Chương 98: Ghost

Poloia was the heart of Halyun, and the Governor's Manor was the heart of Poloia. Established at the absolute center of Poloia, the Governor's Manor was a massive, walled castle—a city within a city. The governor's personal troops were stationed inside the manor, and their level of strength depended entirely on the governor's financial power and his enthusiasm for building up the military. When Li Qinwu led his troops to the Governor's Manor, what he beheld was a scene of utter mess.

The castle gates of the manor were wide open, and armor, weapons, and banners were tossed everywhere like garbage. Li Qinwu led his men into the Governor's Manor with extreme caution, leaving a company behind to control the walls and gates while the others headed toward the three-story marble building.

"Disperse and search. Do not kill unarmed personnel; bring them to me for questioning." Li Qinwu ordered the troops to fan out. He could tell that the people of the Governor's Manor had long since fled clean away. Sure enough, the troops slowly returned, all reporting that they hadn't seen anyone, though there were signs of looting. It was likely that the Governor's Manor staff had engaged in a round of "five-finger discount" shopping before fleeing for their lives.

However, one company commander reported that there was a powerful, foul stench in a certain room on the first floor. Li Qinwu immediately led men over. This was a small storeroom containing stored items like chairs and tables. Li Qinwu sniffed and indeed smelled a foul odor; the stench came from behind a cabinet.

"Move the cabinet away!" Upon Li Qinwu's order, several soldiers rushed up and moved the cabinet aside, revealing an underground entrance. Then, an even more potent stench poured out, nearly causing everyone to gag and vomit.

"Blegh!" Several Goblins couldn't handle it and vomited directly. That odor was far too disgusting and far too complex—a mixture of highly decomposed meat, the stench of feces and urine, blood, and a moldy smell.

"Fuck! Open the doors and windows to let it air out!" The Goblins opened the doors and windows, and fresh air rushed in, dispersing a good deal of the stench. Li Qinwu waited for a full hour or so until he confirmed that the foul air had mostly dissipated. He tore down a curtain from the Governor's Manor, dipped it in water, and tied it across his face as a mask before finally leading his men down into the basement.

The basement of the Governor's Manor was a whole different world, with a vast space and several rooms. Li Qinwu opened a few rooms at random, and various books, antiques, and treasures came into view. Especially rows of chests filled with gold, silver, and gemstones, which packed an entire room in a glittering expanse; he almost thought he had stumbled into a dragon's treasury. Li Qinwu recalled the rumors regarding Count Cali.

Ever since this fellow's disposition underwent a drastic change, he had become exceedingly greedy for wealth, scraping up the wealth of the people through all sorts of means. Gathering this much gold and treasure was reasonable enough. Li Qinwu led his men deeper, carefully searching every single room. The items discovered next, however, were somewhat bizarre. Various glass test tubes and beakers, unknown reagents, organs turned into specimens and soaked in large jars, and ominous books recording strange symbols.

Some kind of forbidden research seemed to be taking place here!

"Everyone be careful, do not touch things recklessly!" Li Qinwu warned, carrying a shield as he walked forward. The things in the next room were completely unexpected: Goblin corpses, a massive number of Goblin corpses, and moreover, the corpses of Goblin cubs! This was truly strange. Why would there be Goblins at the core of a province? Li Qinwu retrieved a long spear from the storeroom, using it to poke and examine the corpses.

The latest of these Goblin cub corpses had to be two years old, already decayed into skeletons, while the earliest was from roughly half a year ago. Every corpse bore a fatal blade wound; this was the source of the basement's stench. Li Qinwu's brow furrowed deeply. Goblins were everywhere in this world, but appearing here was far too strange. Furthermore, it appeared that someone was deliberately breeding Goblin cubs, only to kill them immediately after breeding.

"There's a story in this!" Li Qinwu murmured. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

"Indeed there is~ There's a very interesting tale of love, hatred, and passion inside here~" Li Qinwu was startled violently!

"Who is it!!" He retreated several steps in a burst, raising his shield to defend his face and aiming his hand cannon toward the direction the voice came from. The other soldiers also raised their muskets, aiming wildly all around, but... they saw no enemy.

"Ah A Goblin army with strict military discipline, and materials never seen before, requiring thorough study" Accompanying the ethereal voice of an old man, a phantom suddenly condensed in the air. It was an old man with deeply sunken cheeks, sparse long hair, and a body so thin that nothing but ribs remained. This old man floated in the air like a ghost, his semi-transparent eyes betraying a profound weariness along with a hint of cynicism.

Coupled with his slightly frivolous tone, it gave off the feeling that this person's personality was extremely eccentric. Li Qinwu pulled the trigger directly, his hand cannon blasting out a large amount of pellets, and the other Goblins also opened fire one after another. However, these attacks could not harm the ghost at all; the bullets all passed straight through his semi-transparent body, slamming into the wall behind him and kicking up a string of sparks.

