There's a big problem with dreams in this world.

After thinking for a moment, Lu Qing looked at the priest and said, "Father, I want to go for a walk somewhere else, so I won't go back with you."

“Yes, Anna is dead. You can go wherever you want now.” The old priest nodded.

"Wait a minute." The priest suddenly remembered something.

He stretched out a hand and placed it above the wound on Lu Qing's arm.

After reciting a spell, a pale golden light emanated from his palm.

"Ugh..." A tingling, itchy sensation came from the wound, and after a while, the wound healed on its own.

"I am a priest, after all. Treating a wound is quite simple for me," the priest said with a smile.

"It really healed, it's amazing."

After a moment of reflection, Lu Qing looked at the priest and said:

"Thank you, Father. I'll be going now!"

“Yes, go ahead, but don’t forget what we’re going to do tomorrow morning,” the priest nodded.

"Okay!" Nodding, Lu Qing left without waiting.

After all, the secondary objective, the mission concerning the white phantom in the town, hasn't been completed yet.

She had a feeling that the skill "Anna's Heart" would have to be triggered in order to complete this task.

As for the special location mentioned in this skill, Lu Qing already had a guess in her mind.

"Speaking of which, shouldn't a notebook and quill pen be available at a time like this?" Lu Qing thought to herself as she walked down the road.

However, upon closer reflection, it seems that the notebook and quill pen can only record what has already happened and provide clues for Lu Qing.

And things that require reasoning, and things that haven't happened yet, will not be recorded.

"I wonder if the upgrade to the cabin will bring any changes to the notebook and quill pen."

Lu Qing thought of the experience points section of the cabin. Although she didn't know exactly how to upgrade the cabin, she was certain that upgrading the cabin would definitely help her.

She was really craving the features of that so-called training ground.

Time passed quickly as Lu Qing traveled, and soon she arrived at the square where Anna had been burned to death.

Whether it was her imagination or not, Lu Qing felt that the stench in the square seemed to have dissipated considerably with Anna's death.

Suddenly, the signboard trembled violently, and a line of information appeared on it.

The crystal in your pouch gradually emitted a deep blue light as you approached the plaza. Taking it out now might trigger something unexpected.

"coming!"

Lu Qing perked up, reached into her waist pouch, took out the clear blue crystal, and held it in front of her eyes.

Looking at the crystal that emitted a soft light, Lu Qing's consciousness went haywire for a moment. Then, as if falling from the sky into a sea of ​​clouds, Lu Qing found herself in a crowd.

"Is that Anna? How pitiful."

"Alas, she is just a child. The old hunter has already lost his wife, and now he has to lose his daughter. What a tragic thing this is."

"I heard that all the other children died, leaving only Anna. She also often went mad, so the knight arrested her."

"What a lovely little girl, what a pity."

The townspeople whispered all around. Lu Qing looked up and saw a little girl with disheveled hair and tattered clothes, tightly bound to a wooden post by iron chains, in the area surrounded by the townspeople.

Below the wooden pillar was a large amount of firewood, and a group of well-equipped knights, dressed in fine iron armor, stood silently to the side with their arms crossed.

Meanwhile, a man was being pinned to the ground by two knights. Lu Qing recognized the man as Anna's father, the old hunter.

At the lead knight's command, another knight silently tossed his torch into the firewood.

The flames burned slowly, and with the combined support of the air and the firewood, they spread rapidly, causing the temperature of the entire square to rise quickly.

To Lu Qing's surprise, the figure, which was wrapped in layers of flames and even completely enveloped, did not utter a single scream.

"What happened? Didn't the bakery owner say that Anna screamed horribly when she was burned?"

Lu Qing sensed something was wrong. Suddenly, she felt a cold gaze directed at her, causing her body to tremble involuntarily.

She looked up, and a pair of eyes, still cold despite the flames, met her gaze.

------------

Chapter 20: Uncovering the Truth Behind the White Phantom - Complete!

In an instant, Lu Qing felt a chill run down her spine; the icy coldness was something even the raging flames could not extinguish.

Following those gazes, the gaze continued to extend over her body.

She couldn't help but shudder, and the next moment, Lu Qing realized that her perspective had changed.

She was no longer a bystander silently watching from below the fire, but had become Anna, engulfed in the raging flames.

Fortunately, she did not feel any pain.

The scene before her eyes gradually darkened. After being burned by flames for such a long time, even Anna's corrupted body could not withstand it any longer.

When the image became clear again, Lu Qing discovered that she, Anna, had become a wandering ghost.

A ghost that can only stay at the place of its death, unable to go too far, and unable to be seen by anyone.

She has no consciousness and will only approach the living without any purpose. Those humans she touches will experience bad luck or even fall ill in the following days.

