Section 35 Secrets

After a short moment, a second figure also appeared.

Winter nights are chilly. As long as there is a place to live, they will be smart to hide in their own houses to avoid the cold of the night. Even travelers who have traveled far have already built a bonfire in the field to keep warm at this time.

The two sisters stood together in the middle of the courtyard. The whole estate is remarkably silent, except for the occasional wind that rustles the evergreen trees. On a night like this, the people in the room would not be able to detect anyone outside the house who was actually going out at night. Besides, the two of them were very careful in their movements, and they were very familiar with their own home, so their route cleverly avoided all the windows.

Of course, it doesn't matter if someone finds out. After all, they are the masters here, and no one will give an opinion if they have any quirks.

They left the house along a railing-lined path through a side door. During the whole process, the two sisters did not say a word to each other, and their movements were very fast, and the side door opened without a sound at all. This clearly shows that the two sisters are already familiar with this matter.

They were walking along the road, not so much on foot as they were trotting. So it didn't take long for the two sisters to reach the edge of the territory, at the foot of the mountains. Here they showed Ashorufat the end of their land. There is a big road in front of it, and across the road is the path that turns into the mountains. And that mountainous area, as the sisters had said before, was of little value each year except for a limited amount of game.

But this time, the two sisters didn't stop. They soon crossed the silent road and turned into the path into the mountains.

Ahead is the mountain house. In fact, it is a bit reluctant to describe this house as a "villa". Objectively speaking, this cottage is actually slightly better than the Lumberjack's Cottage or the Hunter's Cottage. It is a small single-storey house made of stone, and if there is one thing that has to say, it is the fireplace on it. This shows that the house can also be inhabited in winter, nothing more.

And the interior of the villa is just as simple. If a thief broke down the door with curiosity, he would soon be disappointed. Because this villa has only the simplest furniture - all that is old woodwork. These include a wooden table full of small holes that have been eaten by insects, and a few chairs that squeak when you sit on them. Of course, there's also a bed, an old but still sturdy one. There were no mattresses, pillows, and quilts on the bed, only hardwood planks.

The two sisters walked into the room. They lit a torch and took a look inside the villa. This was a completely redundant move, as the dust on the floor, the cold and dry air, and the marks on the wooden furniture made it clear that there were no guests visiting here.

"Sister, it seems that there is no one. Let's open the door. Hoshimi examined the doors, windows, and several key parts of the ground, and made sure that no one else had visited since the last time they left.

Xingke nodded, and she came to the side of the bed and crouched down. After a few seconds, the entire floor where the bed was located began to move, revealing a staircase that led to the underground chamber.

They walked down the stairs with torches. After a stretch of about thirty steps, they came to this basement.

The basement space is much larger than the above-ground villa. The surrounding rock walls are painted with countless symbols and words that ordinary people can't read. The words and symbols glow a faint white light from time to time, but because of their sheer number, this basement is far more well-lit than the outside, at least not with torches.

Now the two sisters could clearly see a small stone table in the center of the basement, on which was placed something that shimmered. Around the small platform, there is a very complex pattern composed of countless symbols. Even someone who doesn't know anything about magic can tell at a glance that this is a magic circle. And in this magic circle, there are some strange things in the mix, such as a bone or a book or something.

Xingke stepped forward and didn't stop until he reached the edge of the magic circle.

"Sister, how's it going?"

"No...... The dark magic energy has consolidated the entire magic array...... Even if we dismantle it entirely, the process of gathering dark magic energy will not change. I'm afraid we won't be able to erase the traces of magical experiments. If we don't consume the dark magic energy on a regular basis...... Its intensity will soon be felt by the average person. ”

"Oops!" Hoshimi walked up as well. "So what are we going to do?"

"We can't give our estate to someone else. Xingke replied categorically. "Even if you hand it over for the time being, you can't do it, otherwise it's too dangerous!"

Suddenly, she turned her head behind her and looked in the direction of the basement entrance. After just a second of hesitation, she cried out, "Who?!"

As she shouted, she had an extra whip in her hand. She swung her whip hard into the darkness.

