Chapter 290 - Demon Seeds
"Who's there…? Please help me… I know you can see me… Please, it hurts so much…" The vengeful pleaded from the bottom of the well. Each time her power was drawn, it was like a part of her existence was ripped away.
When Leon heard this, he understood that the vengeful spirit had sensed his precise positioning, but cannot actually see him.
"Are you really a vengeful spirit? Who trapped you here, and why did they? What happened to the other people who have been living here?" Leon inquired with a slightly raised voice for the vengeful spirit to hear.
"You... You can understand me? That's great! Someone who can finally understand my words! Please help me! I will be forever grateful!"
The vengeful spirit was overjoyed. A glimmer of hope lit up in its dull grey eyes, but Leon could not see it.
"Answer my questions."
"Will you help me if I answer them?" The vengeful spirit hopefully asked.
"That would depend on your answer," Leon said, neither agreeing nor denying. Of course, he would blindly trust a vengeful spirit's words after listening to it. He would try to derive the truth after hearing what it had to say. "Who made these formations?"
"I don't know… I have never seen anything so frightening like them… They are not humans… well… at least they don't look like humans to me, but they were the ones who made these things and trapped me here a long time ago…"
"It had been slowly draining my power for the past 200 years… but nothing like what happened last night… It started drawing my power like crazy and attracted the others over to investigate. The next thing I knew, they were already gone."
Contrary to Leon's expectation, the vengeful spirit had been held captive for too long to be taking any chances. The prospect of being freed made it spill everything it knew without holding anything back.
However, Leon did not know this as he furrowed his brows. What the vengeful spirit said was the same as not saying anything at all. It was vague and did not explain any of the things he wanted to know.
"It seems like you don't want my help at all. Helping you will just be endangering myself!" Leon snorted coldly.
"Noo! Please, I'm not a bad spirit! Wuwuu… I already said everything I know… Wuwuu… Even if I want to know, I can't see anything down here in this darkness." The vengeful spirit cried.
Leon started to become suspicious and, at the same time, felt guilty. Why does it feel like he had become the villain?
It was strange that he could not sense any malice and hostility from the vengeful spirit, but considering it was an intelligent vengeful spirit, it might have learned to mask them.
Leon had his guard raised as he made sure not to fall for the vengeful spirit's tricks and tender voice that sounded no different to a normal young lady.
"If you are not a bad spirit, then why did you kill all those noble families back when you first became a vengeful spirit?" Leon snorted.
"They were bad people. Why can't I kill them? They were the reason I died. Is it also wrong to take revenge?"
"Of course not, but you did not stop at just killing those young nobles. You killed off their entire families. Don't tell me, their parents, grandparents, and kids were all bad people too?" Leon said, he also understood the logic of ending enmity by removing the roots. He only asked for the heck of pushing the vengeful spirit to reveal its true nature.
"Bad, of course, they are also bad people! The parents who raised those evil spawns and turned a blind eye can't possibly be good people! They've done their share of—Ahhhh! It hurts! Help me! Ahhhh!"
Another round of energy was drained from the vengeful spirit to feed the hidden array in the dark clouds above.
Leon paid no heed to the vengeful spirit's painful cry and sent out his divine sense to record all the details he could see from the formations under the well and array above. As long as their image was engraved in his memory, he could peruse and study them. He would not have to stay on site.
Suddenly, Leon narrowed his eyes as he saw a few figures dropped out from the dark clouds as the light from the energy were faded.
The figures numbered four and did not slow their momentum as they slam into the ground with a heavy thud. They did not move and wore painful expressions. It appeared that they were unconscious.
'Are these the missing people?' Leon thought. He could not confirm, but Baron Grant could. He carefully walked over and rounded them all up, dragging the four bodies by their collar with two in each hand.
He made his way towards the exit of Lost Isle Alley and did not bid farewell to the vengeful spirit, but it could hear him growing distant.
