In her past life, Yu Lingye had lived far too insignificantly to ever access core information.
But no matter how low one's status was, anyone who spent enough time among players could piece together some semblance of the truth from idle chatter, quest scrolls, death logs, and camp rumors.
This continent was home to numerous factions, each race possessing its own beliefs, and each city having its own laws.
Above all of this existed the so-called gods, the source from which all factions drew their power of faith.
They never intervened directly in the continent's affairs.
Instead, they were like spectators sitting on high, watching wars, watching betrayals, and watching civilizations tear into each other in a bloody frenzy.
It was said that if an entity gained the approval of the gods, they would be chosen as a Demigod Candidate, becoming their spokesperson in the mortal realm.
They would also have the opportunity to ascend to a true god, breaking free from the cycle of mortal reincarnation.
It sounded incredibly grand.
The victor would ascend to godhood, while the loser returned to the dirt.
However, this land had long grown weary of war, and the various factions no longer had the strength to wage battle again.
As far as she knew, there were already three known Demigod Candidates on this continent.
She couldn't remember who they were exactly, but it had nothing to do with her current situation anyway.
The most recent war was merely a localized conflict between the Holy White City and the Frost-Ridge Northern Alliance twenty years ago.
It seemed that one of the Demigod Candidates had been involved on one side of that conflict.
To introduce new possibilities to this world, the players who were dropped into it acted more like new variables thrown into a stagnant swamp.
As for the current Isolde, her body belonged to a native inhabitant, while her soul belonged to a player.
She knew the plot, the resource nodes, and which skills would rise to prominence in the early game.
More importantly, she possessed the status of a castle boss and a status panel that could be disguised.
This was practically a free cheat code.
The more Isolde thought about it, the brighter her eyes became. She suddenly set down her teacup and looked at Lia.
“Lia, as the master of the castle, can I leave whenever I want?”
Lia replied quickly.
“Yes. The castle has no authority to restrict the master's movements. You may leave at any time.”
She paused for a moment before continuing, “After you leave, the castle will activate different states—such as concealment, defense, luring, or harmlessness—according to your wishes.”
“Everything will be subject to your will.”
Isolde slowly sat up straight.
“In other words, the castle can still operate even when I'm not here?”
Lia: “Yes.”
Isolde: “Can it automatically receive guests?”
Lia: “Yes.”
Isolde: “Can it automatically kill them?”
Lia paused.
“If you define them as prey, yes.”
Isolde's eyes lit up completely.
Wow.
Wasn't this a fully automated resource collector?
She could go out to level up and grow, while the castle ran a dungeon back home.
When greedy players came in searching for treasure, the castle would shut the doors and release the monsters.
The dropped items and materials would all go straight into the warehouse, automatically categorized and stored.
Wasn't this ten thousand times better than working like a dog for someone else in the modern world?
In her past life, she couldn't even afford to rent a comfortable little apartment in the city.
But now, she had inherited a revenue-generating spooky mansion right off the bat.
Aside from being a bit hard on the players, it was absolutely perfect.
After her initial excitement, Isolde quickly calmed down.
The castle's automated operation was certainly a good thing.
However, she couldn't use it too frequently.
Luring a few greedy players in once in a while was fine.
But if it happened too often, this place would be flagged as a high-risk dungeon.
Players weren't fools forever; they would map out locations, exchange intelligence, and form parties to explore.
When that time came, those arriving wouldn't be early-game newbies like Zheng Chuan, Meng Yinyin, and Luo Qi, but seasoned teams equipped with scouting, purification, and high-level skills.
Isolde had indeed become the master of the castle and obtained boss authority.
But she wasn't so foolish as to expose her home base to everyone the moment she gained a slight advantage.
It was best for the castle to keep a low profile.
It could hide in the gray mist, occasionally swallow up a few blind intruders, and maintain its defenses while she was away.
But a truly stable source of resources couldn't rely entirely on the castle.
Over the next two days, Isolde did not rush to leave.
She took Lia with her and toured the entire castle from top to bottom.
