“`
With the “spiritual entities jammer” in place, the two of them saw clearly that the so-called ancient castle had become a ruin, with broken walls and ruins everywhere, barely outlining the original contour of the castle.
Furthermore, the castle was enveloped in a special force field that constantly affected everything under its influence, and one could easily fall into the illusions crafted by the enemy if not careful.
As the two continued to delve deeper, the special force field around them became increasingly intense.
“Sorcerer Doug, are you sure there’s no problem?”
Ivan vigilantly surveyed his surroundings, with the aura of spiritual bodies growing increasingly dense, causing inevitable concern.
Spiritual bodies were scarce to begin with and preferred to hide in special locations, plus they were tied to strange curses, which resulted in sorcerers having limited research on them.
One should always be cautious of the unknown.
“Sorcerer Ivan, please be at ease, with the strength we possess, even in the worst-case scenario, we can still fight our way out together,” said Doug without even looking back.
Seeing him so confident, Ivan could only suppress the trepidation in his heart.
Avoiding the areas where spiritual bodies lingered, the two lightly stepped on the ruins and reached the heart of the castle without mishap.
The mist swirled, and the scenes unfolding inside the castle changed again, clearly moving on to the next act.
The crowd had come before the Lord’s Hall to meet the ‘young master’ who had just been born. The butler, sensing the mood was right, stepped forward and posed a question to the crowd.
“Ahem ahem, the grand heir of Wafting Scent Castle is born; at this moment of jubilation, shouldn’t everyone make a gesture? What do you all say?”
“The butler is right.”
“Yes, yes, I’m willing to dedicate everything to our great young master, including my life.”
The butler’s words immediately provoked echoes from the crowd, whether it was the newly recruited guards or the civilians attending the banquet, all agreed without exception, their faces brimming with frenzied smiles.
“What about you two?” the butler suddenly asked, looking towards the side with a strange expression.
The others also looked to the side, their eyes filled with mockery, for there stood two figures in sorcerer robes.
Being watched by over a hundred spiritual bodies, especially with such chilling gazes, the pressure on the two men intensified.
Ivan realized that he was still caught in some weird atmosphere, feeling an urge he could hardly suppress at the moment the butler spoke. If it weren’t for his ability to keep his mind clear, he would have already responded to the butler’s question.
‘Is this some sort of trap, like a speech contract?’
Ivan understood, they had been played by this group of spiritual bodies. At such a moment, one must not speak, as any response would likely spell doom.
He involuntarily looked towards Doug.
Doug gave him a helpless look, as if to say that he had been careless this time.
At this, Ivan’s expression darkened somewhat.
Looking back, there had been a major oversight at Shadow Lake previously, and this time was no different—Doug seemed a bit unreliable.
“Speak up, you two!” Seeing their uncooperative attitude, the butler became angry. Under the moonlight, his face took on an exceptionally sinister look, and his voice grew shrill.
“Speak!”
“Say it now!”
With the butler infuriated, the surrounding guards and civilians started to yell angrily as well.
A torrent of insults bombarded their ears.
“To hell with this!”
Doug, enraged, continuously fed power into the spiritual entities jammer. An unusual force field began to emerge clearly, spreading out from where they stood and extending around them.
In an instant, the spiritual bodies seemed choked mid-scream, their sharp cries of anger cut off abruptly as they scattered in all directions.
The illusory realm woven around them also retreated, revealing the real appearance of the castle—rather than the Lord’s Hall, it was more of an odd nest constructed from the broken walls.
Inside the nest, numerous ‘cocoons’ woven with energy lay scattered; one to the left, another to the right, showing black and white colors. The more the cocoons were dominated by black, the thicker the aura of the spiritual bodies upon them.
Amidst the cocoons with heavier auras, one could see struggling shadows, with very few maintaining a serene state.
Seeing this sight, Ivan subtly realized that these cocoons were evidently transformed from spiritual bodies; the entire process was akin to a rebirth from ashes. As for what they would transform into in the end remained unknown.
“See, those are what I called the ‘Life and Death Cocoons’,” Doug said, having pushed back the surrounding spiritual bodies, and casually pointed at a cocoon inside the nest.
It was a cocoon as white as snow, completely free of any aura of spiritual bodies.
From this cocoon, Ivan could sense a different kind of vitality.
‘From death to life’
“`
A term suddenly popped into his mind, no wonder Doug had thought this was the Life and Death Cocoon.
Under the incredulous gazes of the surrounding spiritual entities, Ivan and Doug performed the same action, deploying the identification spell from the Body Double Secret Method.
