siyu Ruoli took out an old-fashioned lantern. Although it looked old on the outside, the item’s stats were not bad:

[Name: Constant Glimmer Lantern]
[Type: Tool]
[Quality: Dilapidated]
[Function: Illumination]
[Effect: Never Extinguished]
[Note: This lantern was once a powerful magic item, but it was never repaired after being severely damaged. It can only illuminate an area of about five meters around it. Turning the switch does not control its brightness, nor can it be turned off. Fortunately, it still retains the trait of infinite fuel.]

She placed the lantern directly on the long table. As the item description stated, the light was always on, illuminating a spherical area with a radius of five meters.

Bei Lingxiaogu took out a yellow miner's helmet, turned on the round light on the front, and held it in her hand. Perhaps she found it uncomfortable or unsightly to wear, she did not put it on her head.

The few people lowered their breathing, listening for any threats approaching in the silent darkness.

Suddenly, a few light chimes rang out from above. Everyone looked up in response, only to see that the large glass chandelier directly above the dining table was being pulled askew by some force, aimed at… Feng Bujue.

In the blink of an eye, the steel cable above the chandelier suddenly snapped. The object, as big as half a washing machine, flew directly towards Feng Bujue. His first reaction was to dive under the table.

But someone's reaction and action were faster than Feng Bujue's, and not just by a little bit.

Siyu Ruoli lightly tapped her feet, stepping on a chair, and leaped into the air. Her movements were agile, but her figure retained the gentle grace unique to women. Her sword was cold, and so was her gaze. The sword came out, swift as a startled swan, powerful as thunder. She cleanly and decisively cut the flying chandelier in two. After the metal frame of the lamp body was split in half, the object fell vertically, as if it had lost its strength, and large pieces of glass shattered all over the ground.

Siyu Ruoli landed lightly, using one hand to brush away a strand of hair that had fallen across her forehead, while the other hand held her sword, her breathing not even slightly accelerated. She was truly imposing and heroic.

Little Tan and Brother Long were stunned at the time. The image of Feng Bujue smashing the head of the Cyan Corpse yesterday instantly seemed incredibly low-end in their minds… This merciless head-chopping heroine in front of them felt like she surpassed him by ten streets in terms of technical content and brutality… Comparing these two people’s fight scenes was like comparing Qin Jiaxian to Wind Trace, it was simply unwatchable.

“You’re welcome,” Siyu said directly, seeing that Feng Bujue was about to speak.

Feng Bujue swallowed the heartfelt “Thank you, heroine, for saving me” that was about to come out. He thought to himself, *Good thing I didn’t say it, that line is reserved for cannon fodder-level characters in wuxia movies*. He cleared his throat and said, “Um… Siyu, can you turn that lantern a bit brighter?”

“No,” Siyu replied directly.

“Um… can I take a look at it?” Feng Bujue asked.

“Why?” Siyu asked.

“I have a skill that can repair broken machinery and tools in a short amount of time,” Feng Bujue said. “If your lantern is of Ordinary quality or lower…”

Before he could finish speaking, Siyu Ruoli deftly picked up the lantern on the table with her sword and instantly presented it to him: “Dilapidated.”

She liked brevity, and he naturally understood. He took the equipment and used [Slipshod Repair], but the system prompted him: [Skill Usage Failed]. Feng Bujue didn’t care too much because failure was normal. His Machinery Specialization was currently F-rank, and the skill activation success rate was 20%. The one-time success when he used it on the flashlight last time was obviously just good luck.

He wasn’t so lucky this time. He used it twice in a row before finally succeeding, and the skill that should have cost 100 Stamina Points actually cost him 300. After the lantern returned to Normal quality, it suddenly brightened, illuminating the entire dining room.

The area of this dining room was quite large, the largest of all the rooms everyone had passed through. At this moment, in the corner furthest from them, they saw a figure, or rather… a ghostly figure.

It was a middle-aged man, wearing a black classical suit, with pale skin and sunken eyes. His features were distinct, his forehead was broad, and his jaw was square, making him unforgettable at a glance.

According to some more popular legends, the image of ghosts, such as their clothing and attire, is often what they looked like at the moment of their death, or their most frequently maintained appearance during their lifetime. Judging from this person’s appearance and demeanor, it was probably Roderick Usher without a doubt.

