“A hanging cat?” White Beard still didn’t feel afraid. He even quickened his pace and continued forward.

But when he reached the next streetlight, he unconsciously slowed down.

At this distance, he finally saw clearly the appearance of the huge, strangely moving cat before him.

It wasn’t actually a cat, but a complete cat pelt.

This pelt was draped over a black-gray human figure.

The pelt’s limbs hung down to touch the ground.

Because the shadow beneath was also black, White Beard hadn’t noticed its presence from a distance.

“Who’s there?”

White Beard continued forward, but his steps became much more cautious.

He carefully probed the black figure wearing cat skin with his mental power.

The latter was abnormally sensitive. The instant White Beard’s mental power made contact, it jerked its head around.

Its face was hidden under the flat cat face, with only a chin vaguely visible.

The chin was also black, as if a person had lived in coal ash for a year.

“A person? No, a vengeful spirit?” Although White Beard didn’t retreat, he felt somewhat uneasy.

When his mental power swept over just now, the first feedback was that the other party was human.

But his eyes told him that the figure in cat skin across from him couldn’t possibly be human.

Should he trust his mental power’s feedback or his eyes?

Unfortunately, in the wizard world, neither of these things was always reliable.

The streetlight overhead flickered again.

When the flickering stopped, the world before him became even dimmer.

White Beard suddenly felt cold, as if countless mouths were blowing air at him.

Thinking this, he noticed his beard swaying gently in his peripheral vision.

His heartbeat grew faster. He tried to calm himself down.

“My mind is clearly being affected. I’m so nervous now it doesn’t feel like myself.”

The cat-skin person stimulated by White Beard continued twisting its head to look at him, the angle far exceeding what a normal person’s neck could bear.

White Beard should have launched an attack against this eerie figure, but his magical power just wouldn’t circulate, as if his brain still had reason but his body and spiritual body had gone on strike.

He looked up at the crescent moon above the streetlight, seeming to want to temporarily shift his attention from the cat-skin person to restabilize his spiritual body.

However, when he saw the moon in the sky, the fear in his heart became even stronger.

That curved crescent moon had somehow become thinner.

And… its arc was somewhat strange.

The crescent’s arc was somewhat flattened, not like a moon but like an eye squinted in laughter.

“The moon has problems too. Could this illusion have two sources?”

“That’s not impossible.” White Beard spoke his thoughts aloud, as if this could release some fear. “Huff… worthy of Bayton Academy. Even though it’s desolate, it can still create such a large illusion. Hmm, in this situation, the illusion’s sources might be more than two.”

The moon was overhead, currently untouchable. White Beard forced himself to look at the cat-skin person across from him again.

“This illusion releases fearful aura, making people uncontrollably afraid.” He grabbed a handful of his beard—the sharp pain made him somewhat clearer, but that trembling from the heart quickly influenced his brain again.

“Can’t escape,” White Beard lifted his foot and continued forward. “The more you escape, the more afraid you become. Understanding the unknown is the only way to defeat the unknown.”

Although walking slowly, this time he didn’t stop.

He came all the way to the cat-skin person.

The black shadow across from him didn’t move, just gradually raised its head as White Beard approached, quietly watching him.

“Dangers that haven’t happened are the most frightening.” White Beard seemed to gradually regain his courage.

He suddenly struck. The hair on the back of his hand suddenly lengthened, wrapping around his original arm and forming a spiral cone at his fingertips.

A human hand immediately became a massive claw.

White Beard’s arm swept like wind, the claw directly grabbing the cat-skin person’s pelt, trying to tear off this “inferior” disguise.

However, when he grabbed the cat skin, the black figure underneath was also lifted along with it.

That cat skin seemed glued to the figure!

“Meow!!!!”

White Beard’s action finally angered the quiet cat-skin person. It waved its arms, letting out sharp cat cries.

Those movements, those sounds, were just like a truly enraged cat.

With the cat cries, the streetlight overhead became even dimmer.

Almost as if extinguished.

White Beard’s heart trembled, but his hands dared not stop. His other hand, wrapped into a claw, viciously clawed at the black shadow figure under the cat skin.

The black claw met slight resistance but still pierced the other’s body.

Viciously clenching his five fingers, White Beard heard a soft “pop.”

The feeling in his hand was like tearing open a sandbag.

The scene before him further confirmed White Beard’s guess.

The cat-skin person, whose chest and abdomen had been almost hollowed out by his claw, trembled violently, then powerlessly lowered its head.

As if truly killed.

But soon, this black figure deflated like an emptied sandbag.

Finally, even the human skin turned to black powder, leaving only a person-sized cat pelt still gripped in White Beard’s hand.

“Hmph! Illusion, confusion technique.” Having successfully killed the cat-skin person, White Beard felt much more comfortable, even experiencing a sense of exhaustion from just breaking free from fear.

The streetlight grew dimmer.

“This streetlight has problems too. Is the confusion technique that made me afraid coming from here?”

White Beard looked up, but the streetlight overhead hadn’t undergone strange changes like the moon—it seemed like the streetlight was simply dimming.

Just as he was about to withdraw his gaze and continue forward, his movements suddenly stiffened.

Beside the streetlight—or rather, everywhere except around the streetlight—densely packed black-gray figures stood.

These black-gray figures had no features and appeared taller than the streetlight.

They bent over like this, standing outside the extremely dim conical light circle formed by the lamp, quietly watching White Beard.

Just like that cat-skin person.

“Ugh!!!” White Beard only met these eyeless figures’ gaze for one second before experiencing splitting headaches, feeling as heavy as if twenty lead blocks had been stuffed inside him. He directly crouched down holding his head.

The cat skin originally in his hand also dropped limply to the ground.

Along with the headache came intense fear.

Even though White Beard lowered his head and closed his eyes, he could still feel countless gazes falling on him.

He panted heavily.

The fear was like ants, drilling into his flesh through his skin’s pores.

“Hehehe…” In such a difficult moment, White Beard actually laughed. “Worthy of… the Inverted Tree. If you evolved completely, you’d definitely become an existence comparable to third rank.”

White Beard’s hands holding his head slowly moved down to his cheeks’ thick whiskers.

His fingers reached into the whiskers, slowly clenching to grab large handfuls of white long whiskers.

Then…

He forcefully tore them apart to both sides.

“Rip—rip—”

Hair-raising sounds of flesh separating arose.

Under White Beard’s torn chin skin, another highly rotted face was revealed.

“As expected, mental power battles still need mental power to resist.”

Despite the pain making him gasp, the corners of White Beard’s mouth still curved upward.

“This is a scar left by elves.”

“I want to see whether the pollution left by elves is stronger, or whether you ash people controlled by the Inverted Tree have more terrifying mental pollution!”

“Rip—”

(End of Chapter)

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