"Senior Sister, would you like to move to the Mushroom Garden? There's more time for cultivation there than in the Silver Moon Secret Realm."
"The time in the Silver Moon Secret Realm is more than enough for me. I haven't been able to break through yet, only because I've encountered a problem."
In the meditation room, Allen and Tanya sat across from each other and chatted.
After leaving Keith Town, he brought a second-level anti-aging agent to the Silver Moon Secret Realm to visit his sister and senior sister.
Alan refilled the empty glass in front of his senior sister and gestured for her to elaborate on the problem she had encountered.
"It all starts with the ancestral spirit I merged with, the princess of Crete, Minodorus, a female giant-horned minotaur..."
...
Tanya's meditation world was in ancient times.
The outcome of the war between the ancestors and the gods was still undecided.
The aftermath of the war had already traumatized the world.
The polar glaciers melted, and the sea submerged the continent.
Millions of islands, scattered across the vast ocean, constitute all the landmasses of the modern world.
Tanya's fused ancestral spirit was born on the island of Crete, under the rule of King Minos.
Queen Pasiphae of Crete died in childbirth, leaving behind a half-human, half-bull daughter named Minotaur.
It is said that Minotaur was not the king's biological child, but the product of the queen's affair with a sacred bull.
King Minos was open-minded, generous, and kind.
Being cuckolded was unpleasant, but since his beloved wife had passed away, he forgave the infidelity.
Before her death, the queen took his hand and tearfully asked him to care for their young daughter.
King Minos promised, in the name of the ancestral spirits, to grant the queen's final wish.
For many years thereafter, the king faithfully fulfilled his promise, raising his freakish illegitimate daughter as his own.
Minodoros, the minotaur princess who lost her mother at a young age, though not lacking in fatherly love, discovered early on that she was different from her peers.
The court maids seemed terrified of her.
When she occasionally went shopping, the people treated her like a monster and shunned her.
The strange looks from outsiders were bearable.
Minodoros's greatest pain came from her family.
Her half-sister, Ariadne, was a powerful sorceress who was deeply ashamed of her mother's scandal.
She believed her mother's death in childbirth was essentially caused by her freak sister, and she hated Minodoros with a deep sense of malice.
Ariadne was harsh towards her sister, finding every possible way to bully her, mocking her and calling her an ugly monster!
Poor Minotaur, she grew up in the shadow of her beautiful and powerful older sister, constantly bullied...
Gradually, her self-esteem swelled, leading to her own autism.
At the age of nine, Minotaur finally could no longer endure her sister's humiliation. She ran crying into her bedroom, locked herself in the dark room, and refused to see anyone.
The king tried to encourage his daughter to cheer up and face life like a normal person, but the result was the opposite of what he hoped for.
If she had a choice, Minotaur would have preferred not to have been born into this cruel world with a deformed form.
However, no one can choose whether or not to be born.
If she had committed suicide, it would have brought scandal to the royal family and betrayed her beloved father.
After careful consideration, the Minotaur Princess Minodorus made a request to her father:
"I don't want to hurt anyone, nor do I want to be hurt."
"I don't want to see anyone, nor do I want to be disturbed."
"Can I live in darkness forever?"
King Minos, after much persuasion, finally agreed to her request.
He spent a fortune, hiring skilled craftsmen to build a labyrinth for his youngest daughter, a thousand feet underground.
In the subterranean labyrinth, Minodorus could live out her days in peace, undisturbed by the outside world.
To care for his daughter's daily needs, the king sent three pairs of boys and girls each year to serve as her servants.
Children, often more innocent and open-minded, were more receptive to Minodorus's unique appearance.
These young servants accompanied the princess in the underground labyrinth. Besides washing and cooking, the servants' daily tasks also included growing edible mushrooms, light-hating ferns, and raising guinea pigs, blind chickens, and los beasts.
These livestock, capable of surviving in the dark, provided nutritious meat, eggs, and milk.
Thus, Her Royal Highness's table was not too shabby.
The dark and peaceful days slipped away quietly.
Eleven years passed in a flash, and Mino Dorothy was already twenty years old.
The underground labyrinth built around her was becoming less secure.
King Minos, old and frail, was bedridden, leaving the affairs of state to his eldest daughter, Ariadne.
Fearing that his daughter would harm her sister, King Minos forced her to swear in the name of the ancestors:
I will not stain my hands with my sister's blood, or I will suffer retribution!
Ariadne, regent, was eager to kill Minotaur—the freak who had brought disgrace to the royal family!
Due to her oath, she couldn't do it herself, so she secretly cast a spell to summon a malevolent spirit, sent it into the crypt, and ordered it to assassinate her sister.
Yes, she had sworn, "I won't stain my sister's blood on my hands."
