Chapter 34 The Mysterious Castle
Xie Liang was thrown into a jungle by the vortex gate. In front of him was a winding stone-paved path with weeds growing on both sides.
It was almost dusk, and he continued walking along the path.
Ten minutes later, a small European-style castle appeared in the distance. From a distance, several Adventers were standing on the pavilion at the entrance. Xie Liang quickened his pace and walked towards the castle.
An old woman dressed in nun's clothes was standing at the door. It seemed that she was the NPC of this copy.
The old nun kept muttering:
"Damn it! Why aren't they here yet? I'll be leaving soon!"
"If you wander around, you'll be eaten by wild beasts!"
"You damn people are wasting my precious time..."
She repeated these words over and over again.
The sun was setting, and just when the old nun was about to go berserk, everyone finally arrived.
Just like in the temporary stay, there were thirteen Adventers in total.
The old nun cursed as she pulled a brass key from her pocket and turned to open the door of the small castle.
After entering the castle, the old nun's expression suddenly softened: "Come in. Be careful on the steps, don't fall."
After everyone came in, she smiled strangely and said, "You will stay here for the next seven days. Once the house is cleaned, you can leave."
After the old nun finished speaking, she turned and walked towards the door. When she reached the door, she grabbed the door handle with both hands and prepared to lock the door.
At this time, a woman in a navy blue dress saw that she was about to lock the door, and hurried over to block the gap with her hand.
The old nun showed her impatience again and shouted in an angry tone, "If you don't lock the door, you will all be eaten! Damn it, get out of the way quickly! You troublemakers!"
"What ate it?" Xie Liang asked.
The old nun glared at him and said nothing.
The woman blocking the door asked hurriedly, "Old man, you haven't told me what we're supposed to do here? Are you asking us to clean this place?"
The old nun had obviously lost her patience. She pulled the door handle regardless and forced the two carved bronze doors together. The two doors creaked at the same time as she pulled.
The woman who had put her hand in the crack of the door screamed "Ah" and quickly retracted her hand. Her hand was already red from being pinched by the door.
Before anyone could get any useful information, the old nun locked the two doors from the outside.
"Damn it! I didn't get anything out of it!" A man in a yellow jacket said as he punched the tightly closed bronze door. The door immediately made a sharp creaking sound, which sounded like a woman crying.
Xie Liang ignored them and began to look at the castle in the twilight coming in from the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Just like the temporary residence, the walls of the entire castle are almost covered with murals of various sizes.
On the high round dome is a fresco of the Virgin Mary holding the Child, and on the surrounding walls are pictures of demons with bull heads and bat wings.
The devils in the painting are in different postures. Some of them are wearing human clothes and preparing to blend into the crowd on the street, some are killed by a sword-wielding boy, and some are holding a knife and fork and preparing to eat, but the food on the plate is actually a pale human head.
The castle had two floors, both hollow in the middle, sharing a circular ceiling that was seven stories high, and upon entering, one could see an incredibly spacious hall.
There was a long, crescent-shaped dining table in the living room, with a very strange shape, like a horseshoe. A long red carpet was laid in the middle of the living room, extending all the way to the corner of the stairs to the second floor.
Xie Liang followed the crowd up to the second floor. The atmosphere was unusually quiet as everyone was digesting these murals filled with a strange atmosphere.
The murals on the second floor appear even more cruel and terrifying. There are pictures of the devil digging out people's eyes with his bare hands, the devil twisting off people's heads with his bare hands, and the devil pulling out people's internal organs with his bare hands. There is also a picture of the devil holding a hammer in one hand and a long nail in the other, nailing a person to a cross.
The demons in the painting are cruel and brutal, and humans are slaughtered wantonly by them like their prey.
No one spoke, and they all looked at these strange and terrifying murals quietly. Only after they had finished looking at all the murals did they gather in the long hall on the second floor.
The woman in red looked at the mural of a sleeping devil on the wall and said, "What kind of painting is that? It's so ugly."
Everyone was still immersed in their own paintings, and no one responded to her.
After a while, the woman whose hand was pinched by the door suggested, "Since we're all gathered here, why don't we introduce ourselves to each other? Only by working together can we get out of this damn place sooner."
Next, everyone gave a brief self-introduction and reported their names.
At this time, the sky had completely darkened.
Just as the castle was about to fall into endless darkness, the large chandelier on the ceiling suddenly lit up.
The warm yellow light shines on everyone's face, making people look indescribably uncomfortable.
There were exactly thirteen rooms on the corridors on both sides of the second floor, as if they were specially prepared for them.
The doors of the thirteen rooms were painted with different door paintings one after another. Some were portraits, some were devils, and there seemed to be no pattern.
"Thirteen rooms? Doesn't the rule prohibit living alone?" The man named Lan Song said as he reached out to open the door next to his room.
"Hey! Don't touch anything yet. Let's draw lots to decide who will live in which room!" Hongguo, who was wearing a red dress, hurriedly stopped him.
Lan Song looked Hong Guo up and down, his eyes a little vulgar: "I can live in any room, how about I live in the same room with you?"
