Just as Hao Ren had guessed, the castle on the hill was Vivian's hibernation.
Strictly speaking, it was the entrance to the hibernation.
After some careful deduction and discussion, Hao Ren and Hessiana replanned the whole process of opening the seal and entering the shadowy realm. To avoid the possibility of the demon hunters coming after them at any time, they decided to enter the castle before dawn. The power of the shadows was very strong at night, which would make it difficult to open the seal, but Hessiana had decided to use her own shadow magic to replace the key. Her power would also be enhanced at night, so it did not matter.
Haron Castle — it used to be the property of a human noble, but in the end, it became the property of a vampire. Although the ignorant and reckless young vampire was later ruined by Vivian's Aura of Doom, at least when he first took over the castle, he was still quite wealthy. So he rebuilt the human castle lavishly, which could still be seen even after the castle was deserted and the walls collapsed. The entire castle was composed of four huge towers and two main structures. Between the two rectangular main structures was a wide corridor. This structure made the entire castle look like an "I" shape from the sky, and the four towers were distributed at the four corners of this "I" shape. It looked exceptionally magnificent.
Of course, more than half of this magnificent structure had collapsed. The entire upper structure of the castle had basically decayed over the years. A castle made of stone would not decay so quickly, but the dark power lingering in this land had accelerated the process of decay. Although it had only been a hundred years, the stone structure of the castle had been riddled with holes as if it had been through four or five centuries.
"There are a lot of ghost legends about this castle." Hessiana had been active in this area for some time. She knew a lot about the castle. As they stepped into the castle ruins, she explained. "Some daring guys would venture in, trying to find some noble relics or junk that could be sold for money. But only a few people could come back in one piece. Even the lucky ones who came back alive claimed that they had encountered ghosts and other evil things in the castle. In fact, it was the power of the shadows."
Little Bat twitched her mouth. "Tsk, tsk. Do you expect to find treasures here? Don't you know that this territory died of poverty? Haron could not even find a copper coin in the castle before he left."
Hao Ren did not respond but looked up. They were passing through the main building in the front half of the castle. The high Gothic roof had collapsed, leaving only some jagged skeletons hanging in the air. Ragged and twisted cloth and cobwebs extended from the skeletons to the walls on both sides. It looked bleak and gloomy. Due to the collapse of the dome, the moonlight could almost shine into the front hall of the castle. The bright moonlight seemed to have undergone some mysterious changes when it passed through the castle: it appeared a lifeless grayish-white, and the light was frighteningly cold. Hao Ren could even feel the coldness of the moonlight when it shone on his skin.
Before entering the castle, the moon had sunk near the horizon, but after entering the castle, it hung in the middle of the sky, which was quite an anomaly.
"The moonlight has never been normal in places related to Vivian," Hessiana said, noticing Hao Ren's gaze. "We should be glad that the moonlight is not red. Otherwise, we would have to turn tail and run."
"I didn't expect Vivian to sleep in such a gorgeous place." Lily, who was carrying the unconscious Hasse, said in surprise, "I thought she could only sleep in a cave or something like that."
"She moved in after the castle was abandoned for the first time," Hessiana sighed. "At that time, the place was already in ruins."
"That makes sense," Lily said.
"Where is the entrance to the Shadowy Citadel?" Hao Ren looked around curiously. He could already feel that the castle was under the control of a powerful shadowy force, but he did not see any obvious spatial rupture. Obviously, Vivian was well prepared before she went into hibernation. Her hibernation this time was not as easy to deal with as the cave in Siberia.
"The castle is divided into two. The castle in the real world corresponds to the light, so the castle of the Shadowy Citadel is, of course, on its' back '," Hessiana said with a smile. "Just in front, there is a pool in the castle garden, and the entrance is in the reflection of the pool."
Lily listened and muttered, "It's this weird thing again. I'm not good at dealing with this kind of stuff."