But it didn't matter.
As long as she didn't kill her sister herself, she wouldn't have broken her oath.
Events unfolded just as Ariadne had hoped.
The resentful malevolent spirit, upon entering the underground labyrinth, unleashed a killing spree!
Minotaur's servants, one by one, fell to the spirit's murderous hands.
Within three days, they were all dead!
Even more terrifying things were yet to come.
The evil spirits summoned by Ariadne are also known as "fearbound spirits," the so-called higher bound spirits.
Those killed by the fearbound spirits are bound to death, their souls unable to escape. After death, they are transformed into "bound spirits" and controlled by the fearbound spirits.
The male and female servants who served the Minotaur Princess were eventually killed by the evil spirits, transformed into bound spirits, and besieged their former mistress.
The power of the undead continued to grow like a snowball.
Minodora was unable to withstand the evil spirits and was forced to hide in the catacombs to escape the undead's pursuit.
At the same time, Ariadne publicized that the three pairs of boys and girls sent to the catacombs each year were living sacrifices.
Over the past eleven years, a total of sixty-six boys and girls had been sent to the catacombs, brutally killed and devoured by the Minotaur.
Ariadne had two purposes in exposing this carefully fabricated "scandal." First, to justify her mission, she offered a reward to recruit warriors and professional adventurers to the underground palace and defeat the minotaur.
The evil spirits alone were not enough to slay the ugly minotaur princess.
So, Ariadne didn't mind spending a small fortune to have a greedy adventurer take her sister's life.
Second, under the guise of rectifying the wrongs, she could discredit her father and sister, cultivate an image of herself as a "benevolent ruler" who sacrificed her own family for the sake of justice, and consolidate her rule.
Blocked in front, pursued from behind.
The minotaur princess was in dire straits!
At her wit's end, Tanya's consciousness took advantage of the situation, usurping control of the desperate ancestral spirit and taking over control of this body.
Tanya soon discovered that she had entered a hellish predicament!
…
Tanya's greatest threat came from the literally elusive Bound Spirit!
Bound spirits are ethereal undead creatures, capable of burrowing through walls and burrowing underground, immune to normal physical attacks.
Even magic, magical techniques, and enchanted weapons, except those involving force fields, have at least a 50% chance of penetrating the ethereal spirits, rendering them incapable of substantial damage.
Tanya's burrowing skills couldn't shake off the spirits' pursuit.
Throwing punches and kicks at the spirits was a surefire way to miss, a waste of effort.
Tanya's atavistic form, imbued with Bull Armor, offered impenetrable defense.
Even the touch of the spirits, invisible and intangible, could penetrate solid armor and drain life force.
No matter how thick the armor, it couldn't withstand the caress of a swarm of spirits, draining their life force in seconds, leaving them reduced to a mummy.
The spirits could also become invisible in the darkness, moving silently and unpredictably. Tanya must constantly monitor the fluctuating concentrations of negative energy around her.
Even the slightest hint of a chilling draft could signal the lurking presence of a bound spirit.
Over time, this situation left her sleepless and neurasthenic.
These characteristics of the bound spirits perfectly matched Tanya's.
That would have been fine, but what further annoyed and troubled Tanya was...
The bound spirits' lingering resentment made them difficult to completely destroy!
Even after finally defeating a bound spirit, it would regenerate in the darkness within a few days, seeking revenge!
There are two main ways to completely eliminate a bound spirit.
First, determine the source of the bound spirit's resentment and help it fulfill its last wish, thereby achieving transcendence.
Second, ask a clergyman to pour holy water, channel divine power, and liberate the deceased's soul.
The bound spirits within the underground palace also come in two types.
First, there was the evil spirit summoned by Ariadne (the Wraith of Terror), the source of the evil that enslaved the dead.
Tanya didn't understand this great spirit, couldn't communicate with it, and had no way of knowing its vengeance.
Second, there were the ordinary Wraiths, sixty-six in total, transformed from the male and female servants killed by the spirit.
These pitiful servants, grieving their deaths, shared a common vengeance: to destroy the spirit and avenge their grievances.
However, they were forced to submit to the spirit's control, acting as its accomplices in the pursuit of the Bull-Headed Princess, the only person who could possibly avenge them...
At any given time, the spirit was surrounded by at least ten Wraiths acting as bodyguards.
Killing the spirit with ten Wraiths surrounding it was practically impossible.
Furthermore, even if they were to kill it, it wouldn't have much meaning.
The evil spirit's vengeance remains, and it will soon be reborn.
This is the internal threat Tanya faces.
Leaving aside the outside adventurers who enter the underground palace seeking bounties, the internal undead threat alone is enough to torment Tanya!