Originally, this ghostly figure was hiding in a secluded corner that the flashlight's light could not reach, concealed in the shadows of darkness, but at this moment, the suddenly lit lantern left him with nowhere to hide.

Roderick seemed to be afraid of the light. He shielded his eyes with his hand, curled up, and let out a sharp roar.

Feng Bujue held the lantern, fearless, and approached the ghost with steady steps, his tone sounding confident. "Mr. Usher, please tell us, how can we leave this place?"

"Don't come over…" Roderick said. "Otherwise, you will…" The first half of what he said sounded gentle, even making one feel that he was somewhat weak, but when he said the last few words, he took his hands away from his face, revealing a distorted face, roaring like a hysterical beast, “…pay the price!”

Feng Bujue stood one meter in front of him, without any reaction. The people behind him were frightened by Roderick’s sudden change to varying degrees.

“What do you want to do? Control a chair to smash the back of my head?” Feng Bujue knew that this guy was just an untouchable ghost, who could only control things in this house to attack him.

No sooner said than done, a chair floated up and quickly flew towards the back of Feng Bujue.

This time, Long Aotian was closer. He took a big step forward and used the [Shard of Ultron] to block the blow for Feng Bujue with a stretch of his arm.

“There are five people here, and you seem particularly interested in me…” Feng Bujue’s tone was aggressive. “Where is Madeline’s body? Is it with yours?”

“Ah–” Roderick roared, and plates, knives, forks, candlesticks, and other scattered objects on the dining table also floated up in unison.

Without saying a word, Feng Bujue took out the [Slow Sand] from his knapsack and quickly threw the bottle onto the ground.

This item could only slow down "monsters" within a radius of one hundred meters by a factor of ten, and could not physically slow down the movement speed of "objects." However, after being slowed down, the unknown force that Roderick used to maintain the floating objects seemed to be affected, causing the floating objects to fall directly.

To make an analogy… These ghosts' "telekinesis" was like riding a bicycle. If you slowed down the action tenfold, it wasn’t slowing down, but falling.

Feng Bujue held the lantern forward and aimed the flashlight at Roderick. Facing this incorporeal ghost, he had no way to attack, so he had to try to use the light that the other party feared to exert some influence.

Roderick uttered a low and lengthy sound indistinctly, turning around very slowly, seemingly wanting to shield the light with his hand and escape, but his movements were too slow and completely futile.

“This script is of very average difficulty… As long as you have strong lighting equipment, stay alert to the traps in the house, and don’t be confused by illusions, you don’t have to worry about your Survival Value at all,” Feng Bujue said. “It should be considered a script that mainly tests courage rather than combat ability.” He simply passed his hand holding the lantern through Roderick’s body. The light made the ghost more and more transparent, but this did not destroy him.

A minute passed quickly. Roderick retreated into the wall. Feng Bujue shrugged disappointedly, returned to the long table, and put down the lantern.

“Let’s sort out our thoughts,” Feng Bujue said, picking up a wooden chair and sitting down. “The plot item that was transferred after that Invincible Brother died should be nearby, we need to find…”

Bei Ling directly took out the letter and said, “It’s this, but the information it provides is very limited. What we can roughly deduce is… the owner of the house who wrote the letter is mentally unstable, afflicted with illness, and has invited a friend to visit him.”

“Can I take a look?” Feng Bujue asked.

“Of course,” Bei Ling gave him the letter, adding, “If you’re looking for some kind of hidden information like a string of first letters or Roman phonetic symbols, this letter doesn’t have it.” She had only glanced at it and had already confirmed this.

Feng Bujue looked at the intermittent letter for a minute and said, “Players who have read the novel may be able to guess from the content of this letter that this is the Usher mansion, while players who haven't read it can learn some basic plot settings through this.” He returned the letter to Bei Ling. “This item can’t be taken out of the script either, so it seems to be just an ordinary main quest annotation item, which basically can’t drive the game process.”

Bei Ling said, “Then please explain the current situation in detail. You seem to know this story very well, and… the ghost was obviously staring at you to attack just now. I’m holding the plot item, but I’m fine. There must be some reason for that, right?”