Chapter 448 She is corrupted
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The eerie laughter around her made Selena's hair stand on end. She looked around with some bewilderment, unable to find her parents and sister-in-law. She only saw people around her, all looking at her with exaggerated, unnatural smiles.
Selena felt a chill run down her spine and stumbled away from the reception hall.
Everyone in the hall watched Selena leave as if watching a play, with unnatural smiles on their faces.
As soon as Selena stepped outside, she realized it was already night.
Suddenly, the reception hall went pitch black, and the entire valley was devoid of any light.
All the buildings seemed to turn into monsters, as if they were about to rush over and devour Selena at any moment.
The warmth from the key ring gave Selena courage. She called out to her father and mother, trying to stay away from the buildings.
Just then, Selena finally saw two figures in the snow, an adult and a child. They both wore hats, had red noses, and were wrapped in red scarves.
"Excuse me!" Selena didn't see the unnatural smile on their faces, so she hurried forward and asked, "Have you seen my parents? What's happening here? Why has everything become so strange?"
"This used to be a very nice hot spring resort!" the man replied, his eyes wide. "A few days ago, a thick fog suddenly floated in from the horizon. Ever since then, the staff and guests here have all become very strange."
Selena asked, "A thick fog?"
The child, who also had large eyes, said, "Yes, the fog seemed to be filled with something terrible. Look, the fog is coming!"
Selena looked in the direction they were pointing. The fog was like a living thing, rolling and forming a human figure that landed in front of the reception hall door.
The figure saw Selena and quickly chased after her.
Selena quickly ran into the forest. The child with the big eyes shouted, "Run! Run! When you come back here, find Mr. Harold. He knows more about what's going on."
Selena didn't have time to ask why the adult and child weren't running. She plunged into the woods, struggling through the snow.
Although the trees blocked her view, she knew that the figure made of fog was still chasing her. She couldn't stop, she had to keep running, keep running!
Until her strength was exhausted and she could no longer run.
The warm key ring once again gave Selena courage. She broke off a branch, leaned against a tree, and prepared to fight the figure!
It was getting closer and closer.
The branch shook, the snow on it fell, and a dark figure walked out from the trees.
"Chris!" Selena exclaimed, "How is it you?"
Chris didn't speak, but just gave a wry smile.
Selena felt that her brother looked strange, so she didn't approach him. "What's wrong, Chris?"
Chris still didn't speak. He pointed to the snow next to him. There was an abstract symbol there, and it wasn't there before.
The symbol consisted of winding vertical and horizontal lines, as well as several dots.
Selena asked, "What does this mean?"
Chris didn't say anything. He pointed to the sky again.
Selena looked up along his finger. She saw a… fireplace?
Her vision suddenly became distorted. It was indeed a fireplace. She was back in the reception hall!
The difference was that Selena was also sitting on the sofa in the hall. The entire hall was filled with people, and they were all asleep.
Sitting next to Selena were her mother and sister-in-law, and her father was sitting on the opposite sofa.
Everyone was covered with blankets, waiting for the hunters to return.
Selena, a little dazed, remembered that the people who had gone hunting in the afternoon hadn't returned by evening. The whole family was very worried about Chris, so they were all waiting in the hall.
When they came to the hall, they found that many people whose friends or family members hadn't returned from hunting were already waiting here.
As a result, they waited and waited, and eventually fell asleep.
So it was a dream. Selena breathed a sigh of relief.
But she quickly noticed something was wrong. There was mud and snow on her shoes and her sister-in-law's shoes. Most of the snow had melted, and the carpet was wet.
"They're back!" someone suddenly said!
This startled everyone awake. They all came to the door. A dozen young men and women who had gone hunting had indeed returned, but… Selena felt that something was off about them.
Leading the way was the hunter who gave a furry feeling. His job was to take the resort's guests hunting. "We encountered a grizzly bear!"
The hunter said with a smile, "Unfortunately, they're not real hunters, otherwise we could have tried to hunt that grizzly bear."
"We had no choice but to avoid the grizzly bear, so we came back so late."
Selena saw a long-haired woman in the group sharing the fun of hunting with her friends. "Oh my god, it was my first time encountering a grizzly bear in the wild. It was so exciting!"
Selena remembered that she seemed to have a round face when she set out, but now she had a long face.
Also, a young man in the group had become dark-skinned. Selena clearly remembered that he was a fair-skinned young man.
But Selena was more concerned about her brother. She stared at Chris's mouth. Fortunately, Chris opened his mouth with a smile and said, "I'm going hunting again tomorrow. This is what a vacation should be like."