Seeing that the musket attacks which had never failed before were useless, the musket Goblins grew a little panicked, but they still followed their usual training procedures to reload on the spot. The ghost was intensely interested in the muskets, actively drawing close to a musket Goblin to observe him reloading the firearm. That musket Goblin halted his reloading action and thrust at the ghost with his bayonet, but the bayonet passed completely through his semi-transparent body, stabbing into thin air.

"Hmm~ Truly a weapon of robust power, to actually not feel any undulations of magic power. Is it forged from non-magical materials? Allowing ordinary people to possess capabilities rivaling a mage, interesting, truly very interesting" He looked toward Li Qinwu, who was the tallest and possessed the most luxurious weapons and equipment, and slowly floated toward him.

"You are the leader, right? Who forged this kind of weapon? The other party must be a scholar with an exceptional understanding of the laws of material operation. How about telling me? I would very much like to exchange views with this scholar~~" The musket Goblins blocked the way in front of Li Qinwu, but Li Qinwu pushed them aside and actively went forward to meet him. Extending his hand into the ghost's chest cavity, he felt around carefully, but he felt absolutely nothing.

Li Qinwu withdrew his hand, looking at this ghost.

"A fellow without a physical entity, what exactly are you?" The ghost looked at Li Qinwu playfully and stroked his own chin.

"Oh ho~ A Goblin with curiosity, and possessing magic power at the level of a senior apprentice within his body. Tsk tsk tsk, truly a rare individual, isn't it? What? Aren't you afraid upon seeing me? I am a ghost, you know Awoo Awoo I am going to consume your soul~~" This fellow made menacing gestures like he was scaring a little girl, making Li Qinwu want to give him a couple of slaps. He handed the musket to a nearby Goblin to load, then crossed his arms over his chest.

"You fellow, the material world has no way to affect you, and you have no way to affect the material world either, right?" Li Qinwu had learned from the mouths of Miss Hana and Young Master Lance that ghosts and monsters did indeed exist in this world. However, ghosts and monsters needed to attach themselves to matter in order to exert an effect on the material world.

Take skeleton soldiers, for instance; their soul fire was essentially a type of soul, and it needed to attach to a skeleton to drive the skeleton's movements. If you smashed their skull, causing the soul fire to leave its attached matter, they would soon dissipate into nature. The kind of ghost found in horror movies—where the ghost could not be hit by matter of the real world yet could conversely cause an effect on the material world—simply did not exist.

Therefore, this fellow before his eyes who was supposedly a ghost was highly suspicious; Li Qinwu even doubted whether he was a ghost at all.

"My, my, to actually hear words like 'the material world' from the mouth of a Goblin. You, this Goblin, possess an extraordinary cognition of this world!" Li Qinwu couldn't be bothered to waste words with this fellow, leading his men out of the room to search through the other rooms. Since he couldn't kill the other party and the other party couldn't affect him, then whatever; eliminating the dangers in the other rooms was what mattered first. The soldiers exited the room one after another, all ignoring the ghost.

They were Goblins, possessing no psychological complex of fearing ghosts. Who among those present hadn't farmed skeleton soldiers to become Hobgoblins? Who was he trying to scare? They all exited the room, and the last soldier even closed the door on his way out. At this, the ghost grew anxious.

"Hey, hey, hey! Rude fellows, do you know who I am? To actually dare ignore me, do you know how many people are willing to pay a massive price just to listen to one of my lectures!" This fellow's ghostly body passed directly through the room door, then passed through the bodies of several musket Goblins, floating to Li Qinwu's side.

"Hey, hey, you, this Goblin with special insights, the one standing before you is a Mentor, you know! A Mentor of the Mage Guild, you know!! Are you certain you want to ignore a Mentor?!" Li Qinwu kicked open the door to a room, inside of which a massive number of Goblin cub corpses were discovered once again. He glanced at the chattering ghost.

"Fine, this knowledgeable Mentor, why don't you tell me what happened here? Why are there so many corpses of Goblin cubs?" Seeing that Li Qinwu finally regarded him with importance, the ghost let out a ku-ku-ku laugh.

"The things that happened here are exceptionally interesting~~ A story of a powerful noble madly expressing love, and a beautiful woman, ku-ku-ku ~~" He flew forward, flying to a certain corner, pointing toward a hole that led down to the second level of the basement, making a gesture of invitation.

"If you want to understand what happened then follow me" Li Qinwu hesitated slightly, shouting to the soldiers behind him, "Leave one squad here to guard the exit. The rest of you, raise your vigilance, do not touch anything, and follow me down." The ghost uttered that he was a cautious fellow, but said it was unnecessary, flying ahead to lead the way. As he flew forward, he began narrating a story in the tone of a bard.