MTL - He Became a Salted Fish After Inheriting Millions of Secret Arts-Chapter 32 dark secret

"What are you doing!" screamed Lady Edith.

The flames ignited and quickly engulfed the books, and the paper curled up in the flames, turned black, and turned into crumbs.

"I give up this secret technique." The Lord said loudly, "I will not kill you. I will not follow the old path of my ancestors. I will not hurt my loved ones. I will not be a **** butcher."

"But... there was no sacrifice, so Albert... the Midlow family... the people of this land..."

The Lord smiled sadly, "I won't let Albert learn esoteric philosophy. I want to make him an ordinary person. There are thousands of ordinary people in the world who don't know occult arts, but they can still live a splendid life. I think, he Even without relying on secret arts, he can properly manage the family property. If he doesn’t have this ability, then it can only be said that the Midlow family deserves to be like this.”

He strode forward and embraced the weeping Mrs. Edith.

"Go and wake up all the servants and let them take Albert out for refuge."

Lady Edith looked at her husband in horror and wonder, "Why?"

"I'm going to burn this house where the undead reside. We don't need it anymore. From now on, there will be no mystics in this house, no sacrifices, and no undead that linger -there's only us."

The two embracing figures gradually faded and finally disappeared.

The mirror returned to calm, only Duan Feizhuo's pale and astonished face was reflected.

"Sword in the stone, did you hear that?"

"Ah? What are you talking about? Haven't you been in a daze?"

It turned out that he was the only one who witnessed everything just now. That was the owner's memory left on the dressing table.

Duan Feizhuo rubbed the corners of his eyes, still feeling a little overwhelmed.

The truth couldn't be clearer. From generation to generation, the Midlow family has passed down a wicked mystery, a dark secret. Lords sacrificed their wives and bound their souls in the mansion, forcing them to guard the entire family. Therefore, every generation of lords died young, and one year after their death, the manor would be renovated in the name of renovation, replacing the wood that housed their souls.

Some thirty years ago, the previous Lord broke this **** tradition. He burned down the secret art notes of his father's generation, and burned down the house where the souls of the past ladies were lodged, so that the secret art inheritance of the Midlow family was cut off.

To the mystic, the old lord looked like a fool. How could anyone be willing to give up such an ancient and powerful secret technique for a mere woman? Once a woman is gone, she can be found again. Once the inheritance of the mystery is cut off, it will never be found again.

Duan Feizhuo felt that if he was a fool, then he was the bravest fool in the world.

He lifted the sword in the stone and walked out of the room with the lantern in hand. Outside was a corridor he had never seen before.

"Where are you going?" Shi Zhongjian shouted.

"Go save people." Duan Feizhuo didn't squint, striding forward.

"What's going on? Did you just... see something?"

Duan Feizhuo looked down at the shining blade.

"Isn't that obvious?"

It was dark at night, but the lakeside villa was still brightly lit.

Lord Perilla took his mother and his favorite lady to live in the villa for a while. He invited half the lords and squires of Shropshire to a ball for his boisterous lover. Since his father passed away, it was the first time that such a grand event was held in his house, so the guests were very respectful.

People came not so much to praise the lord as to be full of curiosity about his lover.

Legend has it that Miss Melissa is the daughter of the Duke of Merrihorne, because her father wanted to marry her to an old, ugly nobleman with a broken arm, so this young girl who was influenced by the atmosphere of the new era resolutely ran away from home and met To Lord Perilla.

His chivalry immediately captured the lady's heart. She made up her mind to stay with Lord Perilla against her father's will. For this reason, the father and daughter had a very stiff fight.

Fortunately, the young lady's mother and brothers and sisters all support her. They were doing ideological work for the Duke in London, and as soon as he relaxed, Miss Melissa could take the son-in-law home to meet his father. Lord Perilla's family is a long and famous family in Shropshire, and he is healthy and young, what can the Duke not be satisfied with?

However, the news of Miss Melissa's stay here cannot be made public, lest her stubborn father send someone to arrest her.

The dance party will be held all night long, with unlimited supply of fine wine and food. Young people danced to the music and exchanged eager eyes on the dance floor. The old lady couldn't stand the noise, so she went back to her room early to rest on the pretext of being unwell.

It was tacitly shared by everyone that she actually disliked her prospective daughter-in-law very much. It was agreed that she must not be allowed to meet Miss Melissa's father. If the two form an alliance, the love affair between Miss Melissa and Lord Perilla will probably end in tragedy.

In the well-dressed ballroom, a servant hurried past smiling men and women, and came to the drunken Lord Albert of Perilla.

"My lord, there is a man outside who calls himself a Scotland Yard detective and wants to see you."

