Chapter 130
Chapter 130: Ghost Princess
Earlier, this Ancient Castle also had many candles and oil lamps. Han Su even felt a bit nostalgic for those days, but he didn’t know when it began that flames became harder and harder to see…
Fortunately, the Ghost Princess on the ninth floor was still so afraid of the dark…
He cast a deep glance at the candle-filled corridor on the ninth floor, exhaled softly, and then silently recited Zero Sequence Spell No. 1, Fisherman’s Chant variant.
His figure blurred, becoming like an unnoticed shadow that hugged the corner of the wall, inching forward bit by bit.
The Black Cat Duke, who had struggled out of his arms, showed a glimmer of doubt in his round eyes.
It felt as if it wasn’t needed—this boy was too skilled to need help.
So it simply rolled onto its side on the carpet, lazily swishing its tail while purring to pass the time.
Han Su moved silently toward the largest, most spacious room in the middle of the corridor. When he got closer, he heard the sound of splashing water, accompanied by an overpowering stench of blood.
Peeking inside, he saw a huge pool with strange encrypted text carved all around it, forming a unique decorative style.
Suspended above the pool were several fresh corpses. Each had a large gash cut into its neck, and fresh blood was pouring from their wounds, gathering into the blood pool in the center of the room.
The Ghost Princess, her figure ethereal, was slowly removing her heavy and elaborate black gown.
Her long, slender figure glowed softly under the moonlight streaming through the window.
She lightly lifted her toes, stepped out of her gown, and floated gracefully into the blood pool.
The moment her toes touched the blood, she let out a blissful sigh.
The blood in the pool seemed to come alive, climbing from her toes upward, slowly spreading over her body.
Her form became more solid in the pool of blood.
Han Su forced himself to ignore the sight, or else he might develop desires far beyond his current age.
His eyes stayed fixed on the gown she had left beside the pool—or more precisely, the Brass Key hanging from it.
Once the Ghost Princess was fully submerged in fresh blood, Han Su maintained his invisibility and quietly crept closer.
The Ghost Princess bathed every night around midnight.
Her bathing material was fresh blood.
Once, on the third night in the castle, Han Su had come to steal her key and saw the school bus driver hanging above the blood pool.
That time, Han Su didn’t have the Fisherman’s Chant or Invisibility Spell—he had simply snuck in and taken the key.
This time, for safety, he stayed invisible, alternating hands and feet as he crawled over the thick carpet, slowly approaching the blood pool, and inching toward the black gown with the key.
Then, he quietly reached out and grasped it…
It went smoothly—just like before—he slowly held the key and pulled it free.
In the blood pool beside him, the Ghost Princess moaned in comfort, seemingly unaware of his movements.
But just then, someone above the pool suddenly groaned.
One of the hanging “blood bags” wasn’t dead yet. He rolled his eyes upward in a struggle.
The sudden noise chilled Han Su to the bone, and he prepared to recite the Fisherman’s Chant.
A quick glance, however, showed that the blood bag wasn’t looking at him, but at the doorway—where the Black Cat Duke was peeking in, staring at the bathing Ghost Princess.
Splash! The Ghost Princess sat bolt upright.
Her shapely figure took on an uncanny allure in the moonlight. She locked her gaze on the Black Cat Duke, swallowing audibly.
An extreme, almost greedy hunger seized her. Fixing her eyes on the cat, she suddenly leapt from the blood pool like a pale-white monster, stark naked.
Thud-thud, she charged across the floor toward the cat.
“Meow—!”
Startled, the Black Cat Duke yowled and bolted, his plump body moving with lightning speed.
The Ghost Princess chased right after him on all fours, vanishing from sight in an instant. Seconds later, from the far end of the corridor came a clatter of things falling, mixed with the cat’s threatening cries and a woman’s furious shouts.
“?”
Han Su hadn’t expected this turn of events.
But he froze for less than a second before dashing off in the opposite direction.
