Midsummer, midnight, Southern Keltos Continent, a peaceful small town.
A giant red moon shone upon the land, casting everything in an eerie color.
The winding cobblestone path, vine-covered walls, and rows of tightly packed houses stacked upon each other.
The intermittent caterwauling of tomcats echoed at midnight.
The old horse in the stable leisurely chewed on hay, while the worker responsible for cleaning up was struggling to shovel the charred horse manure onto a wooden cart, raising a cloud of white smoke.
The streets, crowded during the day, now only had drunkards passed out in the corners. In their sleep gibberish, the breeze blew through, gently rolling the empty bottles beside them.
The whole world was eerily quiet, so silent that the sound of scurrying rats could be heard clearly.
Amid this tranquility, a shadow sneaked into the town.
Soon after, a commotion could be heard in the distance. More accurately, it was a mix of clatter from galloping hooves and clanking armor.
Residents who hadn't yet fallen asleep pushed open their balcony doors and peered into the distance.
Soon, a group of knights carrying torches poured into the remote town, waking up the entire town's residents with the noise of their hoofbeats. They lit oil lamps, opened windows, and secretly peered out from their rooms. The braver ones simply pushed the doors open and came out.
Before long, the streets were lined with people on both sides.
The elderly town mayor, leaning on a cane, wobbled out and respectfully saluted.
"What's going on?"
"We are chasing a Lich! Someone saw it run in here," the silver-armored Knight leading them, dressed like a tin can, casually said without paying the old mayor further attention. Turning back, he raised his Longsword and shouted to his troops, "Listen, we must capture the Lich before anyone else gets here! Glory awaits us!"
"Yeah!" All the knights cheered while waving their weapons, as if they had already secured victory, spreading out quickly to search.
"A Lich, really? A Lich came here?"
"Is it the one from the mountain?"
"Oh my God..."
The townspeople were filled with anxiety.
Under the night sky, the entire town became lively with activity.
A Lich, awakened from a corpse.
In appearance, it was nothing more than a skeleton, much like the lowest level of the Undead Clan, the Skeleton Soldier.
The difference was that Skeleton Soldiers wore simple armor, wielded broken shields and swords, and usually lacked self-awareness. Liches, on the other hand, liked to wear cloaks and wield staffs, not only having self-awareness but also capable of summoning and controlling other undead beings, standing at the pinnacle of the Undead Clan, frequently seen in human novels and plays. Cunning, deceitful, and evil, they led the Undead Army, powerful enough to rival Angels and demons as major villains.
However, the Lich currently being chased by a group of knights did not quite match that terrifying image...
About twenty meters behind the silver-armored Knight, in an unnoticed corner, a piece of burlap was trembling.
"What's happening? If this land already had an owner, they should have sent me a letter first, no need to act directly..." Lich Gray felt extremely wronged.
The fat Black Cat that had been yowling on the balcony earlier leaped down and lazily slipped under the burlap, beginning to lick its fur. "You must be the new Lich from the mountain in the east, right?"
With a gourd-shaped body, a small face, completely black fur, except for two off-centered white spots on its lips, the Black Cat looked rather ugly.
"Yes, that's me! I just moved to the mountain in the east. Are you... a ghost attached to the cat? My goodness! If I had known I had a neighbor from the Undead here, I would have visited earlier!" Seeing the ghost attached to the Black Cat, Gray was excited. This was rare in the underground world. However, after a brief pause, Gray suddenly felt dejected. "But it seems like I'll have to move again…"
"I know, the whole market was talking about it today." The Black Cat licked its paw. "You dug up the Gruglu family's ancestral grave, and they notified the church. They're planning to tie you up and burn you to death."
"The Gruglu family's ancestral grave? Oh, I remember now, I was looking for some bones to assemble Skeleton Soldiers. You know, a Lich's castle needs a few guards, otherwise, it's just improper. Speaking of which, those bones were really good, some didn't even have cracks. I don't understand why they buried such good things underground. Wait... are you saying they want to burn me to death just because of that?"
"Isn't that enough of a reason to burn you to death?"
"But I am already dead."
A three-second awkward silence.
"What I mean is, they want to grind you into powder! That's probably what they mean!"
"Alright, I admit my mistake for not checking if the bones had an owner before digging them up. If necessary, I can return them." The two dark red soul flames in the Lich's eye sockets dimmed a bit, indicating he felt even more downcast.
"That's not the point. Don't you know what desecrating the dead means?"
"Desecrating the dead?"
"Even if you hadn't dug up the ancestral grave, they would still burn you to death because you are a Lich!" the Black Cat snapped fiercely.
However, Lich Gray was not frightened. Instead, the dark red flames turned into question marks.
Clutching its head, the Black Cat sighed helplessly.
...
Meanwhile, the furious knights had started knocking door-to-door, stabbing almost every corner twice.