The lord's tiger body shook, and he immediately became sober.

"They just won't let me live, don't they! Drive him away!"

"But he said he had to see you, otherwise...or your family would be in danger!"

"How dare he threaten me!"

The Lord was furious, put down his wine glass with a "bang", and then apologized to the guests around him with a pleasant smile, "I have something to do, I have something to do, just go back as soon as you go."

Under the guidance of his servants, he walked through the hall and came to the cold outdoor. A dark figure stood at the gate of the lakeside manor. On a moonless night, he almost merged with the surrounding darkness. When he spoke, the lord almost thought it was darkness itself talking to him.

"Lord Perilla, please return to Oak Manor as soon as possible."

The Lord recognized him as one of the two night watchmen who had come to him during the day, the one with the black hair and the yellow eyes. His eyes always made the Lord uncomfortable, like some kind of bird.

The night policeman was carrying a white package, which was covered with mud, and he didn't know what was inside.

"Didn't you see that I am entertaining guests!" the Lord said angrily, "I'll talk about it tomorrow!"

"But something is going to happen tonight." The night policeman grinned, showing his white teeth, "It's better to say that it has already happened."

"Stop threatening me here!"

The upstairs windows were open. The old lady Edith with her curls poked her head out, "Albert, what happened?"

"Mother, it's nothing!" The Lord smirked, "Go ahead and rest!"

"Good evening, ma'am!" The night watchman waved happily to Mrs. Edith. "Something happened at your house. I'm begging your son to come over quickly!"

"Stop talking nonsense!" The Lord was furious.

The old lady stared at Xenophon seriously. She already suffered from presbyopia, but at this moment her eyes are so sharp, like a scalpel as thin as a willow leaf, dissecting Xenophon from the outside to the inside, until his unknown inner core is exposed.

"Are you... one of them too?" she asked slowly.

Xenophon smiled and took off his hat to salute her.

The figure of the old lady disappeared from the window. From inside they heard her exasperated cry, "Anna! Dress me quickly! You clumsy girl, don't want that dress! It'll be daylight when I put it on! Get my traveling cloak." !"

"Wait! Mother! Mother!" Lord Perilla panicked.

"What's the matter, Albert? Why don't we go dancing?" Miss Melissa ran excitedly and took Lord Perilla's arm, her cheeks flushed from exercise and alcohol.

"Something happened at my house..." Lord forced out a forced smile.

"That's terrible!" Miss Melissa's expression changed drastically, "I have to hurry over there! I'll go with you too!"

"But Melissa, that might be dangerous!"

"Oh, my dear Albert, I am not afraid of any danger with you!"

These words ignited the chivalry in the Lord's chest. He held his head high and swore secretly that he would never show timidity in front of his sweetheart.

"One, two, three," Xenophon counted the number of people, "plus I am four people, that's great, a carriage just fits!"

The Lord was furious, "Why should I bring you!!"

"Those women are really pitiful. They were used when they were alive, and they have no peace after death."

Duan Feizhuo succinctly explained what he had seen and heard. Shi Zhongjian couldn't stop talking.

"If you insist on saving your companions, you have to make them enemies."

Duan Feizhuo clenched his sword tightly, "They are indeed pitiful, but they hurt innocent people, so I must destroy them."

Shi Zhongjian sighed, "In this respect, you are not so much like your uncle. If you were him, he might happily help those undead."

There were hurried footsteps in the darkness ahead of the corridor.

"Who is where?!" Duan Feizhuo held up the lantern.

An old man with white hair stumbled into the light range.

"Mr. Hao Te?" Duan Feizhuo recognized him as the butler of Oak Manor.

"Great, I finally saw a living person!" The old housekeeper burst into tears.

"What happened?"

Hao Te grabbed Duan Feizhuo's lapel and hung his whole body on him, and then stabilized his body, "The manor is haunted! When I was patrolling the night tonight, the servant who was with me was taken away! I'm afraid Terrible, I ran around, thinking that I must be dead this time! Fortunately, I met you!"

Duan Feizhuo sneered inwardly. This old guy who is trying to gain power, now knows how to hug his thigh?

"My friends have also been taken away, and I'm going to rescue them," he said.

"It's too dangerous, sir!" Hao Te panicked. His originally meticulous white hair was now disheveled, like a ball of straw, and his neat clothes were messed up. elder. "I think we'd better run away! The sooner the better, otherwise even we..."

"If we don't destroy those undead, we can't escape."

"But how can humans fight against invisible undead?"

Duan Feizhuo didn't answer him, but continued to walk forward with the lamp in hand, "Follow me closely, don't leave the range of the light."