Selena breathed a long sigh of relief: He didn't become "mute". It was just a dream!
Mr. Wood said, "Do you know how worried everyone was about you?"
Chris stroked his fiancée Vina's back. "Sorry for making you worry. Well, another group of people are going hunting tomorrow morning. I can go with them and definitely be back in the afternoon."
Mr. Wood shook his head. "Okay, okay, since it's a vacation, have fun."
Everyone was tired and sleepy. After chatting for a while, they all returned to their rooms to rest.
Selena stayed in a room by herself. She stared at her dirty shoes for a while, feeling that there were important clues in her dream just now.
So she prepared to write to Professor Hobert tomorrow morning, explaining the situation here and asking the professor to help her interpret the dream.
Lost in thought, Selena, who had been tired all day, quickly fell asleep. When she woke up, the sun had already risen.
At breakfast, Selena talked about her dream last night. Before she could finish, Vina said with a smile, "I had almost the same dream yesterday, except I was chasing someone who knew important information, not being chased."
Mrs. Wood joked, "Could it be that the two of you were one escaping and one chasing?"
The whole family laughed, only Selena glanced thoughtfully at her sister-in-law's shoes.
After breakfast, Chris went hunting again, and Vina, feeling uneasy, followed along.
Selena returned to her room, first wrote the letter, then asked the restaurant for three donuts and summoned Professor Hobert's messenger.
After sending the letter, Selena felt much better and went outside to the courtyard for a walk.
Coming out of the reception hall, she thought of her dream last night again: I remember turning around there and meeting an adult and a child.
Selena smiled as she walked in that direction: It was just a dream. But she was still going to check it out.
Turning the corner, Selena stood there in a daze for a long time. There were two snowmen, one big and one small!
They both wore hats, had big eyes, noses made of carrots, and red scarves around their necks.
After a long while, Selena felt cold all over: The snowmen came to life? No, no, no, it's just a dream, just a dream… Is it really a dream? Why are the snowmen in this position? Coincidence?
Selena suddenly thought of the snowman's reminder. She had to find Mr. Harold.
"Miss, I see you're shivering. Are you feeling unwell?" a kind-looking middle-aged man asked. He had a cigarette in his hand, and it seemed he had just taken a puff, as the smoke hadn't completely dissipated.
"I, I want to find Mr. Harold!"
The middle-aged man was slightly stunned. "That's me!"
Selena asked, "Mr. Harold, do you know more about what's going on?"
Harold looked surprised, and the cigarette fell to the ground. He took two quick steps forward and said to Selena in a low voice, "Run while you still have your sanity!"
Selena panicked a little. "Where to run?"
"Run outside the resort!"
"Where to run to?"
"See that pine forest? Climb over a mountain from there, and there's a small village. You'll be safe when you get to that village."
…
Feynapotter Kingdom, Jeffrey Territory.
Hobert received a reply from Bishop Simpson early in the morning. In the letter, Bishop Simpson said, "His Excellency the Archbishop has not made any instructions regarding cooperation with the Theosophy Order."
That was a default approval. Of course, the Archbishop wouldn't make any instructions, since he would still "kill the donkey after it grinds the mill."
It was just that after Hobert was tied to Bishop Simpson in the future, there would be more room for maneuvering in how the "donkey" was killed.
After sending the big dog away and having breakfast, Hobert taught Freya her vocabulary for the day before asking Allen to invite Helen over.
When the beautiful and elegant Helen arrived in the study, Hobert cut to the chase: "Tell Monica or Chairman Jonathan that the Earth Mother Church has agreed to my cooperation plan, but they have given a condition. The Theosophy Order must help us kill a demigod on the other side, and the Beyonder characteristics of that demigod must be given to the Earth Mother Church before we can fully reach an agreement."
Pfft~
Dennis, who was cleaning the study, lost his grip and dropped the book in his hand to the ground: The Baron is insidious!
Helen didn't pay attention to the male servant's mistake. In her opinion, since it was a cooperation, then of course everyone should state their own conditions. Cooperation could only be promoted if everyone was interested.
However, what Helen didn't expect was that the Earth Mother Church would actually have the intention of cooperating.
As far as she knew, this was the first time that the Theosophy Order had cooperated with a true god church!
Helen knew very well that she was just a messenger. She agreed and immediately went to inform Ms. Monica.
Hobert glanced at Dennis beside him: "Were you just thinking: This Baron is so insidious!"
Pfft~
Another book fell to the ground.
Hobert looked at the somewhat surprised Dennis: "When I can't see your thoughts from your expression, you won't have to clean the study every day."