Before her voice trailed off, she felt Hasse on her back suddenly move slightly. Then, the old demon hunter woke up from his coma. Seeing the witches around and Hessiana leading the way, Hasse instinctively wanted to grab his weapon, but he found that his hands and feet were bound by a strange energy field. He could not exert any strength. He suddenly shouted, "You —"
"Hey — Bang!"
"I feel quite embarrassed," Lily said, sticking out her tongue. "He's so pitiful."
The witches were shocked by Hasse's sudden awakening, including Hessiana. But when they saw Lily knocking Hasse out with a brick, they suddenly had a very strange look on their faces. Madam Marie even sighed. "This is probably the most miserable demon hunter I've ever seen in my life."
Hao Ren looked up at the sky and did not know what to say. He was thinking about how to explain to Hasse what had happened along the way. Would the old demon hunter commit suicide out of shame and indignation?
Led by Hessiana, they soon arrived at the castle's back garden and saw the pool that could be used as a passage between the two worlds.
It was located to the west of the castle's "I" -shaped structure, surrounded by a large area of withered brambles and twisted vines. The pool had a marble outer rim, but in the center of the pool, not a single drop of water could be seen.
There was no water, so naturally, there would not be any reflections.
Hao Ren cast an inquiring look at Hessiana. He knew that since Little Bat had brought them here, there must be something special about the pool. Sure enough, Hessiana was not surprised when she saw the dry pool. She just took a step forward, bit her finger, and dripped a drop of blood into the dry pool.
Then she stepped aside and looked up at the gray moon hanging in the sky. "Without the key, I can only borrow the power of the moonlight. Lady Vivian, if you can hear me, wish me success."
After that, she gently took a step forward and began to walk around the pool at a very slow speed, whispering an ancient spell.
Then, something incredible happened.
The already dry pool suddenly began to ripple. The gray-white moonlight seemed to be bound by an invisible force, converging into a beam of light that shone straight at the bottom of the pool. The light seemed to have condensed into a liquid. As Hessiana walked slowly, it began to accumulate in the pool at a speed visible to the naked eye. With every second, it became more and more solid, and finally became like real flowing water!
As Hessiana took the last step, she returned to the starting position. She had just finished walking around the pool, and the 'moonlight water' in the pool was just full. The surface of the pool was almost level with the edge of the pool, as still as a mirror.
Hao Ren saw a clear reflection on the mirror-like surface of the water. There were towering towers and majestic castles in the reflection. But in the real world, those towers and castles had long been decayed and half had collapsed.
Obviously, the reflection did not reflect the real world, at least not the real world of this time and space.
"The Shadowy Passage has been opened. Beyond the pool is another space," Hessiana said, wiping the sweat off her forehead. "Because it was opened by unusual means, I am not sure what the situation on the other side is. If we are lucky, we will not run into the patrolling soulless guards. But if Bain has activated the defense of the Shadowy Fortress with the key, we have to be prepared for a fierce battle. It will take me a lot of effort to gain control of the soulless guards after entering the shadowy realm."
"This is all expected," Hao Ren nodded. "What should we do now?"
"It's simple. Just follow me."
Hessiana said as she stood on the edge of the pool.
Then, she fell straight down into the "water".
There were no splashes of water, nor was there any sound of falling into the water. It was as if she had melted into the water. The moment she came into contact with the reflection, she silently disappeared in the water, not even causing a ripple.
Hao Ren and Lily looked at each other. Then Hao Ren took a step forward and fell straight into the water like Hessiana.
He also successfully passed through the 'boundary.'
"You guys go in first!" Lily bared her fangs at the witches. "To prevent you from escaping!"
The witches had no choice but to come to the edge of the pool one by one and 'fall' straight into the water.
Lily was the last to come to the pool. Looking at the calm moonlight water, the husky maiden wrinkled her nose.
"I don't like water."
Then she closed her eyes and jumped in.
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