Chapter 1 Angus's Failed Performance

Angus's charade failed for the first time today. He never expected anyone to break into the small church he'd blocked off with boulders—under normal circumstances, it would take a crane or several strong people to move that pile of rocks. The suddenly appearing super-strong wolf-girl completely disrupted Angus's plans. In his panic, he didn't even see who opened the church door. Besides, he didn't dare turn on his miner's lamp and peek outside, for fear of exposing himself. The moment Lily moved the first rock, the shrewd hotel owner slipped into the underground passage and, knowing the passage might be discovered, he didn't linger, but followed the route he remembered, heading straight for the castle's exterior.

But the once-clear underground passage now had a stone wall blocking his way.

"You're saying this used to be open?" Hao Ren asked, surprised after Angus explained the situation. "Are you sure you didn't get the route wrong?"

"I've taken this route countless times, I can't be mistaken," Angus, previously in a state of panic, gradually came to his senses after talking to the "ghost" in the black fog for a long time, sensing something was amiss. "Hey, aren't you the castle's ghost? Why don't you know what's down here?"

"That's none of your business. Just think of me as a neighbor from the graveyard next door. A ghost's gotta have a personal life," Hao Ren casually retorted. "So, you're saying the haunting was all an act?"

"Ah... yes," Angus secretly eyed the writhing black fog in front of him in the beam of his miner's lamp. It was the first time in his life he'd encountered a real "ghost," and he felt it was quite different from the ghosts he'd imagined. "I really didn't intend to disturb the spirits down here, I was just borrowing the ruins above. No harm intended—people do this all the time these days. Using historical sites to make money isn't a bad thing. From another perspective, I might even give this castle a chance to be renovated..."

"You're quite the talker," Hao Ren thought the hotel owner was quite clever, no wonder he could create such a big buzz. He turned to Vivian beside him and lowered his voice, "So what now? What do we do with this fat uncle?"

"You're done asking questions?" Vivian confirmed, then raised her hand and pointed at Angus not far away. "This will do."

A faint red light split from the black fog and vanished into Angus's body in an instant. He collapsed to the ground without a sound, no longer moving.

Hao Ren jumped up. "Hey, I just said to get rid of him, not to..."

"I just knocked him out temporarily," Vivian gave Hao Ren a strange look. "What are you thinking? Did you watch another vampire movie last night? I told you those things are misleading, try to avoid them."

Hao Ren was speechless. He glanced at the fat uncle lying on the ground and decided it wasn't right to leave him there, so he waved Lily over. "Take him upstairs and find a safe place. Oh, and keep an eye on those 'ghost-hunting experts'’ movements."

"Got it!" Lily nodded and agreed, effortlessly picking up Angus and disappearing in a flash.

Hao Ren shook his head with a wry smile, watching the direction Lily left. "This is really... after all this, that's it? This fat boss is pretty creative."

Although Angus had tricked a lot of people with his haunting act, Hao Ren didn't blame him much. After all, it wasn't a big crime, and these days tourist attractions and theme parks all over the place use even bigger gimmicks. Angus's act was nothing in comparison. Hao Ren just found the whole thing a bit speechless. The much-hyped castle haunting turned out to be just a money-making idea that the hotel's fat owner had come up with, and nobody had discovered the secret for so many days. This... truly lived up to the saying: life is too damn fun, because life is always playing with people!

Of course, Angus's haunting trick couldn't last forever. More and more paranormal enthusiasts came to join the fun. Sooner or later, some expert or retired scholar from the *Walking into Science* TV program would show up, and the hotel owner's trick would eventually fail. Hao Ren could see that the fat boss was purely in "can't stop" mode. The castle haunting had brought him a flood of customers, and it didn't seem like it would be exposed any time soon. Even the TV show was helping him along for the sake of ratings. How could he stop? He could only stage the haunting every now and then.

Exposure was only a matter of time—look, wasn't it exposed today?

"An act..." Vivian turned around, unconvinced, curiously studying the stone wall blocking the passage. "The strange sights people see on the ground might all be illusions, but down here... there's something real."

Hao Ren immediately remembered his own business, and also remembered that the situation with this stone wall hadn't been explained clearly. He became curious as well. "The fat boss shouldn't be lying, this stone wall appeared suddenly—where did it come from?"

"It's not a part of the cave ceiling that fell down," Vivian pointed to some marks on the stone wall. "Scratches. It should have slid down from the side not long ago. It's a designed structure, specifically to be activated when needed to block this road."

Hao Ren was about to say something when he heard a series of thumping footsteps from behind. He turned his head and saw it was Lily. The wolf-girl ran back, excitedly reporting her work. "I sent the fat boss up! And those ghost hunters seem to have left too!"

"They left?" Vivian was surprised, but then realized, "Oh right, the 'paranormal phenomenon' is over, they should have wandered around the castle ruins for a long time and found nothing. After all, they're not professional demon hunters, just a bunch of enthusiasts."

"So you just left the fat uncle alone in the wilderness?" Hao Ren looked at the werewolf girl who lacked a brain. "There aren't any wild animals out here, are there?"

"It's okay, when I sent the fat boss up, he was vaguely waking up, so I casually threw him into the back of an old man's truck who was dismantling a tent. He should be on his way back to town with the tent now," Lily transformed into her werewolf form, wagging her tail hard. "Don't worry, landlord, no one saw me. I'm as swift as the wind! And this bat's magic is really unreliable, it's only been a few minutes and he's already waking up."

Vivian immediately defended herself, "It's still more mysterious than you swinging a brick, right? And I deliberately suppressed the spell's effect so it would be like this, otherwise I'd accidentally make him sleep to death. Do you know how hard it is to control so precisely?"

Hao Ren looked at Lily's tail, thinking, "Swift as the wind, I don't know about that, but at least this tail is really fanning up the wind." The werewolf girl was kicking up dust behind her.

"Won't Angus say anything out of line when he gets back?" Hao Ren muttered with some concern. Vivian studied the stone wall and dismissively said, "You're worrying for nothing. What he says when he gets back has nothing to do with us. At most, there'll be another new ghost story. He didn't see our faces... uh, I found something."

Hao Ren immediately stopped worrying about Angus and quickly moved to Vivian's side. "What, what?"

"Here," Vivian pointed to the upper part of the stone wall. "See these letters and symbols?"

Hao Ren squinted his eyes and looked for a long time. "Those are letters? They're so worn out, I can barely make them out. Hey, wait, they don't look like English. They look a bit like Egyptian..."

"It's not Egyptian, and it's not English either. It's not a language used by humans," Vivian narrowed her eyes, red light flashing in her pupils. "This is the 'Leta Rune' that demon hunters and the Church used to use. It originally came from a very old demon hunter family, and later became an important means for the Church's secret forces to fight against 'Others'. The biggest feature of the 'Leta Rune' is that ordinary people can also use these symbols. But as humans became stronger and stronger, this rune gradually faded into the background. It's been over two hundred years since I last saw a Leta Rune."

Hao Ren swallowed. "What... what are these things for?"

He had already realized the strangeness of this castle, and also knew that there were genuine spirits down here, so he was sure that these runes and this suddenly appearing stone wall weren't just for decoration: they must have a significant meaning.

"Used to suppress devils, demons, evil spirits, and 'evil objects' with unclean power that cannot be destroyed," Vivian pointed to the rows of runes that had been almost completely eroded by time. "This door blocks the source of all evil, and evil power must not penetrate it. When this door falls, all guards must evacuate."