He paused, not sure if he was talking to Freya or Dennis: "Politics is like mixing mud. You can mix it with water and soil, but it's still just mud. Only by adding some sand, grass, and other debris can it become harder and harder, and finally become a whole."
"If you don't have this ability, mud will always just be mud."
After waiting for seven or eight seconds, he said to Dennis, who was contemplating, "Go, bring me my tea!"
After Dennis left, Allen came in from the door and whispered, "Sir, what if he leaks your…"
Hobert waved his hand: "This kid doesn't seem to have much scheming, but he's very clever and won't joke with his family's lives."
Allen nodded and said nothing more.
Hobert said to Seel outside: "Keep a closer eye on the military affairs. Just come over for about an hour each day. You don't have to stay here every day!"
"Also, bring Grove's eldest and second sons into the army. Two big, clumsy fools who can flatten a watering can just by watering flowers."
Seel smiled: "Yes."
"The name of the potion you took is 'Hunter'!" Hobert said: "From now on, I will give you three days of vacation every week to learn how to be a real hunter from the hunters in the territory."
Seel was slightly stunned: "Yes."
Although he didn't understand the purpose of the Baron, he knew that following the Baron's orders wouldn't be wrong.
Hobert returned to his room and was about to use "Travel" to ask Upton how the material purchase was progressing when he felt something. Using Spirit Vision, he saw the space in the room become illusory.
The messenger came out of the spirit world, and a letter popped out of the coffin, landing in Hobert's hand.
Hobert opened the letter and was slightly stunned. There wasn't a single sentence that made sense. He felt something and turned the letter over.
Upside down, the letters formed a ferocious wolf face.
Seeing that the messenger hadn't left, Hobert asked, "Who sent the letter?"
"That little girl who likes mysticism," the messenger said. "The donuts she paid with were day-old donuts."
Hobert smiled: "I'll give you three more when she sends her next letter."
He looked at the letter again: "Selena's prank?"
Does she not want to graduate from me anymore?
"She's been contaminated," the messenger said.
"Contaminated? Did she provoke the Aurora Order again?"
"No, it's a more serious contamination than that."
Since he was Selena's mentor, he couldn't just ignore it, so Hobert asked, "Did she send this letter from her home?"
"East Chester County, Boklun Manor."
Hobert asked again, "Do you know what the source of the contamination is?"
Messenger: "I received very contradictory information. I felt a familiar aura, but at the same time, I felt very unfamiliar. What is certain is that there is the scent of a 'Seer'."
Scent? Hobert thought of the big dog that delivered the letter this morning. He smiled: "Thank you!"
"You're welcome, three donuts!"
Hobert smiled and shook his head: "No problem!"
"Also, be careful with this painting. It has become different from before!"
Hobert was slightly stunned and thanked him again.
Messenger: "You're welcome, three donuts. You owe me nine donuts in total."
After the messenger left, Hobert realized: "Is he actively 'marketing' now? And it seems a little like a forced sale?"
Hobert shook his head helplessly, but then he thought that nine donuts were all he could afford.
He didn't go to rescue her immediately, but crossed his arms and pondered the rescue plan before changing into clothes with a Loen style, carefully putting on the magical items and sealed items.
This time, he covered the painting on the wall with thick cloth and carried it on his back. First, it was a very good shield, and second, he wanted to try to pull Farbauti in to share the risk.
Most importantly, Hobert wanted to see what changes had taken place in this painting?
Since the messenger had reminded him, the painting must have undergone some changes, but Hobert didn't dare to bring it to the "Nation of Disorder" again, so he could only pay attention to the changes in the painting during the battle.
If it was very dangerous, he would just throw the painting away: Brother Farbauti, I don't want to throw away the painting like this, but the battle is too fierce, and I have to do this to save my life.
Hobert smiled, first changed his appearance, used "Travel" to come to Backlund, and found a travel agency to inquire about the situation of Boklun Manor.
After getting detailed information about the manor, Hobert sighed: The manor in the depths of the mountains; the deep mountains covered with ice and snow! It's too easy to think of "The Shining"! Or rather, this is a standard environment for a ghost story to happen!
While thinking wildly, Hobert came to a deserted corner and used "Travel" to come to East Chester County.
He stood on the high mountain, looking at the Boklun Manor surrounded by fog in the distance, and could see the guests of the manor coming in and out.
This lively scene was not what Hobert imagined, with only Selena, or only Selena and her friends and family.
