Chapter 147 Ranch Manor
We spent a short day in the town of Evening Breeze, where local merchants showed off their culinary talents and provided many delicious foods.

The two of them didn't take the Black Church's affairs to heart at all, and just enjoyed the tranquility of the trip.

……

After spending a night's rest in the inn, they continued on to Pingyi Town, which, like Zhenming Town, has animal husbandry as its main industry.

The reason why Chongming Sandbar is becoming more and more popular among tourists is largely because of the carefully built pastures full of primitive features.

Most people can only live in cities, and no one except the hunter team dares to set foot outside the safe world.

Most of the pristine scenery can only be appreciated on TV screens. Pristine landscapes like Qiongming Shazhou, located in the city center, have naturally become unique places that people yearn for.

Before reaching Pingyi Town, there is a stretch of endless green grassland on both sides of the road.

The grasses are neatly arranged, like a carefully trimmed green carpet, neither too dense nor too sparse, showing just the right amount of freshness and beauty that makes people fall in love with them at first sight.

Xu Mu and his companions spent three full days in Pingyi Town. In order to avoid arousing the suspicion of the Black Church, they deliberately adopted an aimless approach to play.

Whenever they come across anything suspicious during their tour, they will take the initiative to check. If there is nothing suspicious, they will continue to play.

After savoring the various authentic delicacies in Pingyi Town, they took a long-distance bus to their next destination - Zhenming Town!

Two-thirds of the land in Zhenming Town is pasture, mainly used for raising livestock such as cattle, horses and sheep.

Along the way, the breeze gently caressed the green grass, and wherever you looked you could see cattle and sheep grazing leisurely and horses galloping.

After joining a local tour group, Xu Mu and Lingling followed a group of more than ten people.

On the way, Xu Mu suddenly asked Lingling: "What do you think of the taste of horse meat?"

"I've never tasted horse meat either." Lingling blinked, a hint of curiosity showing on her face.

Xu Mu immediately clapped his hands in agreement and said, "Okay! Then we will have horse meat for lunch today, and enjoy a delicious roasted whole lamb in the evening!"

……

into the night!

The restaurant where you enjoy roasted whole lamb is located next to a private high-end club set on a vast ranch, and the tour guide is describing in detail the luxury of the estate opposite.

Lingling whispered to Xu Mu, "There are three ranches in Zhenming Town. They are both ranches and private high-end clubs. I think the most suspicious place may be here."

"Then what are you going to do?" Xu Mu asked in a low voice while gnawing on the spicy lamb leg.

As a private club restricted to members only, Ranch Manor not only refuses to admit idle tourists, but also makes it extremely difficult to obtain membership in a short period of time.

Without membership, it would be extremely difficult for them to enter the club to conduct investigations.

"Find a suitable time and quietly enter that place to investigate." Lingling replied.

"no problem."

After playing with Lingling in Zhenming Town for a few days, Xu Mu found a good opportunity and quietly entered the ranch manor when night fell.

The ranch estate covers a vast area and not only retains its natural features, but is also equipped with luxurious facilities such as a golf course, winery, Western restaurant, dance hall, accommodation facilities, archery hall and equestrian venue. It is even more luxurious and colorful than what the tour guide introduced!
Xu Mu first conducted reconnaissance on the periphery and learned that the manor even provided a sightseeing bus service to welcome visitors.

The journey from the manor entrance to the main building takes nearly twenty minutes, and it would not be possible without the sightseeing bus service.

The design style of the entire ranch manor is more Western European, similar to the Mu family manor in Bo City, but it is larger and more prosperous than Mu Zhuoyun's manor.

Xu Mu first went to the golf course, winery, archery hall and other entertainment facilities to investigate. After checking and not finding any clues, he turned to the residential area.

"Would you like a cup of black tea?"

