He didn't know what had happened in this town, but one thing he was sure of: it couldn't have been anything good.

The lingering spirits in the town were enough to prove the ultimate fate of its residents. They were clearly long dead, at least hundreds of years ago, yet these spirits were merely accumulations of "memories." In these hollow echoes of memories, there was no trace of any soul—where had these souls gone?

Nangong Sanba, surprisingly, had become the only expert on the undead in the group. Although his combat strength wasn't great, he had dealt with all sorts of ghosts during his century-long career as a demon hunter. "Human souls dissipate quickly; they generally can't be preserved for hundreds of years. But the spiritual structure in this space is more stable than the outside world, so long-term soul preservation is possible. There are only two explanations for the surrounding 'echoes': either the souls of the townspeople are still imprisoned somewhere in the town, and their leaked soul energy is creating various phantoms, or these people suffered immense torture before they died, or were controlled by necromantic magic after death, so their memories were forcibly extracted and turned into phantoms on this land."

A chill ran through him, and Hao Ren looked up at the closest house. This decaying, ancient house stood quietly in the narrow, cramped street. Its dark, hollow windows seemed to stare like empty, evil eyes at the shadows of other buildings. The dark, dust-filled sky hung low behind the roof, enveloping everything as if to suffocate the entire world. All around were similar buildings. These empty, lifeless houses themselves seemed to be some kind of curse, imprisoning the people who had once lived on this land.

Nangong Sanba tightened the windbreaker he was wearing and said in a low voice, "This place is full of evil. Something very dark happened here."

Lili was attracted to an old house. She came to the dark house and gently pushed its heavily rotten wooden door. With a nasty creak, the old door opened, and the falling soot from the lintel made Lili cough repeatedly. She waved her hand to clear the dust in front of her, held up her "torch" to illuminate the surroundings, and carefully stepped into the building with a haunted-house atmosphere.

Out of curiosity and concern, Hao Ren followed.

The house was dark, and everything was covered in an ominous gray-black layer that seemed to absorb light. No matter how close Lili held the Flame Claw, it couldn't illuminate the surface of the furniture. Hao Ren followed Lili into the house. He heard the groaning of the decaying wooden boards under his feet, and with the dim light, he could see the simple layout and furnishings inside.

This was clearly the residence of an ordinary family, although slightly better than the houses on the riverbank, the head of the family was still not wealthy. The dark house had only a few rough wooden furniture. On a large central pillar, iron hooks hung some objects whose original shapes and uses were unrecognizable. One of the objects seemed to be an oil lamp, but the oil inside had long dried up. Walking in this room, a strange smell, as if something was burning, wafted into people's nostrils from all directions. Lili, with her sensitive sense of smell, frowned repeatedly at the smell: "Cough cough... what's that smell?"

Hesperiana followed in, her eyes glowing faintly red in the dark: "Find anything?"

"Same as the previous houses, gloomy, weird, dust everywhere, a foul smell in the air, but no sign of what the owner of the house was doing before it was abandoned," Hao Ren pointed to the objects hanging on the central pillar. "Tools for work are left in the house, including scythes and axes that can be used for self-defense, and there are no signs of struggle elsewhere. It seems all the houses were abandoned under very peaceful circumstances."

"Is that so," Hesperiana muttered, wiping her hand on a low table by the wall. "Dust... more ashes. I don't like this atmosphere."

Vivian's voice came from the door: "In that era, fire was a symbol of purifying evil, and ashes have a similar meaning."

"Like judging witches or something?" Hao Ren said casually, and as soon as he finished speaking, a light suddenly lit up in the house!

Not the light from the claw blade in Lili's hand, but a bright light that illuminated the surroundings. The oil lamp hanging on the central pillar suddenly lit up, and its small light illuminated the room that Lili had been unable to illuminate before, making the surroundings clear all at once.

But this sudden light did not bring any warmth or peace of mind. Everyone was startled. Lili immediately raised her ice and fire blades in a defensive posture, and Hesperiana also instantly drew her vampire whip from her arms. However, no enemies appeared. Other than the suddenly lit oil lamp, there was no change here.

Hao Ren stepped forward to check the state of the oil lamp and found that there was still no oil inside: the light was floating directly above the lamp, as if the house "remembered" the time to light the lamp, and then stiffly switched states when the time came.

At this time, Cassandra, who was on guard outside the house, suddenly called into the house, "Mistress! Something's happening!"

Everyone hurried out, only to see the incredible scene of the entire town gradually being lit up by lights.

Lights gradually lit up in the unmanned haunted houses, as if every family was lighting their lamps when night fell. Those dark window crevices revealed flickering lights, and as these lights appeared, the large oil lamps hanging on the wooden stakes by the town's streets lit up one after another.

Soon, light filled the entire town, a phenomenon that baffled everyone.

"It looks like this isn't just a secret realm... Something like an illusion covers this space, and everything is between reality and illusion," Vivian looked thoughtfully at the end of the road. "That house is lit up too."

What she was looking at was the goal of everyone's advance: the magnificent mansion at the end of the town, which, if she was right, should be where the lord lived.

Hao Ren immediately led the people towards the big house, and Lili quickly followed. As she left the old house that was the first to light up, intermittent voices sounded in her ears again:

"... More people are getting sick. This time, not only children, but even adults are falling ill."

"... The witch... has been burned... The lord should think of a way. The curse left by that witch... hasn't been resolved yet."

"The lord hasn't appeared for two months. I heard he locked himself in his room, and only scholars can occasionally see him..."

"Since the lord's wife... it's getting more and more difficult..."

"Shh, don't discuss the lord's wife's affairs casually, the guards will hear you."

Lili blinked and hopped to catch up with Hao Ren, who was walking in front: "Landlord, landlord! I heard something again just now!"

In Lili's rambling narration, the group came to the mansion at the end of the town.

This was a significantly more magnificent house: although limited by its age and the wealth of this territory, its specifications were far from being a mansion, but it must have been an enviable house in this town hundreds of years ago. It had a grand rectangular main house, and at the main entrance was a tall, strange structure that looked like a bell tower. Next to this somewhat overly uplifted main entrance, Hao Ren found an old sign that had fallen on the ground. Most of the writing on it had worn away, but one word was still faintly recognizable: Heimwin.

This seemed to be the name of the owner of the mansion.

"How much glory, in the end, is just a handful of ashes."

Vivian shook her head and didn't look at the once-gorgeous oak sign any longer. Instead, she stepped forward and pushed open the main door of the mansion.

As everyone expected, this mansion was lit up like the rest of the town, and the owner of this mansion had enough wealth to burn more fuel, so the main house was brightly lit.

Hao Ren took the lead at the front, while Lili guarded him almost inseparable: when she wasn't being a scaredy cat, she was a competent bodyguard. The others followed Hao Ren into the main house one after another.

In the center of the main house was a blazing fire pit, although there was no firewood in it, the bright flames were still burning very strongly. Hao Ren stepped forward and put his hand above the flames, but didn't feel any heat.

He withdrew his hand: "As expected, it's all fake."

"We've already come this far," Nangong Sanba looked at Hesperiana, "Where's the thing that wizard left behind?"

Hesperiana curled her lips: "Just search slowly. Who knew that the guy who lived here back then had such a twisted sense of humor that he created such a creepy ghost town... Huh?"

She stopped halfway and looked suspiciously at the direction of the stairs in the main house.

Nangong Sanba followed her gaze: "What's wrong?"

"It might be an illusion—I actually felt the aura of a living person just now."