Just as Angel had described, Queen Rowling’s statue was covered in green moss, making the once pristine white statue appear moldy and adding an eerie touch to the sculpture embodying pure beauty.
However, in little Sem’s eyes, Queen Rowling’s sculpture still appeared as it did in his childhood. He stood before the statue for a while before circling around it, heading towards the castle.
Unaware that when he turned his back on the statue, Queen Rowling’s eyes flashed a blood-red light.
Angel noticed it, his lips curling slightly, without taking any action.
When little Sem arrived at the castle entrance, he was still filled with emotion, and without hesitation, he wanted to push open the door.
Just as little Sam was about to touch the doorknob, a force suddenly appeared behind him, pulling him back vigorously.
Little Sam staggered, retreating several steps, and finally stood beside Angel.
"Mr. Pat?" Little Sam managed to stand still and looked beside him with some confusion.
Angel’s gaze was fixed intently on the dusty door ahead. After a moment, he chuckled lightly, "I see some interesting little creatures."
Interesting little creatures? Little Sam didn’t understand what Angel meant. He also carefully examined the door. It didn’t seem different from when he was a child... or maybe it was; there was a slight difference. When he used to come here, there was always the lingering scent of incense from the Tishion servants patrolling, but now there was an additional odor of decay and mold.
It must be the moldy smell from the dampness of the lake water eroding the wood and the scent of dead rats.
Could it be that the little creatures Mr. Pat mentioned were rats?
Just as Little Sam was about to ask, a strange laughter suddenly echoed in his ears.
Hmm, the laughter came from behind... Is there someone behind? Little Sam wanted to turn his head to see who it was, but as soon as he moved, his vision went completely black.
From Angel’s perspective, Little Sam merely turned his head, and his once clear eyes completely changed.
The whites and irises of his eyes had turned pitch black, with occasional flashes of crimson. The corners of his mouth curled into a bizarre arc, and with a frenzied pace, he charged toward the castle doors.
"Possession," Angel glanced at the statue of Queen Rowling not far away, then looked at Little Sam, whose expression had drastically changed, and whispered.
Little Sam seemed not to have heard Angel’s voice and excitedly dashed into the castle.
However, before he could make it to the castle door, someone appeared in front of him.
It was Angel.
"I thought you’d try something on Little Sam’s soul, but possession is what you dared," Angel said, looking at Little Sam with pitch-black eyes. "How did you do it?"
Little Sam tilted his head, not answering, but instead grinning eerily, "Those who stand in my way, die—"
The voice, indistinguishable in gender, was definitely not Little Sam’s.
As his words fell, Little Sam’s fingernails began to grow rampantly, sharp and pitch-black within a blink.
"Die!" Little Sam swung his claws, lunging at Angel.
After all, Little Sam was merely a mortal, even possessed, incapable of transforming into a superhuman instantly. His speed was still limited by his physical body.
So, without even understanding what happened, Little Sam found the cold metal gun barrel pressed against his forehead.
It was a revolver, covered with silver patterns, held by Angel, with the muzzle pressed against Little Sam’s brow.
"I don’t know what you wanted to do, but to dare possess someone before me, perhaps you were too bold... or maybe you should just perish completely."
As his words fell, Angel gently pulled the trigger, and a strange ripple shot from the muzzle.
With a chilling scream, a shadowy undead figure, with eyes as black as ink and veins bulging across its face, floated off Little Sam. It attempted to attack Angel, but before it could move, its entire spiritual body disintegrated, vanishing completely from the world.
As the undead disappeared, the color of Little Sam’s eyes gradually returned to normal, and his nails also reverted.
Little Sam opened his eyes, his gaze slightly confused and unfocused, taking a long time to regain clarity.
"Mr. Pat, I... what happened to me just now?" Little Sam vaguely felt something was off earlier but couldn’t recall exactly what had happened.
"Nothing much, just possessed by a ghost," Angel said nonchalantly.
"Gh-gh-ghost?!" Little Sam, though unaware of the true nature of the extraordinary world, had heard of the malevolent spirits often depicted in novels.
"Yes, to be precise, it’s a ghost that was hiding in that statue," Angel said, a slight puzzlement in his tone, "Come to think of it, that ghost was quite weak, yet capable of possession—an oddity."
Possession, as described by Nis in the soul tricks, is a relatively challenging technique. Generally, a ghost that had accumulated at least a decade’s worth of resentment might, by chance, learn it.
But the ghost just now had been dead for at most five or six years and already mastered such an advanced skill?
Having faced life and death in a day and glimpsed a corner of the extraordinary world on the Gondola, Little Sam quickly adapted to the news of ghosts, and curiosity soon followed his initial shock, "Why are there ghosts here?"
Angel: "The death energy and resentment energy here are exceptionally strong, probably a lot of deaths over the years. In such places, ghosts are likely to gather."
One reason Angel agreed to Little Sam visiting the ancient castle was ’since we’re here,’ in acknowledgment of Little Sam guiding them; the other was the familiar aura he sensed here.
This familiar aura was undoubtedly the highly concentrated malevolent death energy.
The gathering of such malevolent death energy turned the originally serene castle into a real... haunted castle.
"Are you saying there are more ghosts here?" Little Sam swallowed nervously, looking at the dark, old castle nearby, "Are they inside too?"
Angel nodded, "Of course, besides the ghost from earlier, all others... are inside."
Hearing this, Little Sam’s cheeks instantly went pale with fright.
"Mr. Pat, when you mentioned the little creatures, did you mean..."
Angel nodded: "Yes, I was referring to the ghosts. For instance, the one at the door right now."
Little Sam froze, feeling a chill run down his spine. He seemed to move in slow motion as his head slowly turned back and saw a long-haired woman floating at the doorway.
The long-haired woman lifted her face, obscured by strands of hair, when Little Sam looked.
Eyes bulging, marked with cyanotic deaths and a dangling, already blackened... tongue!
At this sight, Little Sam collapsed to the ground, frantically scooting back, his lips trembling.
He finally understood why Mr. Pat pulled him back earlier; the ghost was right there!
"Not just the one at the door, but the window over there, the eaves on the upper right, the chimney on the top floor, beside the second-floor flue..."
Angel’s voice continued, as he spoke, Little Sam saw terrifying shadows intermittently appear at each corresponding spot.
In just a few seconds, the seemingly desolate castle turned incredibly ’lively.’
"...are all filled with ghosts."
At least thirty ghostly figures appeared in various parts of the castle.
And at this moment, they all directed their malicious, intense gaze toward Angel and Little Sam at the door.