Chapter 1 A Wall of Fog

A thick fog blocked their path, almost as solid as a wall. Hao Ren stopped before the mist, looking to either side, and saw that this wall stretched as far as the eye could see, gradually closing in the distance.

The fog sealed off the entire town; there was no road ahead.

"This is probably the boundary of the town," Vivian said, also stopping. She cautiously reached out into the dense fog, a strange, slippery, and warm sensation coming from within. "The realm is limited; there shouldn't be a way to go any further."

"Why have you stopped? Hurry up, hurry up!" Haimuwen's voice came from the side. He was about to step into the mist when he noticed Hao Ren and the others had stopped. "Time is of the essence, time is of the essence, the devil might escape..."

"Can't you see such a big fog?" Hao Ren pointed to the wall of mist in front of them. "No matter how you look at it, we shouldn't be going in there."

Haimuwen looked blank. He turned to look at the misty town boundary, "Fog? What fog? What better weather could there be? I can even see the shadow of the old mill from here."

Everyone was stunned: this "ghost" couldn't see the fog sealing off the town's border.

Hao Ren was about to ask something else when Haimuwen stepped into the wall of fog, and then a magical scene appeared:

As Haimuwen stepped forward, the fog around him slowly receded as if it were alive. Roads and vegetation gradually appeared from within the chaotic mist, suddenly emerging as if born from the fog, extending forward along Haimuwen's footsteps.

Hao Ren didn't know what was happening, but he pulled Vivian's arm. "Everyone, follow me."

The fog seemed endless, covering the sky and completely sealing off the space outside the town. Only a few minutes after entering the fog, they could no longer see the way they had come. All they could see was the endless fog rolling several meters away from the team, and the road extended forward within this extremely limited area. In this chaos, Lily anxiously grabbed Hao Ren's sleeve, "Landlord, are we going to get lost?"

"Can't you just lower your head and sniff?" Vivian glared at Lily. "As a canine, you're afraid of getting lost? Did you put all your talent points into eating spicy sticks?"

Lily blinked and rubbed her nose. "That's right."

"It's okay," Hao Ren comforted her. "I left a beacon transmitter at the entrance of the fog. Everyone, don't get separated, we can teleport back."

Nangong Wuyue looked at Haimuwen walking in front and tugged at her brother's sleeve, "Why can a ghost open up a path in the fog?"

"Because he 'remembers' these," Nangong Sanba frowned. "Although I'm not entirely sure of the principle, it seems this town is composed of two parts: the main body of the town is the real material world, while all the supernatural parts—such as spirits, soot, Haimuwen himself, and the fog sealing off the town—originate from 'memory.' Consider the entire town as a huge consciousness; the things that happened to it that remain in its memory have become these phenomena before our eyes. Because memory is always unstable, these phenomena are basically supernatural."

Hao Ren looked at Nangong Sanba doubtfully, "How do you suddenly know so much?"

"In the past hundred years, I haven't learned anything else, just how to deal with the ghost world," Nangong Sanba puffed out his chest rather proudly. "I can't beat werewolves, I can't afford to offend bloodkin, so if I want to make a living, all that's left is to help people catch ghosts or something. But I've really never seen such a large-scale spiritual domain as this before, but no matter how large the scale, the basic principles are the same: matter, memory, soul, together constitute a supernatural space, which is what we see."

Hao Ren nodded, wondering how Nangong Sanba could puff out his chest and confidently say that "he can't beat werewolves and can't afford to offend bloodkin"...

The group went deep into the fog under Haimuwen's guidance, walking for an unknown amount of time. Hao Ren noticed that the road under his feet had become an uphill slope: the team should be climbing a gentle hill. Hesper asked the temporary guide ahead impatiently, "Haimuwen, how much further?"

Haimuwen was startled by the sudden voice behind him. He shrank his neck and pointed forward, "Oh, it's just ahead, it's just ahead, you can already see it, that black house is—ah, only when I woke up, it had already become like this."

The others couldn't see the "house" in Haimuwen's eyes, so no one said anything. Only after walking for a while longer, when the gentle uphill slope gradually became flat, and the team finished walking this slope to a wide open space, did they finally see the so-called "wizard's hideout."

A dilapidated old house stood alone in the open space ahead, surrounded by mist, making it appear even more shadowy, eerie, and bizarre. The structure of the house was simple, divided into two floors, with no extra ancillary buildings around except for a small horse shed. But judging from the scale, it should have once been a building belonging to a wealthy person: at least the commoners of that era could not afford to live in such a regulated mansion.

Haimuwen shrank back a little fearfully, pointing to the entrance of the big house with his finger, "He lives here, almost never letting anyone near."

Hao Ren nodded, looking curiously at the appearance of the house after approaching. He found that all the windows of the building except the front door had been nailed shut with wooden boards, and occasionally a few rotten window boards revealed gaps, behind which thick, old black cloth could be seen covering. The entire building thus presented a highly enclosed state, and normal people would probably never live in such a house.

Vivian glanced at Haimuwen, "You haven't been inside to see it either?"

"I've… I've been inside once," Haimuwen said with some lingering fear. "Inside there are filthy, blasphemous things, all kinds of heretical books piled up on a table."

"Now you seem to be quite opposed to that 'scholar'," Hao Ren stared at Haimuwen's expression. "But according to our investigation, your trust in the 'scholar' was unparalleled, you almost wanted to hire him as a consultant, and you often discussed problems together."

Haimuwen was stunned, and a look of disgust and unease quickly appeared on his face. "I was bewitched at the time! It was magic, the power of black magic! That devil brainwashed me with spells, and I can't even remember what I did during the period I was controlled. But I am awake now, and I can remember some of the things that happened at that time… It seems you are right, that devil is really dead, and the spells he cast on me have faded."

"Perhaps," Hao Ren nodded perfunctorily, grabbing Haimuwen and walking towards the house. "You come in too; we need you to continue being our guide."

Haimuwen resisted slightly, seemingly still full of dread for the house, but after seeing Cassandra and Hesper's unkind gazes, he became honest and bowed his head to show his cooperation.

With a "creak," Hao Ren pushed open the long-sealed door, and a lot of dust immediately fell from the door frame. He took two steps back to wait for the dust to settle, and then walked in first.

Lily once again took out Huo Zhi Fei Chang Gao Xing to act as a light source, and the moment this weapon appeared out of thin air, Haimuwen exclaimed in surprise, only to be poked by Duncan with the hilt of his rapier.

The inside of the house was very messy, with large tables placed haphazardly everywhere, and wooden shelves filled with various instruments. What was pleasing was that the instruments and books on these tables and shelves were clearly related to black magic: this was indeed the place that wizard had used.

"The fog doesn't seem to have invaded this house," Lily sniffed while checking the furnishings in the room. Her nose was very sensitive to the fog outside, and she had sneezed several times outside. Now that she was inside, she felt much more comfortable. "And it's very strange, there's no ash here at all."

There was a thick layer of dust everywhere in the house, but there was no black ash: it seemed the strange ash phenomenon only persisted within the town's boundaries.

The group began to look through the materials and books left by the wizard on the table. Haimuwen found that no one was paying attention to him. He sniffed, found a corner, and carefully sat down, as still as a stone statue.

Hao Ren saw an open book on the large table in the center of the room, and a sentence at the top of the book immediately caught his attention:

"Across the gate, the secret knowledge within the twisted kingdom."