Chapter 1069 A Town Sealed by Witchcraft

The nameless town, bound by witchcraft within a spatial crevice, was far larger than imagined. After ascending a wooden tower within the town, Hao Ren saw buildings stretching into the distance, layers of dilapidated rooftops rising and falling with the terrain, like repulsive wrinkles on some filthy beast. Everything within sight was a deathly gray-black, the entire town devoid of any bright colors that might lighten the mood. At the far end of the town, away from the riverbank, stood a large building, perhaps the residence of a noble.

Most likely the place where that wizard once lived.

Hao Ren descended from the watchtower and told the others what he had seen: "There's a big house at the other end of town. Let's head that way first."

"Mm, also, don't just focus on getting there. Pay attention to the surroundings along the way," Vivian nodded. "A wizard's base will always have many traps, especially on this scale… The guy who could set up this kind of mystic realm was probably no ordinary figure even in the age of mythology."

The group cautiously began exploring this silent and eerie lost town. Lily, all the while, curiously eyed the aged houses and crude street facilities, asking the most knowledgeable person present, "Bat, what era do you think this town is from?"

"Between 1000 AD and 400 years ago. The architectural style and level of civilization in this area didn't change much during that period, and the time flow in this town is clearly out of sync with the outside world, so it's even harder to be sure what era it's from," Vivian frowned. "But one thing is certain: the mystic realm was definitely not formed naturally—this place used to be just an ordinary riverside town. Magic is what pulled it in from the real world."

"Regarding that wizard you guys investigated," Hao Ren looked up at Hesperia, "is there any more specific information?"

Hesperia was reluctant to pay attention to Hao Ren, but at this time she still lazily opened her mouth: "Wizards are a bunch of mysterious guys, and there's never much information you can find about them. Regarding this wizard, we only found some scattered information. His earliest activity record was around 1346 AD. He seemed to be French, and his earliest name was 'Baptiste'. He stayed in France for a hundred years, and nothing particularly outstanding happened during that time. He was a very honest guy back then. But later, something unknown happened, and the wizard suddenly left France, then traveled to many European countries, leaving behind a large number of records of black magic and evil rituals. Around 1500 AD, he was active in Finland and Russia, and the situation in this town should be his doing at that time."

"And then?"

"The information after that is intermittent. He hardly did anything outside for the next two centuries, and there's very little information left," Hesperia shook her head. "This 'Baptiste' is a freak. He never contacted his fellow wizards. Logically speaking, his power already surpassed many wizards in history, but his reputation isn't even as good as some black magic apprentices. I almost used all of my family's intelligence connections to find this little bit of information, and in the end, I couldn't even find out the origin of the wizard's power or his affiliated faction. Tsk tsk, a low-key hermit, a lone wolf."

Vivian looked up at the unchanging sky shrouded in smoke and dust, casually asking, "That wizard is already dead, right?"

"There's no clear death certificate either," Hesperia spread her hands with a wry smile. "There are records saying that he was involved in a mixed battle between demon hunters and Anubis descendants two centuries ago, and disappeared in the aftermath of the battle. He hasn't appeared for the entire two centuries since then. So he's probably dead… Who knows? Anyway, we're just here for his manuscripts and relics. It's better if that kind of troublesome guy is dead."

"I'd rather he was still alive," Hao Ren shrugged. "That way, I could ask him what that ritual to summon the evil spirit Vivian was all about."

As they talked, the group approached the center of the town. The road ahead seemed slightly wider, and although the distribution of buildings was still chaotic, the houses around them seemed slightly better than the previous ones in terms of scale and quality. It seemed that this used to be where the town's "upper class" lived. A small open space appeared before the group, not quite a plaza, just a relatively empty area. The ground here was neatly leveled, and the roads around the open space were paved with cobblestones of moderate size. In the center of the open space was a wooden platform that had rotted and collapsed. It seemed that this was once the place where the townspeople gathered and listened to the lord's commands.

Surrounding the open space were ancient wooden and stone houses, one after another like haunted houses arranged in a circle, staring at the outsiders who had trespassed into the town with their gray-black, hollow faces. Their doors were tightly closed, and tattered strips of cloth or wooden boards hung on the narrow windows, revealing the hollow darkness inside the gaps in the doors and windows. That darkness seemed to hide pairs of eyes—the eyes of those mysteriously missing townspeople, whose final fate was unknown.

Nangong Wuyue seemed a little creeped out by the surrounding atmosphere. She summoned a mist to wrap herself, then transformed into her siren form. After casually throwing her clothes-ball to Hao Ren, the water serpent girl stretched: "Hoo… This is much more reassuring."

Hao Ren put Wuyue's clothes into his dimensional storage and kindly asked, "Aren't you cold?"

Wuyue's water serpent lower half spread directly on the ground, and the ground of this Arctic Circle town was as cold as ice. Hao Ren watched her tail arching around on the ground and felt cold for her.

Wuyue raised the tip of her tail and shook it: "It's okay, water elementals aren't afraid of the cold—as long as it doesn't freeze."

Lily, at this time, became interested in the wooden platform in the center of the open space. She curiously walked around the platform, then suddenly raised her Fire Very Happy with great excitement: "Why do I feel so chilly around this platform?"

"There are many spirits here," Nangong Sanba said with a serious face, holding two bottles of exorcising oil in his hands. "Don't go poking around with a fire stick, or you'll be in trouble if you disturb a powerful evil spirit."

Lily was furious when she heard this, and waved her Fire Very Happy at Nangong Sanba: "If you say this is a fire stick again—can't you see the three prongs on it?!"

"Speaking of the spirits here, are they ghosts?" Hao Ren had been interested in this question for a while. "If they're ghosts, can we communicate with them?"

Such a gloomy and eerie lost town, with countless invisible spirits wandering among the dilapidated streets and houses, would have been enough to scare ordinary people shitless, but Hao Ren had just won against an entire planet's rage spirits, so his nerves were tough now. The first thing he thought of when he heard about ghosts was to ask them for directions.

"Unfortunately, they're all very weak spirits," Nangong Sanba shook his head regretfully. "They're everywhere in the air, but they're all mixed together, blurred to the point of being almost indistinguishable—these kinds of spirits, which can't even maintain their own identities, can't be communicated with. Their memories and thoughts are long gone."

Hao Ren said "oh" and muttered thoughtfully, "Are they the original residents of this town?"

"Most likely," Vivian agreed. "The residents of this town should all be ordinary humans, and judging by the state of the houses, the residents here didn't have time to react at all when the town was dragged into this space—ordinary people can't survive long in this kind of space."

"To drag an entire town of people in… What exactly did that wizard want to do back then?" Hao Ren frowned, his face a little unsightly. "If it was for seclusion, it seems too unnecessary to go to such great lengths."

While they were discussing the fate of the town's residents, Lily had already walked around the wooden platform many times. She was inexplicably drawn to this platform, and a faint light shone from her golden eyes. In her vision, many fluttering shadows slowly emerged in this open space. Those shadows had vague human outlines, seemed to be wearing clothes from hundreds of years ago, and stood there expressionlessly, looking up at the direction of the wooden platform, seemingly listening numbly to someone who didn't exist giving a high-sounding speech on the platform.

Lily's ears slowly perked up, and some scattered words and phrases floated into her ears:

"…The child was indeed stolen by the devil. We should have expelled that witch earlier…"

"Does it seem like we haven't seen the lord for a long time?"

"…The scholar said he would help exorcise the child, but I don't trust magic…"

"Shhh, do you want to be cursed by the witch? They'll throw you outside the town. The witch is still wandering outside…"

"Why not ask the church?"

"…The lord didn't show up…"