"There's something wrong there." Cline pointed to the staircase separating the living room from the dining room, speaking seriously and deliberately. He had seen this in the internal records of the night watch: when inspiration indicated such a situation, it often meant that a malevolent, impure entity was concealed at the location. If one lacked confidence, it was best not to attempt to interact with it, as doing so could easily prove fatal—sometimes, merely gazing at it could result in irreversible harm. Duan followed his gaze and, with his own high level of inspiration, immediately noticed the anomaly. He turned to Cline and calmly instructed, "Have you perform a divination to see if the exploration will proceed smoothly." Before entering the castle, the captain had never asked me to do so—his confidence had been quite strong. This suggests he now believes the concealed entity may be more dangerous than a lingering spirit. Cline nodded silently, withdrew his revolver, and passed his staff to Fley beside him. Then, he removed the yellow crystal pendant from within his sleeve, held the silver chain in his left hand, and carefully formulated the appropriate divination phrases. In an instant, his eyes deepened, and an invisible breeze began to swirl around him. "Exploration of the hidden locations within the castle will proceed smoothly." "Exploration of the hidden locations within the castle will proceed smoothly." ... After silently repeating the phrase seven times, Caine's eyes returned to their normal state, and he observed the yellow crystal pendant rotating gently in a clockwise direction. Though the movement was subtle, it was indeed rotating clockwise! This meant the exploration would proceed smoothly. Now a true diviner, Caine nodded decisively to Dunn and Fley: "The danger is manageable, or absent." Dunn fastened the "variant solar emblem" onto his left chest, touched his silk hat, and briskly moved toward the step, skillfully searching for the hidden mechanisms. After returning Flay's staff to Caine, he now carried the revolver, remaining on high alert, as if afraid that enemies might suddenly appear. I still haven't quite mastered my professionalism... in the realm of the Watchers. Caine straightened up, drew out his revolver once more, and began to keep watch. A few minutes passed, and then, without any apparent reason, Dune Smith crouched down and the steps emitted a heavy, rhythmic sound. The floor there cracked open, revealing downward stairways, and a cold, foul atmosphere poured out, almost solidifying into tangible presence. Dune glanced at it, removed his seal from his chest, "3-0782," and tossed it directly into the dark doorway. The emblem of the "Mutated Solar Saint" jumped several times with a steady tap before settling to rest at some unknown point. If there are any undead creatures inside, they're certainly going to pick up and return the "3-0782"—that would be interesting indeed. Caine gazed steadily down the staircase, patiently waiting. The persistent cold and filth soon melted like ice encountering the sun, and warmth and purity enveloped the entrance of the dark door. "Caine, we'll go down together, and Fley will stay here to prevent any other enemies from disrupting the mechanisms," Dunn made his decision with seasoned confidence. "Agreed," Caine no longer hesitated, took two steps forward, and positioned himself beside Dunn, while Fley nodded gently, remaining alert. Tap, tap, tap—Dunn began descending the stairs, his footsteps echoing quietly. He had no lantern or torches, because for the extraordinary beings of the "Unsleepers" sequence, darkness was not an obstacle but a blessing. In this setting, their vision remained unimpeded. Stepping down a few steps, Dunn suddenly turned back to look at Kline and said, "I forgot you don't have dark vision. I always tend to leave the lighting items unprepared..." "...Captain, don't worry, I have spiritual sight." Kline found himself completely unsurprised. The captain had indeed been anything but his usual self just now! In his spiritual sight, the darkness ahead was hazy and gray, though quite blurred—it allowed him to just barely make out the steps. Hmm, the captain is in good health, both physically and mentally. Kline took care to step gently and moved down slowly. The staircase wasn't very long; after descending about fifteen steps at an angle, it reached the ground. There, the seal "3-0782" lay, radiating warmth, spreading purity, and casting a soft glow. With this light, Kline could see more clearly. He took in his surroundings and noticed that while the space was not large, it no longer felt cool, though it remained damp. At the very center of the basement stood a black coffin, its iron nails tinged a deep red. The lid had been slightly lifted, revealing a white skeleton inside—headless. Dunning took a moment to survey the room before bending down to pick up the "Mutated Solar Emblem." "Captain, this coffin—well, its purpose is to prevent the deceased within from turning into zombies or vengeful spirits..." Kaine examined the individual red nails on the coffin, noting their arrangement, and, drawing upon his solid grasp of esoteric knowledge, recognized it as an ancient ritual—a traditional rite designed to prevent corpse transformation. At the same time, he murmured to himself: Yet, under normal circumstances, who would routinely guard against their own relatives turning into the undead? Well, the people who help with the burial don't have to be relatives... Ah, placing the coffin in the basement rather than the tomb itself—just to make sure nobody notices... At this moment, Dunning, wearing the seal "3-0782," approaches