Sir Chen, your wife is missing!

The woman's body was swaying and she almost fell down several times.

Skadi had stood beside them at some point and helped Feng Qingyu hold on.

"I know where the castle is. Let's go see it together."

10. Iberia’s Paradise

Two neatly dressed strangers, followed by a mentally abnormal person, made a very strange combination walking through the streets of Saltwind City. At night, almost no one was out in the streets. The citizens, whose thinking and bodies were gradually becoming rigid, were like sculptures, quietly staying at home, sleeping when they were tired, and continuing to be in a daze when they woke up, repeating the cycle over and over again.

The crazy woman of Liberia was still blabbering on about the "good place".

Feng Qingyu and Skadi didn't speak, they hurried on their way silently, and paid attention to the clues contained in those crazy words. Compared with those who were unwilling to speak, the madman seemed more normal.

"That castle... is simply the only pure land in Iberia. The owner of the castle will let us sleep in comfortable big beds, in a magnificent big room... Every day's meals are delicious fish and meat... Those who are recognized by her can move to a higher-end area and live a better life. For people like us, it is the best place in all of Iberia."

"The best place is, is it possible that my great-grandfather's tomb is near the castle?"

Feng Qingyu remembered that Westerners had the custom of building family cemeteries behind their mansions. Could it be that the fascinating castle was bought by my great-grandfather from Alfonso, but it became a sea heir before he could move in, and was eventually occupied by someone else and turned into his own nest?

If this is true, as a descendant of the Williams family, she needs to take back her property from that person. Even if the castle can't be rented out or sold as a tourist attraction, at least she can have a place to stay in Iberia.

She had always felt bad for not being able to protect the Feng family mansion from the Sarkaz army, and this castle could be a new starting point.

"I only know that the place was once the land of Iberian nobles, and that several famous grand dukes and their descendants are buried there. Maybe it's true. The Iberians firmly believe that it is a Feng Shui treasure land, and the ancient castle is indeed built on the seaside. Standing on the high ground, you can overlook the land of Iberia."

"Then we must go and find out."

The extinguished interest suddenly rose. Feng Qingyu took out a box of high-end Colombian cigars that she was reluctant to smoke from her pocket and gave one to the crazy Liberi.

It’s not that she is stingy, there are only two sticks in a box.

"Miss, tell me more about the 'good place'. I can get you cigarettes and alcohol. There are no stores selling these things in Saltwind City now."

"This is... top quality stuff from Colombia. Who are you?"

The women of Liberi were trembling with joy, and took the tobacco from a foreign country with their rough but clean hands. Degenerate people cannot live without tobacco and alcohol, which can make them happy to the point of madness.

"I'm a Victorian from the Yan nationality who passed by. He's very interested in Iberian culture and is currently conducting an investigation mission in Saltwind City. You can tell me everything you know, and I won't treat you unfairly."

Feng Qingyu hugged the other person's shoulders affectionately to increase the closeness between them.

The poorer a person is, the easier it is to get clues from them. The process of getting clues can make them feel valued, rather than a dispensable and invisible person.

This trick is effective against both the street thugs in Longmen and the citizens of Iberia. Liboli held a cigarette in her mouth, and Feng Qingyu lit it for her with a lighter, and she started talking.

The tobacco cleared the poor man's mind and made his speech less incoherent.

"Since you said so, I shouldn't hide anything from you, my wealthy lady. What do you want to know? As long as I know it, I will tell you everything I know."

A puff of gray smoke came out of Liberi's mouth, and her slightly melancholy expression actually made people feel a bit beautiful.

The woman was not bad looking. Although she had oripathy, and uneven black crystals could be seen through the gaps in her sleeves, the oripathy had not completely worn down her mental state, and she was always more radiant than other citizens of Saltwind City.

The reason why it doesn't drive people crazy must be the ancient castle built by the sea.

