Chapter 133: The Fractured Retreat
The rear mountain of Twin Peak Hill, nestled within the sprawling expanse of the Hanz Clan Estate, loomed with an eerie stillness, its jagged peaks shrouded in a perpetual mist.
In a secluded courtyard villa, hidden amidst a labyrinthine compound of abandoned residences, Alena Newman, the female Eighth Layer cultivator, caught her breath, her chest heaving as she leaned against the intricately carved pillar of a pavilion. Her blonde hair, once meticulously styled, clung to her sweat-dampened brow, its golden strands glinting faintly under the orange dusk sunlight filtering through the villa’s lattice windows. Her sect dress, embroidered with the Thorn Squad’s sigil, were torn at the hem, revealing the smooth, toned curves of her round thighs, their lithe strength a testament to years of grueling cultivation, yet now trembling with the aftershocks of terror.
Moments ago, she and her squad mates had shattered the heavy doors of the Hanz Clan’s Ancestral Shrine, driven by Captain Garrick Blackthorn’s orders to uncover the fabled Hanz Clan Treasury House. Instead, they had unleashed a ninth-layer wraith, a spectral girl whose power overwhelmed them easily, her rampaging fury scattering the squad in blind panic. Carl had fled toward the Hanz Stronghold at the hill’s base, Cade had bolted for the water lily lake in the residence district’s southeast corner, while Alena, her heart pounding with primal fear, had plunged into the maze of the rear mountain’s compounds, her footsteps echoing in the ghostly silence.
Alena’s mind raced, her thoughts a whirlwind of dread and regret as she wiped cold sweat from her brow, her fingers trembling against her flushed skin. "Damn it! The Hanz Clan Ancestral Shrine was a death trap," she cursed inwardly, her voice a shaky whisper lost in the courtyard’s stillness. "Even Captain Garrick fell to that strange shrine. The Hanz Treasury House must not be there then. Shit! What in the abyss calamity struck this clan to curse their entire mountain estate with such annihilation and horrors?"
The memory of the Thorn Squad’s collapse haunted her. The shrine’s altar loomed as an invisible powerful wraith, a chilling specter wreathed in rotten, tar-like black ghost smoke, struck with terrifying speed, taking her peak Ninth Layer Squad Captain Garrick down and engulfed his body by the shrine’s maw in a single motion. Countless vengeful wraiths swarmed the squad, attacking with frenzied malice. The Thorn Squad scrambled into a frantic retreat as an overwhelming powerful Ninth Layer girl wraith’s spectral claws slashed through the air.
Lordi Payne and Ruru Rosa, too slow to react, were left behind in the chaos. Their fates remained unknown—Alena and the others had fled without looking back, the life-or-death urgency leaving no room for hesitation.
Had the rest of the squad escaped the shrine? Had they survived the wraiths’ pursuit, or had the horrors of the Hanz Clan claimed them, just as they had claimed Garrick?
The uncertainty weighed heavily on Alena, her breath hitching as she scanned the courtyard, its lush greenery and vibrant flowers—jasmine and moonlilies—blooming with an vitality.
The courtyard villa, with its delicate swing swaying gently in the cool breeze, offered a deceptive respite. After probing the area with her Spirit Sense Dao Fulu and detecting no immediate traps or lingering wraiths, she eased onto the swing, her dress rustling as she settled, the motion soothing her frayed nerves.