Following the voice, the Butler peered into the distance with confusion, discovering that the words had come from a rifleman standing some thirty meters away.
The soldier was tall and brawny but kept his head bowed low, making his features impossible to discern.
The Butler frowned and snapped with dissatisfaction:
"Hey, I'm speaking! Who are you to butt in? And keep your head up! You pathetic brat, look at me!"
"Hehehe~"
The soldier with the bowed head chuckled cryptically. "Raise my head? Fine."
With that, he looked up, revealing a face as deathly pale as parchment, completely devoid of color, yet a face the Butler knew all too well.
"Sevrin?!!"
The Butler's eyes bulged as he stammered, "You... you... weren't you burned to death? Are you... are you a man or a ghost?!"
"As you can see."
Sevrin let out a chilling laugh. "I am a ghost."
Suddenly his expression turned cold as he raised his gun and fired.
After a thunderous CRACK! The Butler let out a piteous scream, clutching his right thigh as he collapsed to his knees.
Simultaneously, the dozens of riflemen scattered all around Sevrin began to see and hear various horrors, some terrifying, some bizarre, some surreal. They were instantly plunged into a frantic state of chaos.
"Ghosts! So many ghosts! They're chasing me! AAHH! I'll kill you all! I'll blast every one of you!"
"Why did it turn dark? Why can't I see anything? Hey! Is anyone there?"
"Oh? Why are there so many watermelons on the ground? Hehe, I happen to be thirsty."
"Are you fucking crazy?! That's a corpse you're eating, dammit!"
"How did I end up on a cliff? Help! Someone save me!"
"Whoa! So much gold! Hey! No one's allowed to touch it! I'll kill anyone who takes some!"
"AAHH... I'm hit! Who shot me?!"
Amidst this scene of extreme gore and madness, an invisible Vile Slaughter was also on a rampage, possessing bodies and slaughtering at will, its mad laughter stirring the chaos into an even greater frenzy.
Yet no matter how chaotic or noisy it became, nothing could hinder Sevrin's slow, steady steps as he walked toward the Butler.
It was as if invisible high walls had been erected on either side of his path; not a single soul could draw near.
THUD... THUD... THUD...
Meeting the Butler's terrified, bewildered, and shocked gaze, Sevrin walked over step by step with a smile, asking playfully:
"Butler, I bet you didn't expect us to reunite quite so soon, did you?"
"Spare... spare my life! No, no, spare me, Great Immortal!"
Having witnessed the effects of Sevrin's occult arts firsthand, the Butler slumped on the ground, pleading in utter terror, "I... I was only following orders! This... this was all Huin's evil doing!"
"Are you some kind of idiot?"
Sevrin tilted his head and looked at him with a look of pure bewilderment. "Do you really think I came here to reason with you? I'm here to vent my goddamn frustration on you!"
He let out a wicked laugh, raised the butt of his rifle, and slammed it violently into the Butler's face.
"AAHH!!"
Accompanied by the spray of shattered teeth and piteous groans, the lower half of the Butler's face was instantly caved in. The agony was so great he could only writhe and roll across the dirt.
Immediately after, Sevrin aimed the rifle and fired four successive shots, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, into the man's ankles and wrists, turning him into a total cripple.
"Compared to Huin, the mastermind who plotted to harm me, you are indeed just a small fry."
Sevrin stepped forward and ground his heel into the Butler's face, speaking leisurely, "Therefore, being as magnanimous as I am, I'll allow you to live for a few moments longer."
As he spoke, the rifle squad around the mound, who had been lured into a fratricidal slaughter by the illusions. No, there was no longer a rifle squad.
In this bout of chaos and massacre, everyone had become a mangled, unrecognizable corpse. Not a single person survived.
"Alright, I'm off to deal with your master first."
Sevrin casually tossed the gun aside and said coldly, "As for you, just lie here and keep the corpses company. Once I've finished my business, I'll come back to deal with you."
With that, he turned and strode toward Geo Fortress.
"Ugh... aahh... hugh..."
