Chapter 180 The Haunted House

Not only Hao Ren saw the figure, but Lily, who had always prided herself on her keen senses, also caught the fleeting shadow between the bookshelves at once. The husky girl immediately jumped up: "Someone's up ahead!"

The group immediately chased after it, weaving through rows of bookshelves that resembled maze-like walls, closely pursuing the elusive aura ahead. After chasing through several giant bookshelves, Hao Ren finally saw the target's back. He saw that it was a petite woman, about Lily's height from the back, and extremely agile. Just as the group was about to catch up with her, she suddenly rushed straight towards a bookshelf filled with scrolls, and disappeared right before their eyes.

"Vanished?!" Hao Ren ran several more steps after seeing her disappear before stopping. He came to the bookshelf and found that it was just an ordinary shelf, without any secret passages or hidden devices. The data terminal also shook itself after detecting the surrounding space readings: "No signs of spatial teleportation. That was probably a phantom just now."

"First, zombie-like demon hunters, and now even ghosts are popping up..." Izhaks said gruffly, "Could all the demon hunters in this tower have turned into half-dead states..."

"Remember that Claude from before?" Lily suddenly remembered something, "Could he have escaped from the tower and been captured by you at the front line?"

"...But his condition didn't look like that of a deserter." Izhaks stroked his chin and shook his head slightly. Just as he finished speaking, a sudden sound of footsteps from nearby interrupted everyone.

A tall figure appeared out of nowhere in the distance and slowly walked towards them, holding a thick book in his hands, seemingly completely immersed in reading ancient texts. Bai Huo exclaimed immediately upon seeing the figure: "Mentor?!"

It was none other than Hasson, who had been taken into the Spirit Realm Clock Tower, and whose fate was uncertain!

However, Hasson's state was exactly the same as that of Andaher they had encountered earlier: empty eyes, mechanical behavior, rigidly repeating his past activities in the tower as if he were a soulless puppet. He paced beside the bookshelf with a large book in his hands, and only looked up blankly after Hao Ren and his group walked up to him, nodding slightly to Bai Huo: "Are you here to study potionology?"

"Mentor... How did you become like this?" Even though she knew that he probably couldn't answer her question, Bai Huo still stepped forward and grabbed Hasson's hand, asking anxiously, "Are you alright?"

Hasson just looked at Bai Huo expressionlessly, and after a long delay, nodded lightly: "I'm fine."

"Where is everyone else?" Hao Ren also stepped forward to ask some questions, because according to Andaher's situation, even in this "disembodied" state, Hasson should be able to provide some information, "Where are the Saints?"

"Everyone is where they should be, the Saints are lecturing everyone," Hasson said slowly, and nodded to Vivian, "Countess."

"The soul has also been separated, the consciousness is imprisoned deep within the mental realm, and the whole person is as if isolated in another past time and space," the data terminal checked Hasson's state, "Hmm... His 'symptoms' seem to be milder than the others?!"

"Milder symptoms?" A glimmer of hope flashed in Bai Huo's eyes, "Can he be awakened?"

At this time, Hao Ren also saw that Hasson's state was indeed better than Andaher's—because his gaze kept sweeping over Vivian and the others, and from time to time he would show a hint of doubt, as if subconsciously he still knew that this was the Spirit Realm Clock Tower, and that these people shouldn't be here. This kind of active mental activity had never appeared in Andaher or the dozens of demon hunters before.

A part of Hasson's intellect was still active, and his subconscious was probably trying to show this.

The data terminal flew around Hasson's head while muttering: "Perhaps it's because the real 'location' of this library is really outside the Spirit Realm Clock Tower that he's less affected than others. This unit will try to give him some stimulation, it probably won't completely wake him up, but you can take this opportunity to ask him some questions."

As the terminal spoke, a series of blue patterns suddenly lit up on its shell, and then several bright arcs struck Hasson's forehead, causing the latter to tremble, and his eyes immediately regained some clarity.