Seeing him staring at her collar, Hong Guo spat at him in disgust: "Bah! So disgusting, what are you looking at, you bastard!"
Lan Song ignored Hong Guo and opened the door with the devil's picture on it.
The room was clean and tidy, with only a bed inside. The walls were also covered with murals in a similar style to the one outside.
"Let's draw lots, and everyone can live in whichever room they draw." said the man named Huang Jinwu.
Lan Song waved his hands impatiently: "I don't smoke. My door is open. Whoever wants to smoke can do it."
Hong Guo rolled her eyes at him and said disdainfully, "You're such a scoundrel!"
Lan Song glanced at Hong Guo with ill intent, then turned his gaze to Long Qingye: "Even though I'm a scoundrel, I'm still better than some people."
"I'm warning you, if you dare look at me and Brother Ye like that again, I'll dig out your eyes!"
Lan Song sneered: "I didn't say anything, are you confessing yourself?"
"Exactly, haha!"
"I think she just relies on her looks..."
The men on Lan Song's side all echoed.
Hong Guo was furious and pulled out a folding knife from his waist. "You filthy bastards! You're courting death!"
She waved her hand, and the blade unfolded and slashed towards Lan Song.
"Oh, this woman is getting angry. Is she this hot in bed too?"
Lan Song dodged while continuing to provoke.
Long Qingye glanced at him with a cold look. Lan Song immediately shut his mouth when he saw this. He didn't dare to fight back, but just kept dodging Hong Guo's attacks.
"Red fruit." Long Qingye's tone was restraining.
After hearing this, Hongguo stopped attacking Lansong and quietly retreated to his side.
Long Qingye curled his lips into a cold smile and looked at Lan Song and the others: "If you stir up trouble again, even if you can leave here alive, I can make you die quietly outside."
At this time, no one dared to joke with Hongguo anymore. They all stood aside quietly and said nothing.
The distribution of these rooms is very peculiar. The middle of the second floor is oval-shaped and hollow, with six rooms on each side of the oval arc.
At the top of one side is a staircase leading to the first floor, and at the top of the other side is a long hall with a set of leather sofas.
There is a small room in the corner of one side of the long hall, and together with the two rows of rooms, there are exactly thirteen rooms.
Everyone opened all the rooms on the second floor one after another and found that there was only a bed in each room and nothing else.
Except for the room occupied by Lan Songzhan, the rest of the rooms were allocated by drawing lots.
Xie Liang drew a small room on the side of the long hall. This room was only half the size of the other rooms on the second floor. The bed was on the left side of the entrance. Like the other rooms, all four walls were covered with murals.
There was only a dim tungsten filament chandelier in the room, and the light shone on the mural, reflecting a hazy halo.
Among the three murals in the room, the largest one depicts an old man kneeling on the ground with his palms clasped together. Behind him stands a group of ferocious-looking people holding stones of varying sizes and throwing them at him.
The old man in the painting is spitting blood and covered in wounds, yet he remains in a prayerful posture. His eyes are tightly closed, and his wrinkled face shows no trace of resentment or pain, but rather a kind and forgiving expression.
The second mural still depicts the old man, who is tied to the gallows. A deep cut has been made in the middle of his stomach with a knife. His internal organs have been taken out by the executioner with a knife and hung on the wheel of the gallows.
Judging from the old man's open eyes in the painting, he should still be alive at the time, and he is calmly and clearly watching himself being tortured by the executioner. There are puddles of the old man's blood on the ground, and the surrounding area is crowded with onlookers with indifferent expressions.
The last smaller painting shows another haggard old man tied to a wooden stake, his body full of sharp arrows, and the archers around him drawing their bows and shooting at him.
After looking at these murals, Xie Liang couldn't help but think of some Western religions. However, he didn't know much about this aspect, and he couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he thought about it.
Late at night, the yellow light in the room suddenly flickered, as if there was a power shortage. After flickering a few times, the light went out completely.
This small room had no windows, and Xie Liang was instantly plunged into darkness.
Is there a power outage? He fumbled for the light switch, but the light didn't come on.
It wasn't until he opened the door in the dark that he realized the large chandelier outside was also off. The castle was utterly dark, with only a faint moonlight shining through the transparent French windows next to the long hall.
The creaking sounds of doors opening were heard one after another, and other adventers opened their doors and walked out one after another. It seemed that the tungsten filament lamps in everyone's room were also extinguished.
"What happened? Is there a power outage?" It was Huang Jinwu's voice.
"It looks like there's a power outage. Should we check the power supply facilities?" Wen Qingqing said.
"It's so late, who's going?"
"Let's talk about it tomorrow. It's late at night, and this is an advanced copy without prompts. It's too dangerous."
"Yeah, I heard that the Whirlpool Gate is no longer accepting new members. It feels like it's trying to wipe us out."
Everyone stood in the corridor outside their rooms, talking to each other.
In the end, no one went downstairs to check the power supply equipment. After chatting for a while, everyone went back to their rooms to rest.
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