176: Death Ghost

Thick, inky black mist roiled, perfectly engulfing Lin Feng and the Alien Queen.

Within this domain, secreted by the Queen and isolating the aura of the living, the wandering specters, emitting a chilling presence, seemed to ignore them, merely drifting and whispering aimlessly.

Lin Feng held his breath, his sharp gaze piercing the darkness, watching the streets of the fortress.

He witnessed an even more bizarre scene—not far in front of him, a gaunt resident, previously curled up under the eaves and seemingly fast asleep, suddenly began to twitch violently!

Immediately after, a blurry, translucent humanoid specter struggled to emerge, forcing its way out of the resident’s wide-open mouth!

The resident’s body visibly shriveled, its skin rapidly losing luster, as if all moisture and vitality had been drained, turning completely into a skeleton covered in skin, while the newborn specter, with a greedy sucking sound, merged into the night and joined the ranks of the wandering.

“Hiss…”

Lin Feng gasped, a chill instantly shooting up his spine to the top of his head.

“Parasitism! All the residents of this fortress… are just incubators and breeding grounds for these ghostly things!”

This desperate fortress, seemingly clinging to a thread of life, had long since been completely hollowed out from within!

Every living person was a cage and nourishment for the specters!

To confirm his thoughts, Lin Feng’s mind stirred, and the Alien Queen beside him instantly transformed into a streak of lightning that merged with the shadows.

Her sharp tail blade, with a shriek that tore through the air, accurately stabbed towards a specter that had just “seeped” out of the wall.

However, the physical attack, powerful enough to pierce steel, passed through the specter’s ethereal body without any obstruction, as if stabbing into thin air, leaving only a few ripples in the atmosphere.

The specter let out a silent sneer, its form twisting slightly, completely unharmed.

“Indeed!”

Lin Feng’s eyes narrowed, confirming his suspicion.

His mind raced, and he commanded the Alien Queen to mobilize the Power of Rule within her body.

This power silently adhered to the Queen’s tail blade, causing its tip to glow with a faint, almost imperceptible shimmer that was enough to distort space.

The Queen attacked again!

This time, the moment the tail blade, covered in the Power of Rule, touched the specter… “Sizzle!”

It was like a red-hot branding iron pressed against ice and snow!

The specter didn’t even have time to scream; its ethereal body violently collapsed inward, twisted, and then erupted into a small burst of dazzling white light, completely dissipating into the air, leaving only a wisp of smoke and a nauseating scent of burnt soul.

“The Power of Rule is effective!”

Without further attacking these specters, Lin Feng and the Alien Queen, using the cover of the black mist, quickly moved stealthily towards the spire where the spatial rift fluctuations were strongest.

The closer they got to the Gothic-style spired building, the more viscous the coldness and deathly silence in the air became, and the black mist seemed to grow heavier.

And what was most unnerving was that the number of specters here reached a suffocating level!

They were no longer wandering aimlessly, but rather… orderly!

Dense masses of specters, like a tide, were forming eerie queues under the faint light filtering through the church’s huge, stained-glass windows, silently “floating” into the half-open, heavily carved wooden door, or “floating” out from within, merging into the night of the fortress.

They moved in and out, in a continuous cycle, as if performing some solemn and sinister ritual.

Lin Feng silently crept to a broken stained-glass window on the side of the church and peered inside through the crack.

The sight before him instantly made him hold his breath!

The interior of the church was not deathly silent; instead, it was permeated with a chilling “vitality.”

Beneath the massive dome, a spatial rift, like a giant, constantly writhing and bleeding purple wound, hung above where the altar should have been.

From the rift, thick, almost liquid black mist continuously surged out, only to be pulled back by an invisible force, forming a bizarre cycle.

Below the rift, a blurry, several-meter-tall humanoid outline, composed of pure dark energy, flickered in and out of sight; it seemed to be the source and core of all specters, exuding an oppressive aura that made souls tremble!

It was greedily drawing in the chaotic energy seeping from the spatial rift, energy from another dimension or the abyss.

And the church pews were densely “seated” with people!

Or rather, they were filled with the parasitized residents of the fortress!

Like the most devout followers, their bodies were stiffly upright, their heads held high, their vacant, lifeless eyes staring fixedly at the spatial rift in the dome and the outline of the specter leader.

Their mouths were slightly agape, their faces frozen in a twisted expression that blended extreme pain and eerie fanaticism.

Even more chilling was that from the tops of these “believers’” heads, their mouths and noses, and even their eyes and ears, wisps of translucent soul energy, belonging to them, were being slowly and continuously drawn out!

This soul energy was not directly absorbed by the specter leader, but rather, like guided streams, it flowed into a massive, slowly rotating dark purple energy vortex in the center of the church, formed by the specters.

This vortex was like a giant soul millstone, grinding and purifying the pain, despair, and fear of countless living souls, transforming them into the purest negative energy, which was then continuously fed to the giant specter beneath the rift, like an offering.

The specters “entering and exiting” the church played the roles of “priests” and “guards.”

They maintained order among the “believers,” ensuring the smooth extraction of soul energy.

They silently “removed” “believers” whose soul energy was almost depleted and whose bodies were on the verge of collapse, as if disposing of discarded containers.

And they “guided” new residents, who had just been completely parasitized, to fill the empty spots.

The entire interior of the church was a highly efficient, terrifying factory, fueled by the souls of the living, to nourish the specter leader!

During the day, these parasitized residents might barely maintain the form of “humans,” engaging in numb, zombie-like activities.

But every night, when the spatial rift appeared in the spire church, and when the specter leader needed to draw energy, all parasitized residents would be forcibly summoned here, the specters within them becoming fully active, revealing their true nature of being parasitized and having their souls extracted, performing this bloody and desperate “mass”!

Only now did Lin Feng realize that this fortress contained only one creature—that giant specter!

All the residents in the fortress were actually containers created by the specter leader to absorb ‘nutrients.’

“Have the Western forces been invaded by demonic beasts to this extent? The outermost fortress city, meant to defend the Dragon Kingdom, is actually just one demonic beast!!”

Lin Feng’s eyes flashed with cold light, his killing intent boiling.

He took a deep breath, communicated with the Alien Queen, and prepared to launch a thunderous strike.

His target was directly the spatial rift and the specter leader beneath it!

The Power of Rule quietly flowed within him, covering the weapon in his hand.

However, just as he was about to act… beneath the church dome, the outline of the giant specter leader seemed to move slightly.

Its “head,” formed of pure darkness, slowly turned towards the stained-glass window where Lin Feng was hiding.

Two cold, indifferent gazes, as if capable of freezing souls, pierced through the wall and the black mist, precisely locking onto Lin Feng!

Inside the entire church, the soul light bands above all the “believers’” heads suddenly paused, all the “entering and exiting” specters abruptly stopped their movements, and countless chilling gazes instantly focused on the outside of the broken stained-glass window!

Silence!

A suffocating silence descended!

He had been discovered!