"Mentor, Mentor, how are you?" Bai Huo grabbed Hasson's shoulders and shook him vigorously, "Can you hear me?"

Hasson's eyes kept changing between clarity and chaos, as if he was trying to break free from some kind of mental imprisonment, but he still couldn't make a sufficiently vivid and clear response. Izhaks, who was proficient in the way of the soul, immediately stepped forward and pressed the other person's shoulders after realizing Hasson's soul state: "Don't force yourself to speak, just nod or shake your head—can you hear our voices?"

Hasson nodded slowly.

"Do you know where the Saints are? The 'real' place."

Hasson continued to nod.

"Take us to find them."

Hasson hesitated for a moment this time, but finally nodded, then turned and walked straight in a certain direction.

The group followed behind the elder demon hunter, continuing to advance deeper into the Spirit Realm Clock Tower, while Tutan left behind markers along the way for subsequent troops to identify—although it seemed that the Spirit Realm Clock Tower's defensive force had already disintegrated due to the strange "ghostly" state here, a large force was still needed to thoroughly investigate the tower.

Under Hasson's guidance, the group finally found the missing demon hunters—including the elders who had been captured by the Elder Council earlier, and the original guards of the Spirit Realm Clock Tower.

The situation deep inside the Clock Tower was even more bizarre and creepy.

They passed through one gloomy and cold hall after another, one dusty study after another, and one deep corridor after another echoing with eerie whistling sounds. The Spirit Realm Clock Tower was full of deserted, lifeless, and faded rooms. Flickering candlelight swayed on the walls, but the candles showed no signs of burning or consumption, and the fireplace flames crackled in the corners of the rooms, but these flames had no warmth. An inexplicable cold wind blew through the entire building from time to time, bringing distant, garbled human voices, and most of these voices could only be heard by Lily.

It was like a haunted house.

And the demon hunters, like ghosts, were acting like zombies in such an environment, mechanically repeating their past lives, as if imprisoned in a time warp. In the library, several elders of the Order were completely immersed in ancient books, unable to extricate themselves. In an armory, they saw demon hunter masters with empty eyes mechanically wiping their weapons. And in the corridors on the upper floors, they encountered patrolling tower guards more than once—those guards were still strictly following the schedule for patrols and handovers, but they turned a blind eye to everything that passed before them.

Finally, they arrived at a place that looked like a banquet hall.

This banquet hall was gloomy and dark, and the fading was more severe than in other places. The entire hall was almost black and white, and a cold atmosphere lingered in the air, making it almost impossible to breathe.

Ethereal and intermittent music echoed in the banquet hall. These intermittent sounds sounded as if they were leaking from a broken space-time, making people wonder if there were really people still holding a ball in this banquet hall—an endless banquet constantly repeating in a closed timeline.

Hasson had been silent after bringing everyone here. Now the data terminal was checking his state, while Hao Ren vigilantly looked around. He saw some very thin lights and shadows floating in the dim environment from time to time. These lights and shadows flashed by, and if you looked closely, you would find that they were some figures, just like the afterimages left by people who used to hold balls here.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a short figure that looked a little familiar running out of the corner of the banquet hall. This short figure was the one that had suddenly appeared and disappeared in the library before. The figure ran through the hall, flickered quickly a few times, and finally disappeared next to Lily—startling the husky girl.

Just as everyone was getting nervous because of the creepy atmosphere here, Little Elizabeth suddenly pointed to the end of the hall: "There's someone there!"

Hao Ren looked in the direction the little girl was pointing, and sure enough, he saw a vague figure in the darkness. It was a thin figure wearing a black robe, almost completely integrated with the darkness of the background, and there was no aura coming out of it. If it weren't for the little girl's keen eyes, Hao Ren probably wouldn't have noticed that there was someone sitting there.

Lily nervously leaned forward, she found that the person in front of her was probably the so-called Saint—because the other person's face was really covered with a strange mask.

However, there was no sign of life in him.

Lily carefully poked the person in front of her with her paw: "Seems like... he's been dead for a long time."