143: Secret of the Upside-Down Forest

The night was as dark as ink, and the Oak Tree Earl's Mansion was silent.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

In the ornate and complex corridor, a servant, carrying a wooden basin, walked silently with light steps.

"Creak..."

Suddenly, a wooden door to his left quietly opened outwards, emitting a slight sound.

The servant's figure paused, a look of confusion on his face.

"This room shouldn't be occupied, should it?"

He slowly turned his head.

Through the gap in the wooden door, he saw a pitch-black room.

And beneath the wooden door, a pair of plain white embroidered shoes were visible, as if a person was silently standing there.

"Is it... some maid...?"

A shiver of unease ran through the servant's heart.

"Creak..."

The wooden door opened a bit wider, revealing more of the white embroidered shoes.

The servant tilted his head slightly, trying to look behind the door from the side.

The figure behind the door gradually became visible: white sleeves, shoulders embroidered with petals, and a face... without features!

"Whoosh!"

The embroidered shoes slid forward abruptly, enveloping the servant's figure.

The next moment, his figure reappeared, holding the wooden basin, standing silently in place.

In the air beside him, a wisp of Devilish Qi quietly separated, slowly condensing into Li Ke's figure.

Li Ke's brows furrowed slightly.

Both his own perception and the brief memories obtained by the Faceless Paper Figure after its recent assimilation and replacement confirmed a bizarre fact.

This vast Earl's Mansion was now mostly empty.

Only a very small number of ordinary servants maintained basic daily operations.

Most areas were eerily deserted, with no Clairvoyance Qi detected, as if the entire Oak Family had long since departed, leaving behind only a massive empty shell.

"Did Elvin just escape Li Ke that?"

A thought flashed through Li Ke's mind, but he immediately dismissed it.

This Oak Tree Territory was the Oak Family's hereditary territory, passed down for thousands of years.

Although the Oak Tree Territory had been somewhat turbulent recently, as a lord, there was no reason to easily abandon his foundation.

Moreover, most of these disturbances were orchestrated by Elvin himself.

Next, Li Ke and the Faceless Paper Figure silently infiltrated the servants' living quarters.

By then, most of the servants had already fallen asleep.

In the dim light, Li Ke and the Faceless Paper Figure stood silently in the room, looking at the sleeping servants on their beds.

He noticed that these servants' faces and arms, more or less, bore traces of withered decay.

"It's the Withering Sickness..."

Li Ke extended a finger and touched the forehead of a sleeping servant.

A moment later, he withdrew his finger, the doubt in his eyes deepening.

These servants' memories had been tampered with, becoming extremely simple.

They were Li Ke puppets, only allowed to move in a few fixed areas, and forbidden to leave the mansion.

Li Ke then consecutively searched the memories of several servants.

He keenly noticed that while the areas these people were responsible for varied, their memories all contained a common forbidden zone: the back garden deep within the mansion.

The next moment, Li Ke's figure merged into the shadows, quietly moving towards the back garden.

However, the further he walked inward, the more he felt a sense of oppression.

It was as if countless invisible tiny creatures were silently clinging to his skin, bringing a subtle, sticky sensation.

Li Ke's steps gradually halted.

In his eyes, a deep, dark black slowly emerged.

Under the enhancement of a large amount of Devilish Qi, the surrounding world presented a different scene in his eyes.

He finally saw that the air was filled with countless extremely fine, pale yellow powders.

They continuously drifted out from the depths of the back garden, merging into the night breeze, and then silently crossed the high walls of the mansion, drifting towards the entire Oak Tree City.

"Is this... pollen?"

Li Ke lowered his head.

Unbeknownst to him, his body was already covered with a thin layer of dust, imperceptible to the naked eye.

These pollens were extremely tiny, and once they landed on a person, they would continuously and very subtly absorb life force.

This absorption was extremely slight, so it was difficult for normal people to notice.

But for the long-starved pariahs of the Lower City District, whose Qi and blood were already in decline, prolonged exposure to this pollen would inevitably lead to signs of life decay.

"So that's how it is."

"The source of the Withering Sickness is right here."

Li Ke instantly understood.

The Withering Sickness, which had been circulating in the city for many years, originated from the Oak Family itself.

As far as he knew, the history of the Withering Sickness in Oak Tree City dated back at least several hundred years.

Because it had only spread in the Lower City District, it had not been taken seriously.

But recently, the intensity of the Withering Sickness had greatly increased, and it had begun to affect ordinary commoners, causing some panic.

"Elvin is indeed plotting something big..."

Li Ke mused.

He looked up at the center of the back garden.

Countless yellow pollen was emanating from a huge stone wall there.

The ancient Oak Family emblem was also carved on that stone wall.

Li Ke approached the stone wall, his spiritual sense sweeping back and forth, but he found nothing unusual.

The stone wall was just an ordinary stone wall, solid and heavy.

But the pale yellow pollen was indeed permeating from the Void Realm here, then drifting into the air.

Li Ke investigated carefully, and his heart stirred.

He quietly activated the [Summoning Demon Scripture].

Wisps of black human figures silently drifted out from his body, Li Ke a drop of ink falling into water, slowly merging into the surrounding Void Realm.

Suddenly, one of the black human figures, upon approaching the stone wall, was sucked in by an invisible vortex, instantly disappearing into a hidden node in the stone wall.

Li Ke's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Indeed, it's a Secret Realm."

He was very familiar with this flow of Devilish Qi; it was a manifestation of the existence of a Secret Realm.

He, as usual, separated a wisp of his spiritual consciousness, attaching it to another black human figure, and let it quietly enter that hidden node.

Soon, this wisp of Li Ke's spiritual consciousness appeared inside the node.

This was not a illusory place Li Ke the Garden of Sentient Beings, which relied on dreams, but a Secret Realm with a physical body.

The Devilish Qi he was attached to was rapidly dissipating.

Before the Devilish Qi completely vanished, a wisp of Li Ke's spiritual consciousness roughly swept the surroundings.

He vaguely saw the outline of an enormous space and did not sense any danger.

Thus, Li Ke felt relieved.

He looked at the stone wall in front of him; under normal circumstances, it would be absolutely impossible to enter without the corresponding token or method.

But with a thought, Li Ke instantly transformed into countless wisps of black Qi and dissipated.

A bone nail, entirely snow-white, floated in mid-air.

On its body, a faint wisp of Mortal World Qi flowed.

The next instant, the white bone nail transformed into an almost imperceptible white light and quietly entered the stone wall.

Against such sealing and isolating forces, the Qi of the Mortal World had always been invincible.

Its pervasive nature allowed it to silently penetrate all things.

The next instant, the white bone nail appeared within a hollow space.

As soon as he entered the Secret Realm, Li Ke activated the Phantom Building Fist to its extreme.

A hazy aura enveloped the white bone nail, making it exist between presence and nothingness, and it was also wrapped in a layer of Mortal World Qi, ensuring he could escape at any time.

However, there was indeed no danger around.

Li Ke's spiritual sense instantly spread out, surveying his surroundings.

He found himself in an enormous underground cavern.

And the sight above his head made his pupils suddenly contract.

A vast and boundless oak forest was growing upside down from the ceiling of the cavern.

Countless thick, gnarled tree roots clung tightly to the cavern's dome.

The sturdy tree trunks grew straight downwards, and the lush canopies, Li Ke a green sea of clouds, hung towards the unfathomable darkness below.

Here, it was actually a vast and boundless Reverse Life Forest, roughly estimated to be similar in size to Oak Tree City above ground, Li Ke a mirror image of Oak Tree City.