Chapter 2605: Chapter 2606: A Gift of Sweet Dreams
Does the existence of the Ghosteye Witch hold special meaning?
Upon hearing Angelâs words, Dox was filled with confusion. Could it be that the Ghosteye Witch harbored unknown secrets? Was he just ignorant and making a fuss over nothing?
Dox turned to look at the others, confirming that Vay and Kaier were also in a state of bewilderment, but the Black Earlâs single nose showed no emotion.
Just as Dox hesitated over whether to bear the "ignorant" label and ask Angel, Angel took the initiative to continue the conversation.
"Itâs said that the Ghosteye Witch community gathers in the central area of the Underground Labyrinth. Spotting a Ghosteye Witch means youâre not far from the mazeâs center. And the Hanging Jail Stairway weâre looking for is in the central district."
Dox: "So the special meaning refers to this... Is this your exclusive intel?"
Angel paused briefly: "I canât disclose the source of this information to you."
Dox shrugged and didnât ask further. They were already familiar with Angelâs dispositionâwhat he would tell you and what he wouldnât, heâd make clear in advance. Although it could be quite irritating at times, it was a kind of unconventional honesty?
At this moment, the Black Earl had composed himself from his earlier surprise and said calmly, "I can ignore your intel source, but is this information reliable?"
Angel pondered for a moment, shook his head, and said, "I donât know how credible it is, but since weâve already detected traces of the Ghosteye Witch, and weâre indeed not far from the Hanging Jail Stairway, I think this intel can be trusted."
The source of this intel is Sanders, and what Sanders mentioned was about the situation in the Underground Labyrinth of the Nightmare Realm. Angel couldnât be entirely sure how it corresponded to reality.
Nevertheless, since traces of the Ghosteye Witch had already appeared here, drawing parallels from the Nightmare Realmâs experiences to reality wasnât out of the question.
After all, these were just details.
The Ghosteye Witch itself wasnât important, but the meaning and symbol it represented were. Even if they didnât encounter the Ghosteye Witch on their journey, it wouldnât hinder their search for the Hanging Jail Stairway.
Black Earl: "Since you put it that way, letâs consider it good news for now."
After a pause, Black Earl continued, "Youâve shared one piece of news, and Iâll share one as well. Itâs neither good nor bad news."
"Just recently, the scent location point I left near the flue detected the scent of a person."
Dox raised an eyebrow: "Does this mean the Merchant Organization has caught up?"
Black Earl: "Itâs just one person."
Upon hearing this, Dox immediately rolled his eyes: "If itâs just one person, then itâs no big deal. Chances are, they wouldnât even make it through those Carrion Squirrels, and they might already be in trouble."
Black Earl: "Escaping the encirclement of the mutated Carrion Squirrels isnât limited to just illusions. That personâs scent has disappeared, indicating they successfully broke through."
This piqued Doxâs interest. Breaking through the encirclement of so many mutated Carrion Squirrels wasnât simple. Even for him, it would be a bloody ordeal, and he might not even shake off the mutated Carrion Squirrels.
How did that person manage to break through?
Faced with Doxâs question, Black Earl remained silent for a moment but eventually responded: "Angel used the Moving Mirage to lead you away, which is a relatively dignified method of departure. That person, on the other hand, didnât leave in such a dignified manner, but it worked just as well."
"An undignified method?" Dox asked, "What kind of method?"
Black Earl: "I only left a scent location point there and donât know what method was used. However, it could be one of two things: either they transformed themselves into a mutated Carrion Squirrel and blended in, then slipped away quietly, or they entered the body of a mutated Carrion Squirrel and controlled it to leave."
Regardless of the method, in Black Earlâs view, it was undignified.
Black Earlâs sole criterion for judging dignity is whether it smells bad or not.
After all, for a Black Earl that is just a nose, a foul odor is unbearable.
"So it was a Shapeshifting Technique..." Dox realized, but imagining the scene of mingling with that mountain of mutated Carrion Squirrels and enduring constant mental contamination during the long journey gave him chills.
Heâd rather fight his way out than endure such torment. It wasnât about dignity but about bearing humiliation, he could "bear weight," but not such humiliation!
The two apprentices shivered at the thought of those grotesque, psychologically scarring mutated Carrion Squirrels. They had to admit, the person pursuing them was indeed formidable...