"Are you leaving? Why won't you save me… wuwuuu…" The vengeful spirit cried before the young lady's voice changed, becoming malevolent and full of malice. "You must also be a bad person! Only a bad person would ignore a person in need and not save this poor girl here! Argh!! People like you should also die for making this girl cry!"
The tone of the vengeful spirit was oppressive and filled with coldness. He left Lost Isle Alley with a few beads of cold sweat trickling down his face.
Sure enough, the vengeful spirit had problems. An old intelligent vengeful spirit trapped 200 years cannot possibly normal. An average person would have developed mental issues in its situation. Leon was glad he did not rashly try to free it from its confinement.
However, he was also confused. The vengeful spirit spoke strangely like it was a different person and not the same one h had conversed with earlier.
Did it have a multiple personality disorder? A vengeful spirit has? How peculiar!
"Your Highness! You manage to find them?" Baron Grant greeted Leon with a pleasant surprise.
"Have a look. Are these your people?"
Leon dumped the unconscious bodies carefully in front of the Baron to inspect. One of the unconscious people have matching body proportion as his adoptive father, but the face was unfamiliar.
Considering his adoptive parents were both former disciples of the Illusory Butterfly Sect, they might have also been using fake faces like the Baron. Although Leon felt this was likely the case, he still had to wait for the Baron's confirmation.
How embarrassing would it be if he mistook a stranger as his adoptive father and acted all sentimental towards the person? Leon lamented that he had never used divine sense on his adoptive parent's face.
"No doubt about it, they are my people." The Baron confirmed.
"And this person is…?"
"He is your adoptive father."
Leon sighed. It was fortunate to get one of his adoptive parents back, but his adoptive mother was still missing.
"Something seems to be wrong with them." Baron Grant spoke with unease as he surveys their expressions.
Leon nodded before sending out his divine sense to diagnose the problem on his adoptive father. Familial relationships naturally took priority.
It did not take long before a frown found its way on Leon's face. Dark miasma was found in each of their bodies as they were being contaminated by it. Apart from that, Leon made a more startling discovery. Everyone had a Demon Seed implanted in their heads.
If everything about demons before were just mere speculation, then it became conclusive that everything regarding the peculiarities of Lost Isle Alley was related to the demons.
A Demon Seed was something demons use to demonize other races to increase their population. However, it was a slow and gradual process.
Demon Seeds were like parasites that feed on the nutrients provided by its host. It would continue to nurture itself until it fully germinates and alter the physiques of its host. Only then would the host become demonized.
While the dark miasma and demon seeds were no problem for Leon, he had yet to recover his mental strength fully. He would need to exert himself a bit to remove all the dark miasma and demon seeds from their bodies.
More importantly, things have become serious. The demons were making a move, but Leon could not guess their intentions. Why don't the demons just send their army through the teleportation instead of capturing people and sending them back?
Did the Human Domain or the entire continent had something the demons were wary of that made it only resort to this to test the waters?
Leon wanted to ask what his adoptive father and other three saw on the other side of the teleportation array, but it would have to wait after they recover.
A group of palace guards, city guards, and shadowguards arrived at this moment and greeted Leon.
"Your Highness, the king has sent us to assist you. What are your orders?"
"I want this place sealed off and watched over. This place has become dangerous and full of uncertainty. I do not want any civilian entering this premise without my permission. The shadowguards are to enter Lost Isle Alley directly and observe the situation for inside."
"There is a teleportation array hidden inside. If any unconscious bodies are appearing, you are to bring them out and inform me immediately. If anything else appears, you must also retreat and inform me immediately. The palace guards must hold their positions. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Your Highness!"
"Good, begin immediately!"
The group surrounded the area and got to work, using their earthen abilities to make the ground rise, and set up a temporary earthen wall to enclose the area.
At the same time, Leon got the Baron to help him to carry the unconscious people back to the palace to be treated.