The castle was much larger than she had imagined.
The outermost layer was the trap zone, consisting of gray mist, broken bridges, withered forests, decoy paths, and hidden mechanisms concealed within wall crevices and stone steps.
Most of these mechanisms had deteriorated with age; some were still functional, while others were merely empty, frightening shells.
Further inside was the illusion formation area.
The illusion formation in the eastern tower had extended from this very zone.
It could lead intruders to see whatever they desired.
Some would see treasure chests, others would hear cries for help, and some would be guided straight to the vicinity of the Banquet Hall.
After inspecting it, Isolde simply had Lia temporarily adjust the illusion formation to a repellent state.
For now, she needed the castle to remain hidden, not famous.
Next were the guard posts.
There were array runes positioned at corridor corners, staircase landings, and underground entrances.
Valen had valued his life dearly in the past, placing defenses in almost every location vulnerable to attack.
Unfortunately, due to years of neglect, most of the array runes had faded, leaving only a few low-tier bone puppets barely able to move.
Isolde ordered the faceless servants to drag those bone puppets to the underground laboratory.
She would repair them when she had time; there was no need to waste resources on them right now.
The living quarters, however, were relatively well-preserved.
There were guest rooms, cloakrooms, storerooms, a desolate garden, and a small greenhouse.
Most of the plants in the greenhouse had died, leaving only a few black-leaf vines alive.
Those things were bloodthirsty; they could be used to make traps or serve as low-tier magical plant materials.
Isolde had Lia make a note of them.
Keep what was useful, and throw away what wasn't.
Valen's bedroom lay at the far end of the living quarters.
When she pushed the door open, the interior was surprisingly normal.
There was a dark, large bed, an antique wardrobe, a fireplace, a thick carpet, and a small round table by the window.
Although covered in dust, it at least looked like a place fit for human habitation.
Lia told her that during the later stages of Valen's mutation, his body had grown too large to enter the bedroom, so he spent most of his time in the study and the Banquet Hall.
Isolde glanced at the bed.
In other words, it wasn't that he didn't want to sleep in a bed, but rather that he had become too massive to squeeze through the door.
She only felt a single second of sympathy for him.
After all, Valen had already been dismantled into materials and stored in the warehouse. She was the sole owner of the castle now.
However, the study was the real headache.
The moment the door opened, a stench of rotting flesh, chemical potions, and old paper rushed over her.
Isolde nearly retreated on the spot.
When she had come to gather materials before, her mind had been entirely focused on how to kill Valen, leaving her no room to be repulsed by the environment.
Now that she was the homeowner, she found the state of the place completely unbearable.
Jars and bottles cluttered the floor, and uncleaned bones littered the corners of the room.
Dried, mysterious liquids clung to the desk, several books lay scattered on the floor, and the edges of their pages were blackened as if licked by something vile.
Isolold immediately ordered the faceless servants to clean it up.
Scrub the floors three times, open all the windows, and let the fresh air circulate.
She could live in a spooky castle, but she refused to live in a garbage dump.
There were countless books in the study, packed tightly into every nook and cranny of the bookshelves, but she couldn't understand most of them.
Ancient scripts, Elvish, Dwarven, and several types of ciphers.
She stared at them for a moment, only to feel a headache coming on.
The few she could read were written in the Common Tongue or were occult grimoires familiar to the original owner of her body.
She read two pages and quickly closed the book.
These things might be useful in the future, but she couldn't use all of them.
She admitted she was no saint, but the original owner's methods were just too thoroughly repulsive.
Further down lay the underground area.
She had been to the underground laboratory many times.
The experiment tables, material cabinets, soul-sealing racks, stitching tools, and the black iron chests storing body parts were all still there.
After two days of cleaning, it at least looked less like a crime scene than when she had first woken up.
What truly caught her attention was an iron door located even deeper down, on the level below the laboratory.
The iron door was wrapped in black chains. There was no handle, only a closed crest.
As Isolde approached, a system prompt popped up.
【Unknown basement detected】
【Current authority is insufficient】
【Opening conditions unknown】
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