This scene unfolded so abruptly that it caught everyone completely off guard.
The black cat's mouth swelled up like a cartoon character's. A loud crunching sound echoed out, reminiscent of bones being ground to pieces, accompanied by agonizing screams and sorrowful wails.
The girl in Bai Mu's arms seed to sense what was happening. She lunged forward with outstretched hands, stamring out slurred, unintelligible syllables, and nearly collapsed to the floor. Fortunately, Bai Mu's arms were steady, holding her securely in his embrace.
Still, she let out anguished cries of "Ah, ahhh!" Reacting to her violent emotional fluctuations, the surrounding furniture and doors began to rattle and shake.
The black cat chewed a few more tis before swallowing the contents of its mouth in one gulp, followed by a satisfied burp.
"As expected of a Witch who committed countless evil deeds. The flavor is absolutely magnificent."
"Ah... ah... ah..." The girl let out a sound like a quiet sob. Tears of blood began to stream once again from her previously wiped-clean eyes. The black cat completely ignored her distress and casually remarked, "After all, she was an old friend I've known for over a hundred years. I suppose it is only right to fulfill Ellen's dying wish in accordance with our contract."
Before the cat even finished speaking, the open main doors leading outside the Ancient Manor slamd shut. The surrounding walls instantly transford. The cold bricks morphed into squirming, pulsating flesh, resembling the intestinal lining of so massive beast.
Giant mouths appeared on the walls, filled with dense, sharp fangs that looked like jagged spikes.
The sight was incredibly sanity-draining. Thousands of large mouths opened and closed, snapping eagerly like a school of ravenously hungry piranhas.
"Brother Bai, this doesn't look good!"
Great Northern Wilderness frantically drew his blade, and the other three also pulled out their respective weapons. The fleshy walls slowly compressed inward, looking as if they were preparing to devour them alive.
"These are just illusions, right?" Bai Mu looked at the black cat. "If you could truly kill people yourself, why would you go through the unnecessary trouble of creating a Witch and a manor to do the killing for you?"
"Oh my, I can't scare you at all." The black cat waved its paw with a total lack of interest, and the grotesque flesh reverted back into cold stone walls. "How dull. Courageous humans are far too boring."
"Hurry up and leave, off you go." The black cat let out a wide yawn. "The current Witch has no desire to kill you, so what are you still lingering around for? Hurry up and get out, stop disturbing my sleep."
Bai Mu couldn't be bothered with the black cat. The current master of the house was the Witch in his arms. As long as the Witch didn't want to attack him, he was perfectly safe.
He had suspected the basent might be dangerous because he figured Ellen might have left behind other traps. However, now that Ellen had beco demon food, this Ancient Manor posed absolutely no threat to them anymore.
He strode confidently into the basent. This ti, the giant bear guard did not follow them in; it simply stood silently at the doorway, staring at the magic circle inside. The black cat remarked, "Human, you're a bit too casual, aren't you?"
He continued to ignore the feline. Finding itself snubbed, the black cat couldn't be bothered to speak any further. It hopped into a hanging basket, settled down on a soft, fluffy pillow, and peered down as the humans wandered around its sleeping quarters.
"That Ellen... she just died like that?" Great Northern Wilderness still harbored so doubts.
"Everything was just part of that black cat's calculations," Bai Mu replied. "Even the incident at the Village of Mist was most likely caused by it. At the very least, when the Witch Ellen escaped the Ancient Manor and fled to that village, she definitely hadn't planned on turning the people there into zombies. I think she simply wanted to swap into a healthy body, welco a new life, and find a loophole to bypass her contract with the demon."
"But obviously, she failed. She thought she could start over with a brand new identity, but how could a demon be shaken off so easily? From the very mont she signed that contract, her soul was destined to be devoured."
The black cat looked completely harmless, lazily swishing its tail in the hanging basket, while the Witch in Bai Mu's arms had already fainted.
It seed the truth Ellen had just confessed, combined with witnessing her good friend being eaten alive, had far exceeded the limits of her ntal endurance. Yan Yu cast a wary glance at the black cat with its amber slit pupils and asked, "Are you still trying to find sothing in here?"
"Since the basent is a hidden area, there should be hidden items here," Bai Mu explained. "I'm guessing this place is an alternate space entirely independent from the rest of the Ancient Manor. It's a nexus where the demon's world connects to reality, which is exactly why this door couldn't be hidden away."
He approached the magic circle drawn on the floor, looked up, and asked the black cat, "What happens if I destroy this magic circle?" "Do whatever you want," the black cat replied nonchalantly. "Even if you ruin the array, we can just rebuild it. Human lifespans are so fleeting. By the ti I wake up from a nap, you will have already turned to dust and bones. No matter what you do, to us, it is utterly aningless."
"Thanks for the heads-up." Bai Mu stepped over the magic circle and walked past it.
The books lining the shelves were all profound magical tos. This was the exact place where generations of Witches had learned magic and made deals with demons. anwhile, on a desk situated near the edge of the basent, Bai Mu discovered a new book.
[Side Quest "The Witch's Diary" has been updated.]
[You have collected "Witch Viola's Diary" (1/1).]
[All of the Witch's diaries have been collected.]
It was a diary written by the girl after she beca a Witch. The contents were incredibly brief, and faint bloodstains marred the pages—blood that had dripped from her wounds while she wrote.
"It hurts so much."
"Why would Ellen do this? Aren't we friends?"
"Dad, Mom..."
"The little cat said that as long as I help it kill people, it won't hurt anymore. It even taught how to use magic and how to write..."
"I miss ho so much."
"Did Ellen hurt this much every single day?"
"It sounds like soone else is crying out in pain too... I found him. It's a stuffed bear. His arm is broken off. I rember now—Ellen was the one who cut off his arm."
"I sewed the little bear's arm back on, and he said it doesn't hurt anymore."
"The little cat said that if I still refuse to help it kill people, I'm going to die."
"It's hurting more and more. Dad, Mom, I'm sorry..."
That was all the diary contained. Bai Mu closed the book, looked at the black cat in the hanging basket, and asked, "Are you interested in making a deal?" "Human, do you wish to offer your soul to ?" the black cat purred. "I can sense a very unique and enticing aroma coming from your soul." "The fact that the Witch refuses to work can't be a very pleasant situation for you either, right?" Bai Mu countered. "You're just leaving her alone, waiting for her to die in despair so you can go find the next Witch to sign a contract with, aren't you?"
"I'll help you take her away. That is definitely a win for you."
"Take her away?" The black cat let out a contemptuous laugh. "Human, do you have any idea what price must be paid to take a Witch away?"
"What do you have to offer as a bargaining chip?"
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