Hao Te shrank his neck and followed Duan Feizhuo closely, wanting to stick directly to his back. He stepped on Duan Feizhuo's heel several times.

"Where does this corridor lead to?" Duan Feizhuo asked.

"The lord and lady's chambers, and a few more rooms."

"Funny, I just came out of there."

Although the light was bright, it couldn't illuminate the entire corridor, and there was a sound of Gululu in the thick darkness ahead.

Duan Feizhuo stopped, and Hao Te bumped into his back, "Ouch".

"What's the matter, sir?" The old housekeeper trembled.

"What's there..." Duan Feizhuo narrowed his eyes.

An iron ring rolled out of the darkness, rolled to Duan Feizhuo's feet, tilted to the side, and fell down.

Duan Feizhuo recognized this kind of iron ring. Victorian children used to play this game, just use a U-shaped iron rod or wire to push the hoop around. Children often compete to see whose hoop rolls farther.

When Hao Te saw the iron ring, he made a suffocating "hissing" sound, as if someone had strangled his neck.

A small figure stepped out of the darkness. He stopped at the junction of light and darkness, looking at Duan Feizhuo with raised eyes.

It was a boy in ragged clothes, a very common child in the countryside, his face was covered with mud, as if he had rolled in the ground. He was holding a thin wire, which must have been his toy.

Why is there a child in the mansion? How did he get in here? Could it be some servant's child?

Although Duan Feizhuo was full of doubts, he was relieved to see that the person who came was not the vicious former lady.

"Who are you?" he asked. "Why are you here? Where are your parents?"

The boy took a step back, most of his body was hidden in the darkness, except for a pair of shining eyes, like gems shining in the darkness.

"Come with me," he said softly.

Duan Feizhuo's lapel was tightly held by the old housekeeper. He pulled Duan Feizhu back like a disobedient horse.

"Don't go, sir!" Hot said hoarsely, "I recognize him! He's Barney Jr., the child of the Prow family, the boy who died a year and a half ago!"

Duan Feizhuo met the boy in the shadow.

He didn't dare to walk into the range of the light, which meant that he was also an undead.

Duan Feizhuo endured the chill from his ankle all the way up to the back of his neck and asked, "Where are we going with you?"

Barney said softly, "You'll know when you come."

"Where are my friends?"

"Where I'm going to take you."

Well, even if this is a trap, Duan Feizhuo is willing to jump into it. Holding the lamp and the sword, he walked towards Little Barney. The boy always kept a distance from him. When he took a step forward, the boy took a step back into the shadows.

"Only you," Barney said. "He can't."

"Sir! Don't leave me!" The old housekeeper yelled and knelt down, hugging Duan Feizhuo's thigh.

Duan Feizhuo had no sympathy for this old fellow. He was just curious why Barney wanted to target Hao Te.

"Why can't he?"

Barney stared coldly at the howling old butler. Duan Feizhuo was really surprised that a child could show such a cold look.

"Ma'am has an order," said the boy.

"Madame? Which lady? You mean the previous generations of Lady Perilla?"

Duan Feizhuo broke away from Hote, and rushed forward to grab Barney. But he took a chance and slammed forward, hitting his jaw **** the floor. The wind lamp went out with a "hula".

His face seems to have a special relationship with the ground today, doesn't it?

The butler's hysterical cry disappeared in an instant. Duan Feizhuo got up and found that it wasn't that the butler had disappeared, but that he had been transferred to another place.

Here is the underground wine cellar, and rows of wine racks and barrels divide the low, dark cellar into a labyrinth.

"Barney?" Duan Feizhuo shouted, the echo quickly disappeared into the darkness.

"Master?" A familiar voice sounded from the end of the attic.

Duan Feizhuo walked quickly through rows of cobweb-covered and dusty wine barrels, and walked into the deepest part of the wine cellar. There was a spark burning there.

The light of the fire comes from a thin candle. Z sat on the ground. Opposite him sat Yeats and Al. Yeats crossed his legs like an oriental monk meditating, while Al hugged his knees. Beside them sat three servants, a man and two women. Everyone held a few cards in their hands, and there were a few empty wine bottles scattered at their feet, and there was a faint smell of wine in the air.

—What a country club evening poker table scene! !

If Duan Feizhuo hadn't been holding things with both hands, he would have wanted to scratch his head.

"Ah, you're here too." Yeats said lightly, throwing the cards in his hand on the ground, "I won."

The servant who played cards with him cursed at the same time.

"What are you doing?!"

"Playing cards." Yeats gathered the cards together and shuffled them again, "Do you want to join in too?"

"Where is this?" Duan Feizhuo asked.