But the blow was a missed shot. The whip slammed into the rocky ground with a loud sound. Accompanied by the shadow of the whip, stone chips flew in the basement. When Starmark retracted his whip, a deep whip mark clearly appeared on the ground—the thickness of a palm at its deepest point, as if it were not a rocky ground, but an eggshell.

A blow swung into the air, but Xingke's face was solemn. She stepped forward and held her sister behind her, her eyes fixed on the darkness that now shrouded the steps of the basement entrance.

"Who!" she asked again. As she said this, she raised her left hand and ran her index finger through the air with an intricate symbol.

In the next instant, all the magic symbols in the entire basement began to glow together. Although they used to flicker and glow, now they no longer flicker, and the intensity of the light they emitted has become several times greater. The dim basement was completely illuminated at once, and even the darkness at the entrance to the basement was dispelled.

At the entrance to the basement, at the lower end of the stairs, stood a man whom both of them knew.

"This ......" Facing the hostile star, Ashrufat didn't know what to do. After that, he raised his hands and made a gesture to show that he was harmless.

"You...... See everything?"

"I didn't see anything!" Ashruphat quickly explained. Curiosity led him to follow the two sisters all the way here, but he regretted it the moment he stepped into the basement. But it's too late to say anything.

"Lie!" Stark clenched his whip, but didn't swing it. Ashrufat may have forgotten, but she won't. The man in front of him was by no means as harmless as he seemed. Many years ago, she had fought him confidently, only to suffer a complete defeat.

More than ten years have passed. Xingke knew that he was far stronger than he was then. But at this moment, in the face of Ashrufat, even if he made a gesture of weakness and compromise, she felt an instinctive jealousy.

"Well, I saw it. Ashrufat reluctantly admitted. The entire basement was filled with the smell of dark magic energy. This is because there is a magic circle in the basement that gathers black magic energy, and it slowly gathers black magic energy from the surrounding air. This way of gathering the Dark Magic is not an efficient way to gather it, as it is often necessary to wait weeks or even months for enough Dark Magic energy to be gathered.

Wait a minute...... It's dark magic energy!

Ashruphat suddenly realized the essence of the matter. Everyone knows that dark magic energy is a depraved, evil force. Only the most selfish, desperate Dark Mage in pursuit of eternal life, will learn to master the use of Dark Magic energy, which usually means that he will transform himself into a terrifying form or live in an eternal curse. The most well-known and nefarious means of the dark magician is to use the dark magic to resurrect the dead. In this way, they were able to drive an army of dead people to defend themselves and attack others.

Of course, there are some dark mages who have not been so evil in their original intentions. Some people simply seek knowledge, others simply seek the meaning of life. But no matter how well-intentioned, this kind of research will eventually lead them to a path of no return to darkness. According to the Church, this is because black magic itself is a depraved force that will inevitably distort the human body and mind. In other words, as long as a person begins to learn the dark arts, it is only a matter of time before he eventually falls into madness.

In short, when ordinary humans hear about black magic, their first reaction is definitely fear and disgust. But Ashrufat found himself completely unresponsive. In fact, he recognized the various arrangements of the basement at first glance, and then it took him a long time to remember that coming to the dark magic energy was supposed to be a depraved, dangerous, evil, and abominable force.

"Are you scared?" said Xingke coldly. Now even a fool understands the identities of the two sisters, so she doesn't need to hide anything. "Your two fiancées are actually dark magicians. ”

"Nope. Ashrufat replied heartily. Look at the dark magic symbols around you and feel the dark magic energy condensed in the air. It wasn't so much that he felt fear, but that he felt familiar and reassured. An indescribable feeling came over me.

"Here...... Why do you have a basement like this?" asked Ashrufat, looking around. It's hard to imagine that there is a basement underneath such a shabby cottage in the mountains.

"It's an old house. Xingke replied. "It must have been built by a lord somewhere in the past as a hiding place in times of crisis. Her eyes were fixed on Ashrufat's every move.

Ashrufat's attention was already drawn to the dark magic symbols on the walls. He looked at the symbols one by one. Many of these symbols were familiar to him, and some he had not seen before.