Nonetheless, it was just a chilling thought. Realistically speaking, there was no real fear of the pursuer.
"Come to think of it, I didnât realize you had a backup, the scent location point, it sounds impressive to detect from such a distance," Dox asked with curiosity, "How many scent location points did you place along the way, my lord?"
Black Earl let out a cold snort and paid Dox no mind.
However, Angel smiled and said, "The answer to that question is quite obvious. Were there any other things besides the mutated Carrion Squirrels along the way? Do you think the Black Earl would place scent location points on this route? So, perhaps there was one left in the living district and one near the entrance of the path we took."
Angel looked towards Black Earl: "Am I right, my lord?"
Black Earl: "You missed one."
Black Earl didnât specify which one was missed, and then landed on Vayâs hand, saying, "Thereâs nothing left to explore here, letâs move forward."
After speaking, Black Earl glanced at Angel. The others also looked at Angel, and upon seeing Angel nod, they began to move away from the narrow passage.
The path ahead became narrower, yet thus far, they hadnât encountered anything unexpected.
At this point, Dox leaned over to Angel and asked, "Did you figure out where the one scent location point thatâs missing is?"
Angel shrugged: "I havenât, why? Do you have any ideas?"
Dox: "I guess it must be near the entrance connecting the Underground Church and the Underground Labyrinth, that way it can keep track of how many people are following us."
Dox claimed it was a guess, but his tone had a definitive assurance.
Angel looked at Dox and softly said, "Sometimes I think your thoughts and actions are quite strange, but sometimes your thoughts are too normal. Youâre truly a mysterious guy."
Angel shook his head, said nothing more, and continued forward.
Dox scratched his head, puzzled, wondering what Angel meant with those words, whether he agreed or disagreed with him?
The answer... was naturally disagreement.
If the scent location point were indeed near the entrance, Black Earl wouldnât have detected the presence just now. He would have mentioned it earlier, rather than when the person was already near the flue.
From Black Earlâs words, it was clear that the flue area was the first scent location point.
Further ahead, there would be a Magical Energy Array blocking the path. Angel couldnât even sneak past there, let alone Black Earlâs scent bypassing it, Angel didnât believe it.
Therefore, if Black Earl truly had another location point, it would certainly be on the path beyond the flue.
As for where exactly, Angel had a few places in mind, but there was no need to delve deeper. If something new emerged at that point, Black Earl would naturally speak up.
...
The path continued, growing more narrow and steep.
Along the way, they did gain something. Apart from previously discovering traces of the Ghosteye Witch, they later found several corpses.
These were all humans, with some residual traces of transcendence. Upon inspection, it seemed they had been dead for a long time, at least over five hundred years, and their strength was likely at the peak of an apprentice.
There were roughly two causes of death: one was being killed by other humans, and the other was being killed by magical creatures.
And the detection by the Pheromone Amplifier revealed that the magical creature was still the Ghosteye Witch, but its aura was even more complex than the one found by the centaur statue before.
This meant that this apprentice was beaten to death by a group. In other words, there was more than one Ghosteye Witch.
This seemed to further confirm that Angelâs information was not groundless.
As for the "relics" of these skeletons.
There were indeed some undamaged Spatial Capsules, containing some miscellaneous items of varying value. Angel allocated all these to Kaier.
After all, speaking of which, Kaier was the true owner of the key and was also considered as the initiator of the adventure.
Angel, as the leader, deprived Kaier of his interest in researching history, so he could only compensate him in other ways. Therefore, as long as something was not particularly dangerous or unknown, Angel would firstly consider Kaier.
After walking for a few more minutes, they saw the second narrow opening in the distance.
The second narrow opening was more exaggerated than the first, directly intercepting the road to leave only half the width, and looking inside from here, it continued to narrow.
"Will it finally be just the size of an alley?" Dox muttered.
"Itâs not possible, itâs certain," said Angel. "The short stretch of road we walked before was abnormal."
That could be considered an intentional psychological pressure from the officials, a kind of deterrent that was now gradually returning to normal.
After all, alleyways are the norm in the Underground Labyrinth. Itâs important to note that when Angel was in the Underground Labyrinth within the Nightmare Realm, he mostly walked narrow paths, including the place where the wall was located, which was also a narrow alley.