Watching Sevrin's receding back, the Butler, lying on the ground in excruciating pain, finally broke into piteous sobs filled with overwhelming regret.
He regretted it.
If only he had fled Geo Fortress with his gold and silver sooner, he wouldn't have to suffer this agony or lie here waiting for death.
Unfortunately, regret came too late. Now, the Butler could only exist like a maggot, waiting for death in excruciating torment.
"If I had known, I would have been better off as a farmer..."
Just as he closed his eyes to endure the pain and reminisce about the past, Sevrin's voice reappeared:
"No, I can't leave you here alone."
The footsteps grew closer. "As they say, 'if you don't pull up the roots, the weeds will return with the spring breeze.' What if some meddling, peerless master happens to come by, saves you, and you transform into a master yourself to seek revenge on me in a few years? It's better to just end it all now."
These words caused the Butler to snap his eyes open, staring at the rapidly approaching Sevrin in disbelief.
Wait, look at me! How could I ever become a master? My lord, I beg you, just treat me like a dog and let me go!
The Butler wanted to say this, but his shattered mouth could no longer support speech; he could only let out piteous, muffled moans.
After just a few of those sounds, Sevrin didn't hesitate. With a violent, brutal kick, he crushed the man's skull.
And so, Huin's loyal lapdog, the Butler, saw his soul return to the Yellow Springs.
...
Geo Fortress, at the estate with the blood-stained stake.
"Asell, all these years, I have missed you constantly. You have always been the most important person in my heart."
Huin sat in his armchair, gazing from afar at the long-haired female ghost, Asell, who was tightly bound to the blood-stained stake by a purple-black rope. The beard on his weathered face twitched as he spoke with feigned heartbreak:
"But look at you. The moment you appeared, you came at me with intent to kill, without a shred of memory for our past love. Sigh. You are truly a disappointment. I can only say that my deep affection... was misplaced on the wrong person."
Having said that, he slowly stood up, hands tucked behind his back.
"Asell, to be honest, for many years now, every time I've woken with a start in the dead of night, I've been terrified your figure would be standing by my bed.
Therefore, after I waited for that old fossil to die and I completely took control of Geo Fortress, I began searching the world for treasures that could restrain fierce ghostly entities like you."
At this point, Huin broke into a wide grin. "Fortunately, I found this Demon-Subduing Rope. It can effectively suppress the wicked power of any ghostly entity.
Well? Are you finding it impossible to move even an inch, let alone utilize a single thread of your sinister ghostly Qi?"
Asell, her face veiled by her long hair, uttered not a word; she could only shudder in silence.
"Ah. I forgot. You're paralyzed now, unable to speak even half a sentence. Hmm... I know you hate me. But even if I had to do it all over again, I would still make the same choice. Simply because..."
Huin chuckled, then spoke slowly, "I could not accept spending the rest of my life rotting away in a tiny village. Therefore, I had to marry into the Qin family's Fortress to climb to a higher branch. And you, along with the fetus in your womb, were exactly the obstacles standing between me and that branch. So..."
"So, years ago, you set a fire to burn your ten-months-pregnant wife to death, just so you could..."
Accompanied by a voice dripping with contempt, Sevrin strolled through the estate's gates with a mocking sneer. "...become a live-in son-in-law."
Standing tall, he looked toward the astonished Huin in the courtyard and barked a cold, derisive laugh:
"Old Dog Huin, you truly are a rare specimen... a living beast."
"Sevrin?! It's you! How is this possible?"
Huin recoiled three steps in shock. "You were supposed to be dead! How are you..."
"Save the useless talk!"
Sevrin barked coldly, "Old dog, die!"
With that, he immediately activated the "Blood-Devouring Heart-Burn" divinity. His entire body flushed crimson as his physique surged; like a ferocious tiger radiating murderous intent, he charged toward Huin in the center of the courtyard.
In two or three strides, he crossed the hundred-meter gap. Shifting his palm into a claw that carried the sound of a whistling gale, he aimed a savage strike at Huin's head. But at the very instant before the attack connected, the old man vanished into the ground with a sudden WHOOSH!
