After that eerie sound appeared, Luo Wei was immediately startled.
Almost instinctively, as if triggered, a crimson blade materialized in his palm.
Luo Wei concentrated his blood magic while vigilantly scanning his surroundings.
The room remained bright and spacious, yet still empty.
The mysterious sound that had appeared earlier, like an illusion, never rang out again.
But Luo Wei was absolutely certain that it wasn't an illusion!
He had truly heard some kind of viscous, writhing, bizarre sound coming from within the room.
Refusing to accept this, Luo Wei searched through Ophelia's room, but the space was visible at a glance with nowhere to hide anything.
He even suspected there might be a secret chamber, but after knocking on every wall, he found no hollow spaces.
This bizarre situation caused Luo Wei's heart rate to gradually increase.
What exactly was Ophelia up to?
Finally, Luo Wei took one last deep look at the room.
Without looking back, he pushed open the large door.
Inside the manor at night, everything remained deathly quiet.
Luo Wei gazed outside the manor, where bright moonlight fell upon the vast wheat fields as a gentle breeze rustled the wheat ears.
It should have been a serene and beautiful scene, but after what had just happened, everything seemed to be shifting toward something sinister.
Luo Wei pushed open the manor's main gate, deciding to go for a walk.
But at that moment, an expressionless maid suddenly appeared before him.
"Damn!"
Luo Wei cursed reflexively.
"Mr. Luo Wei, Her Highness instructed that you should not go outside."
This was the first time he had heard any of the manor's maids speak.
The voice was low, hoarse, inhuman.
"Where's Ophelia? Where did she go?" Luo Wei immediately asked.
The maid gave no response.
"What about the others? Don't you all usually live in this manor?" Luo Wei asked again.
Still no response.
Faced with this unresponsive maid, Luo Wei stopped bothering with her.
Instead, he simply pushed open the gate.
A cold wind gusted in.
Luo Wei started walking directly toward the path through the fields.
"Mr. Luo Wei, Her Highness instructed that you should not go outside."
The maid's figure appeared ghost-like before him again, attempting to block his exit.
"I've had too much to drink and need to take a leak. You're going to control that too?" Luo Wei glanced at her, his body enhanced with agility, immediately increasing his pace.
The maid stiffly followed behind him.
When he sped up, she sped up too.
Like a persistent ghost.
"You're really sick!" Luo Wei channeled his blood magic and turned around with a slash.
The blood light curved like a crescent moon.
With a crack, the maid's head fell to the ground.
Luo Wei blinked in surprise - the maid had been so fast, yet had no actual combat ability? Didn't even try to dodge?
However, what surprised him more was yet to come...
"Mr. Luo Wei, Her Highness instructed that you should not go outside..."
The severed head on the ground, its mouth opening and closing, continued to mechanically repeat the same phrase.
And that headless "corpse" just stood there before him, refusing to fall.
"Please do not go outside..."
"Do not go outside..."
The head on the ground struggled to turn toward Luo Wei's direction, but even then, showed no obvious expression.
Luo Wei felt his scalp tingle at the sight before him.
Everything since Ophelia's departure had been bizarre...
No, Luo Wei felt it should be counted from when they first arrived at the manor - this place that perfectly recreated the original scene had been strange from the very beginning.
He kept moving, running quickly toward the wheat fields.
He wanted to see exactly what lay beyond the manor!
After all, he had lives to spare! Better to die knowing than to die in ignorance!
The wheat fields under the night sky remained empty, with only the whisper of the breeze.
Luo Wei nervously walked forward, trying to determine his location.
But the night was too dark, and in the distance ahead, the seemingly endless wheat fields stretched beyond sight.
Moreover...
The "rules'" promised punishment hadn't appeared.
There were no twisted monsters lurking in the wheat field, no murderous maids or servants suddenly appearing.
There was nothing...
Yet his heartbeat involuntarily grew faster and faster...
Some great figure once said: Humanity's oldest and strongest emotion is fear of the unknown...
That was his situation now - he had no idea what he would face next...
