Looking at the photo on the ground, Lex had a sense of déjà vu, like watching a horror movie.
Seeing someone he had greeted that afternoon in a photo of a deceased person felt incredibly eerie, with an unsettling strangeness he couldn't quite articulate.
"Perhaps Noah's father, or grandfather..."
Lex shook his head; his spiritual intuition had emphasized more than once that the person in the photo was the Ship Steward.
As a Hunter, Lex could easily remember people's appearances, their scents, and their characteristics.
Therefore, he recognized Noah in the photo at first glance.
Relatives with blood ties might look similar or share a resemblance, but it was impossible for them to be identical!
If the person in the photo was Noah, then what about the other residents on the Sea Island?
Lex crouched down and searched through the photos.
Before long, he found a photo of Barry, the owner of the White Windmill Inn!
In the photo, he wore the distinctive clothing of the Sea Island, with his hands placed flat on his chest and a coin on his mouth.
He continued searching.
In just a moment, Lex found photos of several Sea Island residents.
Some were restaurant owners, some were fishermen.
Lex even found a photo of Midiya.
The girl wore her long floral-patterned dress and a veiled hat, sitting in an unnatural posture on a chair.
Her head seemed to have lost its support, drooping to the side, and two coins were placed on her hands, which rested on her lap.
Looking at these photos, Lex recalled his first night on the island, the residents whose postures were as stiff as Zombies, and their late-night walks through the dark streets.
An irresistible thought surfaced in his mind.
"Are the island residents human during the day and corpses at night?"
"Do they die at night and revive during the day?"
Lex shivered at his own thought.
He shook his head, deciding to find Quincy immediately, and once he found him, they would retreat without bothering about whatever strange things were happening on this Sea Island.
Leaving the utility room, Lex silently went downstairs and crept into the dim living room.
"When I visited yesterday afternoon, I heard knocking sounds from under the floor.
Hilda said it was rats, which is a lie."
"Just based on the principle of avoiding trouble, I didn't probe, and on my way back, my intuition was stirred.
Hilda must have used some ability to monitor me."
"All of this indicates that this High Priest is an Beyonder, though her pathway and Sequence level are unknown."
Lex went near the sofa, moved it aside, and lifted the rug, but he didn't find any secret door or similar entrance.
"From the sound at the time, there seemed to be an echo, which suggests there should be a larger space below.
Could the entrance not be in the living room?"
Lex raised his hand and knocked a few times, discovering that there was indeed another space beneath the floor, but the exit wasn't there.
Just then, he felt a prickling sensation on the back of his hand, and a scene naturally appeared in his mind.
From an observer's perspective, he saw a pale-skinned, almost ethereal man appear behind him in the dimly lit living room.
This man wore the distinctive attire of the Sea Island: a dark coat and loose but cuffed trousers.
His eyes were bruised, his lips dark, and his cheeks were covered in black, spiderweb-like veins.
His eyes were deep, and his pale, translucent hands reached out to grab him.
The image flashed by.
Lex lunged to the ground, rolled, turned, and raised his gun.
He was face-to-face with the wraith.
The wraith stretched out its hands but grasped at empty air, then took the attack from the Demon-Hunting Bullet with its body.
It let out an ethereal shriek, and its body, like smoke, suddenly dissipated.
Lex sprang up from the floor, seeing pale, illusory figures emerge from the walls, poke their heads from the ceiling, and crawl from the floor.
Wraiths, whether women or men, old or young, gathered around Lex.
They reached out to Lex, stretched their chins, opened their mouths, and let out cries filled with resentment.
They wanted to overwhelm Lex, to gnaw on the flesh and blood of the living, and to curse the living to their hearts' content.
Clearly, these wraiths were not naturally gathered but were controlled by an Beyonder.
Lex quickly recalled his knowledge of mysticism.
Beyonder pathways capable of controlling spirits and wraiths, such as the Spirit Warlock of the Night pathway or the Prisoner of the Prisoner pathway, could achieve this.
However, the most skilled at manipulating wraiths was undoubtedly the Corpse Collector pathway; a Sequence 7 Spirit Medium could already control and command a large number of natural spirits and wraiths.
This was Windmill Island, not Loen, so there should be no Beyonder of the Night pathway.
Moreover, if it were a Spirit Warlock, the wraiths would not be so low-level.
Similarly, most Extraordinaries of the Prisoner pathway are associated with the Rose School, which is more active in the South Continent.
Therefore, the one hiding in the dark, secretly controlling wraiths to attack him, was likely from the Corpse Collector pathway.
In an instant, Lex, grasping the opponent's pathway, immediately pressed his hand to his chest, infused his spirituality into the balance of justice, and a strong thought surged: Forbid Spirit Channeling!
An invisible wave of fluctuations rippled and spread rapidly.
The wraiths that had gathered around stopped, looking particularly bewildered, then turned and suddenly floated towards the small garden outside the living room.
Their figures overlapped, dimly leaving the living room.
Lex chased them out, only to see them gather behind a rose bush, then a scream rang out from there, followed by a figure tumbling out of the shade of the tree.
Under the moonlight, Lex saw clearly that it was the High Priest Hilda!
She was back?
Didn't she have to stay at the 'Holy Mountain'?
At this moment, wraiths clung to Hilda, tightly embracing her, opening their mouths and biting her, causing Hilda to let out continuous, shrill screams.
Seeing this scene, Lex immediately understood that Hilda had violated the rules set by the balance of justice and was now receiving mandatory punishment.
The punishment was a backlash of her abilities.
However, Hilda then pulled out a small bottle, poured the black, oily liquid inside into her mouth, and swallowed it forcefully.
After drinking the contents of the bottle, her skin quickly became pale, slightly bluish.
Her aura changed, becoming cold and indistinguishable from the surrounding wraiths.
The wraiths stopped, as if they had lost their target, while Hilda sprang up, gritting her teeth, and charged at Lex without a word.
Her footsteps were heavy, making 'thump-thump-thump' sounds as she suddenly punched at Lex.
What greeted her was the Blood Praise, the Demon-Hunting Bullet imbued with Beyonder abilities from his gun.
Lex had no intention of sparring with the High Priest in combat techniques, responding with the most straightforward means.
Bang, bang, bang!
With three gunshots, blood splattered from Hilda's shoulder, arm, and cheek.