Thanks, Duke…
He sprinted out of the corridor, not summoning the door immediately, but gripping the key and heading straight for the second-to-last room on the left side of the ninth floor. He shoved open the door tangled in thick cobwebs, revealing a child hanging in midair.
The child looked quiet and still, drenched in blood, hanging motionless with his hair drooping like an upside-down mushroom.
At first glance, Han Su thought he had fainted, but as he approached, the hanging figure slowly twisted halfway around, head snapping up as if to lunge at Han Su’s face.
The candlelight illuminating Han Su made the boy hesitate, his bared teeth lowering as his face returned to a cold, expressionless stare.
Bowl-Cut Boy.
He had been one of Han Su’s original first-priority rescue targets.
Pony-tailed Girl, Li Manman, Irritable Little Brother, Tuxedo Boy, Monkey-Face, and then this Bowl-Cut Boy.
As the boy studied him, Han Su studied him back.
A fine pearl-inlaid iron hook pierced his calf, suspending him in midair. Blood from his leg wound dripped down, staining half his body.
But hanging there, he showed no sign of pain or fear—only a blank face and dead-fish eyes as deep as an abyss.
From his earlier reaction, it seemed he’d even planned to attack Han Su once he got close.
Though in his current state, the most he could do was bite.
“I’m here to rescue you!”
No time to dwell on the boy’s temperament, Han Su spoke softly to make his purpose clear, then stepped forward to grasp the boy’s injured leg.
“Bear with it!”
With his ten-year-old body, lifting the boy was extremely difficult. He squeezed the wound tightly to lift him off the hook—a pain unimaginable—but the boy, after Han Su’s warning, made no sound at all.
Han Su quietly invoked 『Respond to My Limbs』 to boost his strength, barely managing to free him. But the moment he succeeded, his hands gave out.
Bowl-Cut Boy dropped head-first toward the ground, but caught himself with his hands, flipping to land silently and lightly.
He stood at once. His leg was bloody and torn, with bone fragments visible in the wound, but he acted as if he felt nothing.
With a natural smile fixed on his lips and his mushroom haircut, he looked almost foolish—except for those calm, depthless eyes that hinted he was not like other children.
Perhaps even a little frightening.
“Follow me.”
Knowing his nature, Han Su whispered, “Don’t make a sound.”
Bowl-Cut Boy nodded slowly, zipped his lips with a hand gesture, removed his belt, and tied it around his injured leg.
A dangling strip of flesh was torn off casually.
When he rose, his gaze flicked to the hook that had suspended him, a flash of deep hatred in his eyes.
It vanished in an instant, replaced by calm and that faint smile.
Han Su trusted him to keep his cool. He went to the door, listening—on the left side of the corridor, the chase was still on, punctuated by the Black Cat Duke’s arrogant screeches.
This chance is too rare… though it’s a bit unfair to the Duke…
But since you appear every time I return, even if you get eaten this time, you’ll still be here next time, right?
…
Turning his gaze to the dark corridor on the right, Han Su knew that thanks to the Duke’s help, rescuing Bowl-Cut Boy had gone smoothly. Even without going further, he could leave now.
But… could he really?
Holding his breath, he crouched in the shadows by the door, pressed a hand to the floor, and quietly chanted:
【I Become the Night Itself!】
【……】
In an instant, with spiritual power seeping out, he felt the shadow beneath his hand come alive. Like a calm sea teeming with creatures, the shadows whispered and wandered throughout the vast castle, relaying what they saw and heard to him.
Zero Sequence Spell No. 7—enhances senses at night or in darkness to gather information.
This was one spell he dared not use the Fisherman’s Chant for.
It was a double-edged sword—a form of spying. While it let him sense what was hidden in darkness, it also risked alerting the target.
Like eavesdropping—if your posture was wrong, you’d be caught.
Now, through the spell, his ears seemed to open wide. Faint sounds reached him—footsteps, slowly coming from the staircase on the right.
The moment he heard them, they stopped, as if the person had sensed he was listening.
Han Su narrowed his eyes. “That old thing is back?”