"Idiot!"
Ethan couldn't be bothered listening to his nonsense.
He directly used the Ghost Sword Style, piercing straight through the Ghost Ferryman from behind.
But the Ghost Ferryman didn't seem to react at all. He simply let the sword pass through his body and even let out a mocking laugh.
"Heh! Heh! Heh..."
As he laughed, the Ghost Ferryman looked at Ethan and said, "It's useless. I'm no longer human. You can't kill me."
"But I can kill all of you and use your flesh and blood as sacrifices to the Strange Statue."
"That way, I'll gain even more power!"
"Ghost Domain!"
Countless streams of black mist began spreading from the Ghost Ferryman's skeleton-like body.
Anyone enveloped by the black mist instantly had their eyes turn red, like zombies that had completely lost their minds.
"Fall back! Hurry!"
Guard Three immediately shouted.
Only then did everyone react and quickly retreat.
But the black mist spread much faster than they could run.
As the captain, Guard Three could only desperately throw the other residents out of the mist's range.
But he was one step too slow himself.
The black mist swallowed him whole.
"L-Lord..."
Guard Three's eyes gradually turned red, and veins bulged across his forehead.
Ethan could tell he was fighting against the black mist's influence.
But in the end, he couldn't resist its corruption.
Guard Three finally dropped to his knees and kowtowed in Ethan's direction from afar.
"In my next life... I'll still be your guard!"
"Guard Three!"
Ethan frowned and immediately took out the Ghost Claw, pulling Guard Three out.
But by the time he dragged him free... it was already too late.
Guard Three had completely lost his sanity and started going berserk.
"Damn it!"
Left with no choice, Ethan wrapped the Water Ghost's Green Silk around Guard Three several times.
He bound him tightly before tossing him over to Stone Six and the others.
"Take him to the Medical Lady. See if she can cure him!"
"Yes, Lord."
After receiving the order, Stone Six and the others immediately carried Guard Three away.
Meanwhile, Ethan looked at the Ghost Ferryman, who was almost completely hidden by the black mist, and decisively swung the Staff of Instantaneity in his hand.
"Compressed Great Fireball!"
BOOM!
A Level 4 Great Fireball, compressed down to about the size of a baseball, shot straight toward the Ghost Ferryman.
Ethan chose the Level 4 Great Fireball because, among all the Great Fireball spells he had learned, it had the strongest single-target attack.
Not only was the Level 4 version extremely fast, but it was also incredibly powerful.
The Compressed Great Fireball was no longer an ordinary fireball.
Instead, it was more like a grenade that could explode at any moment, with tremendous destructive power.
When he had fought the Tyrant before, Ethan had blown it apart with just a single Great Fireball.
Now he was facing something that was neither human nor ghost.
No matter how he looked at it, one Great Fireball should have been enough, right?
But the instant the Level 4 Great Fireball entered the black mist, Ethan finally realized just how terrifying the poisonous mist produced by the statue really was.
The moment the Compressed Great Fireball entered the poisonous mist, the blazing red fireball was rapidly dissolved by it.
The visual effect was like someone dipping a stick of cotton candy into water.
It melted away almost instantly.
"It's that powerful?"
Ethan's pupils contracted in surprise at just how overbearing the black mist was.
The Ghost Ferryman couldn't be killed.
He couldn't even be burned.
Did he really have to go all the way to the World Tree and bring back the two Archmages?
The two Archmages had gone near the World Tree to comprehend the power of heaven and earth, so they weren't in the manor for the time being.
Otherwise, how could they have allowed the Ghost Ferryman to run wild here?
But... if he left now to find the Archmages...
By the time he made the round trip, the Ghost Ferryman would probably have turned his entire manor into a land shrouded in ghostly mist.
"Damn it!"
Ethan frowned as he watched the ghostly mist spread farther and farther.
Then an idea suddenly flashed through his mind.
"If clouds can be turned into solid objects with Hard as a Rock... then what about mist?"
"I'll try it!"
Without any hesitation, Ethan pointed his wand at the mist and cast,
"Hard as a Rock!"
Bang!
A large patch of mist really did condense into solid stone.
Then it dropped from the air with a loud thud.
Although Hard as a Rock could only solidify about three or four square meters of mist at a time... Ethan's spell was instant-cast.
And...
Hard as a Rock barely consumed any of his mental energy.
After all, it was just an ordinary Tier-1 spell.
"Hard as a Rock!"
Bang!
"Hard as a Rock!"
Bang!
Ethan continuously waved the wand in his hand, turning all the black mist into gray-black stones.
This unexpected move left the Ghost Ferryman completely dumbfounded!
"G-Ghost Domain!"
The Ghost Ferryman shouted over and over in panic.
But no matter how hard he tried, he simply couldn't produce the Ghost Domain faster than Ethan could turn the black mist into stone.