He walked while flipping through the notebook in his hand, his gaze starting from the last page, wanting to see if there were any places he had overlooked.
"That monster was crimson red, filled with anger, fear, and despair. Flame and strength were everything; its blood-red eyes could easily capture the actions of mortals. It was a high-level demon from Hell, immune to the harms of salt and crosses..."
Dane’s gaze rapidly scanned the diary, and he began to recite the contents aloud.
Xiao Man, who was ahead, heard the latter’s words and couldn’t help but slow down, wanting to hear how the diary described the creature below.
"When night falls, it sets out to seek slaughter to satisfy its desires. Humans cannot kill it completely; we must find a way to trap it. Hunger will not cause its death but will drive it insane..."
Dane reached this point, his gaze suddenly becoming puzzled.
"I’ve seen these things before, but I remember they seem to be excerpts from the Holy Scripture. Could this be the secret my father discovered?"
As he spoke, he looked at the diary again, his eyes widening suddenly, he exclaimed, "Wait! Here! I might have overlooked this before! There’s a line here that reads, ’Beneath the Land of Harvest lies the secret of the Wencheen family, where the method to overcome evil resides...’"
Sam also perked up, "Beneath the Land of Harvest? Could it be under the cellar? No, it should be beneath the cellar!"
At this moment, Xiao Man had already stopped, standing at the edge of a pile of collapsed ruins.
"It should be here..."
Through his observation of the Dark Energy World, he could see some traces of Dark Energy lingering inside the ruins.
"Excuse me, is it here?"
The Wencheen brothers also walked over, their eyes fixed intently on the ruins in front of them.
Xiao Man nodded and then waved his hand, activating the second skill from his Magic Memory, Star Guardian.
Four armored Star Guards quickly materialized beside him.
The Dane brothers, seeing the sudden appearance of these towering figures, couldn’t help but back away in fear.
Xiao Man reassured, "Don’t be afraid, they’re just puppets."
After speaking, he didn’t pay any more attention to their reactions and began directing the Star Guards to remove the debris in front of them.
The space was quickly cleared, and an oddly marked floor tile appeared before everyone’s eyes.
Seeing the symbol on the ground that represented the Guardian, Xiao Man knew that the entrance had to be here.
Dane clearly thought the same, his eyes lighting up with excitement as he looked toward it.
A Star Guard thrust its spear, the tip inserting into the crevice next to the tile, then levered forcefully, and the brick that had concealed a century-old secret was finally opened, revealing a staircase leading downward.
"There really is a hidden passage!"
The most surprised were the Wencheen brothers. To find such a place hidden within their own family estate, and to have been clueless about it for more than twenty years, was bewildering indeed.
Xiao Man flicked his finger, and a flame shot out, striking a torch hanging on the wall. In an instant, a series of flames spread along, lighting the other torches in succession, and the whole passageway became clearly visible.
"There are traces here! Someone must have gone in not long ago!" exclaimed Dane, leaning over to look. "My father must have found this place! He went down here!"
Xiao Man looked at the passageway and used the Spirit Detection Technique to sense the position of that thing inside again, then whispered to the others, "Let’s go in, some truths are due to be brought back to light."
Then, under his guidance, the four Star Guards took the lead and walked in, with the rest following closely behind, heading down the hidden corridor.
The passage wasn’t long, and after descending for merely a few meters, they found themselves in a wide, open area—it was a spacious underground hall.
"My God! Incredible! There’s actually such a place hidden here!"
Dane exclaimed, while Sam also wore a face full of shock, his worldview thoroughly overturned by the day’s events.
He had always thought his brother and father, whom he believed suffered from delusions, were actually right, and he was the one who was terribly wrong!
The underground hall was roughly over 500 square meters in size, decorated entirely in European medieval style, with shields engraved with family crests hanging on the walls and a large pile of shattered stone debris on the floor.
The Wencheen brothers were busy taking in their surroundings, while Lin Sisi, blind, could only silently follow closely beside Zhang Xiaoman. However, her gaze didn’t falter, always fixed in one direction.
Zhang Xiaoman knew what she was looking at, for his Spirit Detection Technique had also long since detected it, and it seemed to be a somewhat familiar entity.
"It’s okay, don’t be scared, it can’t run away."
Gently reassuring the somewhat nervous girl, Zhang Xiaoman wasn’t too worried about the creature hiding in the dark. After all, he had previously dealt with over a dozen of them at once.
Lin Sisi nodded lightly, having unconditional trust in Zhang Xiaoman’s words.
The four Star Guards quietly adjusted their positions, seemingly forming a stance to surround the corner where the entity was hiding. Zhang Xiaoman then leisurely walked over to a table, casually picking up a withered flower to examine, growing slightly astonished.
It turned out that this flower emanated faint traces of Dark Energy fluctuations under his Spirit Detection Technique.
"This is an Extraordinary Item!"
Zhang Xiaoman was inwardly delighted. Coming here in search of the Wencheen family’s secret was indeed the right choice; it seemed he was bound for a rewarding find!
There were many items on the table, including other flowers and medicine bottles, but the only thing emitting Dark Energy fluctuations was this lone flower.
"Eh? This flower? It seems very familiar..."
At that moment, Dane approached, and upon seeing the flower in Zhang Xiaoman’s hand, he revealed a pondering expression.
Zhang Xiaoman looked up at him, interested, "Have you seen this flower somewhere else before?"
Dane thought for a while but couldn’t come to a conclusion. Seeing this, Sam likewise approached and immediately said upon seeing the flower:
"I’ve seen this flower! It’s all over the place in the southern part of our estate!"
Both men turned to look at him.
Sam paused slightly before explaining:
"I can’t recall the name of the flower, I never heard of it before. But since last month, these flowers started growing wildly in the fields to the south of our estate. I thought they were wildflowers and planned to clear them, but then my father passed away, and that plan got delayed..."
Zhang Xiaoman quietly breathed a sigh of relief; he hadn’t noticed the situation to the south during his previous visit and had overlooked them. Luckily, this guy didn’t do anything foolish before, as these were all Extraordinary Items!
It seemed that, like Dragon Sleep Mountain, this place held numerous resources.
He decided to visit the southern fields later to examine the situation.
Just as he was about to say something else, from a corner of the hall, behind many pieces of shattered stone debris, there suddenly came a rustling noise. A figure then leapt out violently, pouncing toward where everyone was standing.
Zhang Xiaoman, though having been looking at the flower in his hand just before, had never taken his attention off the hidden monster. Seeing it charge out, a smile couldn’t help but spread across his face.
"So, this creature finally couldn’t hold back anymore..."