Sevrin's full-power strike... hit nothing but air.
"Dammit!"
With a curse, Sevrin stomped his foot, cracking the stone pavement to bring his charging body to a forced halt. He spun around to look.
He saw that where Huin had just disappeared, a dark hole about two feet wide had appeared. Clearly, the Old Dog had successfully escaped the peril by relying on this inexplicably placed trapdoor.
"This son of a bitch really knows how to play," Sevrin sneered, walking toward the tunnel opening. "Digging a tunnel right in his own courtyard, he must have committed too many sins to sleep soundly."
He leaned over and peered into the pitch-black depths of the hole. Even after staring for a while, he couldn't see a glimmer of light; it was an absolute void of darkness.
"That old bastard definitely has traps set up in there, and probably quite a few of them," Sevrin thought, gritting his teeth. "Tsk. If I just dive in recklessly, I'll surely fall for his schemes."
Ideally, this would be the perfect time to deploy the invisible Vile Slaughter. By sending it into the tunnel, Sevrin could immediately map out all the traps and tricks within.
Unfortunately, after leaving that demonic land, the power of Sevrin's various Ghost Path occult arts had begun to plummet. When he was at the junction near the edge of the forest, the decline hadn't been as obvious.
But as the distance grew, Sevrin felt the power of his Ghost Path techniques suffer a shocking and rapid decline. It was as if this world did not permit ghostly entities to exist in the mortal realm outside of demonic lands.
Sevrin hypothesized that this was either because the Yin energy outside the demonic land was too sparse, or because the Yang energy under the broad daylight was too intense.
In short, his current ghostly powers were functioning at less than ten percent, barely a shadow of their former strength.
Consequently, the invisible Vile Slaughter within Sevrin's soul could not wander too far or stay away for long. Even if it managed to possess a nearby victim, it wouldn't be able to achieve full control over their form and spirit.
However, that didn't mean Sevrin was helpless against this tunnel.
His eyes darted around, and he strolled over to the blood-stained stake. Observing Asell, who was still bound tightly and unable to move, he let out a mischievous cackle:
"I choose you! Attack, Asell!"
With that, he yanked and pried at the Demon-Subduing Rope, forcibly pulling it off the bound ghost.
"NYAAAAGHHH!!"
The moment the rope hit the ground, Asell let out a sharp, piercing shriek. She transformed into a gust of murky black wind, and after a brief, chilling exchange of glances with Sevrin, she spun around and dived headlong into the dark tunnel.
As for Sevrin, he sat down casually in the armchair and began his leisurely wait.
Like Sevrin, Asell's Ghost Path powers had plummeted severely, to the point where she was visibly weaker than even a common wandering soul, but she was still more than capable of triggering traps and scouting the tunnel.
Asell was naturally aware of Sevrin's scheme, which was why she had given him that deep, lingering look before entering the hole. But it was an open trap; she had no choice but to follow her instinct for revenge.
Sure enough, it wasn't long before a series of muffled explosions and sharp cracks echoed from within the tunnel, sounding like a string of small bombs detonating.
Hearing these thuds, Sevrin's figure blurred. He rushed to the opening and dived in without hesitation.
Once inside, he found himself sliding down a smooth, rectangular hallway inclined at a slight angle, descending rapidly.
Before long, the slide ended, and Sevrin landed in a spacious bronze chamber of unknown depth beneath the surface.
Though the bronze room was dim and murky, it couldn't hide anything from Sevrin's sharp eyes. Sweeping his gaze around, he noted that aside from the triggered mechanical traps, there were four openings facing North, South, East, and West.
"Damn, Old Dog, are you roleplaying?" Sevrin muttered with a smirk. "Building a labyrinth underground."
He said it mockingly, but he had actually anticipated this. Huin was a quintessential, despicably petty man. And all such men are obsessively protective of their own lives. Given the resources, there was no way Huin wouldn't craft a perfect escape route for himself.
Fortunately, he had Asell. She could serve as his guide.
