Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 587 - : The Ghoul of the Underground Cemetery

Chapter 587: Chapter 587: The Ghoul of the Underground Cemetery

Priest Augustus’s blood-red halo did indeed appear at the entrance of the cemetery, and there was only one continuous shadow, indicating he’d only been here once in the past 24 hours. However, Shard could still only see the priest’s figure entering the mist-laden cemetery and not see it reemerge.

“Strange, could the priest have climbed over the railing and run off into the mountains?”

Shard followed the priest’s figure into the cemetery, not particularly worried about evil spirits. In theory, unless evil spirits were formed by relics or other external factors, they wouldn’t pose much threat to a Three Ring Sorcerer like him.

After all, even if consumed by resentment and turned into an evil spirit, it was merely the power of a soul. There was no reason for human resentment to be more powerful than the strength gained by Circle Sorcerers who risked danger to study ancient texts, touch relics of bygone days, and chased the madness of Old Gods. Although Circle Sorcerers relied on idealist power, they still adhered to basic logic.

Since the priest had already obtained the location of the grave from Ms. Michelle of the House of the Blind, he didn’t seek out the Tomb Guardian to check but directly walked on the cobblestone path between the tombstones, and successfully found the tombstone inscribed with “Matilda Fox.”

The grave was located under a lush pine tree in the center of this part of the cemetery, where Priest Augustus’s figure lingered for a long time. Shard didn’t want to pry into others’ privacy, but those overlapping blood-red halos undoubtedly pointed to Priest Augustus, who sat looking at the tombstone, revealing his emotions at the time.

“He failed to hold her hand when he was young; this is a lesson for me, to hold on tighter…”

[But it seems you don’t have enough hands.]

Her voice suddenly appeared, almost startling Shard, who was a bit melancholic.

“Don’t underestimate me too much. Also, are you sure this mist is fine?”

The fog that had spread from the woods was even more exaggerated than the smog produced by Tobesk due to industrial developments. Not only was the vapor extremely thick, but the visibility within it was worse than Shard had expected.

[For now, it’s not a problem.]

Shard opened his mouth and took a deep breath, inhaling a small amount of fog into his lungs. Because he inhaled too vigorously, he couldn’t help but start coughing:

“What about now?”

[Still no problem.]

Shard nodded, then bent over to straighten the slightly wilted white chrysanthemums before the tombstone, preparing to continue his search for Priest Augustus’s whereabouts.

Scanning the surroundings, he noticed a translucent soul floating in the mist not far away, constrained by the body and unable to travel far. Such harmless souls left alone would soon leave, so Shard didn’t concern himself with it.

After Priest Augustus rose from the ground, he didn’t return along the path he’d come but headed towards the small chapel in the center of the cemetery area, presumably to inquire about the daily management of the grave.

But the priest was unable to reach the chapel. Following his shadow from another pathway amongst the tombstones back onto the cobblestone path in the cemetery, Augustus had walked only a few steps when, suddenly, his shadow showed the motions of being startled and then defensive.

“What?”

Shard realized that he might have been nearing the truth.

Attacked, Priest Augustus didn’t choose to fight but turned and ran towards the entrance of a more distant underground cemetery. The red halo clearly described the priest’s fleeing figure; despite his age, his physical capability was still quite impressive.

“What attacked the priest?”

Shard didn’t immediately follow but looked left and right, returned to the cluster of tombstones, and found the floating soul he’d seen before.

It was paused above a tombstone inscribed with “Joel Poon,” which recorded the cause of death as a heart disease at the age of 47.

Mr. Poon’s soul was remarkably transparent, his expression relatively serene. Although Shard didn’t know what had caused him to linger, such a soul was harmless.

“Sir, did you see anything strange around here yesterday afternoon?”

Shard approached and asked politely. The cemetery was quiet in the afternoon, and with the dense fog rolling in from the woods, he wasn’t worried about being seen talking to “thin air.”

The soul retained basic rationality but only glanced at Shard without speaking, expressionless.

Shard raised his finger, a glimmer of moonlight appeared at its tip as his expression grew more serious:

“Sir, did you see anything unusual here yesterday afternoon?”

Seemingly intimidated by the moonlight in Shard’s hand, Mr. Poon’s soul finally spoke:

“Lend me your body for a day to experience a healthy life again, and I will tell you.”

A threatening look appeared on Shard’s face as chains shot from his sleeves towards the soul’s forehead, pausing abruptly just a little finger’s distance away, the sharp metal tip of the chain aimed at it:

“Speak.”

The dreadfulness and corruption of the [Great Sin Chain], clear even to the living, let alone a soul. Mr. Poon was obviously frightened; he turned to run but was confined by his buried corpse, unable to escape:

“I know! Yesterday afternoon, an older gentleman in a cleric robe came here and then encountered a beast that leaped out of the bushes. It was humanoid, covered in rotting brown flesh, its head bizarrely pyramid-shaped, lying flat on the ground. Oh, that thing was terrifying! Just one glance, and I felt as if my soul were shaken.”

“A ghoul?”

Shard frowned, this was the lowest level undead creature that a Circle Sorcerer would learn about in their first year, even lower ranked than a skeleton. The racial range of such low-level undead creatures varied greatly, and indeed Priest Augustus might have struggled if he encountered a very powerful ghoul.

“But how could there be a ghoul in a public cemetery? And moreover, Priest Augustus, who was proficient in the Power of Death, died because of a single ghoul?”