She once considered escaping the underground maze.
Bound spirits are afraid of light and dare not move in the sun.
However, the ancestral spirit she merged with, the severely autistic Mino Dorothy, has long been accustomed to living in darkness.
No matter what, she didn't want to leave the maze and be exposed in broad daylight.
Forced into a corner, Tanya changed her strategy and set her sights on the outside adventurers.
An adventuring team exploring the underground palace caught her attention.
The adventuring team consisted of four members.
Owen, the greataxe warrior.
Jack, the dual-blade thief.
Yuri, the sorceress who has awakened the "Snow Maiden Bloodline."
And Sunny, the priestess who worships the Holy Light!
Tanya's target is Sunny!
This steadfast priestess excels in light magic, and the exorcism of the undead is her specialty.
If she could convince Sunny to help purify the evil spirits, things would be simple.
Unfortunately, this is easier said than done.
Initially, Tanya took the initiative and went to the adventure team's camp.
She intended to have a peaceful and frank conversation with Sunny, explaining the truth about how she had been framed by Ariadne.
However, she wasn't given a chance to speak.
The four-person team, upon seeing her, immediately drew their weapons and attacked.
Their eyes revealed an uncontrollable excitement, as if she were a walking money bag.
The adventurers couldn't be blamed for this.
Men die for wealth, birds perish for food.
They were hired by Ariadne to defeat the Minotaur in exchange for a generous bounty.
With the bounty right before their eyes, who would have the time to listen to her complaints?!
Furthermore, the Minotaur Princess's appearance was truly terrifying!
Even if she had the chance to speak, no one would believe her.
On one side was the noble and beautiful Regent Princess, and on the other was the Minotaur lurking in the shadows of the underground palace. Who looked more trustworthy and good?
It was obvious at a glance.
The four members of the adventure team all possessed Tier 4 strength.
Tanya was outnumbered and had to flee underground.
After this failure, she had no choice but to abandon peaceful engagement.
While the adventure team was exploring the maze, they encountered orcs who suddenly emerged from underground and attacked Priestess Sunny!
After the attack, Tanya kidnapped the injured Sunny and quickly fled deep into the maze, hiding.
The minotaur tribe is gifted with an uncanny sense of direction, remembering every fork in the road they've taken.
Furthermore, Tanya's ancestral spirit had lived in this underground palace for eleven years, so even with her eyes closed, she wouldn't get lost.
The three outside adventurers were quickly left behind, trapped in the maze, wandering in circles in vain.
Tanya thought she could finally sit down and have a peaceful conversation with Madam Sunny.
However, this was just wishful thinking.
Priestess Sunny was devout in her faith and a valiant warrior.
Unfortunately, with her paranoid personality, quick temper, and limited intelligence, she completely ignored Tanya's explanations.
Tanya wasn't known for her temper either.
When two hot-tempered people collide, they're bound to explode!
You and I argued back and forth, the tension escalated, and finally they fell out!
Tanya, enraged by Sunny's unyielding attitude, decided to give her a good beating.
Beat her into submission, and then talk her down.
Unexpectedly, Sunny was also someone who would rather die than bend.
Unable to defeat Tanya, she became enraged!
She even went so far as to self-destruct her magic pool, dragging Tanya down with her...
The kidnapping operation ended tragically.
Afterwards, Tanya reflected deeply.
"Junior brother, my fault lies in my impatience and poor eloquence."
"I'm the worst at persuading people. I prefer beating them into submission with my fists."
"When I meet someone like Sunny, who's so stubborn and won't be persuaded, I'm at my wit's end."
Tanya gave Allen a wry smile and continued.
"Since I can't handle it myself, I'll have to ask for help."
The reinforcement Tanya called in was none other than Kelly.
Compared to her, Kelly was quite eloquent and gifted with persuasion.
What's more, Kelly had awakened the fourth-level "Monster Charm"!
If she could charm the priestess, it wouldn't be difficult to make her obey.
Tanya's plan was a good one, but unfortunately, it backfired once again.
As a priestess, Sunny was constantly blessed by the Holy Light and divine grace!
Charm and hypnosis spells were ineffective against her! Kelly joined the gathering Tanya had organized for joint meditation, but it was all in vain.
After much persuasion, she was unable to convince Sunny that the Bull-Headed Princess was an innocent victim.
Feeling bad for not being able to help, Kelly advised Tanya to contact Allen.
"My brother is the best at dealing with women. He'll definitely come up with a good plan," Tanya relayed Kelly's words.
Allen didn't believe he deserved that assessment.
Perhaps his sister's words weren't meant as flattery, but rather as a sarcasm.
However, he was heartened to learn that his sister and his senior sister got along well, frequently visiting and helping each other.