Luo Wei used blood magic to slash through the increasingly dense wheat field as he made his way deeper.
Walking on and on...
Just when he thought he must be reaching the field's boundary.
He looked up in shock.
A massive black manor appeared in his view ahead.
One window was even lit - his room...
Wait, if the manor was ahead, then what was behind him?
Luo Wei whirled around.
In the bright moonlight, endless wheat fields stretched out before him, bathed in cold radiance.
Had he come back to the start?
Was he walking in circles!?
Luo Wei couldn't help but shudder.
This kind of situation had never happened before, not even when he was investigating strange cases in his first life cycle...
Luo Wei could only steel himself and continue walking toward the manor.
At the entrance, the decapitated maid had vanished.
He slowly approached the main door, through which he could see the pitch-black hall inside through the half-open entrance.
Though everything seemed the same as before, for some reason, he felt an inexplicable unease.
He had the feeling something bad was about to happen.
Because he had violated the "rules."
Luo Wei clenched his wrist, feeling the rapid flow of blood within, pushing his blood magic to its absolute limit under the pumping of that Blood Core.
The Crimson Blade in his hand instantly grew larger, with bloody mist surrounding him.
This was all his power could manage now.
Luo Wei took a deep breath and stepped back into the manor's darkness.
The moment his foot touched the ground.
That bizarre writhing sound echoed once again through the quiet, spacious hall.
Luo Wei smiled coldly - since he wasn't afraid of losing his life anymore, there was nothing left to fear.
Holding the Crimson Blade, he followed the direction of the sound.
As he ventured deeper, the writhing sounds in the manor resumed, closer this time, as if right beside him.
Luo Wei froze, stopping in his tracks as his gaze fell on the nearby wall.
"Splash..."
"Gurgle..."
That spine-chilling writhing sound seemed to be happening right before his eyes?
Soon, the continuous writhing sounds answered him.
From where Luo Wei stood, front and back, left and right, the walls, ceiling, every room - they all simultaneously erupted with the same sound.
It was everywhere, like maggots clinging to bones.
Instinctively, Luo Wei's hand lightly touched the wall.
Smooth, cold, nothing unusual.
But in his heart arose an indescribable suspicion - he felt that the wall was alive...
He felt that at this moment, the manor was like a twisting monster about to awaken and devour him.
Finally, it had come to this...
Luo Wei once again opened his panel, and to resolve his doubts, he could only choose to exchange for that item...
[1. Eye of Insight: Accessory (★★★★) Greatly increases Insight when worn, enhancing perception of mysterious phenomena]
A small accessory appeared in his palm - an exquisite glass craft piece in the shape of an eyeball brooch.
At the same time, a special description appeared.
[Sometimes, seeing the truth isn't a good thing, investigator.]
Luo Wei certainly knew what too high "Insight" would bring - in this world filled with nameless things, sometimes seeing too much, knowing too much, would lead to irreversible horrific consequences...
"Insight" was exactly that kind of thing - it could help you investigate mysterious phenomena and improve your talent for learning supernatural powers, but more often...
It was also an engine of total destruction.
Luo Wei lowered his head and gently pinned on the brooch.
[Conducting Insight check...]
As he raised his head again.
At that instant.
A horrifying scene that made his hair stand on end, his body tremble, and was beyond description appeared before his eyes.
This was a twisted world. The walls before him appeared to be built from minced flesh mixed with blood. Every structure within the manor was covered in filthy tumors that resembled a mixture of internal organs and rotting flesh, like a living hell constructed from endless layers of meat!
And they were all pulsating slowly!
Like a human heart, beating again and again. With each beat, those bloody masses would writhe and grow dense networks of what looked like blood vessels or lymphatic tissue. These spread like intertwining roots, like mold spreading everywhere, quickly filling every corner of Luo Wei's vision, even gradually climbing up his trouser legs.
They're alive! They're all alive!!!
ALIVE!!!!
Luo Wei's wide-open eyes were filled with bloodshot.
He began to laugh maniacally.
He had gone insane.
[Your Sanity has been depleted]
[Unable to continue game, forcing reload...]