Chapter 215: Abandoned Manor

Chapter 215 -214: Abandoned Manor

The Graveyard Demon had just landed when Jin Chang and his group emerged from the Doomsday Tavern.

Ten people filed out, their movements sharp and efficient. They had already changed into their exploration gear.

Jin Chang walked at the very front, with several potions hanging from his waist and a shortbow now slung across his back.

The Corpse-controlling Daoist, Xi Yue, followed behind him. The coffin was still slung diagonally across their back, but the Treasure Pagoda in their hand had been shifted to the left, while the right now held a Wooden Staff they had produced from who-knows-where.

“You’re all heading out?” Gu Su asked, standing at the city gate and observing their fully-equipped, ready-to-depart appearance.

“Yeah, we plan to check out the vicinity,” Jin Chang nodded, his gaze passing over Gu Su to land on the distant entrance to the Inverted Tower.

The ten of them had also seen the cutscene that just played.

With their rich gaming experience, they didn’t need to wait for system prompts to pop up one by one like Gu Su. Just by watching those few scenes, they already had a clear idea of the situation.

A New World, an Inverted Tower, an entrance marker—they had been through this kind of thing countless times. They could figure out where to go and what to do with their eyes closed. Naturally, they wanted to be the first to enter.

“Do you need my help?” Gu Su asked anyway.

Jin Chang smiled and waved a hand. “No need. We’re already used to coordinating like this.”

“Don’t worry, if we run into any danger, we’ll just use a Furnace Stone to come straight back.”

With that, he led his people away.

After exiting the Graveyard Demon, the ten of them split into two teams at the edge of the ruins.

Jin Chang took the three Death Knights and the Priest, circling around toward the left side of the Inverted Tower’s entrance. Meanwhile, the Corpse-controlling Daoist, Xi Yue, led the three Undead Mages and the Holy Knight to flank from the right.

The two teams, one on the left and one on the right, became two thin lines of figures stretching across the gray, hazy wasteland. Soon, the rolling terrain obscured most of their forms from view.

Gu Su stood at the city gate, watching them disappear from sight. Only then did he turn and issue a command to those inside the Graveyard Demon:

“Crow’s Caw, Dog Curse, Gray Rat, take your units and scout the surrounding area.”

Three figures moved in response.

Crow’s Caw took flight from the branches of the Deceitful Tree, its white bone wings unfurling in the air. A dense swarm of White Crows followed, the white figures taking off from the branches of the Withered Wood Forest and lifting off from the ramparts, instantly converging into a white cloud in the sky.

Over four hundred White Crows circled silently before dispersing in the sky, flying off in all directions.

Dog Curse charged out from the edge of the Withered Wood Forest with its Bone Dog troops. Three hundred Bone Dogs spread out without a sound, their white skeletons standing out starkly against the dim landscape. They split into four groups, each led by a Minion. Dog Curse rushed at the very front, searching along the edge of the manor ruins.

The commotion from Gray Rat’s side was even greater. The sludge in the Swamp Forest churned, and nearly a thousand Corpse Rats burrowed out of the muddy water. They covered the ground in a dense swarm, surging toward the manor ruins.

Gray Rat stood on high ground, raised a forepaw, and pointed. The Corpse Rats then split into several streams, squeezing into the crevices of the ruins from different directions.

Compared to the entrance of the Inverted Tower over ten kilometers away, Gu Su was currently more concerned with the manor ruins right before him.

The manor lay not far ahead of the Graveyard Demon. Its surrounding walls had mostly collapsed, with rusty barbed wire still clinging to the few remaining sections.

Through the collapsed walls, one could see the outlines of buildings scattered about in disarray. Some were large, some were small, and some were so ruined their original forms were unrecognizable.

The manor wasn’t large, but it wasn’t small either. It was of a middling size, somewhere between a large farm and a small estate.

Standing at the city gate, Gu Su estimated its area to be roughly 0.4 square kilometers, about the size of Tiananmen Square.

Back on Ring Moon, a place this size would be nothing, but in this desolate world, it was already a decent supply point.

The manor’s layout was compact. The most conspicuous feature was the simple main house in the center. It was two stories tall with exterior walls made of local gray stone. Half of its roof had caved in, but the remaining half still showed the outline of its original pointed peak.

Next to the main house were a kitchen and a granary. The kitchen’s chimney lay toppled on the ground, having smashed a large crater. The granary’s walls were still standing, but whatever was inside was long gone.

The Water Tower was in the northeast corner of the manor. Its iron frame was crooked, and the tank on top was dented like a crushed can.

There were two or three slave dormitories, all long, single-story buildings, crammed together with doors facing doors and windows facing windows.

Most of the roof tiles had fallen off, exposing the dark rafters underneath. Through the windows, one could see they were filled with dead leaves and bird droppings.

The main part of the manor was a fifty-acre crop field, which took up more than half of the entire plot of land.

The crops in the field had long since died, leaving only rows of withered yellow stubble, arranged in neat furrows like parallel lines etched into the earth.

The ridges between the fields were overgrown with weeds, some waist-high, others barely covering the ankle. When the wind blew, they rustled loudly.

At the edge of the crop field was a small pasture. The fence was still there, but the wood had rotted so much that a piece would break off at the slightest touch.

The pasture was empty, with only a few fallen posts sticking out of the ground like rotten teeth.

The distance between the buildings in the manor was very short.

Standing at the door of the main house, you could see the kitchen stove. Standing at the kitchen door, you could see the granary’s doorway. And from the granary’s doorway, you could see the Water Tower’s iron frame.

The entire manor was like a compressed model, with everything crammed together. You could turn around and bump into another wall.

But no matter how cramped it was, it couldn’t compare to the encroaching forest.

The forest pressed in from the north side of the manor, having already swallowed up a few fields near the edge.

The trees weren’t tall, but they grew densely, their branches tangled together, blocking the sunlight completely. The ground beneath was covered in a thick layer of fallen leaves, soft to step on, hiding who-knows-what underneath.

Deep within the forest, one could faintly make out things that shouldn’t have been there.

There was a broken wall, half-buried in fallen leaves, its whitewash not yet completely peeled off. There was a toppled scarecrow, leaning askew against a tree root, the straw ropes on its body almost entirely rotted away, leaving only a crooked cross shape.

There were also a few small huts of unknown purpose, their roofs collapsed and doorframes askew, resembling gaping black maws.

All of these things were things the Graveyard Demon could devour.

The buildings, the land, even everything in the fields—the Graveyard Demon could swallow it all.

But Gu Su was in no hurry to act.

There were two reasons for this.

‘One is that Jin Chang and his group haven’t gone far.’

‘The ten of them have split into two teams to explore the area near the Inverted Tower’s entrance. If the Graveyard Demon starts devouring things now and causes a commotion, it might attract unwanted attention, which wouldn’t be good.’

‘The other reason is more important: I have to send someone in to check it out first.’

Gu Su knew the effects of the Graveyard Demon’s devouring process all too well. ‘That thing doesn’t care if something is useful or not; it just smashes everything into a ball and swallows it all in one gulp.’

‘If there’s any valuable information, special items, or important clues inside, the Graveyard Demon’s churning will turn it all into a single, indistinguishable lump of materials.’

‘Sending Bone Ash and the others to sort through it afterward would be a huge pain.’

‘Rather than do that, it’s better to send my subordinates in first to sweep the manor inside and out.’

‘Anything worth picking up, they’ll pick up. Anything worth looking at, they’ll look at. Only when I’m sure there’s nothing of value left will I use the Graveyard Demon to devour it.’

‘Besides, the manor is right here. It isn’t going anywhere.’