They shortened the distance while chatting, and when it was nine o'clock in the evening, they could finally see the outline of the seaside castle. A huge shadow stood in the middle of the dense forest. The trees in the dense forest grew in strange shapes. From a distance, they looked like the Road Shapers and Road Shaper Fractals fighting on the seaside of Xiosta, with their fangs and claws bared and their dry branches like tentacles extending upwards.

There is a passage on the overgrown ground. No one has specially paved the road with cement. Because there are so many people walking on it, the weight of their bodies gradually bends the half-person-high weeds, forming a slightly decent road.

The withered yellow weeds swayed in the wind, and the whistling sound of the wind was so unpleasant that it gave people goose bumps. It was extremely similar to the whimpering sound made by a woman crying late at night.

Feng Qingyu zipped up his coat. The later it got, the lower the temperature in Iberia would be. It was located in the southern hemisphere of Terra, and because of its low latitude, the temperature was equivalent to spring in the northern hemisphere.

The nights in spring are quite cold, and walking around outside in short sleeves is a sign of being too confident in your physical fitness.

“I feel like I’m freezing.”

She exhaled a puff of white mist and had to use magic to light fire to warm her body.

Tiny sparks flew in the grass, and Feng Qingyu was worried that the spell would cause a fire. In Yan Country, setting fire to a mountain would result in life imprisonment, and I wonder if Iberia has the same rule.

I heard that the Inquisitor would severely punish those who made mistakes, so in order to avoid getting into trouble, I only dared to use magic for a short while and then not again.

"Miss, there is a spacious bath in the castle, as well as steaming food and soup. There is also heating in the winter, so you won't feel cold at all. We will be there in a few minutes. Believe me, you won't hate it there."

Hope burns in the eyes of the women of Liberia. The gray-white giant hovering above the coast is giving birth to the paradise that everyone has passed down through word of mouth.

The more he listened to her description, the more Feng Qingyu felt that it was like a utopia that did not exist in the real world. Utopia is an irrational thing, and is called a product of utopianism.

Even darker and more desperate, the castle is just a dilapidated, deserted ruin. There is no bath or comfortable big bed inside. Everything is just the imagination of Liberi's madness.

If that was the case, it would be too cruel to expose her.

It is a bad behavior to tear apart other people's fantasies, even if indulging in fantasies is not right. Feng Qingyu didn't want to be the bad guy, so with the last bit of hope, he crossed the last section of the beach path leading to the castle.

The soft sand was covered with footprints, some big, some small, some long, some short, there were at least dozens of people there.

“There are quite a lot of people coming.”

Feng Qingyu raised his head and faced the towering castle in front of him.

11. The world inside the door

The Iberian castle follows the style of other buildings in Saltwind City. It is square and cold, and looks like a combination of multiple dark gray rectangular boxes. The top is covered with classic black tiles, and there is a sharp cone above the tower.

The main body of the castle does not have a single bright color, forming a subtle color balance with the dark woods and light gray beach.

The color gray can be seen everywhere, which makes people wonder if the favorite color of the founding emperor of Iberia was gray.

Its exterior walls bear traces of time. The wind, sun and rain have faded the color of the roof and the surface. The gaps at the bottom grow dark green or light green moss in the humid environment. In the corners that no one cares about, a few salt-tolerant dead grasses survive tenaciously between the bricks and stones, growing on the moist sand and rain.

The blue-gray ivy climbs up along the outer wall of the castle, extending all the way to the high observation deck.

No one thinks of cleaning up these traces of life, but their existence can bring some vitality to the lifeless castle.

They walked into the iron gate at the front of the castle. Affected by the fishy, ​​salty and humid air, the two iron doors became rusty. When they reached out to touch them, their hands were full of brown iron filings.

The plants in the courtyard were not taken care of and were overgrown with weeds, which seemed to be occupying the passage leading from the gate to the main building of the castle.