Shard bid farewell to the spirit he had frightened and continued to trace the steps of Priest Augustus. The priest headed straight to the Underground Cemetery, but the door leading underground was locked, so without hesitation, the figure of a priest shattered the door lock.

The Tomb Guardian had already replaced the lock; now, a new lock stood before Shard. He unlocked the new lock and entered the Underground Cemetery, which, although lacking fog, was colder than the surface.

Even though Shard’s eyes could now see in the dark after his adventure in the Dark Realm, this vision was not clear; thus, he still lit up the Moonlight on his fingertip. Of course, the Underground Cemetery also had gas pipes, and the walls were furnished with quaint gas lamps. But Shard did not wish to startle the Old Gravedigger in charge here, should he see the gas meter for the tomb chamber’s gas pipes suddenly begin to move.

The air underground was especially oppressive, and there was a whiff of decay. Following the priest’s fighting and retreating figure all the way to the deepest part of the cemetery, judging from the metal placards hanging from the corners of the passages, this area seemed to house the earliest batch of underground tomb chambers quarried here over thirty years ago.

The priest did not enter any chamber but instead retreated to the wall at the end of the passage, which had an unlit kerosene lamp hanging from it. Then, the red halo that Shard had been following disappeared.

“Hmm? Has the Echo of Blood finished its effects?”

Shard turned to look behind him, the distinct figures still extant, but the final one had indeed vanished beneath this wall.

“A hidden wall? Midshire Fort has two exits to a Spatial Labyrinth?”

In the narrow grave path, scalding steam erupted, and runes with a Four-Color Aura floated on the Ring of Fate. The Glimmer of Space-Time illuminated the unremarkable earthen wall in front, but nothing happened.

However, something on the ground, lit up by the Spiritual Light, seemed to be reflecting light. Shard bent down to pick it up and found it was a brass pendant, missing a section from its ring. The brass ring with its missing section was the Holy Emblem of the True God, Mr. Dawn, and it must have been left behind by Priest Augustus, whom Shard had seen wearing this piece of jewelry.

“It looks like I’m in the right place, but why has it disappeared? Could there be a mechanism? Or, perhaps a secret phrase is needed to open this wall? Or, could the priest actually have used sorcery like ‘Wall Passage’ or ‘Earth Travel’?”

Shard narrowed his eyes, visualizing the final figure the priest left behind as a series of movements. The figure retreated to the earthen wall and performed a motion similar to casting an Arcane Technique. Then, the priest vanished abruptly; the final action was still in the midst of spellcasting, as if the priest had been erased directly from the world by a giant eraser.

“What exactly happened? Are there any traces of elements?”

“Outlander, you need to place your hand on the wall to… something is coming.”

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Shard turned to look in the direction from which he had come; the deep grave path was devoid of any light or shadow, but he could hear footsteps.

The footsteps were obviously not human, instead resembling a quadrupedal animal speeding along. The sound was coming from the next passage over; Shard’s previous actions seemed to have awakened something that was resting there.

As the successive footsteps grew nearer, Shard’s right hand traced a crossing in the air, letting the cross pause in front of him.

Under the light of the crossing, in the tomb passage far away, a terrifying creature, its whole body covered with rotted chunks of flesh, hands and feet on the ground, an enlarged head and yellowed teeth protruding, finally appeared.

“It’s a ghoul, indeed.”

Because of The Unlucky’s Long Hair, Shard would attract evil spirits or undead creatures more strongly for some time. This probably explained why the Tomb Guardian, who had been dealing with the damaged lock, had not been attacked, but Shard had been attacked the moment he arrived.

“Did it attack Priest Augustus yesterday?”

With this thought in mind, Shard kicked his foot, sending the cross of Moonlight, still floating in the air, forward.

The grave passage of the Underground Cemetery was already narrow, and the arc of light drawn by Shard’s hand virtually blocked the entire passage. But when the creature from afar met the crossing Moonlight, it suddenly leaped through the gap of the crossing.

“So agile?”

With just a few bounces, the terrifying creature, reeking of the dead, had already leaped in front of Shard. Not just its horrific appearance, but seeing it up close induced an inexplicable sense of fear in Shard’s heart, a natural fear power possessed by the undead.

However, for Shard, who had once faced the Horror Fortress, this fear was not significant.

First, he casually cast a Moonlight, forcing the agile ghoul to dodge, then Shard pointed forward with his finger:

“Silvermoon!”

The burst of Moonlight illuminated the chilly grave passage, and this Moonlight, inherently having Holy Attribute, was extraordinarily lethal to undead creatures.

Indeed, engulfed by the silvery and even approaching pure white light, the ghoul, emitting black smoke from its body, hurriedly retreated. The creature’s vocal organs were completely destroyed, and therefore, it couldn’t scream to express its rage and fear. But this silent voicelessness seemed all the more terrifying.

“Felian…”

Originally intending to use “Feliana’s Witch Light” to melt the opponent’s limbs—since the closer the Arcane Technique, the stronger the power—Shard had no desire to get closer to that thing.

“Lagre’s Leap.”

He had prepared the Spellcasting Materials before entering the Underground Cemetery, and so before the light on his fingertip vanished, he took a step forward and then reappeared behind the retreating ghoul.

The light in his hand was getting closer to the dreadful creature, which seemed to provoke its ferocity. It spun around, baring its rotten mouth at Shard, then despite black smoke billowing from its grievous wounds, lunged at Shard.