Hobert crossed his arms and thought about it again, then took out the letter Selena had just written and prepared to use the "Faceless Necklace" as a medium to navigate and find Selena.
But the necklace was hanging there motionless. Hobert: Divination failed? No, the messenger said that there was the scent of a "Seer" here, so there may be anti-divination power nearby.
He checked the magical items and sealed items on his body again, and then used "Travel" again to come not far from the manor.
He hadn't taken a few steps forward when Hobert saw a hand on the road, or rather, a hand holding a cane. The hand was cut off neatly from the forearm, and a string of black gemstone bracelets was worn on the wrist. It was suspended in mid-air, holding the cane tightly.
Seeing that this hand had no "offensive" nature, Hobert prepared to bypass it and continue walking forward.
Unexpectedly, the hand pulled out the cane inserted in the ground, as if jumping on one leg, and blocked Hobert's path.
Hobert, who had a lot of adventure experience, calmly asked, "Do you need my help? My medical skills are very good and can sew severed limbs."
Or I can sew you back to the corpse.
The hand put the cane on the ground and then let go, waving at Hobert.
Hobert asked, "Don't need my help?"
The hand waved again, then pointed in the direction of the manor.
Hobert understood: "You don't want me to go to the manor?"
The hand held the cane again, as if to say: That's what it means.
"Thank you for your reminder," Hobert said. "I also know there is danger there, but my student is in the manor, and I must go to save her."
The hand stopped for two or three seconds, and suddenly the bracelet on the wrist seemed to come to life and flew out of the severed wrist in the direction of Hobert.
As soon as Hobert caught the bracelet, the hand and cane also fell to the ground.
Hobert was slightly stunned holding the bracelet. This was a sealed item. He bowed slightly to the hand: "Thank you for your blessings and gifts."
He buried the hand holding the cane tightly in the woods by the roadside to prevent it from being crushed by passing carriages.
When burying it, Hobert noticed that it was a right hand.
For safety reasons, Hobert used "Travel" again to return to the mountain opposite the manor. He simply set up the altar and dedicated the bracelet to the "Nation of Disorder" for inspection.
Using the authority of the "Nation of Disorder", he knew the ability of this sealed item: "It can quietly put the opponent into a deep sleep and enter the enemy's dream, creating some monsters in the dream to attack the opponent. The opponent's injuries in the dream are real injuries, and death in the dream is real death."
The negative effect is: "The holder is prone to sleepwalking. While sleepwalking, he will completely become another person and do things that are difficult for ordinary people to understand. If he dies wearing this necklace, it will seal part of the holder's spirituality and will in the body, turning the holder into a living corpse with wisdom, but the holder will also miss the opportunity to enter the underworld, and eventually become an evil spirit after the body rots."
Hobert pondered that the holder of the necklace should have encountered an irresistible attack, and one hand was cut off neatly.
The negative effect of the necklace preserved part of the holder's will, giving the hand a certain wisdom to prevent guests who wanted to enter Boklun Manor.
Following this line of thought, Hobert felt that this should be a sealed item of the Evernight Goddess Church, and its owner may have come from a Night Watcher squad member who had sacrificed or fled with a severed arm.
Looking at the necklace in his hand, Hobert decided to investigate the situation of the manor if he had the opportunity, and then report it to the Evernight Goddess Church.
Returning to the real world, Hobert used "Travel" again to come near the manor. This time he did not encounter any obstacles. He entered the reception hall while watching the tourists playing in the snow.
The manager greeted him enthusiastically: "Welcome to Boklun Manor, how can I help you?"
"Your smile is too ugly, the best help is to stop smiling! Okay, keep smiling, the expressionless look is even more ugly." As he spoke, Hobert took out the police ID card issued by the Evernight Goddess Church: "According to witnesses, a fraudster has mixed into the guests of the manor. I want to investigate the tourists here, please cooperate with the staff of the manor."
The manager asked with an unnatural smile, "What is the name of the criminal?"
"He has many false identities, and I have five different identities in my grasp."
"What are the physical characteristics of the criminal?"
"He is proficient in disguise. It is said that he once disguised himself as a woman and deceived a pirate general. I even have reason to suspect that you are him?"
"Sorry," the manager said helplessly, "We may not be able to help with this."
"I don't need your help, I just need you to assist my investigation," Hobert said with a smile. "I have been chasing him for several months. After a series of investigations, I can recognize him!"
The manager nodded: "You can also say the false names the criminal has used, maybe he used one of them to register?"
Hobert nodded: "As far as I know, a false name he recently used was Gehrman Sparrow."
A certain adventurer sneezed loudly at sea!
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