Sevrin was certain of this because the "Evil Yin Arts" stated that a ghostly entity would never lose its way while hunting the enemy responsible for its death.
As long as the distance between the two was within a certain range, for example, within the same town, this near-causal lock would take effect, and the ghostly entity would begin its relentless pursuit.
No matter where the target hid, as long as the distance was within dozens or a hundred miles, they could not escape. Especially if the target was a living person, the ghost's sense of direction was... absolutely peerless.
This was the essence of the saying: "The cycle of karma brings certain retribution; those who murder others through treachery shall find no path to safety."
Sevrin closed his eyes slightly, relying on the faint, ethereal resonance between ghostly entities. He instantly pinpointed Asell's approximate location.
Namely, the eastern tunnel of this bronze chamber.
WHOOSH~
Without a moment's hesitation, Sevrin sprinted toward the eastern opening.
...
"Four consecutive bronze chambers, each with four branching hallways leading in different directions. And along the way, every room and hallway was rigged with a massive number of arrow-spears and explosive traps. My, my, Huin..."
Walking slowly through a long hallway near an underground river, Sevrin shook his head and sighed. "You really know how to make work for people. Even I'm getting tired from chasing you."
Fortunately, he finally sensed that Asell's movement had stopped.
After enduring the numerous traps in the bronze rooms and hallways, her murky yin aura had weakened to a state far inferior to even Lesan's, in fact, she was miles beneath him, on the verge of total soul dissipation.
But luckily, Asell had finally caught up with the desperately fleeing Huin. Exhausting every last drop of her sinister power, she had... possessed him.
Consequently, Huin lay paralyzed by a jagged cliff about a hundred meters from Sevrin. His features and limbs were completely contorted, and he was writhing helplessly on the ground like a maggot.
"Remember what I told you back then?"
In the gloomy hallway, Sevrin strolled up to Huin. Looking down at him, he sneered, "You retreat a hundred meters, I'll retreat a hundred meters, and then we both go our separate ways on the high road."
In response to Sevrin's mocking tone, Huin could only let out ragged, trembling gasps, unable to utter a single word.
"I won't torment you too much."
Sevrin slowly crouched down, his eyes locked onto Huin's. He savored the regret and despair surfacing in those eyes, speaking coldly, "Because right now, you're already in excruciating pain, aren't you?"
After Asell had exhausted the last of her sinister power to possess Huin, she had forcibly merged her distorted essence into his soul, his consciousness, and his internal organs.
So now, every single second, from his soul to his flesh, Huin was experiencing the same terrifying agony Asell had felt decades ago, the pain of being heavily pregnant and consumed by raging flames.
To complete this act of vengeance, Asell had paid an immense price.
Any slim chance she once had of recovery was gone; her consciousness was shattered and nearing total extinction.
Moreover, unless a master intervened to separate her spirit from Huin's form, the two would remain in this cursed state forever.
No, Huin likely wouldn't last that long.
Facing the torment of being burned alive, a man who, even in his youth, couldn't endure the simple toil of a summer harvest, he wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer.
So, after whispering a few words, Sevrin hoisted Huin onto his shoulder and quickly retraced his steps out of the underground tunnels, returning to the courtyard.
"As expected, it's still here."
Sevrin picked up the hollow bronze tube from a corner of the yard. He walked up to Huin, who was now bound to the blood-stained stake, and showed it to him with a grin:
"Look, your grandson's big bronze tube. I've always been a fair dealer; I'll kill you exactly the way you intended to kill me."
In response, Huin, who could no longer utter a single syllable, could only stare with eyes filled with sorrow and resentment, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.
Sevrin was genuinely surprised by his reaction:
"You've been tormented by Asell to this extent, yet you still don't want to die? You're still this afraid of death?
Honestly, if an ordinary person were suffering as much as you are, and they were given a chance for a quick end, they'd be jumping for joy.
You... you really are the pinnacle of a coward who clings to life. But because of that, I won't let you have your way."
He then pulled back the clothes on Huin's upper body, aimed the bronze tube at his wrinkled chest, and thrust it forward with violent force, piercing straight into the rapidly thumping heart.