"Notice the statue in front; it seems to have life traces," said the voice of the Black Earl.
Their hearts tightened, and they looked ahead in the direction of the Black Earlâs voice.
Like the first narrow opening, there was a statue on each side, but instead of "front-facing" centaurs, there were two extremely common gargoyles.
Centaur statues were true stone statues that admonished outsiders against entering without invitation.
Gargoyles, on the other hand, were half stone, half magical creature; entering without an invitation would result in facing the gargoyleâs attack.
However, these two gargoyles appeared heavily coated with patina.
Even with the Black Earlâs reminder that the gargoyles still seemed to have life traces, Angel, no matter how much he used his spiritual power to perceive, could not detect any abnormalities in the gargoyles. Nor were there any signs of them shedding their stone shells to transform into a magical creature.
Out of curiosity, Angel walked up to the gargoyle.
This time, he observed the gargoyle more "deeply" because he directly broke off one of its fingers.
Still, there was no reaction.
At this moment, the stone slab containing the Black Earl floated over, hovering directly on the gargoyleâs forehead.
After a while, the Black Earl said, "These are two already sleep-dead gargoyles."
"Sleep-dead?"
The Black Earl explained, "Though gargoyles often sleep for decades, millennia are still too long, long enough that even a magical creature like a gargoyle has reached a state of sleep-death."
"Are they still alive then?" Vay asked curiously.
Black Earl replied, "Theyâre alive but indistinguishable from dead, as they can no longer awaken. Even if you cut off their heads, they would simply die, rather than be startled awake, since these are just ordinary little demon gargoyles... If they were dark-gold gargoyles, they might be revived through sustained burning. "
What the Black Earl talked about was another blind spot of knowledge for everyone. Though not useful for the current situation, it didnât stop the group from silently noting it.
It turns out a magical creature known for sleep, such as a gargoyle, could also completely sleep to death as long as the scale of time was extended long enough...
"So, since theyâre sleep-dead, should we cut them down?" Dox already had his hand on the sword at his waist.
Angel looked at the two fierce-looking gargoyles, which actually posed no threat, and sighed softly: "Let them continue sleeping. In fact, sleep-death might be a good way to die."
As he said this, Angel extended his finger and gently tapped the gargoyleâs forehead.
The group faintly sensed a wave of magic power.
The Black Earl chuckled lightly, "Youâre interesting, actually giving them more of a Dream Entering Technique. Are you worried they arenât sleeping soundly enough?"
Angel spread his hands. "Since they canât wake up, letâs grant them one final beautiful dream."
With that, Angel turned directly and headed deeper into the narrow path.
Dox furrowed his brow, "Isnât his behavior a bit odd?"
Vay glared angrily, "What do you know, this is the romance of Lord Chaowei. Bestowing beautiful dreams upon sleeping gargoyles sounds like a fairytale."
Dox, interrupted by Vay, forgot where he initially felt it was odd, and retorted, "If you replace the gargoyle with a beautyâs name, I would find it romantic. Bestowing beautiful dreams upon gargoyles? How is that romantic? Itâs more like having a screw loose."
Vay: "Since the renowned Lord Red Sword views Lord Chaowei in this manner, why donât you just tell him directly, or should I tell Lord Chaowei for you?"
Dox quickly grabbed Vay, "Only good friends would talk like this, what do you know. Donât think about ruining my relationship with Angel, just give up, youâre not going to interfere."
The back-and-forth of the two fools didnât affect the groupâs progress in exploration.
After passing the second narrow opening, it wasnât long before they arrived at the fourth narrow opening.
This might be the last narrow opening, as the road inside the fourth one had returned to a passageway wide enough for three to four people side by side.
Moreover, the fourth narrow opening was no longer sloping downwards; it had returned to a flat, Right Path.
Previously at the third narrow opening, gargoyles had already appeared.
The fourth narrow opening naturally also had corresponding guards, but these guards were completely different from those before.
At each end of this narrow opening, there was a wall-mounted candlestick, emitting a pale blue flame.
Though called a flame, everyone could feel that this flame didnât exist in the Material Realm, as it was a mimicked fire.
It was a fire mimicked by another non-material realm entity. As for which type of non-material realm entity it was, the Official Wizard present had a pretty clear idea in mind.
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