From the Ship of Fools to Earl of Wugang

"Torrent!" Star Sword shouted.

He spun around and used his strength to sever the forearm of another ghoul that lunged at him, then took two steps closer to the direction of the rapids.

Jiliu gritted his teeth and shouted, "I'm fine, completing the mission is the priority!"

She discarded the iron bar, used the knife in her left hand to drive back the surrounding monsters, and moved closer to the Star Sword.

Edmund witnessed this lightning-fast exchange, and his opinion of the rapids rose to a new level.

But on the other side, Heinrich got up with unexpected speed.

"Very well, very well..." Heinrich's anger and madness intensified. "You don't want the truth? Then become part of the truth."

Before anyone could react, a piercing scream erupted from deep within Heinrich's throat.

It felt as if a scorching steel needle had pierced directly into Edmund's cerebral cortex; he felt dizzy and disoriented.

[Currently experiencing the "Confused Howl"...Exemption in progress...Exemption granted!]

The information flow appeared as usual, but even though the cheat code eventually granted the exemption, the brief delay was enough for Edmund's body to produce a real physiological reaction.

His vision blurred, and a wave of intense nausea surged through his stomach. He knelt on one knee on the damp graveyard.

The nearby rapids also seemed to be affected, but for some reason not as severely as Edmund's.

"Ideal State!" Star Sword's voice came from three meters away, tinged with obvious tension.

The next second, a warm hand pressed against Edmund's back.

A pale blue light emanated from Star Sword's palm, and Edmund felt as if he had been thrown into a cool stream, the nauseating dizziness quickly receding.

[Under the effect of "Revival Winds," you are recovering... You accept the status recovery; the dizziness effect has been removed.]

Edmund regained his balance and gave Starsword a grateful look.

The latter nodded slightly, then strode forward to face the ghouls that had regrouped.

"Go do what you're supposed to do," Starsword said without turning his head. "I'll hold them off with the torrents."

The ultimate task was to "paint a work that would satisfy Lane Hall," and now the painter was right in front of him, as was inspiration or something that could replace inspiration.

Star Sword charged at Heinrich again, using close-quarters combat to prevent it from exerting its power once more.

Torrent, holding a knife in one hand, guarded the flank, intercepting the ghouls that tried to rush towards Edmund.

Two teammates formed a defensive line for him with their own flesh and blood.

Edmund stepped back a few paces, found a relatively flat base for the tombstone, and took out his tools from his art supply bag to prepare to paint.

At this moment, he looked up at Heinrich and activated his other active skill, "Spiritual Perception".

In the slight dizziness, the world became vastly different, as if a veil had been lifted from a layer of mystery that mortals had never been aware of.

In the vision of spiritual perception, the world becomes closer to a grayish cobalt blue.

A gray-green spiritual aura flowed across the surface of Heinrich Pieck's body, while something within it throbbed violently, seemingly about to burst forth.

At the very moment Edmund was "observing" it with his spiritual perception, Heinrich seemed to have also sensed something.

It turned its head in the gap between the approaching star sword blades, its vertical pupils meeting Edmund's gaze directly.

A maniacal laugh, and Heinrich's voice suddenly became exceptionally clear:

"I see... Then let me show you—show you the world I've seen!"

At that very moment, Star Sword's saber finally broke through Heinrich's defenses, the blade piercing deep into his right rib.

But at that moment, a burst of grayish-white light erupted from Heinrich's shattered body.

Edmund was astonished to discover that it was a semi-transparent soul.

The soul swiftly passed through the gap between the tombstones, like a gray-white arrow aimed directly at Edmund, unexpectedly striking his forehead.

[Currently suffering a consciousness invasion from the "Ghoul Keeper"! The source is a projection of the spirit world released by Heinrich Pick before his death, with a rank equivalent to the first level of the "Path of the Medium".]

[The projection contains numerous visions of the spirit world obtained by the painter through contact with the deceased during his lifetime. The resulting mental pollution will erode the target's self-awareness and then assimilate them.]

[Can exempt from mental pollution! Can exempt from assimilation effects!]

If the previous invasion of the "sea ghoul" within Farian was like a frozen slime, then this invasion of the soul was like a swarm of snakes.

Edmund "saw" countless neatly arranged skeletons in the catacombs, their eye sockets glowing with eerie blue phosphorescence.

He saw the boundary between life and death as a gray river, with countless translucent souls and skeletons floating there, their eye sockets burning with eerie blue phosphorescence, as they tried to grasp the palms on the other side, beneath which lay a massive moon.

The world seen through the eyes of the dead is breathtakingly beautiful, yet terrifyingly maddening.

[Exemptions are being issued for assimilation effects and mental pollution...]

The memories that tried to assimilate his consciousness melted away like cream in front of the Golden Finger, and the projections from the spirit world were also shattered.

But just like the previous case of Farian Madeleine, Edmund "read" more through the Information Vision.

[Gain some knowledge about the pillars "Winter" and "Tide"]

"The world is as still as ice, and we will eventually lose it, like footprints in the snow." Winter is the pillar of silence, ending, and things that are not entirely gone; "The tides never cease, all things flow eternally, reality and illusion are the same." The tides are the pillar of ebb and flow, movement, and endless cycles.

The main theme connecting "winter" and "tide" corresponds to the "path of death and silence," and its governing force is the "abyss." It is the god of the cycle of death and rebirth, the god of the return of all things to nothingness, the god of the primordial boundlessness, the god of darkness and oblivion.

[Gain some knowledge about the arcane ritual "Kelley's Spirit Summoning"]

This technique requires cutting away the surface of the world with sulfur, using white candles for omens and communication, reciting specific prayers, and protecting oneself with salt, but overuse still carries the risk of corruption due to spiritual contamination...

[Gaining some insights from Heinrich Pick's observations of the spirit world]

This is a direct spiritual experience that you temporarily receive and will then disappear without a trace, remaining in your consciousness for approximately fifteen minutes.

The flood of knowledge receded, and Edmund relied on a tombstone to keep himself from collapsing.

He was keenly aware that he had just acquired valuable knowledge and the key to completing the mission.

The painter clearly possessed more than one fanatical soul, but after the golden finger granted him immunity, they were ejected from his mind and were now buzzing in his ear like mosquitoes.

Edmund closed his eyes and turned his attention to his body.

As the "exemption" soul was ejected, it also awakened a shallow being—the body's former owner, Ryan Hall.

His consciousness had not completely dissipated; ever since Edmund took over the body on the Fool's Ship, Ryan's consciousness had remained huddled in a corner of his mind.

Under the impact of the spirit world's vision, the curled-up consciousness seemed to stir slightly.

Having witnessed these beautiful yet terrifying sights, Edmund felt a pure, artistic yearning.

After a moment's hesitation, Edmund carefully guided the fragment of consciousness to the surface.

"Mr. Lane Hall, it's time for us to paint a picture that will satisfy you."