the coffin and examines it carefully. "The deceased probably died from poisoning," he says. "Therefore, the person who poisoned him used a ritual magic to ward off any post-mortem vengeance—the ritual should date back to around a thousand to one thousand four hundred years ago. Yet he still transformed into a vengeful spirit. That level of determination is truly astonishing!" Caine also walks up to the coffin and remarks, "But what about his head? The ritual didn't require the head to be severed, did it?" Dunning thinks for a moment and responds, "I have a hunch the spirit hasn't always existed—it only emerged recently. The village is just a fifteen-minute walk from the castle, so the mischievous figures have probably visited often over the centuries. But prior to this incident, there had never been any tales of the castle harboring a spirit." Klein nodded slightly. "Captain, you mean someone has recently come here, opened the coffin, and taken the deceased's head?" "Indeed. The ritual prevents the corpse from undergoing尸变, but it also locks the deceased's resentment within the coffin, effectively preserving it—once the coffin is opened and the ritual is broken, those resentments quickly manifest as vengeful spirits, aided by the coffin's iron frame." "The person who opened the coffin didn't leave the body behind—definitely not an ordinary person. And why would he have taken the deceased's head?" Denguan gazed at the white bones inside the coffin. "The resentment has been able to endure so long—beyond the ritual's effect, there must be something inherent to the deceased himself. He may have been a special individual, or perhaps a descendant of someone at least within two generations of a mid-tier extraordinary being—by the old classification, a sequence 6 or 5." "Such bodies are often special—their heads, perhaps, might prove useful in certain rituals or specific occasions." Pausing, Den said, "All I've mentioned so far are speculations, though a portion of them can be verified. We'll split up and conduct investigations around the town, looking for anyone who came to the manor as a child and was injured here. If that person is still alive, it will prove that the spectral presence has only recently emerged." "Logical thinking," Caine remarked, then searched the basement once more, finding no additional items. He attempted to use ritual magic to depict the former visitor who had entered the basement, but due to the gap of at least a month and the long-standing presence of the spirit affecting the environment, the results were not effective. Subsequently, he replaced Fley with someone more specialized in the field of corpse examination, to carry out a more thorough assessment. Fifteen minutes later, when the sun was about to disappear below the horizon, Dunn and Fley ascended the stairs back to the castle hall. Dunn felt his way to close the inner door, while Fley briefly explained: "The death was due to poisoning; the marks on the neck appeared only over the past three months." That suggested someone had indeed visited the scene... Caine thought this over and nodded. Then, the three night-watchmen returned to the town of Lamde before dark, booking two rooms at the inn—since members receiving the seal "3-0782" needed to walk with the item to an unpopulated area outside the town, rotating every two hours, just two rooms were required. After a simple dinner, Caine and Dunn, along with Fley, immediately set off separately to inquire of the long-time residents throughout the town. In such situations, police identification proved especially useful. ... "Officer, why are you asking about this?" I remember going to that abandoned castle as a child… Injured? Certainly—I can’t imagine a child not tripping or falling. I do recall being cut by the sharp stones along the castle’s outer walls…” A man in his forties, with soft golden hair, looked at Caine with genuine curiosity, answering his questions honestly. This was the fourteenth person Caine had interviewed, and among them, two clearly remembered being injured as children at the castle. The captain’s assumption was correct. Caine made his judgment, returned the documents, and smiled. “Thank you for your cooperation. I have no further questions.” As he prepared to leave, not holding his staff, the man with the golden hair glanced at him thoughtfully. “Officer, are you particularly interested in the castle? I have a portrait of the first baron of our family—the great-great-grandfather of my grandfather. He took a painting from the castle, said to depict the portrait of the first Lord Ramd.” “Would you like it? "This is a genuine antique!" If it were truly an antique, your family would have sold it long ago—what a bold man this is! He's even managed to deceive the police. Should we draw our guns and scare him next? Klein muttered under his breath, holding out a neutral, open-minded attitude: "Who knows whether it's actually an antique? I trust my own judgment." "Please bring it over so I can take a look." The middle-aged man with the yellowing hair immediately beamed and returned to the house, rummaging through the contents. A moment later, he emerged with a large oil painting in his arms. Klein casually glanced at the portrait on the canvas, noting the first baron, wearing a white, wavy wig, with a soft facial structure, bronze-toned skin, and eyes that seemed to hold an unspoken depth of time. This looks exactly like Mr. Azk! Klein's eyes suddenly widened, instinctively turning toward the right earlobe of the first baron. Then, he noticed a small, inconspicuous black mole nearby. It matched precisely with the location of the black mole on Mr. Azk's instructor.