However, among all the people who came to the square, there was only the old hunter whom Anna would never touch, no matter what.

Because every time Anna sees the old hunter, she has a sense of familiarity that makes her stand there in a daze.

As the strange events became more frequent, fewer and fewer people were active in the square, and even those who lived near the square moved away.

Only the old hunter would occasionally return here, silently gazing at the dark pile of rubble.

Time flew by, and the scenes before Lu Qing's eyes began to shift rapidly. After countless years, a mysterious element began to linger in the air.

Anna seemed very familiar with these energies, and easily absorbed them into her body.

Before long, Anna, having absorbed a large amount of unknown energy, evolved into an evil spirit and became able to leave the square and wander freely.

And it was on this day that a pure white fog began to envelop the town.

Influenced by the increasingly dense power within the white mist, Anna became more powerful, but also more irritable.

She found those "informers" from back then by instinct and invaded their dreams one by one, manipulating their subconscious.

She sent them to explore the depths of the fog, and so, without the priest's knowledge, the expedition was formed.

Unexpectedly, the expedition team gained a member whom Anna completely disliked, and her attempt to subtly influence the bakery owner failed.

However, that's not important. The reason Anna wanted to lure these people out was because only in the mist could she unleash her full power.

She transformed into a figure in the mist and cruelly murdered all the informants, but spared the innkeeper's son.

Subsequently, she transformed the members of the expedition she had murdered into symbiotic evil spirits.

He then used the ability he had evolved from killing five humans to create that monstrous mass of flesh from their corpses.

Lu Qing could sense that, at this moment, as the "informant" was killed, some kind of shackle on Anna seemed to be gradually disappearing.

And the last remaining constraint is the bakery owner!

However, she had some doubts in her mind. After all, according to the bakery owner, the people in the expedition team were clearly killed by him who controlled their bodies.

Why is it that Anna's experience today doesn't seem to tell the same story?

As she continued reading, Lu Qing's doubts were soon resolved.

It turns out that after killing the members of the expedition team, Anna sent out two companion evil spirits.

One of the accompanying evil spirits lured the young man back to his home, while another accompanying evil spirit entered the bakery owner's body while he was sleeping.

The symbiotic evil spirit created a dream for the bakery owner—a dream about slaughter.

The flesh monster that Anna gave birth to was also placed in the bakery owner's house by Anna.

The full awakening of the flesh monster will take a considerable amount of time, during which the bakery owner will live in fear and anxiety.

In this way, even if the flesh monster doesn't fully awaken, the symbiotic evil spirit residing within it can still kill it by absorbing fear.

In fact, it was indeed the symbiotic evil spirit that ultimately killed the bakery owner.

After the bakery owner's death, Anna's shackles were completely removed, and her target for revenge changed from the "informant" to everyone in the entire town.

However, the priest and Lu Qing arrived shortly afterward and completely thwarted Anna's revenge plan.

Lu Qing knew the rest of the story. The only thing that bothered her was the attack she had been by the symbiotic evil spirit.

In fact, she wasn't the only one in the town who was attacked by a companion evil spirit; many others had been suddenly possessed by such spirits.

The process of possession involves making someone feel cold all over and eventually fainting. The accompanying evil spirit usually feeds on the fear of the possessed person to enhance its own power while the person is unconscious.

After these steps are completed, the evil spirit has successfully possessed the body. If it can frequently consume fear, it will stay inside the body and refuse to leave.

However, if the evil spirit cannot absorb the emotion of fear for a long time, it will have no choice but to seek other targets.

After all, they are merely companion evil spirits, not orthodox evil spirits, and do not possess the formidable strength of orthodox evil spirits.

The reason Lu Qing was attacked was simple: she was tainted with the aura of those remnants, which is why she was targeted by the accompanying evil spirit.

This is also why the other party insisted on attacking Lu Qing despite the intimidation of the candles.

.......

Anna's memories flashed before Lu Qing's eyes like a movie. When it all ended, Lu Qing returned to reality.

She held the azure crystal in her hand, and under the light shining through the mist, layers of beautiful halos reflected in Lu Qing's eyes.

At the same time, the bulletin board in her mind was also displaying pleasant information.

Secondary Objective: Uncover the truth behind the white phantom (Completed!)

Looking at the information on the notice board, Lu Qing breathed a sigh of relief.

"Phew, the second secondary objective is also completed. Now there are only three tasks left: clearing the fog, eliminating the monsters in the fog, and awakening the dream's master."

Just as she was about to leave, Lu Qing turned around and saw an unexpected figure.

A little girl radiating a pale white light stood silently in front of her, her large, bright eyes blinking as she gazed at her.

"Big sister, can you do me a favor?" the little girl asked in a drawn-out voice.