“I regret this.” Doug muttered softly after the feedback came back.
Just as he had exaggerated before, the potential identified in the Life and Death Cocoon before them indeed surpassed that of the Shadow Tigon, top quality among the best, perfectly suitable for Body Double creation.
“It’s different, your Shadow Tigon is immediate combat power, but this cocoon requires nurturing and shaping. Only if it’s properly cultivated will its potential be realized,” Ivan shook his head slightly.
This was no excuse; the Shadow Tigon had been raised for countless years before the space rift, while this cocoon seemed to have completed its transformation not long ago and one could sense that the aura inside wasn’t very strong.
“Just tell me, take it or leave it?” Doug asked.
“Take.” Ivan spat out the word.
Strangely born, transitioning from death to life, and akin to a ‘blank slate’, there was no reason not to claim it for his own use in creating his first Body Double.
“All right, prepare to move.” Doug had anticipated this and signaled Ivan to move quickly.
Ivan stepped forward as instructed, avoiding the other mixed black and white cocoons, and came to the Life and Death Cocoon’s side, picking up the two-palm-high cocoon to hover beside him.
“Audacity! Take off your filthy hands immediately.”
“You damned sorcerer! Put down that great being at once, or you shall not die well!”
This action undoubtedly further enraged the spiritual entities around them. Previously, they had hesitated because of the ‘jammer’ in Doug’s hands, not daring to approach.
After being further enraged, their fury overshadowed their fear.
The next moment, the surrounding spiritual entities simultaneously went berserk, charging towards the two men. Even as they suffered extraordinary pain and weakening under the ‘jammer’s’ field, they approached regardless of consequences.
Some spiritual entities perished on the spot, but this did not shake the will of the others in the slightest.
Their mad appearance was moving.
“Hurry!”
Doug glanced at the ‘jammer’ in his hand, his expression slightly changing.
Black spots had appeared on the spiritual entities jammer, clearly contaminated. If this continued, the jammer surely wouldn’t last much longer.
“Let’s go,” Ivan echoed.
With the object in hand and seeing the spiritual entities around him becoming frenzied, it would be unwise to linger any longer.
However, how could the spiritual entities allow the two men to leave with their possession? From the skies to the ground, from front to back, from left to right, they surrounded the men within.
Under such circumstances, they had no choice but to force their way through.
Doug casually threw a stone sculpture, which landed and grew into a Shadow Tigon, its lion head and tiger body letting out earth-shaking roars that were extraordinarily imposing.
The swamp ant remained outside the town; Ivan only had the Silkworm Queen by his side, so he stopped the Silkworm Queen from preparing to act.
“I’ll go first.”
The roar was not satisfying enough, failing to deter the surrounding spiritual entities, and the Shadow Tigon took the initiative, its claws enveloped in thick Shadow Power and heavy as a thousand pounds.
To the surprise of those present, the Shadow Tigon’s claws passed through the bodies of the spiritual entities as if they had struck at nothing.
“Damn unlucky, can’t hit, and even got some curse power stuck on me,” the Shadow Tigon swore aloud.
In fact, its attack still had an effect. With the help of the jammer, the rate at which the spiritual entities perished increased, but it was nowhere near the expected results.
“Spiritual entities are indeed not undead creatures; setting aside their vastly different aura, such magic resistance and physical defense are unheard of,” Ivan sighed.
“Of course, they are not undead creatures; they can be considered as mutated forms of spiritual power, or ‘Fixated Entities’,” Doug himself also took action. Flames mixed with thunder, forming a ring of fire, blocking the approach of spiritual entities from above.
Ivan deployed the Black Magic Wind Fire Pearl, turning into burning copper spheres that floated around him, instantly forming the Black Magic Wind Fire Array. The intertwining Black Magic Wind and Fire protected him from all sides.
Under his control, the Black Magic Wind Fire did not harm the Shadow Tigon but scorched the spiritual entities into emitting piercing screams.
“Sorcerer Ivan, nicely done,” Doug commented as the Black Magic Wind Fire took effect immediately, impressing him.
“We need to leave quickly; otherwise, my Windy Fire Bead is going to be ruined,” Ivan cursed his bad luck inwardly. These spiritual entities were truly untouchable, even his Windy Fire Bead began to get contaminated.
“Same here, the spiritual entities jammer is almost done for,” Doug said with a wry smile.
Unfortunately, no sooner had he finished speaking, a faint cracking sound was heard as the compass-like jammer started to show cracks, clearly unable to bear much more.
The two men exchanged glances, knowing that only by struggling with all their might could they break through the encirclement.