"Obviously it's the wine cellar of the Oak Manor." Yeats spoke modestly, "However, it's not surprising if **** looks like this."

He gave Z a reproachful look.

The gray-haired detective ignored him and said, "We were all caught by the white hands. There are lights here, and a deck of cards to pass the time. Apart from not being able to get out, the treatment is pretty good."

Duan Feizhuo glanced at the empty wine bottles all over the floor. They're kind of entertaining themselves.

"Have you seen the ghost?" Duan Feizhuo asked again.

"Whose ghost?"

Do you want to tell everything you have seen and heard? Duan Feizhuo thought. If he talks too much, Z may find out his secret, but if he keeps his mouth shut, the information he alone may not be able to solve the mystery.

"I broke into the lady's bedroom just now," Duan Feizhuo said carefully, trying to avoid mentioning his special ability, "I saw the ghosts of the previous generations of lady there, as well as some wonderful illusions, which seemed to be The memory of ghosts. It seems that every generation of Lord Perilla will kill his wives, bury their bodies in the oak forest, wait for their souls and **** to fuse with the trees, and then chop down the trees to make building materials, so that The ghost of the lady will always guard the manor and territory."

Duan Feizhuo noticed that when he spoke, the servants exchanged suspicious glances.

"Do you know something?" Z asked sternly.

The servants shrank their necks and dared not speak. The older maid in the middle glared at the others with dissatisfaction, and said, "Sir, in fact, the older generation of servants have heard some rumors that the ghosts of the wives of the past will wander in the manor, and some of them have seen it!"

"Martha! How can you chew the root of your master's tongue!" A servant was shocked.

"We are all in danger now, if we don't talk about it now, are we going to bring the secret into the coffin?" Martha choked. She turned to Duan Feizhuo, "Sir, actually, the servants of the older generation know one thing. Thirty years ago, there was a fire in Perilla Manor. It was not an accident, but the old lord—the father of the current lord— He asked his servants to take valuables and take refuge outside, and then lit the fire himself. I still remember that fire, and it was so earth-shattering!" Martha sighed, "I swear, I saw it in the flames. I saw the ghosts of many women, and they rose to the sky while screaming. Since then, there have been no ghosts in the manor. Until—”

"—Now." Duan Feizhuo murmured.

"Yes, there is indeed such a thing." Yeats took out a booklet from his arms and handed it to Z actively. He knew that Z couldn't see, but he still danced the pamphlet in front of his eyes, "Look, Mr. Detective, this is the record of the previous repairs of Perilla Manor that I found. Thirty years ago the mansion caught fire, almost It was burned down to an empty frame. The repair was basically equivalent to rebuilding, and all materials were shipped from other places, which cost a lot of money.”

"As expected of a writer, he is so good at discovering treasures." Z said sarcastically.

Duan Feizhuo said while thinking, "If the whole mansion had been razed to the ground at that time, why are the ghosts of the ladies and ladies still lingering here now? Could it be that they were not completely burned down thirty years ago?"

"...But judging from the blueprint of this note, it should be completely rebuilt." Yeats muttered.

"Even if it wasn't burned clean, why is Barney here?"

"Which Barney?" Z raised his head.

"It's the boy who disappeared a year and a half ago, the son of the Praws"

Z raised his eyebrows, "He's in Perilla Manor?"

"He's actually dead. I just met his ghost."

The servants screamed in unison.

"You know him?" Duan Feizhuo asked.

It was Martha who answered again, "We are familiar with his parents. When little Barney disappeared, the lord mobilized all the servants to look for him! We all thought that the child was abducted by human traffickers to be used as child labor or something." ..."

Martha stopped suddenly, her eyes widened in horror, and she pointed behind Duan Feizhuo, her trembling lips seemed to want to say something, but she couldn't utter a word.

When Duan Feizhuo turned his head, what caught his eyes was Barney's pale, bloodless face. He shouted in fright, took two steps back, and kicked over the candle.

Barney didn't move. It can be seen that he dare not step into the range of the wind lamp.

Duan Feizhuo said, "Barney, can you tell me how you died?"

Barney tilted his head and fell into distant memories. "I was rolling the hoop that day. The hoop fell to the bottom of the cliff. I climbed down to pick it up, and then I saw something I shouldn't have seen."

"What?" Duan Feizhuo asked.

"He... was digging." Barney frowned. "He killed me."

"Who is he?"

Barney covered his face and kept shaking his head, as if recalling the fragments of his own death would bring endless pain.

Duan Feizhuo looked at the boy's undead steadily, and suddenly remembered something.

"Could it be... the butler, Mr. Haut?"