Soon after arriving at the residential area, Xu Mu noticed that in the far corner, a young woman in a maid outfit was enthusiastically offering the local specialty black tea to a middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man had a beer belly and gave off a vulgar aura of a nouveau riche. He looked at the maid with lustful eyes. While taking the tea with one hand, he touched the maid's hand indecently with the other hand.

and many more……

Xu Mu hid aside, stroking his chin in thought. When he came here, he seemed to have heard that special services were provided here? It seemed that the middle-aged man's behavior could not be said to be improper?
This ranch's champion is supposed to serve the wealthy, so it's normal for them to have special services, but this black tea...

Xu Mu's eyes followed the black tea in the maid's hand closely. He remembered the Chongming Sandbank chapter, where a highly poisonous creature appeared, whose toxins could be fatal to humans and cause mutations.

The source of this toxin comes from the local specialty black tea. Almost every guest who enters the manor drinks this black tea under the supervision of the Black Vatican.

As for the small number of people who did not drink, they were just insignificant characters, and the Black Vatican was too lazy to continue monitoring them.

Afterwards, Xu Mu further investigated other areas and found that there was a Chinese woman named "Carly" serving as the housekeeper.

Although Carly seems to have no magical abilities on the surface, she is actually a highly skilled magician.

Carly's method of concealing her power is quite advanced. If Xu Mu had not accidentally caught the signs of lightning element flowing in her body, he might not have been able to see through her disguise.

"It's right here." Xu Mu said in his heart.

After confirming that this was the hiding place of the Black Church, he chose a suitable time to send a message to Lingling, informing the judges led by Leng Qing to prepare for action, because he would start a massacre soon.

After everything was arranged, Xu Mu quietly followed Carly.

Carly walked all the way to a slightly dim orange building at the back of the manor. Compared with the gorgeous main building, it seemed more peaceful. It did not seem to receive tourists normally, and there were rarely any service staff coming in and out.

She walked through several dimly lit corridors and climbed the stairs. The entire corridor was square in layout, and it took quite a while to walk straight to the corner.

The floor was covered with crimson carpet, and on both sides were various locked rooms, with single doors, double doors, and those heavy double-ring sliding doors...

As soon as he stepped into the dim corridor, Xu Mu smelled a strong and familiar smell. It was the unique smell of the black beast demon. Even if there was only a faint trace in the air, Xu Mu could easily recognize this unforgettable smell with his experience of fighting the black beast demon many times.

The main thing is that he had only awakened in Bo City for a year, and he was chased by more than a dozen black beasts all the way from the north to the south of the city. He couldn't forget it even if he wanted to!

Shortly after Carly entered, Xu Mu noticed that the originally faint odor began to gradually become stronger.

In this dark passage, a disgusting smell filled the air, and a skinny, deformed creature slowly walked over from the other end of the corridor and knelt down in front of Carly.

The deformed creature walked on all fours, its skin was dark black, as if it was wearing a tights, and its face was hideous, like a ghost monkey.

Black beast!
Xu Mu narrowed his eyes. There were not just one black beast, but more than a dozen black beasts patrolling this corridor. Without shadow skills, it would be basically impossible to pass by silently.

"Look at your current appearance. It's like it was tailor-made for you."

Carly chuckled, her slender fingers gently stroking the black beast's chin, lifting its head up so that the hideous and ugly face appeared clearly before her eyes.

Looking at this almost unbearable face, Carly couldn't help but laugh out loud. Her heart was filled with joy and satisfaction:

"You, you have finally cultivated to the level of a mid-level mage. You will have money and beautiful women at your fingertips in the future. You have such a bright future. Why do you have to choose to be an enemy of our Black Church? Isn't this courting death?"

The black beast's body trembled slightly, and its eyes revealed a hint of anger and fear, but it remained silent and knelt motionlessly on the spot.

No sound was made, and no sound could be made.

Becoming a black beast is not the most terrifying thing. What is more terrifying is that your soul is cursed by the evil rituals of the Black Church, and it has fallen to the point where it is not even as good as the contracted beast or the summoned beast. You have become a slave to others and are driven by them.

"Come, I'll take you to see your companions." Carly said, walking slowly forward.

The black beast struggled weakly to stand up and followed her footsteps silently.