The world outside the door was so desolate that Feng Qingyu assumed that the castle was equally dilapidated and decadent. There was dust and spider webs everywhere, rats and cockroaches running by his feet, and when he was lucky, Hai Si and Ming Hen would appear.

"Be prepared to fight first."

Skadi took the lead in pulling out the greatsword behind her that occupied 2/3 of her body. The heavy weapon could give people a sense of security, although it did not match Skadi's image very well.

"learn."

Feng Qingyu pulled out Qingxiao and slowed down his pace.

The main entrance of the main building is also made of metal, which can resist moisture and salt and slow down oxidation. The same material was used for the deck of Rhodes Island, which was developed only in recent years.

I didn't expect that the people inside could keep up with the trend of the times. Before I came here, I thought even the door panels had been removed and used as beds.

"You two should put your swords away quickly. The owner of the castle doesn't like violence. She said that we are all civilized people of the new era, and civilized people should not start a war in the 'heaven' she created."

Liberi, whose name is still unknown, urged them to put away their weapons before knocking on the door. After seeing both swords return to their sheaths, Liberi grabbed the knocker and knocked on the metal door a few times.

Metal knocking against metal, the crisp knocking sounds echoed in the empty courtyard.

Time passed while I waited. After two minutes, I heard the sound of leather shoes rubbing against the floor. The person was walking very fast and took big steps.

The hinges of the metal door did not make the harsh noise as expected. The people in the castle usually paid great attention to the maintenance of the doors, which was different from the laissez-faire attitude of the people in Saltwind City.

The scope of maintenance seems to be limited to the castle, and they don't care about the outside world.

The space inside is a brand new world in itself. There is a huge metal plaque above the main entrance of the castle with the Victorian word "Heaven" written on it.

It’s hard to say who is in charge. It turns out that the person in charge is really a Victorian.

The man who answered the door was dressed in the most common style of waiters in Victorian aristocratic mansions: a white shirt, a black jacket, and a black suit on the outside.

The polite Sarkaz waiter bowed to them and made way.

"Two guests, please come in."

There is no threshold to enter the castle, anyone can enter.

The world inside the door was completely different from the desolate world outside. The lobby on the first floor was brightly lit, with a huge, gorgeous crystal chandelier hanging above it, like an inverted glass cake.

The design of each floor is different. The shape, color and pattern of the glass are all very expressive. The elegant and restrained style is in line with the Victorian aristocratic culture.

The tables, chairs and carpets in the hall are not old items left over from the golden age. Even if they have not been replaced recently, they are relatively new and have definitely not been used for more than two years.

The inside looked like a large party venue. A black record was playing on the mahogany upright phonograph turntable, and slow-tempo music was flowing from the speakers.

The singing was not loud, and there were no people making random noises in the hall.

Sitting on the sofa were Iberians, some in ragged clothes and some in relatively well-dressed clothes, holding transparent syringes in their hands, which contained golden liquid as crystal clear as Originium.

The liquid should be a hallucinogenic Originium potion. Iberia, who was unconscious, pulled down his collar and stuck the needle into his neck. They could not feel the pain, so they pushed the piston and let the liquid flow into their bodies along the needle. When there was no drop of golden liquid left, the waiter would walk over and remove the needle for them. The people who used the Originium potion lay down in all directions, with a happy expression on their faces, and they kept muttering "This is heaven".

Some people choose to become numb in the painful reality, some people escape from reality in castles.

"The happy thing they talk about is taking drugs, which is not surprising considering that this is Iberia, the lost country of gold."

Feng Qingyu walked around the people lying around and smelled a light fragrance. The smell came from the incense burner in the corner, where only one-third of the incense was burned. It was because of the burning of the incense that the smell of seawater could not be smelled in the castle.

"Where did they get the things they just used?"

"Well, you can participate in performances to gain recognition and cheers from the audience, or you can stay in the castle and work as a servant. There are many ways. I got it through performances. Do you want to have a 'Paradise' too?"