Driven by the frantic pumping of Huin's heart, thick surges of blood began to spray from the other end of the tube, drenching the ground within a radius of several meters in a layer of crimson.
Huin's features contorted in a silent scream. His entire body tensed for about five heartbeats before instantly going limp, his life force extinguished.
Asell, the vengeful spirit who had merged with him, similarly saw her soul dissipate, vanishing completely.
At the exact moment this man and ghost descended to the Yellow Springs together, Sevrin's System suddenly began to hum.
"Eh? What's going on?"
Confused, Sevrin immediately swept his gaze over his personal interface.
He discovered that while the Level, Skills, and Traits columns remained unchanged, the Expert Shards column now abruptly displayed the number "2."
"Does that mean I now have two Expert Shards?"
Sevrin instinctively looked toward the dead Huin, muttering under his breath, "Is it... because I killed this Old Dog? But then why isn't it one shard, but two...
Ah, right. Asell. Asell counts as having been killed by me too. So, by killing this one man and one ghost, I obtained two Expert Shards."
At this point, his confusion deepened: "Strange. I killed plenty of people earlier. Why did only these two drop anything?"
After a moment of reflection, Sevrin pondered: "Could it be because Asell and Huin were strong enough?
Tsk. Asell is understandable, but that Old Dog Huin counts as an expert? That despicable villain completely insults the word expert, doesn't he? I just don't get it."
He was open-minded enough that once he realized he couldn't find an answer, he simply stopped thinking about it, it was a pure waste of time. Instead, he began researching the functions and effects of the Expert Shards.
At first, Sevrin naturally assumed these shards might be used to add to his attributes. But after searching back and forth, he couldn't find anything related to attributes on his personal interface.
Next, Sevrin thought the shards might be for upgrading Traits. But when he used his mental focus to click on each of his Special Traits several times, the Expert Shards showed no reaction whatsoever.
It wasn't until he shifted his focus to the skills column and clicked on his martial arts techniques, Bloodline Divinity, and Ghost Path occult arts, receiving various corresponding feedback messages from the system, that Sevrin finally understood the brilliant utility of Expert Shards.
"So the true purpose of Expert Shards... is for upgrading skills. Ah, and skill fusion as well."
Sevrin evaluated the various techniques, divinities, and occult arts in his skill column, pondering hesitantly, "So, which skill should I upgrade?"
As for skill fusion, he had no intention of trying that for the moment.
According to the system's feedback, skill fusion involved a high degree of uncertainty. It could result in a powerful new skill, or it could fuse into something even worse; it relied far too much on personal luck.
Judging by his years of experience buying lottery tickets and investing in stocks in his previous life, Sevrin didn't have high hopes for his luck. Furthermore, he only had two shards at the moment, which was hardly enough capital to play the gambler. If he recklessly went all-in, he would likely end up with nothing but silent tears.
"Better to stick with upgrades; it's the safest route."
Casting his gaze toward "Tiger Claw Blade-Fist" and "Blood-Devouring Heart-Burn", Sevrin spoke with resolve, "I'll upgrade these two. They are the foundation of my survival."
As for the pile of Ghost Path occult arts, Sevrin had no plans to upgrade them for now. Those ghostly techniques were too dependent on the external environment; outside of a demonic land, their power and effectiveness plummeted. They were simply not a good investment.
In contrast, martial arts and Bloodline Divinity had no such annoying restrictions; they could be used freely anywhere, however he pleased.
With his mind made up, Sevrin immediately selected "Tiger Claw Blade-Fist" and "Blood-Devouring Heart-Burn" to begin the skill upgrades.
BUZZ——
As his thoughts flowed, the two Expert Shards he had barely held onto vanished instantly. The two skill entries immediately entered a state of vibration, their characters becoming blurred and hazy, impossible to read clearly.
This state lasted for only a heartbeat.
An instant later, the two skills completed their rank advancement.
Their specific names had been completely transformed into... "Beastly Intent Demonic Claw" and "Blood-Soaked Sunken Heart".