Upon seeing this, Xu Mu quickly activated his newly purchased and unused shadow magic tool, and moved forward silently in the dim passage.

He transformed into a pitch-black shadow, blending perfectly with the surrounding environment, and easily passed by several patrolling black beasts without the black beasts noticing at all.

Xu Mu followed Carly and carefully crossed to a remote place.

There, Carly pushed open the stone door hidden in the corner. As the door slowly opened, an unbearable stench hit her in the face.

"Uh uh uh……!"

A heart-breaking groan came from the black pool.

There was a humanoid object soaking in the pool, but if Xu Mu knew in advance that this was a place used to temper black beasts, he would not be able to determine its identity based on its appearance alone.

The man's body had lost its normal shape. His skin seemed to have been peeled off by some force. His head was bald without a single hair. His limbs were twisted unnaturally, and his whole body was covered with marks of sores, as if every inch of his skin was telling of endless torture and pain.

Seeing the inhuman man in the pool, the black beast following behind Carly couldn't help but tremble violently all over, trying to escape from this horrifying scene, but the soul contract that bound its body made it unable to look away.

"You are just two high-ranking people, and you dare to go against the Black Church!"

Carly laughed arrogantly, staring at the person in the pool with a sharp gaze, and declared loudly: "This is the price of going against the Black Church!"

"Open your eyes wide and see clearly what will happen to your brother, because you will have a life-and-death battle with him. Only the black beast who survives will be qualified to follow me."

"Thunder Seal!"

A purple-red lightning shot towards Carly as fast as a ray of light.

This lightning carries the power of annihilation. As it passes through the path, the space constantly collapses, repairs, and collapses again. Even the basic elemental particles are crushed into nothingness.

"Light blessing - protection!" Carly reacted quickly and instantly cast a mid-level light defense magic.

In an instant, a huge golden shield blocked her, but the purple-red lightning was so powerful that it easily penetrated her defense and hit her body, then raged inside her body, and the destructive energy began to devour her body.

This annihilation force is enough to shatter space and turn elemental particles into ashes, and it is even more devastating to the body of a high-level wizard.

But in the blink of an eye, Carly's body could not bear it and exploded. Part of her flesh and blood disappeared into the void, while the other part splattered everywhere.

Xu Mu had sharp eyes and quickly condensed space into a wall to block the flying flesh and blood.

After getting rid of Carly, Xu Mu turned his attention to the black beast in front of him. With the death of Carly, the black beast's soul was enslaved and turned into a pool of foul liquid emitting a fishy smell and dissipated along with Carly.

Xu Mu walked towards the pool with an expressionless face, used telekinesis to pull the person out of the pool, and then used water magic to heal the person.

"Don't say I didn't give you a chance. Water Guard in my left hand, Thunder Seal in my right hand. If you really don't want to live, move your right hand and I'll kill you."

"Your soul has not been cursed, and you are still a human being, but your body has been eroded by the curse. The erosion of the Black Church is extremely special and has penetrated into your bones. Even the healing mages in the country are helpless to this degree of erosion."

"In your situation, I'm afraid the Parthenon is the only temple in the world that can save you." Xu Mu said, quietly looking at the man who no longer looked like a human.

The Black Beast's quenching pool is made of the ancient god mites from the emperor-level Titan. If it is only slightly corroded, a healing magician may be able to treat it.

But in a situation like this man's where his entire body, including his bone marrow, has been eroded, the only place in the world that could save him is probably the holy land of white magic - the Parthenon.

The man's eyesight was almost gone, and even his eyes were corroded. No wonder the black beast's visual function was useless...

With the help of his weak hearing, he sensed Xu Mu's position and faced Xu Mu, moving his right hand with difficulty and uttering unclear syllables. It was obvious that he was longing for relief.

Seeing this scene, Xu Mu stood up decisively and released a powerful lightning seal without hesitation, hitting the man's head directly.

There are no healing mages here. If the man does not rely on his water defense to alleviate the corrosion in his body, he will not be able to hold on for long and will end his life in endless pain.

(End of this chapter)