Li Boli pointed with his skinny finger to a staircase leading underground.

"There's a good show downstairs, are you interested in coming with me? More and more people from the neighboring city are coming here, and I'm worried that I won't be able to get a seat if I go too late. I'm leaving now, you guys can have fun and stroll around as you please. Be careful not to run into the VIP area, or you'll be beaten up and kicked out by the bodyguards there."

After saying this, she walked down the deep and dim stairs without waiting for Feng Qingyu and Skadi.

It's like a staircase leading to the entrance of hell.

The "performance" that Liberi was talking about didn't look like a normal performance. It would be more convincing if the scene was changed to the Grand Theater of Syracuse. This is a suspicious castle at the junction of Iberian cities. No one would believe that there was a serious performance here.

Feng Qingyu couldn't resist the urge to go down. Curiosity killed the cat, but she was not like that. With weapons and spells, she was not panicked at all when facing danger.

"Let's go and see together?"

"That's what I wanted to ask you."

A dragon and a killer whale, like two fish swimming towards the depths of the sea, sank into the shadow of the castle.

12. Product of a Crazy World

The downward staircase was in a spiral shape. There might not be an elevator installed in the castle, at least there was no sound of an elevator running nearby. Besides, the people who came to the castle were all numb and confused Iberians, whose brains no longer considered whether it was convenient to go up and down the stairs.

The further down he went, the colder the temperature around him felt. He could faintly hear the cheers of the crowd below, and a hint of blood mixed in the cheers was dissipated by the cold wind.

The smell of blood must be associated with concepts such as injury and death.

The "performance" is most likely a cruel killing game. Some people feel that life is boring and have no interest in anything. The only thing they are interested in is watching others kill each other for supplies and survival opportunities.

The ancient Syracuse nobles specially built a huge Colosseum for this purpose, where slaves became gladiators and fought against ferocious wild beasts. Only those who survived were eligible to get food, otherwise they would become food in the stomachs of hungry wild beasts.

Today, such activities are no longer carried out in the Colosseum, and the Syracusans have restrained themselves with civilization and etiquette and curbed their wolfish nature. However, those cruel activities have been passed down and continue in some invisible corners.

The grayish-white stone steps of the bottom row of stairs were stained with splattered blood, some of which were still brightly colored, while others had dried and turned into brown stains.

The person cleaning the stairs missed that corner when cleaning, and Feng Qingyu happened to see it.

The closer we got to the "stage", the stronger the smell of blood became. At the end of the stairs was a door. Two Carter men in waiter uniforms and wearing golden masks on their faces opened the door automatically like a machine when they saw someone, without saying a word.

Inside the metal door was a crazy world, with a scaled-down circular stand modeled after the ancient Syracuse, the size of a university auditorium. There were four entrances below the stand, east, south, west, and north, and Feng Qingyu and the others chose one of them to enter.

The screams of the audience and the smell of blood hit her.

There were people sitting in every row of the stands, some in rags, some in fine clothes, of different races, but they all came here for the same purpose - to watch the fight between humans and beasts and to pursue a weird sense of satisfaction.

"kill--"

"Kill it—"

"Hey, you better not lose, I bet money--"

The embellishment of civilization is not worth mentioning here. The audience tore off the masks that disguised themselves, returned to the most primitive and barbaric appearance of the Terrans, and vented the depression and desire in their chests with shouts.

They were unable to fight the beasts in the audience and tear them apart, so they placed this morbid and twisted expectation on the gladiators.

The gladiators were Iberians from several nearby coastal cities, as mentioned by the crazy women of Liberia. Feng Qingyu found her figure on the other side of the stands. She also joined the shouting crowd, her eyes bloodshot, excited like a winner of a jackpot worth hundreds of millions.

There are few people in the stands who are not crazy, everyone is the same.

If Saltwind City is extremely quiet, then this place is extremely noisy, so noisy that it will tear your eardrums.

“It’s a really subversive place.”