Looking at the undead scattered throughout the castle, Little Sam tried to brace himself to stand up but his actions softened, and with a thud, he fell again, his feet rubbing backward trying to get away from the castle.
However, Little Sam hadn’t retreated far before he stopped.
It wasn’t by choice, but he felt several malicious gazes upon him.
As a mortal who had never had a transcendent experience before, Little Sam discovered for the first time that malicious eyes could exert a sense of power... His hands and feet seemed shackled, and even a slight movement brought a chilling horror over his spine.
As Little Sam’s face turned pale and his body trembled, Angel’s voice reached his ears.
"Undead naturally suppress humans with weak vitality," Angel said as he walked to Little Sam’s side: "Your vitality isn’t weak, but you’re too young, still completely restrained by the undead."
While explaining it to Little Sam, Angel intercepted the undead gazes directed at Sam.
Only then did Little Sam feel the suffocating air slightly relieved.
But just as Little Sam caught his breath, he felt the ground faintly shaking. Puzzled, he lowered his head, looking at the ground dampened with some moisture, unsure what was happening.
Could it be an earthquake? The thought barely crossed Little Sam’s mind when he noticed numerous black threads emerging from the ground, accompanied by a stench so overwhelming it made him want to retch.
The black threads were like weeds, immediately surrounding Little Sam and Angel.
"What are these black threads? They kind of look like... hair?" Little Sam exclaimed.
"Indeed, it’s hair, but not living human hair, rather the remnants of the deceased," Angel, who had numerous encounters with the undead before, knew little of their methods, but after Nis’s clarification, he confirmed that these strands were death gas materialization from soul trickery.
However, death gas materialization requires a medium, generally the undead itself, or alternatively, the remains of the deceased.
Angel perceived no undead beneath, implying the medium for death gas materialization was indeed the remains.
Such dense hair also suggested there was no shortage of corpses buried under this vast ground.
"Wha-what should we do?" Little Sam shuddered, looking at the surrounding hair. They intertwined and coiled, resembling living tendrils, weaving either a cage or a coffin for their burial.
Little Sam: "If we escape, will they chase us?"
Angel: "I don’t know if they will chase us. But why flee?"
"What do we do if we don’t escape?" Little Sam instinctively asked.
"Just kill them," Angel calmly said, startling Little Sam with his audacity: "Rare to encounter undead material, though it’s a bit scarce, to fully replenish it, we likely still need to visit the Sea of Ghosts."
Undead material? Sea of Ghosts? Hearing Angel’s words, Little Sam involuntarily trembled, unfamiliar with these terms, yet merely uttering them made him feel suffocated beyond measure.
No sooner had Angel finished speaking than an orange-red flame appeared before him, initially inconspicuous, but once it touched the hair strands, it spread like wildfire, instantly engulfing all the surrounding threads.
In a blink, the cage woven by the hair strands vanished.
The ground was left with some ashes of the dead, along with the rising smoke.
As the smoke ascended, a terrifying howl suddenly echoed. Little Sam saw the lady undead at the door lunging at Mr. Pat, and as the howl pierced, his mind reeled in dizziness.
The lady undead’s howl was but a prelude, and soon, the surroundings filled with successive cries.
These were undead howls, an attack targeting spiritual power and soul.
Unfortunately, they had no effect on Angel.
Yet, Little Sam was impacted, clutching his head and screaming in pain. Angel casually tossed him a spiritual defense shield, allowing him to regain his breath.
Facing the attacking undead, Angel showed no trace of fear. As the lady undead was about to fly at him, he pulled the trigger of the Samsara Overture.
As a half-step mystic object, the Samsara Overture restrained the undead overwhelmingly.
This lady undead was not weak; even a peak apprentice might struggle against it. Yet, under a single strike from the Samsara Overture, it was instantly reduced to blue smoke. Furthermore, a few undead surging behind her were caught up and perished together.
Witnessing this scene, Little Sam, in his astonishment, noticed the lady undead’s true appearance revealed at the moment of vanishing.
"This is... my mother’s maid, Eisha!"
Upon hearing Little Sam’s words, Angel raised an eyebrow: "Oh? So it’s the servant from your family transformed? Do you know this person?"
While exterminating the approaching undead, Angel still had the time to create an illusion, showing a male figure in the illusion.
It was precisely the undead previously hidden in the statue of Queen Rowling.
Little Sam closely examined the man in the illusion, observing the semblance of his mother in the brows and eyes: "This... this is Earl Roland, my mother’s brother!"
"So he’s your relative?" Angel showed a look of sudden understanding: "No wonder he easily possessed you, there was a natural bloodline bridge."
This kind of possession, with bloodlines as a medium, was far easier than soul trick possession.
"Do you recognize anyone else here?" Angel pointed to the surrounding undead attacking him.
Although these undead remained in their terrifying forms, their faces still bore a semblance of their characteristics from life. After closely examining a few, Little Sam replied: "Some were servants of the family, but most I don’t recognize."
For instance, the undead currently being destroyed by Angel, Little Sam had never seen before.
"This undead’s clothing bears a few characteristics from life, plenty of tool bags... probably here to steal valuables from the castle." Angel guessed through the attire of the undead.
In this light, it’s likely many of the undead were invaders seeking the castle’s treasures, maybe thieves, adventurers, or just passersby.
No matter who they were in life, after death they transformed into the castle’s ghosts, attacking wave after wave of visitors.
In barely a minute, Angel slew five or six undead. The remaining undead hovered in mid-air, glaring at Angel with hatred and venom, ready to pounce.
Angel then turned to Little Sam: "Weren’t you wanting to check out the castle? Now’s your chance."
Little Sam shivered, looking at the surrounding undead: "But, the undead..."